Assessment of informal and nonformal learning requires resolution of three questions: how to define competencies, how to measure them, and how to ensure the legitimacy of the measure. Assessment and certification procedures must be well defined and robust, with quality assurance methods accepted by all stakeholders. (Contains 22 references.) (SK)

Analysis of Portuguese adult education policies from 1974-1999 showed that an early-70s radical period ended with establishment of capitalist neoliberal policies. There is a strong dichotomy between formal adult education and nonformal education offered by community organizations. Popular education is marginalized and the state's role in civil…

Data from Canada's New Approaches to Lifelong Learning Study confirm the pervasiveness of unpaid work and informal learning. Most employed persons engage in a variety of work-related informal learning activities. However, underemployment in terms of use of acquired skills is widespread. (Contains 29 references.) (SK)

The author brings together the question posed in Kathryn Ecclestone's article in last month's "Adults Learning--"Where's the vision?"--and the letter from Wayne Bennett, General Manager of Dillington House, about the threat to residential colleges. The author brings out some of the connections between them and issues surrounding adult community…

This paper examines the life-wide dimensions of lifelong learning. Although the benefits of a life-wide approach to learning are well recognised, there appears to be little explicit attention given to the concept of life-wide learning in Australia. It is argued that recent pronouncements by the Australian Government about the challenges of an…

As the field of program evaluation has evolved, there has been a proliferation of approaches to the craft, each with a different conceptualization of the role the evaluator plays in relation to the program, organization, and practitioners with whom he or she works. A few recent conceptualizations of evaluator role include that of a "critical…

The Internet and Web technology development have opened up new ways for people to communicate, gain new information and increase their knowledge. One particular area of interest is that of using online resources to empower informal learners to increase their knowledge at their own time and space. One could look at an online resource as a public…

In mainstream U.S. culture, the idea of gender as a philosophical or spiritual value independent of sex is notably absent, and the presence of the masculine and the feminine in all of us is overlooked. In contrast, the concept of balance and compensation between the fundamental gender-defined energies of the universe is deeply rooted in American…

This document, prepared by The Biotechnology Information Center at the National Agricultural Library, contains sources of information that can provide a starting point for teachers, university faculty, extension agents, and other education leaders who have an interest in biotechnology education and training. Sections include a bibliography of the…

The author, an anthropologist, relates her experiences in Zambia, pointing out that African children do enjoy meaningful cognitive activities and are continually learning in their daily out-of-school lives, yet the formal, authoritarian, European school model fails to utilize these experiences or often even to recognize their existence. (EH)

An historical analysis from 1949 to the present, of the role of higher education in China, focusing on the significant changes since the Cultural Revolution in broadening the base of participation in higher education as well as the reorienting of curriculum and standards. (EH)

This document includes three parts and six appendixes. Part 1 is the general report of the 1987 UNESCO seminar on international education for adults held in Finland. Among the topics covered are key issues and the role of leaders of nonformal education and of adult educators in international education. Part 2 provides the reports of four working…

Observation of a kinship and social network among Mexican Americans in a Chicago neighborhood, part of an ethnographic study, revealed a pattern of self-education in literacy among the men in the group who came from one rancho, while the literate men from another rancho were primarily school-educated. Economic forces caused one group to attend…

This report describes an investigation of means of linking programs of the formal education sectors and the nonformal education sectors. The report is organized in three sections. The first section presents an overview, goals and objectives, phases, and interactions between the parties to the investigation. This section also describes the…

A discussion of non-formal education examines definitions of informal, formal, and non-formal education; compares non-formal and formal education in terms of objectives, student entry, clientele, curriculum, learning situations; teaching methods and materials, teachers, pupil evaluation, and agencies; and discusses four types of programs deserving…