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1.
ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to examine the associations between the motivation to learn, basic skills (i.e. literacy and numeracy), and organised adult education and training (AET) participation among the middle-aged and older adults in the USA. Rapid technological advancement and globalisation necessitate individuals to engage in lifelong learning to actively participate in society. However, little is known about the roles of motivation to learn and basic skills in the AET participation in the U.S. adult population. We obtained the data from the 2012/2014 Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies restricted-use file and adults aged 50 years and older (n = 2,580) are included. Structural equation models are used to examine (1) any AET, (2) formal AET and (3) non-formal AET participation as a function of the motivation to learn latent construct, literacy, numeracy, and other covariates. Results showed that the motivation to learn, literacy and numeracy are all positive predictors of non-formal AET participation. Only motivation to learn is associated with formal AET participation. Findings from this study may inform future interventions as well as policy changes to promote specific types of organised AET programmes among older adult population in the USA.  相似文献   

2.
Abstract

In the last decade, a majority of states has developed legislation or centralized policy directives which encourage the participation of older adults in institutions of higher education through tuition‐reduction or tuition‐waiver. However, very little research has been conducted to assess their impact on participation and program development. This paper is intended to analyze the awareness and impact of tuition‐waiver policies among older adults and institutions of higher education in the state of Virginia. In addition, this paper is intended to provide an expository framework for the synthesis of secondary data sources which address state policy issues in gerontology and higher education.

Results from the analysis indicate a high level of awareness among administrators at the institutional and state level in higher education and among state legislators, while somewhat less awareness is evident among older adults. In terms of impact, results indicate that older adult participation remains extremely low, and the priority of cost in participation decisions is not well understood. The actual financial burden on institutions is still relatively small; however, with no tuition or state reimbursed funds, the incentives for program development remain insufficient.

Several additional policy and research questions follow from the analysis. Questions must be raised concerning who is benefitting from the legislation and who should be benefitting, what kinds of incentives are necessary for institutions to develop programs, and what role the state should play in facilitating program development. Additionally, a re‐evaluation of tuition‐waiver policies versus other kinds of financial incentives is recommended.  相似文献   

3.
ABSTRACT

Background and aim: Even though the beneficial effects of elderly learning are widely acknowledged, many older Chinese people are still not involved. This paper aims to examine the barriers that affect the level of educational participation of older adults in China. Methodology: Using a focus group methodology, 43 older participants (aged 55 years and over) were assigned to five focus groups based on gender and (in)activity rate in Xi’an, China. The focus groups were conducted to identify the individual learning experiences including motivation, learning preferences, and, especially, participation barriers between older adults who have already participated in the Universities of the Third Age (U3As) and others who have not. Strategies to overcome or minimize these barriers were also raised in focus group interviews. Results: The results have demonstrated that barriers associated with situational factors were reported the most; informational barriers and dispositional barriers were perceived as the least obstructive. The active group was characterized by a more optimistic mood in dealing with these learning barriers. The study also suggests that the Selective Optimisation with Compensation Model of successful ageing can be useful in explaining older adults’ strategy for coping with the barriers. Conclusion: The findings of the study provide policy makers and U3A practitioners an insight into the barriers to educational participation. These findings provide input to develop targeted intervention strategies and tailor-made measures to reduce these constraints and increase participation.  相似文献   

4.
ABSTRACT

Despite UNESCO’s Learning Cities agenda, which argues for the mobilisation of resources to promote education across all sectors and environments, there is little evaluative research on Learning City engagement which is both naturalistic and empirically rigorous. The research on informal adult learning in urban contexts is particularly sparse. This paper provides a case study of informal learning and lifewide literacies amongst Glaswegian adults using three distinct approaches to data collection: a household survey capturing rich data on learning attitudes, behaviours, and literacies; GPS trails that track mobility around the city; and the capture of naturally occurring social media. The work operationalises Learning City indicators, and explores domains beyond education, some of which have not previously been considered in surveys of adult learning, for example, physical mobilities and transportation patterns. We use theoretical concepts of social identity and capital to situate inclusion within explanatory frameworks of marginalisation in less tangible domains of informal learning using multi-stranded data. A triangulated analysis of city-wide participation in lifewide learning reveals a demographic picture of groups marginalised from learning opportunities and practices. We conclude with a call for new approaches to exploring learning participation which offer novel methods to evidence informal learning and lifewide literacies.  相似文献   

5.
ABSTRACT

In Taiwan, older adults over the age of 65 made up 12.51% of the population in 2015, causing the government to promote older adult education to help achieve active aging. As a result, more elderly people have attended learning activities and applied new skills to volunteering. The researcher conducted focus group interviews with 93 older adults from 13 service learning groups to illuminate this process of transforming from learner to volunteer. The findings are as follows. (a) The retirees and empty-nesters undergo discovery during the learning process in order to become learners. (b) These learners then become volunteers through the support from teachers and key persons, through the desire to share learning outcomes, and through answering the call to serve others. (c) The transformative learning rewarded the older adults with improved physical, spiritual, and mental health, as well as gratitude and a new sense of meaning in life.  相似文献   

6.
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8.
It has long been acknowledged that adult and lifelong educators have exercised little influence over national education policies. This article addresses the issue, with particular reference to the research elements of policy advocacy. Researchers and policy‐makers are distinguished and related as communities of practice and intellectual categories of social function. It is argued that the concept ‘policy‐maker’ is too ambiguous to be of either theoretical or practical use, especially since the focus has shifted over the years away from the advocacy of adult education to the implementation of lifelong learning. Also, the concepts of both ‘policy’ and ‘research’ have undergone significant shifts of meaning, so that traditional ideas of the relation between research and policy are now outdated. We live in an age of public scepticism about the political uses to which research is put, and this also needs to be taken into account in the case of lifelong learning. Thus, the relation between research and the policy process needs to be reconceptualised in a future beyond lifelong learning in order to be meaningful, with the focus much more upon process than outcome. Only in this way could adult and lifelong educators expect to have any influence upon national policies.  相似文献   

9.
ABSTRACT

Background: The international body of research on student voice concludes that active pupil participation has multiple positive effects on the work environment and learning for pupils. In a large study on gender equality and diversity work in Swedish schools, it became evident that pupils wanted to be active participants. However, pupils considered that their wishes were, to a large extent, ignored. Therefore, it is important to try to understand this further by investigating pupils’ perceptions of their experiences.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore how discourses of participation and power are practised, not practised, and materialised, by focusing in-depth on pupils’ representations of gender equality and diversity work within a small sample of Swedish schools.

Methodology: The study is based on data from 10 focus group interviews with 43 pupils from 4 different schools, 2 compulsory schools (pupil ages 6–15) and 2 upper secondary schools (pupil ages 16–18), in Sweden. The thematic analysis utilised a gender perspective anchored in a critical policy analysis approach.

Analysis and Findings: The analysis of focus group data identified three pupil representations of gender equality and diversity work: a onetime occurrence, longing for participation and the (un)fair teacher. These representations were derived from and intertwined with discourses on pupil participation and power. Three sub-discourses were found within the discourse on participation and power: normative barriers to participation, structural barriers to participation and openings in the barriers to participation. The first two sub-discourses support the maintenance of unequal power relations between adults and pupils, while the third challenges these power relations.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that no substantial levels of participation or power among the pupils were represented at the schools. Instead, the analysis visualises pupils as expressing powerlessness and disengagement. However, the discourse Openings in the barriers to participation, together with pupils’ democratic abilities, has the potential to enable change and the development of pupil participation in schools.  相似文献   

10.
This article analyses the role of the cooperation with and the influence of the Nordic countries on the development of a democratic society in Lithuania through adult education since the reinstatement of its independence from Soviet regime in March 1990 to the present. The authors focus on three main areas: (1) the training of Lithuanian adult educators; (2) the establishment and development of NGOs; and (3) the implications for a Lithuanian policy of adult education. Within the framework of Nordic-Baltic cooperation established among five Nordic and three Baltic countries (NB8) in 1992, Lithuanian adult educators seized the opportunity to visit Scandinavian institutions and projects. Experiencing Nordic adult education ideas has resulted in a marked shift in Lithuanian adult educators’ values, methodology and careers; and in the establishment of a series of very influential umbrella associations as well as hundreds of NGOs in Lithuania which work with adults and support functioning democratic values in society. This shift is related to the civic responsibility and active participation growing out of the bottom-up approaches of group work, cooperation, discussions and learning circles which are so inherent in the Nordic tradition of adult education. The internalisation of new democratic values was more complicated than expected for many Lithuanian politicians, adult educators and NGO leaders in terms of how political decisions were perceived and implemented. Furthermore, the influence of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation in adult education may also be traced in adult education policy implications in Lithuania. Some changes in the policies of contemporary Lithuania have not been successful and even failed to promote a democratic society.  相似文献   

11.
Ellen Boeren 《欧洲教育》2019,51(2):127-146
This article demonstrates that foreign-born adults in Europe tend to participate less in adult education activities compared to native-born adults living in the same country. However, this is mainly explained through the job-related nature of nonformal education. Foreign-born adults tend to participate more in formal adult education than native-born adults in a range of countries. Based on analyses using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Programme on the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this article shows that participation rates in European countries are mainly determined by adults’ educational attainment and having a job and that countries with overall high participation rates have higher participation rates among foreign-born adults as well. Exploring the participation in adult education of foreign-born adults in European countries is important, as it is known that those adults perceive difficulties in finding a job and having their foreign credentials recognized in the new country context. Participation in adult education courses might help them in learning new or maintaining their already existing skills.  相似文献   

12.
ABSTRACT:?

Government policy aims at a ‘seamless web’ of learning provision. This is exemplified in a local Learning and Skills Council supported by work on widening participation to higher education (HE) in another London sub-region. The emerging system described is comprehended as a whole from ‘Foundation Learning’ in compulsory schooling to post-compulsory ‘Lifelong Learning’ in further, higher and continuing education and training thereafter.  相似文献   

13.
ABSTRACT

Facing the challenges of a fast-growing ageing population – amidst the worldwide trends of declining birth rates and longer lifespans – the Hong Kong government has since two decades ago developed and implemented policies and plans for senior adults in Hong Kong to engage in third age learning, both formally and informally. This paper first argues for a critical need to evaluate the efficacy, adequacy and value of the policy and provision of third age learning in Hong Kong. It then discusses the choice between the functionalist approach and the critical educational gerontology (CEG) approach for a critical evaluation of the content and purpose of education for older adults. In this paper, CEG is conceived to be more comprehensive and robust than the functionalist approach that focuses primarily on learning for self-fulfillment and adjustment to older age. More broadly though, CEG views third age learning from a sociopolitical perspective and takes into account the empowering and liberating nature of learning for and by senior adults.  相似文献   

14.
This paper advances the idea that ‘education for the social inclusion of children’ is similar but different to ‘inclusive education’ as it has come to be understood and used by some authors and UK government documents. ‘Inclusive education’ tends to carry an inward emphasis on the participation of children in the education system (with discussions on school culture, transitions, truancy, exclusion rates, underachievement, and school leaving age). In contrast, education for the promotion of children's social inclusion requires an outward emphasis on children's participation in ‘mainstream’ society while they are still children. The latter emphasis is seen to be lacking in educational policy discourse in Scotland though a recent shift in policy towards education for active citizenship is noted. Examples are provided to show how many policy statements enact a limitation on the scope for education to promote children's social inclusion by emphasizing children's deficits as social actors and focussing on the ‘condition’ of social exclusion. The paper draws on an empirical study of children's participation in changing school grounds in Scotland. The analysis shows how the enclosure of learning in books, classrooms and normative curricula was challenged. Learning from school grounds developments was constructed relationally and spatially, but the scope of what was to be learned was often delineated by adults. The paper closes with a discussion of how education that promotes the social inclusion of children will benefit from seeing both children and adults as current though partial citizens and using socio-spatial opportunities for the generation of uncertain curricula through their shared and/or differentiated participation.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract

Transgenic learning is a disruptive approach in education. It encourages modification of moving parts of the educational chain. This article provides a view of transgenic learning focused on the delivery of enriched learning contents in STEAM areas. It discusses the mutagenic role that the virtual containers may play in current distance education. We focus on the containers’ technology and how it can bridge students, computing resources, teachers and specific IT needs. We also present an experiment carried out at UNIR University where we describe the transition from using conventional software distribution methods to the use of containers. Thanks to this virtualization approach, it is possible to deliver the necessary software-based lab scenarios. The results show that the participation and satisfaction of the students increased over time. Our experience shows that the combination of open educational resources, containers, and modern distribution channels can play a significant role in STEAM education.  相似文献   

16.
What do we expect from Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems? Is it different from 25 years ago? This article argues that the focus has increasingly been placed on strategies for lifelong and life-wide learning that seek to reinforce continuity among the subsystems of learning, but that VET systems are, nevertheless, still expected to address many and sometimes conflicting agendas, needs and priorities. The last 25 years or so have been critical for the development of VET in Europe. Making VET more attractive and increasing its parity of esteem in relation to general secondary education have been major, recurring themes in European countries, as part of, at least conceptually, more comprehensive approaches to lifelong and life-wide learning. From 1989 to 2003, the European Journal of Education (EJE) published a special issue on ‘Trends in Vocational Education and Training’ every two years and has continued to publish on VETrelated topics. This article revisits the major themes and challenges as they were observed and discussed by the authors who wrote in those special issues and in later articles. Many were directly involved in advisory positions to governments; held key decision-making responsibilities; undertook studies and consultancy and brought technical assistance across several countries. Their articles are moments of reflection nourished by experience on the ground. This article explores how the European Journal of Education has contributed to European reflection on VET systems, policies and preoccupations in recent decades – what can we learn that is useful for shaping and formulating our present ideas about new policy from our colleagues writing about the same or similar issues 20 years ago? A key theme concerns the role of the Europe Community (and subsequently EU) as a change agent supporting bottom-up exchange and top-down stimulus for reform through an increasing integration of education and training in the socio-economic strategy of the EU.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract

The Centre for Information and Research at the University of Central England in Birmingham is carrying out research investigating the relationship between different learning cultures and resource‐based learning in children. The research examines the ways in which children's access to learning resources and support in using them affects their learning. The aim is to produce recommendations for local agencies on how they can work together more effectively to create better learning opportunities for children across a community. The article outlines the aims and methodology of the research and identifies the factors said to affect learning, based on a review of existing literature. This research is timely as there is a national government focus on lifelong learning and widening participation; the focus has been mainly on adult education and there is a need for an examination of the ways in which children are equipped with the skills to become lifelong learners. It takes place in a context in which learning in schools has moved towards project work, requiring children to find their own information through using research and information searching skills. The research also reflects current government concerns about narrowing the existing gap between families and individuals who have access to a broad range of learning support tools and those without this support. The article highlights the value of an interagency approach to identify gaps and to ensure community‐wide support for children's learning within specific localities.  相似文献   

18.
ABSTRACT

Widening participation – though it has only recently been labelled as such – has been a continuing concern for policy makers and higher education institutions in the United Kingdom since 1945 (and before). This article reviews the evidence for four key target groups – women, lower socio-economic groups, mature adults and ethnic minorities – to produce an overall assessment, a score card, of what has been achieved, and what remains to be done. It concludes that, while progress in the recruitment of women, mature adults and ethnic minorities has been substantial – though with some qualifications – it has been much less so for lower socio-economic groups.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract

Much attention has been focused on the application of computer technology to the delivery of education, through open and distance learning. Within this framework, however, emphasis appears to have been placed on ideal human characteristics rather than on the reality of adult human nature and experience. Using some examples from higher education and continuing education in Australia, this paper discusses technology in relation to the management of open learning; the characteristics, expertise and experience of the instructional developer and the learner. The authors suggest that the design considerations for technology‐based delivery systems for adults should employ a conceptual organization based upon four types of teaching and learning activities.

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20.

This paper uses Bhabha's concept of colonial discourse to explore how the subject of the educational discourse concerned with the education of the adult unemployed is constituted by a variety of stereotypical representations. The paper examines in some detail a key policy text which appeared at a critical moment in the establishment of REPLAN, a UK policy initiative for the education of unemployed adults, in 1984. It explores how the problem of education for the unemployed adult was made visible, the first arena for analysis in Scheurich's ‘policy archaeology’. A number of ‘regularities’—race, gender, sexuality, pro‐fessionalization, class and governmentality—serve to constitute that problem and, to a lesser extent, its solution. Educational policy is seen as a highly problematic play of fantasy and materiality, where policy texts produce and perpetuate inequalities. This critical reading attempts to subvert official discourse on education and unemployment.
there is no reason at all why people should wander about in a loafing and idle manner; if they are not earning their living they ought to be put under some control. (Winston Churchill, 1909).  相似文献   

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