Despite increasing demand in distance education, relatively little is known about the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as basic skill levels of adult distance education participants at the national level in the US. This study analyzed the US data from the 2012/2014 and 2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult…

Knowledge exchange, also called knowledge translation, mobilization, or transfer, increasingly factors in university strategic plans and funding agency mandates. The growing emphasis on research that includes community engagement and making research knowledge more accessible and useful for nonacademic constituents often brings in knowledge…

Adult language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills (LLND), and employability skills (for example, collaboration, problem-solving and self-management) -- often referred to as foundation skills -- are key skills that: assist people to get a job and remain employed, look after their mental and physical health, and help them to participate in their…

One of the primary goals of adult basic education programs is to help individuals develop the reading, writing, and math skills necessary to access stable employment opportunities. In the US, this need has been largely overlooked by the burgeoning educational technology sector. To understand how learning technologies might support these learners…

This practice-based case study explores how digital education practices within an inclusive, supportive environment can help to transform the practice and meet the specific needs of adult literacy education practitioners in their specific contexts. In an effort to contribute to discourse in relation to what works in various programmes and…

Literacy builds a foundation for further learning and necessitates human capital development that creates a knowledge economy. A clear focus on literacy policies is fundamental in achieving national and international socio-economic targets. In Tanzania, adult literacy growth has been slow, inconsistent, and characterized by regional gaps. A review…

In the final article of the forum, the field of adult basic education has mounted a strong response to COVID-19's disruption of classes and educational practices. As educators begin to think about the long-term consequences of this disruption, it might be useful to consider the ways that these changes and innovations could be built upon. In the…

This study report is part of a larger research programme, the Global Research Translation Award: Meeting the SDGs: creating innovative infrastructures and policy solutions to support sustainable development in Global South communities. The University of East Anglia's (UEA) Global Research Translation Award (GRTA) sets out to help tackle health,…

Stuttering is a disorder that affects about 1% of the population and manifests as speech disfluencies. Reading difficulties and disabilities are commonly found in this population. Nonetheless, speech disfluencies have not been explored in adult struggling readers (ASRs). In the current study, we examined the rate of stuttering in ASRs as well as…

Item difficulty modeling studies involve (a) hypothesizing item features, or item response demands, that are likely to predict item difficulty with some degree of accuracy; and (b) entering the features as independent variables into a regression equation or other statistical model to predict difficulty. In this review, we report findings from 13…

Education has been identified as one of the most important ways to achieve national development. With 3 million non-literate adults in Lagos State, the commercial nerve center of the nation, radio becomes a veritable medium to teach such adults who, for several reasons including economic, do not have the opportunity of formal schooling. The study…

The study was about women's opportunity for socio-economic development based on their experiences on Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) and integrated vocational training in Apac District-Northern Uganda. The main objective of this study was to explore whether and how women participants in Apac District derived socio-economic benefits from FAL as…

Data from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus…

The three of us met in 2014 through our shared interest in adult literacy. We are colleagues as practitioners and as researchers; altogether, we have been in the field of adult literacy in Canada since the 1980s. Our experiences working with learners come from our role as volunteer tutors and paid staff in provincially funded programs and…

Limited literacy has a large impact on the U.S. population; about half of adults lack sufficient literacy proficiency. However, not all populations are impacted equally, as there is a significant comorbidity between low literacy and mental illness. The authors have found that smartphones can offer mental health patients with low literacy numerous…