The purpose of this study was to understand the individual experiences of four adult literacy practitioners, Anne, Bill, Candy, and Emily, in the first cohort of the Oregon Field-Based Cohort Master's Program. This program, which Oregon established in 1993 as one venue of professional development for adult literacy and English as a Second Language practitioners, was developed jointly by the Office of Community College Services of the state Department of Education and Oregon State University. The inquiry proceeded from three assumptions. First, effective professional development must be grounded in understandings about how practitioners learn. Second, an understanding of practitioners' learning is attainable only through intensive examination of individual experiences. And third, practitioners' accounts of their learning experiences are legitimate sources of knowledge; they are, in fact, the only accessible avenues for investigating individuals' learning. Transcripts of in-depth interviews and participants' cumulative portfolios were coded and analyzed in the first phase of data analysis to produce stories which integrated Anne, Bill, Candy, and Emily's own words with metaphors they created to frame their experiences. Each story reconstructs a practitioner's construction of the emotional, intellectual, and material experience of learning in a cohort. Together, they represent the uniqueness and complexity of adults' learning. In the second phase of analysis, the stories were compared to reveal relationships of similarity and difference among them. The cross-case analysis generated five themes around the self as learner, the contribution of dissonance to reconstruction of meaning, personal transformations in an academic setting, increased confidence as an outcome of graduate study, and stance as a contributor to the variability and complexity of adults' experiences of learning in a formal setting. The final chapter drew directly on the themes to make suggestions for planning and practice and pose questions which might be used to focus conversations or frame future research about adult learning, graduate programs, or staff development for adult educators. Specific topics included authentic learning situations, reflection, graduate cohorts, collaborative learning, adult learners' stances toward learning situations, distance delivery and professional networks for adult literacy practitioners, and evaluation of professional development programs. / Graduation date: 1998

Authentic assessment of visitor learning in museum settings is a challenging endeavor. Evaluation literature includes very few studies that link adult visitors' behavior to their learning. Multiple data collection methods in a naturalistic environment hold great promise for increasing understanding of informal public education. In 1997, Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) in Newport, Oregon, opened a new visitor center. This unique science museum was designed with strong educational goals in mind. The first gallery, the Pattern Garden, was intended to provide a framework of understanding that visitors would build on during their journey through the museum. The three main exhibits in this gallery include a touch pool with live tidepool animals, a sound exhibit with listening stations, and a water wheel that demonstrates chaos theory. This study is a summative evaluation of these three exhibits and their educational effectiveness, both individually and as part of the overall gallery. Data on exhibit holding power and visitor behavior were collected for this evaluation. The touch pool and the sound station were videotaped, while field notes were used to document holding power at the water wheel. In addition, a wireless microphone was mounted at the touch pool to document discussion between visitors and docents. Visitors who spent a minimum of ten seconds at each of the three exhibits were interviewed as they prepared to leave the museum. The interviewer asked the visitor to recall the Pattern Garden exhibits, with special attention to things they learned and associations they made to their daily lives. Both holding power and learning proved to be the greatest at the touch pool. Further investigations are indicated to isolate whether it was the content of the exhibit, the presence of a docent, or other factors that made it particularly effective. The water wheel's holding power was nearly as high as that of the touch pool, but visitor learning scores were lower. Interview data indicated that the complex, difficult nature of the chaos concept was partly responsible for the low educational results. The sound station resulted in moderate holding power and moderate learning. Difficulties and successes in the research design indicate important factors to consider for future evaluation studies at informal science learning centers. / Graduation date: 1999