This study examines the relationship between college students’ developmental level of identity formation and their choice to make intentional changes in behavior. Specifically, it examines whether there is a relationship between the level of identity development of college students according to Chickering’s model, measured by the Erwin Identity Scale (EIS), and the level of Readiness for Change concerning alcohol use following the Stages of Change Model by Prochaska and DiClemente. Correlational analyses in the form of multivariate regression is used to examine relationships between the various assessment measures. This helped answer the research questions: Is there a relationship between identity formation developmental levels and Readiness for Change, and do the subscales from the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) relate individually to any of the subscales of the EIS? The results of the multiple regression analysis conducted with the Recognition subscale of the SOCRATES as the dependent variable and the three subscales of the EIS as the predictors indicated that two of the EIS subscales, Sexual Identity and Comfort about Body and Appearance had a significant relationship to Recognition. The EIS subscale of Confidence showed no significant relationship to Recognition. The possibilities of linking developmental level and issues around changing the drinking behavior of college students open up a way of evaluating college students’, which could alter the counselors’ approach to which interventions they would choose. Since the choice of intervention is imperative to the success of the counseling process, the college students’ level of identity formation may be related to Readiness for Change, and that by identifying students’ identity level and matching the identity level with counseling approaches, counselors may be more effective in helping students make changes in potentially harmful drinking practices.

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This paper examines the integration of nonformal and formal education at the level of higher education, specifically for the training of nonformal education fieldworkers. Several patterns of possible linkages between these two educational spheres are defined and described. These patterns explain strategies ranging from programs centrally planned to rural level university programs. From this overview of linkages, seven conditions favorable for the development of integrative linkages are identified. An in depth study of a formal-nonformal integrated program in Indonesia is presented. Underlying this program are linkages between teacher training institutes and a government community education organization for the traning of nonformal education fieldworkers. Central to the program is a one-year diploma course in nonformal education. This paper examines the balance and merger of practice and theory in the curriculum, describes the field practicum, and evaluates staff development workshops and administrative relationships between these two educational organizations. The outcome of the study is an analytical framework that intersects the conditions favorable for integrative linkages with input and design factors. The framework provides a check list of program areas where integrative development might occur. Educational program planners can use the analytical framework as a tool to help design, examine, evaluate and transform programs that involve linkages between formal and nonformal education. In conclusion, nonformal education, while more reflective of community participation and needs, has neither gained the institutional stability nor credibility of formal education. Moreover, nonformal education fieldworkers have usually been poorly qualified and/or transient. More expensive and in greater social demand, formal education takes up the major portion of most developing countries' budgets. This study advocates that educational planners look towards the integration of nonformal and formal education at the level of higher education in the hopes of minimizing the weaknesses inherent in their separateness and capitalizing on the potential strengths of integration.

This explorative study sought to examine the educational experiences of older adults (from 60 to 80) who were participating in adult education programs. The study used a phenomenological model; three in-depth interviews explored the motivation, experience and meaning of late life participation in educational programs. Informed by psychosocial developmental theory, the study emphasized the task of life review within the last stage of adult development. The study found that in a small sample of ethnically diverse older adults personal motivation, experience, and meaning of adult education exhibited themes related to continuing early life constructs such as social class identity, family goals and early educational experiences. Hence, motivations for formal learning at this point in life were related to individual personal constructs; in several participants these included the phenomenon of life review. Many of the older adults returned to school to complete life goals which had not been satisfied at younger ages, others wanted to "compete" with younger versions of themselves, to prove that they were still capable of learning, to make clearer their own personal histories, or to find contributory outlets. Individual motivational themes were reflected in the participants' experience of adult education and in the personal and historical meanings they made of it. The study presents in detail the stories of six participants and attempts to tie together their motivation, experience and meaning within the larger population and within a psychosocial developmental framework. Implications for education are explored.

This paper examines planning considerations for universities' participation in nonformal education. The main purpose of the study is to help guide the policy-makers and planners in Korea who are engaged in the formulation of strategies which will lead to a greater involvement of Korean universities in nonformal education. This involvement is in keeping with the full intention of promoting nonformal and lifelong education in Korean society under the provisions of the new constitution as revised in 1980. The methodological approach combines a critical survey of literature, of three case studies and an analytical survey of needs assessments. The survey of literature incorporates a comprehensive review of educational dilemmas in the world context, the potentials of non-formal education in promoting people's lifelong learning, and the roles and values of higher education in the world as well as the Korean context. The case studies highlight the models appropriate for adoption within the Korean higher education system in order to maximize Korean universities' involvement in nonformal education. The survey of needs analysis, which is the most central aspect of this study, was designed for utilizing ideas and issues related to Korean universities' participation in nonformal education as major needs components for the formulation of the Nonformal Education Act. The several data gathering approaches suggest these major recommendations for increasing coordination between the Korean universities' and the nonformal education's efforts: establish a system for preparing specialists in nonformal education in universities; arrange for university representation in national nonformal education policy bodies; provide financial support to universities for nonformal education efforts; and increase the effective dissemination of university findings concerning nonformal education. This study supports the thesis that the tensions between formal and nonformal education in Korea can be a creative source of energy and ideas, building on the strengths of both systems.

This action research study implemented an intervention, the Learn at Work program, for operational employees in facilities management at William & Mary earning less than $19 an hour. One of eight dimensions in the Workplace Inclusion Scale, developed by Lennox et al. (2022), is “access to opportunity” (p. 27). This study’s theoretical framework included feelings of individual belonging, coupled with workplace learning, as powerful factors in shaping workplace experience. The program offered various opportunities: (a) health, computer, and financial literacy classes; (b) university-led workshops; and (c) individual tutoring. Two research questions guided the study: (a) What training and learning opportunities are of interest for operational employees earning less than $39,520 annually, and $19 an hour, when presented a menu of options in a higher education setting? and (b) How does participation in classes, workshops or tutoring during the workday impact the work experience and lives of the participants? Among the population (159), 32.7% participated in at least one aspect of the program. Findings established participants were interested in (a) a variety of learning and training options, (b) pathways to promotion, and (c) more knowledge about workplace benefits. Class participants (n = 24) had a statistically significant improved work experience during the intervention, and the impact transcended boundaries of work and life. The program improved personal relationships and offered a positive learning experience. Recommendations include staffing and structural changes that enable and support increased opportunity, career advancement, and a sense of belonging for operational employees at William & Mary.

Mental health professionals who provide treatment to sex offenders navigate the complex legal, ethics and moral intersections surrounding the population within the professional-personal dialectic. The purpose of this research study was to explore the potential relationship between mental health professional’s attitudes toward sex offenders and their level of moral development in order to encourage increasingly effective training and experiential interventions which then may impact treatment outcomes. Research participants included licensed and non-licensed counselors, social workers and psychologists (n = 135). Along with a demographic questionnaire and the Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Defining Issues Test was used as a measure of moral development and the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Scale evaluated the attitudes of mental health professionals toward the sex offender population. This study identified a statistically significant relationship between a mental health professional’s level of moral development and attitude toward sex offenders with 6.2% of the variation in attitudes related to DIT-II N2 scores. Mental health professionals that engaged in greater amounts of self-directed training endorsed less negative attitudes toward sex offenders. No relationship was found between the mental health professional’s length of experience, other types of training and attitudes toward sex offenders. The results and limitations identified within this study support further development of this line of research with an emphasis on recruiting a sample with a larger representation of participants with sex offenders specific credentialing and with the inclusion of additional or alternative assessments related to evaluating attitudes toward sex offenders.

This study was designed to synthesize the literature on women who reenter higher education, and to examine through a questionnaire their unique attitudes, personal characteristics and preferences for modes of learning. This study examined the responses to a questionnaire of 139 re-entry women in a small Catholic women's college (Emmanuel College) located in Boston, Massachusetts. The following questions were addressed in this study: (1) Who are the re-entry women? (2) What is the motivation for these women to enter into a undergraduate degree program? (3) What are these women's unique needs? (4) What are the support services needed to help meet their needs? (5) What are their instructional and program preferences? (6) What are the barriers that may interfere with their academic continuance? Methods used in the data collection process included: administration of a 50-item questionnaire to 139 re-entry Emmanuel College undergraduate women students. The participants responded by mail to the questionnaire, so the conditions were not standardized. All data were gathered according to self-reporting of the respondents. An analysis of participating re-entry women's responses revealed the following findings: (1) she was in her upper 30's, married, mother of two children and a part-time student; (2) she returned to school because she was dissatisfied with her job and received encouragement from family and friends; (3) she may find the following services useful: faculty advisement, weekly communication system and peer advisement; (4) she preferred a continuing education program that offered day and evening classes with undergraduate students and with the same full-time faculty; (5) she preferred a college that offered credit for life/work experience; (6) she preferred instructors who can relate theory to everyday experiences and ones who have a realistic view of student's outside duties; (7) she perceived work responsibilities and time commitment to family as a possible barrier interfering with her academic continuance.

This research project emerged from the researcher's work as an adult basic education instructor in a community learning center. With an inordinately high attrition rate (over seventy percent), the researcher's attention was easily focused on the small number of students who remained in the Learning Center and attended classes consistently. This group of five learners became the self-selected participants in the study. The purpose of the study was to examine the life experience of the five learners to gain insight into the nature of their motivation and commitment to learn. A series of up to six, one hour interviews were conducted with each of the participants. During the interviews, participants reflected on both past and present experience. Although it varied from person to person, discussions included childhood and family experience, prior school and educational experiences. Conclusions drawn from the research are not easily categorized. Motivating factors were different for each learner; one was motivated by a life-altering illness and another by the realities of finding employment without a high school diploma. The most salient insight gained from the research, however, was the similarity of experience across participants with issues related to dysfunctional families, personal violence, and substance abuse.

The Swedish study circle is a type of popular, non-formal adult education which was adapted in Sweden from an idea which originated in the Chautauqua Literary Circles of the late 1800s. Study circles became instrumental not only in providing educational opportunities to adults but in promoting non-violent social change in Sweden. These are still the most popular form of adult education in Scandinavia. The conditions which led early Swedish educators to adopt the study circle as an educational alternative were similar to those which led a group of Latino educators in the United States to use an adapted model of the original version of study circles with three groups of Latinas in a community-based agency. Current study circles in Sweden have evolved far away from the original model and the intention of this project was to use the original concepts. This study reviews the history and variety of adaptations of study circles in different settings and explores the extent to which this model could be adapted and used for empowerment education, and how gender and differences of race, ethnicity, language, culture and class influence personal and collective development. The study uses a qualitative research methodology grounded in feminist principles. The author took a leadership role and participated in an action-oriented process which led this group of Latinas to begin a journey of reclaiming their integrity and heritage. The results of this study revealed that study circles as adapted can be a powerful strategy for Latinas to break silence about their particular experiences of oppression. The study circles promoted a safe and caring environment which allowed the women to begin a process of discovering their power and ability to name, to reflect upon, analyze and value their experiences. From this experience a different set of conditions emerged which were essential for the success of study circles. Some of these include having a foundation in an organization with a commitment to promote people-centered education within a process of consciousness-raising.