This thesis uses an evaluation of a course based on a Rogerian approach to education to challenge the efficacy of the normative/behaviourist approach, which has been used to train adults labelled as having learning difficulties. Unlike behaviourist approaches, Rogers' work seeks to empower students to become self-directed learners and claims to teach them how to become their own behaviour change agents. The research questions focused fIrstly on whether it was possible to use genumess, acceptance and empathic understanding to build the 'climate of trust' that Rogers claimed facilitates student learning (Rogers, 1983: 18) and secondly on the learning that took place in such a 'climate.' Primary data were gathered usmg participant-observation, written records and tape recordings throughout the two-year action-research programme. The evaluation took place post hoc. The evidence demonstrates that the adoption of Rogerian principles to develop the skills of communication, decision-making and self-evaluation generated a 'climate of trust' in which student learning and 'trust' became mutually reinforcing. Evidence from the second year, in the form of case studies, showed how different each individual student was, how their talents and needs varied and how they developed increased self-esteem and self-confidence. However, the Rogerian approach was not implemented without problems. His beliefs about genuineness, acceptance and empathic understanding do not recognise that the source of genuineness is the tutor's subjective values, whilst empathy requires an imaginative leap to grasp the students' subjective meaning. The tutor may well have to face dilemmas where her personal values are in conflict with her empathic understanding of her students' perspectives. Conflicts also arose between the needs of individual students and the needs of the group as a whole. Furthermore, Rogers' work largely ignores the pedagogic skills required of the tutor. In advocating breaking down the 'us and them' divide between tutor and taught, he ignores the problem of establishing a structure of legitimate authority. This was resolved by establishing a form of democratic decision making as a radical alternative to the praise/blame culture of the traditional classroom. Rogers' ideas may be utilised by tutors in ways that help students labelled as having learning difficulties drop the 'defensive strategies' (Goffinan, 1968:44) and 'facades' (Rogers, 1983:24) associated with stigma and 'spoiled identity.' The importance of 'critical events' (Woods, 1993:3) as turning points for learning following the building of trust, is highlighted. Several incidents highlighted the problems that arise for tutors who lack background knowledge of students' involvement with other professionals. This has led to unresolved issues and hence to a recommendation for more research into the potential for greater team-work. The Rogerian approach is not a formula. It engenders a climate of mutual respect where trust can grow. It is recommended to tutors working with adults labelled as having learning difficulties as it empowers them to direct their own learning and to become their own behaviour change agents.

Book Summary: This revised volume brings together the best of the past with suggestions for the future and proves that teachers' imaginations continue to produce an interesting and varied range of ways to learn English within the broad guidelines of communicative language learning. New Ways in Teaching Adults, Revised provides classroom teachers with a range of activities for all stages of the learning process. The many activities included encourage discovery learning, provide practice, and extend students' learning beyond the classroom. Also, various activities allow students to work in pairs, small groups, individually, and with the entire class.

A foreign language teaching method called Total Physical Response is described in the theoretical part. The originator proposes the method for any age group; despite the fact, the use of the method changes in different age groups, due to cognitive development of students and their level of English. The practical part shows opinions of present English teachers in Poděbrady and its neighborhood about usage of the method in their lessons.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out the central, essential, and important issues concerning teaching adult students within the municipal adult education system in Sweden. In accordance with the used method, Grounded Theory, the research question runs as follows: What is the main concern of adult educators and how do they deal with it? Formal and informal conversations with and between adult educators, classroom observations and events occurring outside the classrooms were used as data. A constant comparative analysis of empirical data, supported by literature and results from previous research ended up in an empirical grounded theory. The main concern of the adult educators is the high degree of absence and the many dropouts among the students. To avoid this, a majority of the educators perform motivational work through pedagogical and social actions and try to find a balance between teaching and caring. A majority of the adult students, though, have needs that are of a socio-emotional kind; a caring dimension seems to prevail. So, the educational assignment becomes secondary to the social one, but the acts of caring are both of final and instrumental value. By teaching and caring, the adult educators try to help their students to lead a good life either at the moment or in the future, and to experience Quality of Life, the latter have to be motivated to attend school regularly. According to the andragogical principles, adults are responsible and motivated to learn by nature. However, this study shows that there is a distance between the ideal adult student and the actual one and that adult educators have to take on both the responsibility and motivational work. An informal theory, generated out of a basic set of values and an experienced-based knowledge that is vital to adult education, is thus put into educational practice.