Learning circles has a long tradition in the Nordic countries as a model for adult non-formal education, but has gained little scholarly attention and is thus sparsely theorised. The purpose of this article is to discuss the revitalisation of learning circles as highly relevant in times of what we term 'social innovation imperatives'. To…

Elaborating the relations amongst workers' learning, innovations and well-being is essential for achieving two important and dual goals in contemporary work life. The first is individuals' ongoing learning that underpins their employability and can respond to new challenges and emerging occupational and workplace requirements. The second comprises…

This article presents the insights collected from an engaged interactive round table session, where participants came together to collaboratively brainstorm and deliberate upon best practices for effectively educating and mentoring Generation Z adult learners in both classroom and workplace settings. Drawing upon the extensive body of literature…

Access to higher education remains a significant obstacle to Commonwealth nations with more applicants than places in many countries leading to an insufficient number of skilled graduates entering the workforce. Digital transformation initiatives have the potential to significantly increase access to higher education, however, if Commonwealth…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) funded Manhattan Strategy Group and Abt Associates to conduct the Advancing Innovation in Adult Education project. The goal is to inspire and promote the development and use of innovate approaches in adult education that can result in high quality services…

Teacher change in physical education has long been called for; however, current theoretical models guiding the change process do not address contextual aspects of the teaching workplace. Occupational Socialization Theory (OST) addresses contextual factors related to change but omits individual teacher characteristics that develop independently of…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced adult education programs into rapid adoption of new technologies and delivery of new modalities of instruction and learner support. Leaders of the COABE Digital Literacy and Technology Strand took advantage of our 2021 strand meeting to tap into the collective knowledge of the diverse group of practitioners, teacher…

Apprenticeship is an internationally recognized model of learning receiving increased attention as it evolves to meet the needs of modern workers, employers, and the labor market. As apprenticeship expands, and new industries explore the model, adult educators are being asked to help develop programs and pathways, write curriculum, serve as…

2020 will be remembered as a watershed year. The pandemic's impact has moved Europe's vocational education and training (VET) and skills policy centre stage. The new EU policy in the making was designed to unleash VET's full potential and make it better suited to shape and manage the digital and green transitions to a fair economy and society; it…

The goal in personalized assessment is to best fit the needs of each individual test taker, given the assessment purposes. Design-in-Real-Time (DIRTy) assessment reflects the progressive evolution in testing from a single test, to an adaptive test, to an adaptive assessment "system." In this article, we lay the foundation for DIRTy…

High school instructional leaders describe how they reframed professional learning around autonomy with structured support. The new system, guided by trust and teacher inquiry, sparked innovation that proved critical during the pandemic.

At a time when the number of younger students entering our colleges and universities is stagnant, and the number of older people in our society continues to grow by the millions, schools of social work have an opportunity to broaden their student base by intentionally including people past midlife. This article argues that we must recruit and…

One of the pedagogical benefits that emerged from the pandemic period for adult learners was that teachers, in addition to supporting institutions, were more willing to consider and introduce technological innovations to the learning experience. For 2 years, teachers and institutions had no choice. Unanticipatedly, some of these innovative…

Building Bridges and Bonds (B3), a federally funded study of Responsible Fatherhood programs, is testing a set of innovative approaches designed to help fathers advance their parenting and employment skills. One of these innovations is a new smartphone-based application called DadTime. It is one of the first mobile applications specifically…

Educational reforms in Angola have emerged from changing political contexts in the country's history. The last three stand out: the Veiga Simão reform, which was approved in 1973 (colonial period) but did not come into full force; the 1978 reform (post-independence) coming from the third constitutional revision and the reform begun in 2004 (after…