Sample records for adult learning communities

  1. Building Vibrant Learning Communities: Framework and Actions to Strengthen Community Adult Learning Councils and Community Literacy Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, 2007

    2007-01-01

    Because of the important role played by community learning providers, Premier Ed Stelmach asked Canadian Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to increase support for community education and literacy programs. Community Adult Learning Councils and other community providers of adult literacy and family literacy programming are primarily…

  2. Learning to Be Drier: A Case Study of Adult and Community Learning in the Australian Riverland

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Mike; Schulz, Christine

    2009-01-01

    This article explores the adult and community learning associated with "learning to be drier" in the Riverland region of South Australia. Communities in the Riverland are currently adjusting and making changes to their understandings and practices as part of learning to live with less water. The analysis of adult and community learning…

  3. Building a Dynamic Online Learning Community among Adult Learners.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Minjuan; Sierra, Christina; Folger, Terre

    2003-01-01

    Examines the nature of learning communities constructed among a diverse group of adult learners in an international online graduate-level course. Discusses independent work, team tasks, the variety of computer-mediated communication tools used, and implications for promoting adult learners' active participation in online learning and instructional…

  4. Developing Community-Based Learning Centers for Older Adults. A Technical Assistance Manual.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sprouse, Betsy M.; Brown, Karen

    Designed for community groups and organizations, groups of older adults, senior clubs, and agencies, this manual documents the process of developing community education programs for older adults. The first section introduces the concept of a community learning center, while the second section considers whether a learning center should be…

  5. Adult Health Learning and Transformation: A Case Study of a Canadian Community-Based Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coady, Maureen

    2013-01-01

    This article describes a case study of adult learning in a Canadian multisite Community Cardiovascular Hearts in Motion program. The researcher highlights the informal learning of 40 adult participants in this 12-week community-based cardiac rehabilitation/education program in five rural Nova Scotia communities. The effects of this learning and…

  6. How Do Adults Learn to Read? A Communities of Practice Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Negassa, Tolera; Rogers, Alan; Warkineh, Turuwark Zalalam

    2016-01-01

    This article explores whether looking at adult literacy teaching through the lens of Lave and Wenger's "community of practice" approach to learning provides useful additional insights into adults learning to read, especially the role of the adult literacy facilitator. Using some case studies of facilitators from the Ethiopian Integrated…

  7. Adult Learning for Social Change in Museums: An Exploration of Sociocultural Learning Approaches to Community Engagement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, Junghwan; You, Jieun; Yeon Park, Soo

    2016-01-01

    This integrative literature review critically examined how scholars were articulating the work of museums to make a space for "adult learning for social change through community engagement". We applied sociocultural adult learning theories (situated learning and cultural-historical activity theory), to 25 theoretical and empirical…

  8. Learning for the Future: Neighborhood Renewal through Adult and Community Learning. A Guide for Local Authorities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Merton, Bryan; Turner, Cheryl; Ward, Jane; White, Lenford

    This guide is intended to assist managers within England's local authority adult and community education services in supporting neighborhood renewal through adult and community learning (ACL). The guide's overall aim is to promote the skills, knowledge, and understanding that underpin the following items: (1) identification and development of…

  9. Promoting Community Wellbeing: The Case for Lifelong Learning for Older Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Merriam, Sharan B.; Kee, Youngwha

    2014-01-01

    Community wellbeing is a function of many factors working in concert to promote an optimal quality of life for all members of a community. It is argued here that the promotion of lifelong learning among older adults can significantly contribute to community wellbeing. The aging society is a worldwide phenomenon presenting both opportunities and…

  10. Evaluating the Impacts of Professional Development: A Mixed Method Study of Adult Education Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dilworth, Jessica S.

    2010-01-01

    Adult education programs providing classes to students preparing for high school equivalency and learning English that demonstrate characteristics of learning organizations may be better able to thrive when confronted with less-than-ideal circumstances. Many of these programs organize adult educators into learning communities as the context for…

  11. A Community Development Approach to Service-Learning: Building Social Capital between Rural Youth and Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henness, Steven A.; Ball, Anna L.; Moncheski, MaryJo

    2013-01-01

    Using 4-H and FFA case study findings, this article explores how community service-learning supports the building of social capital between rural youth and adults and the positive effects on community viability. Key elements of practice form a community development approach to service-learning, which opens up doorways for youth to partner with…

  12. "Turning the Sugar": Adult Learning and Cultural Repertoires of Practice in a Puerto Rican Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Laura Ruth; Stribling, Colleen; Almburg, Anne; Vitale, Gail

    2015-01-01

    This article examines the processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission among adults within two "communities of practice" in Humboldt Park/"Paseo Boricua," a Puerto Rican community located on Chicago's near-northwest side. In particular, we examine the ways in which two adult women engaged in learning processes and…

  13. Community Based Learning with Adults: Bridging Efforts in Multiple Sectors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holland, Barbara; Robinson, Gail

    2008-01-01

    In this article, the authors explore the diverse ways in which community based learning strategies are used to enhance further development of adults, raising their levels of educational attainment and increasing their involvement in public and civic activities. There are two social and demographic dynamics at the heart of this topic: the aging…

  14. Radical Learning for Liberation. Maynooth Adult and Community Education Occasional Series Number 1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Connolly, Brid, Ed.; Fleming, Ted, Ed.; McCormack, David, Ed.; Ryan, Anne, Ed.

    The six articles in this first issue comprise a critical discourse about theories, practices, and research with the intent of realizing the potential of adult learning to bring about social change. "Adult Education and Empowerment for Individual and Community Development" (Jack Mezirow) outlines and updates the author's transformation…

  15. Responding to the Mental Health and Well-Being Agenda in Adult Community Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Lydia

    2014-01-01

    In the United Kingdom, changes in the policy, funding and commissioning landscape for mental health and well-being are posing opportunities and challenges for adult community learning (ACL). Opportunities include increased recognition of, and funding for, the "wider benefits" of learning, whereas challenges include the risks of ACL…

  16. Involving Tutors and Support Staff in the Adult and Community Learning Quality Agenda.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ravenhall, Mark; Ogilvie, Margaret; Ewens, David

    This booklet outlines the new policy context facing adult and community learning (ACL) providers in Great Britain in their pursuit of high-quality learning experiences for their customers. It shows how a Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to supporting staff development can be effective in securing quality. TQM components are values,…

  17. Oral health status and dental service use of adults with learning disabilities living in residential institutions and in the community.

    PubMed

    Tiller, S; Wilson, K I; Gallagher, J E

    2001-09-01

    To investigate the oral health status of adults on Sheffield's Learning Disability Case Register, and their reported use of dental services. A short questionnaire interview of subjects with learning disabilities or their carers followed by a standardised epidemiological examination, by one trained and calibrated examiner. Residential homes, day centres or community homes of people with learning disabilities in Sheffield. A 20% random sample of adults (18-65 years) on the register. A response rate of 209 (67%) was achieved, 62% (n=130) of whom were living in the community. People living in residential care were significantly older (43.2 years) than those based in the community (36.3 years) (P<0.05). Both groups had similar mean DMFT scores; however, adults living in the community had significantly more untreated decay (DT = 1.6) and poorer oral hygiene than their counterparts in residential care (DT = 0.7). Adults in residential care had significantly more missing teeth (MT = 10.1) than those in community care (MT = 7.5). General and community dental services were the main providers of dental care. Subjects living in the community were significantly less likely to have a dentist and to use community dental services than their residential counterparts; they were more likely to attend only when having trouble. Adults with learning disabilities living in the community have greater unmet oral health needs than their residential counterparts and are less likely to have regular contact with dental services. Commissioners and providers of dental services have a responsibility to ensure that the health of adults with learning disabilities is not compromised by 'normalisation'.

  18. Community Based Learning and Civic Engagement: Informal Learning among Adult Volunteers in Community Organizations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mundel, Karsten; Schugurensky, Daniel

    2008-01-01

    Many iterations of community based learning employ models, such as consciousness raising groups, cultural circles, and participatory action research. In all of them, learning is a deliberate part of an explicit educational activity. This article explores another realm of community learning: the informal learning that results from volunteering in…

  19. Managing Staff Development in Adult and Community Learning: Reflection to Practice.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ewens, David

    This document is intended to assist individuals responsible for managing staff development in adult and community learning (ACL) in the United Kingdom. The guide presents step-by-step advice for designing and implementing an approach based on the belief that staff development should do the following things: (1) relate holistically to the…

  20. Self-Assessment and Development Planning for Adult and Community Learning Providers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kenway, Mike; Reisenberger, Anna

    This document is designed to help adult and community learning (ACL) services across the United Kingdom complete the annual self-assessment reports (SARs). The guide begins with background information on the purposes of self-assessment, the new context of ACL and the elements and format of the new SARs. The remaining four sections examine the…

  1. Socioeconomic Contributions of Adult Learning to Community: A Social Capital Perspective. CRLRA Discussion Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Balatti, Jo; Falk, Ian

    The socioeconomic contributions of adult learning to community were examined from a social capital perspective. The concepts of human capital and social capital were differentiated, and the relationship between learning, human capital, and social capital was explored. The relevance of social capital in describing the wider benefits of adult…

  2. Taking Learning to the Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanistreet, Paul

    2009-01-01

    These are tough times for adult and community learning, with many providers struggling to sustain a broad curriculum offer that includes a wide-ranging adult learning programme. South Devon College is determined to keep its flourishing adult offer alive but realises that, with funding increasingly scarce, it has to find innovative ways of ensuring…

  3. Using Quality Schemes in Adult and Community Learning: A Guide for Managers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ewens, David; Watters, Kate

    This document examines adult and community learning (ACL) and quality programs across England. The difficulties faced by local education agencies' ACL services in delivering quality are noted, along with ways quality improvement has been supported. Quality programs--whether internal or external, based on awards, or used as diagnostic tools--are…

  4. Making a Difference: Leading and Managing for Quality Improvement in Adult and Community Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ravenhall, Mark; Kenway, Mike

    This guide looks at demands on leaders and managers in adult and community learning (ACL) in the roles and issues they face in the context of quality improvement (QI). It suggests practical approaches for improving the quality of provision for adults. The guide's design builds on current practice toward the desired state of excellence in all…

  5. Put Learning at the Heart of Community Planning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hankins, Enid

    2011-01-01

    At their best, adult community learning partnerships not only offer the least educated adults a second chance, they can motivate a whole community by developing a culture of learning. Critical to success is careful planning to meet the needs of individuals and groups of learners, especially those who have been away from learning for many years. At…

  6. Reimagining Diversity Work: Multigenerational Learning, Adult Immigrants, and Dialogical Community-Based Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yep, Kathleen S.

    2014-01-01

    Interactions between universities and surrounding communities have the potential to create empowering education through community engagement. Innovative "town/gown" relationships such as multigenerational learning communities with immigrant communities may foster positive student learning outcomes while at the same time strengthen local…

  7. Adult Learners and Professional Development: Peer-to-Peer Learning in a Networked Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guldberg, Karen

    2008-01-01

    This paper analyses how adult learners on a professional development course learn and develop through online dialogue. The research uses Wenger's community of practice framework, and assesses whether the concept of "legitimate peripheral participation" is useful in relation to this specific case study in which the students are practitioners and…

  8. Reflections from Graduate Adult Learners about Service Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alston, Geleana Drew; Clegg, T. E.; Clodfelter, Roy J., Jr.; Drye, Kimberly C.; Farrer, J. V.; Gould, Derek; Mohsin, Nidhal M.; Rankin, Tomiko N.; Ray, Sherri L.

    2016-01-01

    Adult education is grounded in responding to the needs of others, and the field places emphasis on adult learning theories such as transformative learning and experiential learning. Service learning is an educational approach that balances formal instruction and direction with the opportunity for adult learners to serve in the community as a…

  9. Adult Perspectives of Learning Musical Instruments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roulston, Kathryn; Jutras, Peter; Kim, Seon Joo

    2015-01-01

    This article reports findings from a qualitative study of adults' perceptions and experiences of learning musical instruments. Conducted in the south-east United States, 15 adults who were learning instruments were recruited via community music groups and private instrumental teachers. Analysis of transcripts of semi-structured interviews…

  10. Self-Regulated Learning in Virtual Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Delfino, Manuela; Dettori, Giuliana; Persico, Donatella

    2008-01-01

    This paper investigates self-regulated learning (SRL) in a virtual learning community of adults interacting through asynchronous textual communication. The investigation method chosen is interaction analysis, a qualitative/quantitative approach allowing a systematic study of the contents of the messages exchanged within online communities. The…

  11. Teaching and Learning Technology and New Media in a Community-Based Program: Adult Educators and Older Learners' Experiences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hernandez, Regina

    2016-01-01

    This qualitative case study documented the experiences of two adult educators and four older learners' teaching and learning technology and new media in a community-based program in Texas. The research questions guiding this study included: (1) What can we learn from looking at the educational efforts of a community-based programs offering…

  12. Working for Equality and Diversity in Adult and Community Learning: Leadership, Representation and Racialised "Outsiders within"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hunter, Shona

    2006-01-01

    This article uses empirical material from a qualitative study of adult and community learning (ACL) to explore issues around leading for equality and diversity in educational organisations. What the author is interested in is the way that the commitment to a "community" context in ACL opens up (or keeps open) certain possibilities for "diverse"…

  13. Adult Learner Graduation Rates at Four U.S. Community Colleges by Prior Learning Assessment Status and Method

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hayward, Milan S.; Williams, Mitchell R.

    2015-01-01

    The completion agenda demands higher community college graduation rates among adult learners, and prior learning assessment (PLA) is a promising solution. PLA permits students to earn credit for college-level learning acquired outside of higher education and is associated with improved student outcomes. However, little is known regarding community…

  14. The Impact of Computer Assisted Instruction As It Relates to Learning Disabled Adults in California Community Colleges.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brower, Mary Jo

    A study was conducted to determine the advantages and disadvantages of using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with learning disabled (LD) adults attending California community colleges. A questionnaire survey of the directors of the LD programs solicited information on the availability of CAI for LD adults, methods of course advertisement,…

  15. Riding the Waves of Policy? The Case of Basic Skills in Adult and Community Learning in England

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hodgson, Ann; Edward, Sheila; Gregson, Maggie

    2007-01-01

    This paper draws on data from secondary sources and in-depth interviews to explore the question: What is the impact of policy on teaching, learning, assessment and inclusion in Adult and Community Learning (ACL) "Skills for Life" (SfL) provision? In particular, it focuses on the government's use of five policy-steering…

  16. The Varieties of Adult Civic Engagement in Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Munoz, Linda; Wrigley, Heide Spruck

    2012-01-01

    Civic engagement, or the practice of democratic deliberation in adult education and learning, asks that adults use their experiences to cooperatively build solutions to the difficult social, economic, and political problems that affect their lives and communities now and into the future. The articles presented in this issue look at the…

  17. Building Communities: ACE, Lifelong Learning and Social Capital. An Anthology of Word Portraits Reporting Research Conducted for the Adult, Community and Further Education Board.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Falk, Ian; Golding, Barry; Balatti, Josephine

    The 10 portraits, or case studies, in this book are intended to show how locally-owned adult education turns everyday learning into social and economic well-being. Taken alone, each portrait tries to give a particular insight into the daily transformation of adults and their local communities. Together, the group portrait shows how strongly adult…

  18. Narratives of Community Educators Fostering Adult Education and Community Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Delgado, Perla Guadalupe

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative research reports on the narratives of six community educators and utilizes anatomy of story as a framework. The research question directing this study was: What can we learn from the journeys and trajectories of community educators? Supporting sub-questions included: (1) what are their efforts fostering adult education? and (2)…

  19. Final Thoughts on Community in Adult ESL

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Larrott, Clarena

    2009-01-01

    Community building is an important, if not essential, element of adult English as a second language (ESL) learning. Communities, whether civic, work, religious, or identity-based, are the contexts within which people cease to be alone and become connected with others. Language is the main tool for communicating with others in communities. For…

  20. Differential Outcomes for American College Students Engaged in Community Service-Learning Involving Youth and Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seider, Scott; Rabinowicz, Samantha; Gillmor, Susan

    2012-01-01

    The Serve Program at Ignatius University is a community service-learning program that combines academic study of philosophy with a yearlong field-based project at one of approximately 50 different sites. Half of these projects entail working with youth, while the other half entail working with adults. This mixed methods analysis found that college…

  1. Assessing and Acknowledging Learning through Non-Accredited Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programs: Support Document

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dymock, Darryl; Billett, Stephen

    2008-01-01

    This Support Document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Assessing and Acknowledging Learning through Non-Accredited Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programs," and is an added resource for further information. There were five phases of this project: Phase 1 comprised further interrogation…

  2. Leadership to Build Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zepeda, Sally J.

    2004-01-01

    This study examined the work of a principal of a Midwestern urban elementary school who used instructional supervision as a means of developing a learning community for adults. Implementing a variety of approaches adapted to the culture of the school, the principal crafted a process to meet the learning needs of 125 teachers and created an…

  3. Interrupting Adult Learning through Online Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stuart-Buttle, Ros

    2014-01-01

    This paper considers online pedagogy in relation to Christian adult learning and asks how this might be interpreted by theological educators. The online community of inquiry is proposed as one recognized pedagogical approach and illustrated by reference to a continuing professional development programme for online adult learners across the church…

  4. Quasi-Communities: Rethinking Learning in Formal Adult and Vocational Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Emad, Gholam Reza; Roth, Wolff-Michael

    2016-01-01

    Situated learning theories such as communities of practice provide a rich conceptual framework for analyzing the processes by which newcomers become full participants in the communities they enter. However, some research shows that these concepts have shortcomings for theorizing learning in formal educational settings especially when it comes to…

  5. Effective Literacy Instruction for Adults with Specific Learning Disabilities: Implications for Adult Educators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hock, Michael F.

    2012-01-01

    Adults with learning disabilities (LD) attending adult basic education, GED programs, or community colleges are among the lowest performers on measures of literacy. For example, on multiple measures of reading comprehension, adults with LD had a mean reading score at the third grade level, whereas adults without LD read at the fifth grade level.…

  6. Cultural patterns in children's learning through keen observation and participation in their communities.

    PubMed

    Correa-Chávez, Maricela; Roberts, Amy L D; Pérez, Margarita Martínez

    2011-01-01

    This chapter examines children's learning through careful attention and participation in the ongoing activities of their community. This form of learning, which has been called learning through Intent Community Participation, seems to be especially common in Mesoamerican Indigenous communities. In these communities, children are integrated into the everyday work and lives of adults and their learning may not be the central focus. We contrast this pattern with that of middle-class European American communities where children are segregated from the primary adult functions of the community. In middle-class communities and schools, children are often encouraged to engage in abstract lessons where their attention is explicitly directed to specific events. In contrast, learning through keen attention and observation may rely on learning through attention to instructions not specifically directed to the learner. Studies demonstrate Mesoamerican Indigenous children's ability to learn through simultaneous and open attention to overheard or observed activities. This form of learning is supported through multiple modalities of communication and interaction. Motivation to learn stems from the learner's inclusion into the major activities and goals of the community. Implications of research and future directions for the study of learning through keen observation are discussed.

  7. A Comparison of Learning Outcomes for Adult Students in On-Site and Online Service-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwehm, Jeremy S.; Lasker-Scott, Tennille; Elufiede, Oluwakemi

    2017-01-01

    As noted by Kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory, adults learn best through experiences. Typically delivered in a traditional, face-to-face classroom setting, service-learning integrates the knowledge learned in the classroom with real-world experience and community service. E-service-learning, service-learning delivered in part or entirely…

  8. Overcoming Exclusion through Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nash, Ian; Walshe, John

    Strategies for overcoming exclusion through adult learning were identified through case studies of 19 initiatives in the following countries: Belgium; Mexico; the Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; and the United Kingdom. The study programs involved a diverse array of formal, nonformal, and informal public sector, community, and enterprise-based…

  9. A Critical Theory of Adult and Community Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brookfield, Stephen

    2012-01-01

    Critical theory is one of the most influential theoretical frameworks influencing scholarship within the field of adult and community education. This chapter outlines what constitute the chief elements of critical theory using Horkheimer's (1937/1995) classic essay as a touchstone for this analysis. It argues for a set of adult learning tasks that…

  10. Human Capital Development: Reforms for Adult and Community Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Choy, Sarojni; Haukka, Sandra

    2007-01-01

    The adult and community education (ACE) sector is consistently responsive to changing community needs and government priorities. It is this particular function that has drawn ACE into the lifelong learning debate as one model for sustaining communities. The responsiveness of ACE means that the sector and its programs continue to make valuable…

  11. Adult Learning and Learners. PREL Briefing Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Timarong, Alvina; Temaungil, Marianne; Sukrad, Wilma

    A survey of literature on adult learning and learners conducted for Palau Community College (PCC), Koror, Palau, found a lack of literature specific to the United States-affiliated Pacific region. Background information was compiled on development of formal education in Palau. A survey was administered in fall 2001 to adult learners working toward…

  12. The application of social and adult learning theory to training in community pediatrics, social justice, and child advocacy.

    PubMed

    DeWitt, Thomas G

    2003-09-01

    Perhaps the greatest challenge we face today in medical education is how to establish a conceptual framework for conveying the context of community pediatrics and issues related to child health equity and social justice to practicing pediatricians and pediatricians in training. This will require a new infrastructure and approach to training to allow pediatricians to think and practice differently. The application of social and adult learning theory to the development and implementation of community pediatrics curricula will be necessary to succeed in these endeavors. In particular, we also will need to understand the educational processes required to motivate adult learners to acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills outside the context and framework of their previous experiences and perceived professional needs.

  13. Adult Learning, Transformative Education, and Indigenous Epistemology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McEachern, Diane

    2016-01-01

    This chapter describes an innovative program that weaves together adult learning, transformative education, and indigenous epistemology in order to prepare Alaskan rural indigenous social service providers to better serve their communities.

  14. Learning & Knowledge Production in North Carolina Sea Turtle Conservation Communities of Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Kathleen Carol

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation focused upon non-formal and informal learning practices and knowledge production amongst [adult] participants involved in local sea turtle conservation practices along the US Atlantic coast. In the United States, adult learning and adult education has historically occurred within non-formal settings (e.g., through community-based…

  15. Addressing the needs of Nicaraguan older adults living on the edge: A university-community partnership in international service-learning.

    PubMed

    Neal, Margaret B; Cannon, Melissa; DeLaTorre, Alan; Bolkan, Cory R; Wernher, Iris; Nolan, Elisabeth; López Norori, Milton; Largaespada-Fredersdorff, Carmen; Brown Wilson, Keren

    2017-01-01

    Nicaragua is a very low-income country entering a period of rapid aging with limited geriatric training for health care professionals. To help build capacity and to enhance student learning, a short-term international service-learning program was implemented in 2004 in partnership with the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation and Nicaraguan community stakeholders. Graduate and undergraduate students at Portland State University complete coursework for one term in the United States then travel to Nicaragua for about two weeks to participate in educational, research, and service activities, primarily in group homes for older Nicaraguans. Students learn about global aging, gerontology, community development, service learning, and Nicaraguan history and culture, then apply their gerontology-related knowledge by training direct care staff, older adults and their family members, and students. The authors describe the impetus for and evolution of the program, students' evaluation of the program, faculty observations on program benefits and challenges, lessons learned, and future plans.

  16. Early Learning Canada: Workshop Leader Guide [and] Participant Resource [and] Trainer Manual. Learning & Reading Partners Adult Learning System.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Estey, Nancy; MacIsaac, Maitland; Rendell, Sandra

    Based on the understanding that the capacity to learn is optimized in the early years, Early Learning Canada (ELC) is a community workshop program for parents and adults who work with children from birth to age 6 and their families to facilitate life-long learning. This workshop leader guide explains the ELC principles, examines learning styles…

  17. Service-Learning in Communities of Elders (SLICE): Development and Evaluation of an Introductory Geriatrics Course for Medical Students.

    PubMed

    Laks, Jordana; Wilson, Lindsay A; Khandelwal, Christine; Footman, Eleni; Jamison, Margaret; Roberts, Ellen

    2016-01-01

    Medical students have limited exposure to Geriatrics in their traditional training. Service-learning offers students the opportunity to engage with older adult communities and become more comfortable interacting with this population. A preclinical elective course was developed to expand medical students' experiences in Geriatrics through service-learning. In this course, students conducted needs assessments in diverse older adult communities, created health education projects to address community-identified needs, and reflected on their experiences through written assignments and presentations. The course instructor presented lectures on special topics in Geriatrics, including ageism and health literacy. The curriculum aimed to familiarize students with older adults' needs in a variety of settings. Over 3 years, 74 students participated in the service-learning course. Students were assigned to older adult community sites, where they conducted needs assessments and designed and implemented original educational projects targeting community concerns. Program evaluation methods included a validated survey assessing students' attitudes toward older adults, course evaluations, review of student assignments and projects, and feedback from older adult participants and site coordinators. Students gained hands-on experience working with older adults and designing appropriate health education projects. Analysis of attitude surveys demonstrated students' increased interest in Geriatrics as a career. Both students and older adult participants described enjoyable, valuable experiences gained from service-learning activities. Students appreciated the combination of community and classroom learning about Geriatrics. Service-learning was most constructive at sites with responsive coordinators, engaged older adults, and a need for health education resources. The course challenged students to assess health needs in communities that included cognitively impaired elders and to design

  18. Adult Undergraduate Students: Patterns of Learning Involvement. Final Research Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kasworm, Carol E.; Blowers, Sally S.

    A research study examined the complex roles of adult life in relation to the student role, the nature of adult undergraduate engagement in learning, and adult perceptions of involvement. Adult students were interviewed in three types of institutions: 38 at two liberal arts colleges, 29 at two community colleges, and 23 at two public universities.…

  19. "An Elusive Bird": Perceptions of Music Learning among Canadian and American Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kruse, Nathan B.

    2009-01-01

    Discovering the perceptions that non-professional adult musicians hold regarding their participation in community ensembles may help improve instruction as well as the ability to more fully understand the implications of lifelong music making. Andragogy, or the teaching and learning strategies associated with adult learning, provided the impetus…

  20. Systemic Family Therapy Using the Reflecting Team: The Experiences of Adults with Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anslow, Katharine

    2014-01-01

    This research aimed to illuminate the experiences of adults with learning disabilities of the reflecting team, in the context of their systemic family therapy. Five adults with learning disabilities were recruited from one community learning disability team. A qualitative design using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was appropriate…

  1. Enhancing Community Service Learning via Practical Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ronen, Ilana; Shemer-Elkiyam, Tal

    2015-01-01

    The advantages of learning communities focused on analyzing social issues and educational repercussions in the field are presented in this study. The research examines the contribution of a learning community to enhancing student teachers' responsibility and their social involvement. The assumption was that participating in learning community…

  2. Theme with Variations: Social Policy, Community Care and Adult Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lavender, Peter

    1990-01-01

    Changes in British social policy regarding community health care has implications for local education agency (LEA) providers of adult continuing education. LEAs will either have a role in providing staff training and other learning opportunities, will be forced to provide cheaper forms of community care, or will be ignored altogether. (SK)

  3. Adult Learning and the New Austerity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adults Learning, 2010

    2010-01-01

    The spending review brought a promise to protect adult and community learning as well as swingeing cuts to further and higher education and local government. In this article, some of the key players--Lynne Sedgmore, Christopher Brooks, Graham Hoyle, Maggie Galliers, Louise Hazel, Richard Bolsin, Maggi Dawson, Ruth Bond, Stuart Etherington, Brendan…

  4. Adult Learning Assumptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baskas, Richard S.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine Knowles' theory of andragogy and his six assumptions of how adults learn while providing evidence to support two of his assumptions based on the theory of andragogy. As no single theory explains how adults learn, it can best be assumed that adults learn through the accumulation of formal and informal…

  5. Adult and Community Education in the 1980's. A Compendium of Lectures from Series in Adult Education at the University of New Mexico (1979-1984).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bowes, S. Gregory, Ed.

    This compendium contains lectures on programs, administration, and services and on teaching and learning in adult and community education. The following lectures are included: "Working Effectively with Adults: What Research and Practice Tell Us," by Mark Rossman; "Learning How to Learn," by Robert Smith; "Assessing Teaching Style in Adult…

  6. Learning for Social Justice: A Cultural Historical Activity Theory Analysis of Community Leadership Empowerment in a Korean American Community Organization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, Junghwan

    2012-01-01

    Community organizations, especially those aiming at social change, play a significant role in establishing societal health and contributing to adult learning in daily communities. Their existence secures marginalized groups' involvement in society and enhances community development by building community leadership with multiple stakeholders…

  7. Translation of a Motor Learning Walking Rehabilitation Program Into a Group-Based Exercise Program for Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Brach, Jennifer S; Francois, Sara J; VanSwearingen, Jessie M; Gilmore, Sandra; Perera, Subashan; Studenski, Stephanie A

    2016-06-01

    Traditional exercise programs for older adults, which focus on aerobic and strength training, have had only modest effects on walking. Recently, a motor learning exercise program was shown to have greater effects on walking compared with a traditional exercise program. Translating this novel motor learning exercise program into a group exercise program would allow it to be offered as an evidence-based, community-based program for older adults. To translate a walking rehabilitation program based on motor learning theory from one-on-one to group delivery (On the Move) and evaluate multiple aspects of implementation in older adults with impaired mobility. The translation process involved multiple iterations, including meetings of experts in the field (Phase I), focus groups (Phase II), and implementation of the newly developed program (Phase III). Phase III was based on a one-group model of intervention development for feasibility, safety, potential effects, and acceptability. Community sites, including 2 independent living facilities, an apartment building, and a community center. Adults 65 years of age or older who could ambulate independently and who were medically stable. Thirty-one adults, mean age 82.3 ± 5.6 years, were eligible to participate. The group exercise program was held twice a week for 12 weeks. Acceptability of the program was determined by retention and adherence rates and a satisfaction survey. Risk was measured by adverse events and questions on perceived challenge and safety. Mobility was assessed pre- and postintervention by gait speed, Figure of 8 Walk Test, and 6-minute walk test. Modifications to the program included adjustments to format/length, music, education, and group interaction. The 12-week program was completed by 24 of 31 entrants (77%). Adherence was high, with participants attending on average 83% of the classes. Safety was excellent, with only 1 subject experiencing a controlled, noninjurious fall. There was preliminary

  8. Learning around Town: Learning Communities in Australia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henderson, Liz; Castles, Rachel; McGrath, Majella; Brown, Tony

    This booklet explains the features and benefits of learning communities and summarizes Australia's experience with them. Part 1 traces the history of learning communities from the 1970s through the present, presents several definitions of the term "learning community," lists reasons for becoming a learning community, and explains the…

  9. Local Knowledge and Adult Learning in Environmental Adult Education: Community-Based Ecotourism in Southern Thailand

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walter, Pierre

    2009-01-01

    This paper examines how local knowledge is employed in environmental adult education in a community-based ecotourism project in an island community in southern Thailand. The study is based on field research and analysis of project websites, media reports and documents. Situated at the intersection of global tourism and a local Thai-Malay Muslim…

  10. Creating New Directions with Story: Narrating Life Experience as Story in Community Adult Education Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pfahl, Nancy Lloyd; Wiessner, Colleen Aalsburg

    2007-01-01

    Narrating stories of life experience has helped educators motivate adult learners with diverse goals. Working with culturally diverse learners in their community contexts, including adults who have been unable to advance their development and learning, educators have observed them become more able to learn and succeed in their varied pursuits as…

  11. Adult Learning: A Reader.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sutherland, Peter, Ed.

    This book on adult learning is divided into six sections. Section 1, Cognitive Processes, includes the following chapters: "Cognitive Processes: Contemporary Paradigms of Learning" (Jack Mezirow); "Information Processing, Memory, Age and Adult Learning" (Gillian Boulton-Lewis); "Adult Learners' Metacognitive Behaviour in Higher Education" (Barry…

  12. Community Learning Is Community Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Plested, Julian; Dale, Lesley

    2001-01-01

    A British project to develop a learning community had to overcome challenges of trust, lack of participation by young men, and the tendency to be led by funding. Project lessons include the following: community learning is community development; providers are co-learners; and information technology is an inspirer and an equalizer. (SK)

  13. Assessing the reading comprehension of adults with learning disabilities.

    PubMed

    Jones, F W; Long, K; Finlay, W M L

    2006-06-01

    This study's aim was to begin the process of measuring the reading comprehension of adults with mild and borderline learning disabilities, in order to generate information to help clinicians and other professionals to make written material for adults with learning disabilities more comprehensible. The Test for the Reception of Grammar (TROG), with items presented visually rather than orally, and the Reading Comprehension sub-test of the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimensions (WORD) battery were given to 24 service-users of a metropolitan community learning disability team who had an estimated IQ in the range 50-79. These tests were demonstrated to have satisfactory split-half reliability and convergent validity with this population, supporting both their use in this study and in clinical work. Data are presented concerning the distribution across the sample of reading-ages and the comprehension of written grammatical constructions. These data should be useful to those who are preparing written material for adults with learning disabilities.

  14. From Learning Organization to Learning Community: Sustainability through Lifelong Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kearney, Judith; Zuber-Skerritt, Ortrun

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

  15. A Living Spiral of Understanding: Community-Based Adult Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cueva, Melany

    2010-01-01

    What does it mean to provide community-based health education that respects adults of diverse cultures and ways of being in the world? How does one nurture meaningful learning opportunities that awaken possibilities as a catalyst for understanding, conversation, and action? In this article, nurturing place, sharing power, heart listening, talking…

  16. Learning Community and Nonlearning Community Students in a Midwestern Community College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Laanan, Frankie Santos; Jackson, Dimitra Lynette; Stebleton, Michael J.

    2013-01-01

    The research on learning communities has focused primarily on students at four-year colleges and universities. There is a dearth of studies that examine learning communities in community colleges. The purpose of this comparative study was to conduct an analysis of learning community and nonlearning community students in a community college located…

  17. The Community College: Bridge or Roadblock to Higher Education for US Adult Immigrant English-Language Learners?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Janis, Thomas

    2013-01-01

    While community colleges have been accessible for adult learners with an immigrant and an English Language Learning (ELL) background, there is a gap between preparation and academic success on the college level among these students. Within community colleges, older adult English as a Second Language (ESL) students have the lowest first-semester…

  18. Older Adults can Learn to Learn New Motor Skills

    PubMed Central

    Seidler, Rachael D.

    2007-01-01

    Many studies have demonstrated that aging is associated with declines in skill acquisition. In the current study, we tested whether older adults could acquire general, transferable knowledge about skill learning processes. Older adult participants learned five different motor tasks. Two older adult control groups performed the same number of trials, but learned only one task. The experimental group exhibited faster learning than that seen in the control groups. These data demonstrate that older adults can learn to learn new motor skills. PMID:17602760

  19. Sabemos y Podemos: Learning for Social Action. Adult Education Curriculum. English Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Rachel

    This adult education curriculum, part of the Aprender Es Poder (To Learn Is Power) program, explores the themes of school success for Latino children, expands the work options and improves the working conditions of Latino adults, and identifies community issues. It is meant to be a resource for English as a Second Language Literacy and adult basic…

  20. Fostering a New Model of Multigenerational Learning: Older Adult Perspectives, Community Partners, and Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dauenhauer, Jason; Steitz, David W.; Cochran, Lynda J.

    2016-01-01

    Intergenerational service-learning initiatives are an increasingly common educational practice designed to engage college students and older adults with one another. The growth of the baby boomer population and a growing interest in lifelong learning opportunities among older adults have the potential to create new models of multigenerational…

  1. Learning to Listen: A Guide to Methods of Adult Nonformal Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vella, Jane Kathryn

    Intended to aid field workers in nonformal adult education programs, this guide indicates ways of listening to a group or a community, approaches to sharing rather than transmitting, and methods of problem-posing education. The first chapter examines the importance of respect as a learning principle in adult nonformal education and explores some…

  2. Adult Learning Week Planning Packet.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    New York State Education Dept., Albany. Office of Adult Learning Services.

    Each year one week is designated by the Governor of New York as Adult Learning Week because of the growing importance of adult education to society and the economy of New York State. The major purpose of Adult Learning Week is to promote greater public awareness of the availability and variety of learning opportunities for adults. In practical…

  3. ACE [Adult and Community Education] into the 21st Century: A Vision.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adult, Community, and Further Education Board, Melbourne (Australia).

    This document outlines a vision for adult and community education (ACE) in Victoria for the next 3 years and provides a broad map of how to reach that vision. A description of the context is followed by the ACE vision statement: ACE delivers accessible, quality, and timely learning in autonomous, community settings as a valued and essential…

  4. A "Fine Balance" in Truth and Fiction: Exploring Globalization's Impacts on Community and Implications for Adult Learning in Rohinton Mistry's Novel and Related Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jubas, Kaela

    2005-01-01

    Globalization continues to interest researchers and practitioners as it unfolds around us. This article contributes to the analysis of globalization's discourse, objectives and outcomes, by exploring the impact of globalization on community and its implications for adult learning. Using selected themes from a work of fiction to frame this…

  5. An Examination of the Factors That Influence the Transfer of Learning among K-12 Educators Participating in Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCullum, Charcelor Channing

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the factors that either support or inhibit learning transfer among educators within K-12 professional learning communities (PLCs) as well as to obtain a better understanding of how adult education principles relate to teacher learning and job satisfaction within this environment. Although…

  6. Effective literacy instruction for adults with specific learning disabilities: implications for adult educators.

    PubMed

    Hock, Michael F

    2012-01-01

    Adults with learning disabilities (LD) attending adult basic education, GED programs, or community colleges are among the lowest performers on measures of literacy. For example, on multiple measures of reading comprehension, adults with LD had a mean reading score at the third grade level, whereas adults without LD read at the fifth grade level. In addition, large numbers of adults perform at the lowest skill levels on quantitative tasks. Clearly, significant instructional challenges exist for adults who struggle with literacy issues, and those challenges can be greater for adults with LD. In this article, the literature on adults with LD is reviewed, and evidenced-based instructional practices that significantly narrow the literacy achievement gap for this population are identified. Primary attention is given to instructional factors that have been shown to affect literacy outcomes for adults with LD. These factors include the use of explicit instruction, instructional technology, and intensive tutoring in skills and strategies embedded in authentic contexts.

  7. Beyond Traditional Art Education: Transformative Lifelong Learning in Community-Based Settings with Older Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lawton, Pamela Harris; La Porte, Angela M.

    2013-01-01

    Quality community-based art education programs for older adults over the age of 50 should exploit the broad range of interests and cognitive abilities of participants by utilizing adult education theory, brain research, and the best practices of adult art education programs. We consider a developing paradigm on the cognitive abilities of the…

  8. Engaging Education: Integrating Work, Technology and Learning for Adults.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC.

    This guide is for Neighborhood Networks center staff and volunteers who want to learn how centers across the country are helping adults meet work force demands. It provides resources to work force development programs so examples can be tailored to meet the needs of other communities. It focuses on challenges that integrating academics and job…

  9. Adult Education and Palliative Care: The Last Journey of Life and Two Main Kinds of Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elsey, Barry

    1996-01-01

    As a voluntary learning movement, adult education finds expression through a search for values. Continuing and community education provide support for both hospice and palliative care workers as well as families and friends of terminally ill persons in dealing with death and dying. (SK)

  10. What's the VALUE of Information Literacy? Comparing Learning Community and Non-Learning Community Student Learning Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rapchak, Marcia E.; Brungard, Allison B.; Bergfelt, Theodore W.

    2016-01-01

    Using the Information Literacy VALUE Rubric provided by the AAC&U, this study compares thirty final capstone assignments in a research course in a learning community with thirty final assignments in from students not in learning communities. Results indicated higher performance of the non-learning community students; however, transfer skills…

  11. Constructivist Learning Environments and Defining the Online Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Loren

    2014-01-01

    The online learning community is frequently referred to, but ill defined. The constructivist philosophy and approach to teaching and learning is both an effective means of constructing an online learning community and it is a tool by which to define key elements of the learning community. In order to build a nurturing, self-sustaining online…

  12. Technology and Innovation in Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Kathy P.

    2017-01-01

    "Technology and Innovation in Adult Learning" introduces educators and students to the intersection of adult learning and the growing technological revolution. Written by an internationally recognized expert in the field, this book explores the theory, research, and practice driving innovation in both adult learning and learning…

  13. Non-consensual sterilization of the adult with learning disabilities.

    PubMed

    Knifton, C

    Community nurses may be asked for advice on sterilization operations for adults with learning disabilities by worried parents/carers. This article sets out the legal position advocated by the English courts. Sterilization for adults with learning disabilities is generally non-consensual. The courts cannot consent on behalf of the adult but can rule on the lawfulness of the operation. Cases need not be brought before the court when the operation is to be carried out to treat a specific menstrual malady and where sterilization is an incidental result. However, the Law Commission (1995) has set guidelines which recommend that such operations require a certificate from an independent medical practitioner. In operations where the sole purpose is contraception the courts will always need to be involved. Their decision on the lawfulness of the operation will be based on what is in the person's best interests which in turn will be determined by reference to standards set by a responsible body of medical practitioners.

  14. The Transition of Adult Students to Higher Education: Legitimate Peripheral Participation in a Community of Practice?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Donnell, Victoria L.; Tobbell, Jane

    2007-01-01

    This article presents empirical research exploring adult students' transition to higher education (HE) through a program designed to enable that transition. Wenger's Communities of Practice theory has been applied to informal adult learning by Merriam, Courtenay, and Baumgartner (2003), who suggested its potential for understanding formal…

  15. Public Libraries and Community-Based Education: Making the Connection for Lifelong Learning. Volume 2: Commissioned Papers. A Conference Sponsored by the National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Washington, D.C., April 12-13, 1995).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Inst. on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning (ED/OERI), Washington, DC.

    This conference explored the relationship between the public library, community-based adult education, and lifelong learning. The eight commissioned papers presented include: "Community Based Adult Jewish Learning Program: Issues and Concerns" (Paul A. Flexner); "Rural and Small Libraries: Provisions for Lifelong Learning" (Bernard Vavrek);…

  16. Adult Learning by Choice. Results of the CET LEARNING LINKS Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hall, Dorothea

    The LEARNING LINKS project was undertaken to expand opportunities for adult learning in nonformal, noneducational settings. It had the following three broad aims: stimulate student-negotiated learning, stimulate and support informal adult learning, and test the usefulness of microcomputers in an information service for adults. Over a period of 2…

  17. Self-Concept in Young Adults with a Learning Disability from the Jewish Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bunning, Karen; Steel, Gabriela

    2007-01-01

    A small pilot study was conducted to explore the self-concept of young people with a learning disability from a Jewish community in an inner city area. Four young people participated in the project. All attended a college dedicated to the further education of people with special needs from the Jewish community. Semi-structured interviews were…

  18. The Retarded Adult in the Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Katz, Elias

    The discussion of a series of questions with case illustrations delineates the problems and possibilities of helping retarded adults become valuable, productive members of society. Among topics considered are the definition of retarded adults in the community, the need for concern, and community evaluation and needs of the retarded adult. Also…

  19. Adult ESOL Students and Service-Learning: Voices, Experiences, and Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bippus, Sharon L.; Eslami, Zohreh R.

    2013-01-01

    This multiple-case study examined the unique perspectives of six adult English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students who participated as the givers of a service in a semester-long service learning community college ESOL course. Their ages ranged from 19 to 45 and they hailed from five different countries (Colombia, Mexico, South Korea,…

  20. Bounded Community: Designing and Facilitating Learning Communities in Formal Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, Brent G.; Ludwig-Hardman, Stacey; Thornam, Christine L.; Dunlap, Joanna C.

    2004-01-01

    Learning communities can emerge spontaneously when people find common learning goals and pursue projects and tasks together in pursuit of those goals. "Bounded" learning communities (BLCs) are groups that form within a structured teaching or training setting, typically a course. Unlike spontaneous communities, BLCs develop in direct response to…

  1. Collaborative distance learning: Developing an online learning community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stoytcheva, Maria

    2017-12-01

    The method of collaborative distance learning has been applied for years in a number of distance learning courses, but they are relatively few in foreign language learning. The context of this research is a hybrid distance learning of French for specific purposes, delivered through the platform UNIV-RcT (Strasbourg University), which combines collaborative activities for the realization of a common problem-solving task online. The study focuses on a couple of aspects: on-line interactions carried out in small, tutored groups and the process of community building online. By analyzing the learner's perceptions of community and collaborative learning, we have tried to understand the process of building and maintenance of online learning community and to see to what extent the collaborative distance learning contribute to the development of the competence expectations at the end of the course. The analysis of the results allows us to distinguish the advantages and limitations of this type of e-learning and thus evaluate their pertinence.

  2. Community of Practice: A Path to Strategic Learning

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nancy M. Carlson

    2003-04-01

    To explore the concept of community of practice, the research initially concentrates on a strategic business process in a research and applied engineering laboratory discovering essential communication tools and processes needed to cultivate a high functioning cross-disciplinary team engaged in proposal preparation. Qualitative research in the human ecology of the proposal process blends topic-oriented ethnography and grounded theory and includes an innovative addition to qualitative interviewing, called meta-inquiry. Meta-inquiry uses an initial interview protocol with a homogeneous pool of informants to enhance the researcher's sensitivity to the unique cultures involved in the proposal process before developing a formal interview protocol.more » In this study the preanalysis process uses data from editors, graphic artists, text processors, and production coordinators to assess, modify, enhance, and focus the formal interview protocol with scientists, engineers, and technical managers-the heterogeneous informants. Thus this human ecology-based interview protocol values homogeneous and heterogeneous informant data and acquires data from which concepts, categories, properties, and both substantive and formal theory emerges. The research discovers the five essential processes of owning, visioning, reviewing, producing, and contributing for strategic learning to occur in a proposal community of practice. The apprenticeship, developmental, and nurturing perspectives of adult learning provide the proposal community of practice with cohesion, interdependence, and caring, while core and boundary practices provide insight into the tacit and explicit dimensions of the proposal process. By making these dimensions explicit, the necessary competencies, absorptive capacity, and capabilities needed for strategic learning are discovered. Substantive theory emerges and provides insight into the ability of the proposal community of practice to evolve, flourish, and adapt to the

  3. Disrupting Adult and Community Education: Teaching, Learning, and Working in the Periphery

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mizzi, Robert C., Ed.; Rocco, Tonette S., Ed.; Shore, Sue, Ed.

    2016-01-01

    This groundbreaking book critiques the boundaries of where adult education takes place through a candid examination of teaching, learning, and working practices in the social periphery. Lives in this context are diverse and made through complex practices that take place in the shadows of formal systems: on streetscapes and farms, in vehicles and…

  4. Creating New Learning Communities: Towards Effective E-Learning Production.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Russell, David; Calvey, David; Banks, Mark

    2003-01-01

    Case study research and a literature review suggest that formation of new learning communities is a strategy being used to meet demand for electronic learning products such as CD-ROMs and web-based learning tools. Companies, external experts, clients, and learners are the constituents of the learning community that must converge to create…

  5. Learning How to Learn: Implications for Non Traditional Adult Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tovar, Lynn A.

    2008-01-01

    In this article, learning how to learn for non traditional adult students is discussed with a focus on police officers and firefighters. Learning how to learn is particularly relevant for all returning non-traditional adults; however in the era of terrorism it is critical for the public safety officers returning to college after years of absence…

  6. Community Resilience Education: Lessons Learned from an Emerging Community of Practice - NOAA's Environmental Literacy Grantees

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schoedinger, S. E.; McDougall, C.

    2017-12-01

    NOAA supports community resilience to extreme weather events, climate change and other environmental hazards by preparing communities through Weather Ready Nation and through programs addressing coastal community needs. These programs primarily target adult decisions makers in a professional capacity (emergency managers, city planners, et al.), leaving non-professional audiences without opportunities to understand and develop the skills to prepare for the threats and vulnerabilities that their communities face. As a result, resilience became the focus of NOAA's Environmental Literacy Grants in 2015. The goal of these investments is to strengthen the public's and/or K-12 students' environmental literacy to enable informed decision-making necessary for community resilience to extreme weather events and other environmental hazards. Funded projects build an understanding of Earth systems and the threats and vulnerabilities that are associated with a community's location, are aligned with existing adaptation/resilience plans, and connect audiences to relevant tools and resources to prepare for and respond to these hazards. These first few years of investment will create new models for how education can improve community resilience. Although these projects incorporate a variety of approaches, a few common themes stand out: empowering youth and adults to increase their understanding of locally relevant natural hazards and stresses; giving youth a voice in resilience planning; and student-led vulnerability assessments of their schools and communities. In this session we will report on the first convening of the principal investigators of our 13 funded projects, which represents the beginning of a new community of practice focused on resilience education. We will specifically share lessons learned about: engaging youth and adults about climate change and resiliency; working with local resilience/adaptation planners; and case studies on the use of NOAA's Digital Coast and

  7. Collaboration in Visual Culture Learning Communities: Towards a Synergy of Individual and Collective Creative Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karpati, Andrea; Freedman, Kerry; Castro, Juan Carlos; Kallio-Tavin, Mira; Heijnen, Emiel

    2017-01-01

    A visual culture learning community (VCLC) is an adolescent or young adult group engaged in expression and creation outside of formal institutions and without adult supervision. In the framework of an international, comparative research project executed between 2010 and 2014, members of a variety of eight self-initiated visual culture groups…

  8. Fifty Years of Learning by Older Adults in Aotearoa New Zealand

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tobias, Robert

    2017-01-01

    This paper reflects on the history of adult and community education (ACE) in Aotearoa New Zealand with special reference to older people's learning. The paper adopts a critical framework and draws on both primary and secondary sources. Key economic, political, social, demographic and cultural forces are discussed along with the huge growth in…

  9. Transformational Learning: Reflections of an Adult Learning Story

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Foote, Laura S.

    2015-01-01

    Transformational learning, narrative learning, and spiritual learning frame adult experiences in new and exciting ways. These types of learning can involve a simple transformation of belief or opinion or a radical transformation involving one's total perspective; learning may occur abruptly or incrementally. Education should liberate students from…

  10. Service-Learning and Learning Communities: Tools for Integration and Assessment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oates, Karen K.; Leavitt, Lynn H.

    This publication attempts to provide fundamental theory about service-learning and learning communities, along with descriptions of best practices, lessons learned, and assessment strategies. The text is designed to provide resources to help readers offer service-learning experiences for their students. Learning communities are now commonly…

  11. Toward a Social Approach to Learning in Community Service Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooks, Leda; Scharrer, Erica; Paredes, Mari Castaneda

    2004-01-01

    The authors describe a social approach to learning in community service learning that extends the contributions of three theoretical bodies of scholarship on learning: social constructionism, critical pedagogy, and community service learning. Building on the assumptions about learning described in each of these areas, engagement, identity, and…

  12. An exploration of experts' perceptions on the use of interprofessional education to support collaborative practice in the care of community-living older adults.

    PubMed

    Ploeg, Jenny; Markle-Reid, Maureen; Fisher, Anita; Bookey-Bassett, Sue; Chambers, Tracey; Kennedy, Laurie; Morsy, Mona; Dufour, Sinéad

    2017-09-01

    Globally, as older adults are living longer and with more chronic conditions, there is a need to support their ability to age optimally in their homes and communities. Community-based interprofessional teams working closely with these older adults, their families, and informal caregivers will be instrumental in achieving this goal. Interprofessional education (IPE) is the means through which these teams can develop expertise in collaboratively working together with older adults. However, most IPE occurs in academic settings, and acute and long-term care sectors and little is known about IPE in the context of home and community care of older adults. The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of academic and practice experts related to the current state of IPE in home and community care of older adults and the changes that are necessary to meet the future needs of practitioners and older adults. Using a qualitative descriptive design, interviews were conducted with 32 national and international key informants representing practitioners, educators, researchers, and health system decision-makers in the field of IPE. Thematic analysis of the data identified six themes: (a) client and family-centred care at the core of IPE, (b) the community as a unique learning setting across the learning continuum; (c) an aging-relevant IPE curriculum; (d) faculty commitment and resources for IPE; (e) technological innovation to support IPE; and (f) comprehensive IPE programme evaluation and research. These findings are explored through the lens of an interprofessional learning continuum model. The article concludes with a discussion of the study implications for IPE practice and research specifically in the care of community-living older adults.

  13. Overview of Training Practices Incorporating Adult Learning. Selected Federal Legislation and Programs Relating to Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    American Univ., Washington, DC. Adult Learning Potential Inst.

    This document--a survey identifying federal legislation and programs that in some way address the adult learner--is one in a series of four developed to provide a comprehensive overview of the scope of training practices relating to adult learning. It provides a panoramic view of adult learning in response to national priorities based upon…

  14. Canada's Composite Learning Index: A path towards learning communities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cappon, Paul; Laughlin, Jarrett

    2013-09-01

    In the development of learning cities/communities, benchmarking progress is a key element. Not only does it permit cities/communities to assess their current strengths and weaknesses, it also engenders a dialogue within and between cities/communities on the means of enhancing learning conditions. Benchmarking thereby is a potentially motivational tool, energising further progress. In Canada, the Canadian Council on Learning created the world's first Composite Learning Index (CLI), the purpose of which is to measure the conditions of learning nationally, regionally and locally. Cities/communities in Canada have utilised the CLI Simulator, an online tool provided by the Canadian Council on Learning, to gauge the change in overall learning conditions which may be expected depending on which particular indicator is emphasised. In this way, the CLI has proved to be both a dynamic and a locally relevant tool for improvement, moreover a strong motivational factor in the development of learning cities/communities. After presenting the main features of the CLI, the authors of this paper sum up the lessons learned during its first 5 years (2006-2010) of existence, also with a view to its transferability to other regions. Indeed, the CLI model was already adopted in Europe by the German Bertelsmann foundation in 2010 and has the potential to be useful in many other countries as well.

  15. Improving nursing students' assessment of fall risk in community-dwelling older adults.

    PubMed

    Patton, Susan K

    2016-12-09

    Nationally, approximately one third of older adults fall each year. Falls and resulting injury result in decreased mobility, functional impairment, loss of independence, and increased mortality. Utilization of evidence-based protocols by health care providers to identify older adults at risk of falling is limited, and rates of participation by older adults in prevention activities is low. Because of nursing's increasing role in caring for older adults, development of fall prevention education for nursing students would result in increased awareness of the need for fall prevention in community-dwelling older adults and increased access of older adults to falls risk assessment. There is a need to extend research to inform teaching and learning strategies for fall prevention. After pretesting, a convenience sample of 52 undergraduate nursing students and 22 graduate nursing students completed an online education program and performed a falls risk assessment on an older adult. After completing the clinical assignment, students completed a posttest and self-efficacy survey. Data were analyzed using multivariate statistical tests. Results revealed an increase in knowledge and student self-reporting of efficacy of fall risk assessment skills for the older adult population. This study suggests that nursing students acquired the necessary knowledge and self-efficacy for assessing fall risk of older adults through the combination of an online learning module and participating in actual fall risk assessment of an older adult.

  16. Professional Learning Communities: Assessment--Development--Effects.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hipp, Kristine Kiefer; Huffman, Jane Bumpers

    This presentation addresses three topics: (1) the assessment of professional learning communities in schools; (2) the design and development of professional learning communities in schools; and (3) the effects of professional learning communities in schools. The purpose of this brief document is to share descriptions, processes, and materials…

  17. Learning Community Assessment 101--Best Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huerta, Juan Carlos; Hansen, Michele J.

    2013-01-01

    Good assessment is part of all good learning communities, and this article provides a useful set of best practices for learning community assessment planning: (1) articulating agreed-upon learning community program goals; (2) identifying the purpose of assessment (e.g., summative or formative); (3) employing qualitative and quantitative assessment…

  18. The Learning Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boo, Mary Richardson; Decker, Larry E.

    This guide to community education offers strategies and suggestions for responding to the call for more community involvement in partnership efforts that will benefit education and society. First, a brief introduction summarizes the philosophy of community education, defining it as a belief that learning is lifelong and that self-help efforts…

  19. FODEM: Developing Digital Learning Environments in Widely Dispersed Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Suhonen, Jarkko; Sutinen, Erkki

    2006-01-01

    FODEM (FOrmative DEvelopment Method) is a design method for developing digital learning environments for widely dispersed learning communities. These are communities in which the geographical distribution and density of learners is low when compared to the kind of learning communities in which there is a high distribution and density of learners…

  20. E-Model for Online Learning Communities.

    PubMed

    Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

    2015-10-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the students' perspectives on the phenomenon of online learning communities while enrolled in a graduate dental hygiene program. A qualitative case study method was designed to investigate the learners' experiences with communities in an online environment. A cross-sectional purposive sampling method was used. Interviews were the data collection method. As the original data were being analyzed, the researchers noted a pattern evolved indicating the phenomenon developed in stages. The data were re-analyzed and validated by 2 member checks. The participants' experiences revealed an e-model consisting of 3 stages of formal learning community development as core courses in the curriculum were completed and 1 stage related to transmuting the community to an informal entity as students experienced the independent coursework in the program. The development of the formal learning communities followed 3 stages: Building a Foundation for the Learning Community, Building a Supportive Network within the Learning Community and Investing in the Community to Enhance Learning. The last stage, Transforming the Learning Community, signaled a transition to an informal network of learners. The e-model was represented by 3 key elements: metamorphosis of relationships, metamorphosis through the affective domain and metamorphosis through the cognitive domain, with the most influential element being the affective development. The e-model describes a 4 stage process through which learners experience a metamorphosis in their affective, relationship and cognitive development. Synergistic learning was possible based on the interaction between synergistic relationships and affective actions. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

  1. Emotional Highs in Adult Experiential Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zeivots, Sandris

    2016-01-01

    Despite knowing that positive emotional experiences tend to be beneficial for adult learning, our incomplete understanding of the emotional system rarely allows us to incorporate emotion adequately in real learning situations. The experience of emotional highs, as observed in adult experiential learning courses, has been selected as the phenomenon…

  2. Barriers to Adult Learning: Bridging the Gap

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Falasca, Marina

    2011-01-01

    A fundamental aspect of adult education is engaging adults in becoming lifelong learners. More often than not, this requires removing barriers to learning, especially those relating to the actual organisational or institutional learning process. This article explores some of the main barriers to adult learning discussed in the literature and…

  3. OECD Thematic Review on Adult Learning: Norway. Background Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tangen, Fride

    Adult learning in Norway was examined in a thematic review that focused on the following areas: the contexts of adult learning; the participants in, providers of, and returns from adult learning; issues and problems facing adult learning; and good practices. The following are among the main findings of the review: (1) adult learning has a long…

  4. The Emergence of Learning Societies: Who Participates in Adult Learning?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Belanger, Paul, Ed.; Valdivielso, Sofia, Ed.

    This book contains nine papers in which data from the Adult Education Participation Survey (a part of the International Adult Literacy Survey) are used to identify and compare trends in organized learning in seven countries. The following papers are included: "Introduction: Who Participates in Organized Adult Learning?" (Paul Belanger,…

  5. Latina Student Perceptions of Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yaqub, Samia

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the learning that occurs in Latina students who enroll in learning communities designed for underprepared community college students. The research question guiding this study is: What are the experiences of Latina students enrolled in developmental learning community courses which have the greatest impact on…

  6. Learning through Action: Parallel Learning Processes in Children and Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ethridge, Elizabeth A.; Branscomb, Kathryn R.

    2009-01-01

    Experiential learning has become an essential part of many educational settings from infancy through adulthood. While the effectiveness of active learning has been evaluated in youth and adult settings, few known studies have compared the learning processes of children and adults within the same project. This article contrasts the active learning…

  7. Remaking Adult Learning: Essays on Adult Education in Honour of Alan Tuckett

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Derrick, Jay, Ed.; Howard, Ursula, Ed.; Field, John, Ed.; Lavender, Peter, Ed.; Meyer, Sue, Ed.; von Rein, Ekkehard Nuissl, Ed.; Schuller, Tom, Ed.

    2010-01-01

    Remaking Adult Learning provides an exciting and innovative addition to the literature on adult learning. Charting challenges and successes in the sector, it illustrates how taking part in well-thought-out programmes can have a positive and sometimes life-saving impact on people's lives. While grounded in adult learning practice, the book draws…

  8. Gallery Educators as Adult Learners: The Active Application of Adult Learning Theory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCray, Kimberly H.

    2016-01-01

    In order to better understand the importance of adult learning theory to museum educators' work, and that of their profession at large, museum professionals must address the need for more adult learning research and practice in museums--particularly work informed by existing theory and work seeking to generate new theory. Adult learning theory…

  9. Working with Young Adults. NIACE Lifelines in Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackson, Carol

    This document explains how adult educators and others in the United Kingdom can increase levels of participation and achievement in learning for young adults by providing informal learning opportunities for those young people who are least inclined to participate in formal education and training programs. The guide outlines a step-by-step approach…

  10. Adult Learning Matters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomson, Rachel

    2009-01-01

    Adult Learners' Week--which is supported by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the European Social Fund, amongst a raft of other organisations--is all about raising demand for learning. At its core, the campaign is about encouraging under-represented groups--including low-skilled, unemployed and low-paid adults and those…

  11. Dimensions of Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Foley, Griff, Ed.

    2004-01-01

    This broad introduction to adult and postcompulsory education offers an overview of the field for students, adult educators and workplace trainers. The book establishes an analytical framework to emphasize the nature of learning and agency of learners; examines the core knowledge and skills that adult educators need; discusses policy, research and…

  12. Canada's Composite Learning Index: A Path Towards Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cappon, Paul; Laughlin, Jarrett

    2013-01-01

    In the development of learning cities/communities, benchmarking progress is a key element. Not only does it permit cities/communities to assess their current strengths and weaknesses, it also engenders a dialogue within and between cities/communities on the means of enhancing learning conditions. Benchmarking thereby is a potentially motivational…

  13. Adult Learning Matters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adults Learning, 2009

    2009-01-01

    The Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning is to lobby parliament for the restoration of the 1.5 million adult learning places lost over the past two years. The campaign has attracted supporters from an astonishingly wide range of backgrounds. In this article, Gordon Marsden, Caroline Biggins, Beth Walker, Mike Chaney, Peter Davies, Sian…

  14. Interview Schedule for Studying Why Adults Learn.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tough, Allen

    Designed for use in a 1968 study of why adults learn, this interview schedule contains situation-description and question sheets for use by the interviewer and subject for examining thirteen reasons why adults begin and why they continue a learning project. (The study, "Why Adults Learn: A Study of the Major Reasons for Beginning and Continuing a…

  15. Jewishly-Informed Mature Adult Service-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bretan, Gail Helene

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to describe, implement, and interpret the intersection of service-learning, Jewish values and ways of knowing, adult education, and lifelong learning for people over the age of 50. By expanding service-learning to include both older adults and Jewish ways of knowing, there is potential for transforming these frameworks…

  16. Levels of Engagement and Barriers to Physical Activity in a Population of Adults with Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawkins, Andrew; Look, Roger

    2006-01-01

    This study examined levels of, and barriers to, physical activity in a population of 19 adults with learning disabilities living in community supported accommodation, using diary records and semi-structured interviews with staff. The levels of physical activity were higher in the sample population than previous figures for adults with learning…

  17. Learning Center Ideas in Action. A How-to Handbook for Starting an Individualized Adult Learning Center. Revised Edition 1973.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Los Angeles City Schools, CA. Div. of Career and Continuing Education.

    This handbook provides guidelines for administrators and teachers for establishing classes that emphasize individualized programed learning. The suggestions are primarily for use in community adult school classrooms of standard size. Some of the "hows" of setting up the program are: (1) the utilization of the classroom (space, size, and…

  18. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System Learn on Demand Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCall, Michael B.

    2013-01-01

    When colleges turned to online learning, they opened the door for a number of students who might have only dreamed of pursuing a degree or credential. In 2006, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) surveyed prospective adult students without a college degree and discovered that they were three times more likely to enroll in…

  19. Teaching caring and competence: Student transformation during an older adult focused service-learning course.

    PubMed

    Brown, Karen M; Bright, Leslie M

    2017-11-01

    Innovative teaching strategies develop nurses' knowledge, skills, and attitudes while simultaneously integrating the art of caring and transforming attitudes toward adults over age 65. The study's purpose was to explore students' experiences and attitudes toward older adults with cognitive and/or physical limitations as well as the effects on students' knowledge and skills during a baccalaureate nursing, course which included a service-learning experience. Service-learning synthesizes meaningful community service, academic instruction, and reflection. Participants included baccalaureate students enrolled in a service-learning nursing course focused on older adults. This retrospective, qualitative, phenomenological study used reflective journals and an online survey to explore baccalaureate nursing students' experiences toward older adults with cognitive and/or physical limitations. Themes included initial attitudes of anticipation, apprehension, anxiety, and ageist stereotypes. Final attitudes included a "completely changed perspective" of caring, compassion, and respect indicative of a rewarding, "life-changing" experience. Participants cited enhanced learning, especially in the areas of patient-centered care, collaboration, communication, advocacy, empathy, assessment skills, and evidence-based practice. This innovative teaching strategy led to transformed attitudes toward older adults, reduced fear of older adult populations, an increased desire to work with older adults, and the ability to form a transpersonal, caring relationship while enhancing nursing knowledge and skills. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Goals, Principles, and Practices for Community-Based Adult Education through the Lens of a Hatcher-Assagioli Synthesis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ayvazian, Andrea S.

    2012-01-01

    This study examines how adult education can facilitate learning towards the full realization of human potential. It synthesizes two theories of human development, and applies this to the practice of community-based adult education carried out by trained facilitators who do not have formal degrees in the field of mental health. The first part of…

  1. Living in an older adult community: a pharmacy student's experience.

    PubMed

    Anastasia, Emily; Estus, Erica

    2013-12-01

    Interacting with older adults is a daily practice for pharmacists. It is important to understand how medications affect their wellbeing, but there are many other factors that affect quality of life. To truly understand some of the challenges facing older adults, Emily Anastasia, a sixth-year pharmacy student at the University of Rhode Island, moved into South Bay Retirement Living, a senior living community, for an eight-day immersion experience as a special project within one of her advanced pharmacy practice experience rotations. During her stay, she did not attend classes nor leave the facility unless on the South Bay bus with the other assisted living residents. She lived with a 92-year-old roommate, developed close friendships with many of the residents, and kept a detailed journal of her experience. The purpose of this reflection is to share her experience and recognize lifestyle as well as social and physical environment as factors in understanding the aging process. Immersing a pharmacy student within an assisted living community provides a unique opportunity to observe and appreciate characteristics of older adults that cannot be learned within a classroom setting.

  2. Adults with Learning Disabilities Experiences of Using Community Dental Services: Service User and Carer Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lees, Carolyn; Poole, Helen; Brennan, Michelle; Irvine, Fiona

    2017-01-01

    Background: The government alongside other health and social care organisation have identified the need to improve the care provided for people with learning disabilities. Materials and Methods: This service evaluation aimed to explore the experiences of people with learning disabilities and their carers who accessed community dental services…

  3. Service-Learning as a Catalyst for Community Development: How Do Community Partners Benefit From Service-Learning?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Geller, Joanna D.; Zuckerman, Natalie; Seidel, Adam

    2016-01-01

    Service-learning has the potential to create mutually beneficial relationships between schools and communities, but little research explores service-learning from the community's perspective. The purpose of this study was to (a) understand how community-based organizations (CBOs) benefited from partnering with students and (b) examine whether…

  4. The Founding of the Learning Communities Association

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huerta, Juan Carlos

    2017-01-01

    Learning communities have reached the point in their growth that we now need a professional association to allow for more opportunities for participation in advancing learning communities. This is the story of the founding of the new Learning Communities Association.

  5. Generative Learning: Adults Learning within Ambiguity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nicolaides, Aliki

    2015-01-01

    This study explored the extent to which ambiguity can serve as a catalyst for adult learning. The purpose of this study is to understand learning that is generated when encountering ambiguity agitated by the complexity of liquid modernity. "Ambiguity," in this study, describes an encounter with an appearance of reality that is at first…

  6. The Relationship between Elementary Teachers' Perceived Self-Efficacy and Principals' Facilitation of Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mathews, Tracy A.

    2017-01-01

    This quantitative correlation survey study investigated the relationship between teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of school principals as instructional leaders in professional learning communities (PLCs) and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers. Social Cognitive Theory, self-efficacy concept, and Adult Learning Theory were at the core of…

  7. MirandaNet: A Learning Community--A Community of Learners.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cuthell, John

    2002-01-01

    Explains MirandaNet, a learning community of teachers and academics as agents of change who use information and communications technology to change their teaching and learning practice and to develop innovative models for continuing professional development. Discusses distributed cognition in an online community. (LRW)

  8. Benefits a Community College Can Realize by Providing Older Adult Programs: A Trustee's Viewpoint.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hartstein, Ray

    Board members of community colleges need to carefully consider and actively support feasible programs for older people with a firm commitment to fiscal and programmatic decisions assuring lifelong learning opportunities and public service activities. Trustees must be aware of and understand problems and issues of older adults, secure data for…

  9. Adult Learning and the Future of Work.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Madhu, Ed.

    This book contains 15 papers: "Introduction" (Madhu Singh); "Adult Learning and the Transformation of Work" (Paul Belanger); "Future of Work and Adult Learning" (Ettore Gelpi); "The Obligation of Education in the Face of Globalisation" (Nicole Arnaud); "Lifelong Learning and Vocational Education and…

  10. Community-University Partnerships for Mutual Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gelmon, Sherril B.; Holland, Barbara A.; Seifer, Sarena D.; Shinnamon, Anu; Connors, Kara

    1998-01-01

    Discusses what has been learned about building school/community partnerships through the "Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program," a national demonstration program of service-learning in health-professions education. Issues include: the challenge of distinguishing service learning from clinical experience; community attitudes…

  11. Parent Power Nights: A Model for Engaging Adults/Families in Learning Mathematics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kosheleva, Olga; Lesser, Larry; Munter, Judith; Trillo, Sylvia

    2008-01-01

    Located on the U.S./México border, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) offers academic programs in K-12 school teacher preparation. Many of the courses integrate parents and families into teacher preparation courses. One example of effective adult/community learning is the "Parent Power Night" (PPN) component. This model builds a…

  12. Promoting Adult Learning in Public Places: Two Asian Case Studies of Adult Learning about Peace through Museums and Peace Architecture

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duffy, Gavin

    2009-01-01

    This paper explores an area of adult learning that has received little attention of late, the terrain of public education through museums and civic architecture. The goal of promoting adult learning in public places e.g. through the work of museums has become commonplace in countries seeking to encourage adult learning about peace. This invariably…

  13. Community Learning Centers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jennings, Wayne

    2005-01-01

    The Community Learning Centers plan provides a systemically changed model for the 21st century. This top-to-bottom transformation of current education addresses all aspects of schools with a detailed framework to guide serious educational reformers. This fresh approach to principles of learning, curriculum, staffing, facilities, student as…

  14. Adult Literacy Learning and Computer Technology: Features of Effective Computer-Assisted Learning Systems.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fahy, Patrick J.

    Computer-assisted learning (CAL) can be used for adults functioning at any academic or grade level. In adult basic education (ABE), CAL can promote greater learning effectiveness and faster progress, concurrent learning and experience with computer literacy skills, privacy, and motivation. Adults who face barriers (financial, geographic, personal,…

  15. Creating a Village: The Impact of the Opportunity to Participate in Synchronous Web Conferencing on Adult Learner Sense of Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gable, Karla

    2012-01-01

    Community is a place where people go to feel comfortable. It is important to develop strategies for enhancing a sense of community in the online learning environment designed for adult learners. The purpose of this study was to determine if adding a synchronous conferencing experience to an asynchronous course impacted overall sense of community,…

  16. Regional Workshop on Strengthening Linkages and Networks through Community Learning Centres (CLCs) (Bandung, Indonesia, September 5-9, 2005)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Online Submission, 2006

    2006-01-01

    The Community Learning Centre (CLC) Project has been carried out since 1998 within the framework of the Asia Pacific Program of Education for All (APPEAL). CLC is a multi-purpose learning center that serves as a local venue for adults, youth and children to engage in all kinds of learning. After a few years' implementation, some countries have…

  17. Quieting the Cacophony of the Mind: The Role of Mindfulness in Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parish, Kay Annette

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the role between mindfulness practice and adult learning. The participants were full-time students enrolled in a two-year radiography program at a Midwestern community college. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are essential to students' success and to healthcare professionals. The main…

  18. Adults as Learners. Increasing Participation and Facilitating Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cross, K. Patricia

    The literature on adult learners is reviewed, and two models of adult learning are developed. Demographic, social, and technological trends that stimulate the increasing demand for learning opportunities are examined, and the views of those who see dangers in new pressures on adults to participate in organized learning activities are considered.…

  19. Personal Adult Learning Lab (Pall). Implications for Practice.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Klippel, Judith A.; And Others

    The Personal Adult Learning Lab was establsiehd at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education (GCCE) at the University of Georgia to serve self-directed adult learners and conduct research on self-directed learning. The lab allows adult learners to design, conduct, and evaluate their personal learning experiences while proceeding at their own…

  20. The contributions of community learning centres (CLCs) to personal and community development in Myanmar

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Le, Ai Tam Pham

    2018-05-01

    Community learning centres (CLCs) have been widely established in the Asia-Pacific region as locally managed institutions that offer non-formal educational opportunities and community development activities. Myanmar officially has more than 3,000 centres, which is one of the highest numbers in the region. This article examines the operation of CLCs and their contributions to personal and community development in Padaung, Myanmar. The author's research is based on six weeks of fieldwork in Myanmar for data collection including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and informal conversations. Her findings suggest that CLCs can contribute to the improvement of both individuals' quality of life and communities' social capital, which facilitates mutually beneficial collective action. The findings also support the conclusion that CLCs can provide additional educational opportunities beyond the formal system, especially for adults and members of rural communities, e.g. farmers. However, due to constraints in terms of budget, implementing capacity and socio-economic factors, the outreach of CLC activities is still somewhat limited and has yet to reach its full potential.

  1. The Difference a Cohort Makes: Understanding Developmental Learning Communities in Community Colleges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wathington, Heather D.; Pretlow, Joshua; Mitchell, Claire

    2011-01-01

    Learning communities, a small cohort of students enrolled together in two or more linked courses, have become a popular intervention to help underprepared students succeed in college. Though learning communities abound in practice, the key structural feature of a learning community--the cohort--may not be fully understood. Authors posit that a…

  2. Promoting Learning. NIACE Lifelines in Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malone, Kate

    This document is intended to help adult educators in the United Kingdom promote learning. The guide presents practical advice, case studies, and tips for undertaking and implementing effective promotional work. Sections 1 through 11 discuss the following topics: recognizing the increasing need for lifelong learning; the rationale for campaigns…

  3. Sustaining Professional Learning Communities: Case Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hipp, Kristine; Huffman, Jane; Pankake, Anita; Olivier, Dianne

    2008-01-01

    The purpose is to document the ongoing development of two schools in becoming professional learning communities and the effects of meaningful collaboration on teacher learning. The question that guides this research is: How does a school become a sustainable professional learning community? The theoretical framework is based on the work of Senge,…

  4. Factors in Sustaining Professional Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kilbane, James F., Jr.

    2009-01-01

    School change efforts to develop schools as learning communities result in schools that are constantly learning and thus changing. This collective case study of four schools involved in a 4-year reform effort begins to examine the ongoing sustainability of a learning community. The study draws insights about the sustainability of learning…

  5. Learning for Life

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robotham, Dan

    2011-01-01

    People working in the field of education know well the positive effects adult and community learning can have on mental health and wellbeing. Participating in adult and community learning can help to widen social networks and improve life and employment chances; it makes for better general health; and can strengthen the learner's self-confidence,…

  6. Knowledge of Mental Capacity Issues in Community Teams for Adults with Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Willner, Paul; Jenkins, Rosemary; Rees, Paul; Griffiths, Vanessa J.; John, Elinor

    2011-01-01

    Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the state of knowledge of mental capacity issues among health and social services professionals working in community teams supporting people with learning disabilities. Methods A structured interview was constructed around three scenarios, based on actual cases, concerning a financial/legal issue,…

  7. Greek Young Adults with Specific Learning Disabilities Seeking Learning Assessments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bonti, Eleni; Bampalou, Christina E.; Kouimtzi, Eleni M.; Kyritsis, Zacharias

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons why Greek young adults with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) seek learning assessments. The study sample consisted of 106 adults meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for SLD. Data were collected through self-report records (clinical interview) of adults…

  8. Lessons learned from a community-academic initiative: the development of a core competency-based training for community-academic initiative community health workers.

    PubMed

    Ruiz, Yumary; Matos, Sergio; Kapadia, Smiti; Islam, Nadia; Cusack, Arthur; Kwong, Sylvia; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau

    2012-12-01

    Despite the importance of community health workers (CHWs) in strategies to reduce health disparities and the call to enhance their roles in research, little information exists on how to prepare CHWs involved in community-academic initiatives (CAIs). Therefore, the New York University Prevention Research Center piloted a CAI-CHW training program. We applied a core competency framework to an existing CHW curriculum and bolstered the curriculum to include research-specific sessions. We employed diverse training methods, guided by adult learning principles and popular education philosophy. Evaluation instruments assessed changes related to confidence, intention to use learned skills, usefulness of sessions, and satisfaction with the training. Results demonstrated that a core competency-based training can successfully affect CHWs' perceived confidence and intentions to apply learned content, and can provide a larger social justice context of their role and work. This program demonstrates that a core competency-based framework coupled with CAI-research-specific skill sessions (1) provides skills that CAI-CHWs intend to use, (2) builds confidence, and (3) provides participants with a more contextualized view of client needs and CHW roles.

  9. Learning and Best Practices for Learning in Open-Source Software Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Vandana; Holt, Lila

    2013-01-01

    This research is about participants who use open-source software (OSS) discussion forums for learning. Learning in online communities of education as well as non-education-related online communities has been studied under the lens of social learning theory and situated learning for a long time. In this research, we draw parallels among these two…

  10. Adult Learning Principles and Their Application to Program Planning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brundage, Donald H.; MacKeracher, Dorothy

    This report examined adult learning principles which were developed through an analysis and synthesis of the literature in adult education, andragogy, teaching and learning, and other related fields. The report consists of six sections. The first section deals with background assumptions relevant to the field of adult education and adult learning.…

  11. From Idea to Virtual Reality: ALADIN - The Adult Learning Documentation and Information Network. Report of a CONFINTEA V Workshop and Its Follow-Up.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Giere, Ursula, Ed.; Imel, Susan, Ed.

    This publication contains the story of how the idea for a network conceived through CONFINTEA V became a [virtual] reality in ALADIN, the Adult Learning Documentation and Information Network. Part I contains 15 papers delivered as a part of the CONFINTEA workshop, "Global Community of Adult Learning through Information and Documentation:…

  12. Youth Representations of Community, Art, and Struggle in Harlem

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kinloch, Valerie

    2007-01-01

    This article describes how two African American young adults engage in learning and activism in their Harlem community through employment of art forms. Observations on the reversal of learning--from adults to young people in classrooms and young people to adults in the community--are critiqued.

  13. How One Learning Community Approached Death

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ungemah, Lori

    2017-01-01

    In this narrative piece, the author describes how a learning community was able to transfer their practices of care to support a colleague as he faced illness and death. The author chronicles how the learning community responded to support their team member, other members of the campus community, and the students. She reflects on this experience…

  14. Two Decades of Community-Based Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zlotkowski, Edward; Duffy, Donna

    2010-01-01

    From a variation on community service to a discipline-specific strategy to a powerful pedagogy to a vehicle of democracy and the common good, community-based learning has proven itself to be an educational resource whose time has come. In this article, the authors trace the recent history of community-based teaching and learning and its symbiotic…

  15. Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults

    PubMed Central

    Neger, Thordis M.; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

    2014-01-01

    Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly. PMID:25225475

  16. Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults.

    PubMed

    Neger, Thordis M; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

    2014-01-01

    Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly.

  17. View, 2000: Commentaries on Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adult Learning Australia, Inc., Jamison.

    This booklet is compiled from all the Adult Learning Australia (ALA) Commentaries produced in 2000. Emailed to ALA members each week, ALA Commentaries are written by people in the field of adult learning in the broadest sense, usually in Australia, sometimes overseas, and designed to stimulate discussion. ALA hosts an online discussion forum about…

  18. Professional Connections through the Technology Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ancar, LeQuetia N.; Freeman, Steven A.; Field, Dennis W.

    2007-01-01

    A learning community is a relatively old phenomenon that has resurfaced; it is making educators at institutions of higher education stand up and take notice. Grounded in collaborative and cooperative learning theories, learning communities have created environments in which student learning is the center of attention. The social construction of…

  19. Learning to Apply Algebra in the Community for Adults With Intellectual Developmental Disabilities.

    PubMed

    Rodriguez, Anthony M

    2016-02-01

    Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are routinely excluded from algebra and other high-level mathematics courses. High school students with IDD take courses in arithmetic and life skills rather than having an opportunity to learn algebra. Yet algebra skills can support the learning of money and budgeting skills. This study explores the feasibility of algebra instruction for adults with IDD through an experimental curriculum. Ten individuals with IDD participated in a 6-week course framing mathematics concepts within the context of everyday challenges in handling money. The article explores classroom techniques, discusses student strategies, and proposes possible avenues for future research analyzing mathematics instructional design strategies for individuals with IDD.

  20. Community-Academic Partnerships: Developing a Service-Learning Framework.

    PubMed

    Voss, Heather C; Mathews, Launa Rae; Fossen, Traci; Scott, Ginger; Schaefer, Michele

    2015-01-01

    Academic partnerships with hospitals and health care agencies for authentic clinical learning have become a major focus of schools of nursing and professional nursing organizations. Formal academic partnerships in community settings are less common despite evolving models of care delivery outside of inpatient settings. Community-Academic partnerships are commonly developed as a means to engage nursing students in service-learning experiences with an emphasis on student outcomes. The benefit of service-learning projects on community partners and populations receiving the service is largely unknown primarily due to the lack of structure for identifying and measuring outcomes specific to service-learning. Nursing students and their faculty engaged in service-learning have a unique opportunity to collaborate with community partners to evaluate benefits of service-learning projects on those receiving the service. This article describes the development of a service-learning framework as a first step toward successful measurement of the benefits of undergraduate nursing students' service-learning projects on community agencies and the people they serve through a collaborative community-academic partnership. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Electronic Learning Communities: Issues and Practices.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reisman, Sorel, Ed.; Flores, John G., Ed.; Edge, Denzil, Ed.

    This book provides information for researchers and practitioners on the current issues and best practices associated with electronic learning communities. Fourteen contributed chapters include: "Interactive Online Educational Experiences: E-volution of Graded Projects" (James Benjamin); "Hybrid Courses as Learning Communities"…

  2. Building Community through Mentoring Adult Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Plante, Jarrad; Truitt, Joshua

    2016-01-01

    The Volunteer UCF Community Connectors and Community Builders Program provides a connection between students and their community. The goal is to develop meaningful service opportunities for UCF students that contribute measurable results and systemic change through capacity building among adult learners. The ongoing, sustainable service experience…

  3. Community College Graduates' Perceptions of Adult Learning Instructional Practices Employed in Continuing Education Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hinkson, Chandris Christina

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine continuing education students' perceptions of adult education instructional practices at an urban community college. The continuing education students recently graduated from programs of law enforcement, truck driving, and health occupations. Perception analysis was based on the six principles…

  4. Peer Apprenticeship Learning in Networked Learning Communities: The Diffusion of Epistemic Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jamaludin, Azilawati; Shaari, Imran

    2016-01-01

    This article discusses peer apprenticeship learning (PAL) as situated within networked learning communities (NLCs). The context revolves around the diffusion of technologically-mediated learning in Singapore schools, where teachers begin to implement inquiry-oriented learning, consistent with 21st century learning, among students. As these schools…

  5. Safeguarding older adults from inappropriate over-the-counter medications: the role of community pharmacists.

    PubMed

    Chui, Michelle A; Stone, Jamie A; Martin, Beth A; Croes, Kenneth D; Thorpe, Joshua M

    2014-12-01

    To elicit the thought process or mental model that community pharmacists use when making recommendations on over-the-counter (OTC) medications to older adults and to elicit the current practices of community pharmacists in providing information, advice, and counseling to older adults about potentially inappropriate OTC medications. Three separate focus groups with pharmacists were conducted with 5 to 8 pharmacists per group. A vignette about an elderly woman seeking an OTC sleep aid was used to elicit information that pharmacists seek to establish when making a recommendation. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes using the initial and focused coding methods of grounded theory. Community pharmacists' mental models were characterized by 2 similarities: a similarity in what community pharmacists seek to establish about patients and a similarity in when community pharmacists seek to establish it--the sequence in which they try to learn key details about patients. It was identified that pharmacists gather specific information about the patient's medication profile, health conditions, characteristics of the problem, and past treatments in order to make a recommendation. Community pharmacists recommended behavioral modifications and seeing their physician prior to recommending an OTC sleep aid, primarily due to medication safety concerns. Pharmacists can play a key role in assisting older adults to select and use OTC medications. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  6. Analyzing Learning in Professional Learning Communities: A Conceptual Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van Lare, Michelle D.; Brazer, S. David

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to build a conceptual framework that informs current understanding of how professional learning communities (PLCs) function in conjunction with organizational learning. The combination of sociocultural learning theories and organizational learning theories presents a more complete picture of PLC processes that has…

  7. Frontostriatal white matter integrity mediates adult age differences in probabilistic reward learning.

    PubMed

    Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R; Levens, Sara M; Perry, Lee M; Dougherty, Robert F; Knutson, Brian

    2012-04-11

    Frontostriatal circuits have been implicated in reward learning, and emerging findings suggest that frontal white matter structural integrity and probabilistic reward learning are reduced in older age. This cross-sectional study examined whether age differences in frontostriatal white matter integrity could account for age differences in reward learning in a community life span sample of human adults. By combining diffusion tensor imaging with a probabilistic reward learning task, we found that older age was associated with decreased reward learning and decreased white matter integrity in specific pathways running from the thalamus to the medial prefrontal cortex and from the medial prefrontal cortex to the ventral striatum. Further, white matter integrity in these thalamocorticostriatal paths could statistically account for age differences in learning. These findings suggest that the integrity of frontostriatal white matter pathways critically supports reward learning. The findings also raise the possibility that interventions that bolster frontostriatal integrity might improve reward learning and decision making.

  8. Building Learning Communities: Foundations for Good Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davies, Alison; Ramsay, Jill; Lindfield, Helen; Couperthwaite, John

    2005-01-01

    The School of Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham provided opportunities for the development of student learning communities and online resources within the neurological module of the BSc Physiotherapy degree programme. These learning communities were designed to facilitate peer and independent learning in core aspects underpinning…

  9. Strong Community, Deep Learning: Exploring the Link

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chapman, Carole; Ramondt, Leonie; Smiley, Glenn

    2005-01-01

    This explores the constructivist understanding that shared practitioner research in collaborative online spaces leads to deeper learning. The research was developed within the context of building the National College of School Leaderships (NCSLs) online learning communities. A community and a learning scale, both emerging through grounded…

  10. Professional Learning Communities Impact on Student Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamilton, Jan L.

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the impact of the Professional Learning Community model on student achievement in the state of California. Specifically, the study compared student achievement between two school types: Professional Learning Community schools and Non Professional Learning schools. The research utilized existing API scores for California schools…

  11. Developing Learning Communities in Health and Human Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butler, Karen L.; Dawkins, Phyllis W.

    2007-01-01

    Learning communities in health and human performance are creative approaches to traditional academic outcomes. Learning communities are becoming increasingly widespread in a variety of contexts, and there is extensive evidence suggesting that effective learning communities have important benefits for students as well as faculty. In this article,…

  12. The Rationale for Learning Communities and Learning Community Models.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hill, Patrick

    The learning community movement is a response to several widespread educational problems, including the mismatched expectations of career-oriented students and research- and discipline-oriented faculty; the inadequate amount of intellectual interaction between students and between faculty and students; the lack of coherence among most of the…

  13. Thematic Review on Adult Learning: Finland. Background Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

    In international comparisons, participation in adult learning in Finland is high. Work or career development is the main reason for participation. Persons starting with greater educational attainment participate in adult learning opportunities more. Roots of adult education and training (AET) lie in liberal education; those of occupational AET in…

  14. Circle and Lines: Complexities of Learning in Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schupack, Sara

    2013-01-01

    Following is a study that explores learning in community in a fully-integrated, team taught course at a community college in New England. These classes, Learning Communities (LCs) represent rich opportunities for exploring and practicing democratic education. From a theoretical grounding in social learning theories and an exploration into learning…

  15. Twenty-First Century Learning: Communities, Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leh, Amy S.C.; Kouba, Barbara; Davis, Dirk

    2005-01-01

    Advanced technology makes 21st century learning, communities and interactions unique and leads people to an era of ubiquitous computing. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion of learning in the 21st century. The paper will review literature on learning community, community learning, interaction, 21st century learning and…

  16. Service Learning in the Rural Community College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holton, Nicholas

    Service learning is a pedagogical model that connects community service experiences with academic course learning. Large urban centers are often the leaders in developing service learning programs, due to the central locations of both institutions of higher education and community needs. This paper argues that rural areas have the same problems…

  17. North Carolina State University, Department of Adult and Community College Education Revised Compact Plan for 2003-2005.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh.

    This article contends that the Department of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University faces a significant challenge over the next 5 years, due to current Department faculty retirements and increasing competition from traditional, nontraditional, and virtual distance learning programs for prospective students. This…

  18. Learning to Learn: A Hidden Dimension within Community Dance Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barr, Sherrie

    2013-01-01

    This article explores ways of learning experienced by university dance students participating in a community dance project. The students were unfamiliar with community-based practices and found themselves needing to remediate held attitudes about dance. How the students came to approach their learning within the dance-making process drew on…

  19. Older Adults' Motivation to Learn in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Yi-Yin

    2011-01-01

    A limited amount of literature has discussed older adults in formal education, especially their motivations to learn in higher education. This study aims to understand older adults' learning in the context of higher education. Specifically, this study argues that higher education can function as a stimulating learning environment that helps older…

  20. Actualizing the Learning Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Braman, Dave

    Where conditions are right, continuing education (CE) staff working in true collaboration with campus-based credit staff can meet the learning needs of the community and improve instructional quality with greater resource efficiency. CE staff must become learning strategists who bring ideas from their marketplace experience to the instructional…

  1. Adult Literacy, Learning Identities and Pedagogic Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crowther, Jim; Maclachlan, Kathy; Tett, Lyn

    2010-01-01

    This article discusses the relationship between persistence in adult literacy and numeracy programs, changes in the participants' attitudes to engaging in learning and pedagogic practices using data from eight Scottish literacy education organizations. It argues that literacy learning can act as a resource that enables vulnerable adults to change…

  2. Adult Learning Theories: Implications for Online Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arghode, Vishal; Brieger, Earl W.; McLean, Gary N.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: This paper analyzes critically four selected learning theories and their role in online instruction for adults. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted to analyze the theories. Findings: The theory comparison revealed that no single theory encompasses the entirety of online instruction for adult learning; each…

  3. Hybrid Learning at the Community College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Snart, Jason

    2017-01-01

    This chapter discusses how the community college represents a potentially ideal educational setting for hybrid learning to thrive. The multimodal nature of hybrids, combining both online and face-to-face learning, affords the opportunity to engage students in a variety of ways. Further, many community college students can benefit from the…

  4. Motivation to Learn among Older Adults in Taiwan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chang, Dian-Fu; Lin, Sung-Po

    2011-01-01

    This study analyzed the survey on adults administered by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan in 2008, and logistic regression analysis showed a close relationship between learning motivations of older adults. The finding revealed that the higher age or the lower education attainment of older adults, the lower their learning motivation. The…

  5. Reflective learning in community-based dental education.

    PubMed

    Deogade, Suryakant C; Naitam, Dinesh

    2016-01-01

    Community-based dental education (CBDE) is the implementation of dental education in a specific social context, which shifts a substantial part of dental clinical education from dental teaching institutional clinics to mainly public health settings. Dental students gain additional value from CBDE when they are guided through a reflective process of learning. We propose some key elements to the existing CBDE program that support meaningful personal learning experiences. Dental rotations of 'externships' in community-based clinical settings (CBCS) are year-long community-based placements and have proven to be strong learning environments where students develop good communication skills and better clinical reasoning and management skills. We look at the characteristics of CBDE and how the social and personal context provided in communities enhances dental education. Meaningfulness is created by the authentic context, which develops over a period of time. Structured reflection assignments and methods are suggested as key elements in the existing CBDE program. Strategies to enrich community-based learning experiences for dental students include: Photographic documentation; written narratives; critical incident reports; and mentored post-experiential small group discussions. A directed process of reflection is suggested as a way to increase the impact of the community learning experiences. We suggest key elements to the existing CBDE module so that the context-rich environment of CBDE allows for meaningful relations and experiences for dental students and enhanced learning.

  6. Using a community advisory board to develop a serious game for older adults undergoing treatment for cancer.

    PubMed

    Loerzel, Victoria; Clochesy, John; Geddie, Patricia

    2018-02-01

    Older adults undergoing treatment for cancer are at risk for serious complications such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Older adults are often overwhelmed by information and under-manage cancer treatment-related side effects. New educational strategies such as serious gaming may help teach or reinforce key symptom self-management strategies. This paper describes how a community advisory board of older adults, their caregivers, and oncology nurses were consulted to develop a serious game for CINV. A formative evaluation process using a community advisory board (CAB) and a series of three focus groups were used to develop this serious game about managing CINV at home. The formative evaluation process and involvement of the CAB allowed researchers to learn about the experience of having CINV from an older adult perspective. Common themes related to CINV onset, severity and self-management formed the basis for the serious games' script and scenarios. Themes were validated and CAB members provided feedback on a game prototype. Feedback from CAB members indicated that the serious game was realistic and reflective of their CINV experience. Including older adults in the development of a serious game was instrumental in creating a relevant educational opportunity. Serious gaming should be considered as a way to add to the educational experiences of older adults as generic teaching methods may not address the needs of all age groups. Exploring for new ways to emphasize key points related to symptom management and prioritize learning may impact outcomes for older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Adults' and Children's Understanding of How Expertise Influences Learning.

    PubMed

    Danovitch, Judith H; Shenouda, Christine K

    2018-01-01

    Adults and children use information about expertise to infer what a person is likely to know, but it is unclear whether they realize that expertise also has implications for learning. We explore adults' and children's understanding that expertise in a particular category supports learning about a closely related category. In four experiments, 5-year-olds and adults (n = 160) judged which of two people would be better at learning about a new category. When faced with an expert and a nonexpert, adults consistently indicated that expertise supports learning in a closely related category; however, children's judgments were inconsistent and were strongly influenced by the description of the nonexpert. The results suggest that although children understand what it means to be an expert, they may judge an individual's learning capacity based on different considerations than adults.

  8. Adult Learning Principles and Presentation Pearls

    PubMed Central

    Palis, Ana G.; Quiros, Peter A.

    2014-01-01

    Although lectures are one of the most common methods of knowledge transfer in medicine, their effectiveness has been questioned. Passive formats, lack of relevance and disconnection from the student's needs are some of the arguments supporting this apparent lack of efficacy. However, many authors have suggested that applying adult learning principles (i.e., relevance, congruence with student's needs, interactivity, connection to student's previous knowledge and experience) to this method increases learning by lectures and the effectiveness of lectures. This paper presents recommendations for applying adult learning principles during planning, creation and development of lectures to make them more effective. PMID:24791101

  9. Peer Learning Community Guide. CEELO FastFact

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schilder, Diane; Brown, Kirsty Clarke; Gillaspy, Kathi

    2014-01-01

    States and technical assistance centers have asked the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) for guidance on establishing and maintaining a peer learning community (PLC). This document is designed to delineate the steps to establish and sustain a Peer Learning Community (PLC). It begins with a definition of a PLC and then presents…

  10. Adult Communication and Teen Sex: Changing a Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grossman, Jean Baldwin; Walker, Karen E.; Kotloff, Lauren J.; Pepper, Sarah

    The Plain Talk initiative, developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, was designed to increase the amount and quality of communication that parents and community adults provided youth regarding responsible sexual decision making. It offered parents and other community adults information and skills necessary to communicate more effectively with…

  11. Online Professional and Academic Learning Communities: Faculty Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Glazer, Hilda R.; Breslin, Mary; Wanstreet, Constance E.

    2013-01-01

    This study examines faculty perceptions of creating learning communities at a virtual university. Through online focus groups with 18 participants, 3 themes emerged: institutional-level community building as creating a learning culture; instructor-level community building as creating respectful interaction; and learner-level community building as…

  12. Travel and Adult Transformative Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lindstrom, Steven K.

    2011-01-01

    This phenomenological research study examines the lived experience of individual adult transformation in the context of travel. Adults throughout history have experienced profound personal and perception changes as a result of significant travel events. Transformative learning occurs through experience, crisis, and reflection, all of which are…

  13. Adult Learning Theory: A Primer. Information Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baumgartner, Lisa M.; Lee, Ming-Yeh; Birden, Susan; Flowers, Doris

    The purpose of this monograph is to serve as a primer for practitioners on the foundational theories of adult learning. It begins with an explanation two lenses through which learning theory is viewed: behaviorism and constructivism. The next section defines andragogy and delineates Knowles's five assumptions about adult learners. This is followed…

  14. Learning with the Arts: What Opportunities Are There for Work-Related Adult Learning?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manning, Claire; Verenikina, Irina; Brown, Ian

    2010-01-01

    What can arts-based learning offer to adult, work-related education? A study was undertaken that explored the benefits of learning with the arts for professional development of an adult learner in Australia. The individual experiences of nine adults who participated in arts-based workshops to build work-related skills were examined using the…

  15. Policy Review on Adult Learning: The Adult Non-Formal Education Policy of Mali, West Africa

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gadio, Moussa

    2011-01-01

    This article focuses on the issue of policy development for adult learning in Mali, West Africa. On January 2007, the Malian government adopted the "Adult Non-formal Education Policy Document," which was intended to regulate the adult learning sector and federate the actions of policy makers, adult education providers, and adult…

  16. Learning Efficiency: Identifying Individual Differences in Learning Rate and Retention in Healthy Adults.

    PubMed

    Zerr, Christopher L; Berg, Jeffrey J; Nelson, Steven M; Fishell, Andrew K; Savalia, Neil K; McDermott, Kathleen B

    2018-06-01

    People differ in how quickly they learn information and how long they remember it, yet individual differences in learning abilities within healthy adults have been relatively neglected. In two studies, we examined the relation between learning rate and subsequent retention using a new foreign-language paired-associates task (the learning-efficiency task), which was designed to eliminate ceiling effects that often accompany standardized tests of learning and memory in healthy adults. A key finding was that quicker learners were also more durable learners (i.e., exhibited better retention across a delay), despite studying the material for less time. Additionally, measures of learning and memory from this task were reliable in Study 1 ( N = 281) across 30 hr and Study 2 ( N = 92; follow-up n = 46) across 3 years. We conclude that people vary in how efficiently they learn, and we describe a reliable and valid method for assessing learning efficiency within healthy adults.

  17. Relations among Resources in Professional Learning Communities and Learning Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christ, Tanya; Arya, Poonam; Chiu, Ming Ming

    2017-01-01

    This study focused on two professional learning communities (PLCs) situated in literacy education practica courses. How four PLC resources (colleagues, facilitators, readings, and videos) were related to outcomes, including teachers' learning, teachers' application of this learning, and subsequent students' learning, was examined. Participants…

  18. Observational Learning among Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Story, Colleen D.

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate learning by older adults living in nursing homes through observational learning based on Bandura's (1977) social learning theory. This quantitative study investigated if older adults could learn through observation. The nursing homes in the study were located in the midwestern United States. The…

  19. Improving the quality of learning in science through optimization of lesson study for learning community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Setyaningsih, S.

    2018-03-01

    Lesson Study for Learning Community is one of lecturer profession building system through collaborative and continuous learning study based on the principles of openness, collegiality, and mutual learning to build learning community in order to form professional learning community. To achieve the above, we need a strategy and learning method with specific subscription technique. This paper provides a description of how the quality of learning in the field of science can be improved by implementing strategies and methods accordingly, namely by applying lesson study for learning community optimally. Initially this research was focused on the study of instructional techniques. Learning method used is learning model Contextual teaching and Learning (CTL) and model of Problem Based Learning (PBL). The results showed that there was a significant increase in competence, attitudes, and psychomotor in the four study programs that were modelled. Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation of learning strategies in Lesson study for Learning Community is needed to be used to improve the competence, attitude and psychomotor of science students.

  20. Learning Style, Sense of Community and Learning Effectiveness in Hybrid Learning Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Bryan H.; Chiou, Hua-Huei

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate how hybrid learning instruction affects undergraduate students' learning outcome, satisfaction and sense of community. The other aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between students' learning style and learning conditions in mixed online and face-to-face courses. A quasi-experimental…

  1. Adult Learning Disorders: Contemporary Issues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolf, Lorraine E., Ed.; Schreiber, Hope E., Ed.; Wasserstein, Jeanette, Ed.

    2008-01-01

    Recent advances in neuroimaging and genetics technologies have enhanced our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders in adults. The authors in this volume not only discuss such advances as they apply to adults with learning disorders, but also address their translation into clinical practice. One cluster of chapters addresses developmental…

  2. Repositioning Ideology Critique in a Critical Theory of Adult Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brookfield, Stephen

    2001-01-01

    Reexamines critical theory as a response to Marxism and repositions ideology critique as a crucial adult learning process. Argues that a critical theory of adult learning should focus on how adults learn to recognize and challenge ideological domination and manipulation. (Contains 31 references.) (SK)

  3. Integrating Adult Learning and Technologies for Effective Education: Strategic Approaches

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Victor C. X.

    2010-01-01

    As adult learners and educators pioneer the use of technology in the new century, attention has been focused on developing strategic approaches to effectively integrate adult learning and technology in different learning environments. "Integrating Adult Learning and Technologies for Effective Education: Strategic Approaches" provides innovative…

  4. Launching Professional Learning Communities: Beginning Actions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leo, Tara; Cowan, D'Ette

    2000-01-01

    A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a school where administrators and teachers continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students and act on what they learn. PLCs are characterized by five dimensions: shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application of learning,…

  5. Leaders Who Learn: The Intersection of Behavioral Science, Adult Learning and Leadership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sabga, Natalya I.

    2017-01-01

    This study examines if a relationship exists among three rich research streams, specifically the behavioral science of motivation, adult learning and leadership. What motivates adult professionals to continue learning and how is that connected to their style and efficacy as leaders? An extension of literature to connect Andragogy,…

  6. Teacher Education in Schools as Learning Communities: Transforming High-Poverty Schools through Dialogic Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garcia-Carrion, Rocio; Gomez, Aitor; Molina, Silvia; Ionescu, Vladia

    2017-01-01

    Teachers' professional development in Schools as Learning Communities may become a key process for the sustainability and transferability of this model worldwide. Learning Communities (LC) is a community-based project that aims to transform schools through dialogic learning and involves research-grounded schools that implement Successful…

  7. Tools that Come from within: Learning to Teach in a Cross-Cultural Adult Literacy Practicum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mosley, Melissa; Zoch, Melody

    2012-01-01

    We report on a study of preservice teachers who tutored adults learning English in a free evening class while simultaneously taking a course titled Community Literacy. Exploring their participation, we wondered in what ways pedagogy developed within this context. Drawing on a close discourse analysis of preservice teachers' written work, we found…

  8. Rehearsal Effects in Adult Word Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon

    2011-01-01

    The goal of this research was to examine the effects of phonological familiarity and rehearsal method (vocal vs. subvocal) on novel word learning. In Experiment 1, English-speaking adults learned phonologically familiar novel words that followed English phonological structure. Participants learned half the words via vocal rehearsal (saying the…

  9. Using Biographical Prompts to Build Community in an Online Graduate Course: An Adult Learning Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lohr, Kathy D.; Haley, Karen J.

    2018-01-01

    Adult learners are taking advantage of the availability and convenience of online education. Mature learners in online higher education classrooms bring a wealth of experience filtered through cultural, generational, and socioeconomical differences. The purpose of this research was to explore community building in an online graduate course by…

  10. Helping Adults Learn. Facilitator's Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    California State Univ. and Colleges, Long Beach. Office of the Chancellor.

    This publication is a guide for those planning and facilitating a "Helping Adults Learn" Workshop designed to assist higher education faculty and staff in promoting greater access and success for adult learners in higher education. An overview of the workshop describes the purpose, goals (to increase understanding of theory and research…

  11. Helping Adults Learn. Participant Workbook.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    California State Univ. and Colleges, Long Beach. Office of the Chancellor.

    This publication is a workbook for those attending a "Helping Adults Learn" Workshop designed to assist higher education faculty and staff in promoting greater access and success for adult learners in higher education. An overview of the workshop describes the purpose, goals (to increase understanding of theory and research on adult…

  12. Using an academic-community partnership model and blended learning to advance community health nursing pedagogy.

    PubMed

    Ezeonwu, Mabel; Berkowitz, Bobbie; Vlasses, Frances R

    2014-01-01

    This article describes a model of teaching community health nursing that evolved from a long-term partnership with a community with limited existing health programs. The partnership supported RN-BSN students' integration in the community and resulted in reciprocal gains for faculty, students and community members. Community clients accessed public health services as a result of the partnership. A blended learning approach that combines face-to-face interactions, service learning and online activities was utilized to enhance students' learning. Following classroom sessions, students actively participated in community-based educational process through comprehensive health needs assessments, planning and implementation of disease prevention and health promotion activities for community clients. Such active involvement in an underserved community deepened students' awareness of the fundamentals of community health practice. Students were challenged to view public health from a broader perspective while analyzing the impacts of social determinants of health on underserved populations. Through asynchronous online interactions, students synthesized classroom and community activities through critical thinking. This paper describes a model for teaching community health nursing that informs students' learning through blended learning, and meets the demands for community health nursing services delivery. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  13. Adult Learning in Health and Safety: Some Issues and Approaches.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O Fathaigh, Mairtin

    This document, which was developed for presentation at a seminar on adult learning and safety, examines approaches to occupational safety and health (OSH) learning/training in the workplace. Section 1 examines selected factors affecting adults' learning in workplace OSH programs. The principal dimensions along which individual adult learners will…

  14. Pilot Project in Computer Assisted Instruction for Adult Basic Education Students. Adult Learning Centers, the Adult Program, 1982-83.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buckley, Elizabeth; Johnston, Peter

    In February 1977, computer assisted instruction (CAI) was introducted to the Great Neck Adult Learning Centers (GNALC) to promote greater cognitive and affective growth of educationally disadvantaged adults. The project expanded to include not only adult basic education (ABE) students studying in the learning laboratory, but also ABE students…

  15. Adult Learning in the Workplace.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    1999

    This document contains four symposium papers on adult learning in the workplace. "The Relationship between Workplace Learning and Employee Satisfaction in Small Businesses" (Robert W. Rowden, Shamsuddin Ahmad) reports the results of a study of the nature and extent of HRD, level of job satisfaction among workers, and correlation between…

  16. Surgical education and adult learning: Integrating theory into practice.

    PubMed

    Rashid, Prem

    2017-01-01

    Surgical education continues to evolve from the master-apprentice model. Newer methods of the process need to be used to manage the dual challenges of educating while providing safe surgical care. This requires integrating adult learning concepts into delivery of practical training and education in busy clinical environments. A narrative review aimed at outlining and integrating adult learning and surgical education theory was undertaken. Additionally, this information was used to relate the practical delivery of surgical training and education in day-to-day surgical practice. Concepts were sourced from reference material. Additional material was found using a PubMed search of the words: 'surgical education theory' and 'adult learning theory medical'. This yielded 1351 abstracts, of which 43 articles with a focus on key concepts in adult education theory were used. Key papers were used to formulate structure and additional cross-referenced papers were included where appropriate. Current concepts within adult learning have a lot to offer when considering how to better deliver surgical education and training. Better integration of adult learning theory can be fruitful. Individual teaching surgical units need to rethink their paradigms and consider how each individual can contribute to the education experience. Up skilling courses for trainers can do much to improve the delivery of surgical education. Understanding adult learning concepts and integrating these into day-to-day teaching can be valuable.

  17. Surgical education and adult learning: Integrating theory into practice

    PubMed Central

    Rashid, Prem

    2017-01-01

    Surgical education continues to evolve from the master-apprentice model. Newer methods of the process need to be used to manage the dual challenges of educating while providing safe surgical care. This requires integrating adult learning concepts into delivery of practical training and education in busy clinical environments. A narrative review aimed at outlining and integrating adult learning and surgical education theory was undertaken. Additionally, this information was used to relate the practical delivery of surgical training and education in day-to-day surgical practice. Concepts were sourced from reference material. Additional material was found using a PubMed search of the words: ‘surgical education theory’ and ‘adult learning theory medical’. This yielded 1351 abstracts, of which 43 articles with a focus on key concepts in adult education theory were used. Key papers were used to formulate structure and additional cross-referenced papers were included where appropriate. Current concepts within adult learning have a lot to offer when considering how to better deliver surgical education and training. Better integration of adult learning theory can be fruitful. Individual teaching surgical units need to rethink their paradigms and consider how each individual can contribute to the education experience. Up skilling courses for trainers can do much to improve the delivery of surgical education. Understanding adult learning concepts and integrating these into day-to-day teaching can be valuable. PMID:28357046

  18. Why STEM Learning Communities Work: The Development of Psychosocial Learning Factors through Social Interaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carrino, Stephanie Sedberry; Gerace, William J.

    2016-01-01

    STEM learning communities facilitate student academic success and persistence in science disciplines. This prompted us to explore the underlying factors that make learning communities successful. In this paper, we report findings from an illustrative case study of a 2-year STEM-based learning community designed to identify and describe these…

  19. Trust-based Access Control in Virtual Learning Community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Shujuan; Liu, Qingtang

    The virtual learning community is an important application pattern of E-Learning. It emphasizes the cooperation of the members in the community, the members would like to share their learning resources, to exchange their experience and complete the study task together. This instructional mode has already been proved as an effective way to improve the quality and efficiency of instruction. At the present time, the virtual learning communities are mostly designed using static access control policy by which the access permission rights are authorized by the super administrator, the super administrator assigns different rights to different roles, but the virtual and social characteristics of virtual learning community make information sharing and collaboration a complex problem, the community realizes its instructional goal only if the members in it believe that others will offer the knowledge they owned and believe the knowledge others offered is well-meaning and worthy. This paper tries to constitute an effective trust mechanism, which could promise favorable interaction and lasting knowledge sharing.

  20. Designing Professional Learning Communities through Understanding the Beliefs of Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ke, Jie; Kang, Rui; Liu, Di

    2016-01-01

    This study was designed to initiate the process of building professional development learning communities for pre-service math teachers through revealing those teachers' conceptions/beliefs of students' learning and their own learning in China. It examines Chinese pre-service math teachers' conceptions of student learning and their related…

  1. Integrating Community into the Classroom: Community Gardening, Community Involvement, and Project-Based Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Langhout, Regina Day; Rappaport, Julian; Simmons, Doretha

    2002-01-01

    Culturally relevant, ongoing project-based learning was facilitated in a predominantly African American urban elementary school via a community garden project. The project involved teachers, students, university members, and community members. This article evaluates the project through two classroom-community collaboration models, noting common…

  2. Creating Learning Communities in the Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saville, Bryan K.; Lawrence, Natalie Kerr; Jakobsen, Krisztina V.

    2012-01-01

    There are many ways to construct classroom-based learning communities. Nevertheless, the emphasis is always on cooperative learning. In this article, the authors focus on three teaching methods--interteaching, team-based learning, and cooperative learning in large, lecture-based courses--that they have used successfully to create classroom-based…

  3. Waiting to Exhale: African American Women and Adult Learning Through Movies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rogers, Elice E.

    Scholars have addressed adults and the impact of popular culture on adult learning, but little attention has been directed toward the relationship between adult learning and African Americans. Most specifically, minimal information is related to adult learning that evolves as a result of popular culture influences. Popular culture promotes…

  4. Interdisciplinary Handbook of Adult Lifespan Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sinnott, Jan D., Ed.

    This book is divided into three parts: theories and models, learning in specific life contexts, and the influence of aging on learning. Chapters include: "Chaos Theory as a Framework for Understanding Adult Lifespan Learning" (John C. Cavanaugh, Lisa C. McGuire); "The Future Impact of the Communication Revolution" (Lynn Johnson); "The Educated…

  5. Screening for Learning Disabilities in Adult Basic Education Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reynolds, Sharon L.; Johnson, Jerry D.; Salzman, James A.

    2012-01-01

    The extant literature offers little to describe the processes for screening students in adult basic education (ABE) programs for potential learning disabilities, referring adult students for diagnostic assessment, or barriers to obtaining diagnostic assessment for a learning disability. Without current documentation of a learning disability, ABE…

  6. Exploring Students' Experiences in First-Year Learning Communities from a Situated Learning Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Priest, Kerry L.; Saucier, Donald A.; Eiselein, Gregory

    2016-01-01

    This study looked to situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in order to explore students' participation in the social practices of first-year learning communities. Wenger's (1998) elaboration on "communities of practice" provides insight into how such participation transforms learners. These perspectives frame learning as a…

  7. Community-Based Service-Learning: Partnerships of Reciprocal Exchange?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hammersley, Laura

    2012-01-01

    Community-based service-learning (CBSL) integrates experiential learning and academic goals with organized activities designed to meet the objectives of community partners. CBSL has potential to enhance (1) academic learning, (2) foster civic responsibility, (3) develop life skills and (4) transform student attitudes. However, little research…

  8. The Role of Technology in Supporting Learning Communities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Riel, Margaret; Fulton, Kathleen

    2001-01-01

    In a learning community, students learn to cooperate and make teams work. Past technologies (print, photography, film, and computers) have enabled idea sharing, but are one-way communication modes. Broader learning communities have been made possible through electronic field trips, online mentoring, science investigations, and humanities…

  9. Nursing student perceptions of community in online learning.

    PubMed

    Gallagher-Lepak, Susan; Reilly, Janet; Killion, Cheryl M

    2009-01-01

    Nursing faculty need to understand the unique aspects of online learning environments and develop new pedagogies for teaching in the virtual classroom. The concept of community is important in online learning and a strong sense of community can enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes in online courses. Student perceptions of community in online learning environments were explored in this study. Five focus group sessions were held and online nursing students were asked to give examples of experiences related to sense of community. Fifteen major themes emerged: class structure, required participation, teamwork, technology, becoming, commonalities, disconnects, mutual exchange, online etiquette, informal discussions, aloneness, trepidation, unknowns, nonverbal communication and anonymity. Themes sorted into the categories of structural, processual and emotional factors. Theme descriptions show how sense of community can be enhanced and/or diminished in online courses. This study adds depth and detail to the limited body of research on sense of community in distance education in nursing courses.

  10. Teaching & Learning for International Students in a "Learning Community": Creating, Sharing and Building Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kemp, Linzi

    2010-01-01

    This article considers the culture of learning communities for effective teaching. A learning community is defined here as an environment where learners are brought together to share information, to learn from each other, and to create new knowledge. The individual student develops her/his own learning by building on learning from others. In a…

  11. Resilience in Rural Community-Dwelling Older Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wells, Margaret

    2009-01-01

    Context: Identifying ways to meet the health care needs of older adults is important because their numbers are increasing and they often have more health care issues. High resilience level may be one factor that helps older adults adjust to the hardships associated with aging. Rural community-dwelling older adults often face unique challenges such…

  12. Adult Resource Center--A Community/University Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vegso, Kathryn A.

    Cooperative planning, based upon a decade of reentry programs for adults, culminated in the establishment of a public service known as the Adult Resource Center at the University of Akron (Ohio). Located in a renovated building between the campus and the downtown community, the Adult Resource Center serves as a liaison with social service…

  13. Linked Learning Communities. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

    2014-01-01

    Linked learning communities in postsecondary education are programs defined by having social and curricular linkages that provide undergraduate students with intentional integration of the themes and concepts that they are learning. The theory behind these programs is that active learning in a community-based setting can improve academic outcomes…

  14. Democratic Learning Communities in Educational Leadership Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Kathryn; Basom, Margaret; Perez, Lynne

    2009-01-01

    In this article, we address the characteristics of democratic education, examine learning communities in higher education and offer suggestions for faculty in Educational Leadership programs to develop learning communities in their classrooms that more systematically and effectively address issues of democracy. This publication aligns with the…

  15. Learning from Community: Agenda for Citizenship Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghosh, Sujay

    2015-01-01

    Citizenship is about individual's membership in the socio-political community. Education for citizenship conceives issues such as quality education, learning society and inclusion. Educational thinking in India has long valued community as a learning resource. With empirical experiences drawn from the programme of "Ecology and Natural…

  16. Transforming Your Community. Empowering for Change.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moore, Allen B.; Brooks, Rusty

    This book presents a "bottom-up" action learning and action planning approach to community economic development. It is based on a learning experience for adults to promote community economic development that became the Community Economic Development Program. The book is organized in 11 chapters that cover the following topics: (1) framework for…

  17. The Development of Professional Learning Community in Primary Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sompong, Samoot; Erawan, Prawit; Dharm-tad-sa-na-non, Sudharm

    2015-01-01

    The objectives of this research are: (1) To study the current situation and need for developing professional learning community in primary schools; (2) To develop the model for developing professional learning community, and (3) To study the findings of development for professional learning community based on developed model related to knowledge,…

  18. Bullying in Virtual Learning Communities.

    PubMed

    Nikiforos, Stefanos; Tzanavaris, Spyros; Kermanidis, Katia Lida

    2017-01-01

    Bullying through the internet has been investigated and analyzed mainly in the field of social media. In this paper, it is attempted to analyze bullying in the Virtual Learning Communities using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, mainly in the context of sociocultural learning theories. Therefore four case studies took place. We aim to apply NLP techniques to speech analysis on communication data of online communities. Emphasis is given on qualitative data, taking into account the subjectivity of the collaborative activity. Finally, this is the first time such type of analysis is attempted on Greek data.

  19. Transitioning from learning healthcare systems to learning health care communities.

    PubMed

    Mullins, C Daniel; Wingate, La'Marcus T; Edwards, Hillary A; Tofade, Toyin; Wutoh, Anthony

    2018-02-26

    The learning healthcare system (LHS) model framework has three core, foundational components. These include an infrastructure for health-related data capture, care improvement targets and a supportive policy environment. Despite progress in advancing and implementing LHS approaches, low levels of participation from patients and the public have hampered the transformational potential of the LHS model. An enhanced vision of a community-engaged LHS redesign would focus on the provision of health care from the patient and community perspective to complement the healthcare system as the entity that provides the environment for care. Addressing the LHS framework implementation challenges and utilizing community levers are requisite components of a learning health care community model, version two of the LHS archetype.

  20. How Do Learning Communities Affect First-Year Latino Students?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huerta, Juan Carlos; Bray, Jennifer J.

    2013-01-01

    Do learning communities with pedagogies of active learning, collaborative learning, and integration of course material affect the learning, achievement, and persistence of first-year Latino university students? The data for this project was obtained from a survey of 1,330 first-year students in the First-Year Learning Community Program at Texas…

  1. Developing an English Mobile Learning Attitude Scale for Adult Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Tzu-Ying

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, with the rapid development of mobile devices, mobile learning (m-learning) has becoming another popular topic. There is a strong need for both researchers and educators to be aware of adult learners' attitudes toward English mobile learning, yet relevant studies on mobile learning to promote English learning for adult learners are…

  2. Service-Learning among Nontraditional Age Community College Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Largent, Liz

    2013-01-01

    In recent decades, many institutions of higher education have responded to community and student learning needs through the development of service-learning programs (Sapp & Crabtree, 2002). Community colleges have been noted as leaders in the establishment of service-learning programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand the…

  3. The Communication Research Team As Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Janusik, Laura A.; Wolvin, Andrew D.

    2007-01-01

    Colleges and universities have come to recognize that creating smaller learning communities is a useful strategy for engaging undergraduate students. Learning communities can provide students with a sense of identity and with connections to faculty, the institution, and knowledge. Despite their popularity, there is little empirical research that…

  4. Applying adult learning practices in medical education.

    PubMed

    Reed, Suzanne; Shell, Richard; Kassis, Karyn; Tartaglia, Kimberly; Wallihan, Rebecca; Smith, Keely; Hurtubise, Larry; Martin, Bryan; Ledford, Cynthia; Bradbury, Scott; Bernstein, Henry Hank; Mahan, John D

    2014-07-01

    The application of the best practices of teaching adults to the education of adults in medical education settings is important in the process of transforming learners to become and remain effective physicians. Medical education at all levels should be designed to equip physicians with the knowledge, clinical skills, and professionalism that are required to deliver quality patient care. The ultimate outcome is the health of the patient and the health status of the society. In the translational science of medical education, improved patient outcomes linked directly to educational events are the ultimate goal and are best defined by rigorous medical education research efforts. To best develop faculty, the same principles of adult education and teaching adults apply. In a systematic review of faculty development initiatives designed to improve teaching effectiveness in medical education, the use of experiential learning, feedback, effective relationships with peers, and diverse educational methods were found to be most important in the success of these programs. In this article, we present 5 examples of applying the best practices in teaching adults and utilizing the emerging understanding of the neurobiology of learning in teaching students, trainees, and practitioners. These include (1) use of standardized patients to develop communication skills, (2) use of online quizzes to assess knowledge and aid self-directed learning, (3) use of practice sessions and video clips to enhance significant learning of teaching skills, (4) use of case-based discussions to develop professionalism concepts and skills, and (5) use of the American Academy of Pediatrics PediaLink as a model for individualized learner-directed online learning. These examples highlight how experiential leaning, providing valuable feedback, opportunities for practice, and stimulation of self-directed learning can be utilized as medical education continues its dynamic transformation in the years ahead

  5. Proposing Community-Based Learning in the Marketing Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cadwallader, Susan; Atwong, Catherine; Lebard, Aubrey

    2013-01-01

    Community service and service learning (CS&SL) exposes students to the business practice of giving back to society while reinforcing classroom learning in an applied real-world setting. However, does the CS&SL format provide a better means of instilling the benefits of community service among marketing students than community-based…

  6. Holding the Reins of the Professional Learning Community: Eight Themes from Research on Principals' Perceptions of Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cranston, Jerome

    2009-01-01

    Using a naturalistic inquiry approach and thematic analysis, this paper outlines the findings of a research study that examined 12 Manitoba principals' conceptions of professional learning communities. The study found that these principals consider the development of professional learning communities to be a normative imperative within the…

  7. Integrative and Deep Learning through a Learning Community: A Process View of Self

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahoney, Sandra; Schamber, Jon

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated deep learning produced in a community of general education courses. Student speeches on liberal education were analyzed for discovering a grounded theory of ideas about self. The study found that learning communities cultivate deep, integrative learning that makes the value of a liberal education relevant to students.…

  8. Community covariates of malnutrition based mortality among older adults.

    PubMed

    Lee, Matthew R; Berthelot, Emily R

    2010-05-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify community level covariates of malnutrition-based mortality among older adults. A community level framework was delineated which explains rates of malnutrition-related mortality among older adults as a function of community levels of socioeconomic disadvantage, disability, and social isolation among members of this group. County level data on malnutrition mortality of people 65 years of age and older for the period 2000-2003 were drawn from the CDC WONDER system databases. County level measures of older adult socioeconomic disadvantage, disability, and social isolation were derived from the 2000 US Census of Population and Housing. Negative binomial regression models adjusting for the size of the population at risk, racial composition, urbanism, and region were estimated to assess the relationships among these indicators. Results from negative binomial regression analysis yielded the following: a standard deviation increase in socioeconomic/physical disadvantage was associated with a 12% increase in the rate of malnutrition mortality among older adults (p < 0.001), whereas a standard deviation increase in social isolation was associated with a 5% increase in malnutrition mortality among older adults (p < 0.05). Community patterns of malnutrition based mortality among older adults are partly a function of levels of socioeconomic and physical disadvantage and social isolation among older adults. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Learning Global Citizenship?: Exploring Connections between the Local and the Global

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mayo, Marjorie; Gaventa, John; Rooke, Alison

    2009-01-01

    This article identifies historical connections between adult learning, popular education and the emergence of the public sphere in Europe, exploring potential implications for adult learning and community development, drawing upon research evaluating programmes to promote community-based learning "for" active citizenship in UK. The…

  10. Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hord, Shirley M.

    Effective school restructuring requires teacher motivation and action to transform knowledge about change into reality. This paper defines and describes what is meant by "professional learning community"; describes what happens when a school staff studies, works, plans, and takes action collectively on behalf of increased learning for…

  11. Using American sign language interpreters to facilitate research among deaf adults: lessons learned.

    PubMed

    Sheppard, Kate

    2011-04-01

    Health care providers commonly discuss depressive symptoms with clients, enabling earlier intervention. Such discussions rarely occur between providers and Deaf clients. Most culturally Deaf adults experience early-onset hearing loss, self-identify as part of a unique culture, and communicate in the visual language of American Sign Language (ASL). Communication barriers abound, and depression screening instruments may be unreliable. To train and use ASL interpreters for a qualitative study describing depressive symptoms among Deaf adults. Training included research versus community interpreting. During data collection, interpreters translated to and from voiced English and ASL. Training eliminated potential problems during data collection. Unexpected issues included participants asking for "my interpreter" and worrying about confidentiality or friendship in a small community. Lessons learned included the value of careful training of interpreters prior to initiating data collection, including resolution of possible role conflicts and ensuring conceptual equivalence in real-time interpreting.

  12. Teaching Young Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Community-Based Navigation Skills to Take Public Transportation.

    PubMed

    Price, Richard; Marsh, Abbie J; Fisher, Marisa H

    2018-03-01

    Facilitating the use of public transportation enhances opportunities for independent living and competitive, community-based employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Four young adults with IDD were taught through total-task chaining to use the Google Maps application, a self-prompting, visual navigation system, to take the bus to locations around a college campus and the community. Three of four participants learned to use Google Maps to independently navigate public transportation. Google Maps may be helpful in supporting independent travel, highlighting the importance of future research in teaching navigation skills. Learning to independently use public transportation increases access to autonomous activities, such as opportunities to work and to attend postsecondary education programs on large college campuses.Individuals with IDD can be taught through chaining procedures to use the Google Maps application to navigate public transportation.Mobile map applications are an effective and functional modern tool that can be used to teach community navigation.

  13. Modern Orthodox Adults Self-Reporting on Their Adult Education Needs and Learning Preferences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cohn, Ellen Sue

    2016-01-01

    This study explored the educational preferences and motivational typology of Modern Orthodox adults, a community that according to previous research appeared to present a contrasting educational paradigm than that evidenced by other adult students. The research conducted in the liberal Jewish community and in the broader contemporary field of…

  14. Mobilizing Learning Resources in a Transnational Classroom: Translocal and Digital Resources in a Community Technology Center

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Noguerón-Liu, Silvia

    2014-01-01

    Drawing from transnational and activity theory frameworks, this study analyzes the ways translocal flows shape learning in a community technology center serving adult immigrants in the US Southwest. It also explores students' constructions of the transnational nature of the courses they took, where they had access to both online and face-to-face…

  15. Efficacy of Learning Strategies Instruction in Adult Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hock, Michael F.; Mellard, Daryl F.

    2011-01-01

    Results from randomized controlled trials of learning strategies instruction with 375 adult basic education participants are reported. Reading outcomes from whole group strategic instruction in 1 of 4 learning strategies were compared to outcomes of reading instruction delivered in the context of typical adult education units on social studies,…

  16. Making Learning Communities Work: The Critical Role of Leader as Learner. New Directions for School Leadership. The Jossey-Bass Education Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van der Bogert, Rebecca, Ed.

    1998-01-01

    Educational literature is replete with calls for schools to become learning communities. Educational leaders are charged with creating organizations that enhance adult as well as student growth. This publication was written by members of a community of learners who are deeply involved in an ongoing struggle of almost 2 decades to create…

  17. Compensatory processing during rule-based category learning in older adults.

    PubMed

    Bharani, Krishna L; Paller, Ken A; Reber, Paul J; Weintraub, Sandra; Yanar, Jorge; Morrison, Robert G

    2016-01-01

    Healthy older adults typically perform worse than younger adults at rule-based category learning, but better than patients with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. To further investigate aging's effect on rule-based category learning, we monitored event-related potentials (ERPs) while younger and neuropsychologically typical older adults performed a visual category-learning task with a rule-based category structure and trial-by-trial feedback. Using these procedures, we previously identified ERPs sensitive to categorization strategy and accuracy in young participants. In addition, previous studies have demonstrated the importance of neural processing in the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe for this task. In this study, older adults showed lower accuracy and longer response times than younger adults, but there were two distinct subgroups of older adults. One subgroup showed near-chance performance throughout the procedure, never categorizing accurately. The other subgroup reached asymptotic accuracy that was equivalent to that in younger adults, although they categorized more slowly. These two subgroups were further distinguished via ERPs. Consistent with the compensation theory of cognitive aging, older adults who successfully learned showed larger frontal ERPs when compared with younger adults. Recruitment of prefrontal resources may have improved performance while slowing response times. Additionally, correlations of feedback-locked P300 amplitudes with category-learning accuracy differentiated successful younger and older adults. Overall, the results suggest that the ability to adapt one's behavior in response to feedback during learning varies across older individuals, and that the failure of some to adapt their behavior may reflect inadequate engagement of prefrontal cortex.

  18. Compensatory Processing During Rule-Based Category Learning in Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Bharani, Krishna L.; Paller, Ken A.; Reber, Paul J.; Weintraub, Sandra; Yanar, Jorge; Morrison, Robert G.

    2016-01-01

    Healthy older adults typically perform worse than younger adults at rule-based category learning, but better than patients with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. To further investigate aging's effect on rule-based category learning, we monitored event-related potentials (ERPs) while younger and neuropsychologically typical older adults performed a visual category-learning task with a rule-based category structure and trial-by-trial feedback. Using these procedures, we previously identified ERPs sensitive to categorization strategy and accuracy in young participants. In addition, previous studies have demonstrated the importance of neural processing in the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe for this task. In this study, older adults showed lower accuracy and longer response times than younger adults, but there were two distinct subgroups of older adults. One subgroup showed near-chance performance throughout the procedure, never categorizing accurately. The other subgroup reached asymptotic accuracy that was equivalent to that in younger adults, although they categorized more slowly. These two subgroups were further distinguished via ERPs. Consistent with the compensation theory of cognitive aging, older adults who successfully learned showed larger frontal ERPs when compared with younger adults. Recruitment of prefrontal resources may have improved performance while slowing response times. Additionally, correlations of feedback-locked P300 amplitudes with category-learning accuracy differentiated successful younger and older adults. Overall, the results suggest that the ability to adapt one's behavior in response to feedback during learning varies across older individuals, and that the failure of some to adapt their behavior may reflect inadequate engagement of prefrontal cortex. PMID:26422522

  19. A Study of Service-Learning at Virginia Highlands Community College and Mountain Empire Community College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hughes, Alice

    This qualitative study was conducted to explore student perceptions of service learning as well as the importance of service learning to community college students. Data were collected through interviews with 24 community college participants from Virginia Highlands Community College and Mountain Empire Community College, both in southwest…

  20. Healthcare Learning Community and Student Retention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Sherryl W.

    2014-01-01

    Teaching, learning, and retention processes have evolved historically to include multifaceted techniques beyond the traditional lecture. This article presents related results of a study using a healthcare learning community in a southwest Georgia university. The value of novel techniques and tools in promoting student learning and retention…

  1. Sleep benefits consolidation of visuo-motor adaptation learning in older adults.

    PubMed

    Mantua, Janna; Baran, Bengi; Spencer, Rebecca M C

    2016-02-01

    Sleep is beneficial for performance across a range of memory tasks in young adults, but whether memories are similarly consolidated in older adults is less clear. Performance benefits have been observed following sleep in older adults for declarative learning tasks, but this benefit may be reduced for non-declarative, motor skill learning tasks. To date, studies of sleep-dependent consolidation of motor learning in older adults are limited to motor sequence tasks. To examine whether reduced sleep-dependent consolidation in older adults is generalizable to other forms of motor skill learning, we examined performance changes over intervals of sleep and wake in young (n = 62) and older adults (n = 61) using a mirror-tracing task, which assesses visuo-motor adaptation learning. Participants learned the task either in the morning or in evening, and performance was assessed following a 12-h interval containing overnight sleep or daytime wake. Contrary to our prediction, both young adults and older adults exhibited sleep-dependent gains in visuo-motor adaptation. There was a correlation between performance improvement over sleep and percent of the night in non-REM stage 2 sleep. These results indicate that motor skill consolidation remains intact with increasing age although this relationship may be limited to specific forms of motor skill learning.

  2. Extensive Reading Materials Produced by Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jacobs, G. M.

    2013-01-01

    This article advocates that students and teachers create some of their own extensive reading materials. Learning communities act as a means of motivating and sustaining student and teacher production of extensive reading materials. The article begins by explaining learning communities. The bulk of the article has two parts. The first part focuses…

  3. Feedback Mechanisms in Learning Virtual Community Settings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Colazzo, Luigi; Comai, Alessio; Davi, Filippo; Molinari, Andrea; Villa, Nicola

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces a set of services for the creation of on-line surveys, questionnaires, exams and self-assessment tests within a virtual community system used in e-learning settings. The system, called "Online Communities", is a dynamic web application used as platform for blended learning activities by the Faculty of Economics of…

  4. A Learning Community Focus for Christian Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Littleton, John

    2008-01-01

    The vision statement of St. Saviour's Anglican Church in the Parish of Glen Osmon reads, "We aim to be a worshipping, caring, learning and serving Christian Community." These four aspects of Christian Community are essential and inter-related. The intention in the first part of this article is to explore the "learning" aspects…

  5. Utilizing Online Learning Communities in Student Affairs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Calhoun, Daniel W.; Green, Lucy Santos

    2015-01-01

    In this chapter, the authors will expand upon the definition of learning communities, discussing the ways in which this concept has changed and adapted through the incorporation/infusion of web-based technologies. In addition, strategies on how to create and use online learning communities both with students and for professional practice will be…

  6. Lifelong Learning: Making It Work. An Adult Learning Australia Discussion Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Tony, Ed.

    This discussion paper is from the Adult Learners Week National Seminar on Lifelong Learning Policy (Canberra, Australia, September 1999) that identified a number of ideas about how to foster national policy development on lifelong learning. It consists of three sections. Part 1 contains "A National Lifelong Learning Policy for…

  7. Involvement of Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Learning and Forgetting

    PubMed Central

    Yau, Suk-yu; Li, Ang; So, Kwok-Fai

    2015-01-01

    Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a process involving the continuous generation of newborn neurons in the hippocampus of adult animals. Mounting evidence has suggested that hippocampal neurogenesis contributes to some forms of hippocampus-dependent learning and memory; however, the detailed mechanism concerning how this small number of newborn neurons could affect learning and memory remains unclear. In this review, we discuss the relationship between adult-born neurons and learning and memory, with a highlight on recently discovered potential roles of neurogenesis in pattern separation and forgetting. PMID:26380120

  8. Creating an International Learning Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, A. Kate

    1997-01-01

    Describes the international art education program in The Art Center of Waco, Texas. The benefits for gifted artists in learning about the art of other cultures and experimenting with different art forms are discussed, and the role parents play in developing an international learning community is highlighted. (Author/CR)

  9. A professional learning community model: a case study of primary teachers community in west Bandung

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sari, A.; Suryadi, D.; Syaodih, E.

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of this study is to provide an alternative model of professional learning community for primary school teachers in improving the knowledge and professional skills. This study is a qualitative research with case study method with data collection is an interview, observation and document and triangulation technique for validation data that focuses on thirteen people 5th grade elementary school teacher. The results showed that by joining a professional learning community, teachers can share both experience and knowledge to other colleagues so that they can be able to continue to improve and enhance the quality of their learning. This happens because of the reflection done together before, during and after the learning activities. It was also revealed that by learning in a professional learning community, teachers can learn in their own way, according to need, and can collaborate with their colleagues in improving the effectiveness of learning. Based on the implementation of professional learning community primary school teachers can be concluded that teachers can develop the curriculum, the students understand the development, overcome learning difficulties faced by students and can make learning design more effective and efficient.

  10. Expansive Learning as Production of Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morck, Line Lerche

    2010-01-01

    This article contributes a framework for analyzing learning as an expansive process in which persons come to partly transcend marginalization. Expansive learning is a kind of learning that partly transcends marginalization through changed participation and recognition by others of participants in their changed communities. This article draws on…

  11. Reflective Writing and Life-Career Planning: Extending the Learning in a Learning Community Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nownes, Nicholas; Stebleton, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This essay recounts the authors' experiences as community college faculty members in a learning community (LC) linking first-year composition with a class in life-career planning and development. The authors begin with a learning community story shared recently over drinks with a group of community college English teachers. They use the story to…

  12. Community-Based Learning: Engaging Students for Success and Citizenship

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melaville, Atelia; Berg, Amy C.; Blank, Martin J.

    2006-01-01

    Community schools foster a learning environment that extends far beyond the classroom walls. Students learn and problem solve in the context of their lives and communities. Community schools nurture this natural engagement. Because of the deep and purposeful connections between schools and communities, the curriculum is influenced and enhanced,…

  13. Practice of Adult Education--Older Adults, Tourism, and Learning in Yellowstone

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberson, Donald N., Jr.

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to present a program of learning for older adults in a national park. Because of the growing trend of tourism among retirees this learning during leisure is gaining prominence. The paper brings together the concepts of aging, self-directed learning, and tourism and leisure. In addition this paper presents a…

  14. Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide to Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shapiro, Nancy S.; Levine, Jodi H.

    This book offers guidance for the development of learning communities at the college level. The book analyzes examples of learning communities at a wide variety of institutions, including research universities, commuter campuses, residential campuses, and four- and two-year institutions. Chapter 1 offers definitions and characteristics of learning…

  15. It Is Time to Count Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henscheid, Jean M.

    2015-01-01

    As the modern learning community movement turns 30, it is time to determine just how many, and what type, of these programs exist at America's colleges and universities. This article first offers a rationale for counting learning communities followed by a description of how disparate counts and unclear definitions hamper efforts to embed these…

  16. Examining Electronic Learning Communities through the Communities of Practice Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Linton, Jayme N.

    2015-01-01

    This qualitative interpretive case study used Wenger's (1998) communities of practice (CoP) framework to analyze how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school operated like a community of practice. Components of the eLC process were analyzed according to elements of the CoP framework, which…

  17. Comparing Adult Learning Systems: An Emerging Political Economy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rees, Gareth

    2013-01-01

    Adult learning systems have come to be dominated by the view that the essential role of adult learning is to generate the high levels of skills deemed necessary for competitiveness and growth in the globalised economy. This 'education gospel' is underpinned by human capital theory (HCT) and its contemporary conceptualisation in terms of…

  18. A Learning Democracy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Groot, Lucy

    2009-01-01

    Adult learning, in all its forms, is a pre-requisite for a dynamic local democracy where councils play a crucial role, politically, socially, and culturally. Local government has recognised that investment in adult learning provides significant benefits for the wider welfare and wellbeing of the community. This investment has not come solely…

  19. Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eley, Alison

    2017-01-01

    There are many professional development programmes on offer for primary science. The best of these involve teachers in developing practice over time, alongside engaging with theory. In this article, the author considers how working as part of a professional learning community can support a collaborative and evidence informed approach to improving…

  20. Community College Programs for Older Adults: A Status Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doucette, Don; Ventura-Merkel, Catherine

    Part of an effort to expand and improve community college programs and services for older adults, this two-part report summarizes results from a national survey of older adult programs and provides an overview of current trends and their implications for action in community colleges. Following introductory sections, the report discusses a fall…

  1. Developing a Comprehensive Learning Community Program: Implementing a Learning Community Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Workman, Jamie L.; Redington, Lyn

    2016-01-01

    This is the second of a three-part series which will share information about how a mid-size, comprehensive university developed a learning community program, including a residential curriculum. Through intentional collaboration and partnerships, the team, comprised of faculty and staff throughout the university, developed a "multi-year plan…

  2. Tidewater Community College Distance Learning Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tidewater Community Coll., Norfolk, VA.

    This study of distance learning at Tidewater Community College (TCC) was conducted to determine enrollment patterns, retention, and success in distance learning courses and student perceptions. Distance learning was defined as students enrolled in one of three modes of course delivery: telecourse, online, and compressed video. The time frame for…

  3. The Evolution of Learning Communities: A Retrospective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matthews, Roberta S.; Smith, Barbara Leigh; MacGregor, Jean

    2012-01-01

    This volume focuses on learning communities at the beginning and at the culmination of work in the major of psychology and reflects a commitment to good practice both within and outside the classroom. Its comprehensive approach attests to the power of learning communities within the discipline and is a fine example of their evolution. In this…

  4. Community-based, Experiential Learning for Second Year Neuroscience Undergraduates

    PubMed Central

    Yu, Heather J.; Ramos-Goyette, Sharon; McCoy, John G.; Tirrell, Michael E.

    2013-01-01

    Service learning is becoming a keystone of the undergraduate learning experience. At Stonehill College, we implemented a service learning course, called a Learning Community, in Neuroscience. This course was created to complement the basic research available to Stonehill Neuroscience majors with experience in a more applied and “clinical” setting. The Neuroscience Learning Community is designed to promote a deep understanding of Neuroscience by combining traditional classroom instruction with clinical perspectives and real-life experiences. This Neuroscience Learning Community helps students translate abstract concepts within the context of neurodevelopment by providing students with contextual experience in a real-life, unscripted setting. The experiential learning outside of the classroom enabled students to participate in informed discussions in the classroom, especially with regard to neurodevelopmental disorders. We believe that all students taking this course gain an understanding of the importance of basic and applied Neuroscience as it relates to the individual and the community. Students also have used this concrete, learning-by-doing experience to make informed decisions about career paths and choice of major. PMID:24319392

  5. Distance Learning for Community Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cook, Anthony A.

    2010-01-01

    This article takes a look at the influence of technology on curriculum and teaching. It specifically examines the new wave of available technology and the opportunity for schools to make inroads into community outreach by engaging new, technological learning methods. The relationship among community education, public school relations, and distance…

  6. Observation of Teaching and Learning in Adult Education: How To Prepare for It, How To Do It and How To Manage It.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ewens, David

    This booklet is the second in a series of publications written for the United Kingdom adult and community learning (ACL) sector to assist it in improving quality. An introduction covers the rationale for observing teaching and learning in a self-assessment context. Chapter 1 concentrates on the practicalities and processes of observing teaching…

  7. Learning Journeys: A Resource Handbook on Adult Learning and Mental Health.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mather, Joy; Atkinson, Sue

    This document explains how tutors and managers in adult education programs across the United Kingdom can smooth the journeys of adults with mental health difficulties who are returning to learning. The handbook begins with suggestions for its use and case studies of two adult learners with mental health difficulties. Sections 1 through 4 discuss…

  8. Engaging older adults in burn prevention education: results of a community-based urban initiative.

    PubMed

    Leahy, Nicole E; Sessler, Kelly A; Baggott, Kaitlin; Laverde, Louisa; Rabbitts, Angela; Yurt, Roger W

    2012-01-01

    The objective of the study is to educate New York City seniors aged 60 years and older about fire safety and burn prevention through the use of a community-based, culturally sensitive delivery platform. The ultimate goal is to reduce burn injury morbidity and mortality among this at-risk population. Programming was developed and provided to older adults attending community-based senior centers. Topics included etiology of injury, factors contributing to burn injuries, methods of prevention, emergency preparedness, and home safety. Attendees completed a postpresentation survey. Of the 234 senior centers invited to participate in the program, 64 (27%) centers requested presentations, and all received the educational programming, reaching 2196 seniors. An additional 2590 seniors received education during community-based health fairs. A majority reported learning new information, found the presentation helpful, and intended to apply this knowledge to daily routines. Data confirm that many opportunities exist to deliver culturally sensitive burn prevention programming to the older adult population of this large metropolitan area in settings that are part of their daily lives. A majority of respondents welcomed the information, perceived it as helpful, and reported that they were likely to integrate the information into their lives.

  9. Assessment of a Professional Development Program on Adult Learning Theory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malik, Melinda

    2016-01-01

    Librarians at colleges and universities invested in graduate education must understand and incorporate adult learning theories in their reference and instruction interactions with graduate students to more effectively support the students' learning. After participating in a professional development program about adult learning theory, librarians…

  10. Management Classes as Online Learning Communities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shrivastava, Paul

    1999-01-01

    Conceptualizes management education in the digital economy through the development of online leaning communities. Essential elements for building community are described: technology and content infrastructure, organizational learning model, managed interactivity, and facilitator retraining. (SK)

  11. Perceptions of School Principals on Participation in Professional Learning Communities as Job-Embedded Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gaudioso, Jennifer A.

    2017-01-01

    Perceptions of School Principals on Participation in Professional Learning Communities as Job-Embedded Learning Jennifer Gaudioso Principal Professional Learning Communities (PPLCs) have emerged as a vehicle for professional development of principals, but there is little research on how principals experience PPLCs or how districts can support…

  12. Kiva Microloans in a Learning Community: An Assignment for Interdisciplinary Synthesis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Staats, Susan; Sintjago, Alfonso; Fitzpatrick, Renata

    2013-01-01

    Learning communities can strengthen early undergraduates' learning, but planning them can be daunting for instructors. Learning communities usually rely on integrative assignments that encourage interdisciplinary analysis. This article reports on our experiences using microloans as an interdisciplinary assignment in a learning community that…

  13. Effect of a Community-Based Service Learning Experience in Geriatrics on Internal Medicine Residents and Community Participants.

    PubMed

    Miller, Rachel K; Michener, Jennifer; Yang, Phyllis; Goldstein, Karen; Groce-Martin, Jennine; True, Gala; Johnson, Jerry

    2017-09-01

    Community-based service learning (CBSL) provides an opportunity to teach internal medicine residents the social context of aging and clinical concepts. The objectives of the current study were to demonstrate the feasibility of a CBSL program targeting internal medicine residents and to assess its effect on medical residents and community participants. internal medicine residents participated in a CBSL experience for half a day during ambulatory blocks from 2011 to 2014. Residents attended a senior housing unit or center, delivered a presentation about a geriatric health topic, toured the facility, and received information about local older adult resources. Residents evaluated the experience. Postgraduate Year 3 internal medicine residents (n = 71) delivered 64 sessions. Residents felt that the experience increased their ability to communicate effectively with older adults (mean 3.91 ± 0.73 on a Likert scale with 5 = strongly agree), increased their knowledge of resources (4.09 ± 1.01), expanded their knowledge of a health topic pertinent to aging (3.48 ± 1.09), and contributed to their capacity to evaluate and care for older adults (3.84 ± 0.67). Free-text responses demonstrated that residents thought that this program would change their practice. Of 815 older adults surveyed from 36 discrete teaching sessions, 461 (56%) thought that the medical residents delivered health information clearly (4.55 ± 0.88) and that the health topics were relevant (4.26 ± 0.92). Free-text responses showed that the program helped them understand their health concerns. This CBSL program is a feasible and effective tool for teaching internal medicine residents and older adults. © 2017, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2017, The American Geriatrics Society.

  14. Assessing Adult Exposure to Community Violence: A Review of Definitions and Measures.

    PubMed

    DeCou, Christopher R; Lynch, Shannon M

    2017-01-01

    Although experiences of community violence are linked with negative outcomes for adults and children, few standardized measures assessing community violence exist, and available measures lack consistency concerning the definition of community violence. Further, most measures currently utilized to assess adult exposure to community violence were designed for use with children and adolescents. To address these identified concerns and make recommendations for future research, this article reviews contemporary definitions of community violence, identifies the outcomes of exposure to community violence for adults, and evaluates measures of exposure to community violence with published psychometric data employing adult samples. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify studies that (1) included a self-report of community violence exposure, (2) included primarily adult respondents, and (3) reported psychometric data. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. Measures employed in these studies were reviewed and basic psychometric properties discussed. Notably, the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence was the most commonly used measure among these studies. Although multiple measures demonstrated limited but acceptable psychometric performance in select studies, few in-depth psychometric analyses exist for measures of adult exposure to community violence. Also, it is difficult to compare studies due to variations in definitions of community violence and multiple versions of each measure. Recommendations for future research include provision of explicit definitions of community violence and reporting psychometric data for measures. © The Author(s) 2015.

  15. Community Engagement in a Graduate-Level Community Literacy Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marshall Bowen, Lauren; Arko, Kirsti; Beatty, Joel; Delaney, Cindy; Dorpenyo, Isidore; Moeller, Laura; Roberts, Elsa; Velat, John

    2014-01-01

    A case study of a graduate-level community literacy seminar that involved a tutoring project with adult digital literacy learners, this essay illustrates the value of community outreach and service-learning for graduate students in writing studies. Presenting multiple perspectives through critical reflection, student authors describe how their…

  16. Creating Older Adults Technology Training Policies: Lessons from Community Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nycyk, Michael; Redsell, Margaret

    2007-01-01

    Influencing government policy in adult learning areas requires consistent efforts in having findings noticed by educational policymakers. Submissions by Adult Learning Australia and researchers have called for unified educational policies and practices across Australia. This paper argues that, whilst it is important to address macro issues of…

  17. Informal Adult Learning and Everyday Literacy Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Maurice C.

    2006-01-01

    This study investigated the types of informal learning activities that adults with low literacy skills engage in outside of formal literacy programs and how these activities relate to their literacy practices. Key informants for the study included 10 adults identified at International Adult Literacy Survey levels 1 and 2. Using ethnographic…

  18. Learning Communities in Undergraduate STEM Education: A Quantitative Analysis of how Sense of Community Influences Retention of Students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Archie, T.; Newman, P.

    2012-12-01

    Countless programs are aimed at retaining first year college students in their majors and at their institutions. Additionally, first year students in STEM majors are retained at lower rates, than non-STEM majors. Previous research has shown that students who leave the institution are not as academically and socially integrated into the campus community than students who persist at an institution. Residential learning communities can be thought of as a retention tool by enhancing the academic and social integration of their participants. Academic integration has historically been measured by academic success as indicated by GPA, while social integration has been more difficult to measure. We adapted the Sense of Community Index (SCI) as a measure of social integration. Sense of community (SOC) has been defined as ''a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together''. This quantitative study examines sense of community as a means of social integration and explores the relationship between learning communities, students' sense of community, and their intent to persist at a large public university and within their current major. An online survey of 60 first-year college students in a Natural Resources College, examined the relationships between learning community participation, sense of community, and student retention. A logistic regression of sense of community was very effective in predicting students' intent to stay or leave the institution. Structural equation models showed that sense of community was strongly positively related to a students' intent to stay or leave the institution for non-learning community participants, but not for learning community participants. We hypothesized that learning community participants sense of community needs would be more fully met than non-learning community participants. Learning

  19. Analyzing Online Behaviors, Roles, and Learning Communities via Online Discussions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeh, Yu-Chu

    2010-01-01

    Online learning communities are an important means of sharing and creating knowledge. Online behaviors and online roles can reveal how online learning communities function. However, no study has elucidated the relationships among online behaviors, online roles, and online learning communities. In this study, 32 preservice teachers participated in…

  20. An Examination of the Impact of Learning Communities on Job

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilmes, David M.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learning community participation and job/major congruence. Previous research has demonstrated that learning communities are effective vehicles for promoting student and institutional outcomes. However, few studies have examined the impact of learning communities on alumni or career…

  1. Engaging students in a community of learning: Renegotiating the learning environment.

    PubMed

    Theobald, Karen A; Windsor, Carol A; Forster, Elizabeth M

    2018-03-01

    Promoting student engagement in a student led environment can be challenging. This article reports on the process of design, implementation and evaluation of a student led learning approach in a small group tutorial environment in a three year Bachelor of Nursing program at an Australian university. The research employed three phases of data collection. The first phase explored student perceptions of learning and engagement in tutorials. The results informed the development of a web based learning resource. Phase two centred on implementation of a community of learning approach where students were supported to lead tutorial learning with peers. The final phase constituted an evaluation of the new approach. Findings suggest that students have the capacity to lead and engage in a community of learning and to assume greater ownership and responsibility where scaffolding is provided. Nonetheless, an ongoing whole of course approach to pedagogical change would better support this form of teaching and learning innovation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Adult Learning in the Language Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Stacey Margarita

    2015-01-01

    This book explores connections between the fields of foreign/second language teaching and adult learning. This interdisciplinary approach serves as a framework in order to: (a) understand the teaching methods that promote the deeper, more critical sort of language learning advocated by scholars and professional organizations, (b) understand how…

  3. Measuring Self-Directed Learning: A Diagnostic Tool for Adult Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khiat, Henry

    2015-01-01

    Self-directed learning is an important form of adult learning (Caffarella, 1993; Knowles, 1975; Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 2005; Merriam, 2001; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). The strategies of self-directed learning allow adult learners to cope better with their studies while fulfilling family, work and other commitments. This study…

  4. Understanding older adults' usage of community green spaces in Taipei, Taiwan.

    PubMed

    Pleson, Eryn; Nieuwendyk, Laura M; Lee, Karen K; Chaddah, Anuradha; Nykiforuk, Candace I J; Schopflocher, Donald

    2014-01-27

    As the world's population ages, there is an increasing need for community environments to support physical activity and social connections for older adults. This exploratory study sought to better understand older adults' usage and perceptions of community green spaces in Taipei, Taiwan, through direct observations of seven green spaces and nineteen structured interviews. Descriptive statistics from observations using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) confirm that older adults use Taipei's parks extensively. Our analyses of interviews support the following recommendations for age-friendly active living initiatives for older adults: make green spaces accessible to older adults; organize a variety of structured activities that appeal to older adults particularly in the morning; equip green spaces for age-appropriate physical activity; and, promote the health advantages of green spaces to older adults.

  5. Learning Communities: New Structures, New Partnerships for Learning. The First-Year Experience. Monograph Series, No. 26.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levine, Jodi H., Ed.

    This monograph on learning communities and the first-year college experience presents 12 chapters which combine theory with examples of good practice and recommendations for building and sustaining effective learning communities. Following an introduction by the editor, the included chapters are: (1) "What Are Learning Communities?"…

  6. Learning Analytics for Communities of Inquiry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kovanovic, Vitomir; Gaševic, Dragan; Hatala, Marek

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes doctoral research that focuses on the development of a learning analytics framework for inquiry-based digital learning. Building on the Community of Inquiry model (CoI)--a foundation commonly used in the research and practice of digital learning and teaching--this research builds on the existing body of knowledge in two…

  7. Adult Learning and Naval Leadership Training

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-06-01

    Jerome Bruner , R. M. Jones and others look at learning as a means to modify behavior while others see behavior modification as a means to increase the...informal learning , the chief purpose of which is to discover the meaning of experience; a quest of the mind which digs down to the roots of the...NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited ADULT LEARNING AND

  8. Integrated Strategic Planning in a Learning-Centered Community College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kelley, Susan; Kaufman, Roger

    2007-01-01

    In learning-centered community colleges, planning, like all processes, must measurably improve learning and learner performance. This article shares Valencia Community College's approach to revising its strategic planning process based on the Organizational Elements Model to: 1) focus strategic planning on learning results that add value for…

  9. Coping Styles and Gender-Role: Some Implications for Mexican American Adult Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, Stephanie; Crockett, Stanley

    Passive coping behavior and traditional role-gender definitions affect learning needs of segments of the Mexican American adult community and may affect the behavioral development of younger family members. Networking within the community is useful in defining and meeting learning needs of adult Mexican Americans by creating cooperative,…

  10. Open Education 2030: Planning the Future of Adult Learning in Europe

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Castaño Muñoz, Jonatan; Redecker, Christine; Vuorikari, Riina; Punie, Yves

    2013-01-01

    Adult learning and open education have become key elements on the European Agenda. This paper presents the first results of a foresight activity that aims to contribute to an understanding of how "Opening up Education" can improve adult learning in Europe in the future. It argues that to open up adult learning two main challenges must be…

  11. Computer Game-Based Learning: Perceptions and Experiences of Senior Chinese Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Feihong; Lockee, Barbara B.; Burton, John K.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate senior Chinese adults' potential acceptance of computer game-based learning (CGBL) by probing their perceptions of computer game play and their perceived impacts of game play on their learning of computer skills and life satisfaction. A total of 60 senior adults from a local senior adult learning center…

  12. Experiential Learning Theory as One of the Foundations of Adult Learning Practice Worldwide

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dernova, Maiya

    2015-01-01

    The paper presents the analysis of existing theory, assumptions, and models of adult experiential learning. The experiential learning is a learning based on a learning cycle guided by the dual dialectics of action-reflection and experience-abstraction. It defines learning as a process of knowledge creation through experience transformation, so…

  13. Community action research track: Community-based participatory research and service-learning experiences for medical students.

    PubMed

    Gimpel, Nora; Kindratt, Tiffany; Dawson, Alvin; Pagels, Patti

    2018-04-01

    Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students' participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009-2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p's < 0.05). Most students (73%) were satisfied with CART. Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.

  14. Toward a Learner-Centered System for Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hermans, Henry; Kalz, Marco; Koper, Rob

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an e-learning system that integrates the use of concepts of virtual learning environments, personal learning environments, and social network sites. The system is based on a learning model which comprises and integrates three learning contexts for the adult learner: the formal, instructional…

  15. Career Education for Adults: Community Resources Module.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Auburn Univ., AL. Dept. of Vocational and Adult Education.

    An outgrowth of State-sponsored institutes conducted by Auburn University, Alabama, to produce career education teaching modules for adults, the community resources module is one of five field-tested curriculum guides adopted from findings of the nationally oriented Adult Performance Level Study conducted at the University of Texas. (Basic to the…

  16. Adult Learning and Literacy in Canada

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shohet, Linda

    2001-01-01

    In Chapter Six, Linda Shohet offers a description of the adult literacy and learning system in Canada. In providing a historical overview of the development of the field, Shohet notes key political events that have influenced the funding and development of services for adults. Through her description, the author reveals the complexity and…

  17. Learning through Blogging: Students' Perspectives in Collaborative Blog-Enhanced Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kuo, Yu-Chun; Belland, Brian R.; Kuo, Yu-Tung

    2017-01-01

    This study employed a mixed method approach to investigate the relationships between learners' blogging self-efficacy, sense of community, perceived collaborative learning, and perceived learning in classroom environments. Learners' perspectives of group learning experiences in blog-enhanced settings were examined. Participants were minority adult…

  18. 21st Century Community Learning Centers: Providing Afterschool and Summer Learning Support to Communities Nationwide

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Afterschool Alliance, 2014

    2014-01-01

    The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative is the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to before-school, afterschool, and summer learning programs. Each state education agency receives funds based on its share of Title I funding for low-income students at high-poverty, low performing schools. Funds are also…

  19. Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, Volume 5. Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice: A Project of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Comings, John, Ed.; Garner, Barbara, Ed.; Smith, Cristine, Ed.

    2005-01-01

    "The Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice, Volume 5" is a volume in a series of annual publications of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) that address major issues, the latest research, and the best practices in the field of adult literacy and learning.…

  20. Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, Volume 4. Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice: A Project of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Comings, John, Ed.; Garner, Barbara, Ed.; Smith, Cristine, Ed.

    2004-01-01

    "The Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Connecting Research Policy, and Practice, Volume 4" is an addition to a series of annual publications of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) that address major issues, the latest research, and the best practices in the field of adult literacy and learning.…

  1. Electronic Pathways. Adult Learning and the New Communication Technologies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Field, Jane, Ed.

    This book, which is intended as a practical resource for individuals who are professionally concerned with adult learning, contains 21 papers and 3 checklists concerning the new communication and information technologies (IT) and adult learning. The following papers and checklists are included: "Introduction" (Jane Field); "The Use…

  2. Understanding Adult Lifelong Learning Participation as a Layered Problem

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boeren, Ellen

    2017-01-01

    This paper discusses the layered nature of lifelong learning participation, bringing together fragmented insights in why adults do or do not participate in lifelong learning activities. The paper will discuss the roles and responsibilities of individual adults, education and training providers and countries' social education policies, often…

  3. Becoming an Adult in a Community of Faith

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Frye, Steven B.

    2014-01-01

    This chapter describes developmental needs of emerging young adults and how they are often met, or not met, in faith communities. The author offers recommendations for creating better connections with today's emerging young adults.

  4. Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading: An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College. NCPR Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weiss, Michael J.; Visher, Mary G.; Wathington, Heather

    2010-01-01

    This Brief, based on a report of the same title, presents results from a rigorous study of a basic learning communities program operated at Hillsborough Community College. Hillsborough, one of six community colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's (NCPR) Learning Communities Demonstration, is a large, urban…

  5. Community Learning and Social Capital: "Just Having a Little Chat."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Falk, Ian; Harrison, Lesley

    1998-01-01

    Analysis of communicative interactions of community residents using interviews, diaries, and tape recordings revealed how learning may occur incidentally in social organizations, chance meetings, and other community interactions. Such community learning serves to transmit skills, knowledge, and values. Community groups provide pathways to skilled…

  6. Back from the Future: Community Demands Reshape a College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doty, Ralph; And Others

    When given the opportunity to plan a new community learning center, Lakeland Community College's program planners sought the assistance of The College Board's Office of Adult Learning and Services. Thousands of scientifically weighted interviews involving households, students, and business leaders were evaluated to determine the community's…

  7. Adult Women in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Janene

    This digest reviews some of the recent literature about adult female students at community colleges. Their motivations, unique needs, and barriers to entry are discussed, as well as ways institutions can enhance the educational experience for adult women. Female students have outnumbered male students in higher education for nearly 30 years. In…

  8. Toward a New Motivation to Learn Framework for Older Adult Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Yi-Yin; Sandmann, Lorilee R.

    2012-01-01

    Although existing literature addresses adults' motivation to learn, and some specifically focuses on older adults, it is now recognized that older adults are more heterogeneous and complex than other age groups. Therefore, this study seeks to provide an alternative theoretical framework to investigate motivation to learn for older adult learners…

  9. The Application of Learning Theories in Community College Classrooms. UCLA Community College Bibliography

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carducci, Rozana

    2006-01-01

    The references in this document provide an overview of empirical and conceptual scholarship on the application of learning theories in community college classrooms. Specific theories discussed in the citations include: active learning, cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, problem-based learning, and self-regulated learning. In addition to…

  10. Adult Learner Graduation Rates at Four U.S. Community Colleges by Prior Learning Assessment Status and Method

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hayward, Milan S.

    2012-01-01

    The college completion agenda demands improved graduation rates among adult learners and prior learning assessment (PLA) is a promising solution. PLA permits students to earn college credit for knowledge acquired outside of higher education and is associated with improved student outcomes. The current study expanded the literature regarding adult…

  11. Toward an Interdisciplinary Perspective: A Review of Adult Learning Frameworks and Theoretical Models of Motor Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roessger, Kevin M.

    2012-01-01

    Researchers have yet to agree on an approach that supports how adults best learn novel motor skills in formal educational contexts. The literature fails to adequately discuss adult motor learning from the standpoint of adult education. Instead, the subject is addressed by other disciplines. This review attempts to integrate perspectives across…

  12. Enhancing Digital Literacy and Learning among Adults with Blogs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sharp, Laurie A.

    2017-01-01

    Digital literacy and learning among adults has been identified as an area requiring research. The purpose of the present study was to explore technology acceptance and digital collaborative learning experiences with blogs among adult learners. This analysis employed a quasi-experimental mixed-methods approach guided by a sociocultural theoretical…

  13. Five Cities, One Vision. CORAL: Linking Communities, Children and Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    James G. Irvine Foundation, San Francisco, CA.

    This booklet describes the CORAL (Communities Organizing Resources To Advance Learning) program within five California communities: Pasadena, Long Beach, San Jose, Fresno, and Sacramento. This initiative, begun in 1999, is committed to a community-based and community-building approach to supporting learning and focuses on improving academic…

  14. Effective Strategies for Sustaining Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bennett, Patricia R.

    2010-01-01

    Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

  15. Guidelines for Lifelong Education Management to Mobilize Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Charungkaittikul, Suwithida

    2018-01-01

    This article is a study of the guidelines for lifelong education management to mobilize learning communities in the social-cultural context of Thailand is intended to 1) analyze and synthesize the management of lifelong learning to mobilize learning community in the social-cultural context of Thailand; and 2) propose guidelines for lifelong…

  16. Salvaging the Self in Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hunt, Celia; West, Linden

    2009-01-01

    This paper stems from a dialogue on the subjects of learning and learners: one forged out of experiences in research and teaching, and the application of psychodynamic insights, developmental psychology and recent work in the neurosciences, to thinking about adult learning and subjectivity. We argue that some notion of the self needs to be…

  17. Understanding and Managing Learning Disabilities in Adults. Professional Practices in Adult Education and Human Resource Development Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jordan, Dale R.

    This book reviews learning disabilities (LD) in adults and makes suggestions for helping adults cope with these disabilities. Each chapter covers a type of learning disability or related syndrome or explains characteristics of the brain. Chapter 1 explains several types of specific learning disabilities that make classroom performance difficult…

  18. Engaging Karen refugee students in science learning through a cross-cultural learning community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harper, Susan G.

    2017-02-01

    This research explored how Karen (first-generation refugees from Burma) elementary students engaged with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence within the context of a cross-cultural learning community. In this action research, the researcher and a Karen parent served as co-teachers for fourth- and fifth-grade Karen and non-Karen students in a science and culture after-school programme in a public elementary school in the rural southeastern United States. Photovoice provided a critical platform for students to create their own cultural discourses for the learning community. The theoretical framework of critical pedagogy of place provided a way for the learning community to decolonise and re-inhabit the learning spaces with knowledge they co-constructed. Narrative analysis of video transcripts of the after-school programme, ethnographic interviews, and focus group discussions from Photovoice revealed a pattern of emerging agency by Karen students in the scientific practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence and in Karen language lessons. This evidence suggests that science learning embedded within a cross-cultural learning community can empower refugee students to construct their own hybrid cultural knowledge and leverage that knowledge to engage in a meaningful way with the epistemology of science.

  19. The Analysis of Adult Immigrants' Learning System in Canada

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mukan, Nataliya; Barabash, Olena; Busko, Maria

    2015-01-01

    In the article the problem of adult immigrants' learning in Canada has been studied. The main objectives of the article are defined as: analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature which highlights different aspects of the research problem; analysis of the adult immigrants' learning system in Canada; and the perspectives for creative…

  20. ESL Instruction and Adults with Learning Disabilities. ERIC Digest.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwarz, Robin; Terrill, Lynda

    This digest reviews what is known about adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners and learning disabilities, suggests ways to identify and assess ESL adults who may have learning disabilities, and offers practical methods for both instruction and teacher training. Topics covered in some detail include identifying and diagnosing learning…

  1. Assessing the Reading Comprehension of Adults with Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jones, F. W.; Long, K.; Finlay, W. M. L.

    2006-01-01

    Background: This study's aim was to begin the process of measuring the reading comprehension of adults with mild and borderline learning disabilities, in order to generate information to help clinicians and other professionals to make written material for adults with learning disabilities more comprehensible. Methods: The Test for the Reception of…

  2. Adult Learning in Vocational Education. EEE700 Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace A.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Little, David; And Others

    This monograph is part of the study materials for the one-semester distance education unit, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace A, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University (Australia). It explores four complex and interrelated issues: how vocational educators view their own practice, the characteristics and aspirations that distinguish…

  3. Community Response in Disasters: An Ecological Learning Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Preston, John; Chadderton, Charlotte; Kitagawa, Kaori; Edmonds, Casey

    2015-01-01

    Natural disasters are frequently exacerbated by anthropogenic mechanisms and have social and political consequences for communities. The role of community learning in disasters is seen to be increasingly important. However, the ways in which such learning unfolds in a disaster can differ substantially from case to case. This article uses a…

  4. Creating Schools as Learning Communities: Obstacles and Processes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Voulalas, Zafiris D.; Sharpe, Fenton G.

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: The paper sought to clarify the concept of learning organisation/community; to identify the barriers that are perceived to obstruct the creation of learning communities out of traditional schools; to identify how principals go about the task of converting their schools; and the special characteristics of leadership required to transform…

  5. Learning Networks--Enabling Change through Community Action Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bleach, Josephine

    2016-01-01

    Learning networks are a critical element of ethos of the community action research approach taken by the Early Learning Initiative at the National College of Ireland, a community-based educational initiative in the Dublin Docklands. Key criteria for networking, whether at local, national or international level, are the individual's and…

  6. Lifelong Learning and Adult Education: Russia Meets the West

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zajda, Joseph

    2003-03-01

    This article examines the impact of social change and economic transformation on adult education and lifelong learning in post-Soviet Russia. The article begins with a brief economic and historical background to lifelong learning and adult education in terms of its significance as a feature of the Russian cultural heritage. An analysis of Ministerial education policy and curriculum changes reveals that these policies reflect neo-liberal and neo-conservative paradigms in the post-Soviet economy and education. Current issues and trends in adult education are also discussed, with particular attention to the Adult Education Centres, which operate as a vast umbrella framework for a variety of adult education and lifelong learning initiatives. The Centres are designed to promote social justice by means of compensatory education and social rehabilitation for individuals dislocated by economic restructuring. The article comments on their role in helping to develop popular consciousness of democratic rights and active citizenship in a participatory and pluralistic democracy.

  7. Project-Based Learning Communities in Developmental Education: A Case Study of Lessons Learned

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butler, Alison; Christofili, Monica

    2014-01-01

    This case study tracks the application of project-based learning (PBL) during four separate college terms at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon. Each term follows a different learning community of first-term college students enrolled in a program of developmental education (DE), reading, writing, math, and college survival and success…

  8. Phonological similarity influences word learning in adults learning Spanish as a foreign language

    PubMed Central

    Stamer, Melissa K.; Vitevitch, Michael S.

    2013-01-01

    Neighborhood density—the number of words that sound similar to a given word (Luce & Pisoni, 1998)—influences word-learning in native English speaking children and adults (Storkel, 2004; Storkel, Armbruster, & Hogan, 2006): novel words with many similar sounding English words (i.e., dense neighborhood) are learned more quickly than novel words with few similar sounding English words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). The present study examined how neighborhood density influences word-learning in native English speaking adults learning Spanish as a foreign language. Students in their third-semester of Spanish language classes learned advanced Spanish words that sounded similar to many known Spanish words (i.e., dense neighborhood) or sounded similar to few known Spanish words (i.e., sparse neighborhood). In three word-learning tasks, performance was better for Spanish words with dense rather than sparse neighborhoods. These results suggest that a similar mechanism may be used to learn new words in a native and a foreign language. PMID:23950692

  9. Ethnic Minority Youth in Youth Programs: Feelings of Safety, Relationships with Adult Staff, and Perceptions of Learning Social Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Sun-A; Borden, Lynne M.; Serido, Joyce; Perkins, Daniel F.

    2009-01-01

    The authors examine perceptions that young people hold regarding their participation in community-based youth programs. Specifically, this study assesses young people's sense of psychological safety, their relationships with adult staff, their learning of social skills, and how different ethnic groups experience these factors. Data for the study…

  10. Mentoring: A Natural Role for Learning Community Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hessenauer, Sarah L.; Law, Kristi

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to highlight mentoring as an important piece of leading a learning community. The authors will share a definition of mentoring which is applicable to the learning community experience. Characteristics of mentoring will be described, including types of mentoring and mentor-mentee relationships. The authors will apply…

  11. Telecollaboration in Online Communities for L2 Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malerba, Maria Luisa; Appel, Christine

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on a PhD study about informal second language learning in online communities (Livemocha and Busuu). In these communities learners autonomously seek opportunities for telecollaboration with Native Speakers (NSs) in the absence of teachers and pedagogical tasks, and in an informal context. This paper focuses on learning and social…

  12. The Social-Interaction Learning Styles of Irish Adult Learners: Some Empirical Findings.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O Fathaigh, Mairtin

    An action research project was conducted to understand the learning style profile of Irish adult learners better and to integrate the findings into development seminars for adult education teachers and tutors. The Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Styles Scale (GRSLSS) was chosen as the research instrument to explore Irish adults' learning styles…

  13. Teaching Young Adults with Disabilities through Service Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Woodruff, Elizabeth A.; Sinelnikov, Oleg A.

    2015-01-01

    While many scholars agree that service learning is beneficial to both the student and the community, the research on service learning in the physical education setting is limited. However, there are courses that can be aligned with the professional preparation needs of students and the broader needs of the community. Drawing on theory which has…

  14. Teachers' Perception of a Professional Learning Community Model and Its Impact on Teaching and Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stollar, Lori J.

    2014-01-01

    This study of a suburban school district in south central Pennsylvania employed a mixed method design to explore teachers' perceptions of their professional learning community (PLC) and the impact of such on teaching effectiveness and student learning. Perceptual data was collected through the Learning Community Culture Indicator (LCCI) teacher…

  15. Learning Communities and the Completion Agenda

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Kathy E.

    2013-01-01

    Learning communities are widely recognized as a powerful pedagogy that promotes deep learning and student engagement, while also addressing a range of challenges that plague higher education. The Completion Agenda represents a complex set of intersecting priorities advocated by federal and state government, nonprofit organizations, colleges, and…

  16. Developing Mentors: Adult participation, practices, and learning in an out-of-school time STEM program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scipio, Deana Aeolani

    This dissertation examines learning within an out-of-school time (OST) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) broadening participation program. The dissertation includes an introduction, three empirical chapters (written as individual articles), and a conclusion. The dissertation context is a chemical oceanography OST program for middle school students called Project COOL---Chemical Oceanography Outside the Lab. The program was a collaboration between middle school OST programming, a learning sciences research laboratory, and a chemical oceanography laboratory. Both labs were located at a research-based university in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Participants include 34 youth, 12 undergraduates, and five professional scientists. The dissertation data corpus includes six years of ethnographic field notes across three field sites, 400 hours of video and audio recordings, 40 hours of semi-structured interviews, and more than 100 participant generated artifacts. Analysis methods include comparative case analysis, cognitive mapping, semiotic cluster analysis, video interaction analysis, and discourse analysis. The first empirical article focuses on synthesizing productive programmatic features from four years of design-based research.. The second article is a comparative case study of three STEM mentors from non-dominant communities in the 2011 COOL OST Program. The third article is a comparative case study of undergraduates learning to be mentors in the 2014 COOL OST Program. Findings introduce Deep Hanging as a theory of learning in practice. Deep Hanging entails authentic tasks in rich contexts, providing access, capitalizing on opportunity, and building interpersonal relationships. Taken together, these three chapters illuminate the process of designing a rich OST learning environment and the kinds of learning in practice that occurred for adult learners learning to be mentors through their participation in the COOL OST program. In

  17. Reflections on Adult Learning in Cultural Institutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parrish, Marilyn McKinley

    2010-01-01

    Cultural institutions are rich locations for adult learning. Despite apparent differences in mission, they are similar in many ways. Similarities include social and historical development, educational philosophy and objectives, epistemological tensions and contestations, and challenges associated when attracting and educating adult visitors. In an…

  18. A History of Learning Communities within American Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fink, John E.; Inkelas, Karen Kurotsuchi

    2015-01-01

    This chapter describes the historical development of learning communities within American higher education. We examine the forces both internal and external to higher education that contributed to and stalled the emergence of learning communities in their contemporary form.

  19. Problem Finding in Professional Learning Communities: A Learning Study Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tan, Yuen Sze Michelle; Caleon, Imelda Santos

    2016-01-01

    This study marries collaborative problem solving and learning study in understanding the onset of a cycle of teacher professional development process within school-based professional learning communities (PLCs). It aimed to explore how a PLC carried out collaborative problem finding--a key process involved in collaborative problem solving--that…

  20. Adult Graduate Student Voices: Good and Bad Learning Experiences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reiff, Marianne; Ballin, Amy

    2016-01-01

    During their master's degree work, cohorts of adult graduate students participated in a common learning task in which they listed their factors of good and bad learning experiences. The lead author collected these factors from students over the course of 3 years. The purpose of our inquiry was to examine and document what adult graduate students…

  1. Engaging with Difference. The "Other" in Adult Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stuart, Mary, Ed.; Thomson, Alistair, Ed.

    This book, which is written for adult educators working in further and community education and university continuation in Great Britain, contains 12 papers about engaging with those students who have traditionally been excluded from the full range of educational learning opportunities: women, adults with learning difficulties, members of ethnic…

  2. Objective but not subjective sleep predicts memory in community-dwelling older adults.

    PubMed

    Cavuoto, Marina G; Ong, Ben; Pike, Kerryn E; Nicholas, Christian L; Bei, Bei; Kinsella, Glynda J

    2016-08-01

    Research on the relationship between habitual sleep patterns and memory performance in older adults is limited. No previous study has used objective and subjective memory measures in a large, older-aged sample to examine the association between sleep and various domains of memory. The aim of this study was to examine the association between objective and subjective measures of sleep with memory performance in older adults, controlling for the effects of potential confounds. One-hundred and seventy-three community-dwelling older adults aged 65-89 years in Victoria, Australia completed the study. Objective sleep quality and length were ascertained using the Actiwatch 2 Mini-Mitter, while subjective sleep was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Memory was indexed by tests of retrospective memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test - Revised), working memory (n-back, 2-back accuracy) and prospective memory (a habitual button pressing task). Compared with normative data, overall performance on retrospective memory function was within the average range. Hierarchical regression was used to determine whether objective or subjective measures of sleep predicted memory performances after controlling for demographics, health and mood. After controlling for confounds, actigraphic sleep indices (greater wake after sleep onset, longer sleep-onset latency and longer total sleep time) predicted poorer retrospective (∆R(2)  = 0.05, P = 0.016) and working memory (∆R(2)  = 0.05, P = 0.047). In contrast, subjective sleep indices did not significantly predict memory performances. In community-based older adults, objectively-measured, habitual sleep indices predict poorer memory performances. It will be important to follow the sample longitudinally to determine trajectories of change over time. © 2016 European Sleep Research Society.

  3. The Fish Kill Mystery: Learning about Aquatic Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kosal, Erica F.

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents a case where students can learn about aquatic communities. In this case, students speculate on what may have caused a major fish kill in an estuary in North Carolina. In the process, they explore how land runoff and excess nutrients affect aquatic communities. They also learn about the complex life cycle of the dinoflagellate…

  4. It Takes a Village: Moving Forward Towards Independence Offers Hope and Life Lessons to Young Adults with Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Exceptional Parent, 2010

    2010-01-01

    Moving Forward Towards Independence, a California-based nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by a group of parents, is a unique residential program where young adults with disabilities learn to enjoy productive, fulfilling and healthy lives within a caring, responsive community made up of fellow residents, trained staff members, parents and…

  5. Adult learning and social inequalities: Processes of equalisation or cumulative disadvantage?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kilpi-Jakonen, Elina; Vono de Vilhena, Daniela; Blossfeld, Hans-Peter

    2015-08-01

    Adult learning is an increasingly important form of education in globalised and aging societies. While current policy recommendations tend to focus on increasing participation rates, the authors of this article argue that higher participation rates do not necessarily lead to lower social/educational inequalities in participation. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between social inequalities and adult learning by exploring cross-national patterns of participation in different adult learning activities and the consequences of participation on individual labour market trajectories. The empirical basis of the paper is an analysis of 13 country studies (as well as two cross-national analyses) brought together by the international comparative research project "Education as a lifelong process - comparing educational trajectories in modern societies" ( eduLIFE). Despite wide variations in participation rates across countries, mechanisms of social/educational inequality in engagement in job-related adult learning tend to be relatively similar across countries, in particular with regard to non-formal learning. Effects tend most frequently to be a presence of cumulative advantage, though in some countries a certain degree of equalisation is noticeable with regard to formal adult education. The authors conclude that it is relatively clear that currently almost no country is truly able to reduce social inequalities through adult learning. Their recommendation is that public policy makers should place greater emphasis on making adult learning more accessible (in terms of entry requirements, affordability as well as motivation) to underrepresented groups, in particular those who are educationally disadvantaged.

  6. Old and Young Dogs Teaching Each Other Tricks: The Importance of Developing Agency for Community Partners in Community Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bucher, Jacob

    2012-01-01

    This article covers the importance of creating and developing agency in community partners when engaging in community-based learning. Often when faculty incorporate service- or community-based learning into their classes, we measure the "learning" part but not the "service" or "community." Focusing more on the latter involves working "with"…

  7. Learning through Participatory Action Research for Community Ecotourism Planning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guevara, Jose Roberto Q.

    1996-01-01

    Ecologically sound tourism planning and policy require an empowering community participation. The participatory action research model helps a community gain understanding of its social reality, learn how to learn, initiate dialog, and discover new possibilities for addressing its situation. (SK)

  8. Landscapes, Spatial Justice and Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Armstrong, Felicity

    2012-01-01

    This paper draws on a study of a community-based adult education initiative, "Cumbria Credits," which took place during the period of serious economic decline which hit sections of the farming and the wider community in Cumbria during 2001. It draws on the principles underpinning Edward Soja's notion of "spatial justice" to explore transformations…

  9. Aligning Needs, Expectations, and Learning Outcomes to Sustain Self-Efficacy through Transfer Learning Community Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leptien, Jennifer R.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter addresses strengths and difficulties encountered in implementing transfer learning community models and how efficacy is supported through transfer learning community programming. Transfer programming best practices and recommendations for program improvements are presented.

  10. Teacher Collaboration and Student Learning in a Professional Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vaughan, Mary Elaine

    2013-01-01

    Researchers have endorsed teacher collaboration within a professional learning community (PLC) that is focused on student learning. Despite these research-based endorsements, several Algebra 1 teachers in a southeastern high school implemented components of a PLC with little or no results in student achievement. The purpose of this study was to…

  11. Implicit Learning Deficits among Adults with Developmental Dyslexia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kahta, Shani; Schiff, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate implicit learning processes among adults with developmental dyslexia (DD) using a visual linguistic artificial grammar learning (AGL) task. Specifically, it was designed to explore whether the intact learning reported in previous studies would also occur under conditions including minimal training…

  12. Adult learning principles for effective teaching in radiology programmes: a review of the literature.

    PubMed

    Arogundade, R A

    2011-01-01

    Adult learning processes of acquisition of new knowledge, behaviours, skills, values or preferences generally occur as part of personal professional development. There is need for radiology residency trainers to understand the basic adult learning principles for effective teaching processes. To review the different adult learning styles, learning theories and educational practice as a guide for radiology residency trainers. Literature materials from journals, web articles and reputable textbooks in the last 20 years on adult learning principles in general and radiology in particular were reviewed. Most medical educators, including radiologists, lack appropriate formal training background in educational practice. The adult residency trainee brings to the learning environment high quantity and quality of experiences and some amount of control. Connection of this rich adult experience base to the learning process requires facilitation and motivation by the radiology educator, who must be familiar with the use of appropriate learning theories and educational practices. there is a general agreement about the content of good practice in adult education but a definite comprehensive list does not seem to exist in the literature. Nonetheless, understanding of the basic adult learning principles would aid the concept of guided training, where the adult residency trainee shoulders the bulk of the training responsibilities of acquisition of knowledge.

  13. Building Global Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cochrane, Thomas; Buchem, Ilona; Camacho, Mar; Cronin, Catherine; Gordon, Averill; Keegan, Helen

    2013-01-01

    Within the background where education is increasingly driven by the economies of scale and research funding, we propose an alternative online open and connected framework (OOC) for building global learning communities using mobile social media. We critique a three year action research case study involving building collaborative global learning…

  14. Learning from a Community Festival or Reenactment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morris, Ronald Vaughan

    2008-01-01

    Community festivals allow students opportunities to meet key contact people and investigate local resources. Further, the excitement of the social festival is infectious; it encourages learning among people of multiple ages in a common area. Festivals serve to define the community, transmit culture, and allow the community to participate in…

  15. 10 Years of "Adult Learning": Content Analysis of an Academic Journal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cherrstrom, Catherine A.; Robbins, Stacey E.; Bixby, John

    2017-01-01

    Academic publications provide insights into a discipline's history, knowledge base, and research norms, and thus analyzing publication activity provides learning about the field of study. To learn more about the field of adult and continuing education, this study used content analysis to examine 10 years of "Adult Learning" from 2006…

  16. Community-based research in action: tales from the Ktunaxa community learning centres project.

    PubMed

    Stacy, Elizabeth; Wisener, Katherine; Liman, Yolanda; Beznosova, Olga; Lauscher, Helen Novak; Ho, Kendall; Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra

    2014-01-01

    Rural communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, often have limited access to health information, a situation that can have significant negative consequences. To address the lack of culturally and geographically relevant health information, a community-university partnership was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate Aboriginal Community Learning Centres (CLCs). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the community-based research process used in the development of the CLCs. It focuses on the process of building relationships among partners and the CLC's value and sustainability. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including principal investigators, community research leads, and supervisors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using an open-coding process to identify themes. Key challenges included enacting shared project governance, negotiating different working styles, and hiring practices based on commitment to project objectives rather than skill set. Technological access provided by the CLCs increased capacity for learning and collective community initiatives, as well as building community leads' skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. An important lesson was to meet all partners "where they are" in building trusting relationships and adapting research methods to fit the project's context and strengths. Successful results were dependent upon persistence and patience in working through differences, and breaking the project into achievable goals, which collectively contributed to trust and capacity building. The process of building these partnerships resulted in increased capacity of communities to facilitate learning and change initiatives, and the capacity of the university to engage in successful research partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the future.

  17. Centering Marxist-Feminist Theory in Adult Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carpenter, Sara

    2012-01-01

    Using feminist extensions of Marxist theory, this article argues that a Marxist-feminist theory of adult learning offers a significant contribution to feminist pedagogical debates concerning the nature of experience and learning. From this theoretical perspective, the individual and the social are understood to exist in a mutually determining…

  18. Learning at Every Age? Life Cycle Dynamics of Adult Education in Europe

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beblavy, Miroslav; Thum, Anna-Elisabeth; Potjagailo, Galina

    2014-01-01

    Adult learning is seen as a key factor for enhancing employment, innovation and growth. The aim of this paper is to understand the points in the life cycle at which adult learning takes place and whether it leads to reaching a medium or high level of educational attainment. We perform a synthetic panel analysis of adult learning for cohorts aged…

  19. Assessment of postural balance in community-dwelling older adults - methodological aspects and effects of biofeedback-based Nintendo Wii training.

    PubMed

    Jørgensen, Martin Grønbech

    2014-01-01

    The overall purpose of this thesis was to examine selected methodological aspects and novel approaches for measuring postural balance older adults, and to examine the effects of biofeedback-based Nintendo Wii training on selected physiological, psychological and functional outcome variables in community-dwelling older adults. In Study I balance control was investigated using force plate analysis of Centre of Pressure (COP) excursion during static bilateral standing in 32 community-dwelling older adults at three different time-points (09:00, 12:30, and 16:00) throughout the day. An overall significant time-of-day effect was observed for all selected COP variables. The greatest change in all COP variables was observed (on average ~15%) between midday (12:30) and the afternoon (16:00), indicating that a systematic time-of-day influence on static postural balance exists in community-dwelling older adults. Consequently, longitudinal (i.e. pre-to-post training) comparisons of postural balance in in older adults with repeated assessments should be conducted at the same time-of-day. In Study II a novel approach for measuring postural balance (using the Nintendo Wii Stillness and Agility tests) was examined for reproducibility and concurrent validity in 30 community-dwelling older adults. While the Nintendo Wii Stillness test showed a high reproducibility, a systematic learning effect between successive sessions was observed for the Agility test. Moderate-to-excellent concurrent validity was seen for the Stillness test. In contrast, the Agility test revealed a poor concurrent validity. In conclusion, the Wii Stillness test seems to represent a low-cost objective reproducible test of postural balance in community-dwelling older adults and appears feasible in various clinical settings. A habituation (familiarization) period is necessary for the Wii Agility test to avoid a systematic learning effect between successive test sessions. Study III investigated the effect of ten

  20. Pragmatism, Pedagogy, and Community Service Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoder, Scot D.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper I explore Goodwin Liu's proposal to ground the pedagogy of service-learning in the epistemology of pragmatism from the perspective of a reflective practitioner. I review Liu's epistemology and his claim that from within it three features common to service-learning--community, diversity, and engagement--become pedagogical virtues. I…

  1. Implementing Service Learning: From Nutrition Education into Community Action

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zinger, Lana; Sinclair, Alicia

    2008-01-01

    Service learning integrates academic learning and relevant community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking and personal civic responsibility. Through a grant, community college students were provided with grocery store vouchers to purchase unfamiliar, healthy foods. Students were taken on an educational…

  2. Service Learning and Community Health Nursing: A Natural Fit.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Marilyn P.; Swanson, Elizabeth

    2002-01-01

    Community health nursing students performed community assessments and proposed and implemented service learning projects that addressed adolescent smoking in middle schools, home safety for elderly persons, industrial worker health, and sexual abuse of teenaged girls. Students learned to apply epidemiological research methods, mobilize resources,…

  3. Community Priorities for Healthy Eating in Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Qianzhi; Cohen, Nancy L; Marra, Melissa Ventura; Woolf, Kathleen; Gilbride, Judith; Francis, Sarah L

    2017-01-01

    Community planners such as policymakers and health care and nutrition service providers can create an "age-friendly" environment to support healthy eating in older residents by addressing the highest priorities that enable older adults to improve their dietary intake through different food-related community settings. To identify and prioritize these factors that facilitate behavioral change (enablers) and behavioral settings important for older adult nutrition based on the social ecological model, nutrition and aging professionals (n = 30) from two rural (West Virginia, Iowa) and two urban (Massachusetts, New York) city/county regions (communities) participated in an online or live focus group discussion and completed an analytic hierarchy process survey online. Overall, the most important perceived enablers were accessibility and cost, followed by transportation and social support, but their relative importance varied by community. Participants from all communities considered congregate meal sites and food banks among the most important behavioral settings. Participants from most communities considered food stores to be important and also highlighted other settings unique to the area, such as senior housing, neighborhood, and farmers' markets. By targeting interventions to address the most notable enablers and behavioral settings specific to their community, planning groups can enhance their older residents' ability to achieve optimal nutritional health.

  4. Learning Resources for Community Education: Design Notes on Delivery Systems.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bhola, H. S.

    A comprehensive and adaptable system of organizational arrangements is proposed in this document that will enable educational planners in Latin American countries to develop and deliver learning resources for community education and community action programs. A three-tier system of learning resources centers for community education is described.…

  5. Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.

    PubMed

    Kue, Jennifer; Thorburn, Sheryl; Keon, Karen Levy

    2015-05-01

    Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women. This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research. We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community. Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner. The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

  6. Retaining the Learning Disabled Adult. A Handbook for Adult Basic Education Instructors.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawkins, Diane, Comp.

    This handbook is designed to address teachers' most common concerns about learning disabilities (LDs) and teaching adults with LDs. Section 1 defines LDs by describing traits that adults with LDs share. Section 2 focuses on identification of students with LDs. LD characteristics are divided into eight categories: academics, speech/language, motor…

  7. Critical and Transformative Practices in Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Servage, Laura

    2008-01-01

    Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been held up as powerful structures for teachers' continuing professional development. In this work, the author has applied transformative learning theory to highlight the psychic risks of collaborative teacher learning, as well as the need for practical efforts to improve student learning--the means…

  8. Developing the Adult Learning Sector: Lot 3: Opening Higher Education to Adults. Contract EAC 2012-0074. English Summary

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dollhausen, Karin; Lattke, Susanne; Scheliga, Felicia; Wolters, Andrä; Spexard, Anna; Geffers, Johannes; Banscherus, Ulf

    2013-01-01

    Widening adult participation in higher education as part of the development of lifelong learning strategies has been promoted by the European Union since the 1990s. Only recently, the 2011 Council resolution on a renewed European agenda for adult learning underlined the need to encourage higher education institutions to embrace adult learners. The…

  9. Learning in a Physics Classroom Community: Physics Learning Identity Construct Development, Measurement and Validation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Sissi L.

    At the university level, introductory science courses usually have high student to teacher ratios which increases the challenge to meaningfully connect with students. Various curricula have been developed in physics education to actively engage students in learning through social interactions with peers and instructors in class. This learning environment demands not only conceptual understanding but also learning to be a scientist. However, the success of student learning is typically measured in test performance and course grades while assessment of student development as science learners is largely ignored. This dissertation addresses this issue with the development of an instrument towards a measure of physics learning identity (PLI) which is used to guide and complement case studies through student interviews and in class observations. Using the conceptual framework based on Etienne Wenger's communities of practice (1998), I examine the relationship between science learning and learning identity from a situated perspective in the context of a large enrollment science class as a community of practice. This conceptual framework emphasizes the central role of identity in the practices negotiated in the classroom community and in the way students figure out their trajectory as members. Using this framework, I seek to understand how the changes in student learning identity are supported by active engagement based instruction. In turn, this understanding can better facilitate the building of a productive learning community and provide a measure for achievement of the curricular learning goals in active engagement strategies. Based on the conceptual framework, I developed and validated an instrument for measuring physics learning identity in terms of student learning preferences, self-efficacy for learning physics, and self-image as a physics learner. The instrument was pilot tested with a population of Oregon State University students taking calculus based

  10. Cultural Narratives: Developing a Three-Dimensional Learning Community through Braided Understanding

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heck, Marsha L.

    2004-01-01

    Paula Underwood's "Learning Stories" braid together body, mind, and spirit to enable understanding that does not easily unravel. They tell of relationships among individual and community learning that parallel other ancient and contemporary ideas about learning in caring communities. Underwood's tradition considers learning sacred; everyone's…

  11. A Review of the Instructional Practices for Promoting Online Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hung, Woei; Flom, Elicia; Manu, Jacob; Mahmoud, Enaz

    2015-01-01

    An effective learning community helps foster positive student learning experiences and outcomes. However, in distance learning environments, the communication barriers inevitably hinder the interaction among the students because of the lower levels of social presence. These barriers present challenges in building learning communities in an online…

  12. Professional Learning Communities Focusing on Results and Data-Use to Improve Student Learning: The Right Implementation Matters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muñoz, Marco A.; Branham, Karen E.

    2016-01-01

    Professional Learning Communities are an important means toward the goal of improving schools so that students can learn at high levels. Professional Learning Communities, when well-implemented, have a laser-focus on learning, work collaboratively, and hold themselves accountable for results. In this article, the central concept of…

  13. Bridging Learning Communities Through Experiential Learning with GIST: 2Y College Experience

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sorey, N.; Phillips, C. D.

    2017-12-01

    This study reviews successes of community engagement through experiential learning with GIST across academic disciplines that leverage topics with technology and community relationships throughout a two-year campus and the community at large. This approach allowed for a diversification of populations reached through college student engagement and community outreach efforts. Technological frameworks and development of best practice resources to support students and faculty were shown to increase the capacity for undergraduate research experiences, K12 short course offerings during the summer, and the formation of a STEM-focused student organization. The RSO has participated in activities that include educational technology development, participating in the growth and development of the area's maker movement community, and geoscience outreach and education. Development of the program thus far and lessons learned have resulted in a proposal for an areal-based informal pathway linking the K12 community to area colleges by integrating geoscience outreach with GIST through the maker movement.

  14. Discovering Our Delta: A Learning Guide for Community Research. Teacher Guide [and] Student Community Research Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies.

    This teacher guide and student community research guide unit are intended to help students learn to conduct research in their community and to communicate the results of that research to classmates and others. The unit, which can be used in conjunction with a video, helps students learn about community research, oral history, and folklore…

  15. Artificial Grammar Learning in Dyslexic and Nondyslexic Adults: Implications for Orthographic Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Samara, Anna; Caravolas, Markéta

    2017-01-01

    Potential implicit orthographic learning deficits were investigated in adults with dyslexia. An artificial grammar learning paradigm served to assess dyslexic and typical readers' ability to exploit information about chunk frequency, letter-position patterns, and specific string similarity, all of which have analogous constructs in real…

  16. Adult Play-Learning: Observing Informal Family Education at a Science Museum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kanhadilok, Peeranut; Watts, Mike

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses some of the issues surrounding the nature of adult play. More specifically, we explore "family play-learning", where play activities result in forms of added knowledge or insight for the adults involved. Adult play itself is an under-researched area, and play-learning even more so. We discuss related research and, in…

  17. Planning for Technology Integration in a Professional Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thoma, Jennifer; Hutchison, Amy; Johnson, Debra; Johnson, Kurt; Stromer, Elizabeth

    2017-01-01

    Barriers to technology integration in instruction include a lack of time, resources, and professional development. One potential approach to overcoming these barriers is through collaborative work, or professional learning communities. This article focuses on one group of teachers who leveraged their professional learning community to focus on…

  18. Teaching & Learning in the Community College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Banion, Terry; And Others

    Based on the premise that the purpose of teaching is to help students make passionate connections to learning, this book presents information on the context of teaching and learning in the community college, model practices and programs, and outcomes of effective teaching for teachers and institutions. The following 16 chapters are provided: (1)…

  19. Statistical learning of novel graphotactic constraints in children and adults.

    PubMed

    Samara, Anna; Caravolas, Markéta

    2014-05-01

    The current study explored statistical learning processes in the acquisition of orthographic knowledge in school-aged children and skilled adults. Learning of novel graphotactic constraints on the position and context of letter distributions was induced by means of a two-phase learning task adapted from Onishi, Chambers, and Fisher (Cognition, 83 (2002) B13-B23). Following incidental exposure to pattern-embedding stimuli in Phase 1, participants' learning generalization was tested in Phase 2 with legality judgments about novel conforming/nonconforming word-like strings. Test phase performance was above chance, suggesting that both types of constraints were reliably learned even after relatively brief exposure. As hypothesized, signal detection theory d' analyses confirmed that learning permissible letter positions (d'=0.97) was easier than permissible neighboring letter contexts (d'=0.19). Adults were more accurate than children in all but a strict analysis of the contextual constraints condition. Consistent with the statistical learning perspective in literacy, our results suggest that statistical learning mechanisms contribute to children's and adults' acquisition of knowledge about graphotactic constraints similar to those existing in their orthography. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Physical activity level and fall risk among community-dwelling older adults.

    PubMed

    Low, Sok Teng; Balaraman, Thirumalaya

    2017-07-01

    [Purpose] To find the physical activity level and fall risk among the community-dwelling Malaysian older adults and determine the correlation between them. [Subjects and Methods] A cross-sectional study was conducted in which, the physical activity level was evaluated using the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity questionnaire and fall risk with Fall Risk Assessment Tool. Subjects recruited were 132 community-dwelling Malaysian older adults using the convenience sampling method. [Results] The majority of the participants were under the category of under-active regular light-activities and most of them reported low fall risk. The statistical analysis using Fisher's exact test did not show a significant correlation between physical activity level and fall risk. [Conclusion] The majority of community-dwelling Malaysian older adults are performing some form of physical activity and in low fall risk category. But this study did not find any significant correlation between physical activity level and fall risk among community-dwelling older adults in Malaysia.

  1. From Hamburg to Belem: The Limits of Technocratic Thinking in Adult Learning Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Torres, Carlos Alberto

    2015-01-01

    This article discusses some of the generalized analyses of adult learning education, mostly informed by technocratic thinking, highlighting perceived trends in adult learning education between CONFINTEA V and CONFITEA VI. Those trends could be understood as challenges. Employing a political sociology of adult learning education as a critique of…

  2. A Theoretical Basis for Adult Learning Facilitation: Review of Selected Articles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muneja, Mussa S.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to synthesize a theoretical basis for adult learning facilitation in order to provide a valuable systematic resource in the field of adult education. The paper has reviewed 6 journal articles with topics ranging from theory of andragogy; the effect of globalization on adult learning; the contribution of Malcolm Knowles;…

  3. Informed Faith and Reason: A Perspective on Learning Community Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DeIuliis, David

    2015-01-01

    The curriculum of each learning community at Duquesne University is integrated around a shared theme. The integrated classes equip students to articulate their biases in reference to the theme. The residual effect of the thematic communities is a byproduct of pedagogy informed by theory and embodied in service. The learning communities at Duquesne…

  4. Name and face learning in older adults: effects of level of processing, self-generation, and intention to learn.

    PubMed

    Troyer, Angela K; Häfliger, Andrea; Cadieux, Mélanie J; Craik, Fergus I M

    2006-03-01

    Many older adults are interested in strategies to help them learn new names. We examined the learning conditions that provide maximal benefit to name and face learning. In Experiment 1, consistent with levels-of-processing theory, name recall and recognition by 20 younger and 20 older adults was poorest with physical processing, intermediate with phonemic processing, and best with semantic processing. In Experiment 2, name and face learning in 20 younger and 20 older adults was maximized with semantic processing of names and physical processing of faces. Experiment 3 showed a benefit of self-generation and of intentional learning of name-face pairs in 24 older adults. Findings suggest that memory interventions should emphasize processing names semantically, processing faces physically, self-generating this information, and keeping in mind that memory for the names will be needed in the future.

  5. Evaluating the Implementation of Professional Learning Communities over Time

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Monceaux, Matthew C.

    2017-01-01

    Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become a popular reform initiative for schools looking to increase student achievement. School district officials can find it difficult to implement and sustain Professional Learning Communities as some teachers are not accustomed to the levels of collaboration with peers involved. If implemented and…

  6. Social incentives improve deliberative but not procedural learning in older adults.

    PubMed

    Gorlick, Marissa A; Maddox, W Todd

    2015-01-01

    Age-related deficits are seen across tasks where learning depends on asocial feedback processing, however plasticity has been observed in some of the same tasks in social contexts suggesting a novel way to attenuate deficits. Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests this plasticity is due to a deliberative motivational shift toward achieving well-being with age (positivity effect) that reverses when executive processes are limited (negativity effect). The present study examined the interaction of feedback valence (positive, negative) and social salience (emotional face feedback - happy; angry, asocial point feedback - gain; loss) on learning in a deliberative task that challenges executive processes and a procedural task that does not. We predict that angry face feedback will improve learning in a deliberative task when executive function is challenged. We tested two competing hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of deliberative emotional biases on automatic feedback processing: (1) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are interactive we expect happy face feedback to improve learning and angry face feedback to impair learning in older adults because cognitive control is available. (2) If deliberative emotion regulation and automatic feedback are not interactive we predict that emotional face feedback will not improve procedural learning regardless of valence. Results demonstrate that older adults show persistent deficits relative to younger adults during procedural category learning suggesting that deliberative emotional biases do not interact with automatic feedback processing. Interestingly, a subgroup of older adults identified as potentially using deliberative strategies tended to learn as well as younger adults with angry relative to happy feedback, matching the pattern observed in the deliberative task. Results suggest that deliberative emotional biases can improve deliberative learning, but have no effect on procedural learning.

  7. E-Learning Teams and Their Adult Learning Efforts in Corporate Settings: A Cross Analysis of Four Case Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stewart, Barbara; Waight, Consuelo

    2008-01-01

    Four cases relating to the efforts of e-learning teams in valuing adult learners in their e-learning solutions were examined to better understand how e-learning teams value their adult learners within corporate settings. Two questions guided the analysis of the cases, they are: (1) What is the nature of the e-learning solutions in these cases? (2)…

  8. The impact of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students

    PubMed Central

    Champaloux, Eve Privman; Keeley, Meg G.

    2016-01-01

    Background Medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA) are mentored and learn within the framework of a four college learning community. Uniquely, these learning communities are used to organize the third-year clerkship rotations. Methods Students were surveyed after their first pre-clinical year and after their clerkship year to determine what the effect of the learning community was on their social and educational interpersonal relationships. Results Students knew a higher percentage of their college mates after completing their third-year clerkships within the framework of the college system. Students chose peers from within the college system for social and educational interpersonal scenarios statistically more often than what would be expected at random. Small group learning environments that were not formed within the framework of the college system at UVA did not have the same effect on interpersonal relationships, indicating that learning communities are uniquely able to provide a context for relationship building. Students felt more positively about the social and educational effects of the college system after the clerkship year, with a corresponding increase in the strength of their interpersonal bonds with their college peers. Conclusion This work is the first to investigate the effects of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students and finds that learning communities positively impact both social and educational medical student bonds. PMID:27806828

  9. The impact of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students.

    PubMed

    Champaloux, Eve Privman; Keeley, Meg G

    2016-01-01

    Medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA) are mentored and learn within the framework of a four college learning community. Uniquely, these learning communities are used to organize the third-year clerkship rotations. Students were surveyed after their first pre-clinical year and after their clerkship year to determine what the effect of the learning community was on their social and educational interpersonal relationships. Students knew a higher percentage of their college mates after completing their third-year clerkships within the framework of the college system. Students chose peers from within the college system for social and educational interpersonal scenarios statistically more often than what would be expected at random. Small group learning environments that were not formed within the framework of the college system at UVA did not have the same effect on interpersonal relationships, indicating that learning communities are uniquely able to provide a context for relationship building. Students felt more positively about the social and educational effects of the college system after the clerkship year, with a corresponding increase in the strength of their interpersonal bonds with their college peers. This work is the first to investigate the effects of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students and finds that learning communities positively impact both social and educational medical student bonds.

  10. Exploring the Self-concept of Adults with Mild Learning Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pestana, Claudio

    2015-01-01

    This qualitative study aimed to add to the research on the self-concept of adults with mild learning disabilities and to generate a deeper understanding of their self-perceptions rather than draw generalised quantitative conclusions. Eight adults diagnosed with mild learning disabilities receiving support from a supported living project were…

  11. Online Education and Adult Learning: New Frontiers for Teaching Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kidd, Terry T., Ed.

    2010-01-01

    The expanding field of adult learning encompasses the study and practice of utilizing sound instructional design principals, technology, and learning theory as a means to solve educational challenges and human performance issues relating to adults, often occurring online. This book disseminates current issues and trends emerging in the field of…

  12. Teaching Leadership to First-Year Students in a Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nahavandi, Afsaneh

    2006-01-01

    This paper discusses a model for teaching leadership to first-year students as part of a learning community. It outlines the purpose and structure of the course and presents ideas for how different disciplines could be combined with leadership in learning communities. Teaching leadership to first-year students as part of a learning community…

  13. Learning Cities for All: Directions to a New Adult Education and Learning Movement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scott, Leodis

    2015-01-01

    This chapter features a conceptual framework that considers the practical characteristics of learning cities, pointing to the field of adult and continuing education to lead a movement for the purposes of education, learning, and engagement for all.

  14. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Volume 13, Number 1, Fall 2006

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Howard, Jeffrey, Ed.

    2006-01-01

    The "Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning" ("MJCSL") is a national, peer-reviewed journal consisting of articles written by faculty and service-learning educators on research, theory, pedagogy, and issues pertinent to the service-learning community. The "MJCSL" aims to: (1) widen the community of…

  15. Principles of Design Energize Learning Communities: Practical Tips Put the Emphasis on "Learning"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Easton, Lois Brown

    2012-01-01

    Adult learning is essential in schools. Learning Forward's Scholar Laureate Shirley Hord observes, "The improvement of our schools seldom results from mandates. What has become very clear is that change (its adoption and implementation) cannot occur without the provision of ongoing and long-term learning for the professionals" (Hord, 2011, p. xv).…

  16. Community Agency Voice and Benefit in Service-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miron, Devi; Moely, Barbara E.

    2006-01-01

    Supervisors from 40 community agencies working with a university-based service-learning program were interviewed regarding the extent of their input in service-learning program planning and implementation "(Agency Voice), Interpersonal Relations" with service-learning students, "Perceived Benefit" of the service-learning…

  17. Accelerated Schools as Professional Learning Communities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biddle, Julie K.

    The goal of the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) is to develop schools in which all children achieve at high levels and all members of the school community engage in developing and fulfilling the school's vision. But to fully implement the ASP model, a school must become a learning community that stresses relationships, shared values, and a…

  18. Virtual Learning Communities Centered within a Discipline: Future Directions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blanchard, Anita L.; Cook, James R.

    2012-01-01

    Over a decade ago, Lenning and Ebbers (1999) envisioned that information and computer technology (ICT) could be used to create virtual learning communities (VLCs) as a "future" form of learning communities. Indeed, almost all academic departments--including psychology--depend heavily on the use of ICT to create and sustain connections among…

  19. Education of Older Adults in Communities with Varying Levels of Well-Being

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krašovec, Sabina Jelenc; Kump, Sonja

    2014-01-01

    This article deals with the education of older adults in communities with different levels of well-being. We are interested in whether the educational offerings for older adults depend on the well-being of the local community. We also examine how the educational offerings differ depending on whether the community is primarily rural or urban. In…

  20. Learning of grammar-like visual sequences by adults with and without language-learning disabilities.

    PubMed

    Aguilar, Jessica M; Plante, Elena

    2014-08-01

    Two studies examined learning of grammar-like visual sequences to determine whether a general deficit in statistical learning characterizes this population. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis that difficulty in sustaining attention during the learning task might account for differences in statistical learning. In Study 1, adults with normal language (NL) or language-learning disability (LLD) were familiarized with the visual artificial grammar and then tested using items that conformed or deviated from the grammar. In Study 2, a 2nd sample of adults with NL and LLD were presented auditory word pairs with weak semantic associations (e.g., groom + clean) along with the visual learning task. Participants were instructed to attend to visual sequences and to ignore the auditory stimuli. Incidental encoding of these words would indicate reduced attention to the primary task. In Studies 1 and 2, both groups demonstrated learning and generalization of the artificial grammar. In Study 2, neither the NL nor the LLD group appeared to encode the words presented during the learning phase. The results argue against a general deficit in statistical learning for individuals with LLD and demonstrate that both NL and LLD learners can ignore extraneous auditory stimuli during visual learning.

  1. Adult Learning Development in Poland in the 20th Century

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boiarska-Khomenko, Anna

    2017-01-01

    The article presents a retrospective analysis of adult learning development in Poland in the 20th century. Based on the study and analysis of historical and pedagogical literature, normative documents of the official bodies of Polish government, the periodical press of the 20th century, several stages of adult learning development, in the…

  2. Specific Quality Criteria for Research Papers on Adults Learning Mathematics?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wedege, Tine

    2009-01-01

    Since 1997, the identity of the research field of adults learning mathematics has been debated; the research field has grown in quantity and quality; and the research forum Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM) has established an international journal. In practice, the researchers answer the question about identity and quality of research papers in…

  3. Adult Learning and Development. Perspectives from Educational Psychology. The Educational Psychology Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, M. Cecil, Ed.; Pourchot, Thomas, Ed.

    Leading educational psychologists address problems in adult development and learning in this book. "What Does Educational Psychology Know about Adult Learning and Development?" (M. Cecil Smith, Thomas Pourchot) is the introduction. "We Learn, Therefore We Develop" (Nira Granott) tackles the problem of distinguishing between…

  4. A Case for Community: Starting with Relationships and Prioritizing Community as Method in Service-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morton, Keith; Bergbauer, Samantha

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes an eight-year service-learning experiment that created four distinct spaces in which campus and community members meet, reflect, and act together. This work explores the tensions between traditional and critical service-learning, and points to the importance of building relationships with members of local communities and…

  5. Learning-Within-Relationship as Context and Process in Adult Education: Impact on Transformative Learning and Social Change Agency.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barlas, Carole

    The impact of adult learning-within-relationship on transformative learning and social change agency was explored in a descriptive case study of the learning experiences of 20 adults who identified themselves as significantly transformed by their participation in a doctoral program. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify…

  6. Learning-style preferences of Latino/Hispanic community college students enrolled in an introductory biology course

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarantopoulos, Helen D.

    Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify, according to the Productivity Environment Preference Survey (PEPS) instrument, which learning-style domains (environmental, emotional, sociological, and physiological) were favored among Latino/Hispanic community college students enrolled in introductory biology classes in a large, urban community college. An additional purpose of this study was to determine whether statistically significant differences existed between the learning-style preferences and the demographic variables of age, gender, number of prior science courses, second language learner status, and earlier exposure to scientific information. Methodology. The study design was descriptive and ex post facto. The sample consisted of a total of 332 Latino/Hispanic students enrolled in General Biology 3. Major findings. The study revealed that Latino/Hispanic students enrolled in introductory biology at a large urban community college scored higher for the learning preference element of structure. Students twenty-five years and older scored higher for the learning preference elements of light, design, persistence, responsibility, and morning time (p <= 0.05). Females scored higher in the preference elements of (a) light, (b) temperature (warmth), (c) authority and (d) auditory (p <= 0.05). Significant differences were found for the elements of sound, warmth, motivation, several ways, and intake between the students with no prior science coursework and those who completed more than one (p <= 0.05). No significant learning-style preferences were found between second English language learners and those who learned English as their primary language (p <= 0.05). Students who frequently read science articles scored higher for the elements of motivation, persistence, responsibility, and tactile (p <= 0.05). Conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions were that Latino/Hispanic students need detailed guidance and clearly stated course objectives. The

  7. Community Language Learning and Counseling-Learning. TEAL Occasional Papers, Vol. l, 1977.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Soga, Lillian

    Community Language Learning (CLL) is a humanistic approach to learning which emphasizes the learner and learning rather than the teacher and teaching. In some situations where the teacher is not fluent in the various languages spoken by the students, such as in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom, advanced students may serve as…

  8. How name descriptiveness impacts proper name learning in young and older adults.

    PubMed

    Fogler, Kethera A; James, Lori E; Crandall, Elizabeth A

    2010-09-01

    To elucidate the impact of name descriptiveness and aging on learning new names, 26 young and 26 healthy older participants learned visibly-descriptive (e.g., Lengthy for a giraffe), psychologically-descriptive (e.g., Classy), and non-descriptive (e.g., Sam) proper names for previously-unknown cartoon characters. More visibly-descriptive names were learned than psychologically- or non-descriptive names, which did not differ from each other. There was also a differential benefit for older adults when the name was visibly-descriptive of the referent, such that older adults learned visibly-descriptive names as well as young adults but there were substantial age-related deficits in learning psychologically- and non-descriptive names.

  9. Academic Performance and the Practice of Self-Directed Learning: The Adult Student Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khiat, Henry

    2017-01-01

    The practice of self-directed learning is important to adult students as it allows them to learn effectively while juggling work, family and other commitments. This study set out to examine the self-directed learning characteristics present in the adult students' study process at the case university. The relationship between the adult students'…

  10. Recommendations from the Field: Creating an LGBTQ Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jaekel, Kathryn S.

    2015-01-01

    This article details the creation of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) learning community. Created because of research that indicates chilly campus climates (Rankin, 2005), as well as particular needs of LGBTQ students in the classroom, this learning community focused upon LGBTQ topics in and out of the classroom. While…

  11. Is Adult & Community Education for Active Citizenship Important for Community Engagement by Government?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tobias, Robert

    2009-01-01

    This article builds on a previous submission to the New Zealand government's Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector. It reviews the very long history of adult and community education (ACE) for active citizenship. It illustrates some ways in which ACE organizations and groups have contributed to attempts by the state and its agencies to…

  12. The effects of emotion on younger and older adults' monitoring of learning.

    PubMed

    Tauber, Sarah K; Dunlosky, John; Urry, Heather L; Opitz, Philipp C

    2017-09-01

    Age-related differences in memory monitoring appear when people learn emotional words. Namely, younger adults' judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for positive than neutral words, whereas older adults' JOLs do not discriminate between positive versus neutral words. In two experiments, we evaluated whether this age-related difference extends to learning positive versus neutral pictures. We also evaluated the contribution of two dimensions of emotion that may impact younger and older adults' JOLs: valence and arousal. Younger and older adults studied pictures that were positive or neutral and either high or low in arousal. Participants made immediate JOLs and completed memory tests. In both experiments, the magnitude of older adults' JOLs was influenced by emotion, and both younger and older adults demonstrated an emotional salience effect on JOLs. As important, the magnitude of participants' JOLs was influenced by valence, and not arousal. Emotional salience effects were also evident on participants' free recall, and older adults recalled as many pictures as did younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that older adults do not have a monitoring deficit when learning positive (vs. neutral) pictures and that emotional salience effects on younger and older adults' JOLs are produced more by valence than by arousal.

  13. The Adult Learning Open University Determinants (ALOUD) Study: Biological and Psychological Factors Associated with Learning Performance in Adult Distance Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Neroni, Joyce; Gijselaers, Hieronymus J. M.; Kirschner, Paul A.; Groot, Renate H. M.

    2015-01-01

    Learning is crucial for everyone. The association between biological (eg, sleep, nutrition) and psychological factors (eg, test anxiety, goal orientation) and learning performance has been well established for children, adolescents and college students in traditional education. Evidence for these associations for adult distance students is lacking…

  14. A Real Community Bridge: Informing Community-Based Learning through a Model of Participatory Public Art

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stephens, Pamela Geiger

    2006-01-01

    Community-based learning has the power to encourage and sustain the intellectual curiosity of learners. By most accounts, community-based learning is a process that creates a collaborative environment of scholarship that holds individual differences, as well as similarities, in high esteem. It is a process, as the phrase suggests, that extends…

  15. Learning about population-health through a community practice learning project: An evaluation study.

    PubMed

    Davenport, Maggie; Ooms, Ann; Marks-Maran, Di

    2016-03-01

    Increasing student nurse numbers requiring community placement learning opportunities has led to insufficient numbers of community nurses being available to support student nurses in the community. Although the study presented in the article is based in the UK this issue is reported widely in the literature across the globe. Universities in many countries have had to find innovative ways of providing community health learning opportunities for student nurses. This article reports on how one university in the UK has approached this challenge through students engaging in a population-based study in the community through group work. A research study was undertaken into this innovation which found that the student nurses engaged well with the project and with their groups and undertaking the project had positive value and impact on them and their understanding of population-health. Issues that arose for them largely focused on unequal participation in the group work by some with many participants perceiving that they had done more work on the group project and presentation than others in their group. However, working in this way was perceived to be a good learning experience for the majority of participants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Living-Learning Communities and Independent Higher Education. Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Research Brief 4

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Katz, Philip M.

    2015-01-01

    Living-learning communities combine curricular, co-curricular, and residential components of college life. They are a relatively new variation on the residential education that has been part of the undergraduate experience at America's independent colleges and universities for centuries. Research suggests that living-learning communities have a…

  17. Investigating Professional Learning Communities in Turkish Schools: The Effects of Contextual Factors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bellibas, Mehmet Sukru; Bulut, Okan; Gedik, Serafettin

    2017-01-01

    A great number of studies have focused on professional learning communities in schools, but only a limited number of studies have treated the construct of professional learning communities as a dependent variable. The purpose of this research is to investigate Turkish schools' capacity for supporting professional learning communities and to…

  18. Residential Learning Communities. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

    2014-01-01

    Residential learning communities in postsecondary education, also known as living-learning programs, aim to improve student learning and success by integrating students' academic and daily living environments. Students participating in these programs live together (usually in a residential dormitory), take certain classes together, and engage in…

  19. Teacher Agency and Professional Learning Communities; What Can Learning Rounds in Scotland Teach Us?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Philpott, Carey; Oates, Catriona

    2017-01-01

    Recently there has been growth in researching teacher agency. Some research has considered the relationship between teacher agency and professional learning. Similarly, there has been growing interest in professional learning communities as resources for professional learning. Connections have been made between professional learning communities…

  20. Older adults' home- and community-based care service use and residential transitions: a longitudinal study.

    PubMed

    Chen, Ya-Mei; Berkowitz, Bobbie

    2012-08-10

    As Home-and Community-Based Services (HCBS), such as skilled nursing services or personal care services, have become increasingly available, it has become clear that older adults transit through different residential statuses over time. Older adults may transit through different residential statuses as the various services meet their needs. The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand the interplay between community-dwelling older adults' use of home- and community-based services and their residential transitions. The study compared HCBS service-use patterns and residential transitions of 3,085 older adults from the Second Longitudinal Study of Aging. Based on older adults' residential status at the three follow-up interviews, four residential transitions were tracked: (1) Community-Community-Community (CCC: Resided in community during the entire study period); (2) Community-Institution-Community (CIC: Resided in community at T1, had lived in an institution at some time between T1 and T2, then had returned to community by T3); (3) Community-Community-Institution (CCI: Resided in community between at T1, and betweenT1 and T2, including at T2, but had used institutional services between T2 and T3); (4) Community-Institution-Institution (CII: Resided in community at T1 but in an institution at some time between T1 and T2, and at some time between T2 and T3.). Older adults' use of nondiscretionary and discretionary services differed significantly among the four groups, and the patterns of HCBS use among these groups were also different. Older adults' use of nondiscretionary services, such as skilled nursing care, may help them to return to communities from institutions. Personal care services (PCS) and senior center services may be the key to either support elders to stay in communities longer or help elders to return to their communities from institutions. Different combinations of PCS with other services, such as senior center services or meal

  1. Vicarious Learning and Reduction of Fear in Children via Adult and Child Models.

    PubMed

    Dunne, Güler; Askew, Chris

    2017-06-01

    Children can learn to fear stimuli vicariously, by observing adults' or peers' responses to them. Given that much of school-age children's time is typically spent with their peers, it is important to establish whether fear learning from peers is as effective or robust as learning from adults, and also whether peers can be successful positive models for reducing fear. During a vicarious fear learning procedure, children (6 to 10 years; N = 60) were shown images of novel animals together with images of adult or peer faces expressing fear. Later they saw their fear-paired animal again together with positive emotional adult or peer faces. Children's fear beliefs and avoidance for the animals increased following vicarious fear learning and decreased following positive vicarious counterconditioning. There was little evidence of differences in learning from adults and peers, demonstrating that for this age group peer models are effective models for both fear acquisition and reduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. The Dynamics of Team Characteristics within Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morr, Shelly D.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if Professional Learning Communities in elementary schools that have strong evidence of the five dimensions of a Professional Learning Community have a higher degree of teamness than those schools that do not have strong evidence. Methodology: Using a descriptive and ex post facto study, the…

  3. An Online Learning Community for Beginning In-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taranto, Gregory A.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating an online learning community as part of a comprehensive new teacher induction program. First, the researcher created an online learning community model based on the results of a comprehensive review of literature and from the previous year's…

  4. Creating Small Learning Communities: Lessons from the Project on High-Performing Learning Communities about "What Works" in Creating Productive, Developmentally Enhancing, Learning Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Felner, Robert D.; Seitsinger, Anne M.; Brand, Stephen; Burns, Amy; Bolton, Natalie

    2007-01-01

    Personalizing the school environment is a central goal of efforts to transform America's schools. Three decades of work by the Project on High Performance Learning Communities are considered that demonstrate the potential impact and importance of the creation of "small learning environments" on student motivation, adjustment, and well-being.…

  5. Impaired fear extinction learning in adult heterozygous BDNF knock-out mice.

    PubMed

    Psotta, Laura; Lessmann, Volkmar; Endres, Thomas

    2013-07-01

    Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a crucial regulator of neuroplasticity, which underlies learning and memory processes in different brain areas. To investigate the role of BDNF in the extinction of amygdala-dependent cued fear memories, we analyzed fear extinction learning in heterozygous BDNF knock-out mice, which possess a reduction of endogenous BDNF protein levels to ~50% of wild-type animals. Since BDNF expression has been shown to decline with aging of animals, we tested the performance in extinction learning of these mice at 2 months (young adults) and 7 months (older adults) of age. The present study shows that older adult heterozygous BDNF knock-out mice, which have a chronic 50% lack of BDNF, also possess a deficit in the acquisition of extinction memory, while extinction learning remains unaffected in young adult heterozygous BDNF knock-out mice. This deficit in extinction learning is accompanied by a reduction of BDNF protein in the hippocampus, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Neurogenesis enhancer RO 25-6981 facilitates repeated spatial learning in adult rats.

    PubMed

    Soloviova, O A; Proshin, A T; Storozheva, Z I; Sherstnev, V V

    2012-09-01

    The effects of Ro 25-6981 (selective NMDA receptor blocker) in a dose stimulating neurogenesis on repeated learning, reversal learning, and memory reconsolidation were studied in adult rats in Morris water maze. Ro 25-6981 facilitated repeated learning 13 days after injection, but did not influence reversal learning. The blocker injected directly before reminder did not disturb repeated learning and reversal learning in Morris water maze. These effects of Ro 25-6981 on the dynamics of repeated learning seemed to be due to its effects on neurogenesis processes in adult brain.

  7. Community-Embedded Learning Experiences: Putting the Pedagogy of Service-Learning to Work in Online Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Becnel, Kim; Moeller, Robin A.

    2017-01-01

    This paper considers the applicability and adaptability of service-learning pedagogy to online and distance education teaching environments. More specifically, it looks at the community-embedded learning model (CEL), which asks distance students to conduct service projects in their local communities, as manifested in a project undertaken by online…

  8. Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis Modulates Fear Learning through Associative and Nonassociative Mechanisms

    PubMed Central

    Seo, Dong-oh; Carillo, Mary Ann; Chih-Hsiung Lim, Sean; Tanaka, Kenji F.

    2015-01-01

    Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is believed to support hippocampus-dependent learning and emotional regulation. These putative functions of adult neurogenesis have typically been studied in isolation, and little is known about how they interact to produce adaptive behavior. We used trace fear conditioning as a model system to elucidate mechanisms through which adult hippocampal neurogenesis modulates processing of aversive experience. To achieve a specific ablation of neurogenesis, we generated transgenic mice that express herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase specifically in neural progenitors and immature neurons. Intracerebroventricular injection of the prodrug ganciclovir caused a robust suppression of neurogenesis without suppressing gliogenesis. Neurogenesis ablation via this method or targeted x-irradiation caused an increase in context conditioning in trace but not delay fear conditioning. Data suggest that this phenotype represents opposing effects of neurogenesis ablation on associative and nonassociative components of fear learning. Arrest of neurogenesis sensitizes mice to nonassociative effects of fear conditioning, as evidenced by increased anxiety-like behavior in the open field after (but not in the absence of) fear conditioning. In addition, arrest of neurogenesis impairs associative trace conditioning, but this impairment can be masked by nonassociative fear. The results suggest that adult neurogenesis modulates emotional learning via two distinct but opposing mechanisms: it supports associative trace conditioning while also buffering against the generalized fear and anxiety caused by fear conditioning. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in fear learning is controversial, with some studies suggesting neurogenesis is needed for aspects of fear learning and others suggesting it is dispensable. We generated transgenic mice in which neural progenitors can be selectively and inducibly ablated. Our data suggest that adult

  9. The Relationship between Elements of Professional Learning Communities and Collective Efficacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dockery, Kim P.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the relationship between levels of implementation of professional learning communities and Collective Efficacy. More specifically, the study sought to determine the relationship between the levels of implementation of dimensions of professional learning communities (Learning, Collaboration…

  10. Civil Society, Adult Learning and Action in India.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tandon, Rajesh

    2000-01-01

    Five case studies of individual and collective learning projects in India demonstrate that (1) the impetus for civic action arises from local conditions; (2) transformative action requires sustained adult learning; and (3) civil society is a complex concept reflecting diverse priorities and perspectives. (SK)

  11. Increasing Student Metacognition and Learning through Classroom-Based Learning Communities and Self-Assessment †

    PubMed Central

    Siegesmund, Amy

    2016-01-01

    Student overconfidence challenges success in introductory biology. This study examined the impact of classroom learning communities and self-assessment on student metacognition and subsequent impact on student epistemological beliefs, behaviors, and learning. Students wrote weekly self-assessments reflecting on the process of learning and received individual feedback. Students completed a learning strategies inventory focused on metacognition and study behaviors at the beginning and end of the semester and a Student Assessment of their Learning Gains (SALG) at the end of the semester. Results indicated significant changes in both metacognition and study behaviors over the course of the semester, with a positive impact on learning as determined by broad and singular measures. Self-assessments and SALG data demonstrated a change in student beliefs and behaviors. Taken together, these findings argue that classroom learning communities and self-assessment can increase student metacognition and change student epistemological beliefs and behaviors. PMID:27158301

  12. Action Learning: Images and Pathways. Professional Practices in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dilworth, Robert L.; Willis, Verna J.

    This book provides information and strategies on how adult educators can integrate action learning concepts in their teaching practice. The book defines action learning as going beyond the traditional idea of "learn by doing" and applies it to various organizational cultures and educational contexts. Chapter 1 introduces the origins of action…

  13. Community Service Learning Increases Communication Skills across the Business Curriculum.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tucker, Mary L.; McCarthy, Anne M.; Hoxmeier, John A.; Lenk, Margarita M.

    1998-01-01

    Defines community service learning. Discusses its importance to business and higher education. Describes three community service learning projects involving three departments in the college business curriculum: (1) partnering among public schools, junior achievement, and management classes; (2) between nonprofit organizations and computer…

  14. Community Garden: A Bridging Program between Formal and Informal Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Datta, Ranjan

    2016-01-01

    Community garden activities can play a significant role in bridging formal and informal learning, particularly in urban children's science and environmental education. It promotes relational methods of learning, discussing, and practicing that will integrate food security, social interactions, community development, environmental activism, and…

  15. Educating the adult brain: How the neuroscience of learning can inform educational policy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knowland, Victoria C. P.; Thomas, Michael S. C.

    2014-05-01

    The acquisition of new skills in adulthood can positively affect an individual's quality of life, including their earning potential. In some cases, such as the learning of literacy in developing countries, it can provide an avenue to escape from poverty. In developed countries, job retraining in adulthood contributes to the flexibility of labour markets. For all adults, learning opportunities increase participation in society and family life. However, the popular view is that adults are less able to learn for an intrinsic reason: their brains are less plastic than in childhood. This article reviews what is currently known from neuroscientific research about how brain plasticity changes with age, with a particular focus on the ability to acquire new skills in adulthood. Anchoring their review in the examples of the adult acquisition of literacy and new motor skills, the authors address five specific questions: (1) Are sensitive periods in brain development relevant to learning complex educational skills like literacy? (2) Can adults become proficient in a new skill? (3) Can everyone learn equally effectively in adulthood? (4) What is the role of the learning environment? (5) Does adult education cost too much? They identify areas where further research is needed and conclude with a summary of principles for enhancing adult learning now established on a neuroscience foundation.

  16. Community Schools: Improving Student Learning/Strengthening Schools, Families, and Communities. A Handbook for State Policy Leaders.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coalition for Community Schools, Washington, DC.

    This handbook is designed to help state leaders form vital connections between schools and communities to improve student learning. It explains that community schools are beneficial because they meet students' basic needs, including safety; offer high quality curriculum and teaching aligned with academic standards; provide learning experiences…

  17. Metacognitive Training at Home: Does It Improve Older Adults' Learning?

    PubMed Central

    Bailey, Heather; Dunlosky, John; Hertzog, Christopher

    2010-01-01

    Background Previous research has described the success of an intervention aimed at improving older adults' ability to regulate their learning. This metacognitive approach involves teaching older adults to allocate their study time more efficiently by testing themselves and restudying items that are less well learned. Objective Although this type of memory intervention has shown promise, training older adults to test themselves in the laboratory can be very time-intensive. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to transport the self-testing training method from the laboratory to home use. Methods A standard intervention design was used that included a pretraining session, multiple training sessions, and a posttraining session. Participants were randomly assigned to either the training group (n = 29) or the waiting list control group (n = 27). Moreover, we screened participants for whether they used the self-testing strategy during their pretraining test session. Results Compared to the performance of the control group, the training group displayed significant gains, which demonstrates that older adults can benefit from training themselves to use these skills at home. Moreover, the results of the present study indicate that this metacognitive approach can effectively improve older adults' learning, even in those who spontaneously self-test prior to training. Conclusions Training metacognitive skills, such as self-testing and efficient study allocation, can improve the ability to learn new information in healthy older adults. More importantly, older adult clients can be supplied with an at-home training manual, which will ease the burden on practitioners. PMID:20016124

  18. Providing Deep Learning through Active Engagement of Adult Learners in Blended Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDonough, Darlene

    2014-01-01

    Malcolm Knowles (2011) indicates that adult learners are most likely to be actively engaged in learning when they are given some choice and control over the learning process. When the curriculum relates to the adult learner's interests, is individualized, and authentic; the adult learner becomes actively engaged in the process by making a…

  19. Learning Style Patterns among Special Needs Adult Students at King Saud University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alshuaibi, Abdulrahman

    2017-01-01

    Few studies of learning styles among adults with special needs exist worldwide. Even though there are large numbers of adults with special needs, this population in university education has been largely ignored in educational research. Therefore, this study aimed to gather and analyze learning styles of adult special needs students and to provide…

  20. Active Adult Lives for Persons with Learning Disabilities--The Perspectives of Professionals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Witsø, Aud Elisabeth; Kittelsaa, Anna M.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Living active adult lives is both a value and a right, but the right to do so is associated with restrictions among adults with learning disabilities. This research aimed to capture professionals' understanding and perception of active adult living for people with learning disabilities living in clustered housing in a Norwegian…

  1. Enhanced Learning through Electronic Communities: A Research Review.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burgstahler, Sheryl; Swift, Catherine

    This report, in support of the project "Enhanced Learning through Electronic Communities," investigated successful practices of electronic communities. A literature review was conducted and a survey was sent to 15 system operators of networks that had a community-based focus with ancillary educational components and networks that focused primarily…

  2. Keeping Kids Smokefree: Lessons Learned on Community Participation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Charlier, N.; Glover, M.; Robertson, J.

    2009-01-01

    Community participation in program decision-making and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve. We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among…

  3. Volunteering as a community mother--a pathway to lifelong learning.

    PubMed

    Molloy, Mary

    2007-05-01

    This paper describes a study that was undertaken to investigate the effects of participating in a community volunteering programme (the Community Mothers Programme) on volunteers (Community Mothers). The aim of the study was to investigate if volunteering in this programme acted as a pathway to lifelong learning; did the volunteers recognise the learning of new knowledge and/or skills, and did their participation in the programme trigger them to progress to further education in other settings? A self-administered questionnaire method was used for data collection: 115 questionnaires being distributed to volunteers, with a response rate of eighty-two (71 per cent). Findings show that the majority of the respondents cited the learning of new knowledge and/or skills as a result of their participation in the Community Mothers Programme. Learning appeared to stem from the various training and activities, suggesting an educational process within the volunteer setting. Findings also show that the majority of respondents had progressed to further education. In this instance, therefore, volunteering did appear to act as a pathway to lifelong learning.

  4. Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sotomayor, Gilda E.

    2014-01-01

    This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have appeared under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and…

  5. Service-Learning from the Perspective of Community Organizations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Petri, Alexis

    2015-01-01

    As a central construct in the theory of service-learning, reciprocity for community partners is not often the subject of scholarship, especially scholarship that seeks to understand the benefits and opportunity costs of service-learning. This article explores how reciprocity works in higher education service-learning from the perspective of…

  6. User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lambropoulos, Niki, Ed.; Zaphiris, Panayiotis, Ed.

    2007-01-01

    User-centered design (UCD) is gaining popularity in both the educational and business sectors. This is due to the fact that UCD sheds light on the entire process of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, using, evaluating, and maintaining computer-based learning. "User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities" explains how…

  7. Professional Learning Communities: The Emergence of Vulnerability

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kelly, Jennifer

    2013-01-01

    This case study focuses on 11 individual teachers who participate in three distinct professional learning communities (PLCs) within one school. A PLC is "a group of people who take an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-orientated, and growth promoting approach toward the mysteries, problems, and perplexities of teaching and…

  8. Adult Development, Learning and Teaching. Newland Papers Number Twelve.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bright, Barry

    Numerous models have been developed to analyze the relationship between adult education, adult learning, and adult development. Squires' contingency model postulates that the how of teaching is determined by the nature and characteristics of the participants (the who), the content (the what), and the setting (the where) in which teaching takes…

  9. Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Online Technologies and Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kidd, Terry T., Ed.; Keengwe, Jared, Ed.

    2010-01-01

    As instructors move further into the incorporation of 21st century technologies in adult education, a new paradigm of digitally-enriched mediated learning has emerged. This book provides a comprehensive framework of trends and issues related to adult learning for the facilitation of authentic learning in the age of digital technology. This…

  10. Exploring Play/Playfulness and Learning in the Adult and Higher Education Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tanis, David J.

    2012-01-01

    Play and playfulness and their role in learning are researched extensively in early childhood education. However, as the child matures into an adult, play and playfulness are given less attention in the teaching and learning process. In adult education, there is very little research about play/playfulness and its significance for learning. Despite…

  11. Learning and change in a community mental health setting.

    PubMed

    Mancini, Michael A; Miner, Craig S

    2013-10-01

    This article offers methodological reflections and lessons learned from a three-year university-community partnership that used participatory action research methods to develop and evaluate a model for learning and change. Communities of practice were used to facilitate the translation of recovery-oriented and evidence-based programs into everyday practice at a community mental health agency. Four lessons were drawn from this project. First, the processes of learning and organizational change are complex, slow, and multifaceted. Second, development of leaders and champions is vital to sustained implementation in an era of restricted resources. Third, it is important to have the agency's values, mission, policies, and procedures align with the principles and practices of recovery and integrated treatment. And fourth, effective learning of evidence-based practices is influenced by organizational culture and climate. These four lessons are expanded upon and situated within the broader literature and implications for future research are discussed.

  12. Supporting Vertical Transfer: The Role of a Student Union Learning Community

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fink, John E.; McShay, James C.; Hernandez, Pamela

    2016-01-01

    Student affairs practitioners at a large, mid-Atlantic research university created a learning community directed by the student union to support community college transfer students. The authors examined qualitative data and pre/post surveys from 40 learning community participants in the program's pilot year. Results suggested favorable effects of…

  13. What community resources do older community-dwelling adults use to manage their osteoarthritis? A formative examination

    PubMed Central

    Martin, Kathryn Remmes; Schoster, Britta; Woodard, Janice

    2011-01-01

    Community resources can influence health outcomes, yet little research has examined how older individuals use community resources for osteoarthritis (OA) management. Six focus groups were conducted with 37 community-dwelling older adult African Americans and Caucasians who self-reported OA and resided in Johnston County, North Carolina. Descriptive analyses and qualitative constant comparison methodology revealed individuals use local recreational facilities, senior centers, shopping centers, religious organizations, medical providers, pharmacies and their social network for OA management. Participants also identified environmental characteristics (e.g., sidewalk conditions, curb-cuts, handicapped parking, automatic doors) that both facilitated and hindered use of community resources for OA management. Identified resources and environmental characteristics were organized around Corbin & Strauss framework tasks: medical/behavioral, role, and emotional management. As older Americans live with multiple chronic diseases, better understanding of what community resources are used for disease management may help improve the health of community-dwelling adults, both with and without OA. PMID:23049159

  14. Chronology of Milestones for Libraries and Adult Lifelong Learning and Literacy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCook, Kathleen de la Pena; Barber, Peggy

    This chronology highlights milestones for libraries and adult lifelong learning and literacy from 1924-2001, including the following events: William S. Learned's "The American Public Library and the Diffusion of Knowledge" is published (1924); establishment of the ALA (American Library Association) Adult Education Section (1946); the…

  15. Adult Academy Tutor Training Manual.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Isserlis, Janet; And Others

    This handbook is for volunteer tutors, student interns, and VISTA volunteers working with adult basic education (ABE) and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The community-based handbook contains information about adult literacy and tutoring--what tutors do, who the learners are, and how the literacy learning process works. Introductory…

  16. Explainers' development of science-learner identities through participation in a community of practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richardson, Anne E.

    The urgent environmental issues of today require science-literate adults to engage in business and political decisions to create solutions. Despite the need, few adults have the knowledge and skills of science literacy. This doctoral dissertation is an analytical case study examining the science-learner identity development of Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers. Located in San Francisco, CA, the Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception dedicated to nurturing curiosity and exploration. Data collected included semi-structured interviews with sixteen former Field Trip Explainers, participant observation of the current Field Trip Explainer Program, and review of relevant documentation. Data analysis employed constant comparative analysis, guided by the communities of practice theoretical framework (Wenger, 1998) and the National Research Council's (2009) Six Strands of Science Learning. Findings of this research indicate that Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers participate in a community of practice made up of a diverse group of people that values curiosity and openness to multiple ways of learning. Many participants entered the Field Trip Explainer Program with an understanding of science learning as a rigid process reserved for a select group of people; through participation in the Field Trip Explainer community of practice, participants developed an understanding of science learning as accessible and a part of everyday life. The findings of this case study have implications for research, theory, and practice in informal adult science learning, access of non-dominant groups to science learning, and adult workplace learning in communities of practice.

  17. Adult Student Identity in an Intergenerational Community College Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kasworm, Carol

    2005-01-01

    What is the nature of an adult student identity? Based in social constructivist theory, this study explored coconstructed understandings of culturally and socially mediated student identities through a select group of adult undergraduates in intergenerational community college classroom contexts. Key findings elaborated the coconstruction of two…

  18. Coast Community College: The Learning Society, California Style

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Real, James

    1978-01-01

    Community colleges in the California Coast Community College district have capitalized on a burgeoning adult education clientele and the public television boom to acquire one of the fasting growing and most venturesome education systems in the world. (Author/LBH)

  19. Evaluation of a Professional Learning Community at One Elementary School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kochenour, Ruth Braddick

    2010-01-01

    Today's educational reform literature abounds with convincing testimonials of schools operating as professional learning communities. The model is highly sought but often misunderstood and shallowly applied. Although much evidence exists regarding the characteristics of effective learning communities, the literature review reveals a gap in the…

  20. Home-School Links: Networking the Learning Community.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    1996

    The topic of networking the learning community with home-school links is addressed in four papers: "Internet Access via School: Expectations of Students and Parents" (Roy Crotty); "The School Library as Community Information Gateway" (Megan Perry); "Rural Access to the Internet" (Ken Eustace); and "NetDay '96:…