The increased number of adult college students in Sweden has meant less participation in student life, more group and project work, less traditional instructional methods, fewer textbooks in foreign languages creating a more provincial educational setting, nontraditional scheduling, and political debate over educational quality and the intended…

This article synthesizes the key concepts and information that emerged from the 1983 hearing on vocational-technical education in the community college. Concepts discussed include customized training, articulated curriculums, collaboration training partnerships, off-campus classes, programs for special populations, and serving adult students. Six…

Discusses, from a developmental perspective, issues surrounding the middle-aged adult student experience within institutions of higher education. Three topics are addressed: cognitive abilities and needs, with an expanded role for professors; the academic normative environment versus the adult normative environment; and professor and adult student…

Focuses on basic principles that can be followed in planning a language course, by observing examples from a course designed to teach English as a second language to newly arrived adult migrants in Australia. In addition, the importance of identifying both long-term goals and immediate objectives is stressed, in terms of communicative proficiency…

This article describes a set of exercises to be used in an English language course for adults. The exercises are designed to take into account (1) the human being and his or her language needs, (2) the structuring process of human speech, and (3) the foreign language itself. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

The at-risk and dropout student population at the Open University was examined in a student survey. This article deals with a descriptive model of progress and withdrawal, student motivation, stages of adult development, previous educational background, interplay of characteristics and circumstances, and educational self-concept. (LBH)

Information is presented for guidance counselors dealing with adult students. Decision-making training techniques are being used in Boston to help nontraditional students get a second chance. (Editor/LBH)

This paper seeks to fill gaps in the literature by presenting findings from a study of the experiences and outcomes of low-skill adults in community colleges. It uses student record information from the Washington State Community and Technical College System to track the progress of two cohorts of adult students 25 or older with, at most, a high…

An emerging theme in professional development for adult literacy program staff over the past decade has been the topic of learning disabilities (LD). As adult educators have come to recognize that the effects of LD can play a significant role in the performance and retention of adult learners, many have sought answers to the following questions:…

Using results from the 2002 Student Outcomes Survey and a follow-up survey of these students in 2004, this report examines outcomes over time of young people aged 15-24 years who undertook technical and further education (TAFE) training in 2001. The report looks at changes in employment, wages and skill level, further study outcomes and other…

This report covers a summative evaluation of a family literacy project in Auckland, New Zealand. The evaluation covered 70 adults and their children over a two year period. Outcomes for the program included literacy skill gains for both adults and children, increased levels of self-confidence and self-efficacy, greater parental involvement in…

Many educational researchers have harnessed various technologies of instruction to improve the reliability of their egalitarian and utilitarian interventions. Their experiments with adolescents and adults yield important post-course effects, yet, little is known about the effects of instructional media with adolescent or adult multicultural…

Anecdotal evidence tells us that certain L2 linguistic features are more difficult to learn than others. For post critical period English-as-a-foreign-language Japanese learners, English articles ([zero or null], "some," "a(n)," and "the") are notoriously difficult grammatical features. After providing the reasons why…

A "summary paper" can be defined as self-reported, written documentation of learning from a class or module. A clearly defined and well-written summary paper is an effective instrument for assessing the learning of adult students in higher education. Properly implemented, the summary paper accomplishes the following: addressing the particular…

A study of 113 graduate students in a college of education explored how readily they would apply their knowledge about transfer of learning to a personally relevant teaching task. One group practiced integration; participants were asked to think about concepts they were learning in terms of the three elements of the integration strategy. A second…