"The primary objective of this paper is to describe the purposes, background and procedures involved in providing a handbook for teachers of adult students in Polk County. The term adult education, in this paper, is used to denote non-vocational classes below college level, for employed persons and other not enrolled in the regular day schools"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Edward K. Hankin, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 35).

Past research has not sufficiently addressed the question of what types of adult literacy instructional practice are recognized by participants, i.e., students and teachers, as facilitating learning in Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes. The purpose of this study was to describe instructional practices in two urban literacy programs serving low level adult readers, and to identify which practices were effective in meeting student needs. Effectiveness was measured by the ability of students to achieve learning objectives identified by themselves and the teacher, and included attendance patterns and student participation. Quantitative measures of achievement were not used as criteria since few classes utilized comparable formal assessment instruments. The process of generating grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) provided a suitable methodological framework for this qualitative research design that used an ethnographic approach as the format for the participatory research study. Teachers and students in six ABE classes provided data which were collected using a multi-method-plan utilizing interviews, participant observation, and documentary materials The study was structured around one primary and four secondary research questions. These questions were designed to address the various aspects of effective instructional practices in ABE classes and began by describing how teachers and students defined literacy skills and student goals, what practices were used in the classrooms, and how students perceived their learning. After this information was gathered, effective practices could be identified using the criteria elicited from teachers and students. Effective practices were found to be an interdependent process that included teacher, students, and goals within the context of the ABE classroom. The study showed that the effectiveness of discrete instructional practice was dependent on an instructional process that resulted from a teacher's choice of materials and methods accurately reflecting the attributes of students and their educational objectives. Crucial aspects of the teacher's actions were identification of primary objectives development of basic learning skills, interpersonal communication, and establishment of a supportive environment. For students, an active role within the class that included participation and self-directedness was recognized as contributing to goal achievement. Where this process was observed, there was a greater chance of students remaining in the program, actively participating in their learning, and ultimately achieving learning goals.

Under the auspices of a United Stated Department of Education National Workplace Literacy Program grant, the Columbia-Willamette Skill Builders, a community college consortium, developed a prototype workplace educator training program in 1994. The Skill Builders workplace educator training program was 9 months long and offered 90 hours of instruction, including a 20 to 40 hour workplace field experience. Twenty-six people completed the prototype program. This investigative study posed two research questions: 1. What can we learn by identifying and evaluating the critical elements in a prototype workplace educator training program? 2. What can be gleaned through this investigation that can be utilized to design a workplace educator training program? Workplace educator is a new term emerging from the field of workplace literacy. A workplace educator facilitates basic learning involving language and computation, as well as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and decision-making. An examination of the pertinent literature identified five fields that impact on workplace education: workplace basics; training and development; workplace literacy and the contextual teaching approaches; current management theory with an emphasis on the high performance work organization; and workplace learning. The critical elements involved in the prototype program were identified through extensive inquiry using questionnaires, survey evaluation instruments, personal interviews, reports, journal review of the participants, and a focus group of Portland, Oregon, area employer representatives managing workplace education. The identified critical elements include an understanding of: (a) education in the workplace; (b) the characteristics of workplace educators; (c) workplace culture and organizational practices; (d) business/ education relationships; (e) the educational environment; (f) needs assessment/evaluation and assessment procedures; (g) workplace program design; (h) how to facilitate learning; (i) the development of communication skills for the workplace educator; (j) culture, class, and gender diversity in the workplace; and (k) appropriate uses of instructional technology. In addition, the data were examined through an evaluation research framework using the Stufflebeam (1983) CIPP (context, input, process, and products) model. The analysis showed that the program was highly satisfactory to the participants. The most important finding in this study is the need for workplace educators to fully understand the workplace. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (MA--Applied Language Studies) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (x, 123 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 374.012 HAS)

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 1997. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-218).

M.Ed. / Traditional teaching implies the conveying of information from an active educator to a passive learner. A monologic approach such as this, does not make provision for active participation by learners. Dialogue, as an approach to teaching adults, is in direct contrast to traditional, monological teaching. A Dialogical approach does not only imply a conversation between learners and educator, but also purposeful activity by both the learners and educator. The fact that adults have accumulated life experiences and have specific needs must be taken into consideration, therefore it is important that they are recognised as partners and decision makers in the teaching and learning process. A dialogical approach is one of negotiation, where learners are active decision makers, instead of passive receivers. Based on the above assumption, this study focuses on teaching adults, and more specifically adults involved in Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET), in a dialogical manner. The focus is not only on dialogue as an approach to teaching adults involved in Adult Basic Education and Training, but also the practical implications of this approach to actual Adult Basic Education and Training situations. The perspectives of three experts in the field of Adult Education, whose approaches to teaching adults are dialogical, namely Jane Vella, Ira Shor and Stephen Brookfield, are analysed, compared and integrated, as their perspectives not only show similarities but also differences. Because this study focuses on adults as learners, and more specifically adults involved in Adult Basic Education and Training, the concept adult is defined and eventually generalised characteristics for adults as learners are identified and described. The implications of these characteristics in an ABET context are indicated. The above mentioned theory is put into practice by constructing case studies in order to demonstrate dialogue as an approach to teaching adults in Adult Basic Education and Training.

Bibliography: pages 74-83. / In sum, the theoretical framework proposed here for adult numeracy, and developed from a discourse of mathematics education, has as its task the elaboration of the social implications of principles in adult education and the pedagogic outcomes of three sets of numeracy materials.

The major purposes of this study were (1) to construct a reliable and valid scale for measuring writing self-efficacy levels in adult basic education students, (2) to further test the scale's validity and reliability by administering it to a second selected group of adult basic education students, and (3) to demonstrate its utility by showing its use in correlational analyses. In the first of three phases, 156-item statements were initially developed. These statements were evaluated by a Delphi panel and reduced to a 77-item writing self-efficacy scale and administered to 490 adult basic education students from ten community colleges located in Oregon. A systematic procedure of statistical analyses was used that resulted in 25 item-statements meeting criteria for acceptance into the revised writing self-efficacy scale. The revised 25-item scale was administered to a second group of 239 ABE students from six other community colleges in Oregon. The same statistical procedures, as in phase one, resulted in a 25-item writing self-efficacy scale. Factor analyses resulting in a clustering of 21 out of 25 items on two factors argued for some evidence of unidimensionality, but further analyses were recommended. The scale's construct validity was demonstrated by showing a strong divergent correlation with the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Scale. Having established evidence of the scale's validity and reliability, the use of the writing self-efficacy scale in conducting correlational analyses was demonstrated. Nine variables were studied, with two variables showing strong relationships with writing self-efficacy, a negative one with writing apprehension and a positive one with writing improvement. It was concluded that the newly revised 25-item writing self-efficacy scale showed preliminary evidence of reliability and validity but it was recommended for further study with other selected groups of adult basic education students. The scale's unidimensionality was also suggested for further study, in order to analyze the underlying factors that make up the construct of writing self-efficacy in adult basic education students. Moreover, the development of this scale offered a first step in assessing the important construct of writing self-efficacy in adult basic education students and provided a useful tool in assessing such a construct. / Graduation date: 1995