This study aimed to examine the relationship between student engagement and student retention of adult learners at community colleges. The relationship between student retention and the five Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) student engagement benchmarks (active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge,…

Adult learners in community college encounter barriers in a world that does not recognize their needs. This action research investigation explored the barriers adult learners faced in a community college in California and examined how targeted academic counseling interventions informed the students about essential supports and services available…

For the first time in United States history, five of the six living generations matriculate together through college classrooms. The ever more rapid speed of change in the past 100 years has stimulated each generation's increasingly singular developmental experience resulting in ever expanding "generation gaps." In community colleges,…

The 47th annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held online and in person in March 2023. This year's conference theme is "Workforce Development: Micro-Credentials, Badges, and CEUs." The proceedings are comprised of the following papers: (1) Investing in Adult Learners and Creating Learning Environments…

In Texas, adult English as a Second Language (ES(O)L) and developmental education classes both offer adult multilingual students remediation guided by distinct standards: Texas Workforce Commission (2016) and Texas College and Career Readiness Standards (2018). Within various colleges, the courses are overseen by different departments lacking…

The purpose of this Executive Position Paper was to research how to design an online, synchronous, asynchronous, or face-to-face training program for higher education instructors to serve the needs of a diverse student population of emergent learners, specifically in the community college sector. The subsequent research resulted in a faculty…

Communities continue to establish, promote, and monitor the educational outcomes of their citizenry through both explicit and implied norms. Community attributes influence the pursuit of education and level of education completed by individual citizens. The influencers within communities can be attributed to common constructs of communities…

In adult education, the term "interdisciplinarity" is often treated as an agent for transforming teaching, learning, and research. This appreciation of the concept proliferates despite the fact that its actualization often supports competing interpretations and practices. Many adult educators are unaware of the distinctions made among…

The influence of non-formal professional learning in higher education remains a relatively under-researched area. This paper aims to contribute to the literature by exploring the impact of an implementation of non-formal professional learning operating at an Irish university since April 2017. The initiative--called "The Sipping…

Adult learners, including those who are employed at least part-time, have children or other family responsibilities, and are older than 25 years can benefit from the flexibility and convenience of online courses. In community colleges, adult learners enroll in online courses at a higher rate than in-person courses, but their success rates are low,…

The 1946 GI Bill is widely credited with having created the modern U.S. higher education system, and the Post-9/11 GI Bill led to an expansion of services available to veterans at U.S. colleges and universities and the nonprofit veterans services industry. Despite this, veterans struggle to adapt to civilian society and report a lower sense of…

Adult students are generally classified as a single group for study, yet developmental psychologists recognize separate developmental periods during adulthood that suggest adult students at midlife may experience development within higher education differently that younger adult students, in part due to ageism expressed at individual,…

Academic development is increasingly complex and multi-faceted, and highly contextual. This study investigates why academic developers do what they do, within a continuing professional development (CPD) context. This qualitative research examines how six academic developers value their engagement in CPD and highlights five desired characteristics…

This dissertation research reports on the experiences of a team of community college educators who develop, implement, and teach an introductory biology course on the inverted classroom platform. Research questions addressed include: (1) What have been the motivations and professional influences of the instructors for transitioning to the inverted…

This article examines interview data with faculty teaching in a college-community partnership program for low-income adult students in an urban setting. The purpose of the study was to explore faculty understandings of the diverse learning needs of their students and the perceptions they have of the efficacy of their teaching practices regarding…