The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the lived experiences of adult learners who are owners and managers of small winery businesses operating in the start-up phase of the organizational life cycle. The study explored and identified the meaning of adult learning in the entrepreneurial context and its affect on…

This study defines a blog as a contemporary web-based environment that can make a difference in adult informal learning practice. An online survey with 70 adult bloggers in Korea was undertaken to understand the nature of adults' blogging and its meanings in terms of learning. This study investigates (a) adults' blogging experiences related to…

The Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning is to lobby parliament for the restoration of the 1.5 million adult learning places lost over the past two years. The campaign has attracted supporters from an astonishingly wide range of backgrounds. In this article, Gordon Marsden, Caroline Biggins, Beth Walker, Mike Chaney, Peter Davies, Sian…

Learning is a lifelong process. Many countries in the world, basically the European and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, have adopted it as an important vehicle for human development. They have also made it a policy agenda for meeting the human capital need for twenty first century for economic prosperity.…

The informal learning that older (age 50+) men experience in Australia has been the subject of a suite of recent, intensive, mixed methods research projects in community-based voluntary organizations. The purpose of the research was to examine where men are learning in these contexts beyond work and formal education rather than to assume and…

Founded in the 1850s to promote an informed citizenry, public libraries advanced both adult learning and citizenship education in the first half of the 20th century, thus becoming cornerstones of democracy. But with a more recent decline in public engagement in libraries and beyond, librarians question whether democracy requires more than an…

By the end of 2010 over 15 million euros will have been allocated in the UK through the Grundtvig adult learning programme. Over 900 organisations and thousands of staff, individuals and learners involved in adult education have benefitted. Grundtvig has helped to enhance the quality of learning provision; widen perspectives; increase motivation;…

Workplace and professional learning, lifelong learning, adult learning, learning in different contexts have become of more and more interest and now dominate all aspects of 21st century life. Learning is no longer about "storing and recall" but "development and flow". "Theories of Learning in the Workplace" offers fascinating overviews into some…

This article discusses shopping, especially critical shopping, as a process of informal and incidental adult learning about the intersecting politics of globalization and consumption. The author uses academic skills and disciplines as a metaphor to respond to an emerging conceptual question: To what extent can formality, informality, and…

Environmental learning, or how individuals make sense and meaning about nature, the environment, ecology, and environmental issues, is best understood as lifelong, life-wide, and life-deep (Banks and others, 2007). Lifelong learning refers to acquisition of skills, competencies, attitudes, and knowledge over time; life-wide is learning across…

It's almost a year since the revolution--the "Learning Revolution," that is. This was the Government's long-term vision for the development of "informal adult learning", as laid out in the White Paper of March 2009. The vision was expansive, embracing informal learning in the workplace, promoting a "new" culture of…

Few comprehensive, descriptive studies regarding educator use of social media for informal professional learning have been conducted. The purpose of this study was to examine, through a survey tool with both qualitative and quantitative components, educators' perceptions and reported behaviors associated with participation in informal, online…

Two years ago John Denham launched a consultation into the future of informal adult learning. He was taken aback by the volume and quality of the responses he received. Those responses helped to generate last year's White Paper, "The Learning Revolution," which six government departments supported. Since the launch of "The Learning Revolution,"…

The nature of nanoscience and nanotechnology (collectively, nano) are discussed as important examples of the modern sciences and technologies that are having an increasing impact on all aspects of life. In this Position paper, general proposals are made for the levels of understanding of nano that might be attained by whole populations. The ideas…

Today's ever-changing learning environment is characterized by the fast pace of technology that drives our society to move forward, and causes our knowledge to increase at an exponential rate. The need for in-depth research that is bound to generate new knowledge about curriculum and program development is becoming ever more relevant.…