This volume contains five reports of practitioner research projects within adult education programs in Virginia. "Learning in Everyday Life" (Susan Erno, Diane Foucar-Szocki) explores use of a monthly calendar as a time management and goal-setting tool for adult learners in a workplace setting. "Factors Related to Student Retention…

This report analyzes the relationship between educational policymaking and educational practice in schools and classrooms by drawing lessons from recent attempts to reform schools with policy. Educational reform operates on the following loosely connected levels: (1) policy; (2) administration; and (3) practice. Policy can set the conditions for…

Realizing that many preservice elementary teachers experience writing apprehension which may affect their role as writing instructors, this semester-long study was undertaken in order (1) to provide preservice teachers with an appropriate role model of a teacher who gives positive feedback and improves students' concepts of themselves as writers;…

This volume contains one paper defining the initial operating parameters of the Research and Development Exchange (RDx) and four of a series of papers contracted for the program. The overview paper touches on a variety of topics of continuing concern: the general problems toward which the RDx effort is directed, understandings affecting the design…

Six papers are presented from an American Educational Research Association symposium. The symposium explored the kind of research needed for increasing understanding of college and university faculty and examined the manner in which different scholarly techniques can contribute. The symposium objective was to open for discussion four modes for…

The status of women and minorities in higher education is discussed, and two intervention strategies are described that were implemented by the Higher Education Resource Service (HERS, Mid-Atlantic) of the University of Pennsylvania to assist in training and advancement. In conjunction with Bryn Mawr College, HERS designed a month-long summer…

THE TWO PARTS OF THE DOCUMENT REFLECT THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT TO FULFILL THE PRIMARY PURPOSES OF A PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE CONTRACT (1) TO STIMULATE FURTHER ACADEMICALLY BASED HEALTH MANPOWER RESEARCH, AND (2) TO EXAMINE THE FIELD IN ORDER TO RECOMMEND PRIORITY AREAS OF HEALTH MANPOWER RESEARCH. PART A INCLUDES--(1) REFERENCE TO A SURVEY PAPER…

The 18 member institutions of the Council for Educational Development and Research, Inc., constitute a national resource for conducting high-quality research and development and related technical assistance. Created in the mid-sixties by the federal government, and working in all 50 states, these institutions maintain multidisciplinary staffs and…

The Training Program for Urban School Research and Evaluation Personnel was a highly selective program for preparing partially-trained students for research work in urban education. The University of Chicago held a proposal competition for students in the Department of Education and related departments. From among those submitting research…

In the Adult Multiple Intelligences (AMI) study, 10 teachers of adults from the northeastern region of the United States explored for 18 months the ways that multiple intelligences (MI) theory could support instruction and assessment in various adult learning contexts. The results of this research were published in a book by Julie Viens called MI…

The content, scope, and methodology of dissertations on adult mathematics education in North American were examined. The study database consisted of the abstracts of 113 dissertations written between 1980 and 2000. The topics covered in the individual dissertations were as follows: assessment/frameworks/standards (14); contexts (3); instructional…

An evidence-based connection between adult educator professional development (PD) and learner outcomes is difficult to document, yet there is an intuitive assumption that professional development is linked to better teaching and learning outcomes. The field appears to be shifting away from one-shot PD to practitioner engagement in sustained,…

This text is designed to enable educators to design, conduct, and report research and evaluation in a way that transforms special education by addressing the needs of persons with disabilities as heterogeneous, cultural groups. The book explores ways to adapt those research methods to the special education context by providing a framework for…

An academic teacher at a maximum-security prison in Virginia conducted a study to determine how to improve instruction and motivate adult learners in a correctional facility. Data were collected through a survey that was distributed to 22 individuals and completed by 20 of them (2 academic teachers, 1 vocational instructor, 6 students, and 11…

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor-Management Committee (SPALMC), which serves approximately 180 adult students annually, was experiencing inconsistencies in performance among its adult education staff. The problems included teachers arriving late 50% of the time and individualizing instruction only 70% of the time. To remedy these problems,…