Students in institutions of higher education are, in effect, consumer of a high priced product. University continuing education is in a unique position to operationalize a warranty system with the Continuing Education Unit, which gives the student some assurance that his alma mater will continue to be concerned about him. (Author)

A system for teaching foreign languages to adults is described. The course material is divided into categories based on the language needs of the students, and credits are given for each completed category. (Text is in French.) (PMP)

Explains how to simulate dinner at a foreign restaurant to aid language learning in adult education classes. (CK)

A comprehensive profile of the Division of Continuing Education (DCE) undergraduate students enrolled in credit courses at Massachusetts public colleges and universities is presented. Information is included in the categories of: overall profile of DCE students; profile of university DCE students; profile of state college DCE students; profile of…

Many community college student activities and programs focus on programming for the traditional college-aged student. However, appropriate support and meaningful extra-curricular activities are also needed for the ever-increasing number of adult students. Specially designed activities for adult students can be very helpful in: (1) integrating the…

A study compared the effects of retesting (with and without the benefit of short term instruction) on the scores of subjects in an upper-division university who had failed a writing test. Subjects who did not receive a passing score in their first attempt at the essay test were given the opportunity of attending a 4-hour workshop designed to…

The stories in this collection result from a class activity in an English-as-a-Second-Language course at Prague Institute of Chemical Technology (Czechoslovakia). The students, most in their third or fourth year of postsecondary education, had all studied English previously but primarily as an academic exercise, and had had little contact with…

In research on second language instruction, the researcher's knowledge of the learner's background has not always been central in data collection. However, data collection is part of a research design that should include both a description of the sample population and the role of the learner in the decision to carry out a given study.…

A survey of study behaviors was mailed to 300 adult students enrolled in two distance learning programs of The American College. The sample included three groups: high passers, low passers, and failers. The survey instrument was a 50-item rating scale measuring study practices in six areas: elaborative processing, information processing, attitude…

Critical thinking is often defined as that which a particular instrument measures. The most prominent tests are the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, and the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests. Watson and Glaser's (1980) view of critical thinking is "a composite of attitudes, knowledge, and…

A practicum explored the use of instructional materials based on the whole language approach to second language learning in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. The approach was implemented in a beginning ESL classroom at an adult education center that had previously used publisher textbooks, which were not thought to provide…

The needs of adult college students (25 years old or older) and support services that could promote achievement and retention of these nontraditional students are considered, based on the literature on current research. Of concern are students enrolled in credit courses at two-year or four-year institutions. Attention is directed to four kinds of…

This document contains a collection of essays written by students in General Educational Development (GED) programs. The students had dropped out of high school and are now seeking an equivalency diploma. In the essays, students discuss why they quit school, how well they did in school, what they learned there, and whether it was difficult for…

One of the issues facing educators is the increasing number of nontraditional students appearing in the college classroom. Recent conceptualizations of adult reasoning have suggested that there are qualitative differences in reasoning from young to late adulthood. The objective of this study was to examine cognitive differences rather than…

The increased college attendance of mature women students has played a major role in the changing demographics of college enrollment. This study examined the experience of reentry women during the initial period of adjustment from the time just prior to college entrance to the end of their first or second academic year. A pre- and post-test…