Assessing Adult Learner's Numeracy as Related to Gender and Performance in Arithmetic

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Awofala, Adeneye O. A.; Anyikwa, Blessing E.

2014-01-01

The study investigated adult learner numeracy as related to gender and performance in arithmetic among 32 Nigerian adult learners from one government accredited adult literacy centre in Lagos State using the quantitative research method within the blueprint of descriptive survey design. Data collected were analysed using the descriptive statistics…

Adult Learners: Considerations for Education and Training

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Kistler, Mark J.

2011-01-01

As more and more adults seek out education and training programs to help them become more competitive in the job market, it provides an opportunity for career and technical education. Those who teach adult learners should take into consideration their particular learning traits. This article highlights a framework of core principles to be…

Motivation Management of Project-Based Learning for Business English Adult Learners

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Liu, Xiaoqin

2016-01-01

The paper finds out poor engagement in business English training program prevents adult learners at College of Continuing Education of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies from improving their communication skills. PBL (Project-Based Learning) is proposed to motivate adult learners to get involved with learning a lot. Based on the perspective…

Adult Learners' Preferred Methods of Learning Preventative Heart Disease Care

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Alavi, Nasim

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferred method of learning about heart disease by adult learners. This research study also investigated if there was a statistically significant difference between race/ethnicity, age, and gender of adult learners and their preferred method of learning preventative heart disease care. This…

Reflections from Graduate Adult Learners about Service Learning

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Alston, Geleana Drew; Clegg, T. E.; Clodfelter, Roy J., Jr.; Drye, Kimberly C.; Farrer, J. V.; Gould, Derek; Mohsin, Nidhal M.; Rankin, Tomiko N.; Ray, Sherri L.

2016-01-01

Adult education is grounded in responding to the needs of others, and the field places emphasis on adult learning theories such as transformative learning and experiential learning. Service learning is an educational approach that balances formal instruction and direction with the opportunity for adult learners to serve in the community as a…

Understanding Learner Agency as a Complex Dynamic System

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Mercer, Sarah

2011-01-01

This paper attempts to contribute to a fuller understanding of the nature of language learner agency by considering it as a complex dynamic system. The purpose of the study was to explore detailed situated data to examine to what extent it is feasible to view learner agency through the lens of complexity theory. Data were generated through a…

How does technology impact on the self-beliefs of adult basic education learners?

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Nwosu, Uchenna June

2010-01-01

Non-peer-reviewed Adult Basic Education learners return to education to solve a problem of inadequacy in life hence many adult basic education learners engage in the learning of basic skills to meet their needs in life than for the education itself. Due to feelings of inadequacy, in many instances the adult basic education learner displays low beliefs in abilities and capabilities which if not properly managed and enhanced can negatively impact on learning and consequently the mee...

Reimagining Student Engagement: How Nontraditional Adult Learners Engage in Traditional Postsecondary Environments

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Rabourn, Karyn E.; BrckaLorenz, Allison; Shoup, Rick

2018-01-01

Adult learners are a growing population in U.S. postsecondary education who experience distinct barriers to academic success. However, higher education institutions continue to create and adhere to policies that favor traditional college students. Thus, adult learner experiences must be better understood to ensure this population is supported.…

Advising Experiences and Needs of Online, Cohort, and Classroom Adult Graduate Learners

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Schroeder, Shawnda M.; Terras, Katherine L.

2015-01-01

Although a majority of graduate students fall under the definition of adult learners (over age 24 years), many traditional institutions do not offer advising specific to them, nor do they recognize advising needs of these older students in online, classroom, or cohort situations. In this phenomenological study, 9 adult graduate learners were…

An Autoethnographic Exchange: Exploring the Dynamics of Selves as Adult Learners and Adult Educators

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Plakhotnik, Maria S.; Delgado, Antonio; Seepersad, Rehana

2015-01-01

This article explores four former doctoral students' perceptions about their selves as adult learners and adult educators through the use of autoethnography and reflective dialogue. The dynamics between the two selves were explored to identify emerging themes and implications for practice in adult education. The duality of their roles as learners…

From gesture to sign language: conventionalization of classifier constructions by adult hearing learners of British Sign Language.

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Marshall, Chloë R; Morgan, Gary

2015-01-01

There has long been interest in why languages are shaped the way they are, and in the relationship between sign language and gesture. In sign languages, entity classifiers are handshapes that encode how objects move, how they are located relative to one another, and how multiple objects of the same type are distributed in space. Previous studies have shown that hearing adults who are asked to use only manual gestures to describe how objects move in space will use gestures that bear some similarities to classifiers. We investigated how accurately hearing adults, who had been learning British Sign Language (BSL) for 1-3 years, produce and comprehend classifiers in (static) locative and distributive constructions. In a production task, learners of BSL knew that they could use their hands to represent objects, but they had difficulty choosing the same, conventionalized, handshapes as native signers. They were, however, highly accurate at encoding location and orientation information. Learners therefore show the same pattern found in sign-naïve gesturers. In contrast, handshape, orientation, and location were comprehended with equal (high) accuracy, and testing a group of sign-naïve adults showed that they too were able to understand classifiers with higher than chance accuracy. We conclude that adult learners of BSL bring their visuo-spatial knowledge and gestural abilities to the tasks of understanding and producing constructions that contain entity classifiers. We speculate that investigating the time course of adult sign language acquisition might shed light on how gesture became (and, indeed, becomes) conventionalized during the genesis of sign languages. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Math Anxiety, Math Self-Concept, and Math Self-Efficacy in Adult Learners Compared to Traditional Undergraduate Students

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Jameson, Molly M.; Fusco, Brooke R.

2014-01-01

Adult learners comprise a significant portion of current undergraduate populations, and projections indicate steady or growing numbers of adult learners in the future. Previous research has suggested that adult learners possess lower self-confidence than and face barriers not experienced by traditional undergraduate students. These constructs have…

Balancing Work, Family, and Student Roles: A Phenomenological Study of the Adult Female Graduate Online Learner

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Rousseau, Charlene X.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of female adult learners pursuing graduate degrees online. As online graduate programs have become increasingly popular and more readily available in the last decade, more women than men are enrolling in online graduate programs in addition to…

Trauma and the Adult English Language Learner. ERIC Digest.

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Isserlis, Janet

English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) practitioners are familiar with adult learners' stories of disruption, political trauma, and mental upheaval. Until recently, however, little attention has been paid to personal trauma and domestic abuse. Acknowledgement of the prevalence of violence generally, and of that experienced by those in the adult ESL…

Health literacy and the social determinants of health: a qualitative model from adult learners.

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Rowlands, Gillian; Shaw, Adrienne; Jaswal, Sabrena; Smith, Sian; Harpham, Trudy

2017-02-01

Health literacy, ‘the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health’, is key to improving peoples’ control over modifiable social determinants of health (SDH). This study listened to adult learners to understand their perspectives on gathering, understanding and using information for health. This qualitative project recruited participants from community skills courses to identify relevant ‘health information’ factors. Subsequently different learners put these together to develop a model of their ‘Journey to health’. Twenty-seven participants were recruited; twenty from community health literacy courses and seven from an adult basic literacy and numeracy course. Participants described health as a ‘journey’ starting from an individual's family, ethnicity and culture. Basic (functional) health literacy skills were needed to gather and understand information. More complex interactive health literacy skills were needed to evaluate the importance and relevance of information in context, and make health decisions. Critical health literacy skills could be used to adapt negative external factors that might inhibit health-promotion. Our model is an iterative linear one moving from ethnicity, community and culture, through lifestyle, to health, with learning revisited in the context of different sources of support. It builds on existing models by highlighting the importance of SDH in the translation of new health knowledge into healthy behaviours, and the importance of health literacy in enabling people to overcome barriers to health.

Learner-Centred Teaching Contributes in Promising Results in Improving Learner Understanding and Motivation: A Case Study at Malaysia Tertiary Education

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Yap, Wei-Li; Neo, Mai; Neo, Tse-Kian

2016-01-01

In Malaysia, traditional teaching is still a common approach among many lecturers. There have been many studies that have reported its limitations and many lecturers have started to adopt a more learner-centred teaching approach to promote better learner understanding and learner motivation. Throughout this effort, it is noticed there are…

Adult English language learners and self-assessment a qualitative study

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Wolochuk, Alexandria

2014-01-01

This study explores the relationship between adult English-language learners' assessment of their own language proficiency on the English Ability Questionnaire (EAQ) and their performance on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). It addresses aspects of developing the ""autonomous"" student and makes for the integration of self-directed learners who will be more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and how to address them

Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online: A case study in detection and remediation

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Christine Jocoy

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Detecting and combating plagiarism from Web-based sources is a concern for administrators and instructors involved in online distance education. In this paper, we quantify copy-and-paste plagiarism among adult learners in an online geography course offered through Penn State’s World Campus Geographic Information Systems (GIS certificate program. We also evaluate the effectiveness of an “expectation management” strategy intended to discourage adult learners from unintentional violations. We found that while manual methods detected plagiarism in only about 3 percent of assignments, Turnitin.com revealed a 13 percent plagiarism rate among the same assignments. Our attempts to increase awareness and manage expectations decreased infractions measurably, but not significantly. In contrast, Turnitin.com substantially improved our ability to detect infractions. We conclude that raising awareness and managing expectations about plagiarism may be worthwhile, but is no substitute for systematic detection and vigilant enforcement, even among adult learners.

Measuring Self-Directed Learning: A Diagnostic Tool for Adult Learners

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Khiat, Henry

2015-01-01

Self-directed learning is an important form of adult learning (Caffarella, 1993; Knowles, 1975; Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 2005; Merriam, 2001; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). The strategies of self-directed learning allow adult learners to cope better with their studies while fulfilling family, work and other commitments. This study…

PRONUNCIATION OF CONSONANTS /ð/ AND /θ/ BY ADULT VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS

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Thien Sao Bui

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This study examined the pronunciation of consonants /ð/ & /θ/ by adult Vietnamese learners of English. Ten adult Vietnamese learners of English were selected to be the sample for the audiotape observation, which aimed at identifying the participants’ mistakes in pronouncing /ð/ and /θ/. Secondly, 115 learners of English in Vietnam were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the causes of their pronunciation errors. The findings indicated that substitution phenomenon was a dominant problem in the students’ pronunciation of /θ/ and /ð/. The most outstanding problem in pronouncing the consonant /θ/ was replacing this sound by Vietnamese /t‘/. With regards to /ð/ sound, it was most frequently mispronounced as /z/. Besides, there was a new kind of mistake found: it was the tendency to pronounce /dʒ/ instead of /ð/, which has not been reported ever. Apart from that, participants also confirmed some causes of their erroneous pronunciation. As perceived by the learners themselves, the most popular causes of their problems were the lack of English exposure and practice, which implicated that an effective environment for using English was highly necessary.

Effects of Dicto-Comp and Dictation on the Writing Skill of Female Adult Iranian EFL Learners

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Adel, Rahil; Hashemian, Mahmood

2015-01-01

This study was an attempt to clarify and remind L2 learners/teachers of 2 kinds of writing: dicto-comp and dictation. We explored the effect of controlled writing on the accuracy of the writing of adult Iranian EFL learners. Prior to the study, the homogeneity of 30 adult EFL learners was checked through an OPT test. Thirty participants were…

Learner Characteristics, Learner Achievement and Time Investment in Online Courses for Dutch L2 in Adult Education

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De Paepe, Liesbeth; Zhu, Chang; Depryck, Koen

2018-01-01

For the growing group of adult migrants, flexible solutions for second language (L2) acquisition are increasingly important, while concerns about the efficacy of online language learning abound. This study on the L2 situation in Flanders has 4 key aims: analyzing adult learner profiles in fully online Dutch beginners' courses; comparing learner…

Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine: Focus on the Older Adult Learner.

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Kasworm, Carol E.

1978-01-01

Three significant elements should be considered in offering educational programs for the older learner: acceptance (old dogs); support (God bless little children while they're too young to hate); and dependability (watermelon wine). Guidelines are offered for the teacher entering the classroom composed of adult learners. (KC)

The Mobile College Community: A Study of Adult Learners' Adoption and Use of Digital Communication Technologies on the Campuses of Florida's Community Colleges

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Weidert, John William

2012-01-01

Rapid advancements in technology and the proliferation of mobile communication devices available in the marketplace require that community college administrators and teachers better understand levels of digital communication technology adoption and how adult learners currently use them. Such an understanding is necessary to developing the…

Adult Enrichment Learners in St. Cloud, Minnesota: Motivational Reasons for Participation

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Wallner, Scott David

2012-01-01

The purpose of the study was to identify reasons and motivation of adult stakeholders that influence participation in adult community education enrichment classes in the St. Cloud Public School District, St. Cloud, Minnesota. The study also examined the perceptions about adult learners held by leaders, planners, and facilitators of these programs,…

Exploring Education Major Focused Adult Learners' Perspectives and Practices of Web-Based Distance Education in Sixteen Universities

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Zhang, Jing

2009-01-01

Distance education is not a new concept for all kinds of learners in the modern societies. Many researchers have studied traditional distance education programs for adult learners in the past, but little research has been done on Web-based distance education (WBDE) for adult learners. There are also many popular online universities in the U.S. or…

Effects of Redundancy and Modality on the Situational Interest of Adult Learners in Multimedia Learning

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Dousay, Tonia A.

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effects of two design principles as prescribed by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning on the situational interest of adult learners in a multimedia-based continuing education training program. One hundred and two adult learners employed by an emergency medical service were randomly assigned to one of three…

The Relationship between Reading Proficiency and Reading Strategy Use: A Study of Adult ESL Learners

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Huang, Jiuhan; Nisbet, Deanna

2014-01-01

This article explores the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among 121 adult ESL learners. Reading strategy use was measured by the SORS, and reading proficiency was determined by the CASAS Reading Test and BEST Literacy Test. Findings of the study reveal that (a) adult ESL learners are active strategies users; (b)…

Classroom Grammar Teaching for Adult Learners

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石怡

2014-01-01

As Wight (1999, p.33) pointed out to“know a language was to know the grammar of it”, hence grammar teaching is usually the main approach in second or foreign language teaching. This paper presents an analysis from three aspects to il-lustrate why classroom grammar teaching benefits adult learners. However, if grammar is overstated, some negative results will occur. Therefore a balance between grammar teaching and communicative skill teaching is need, as is a balance between accuracy and fluency.

Adult MOOC Learners as Self-Directed: Perceptions of Motivation, Success, and Completion

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Loizzo, Jamie; Ertmer, Peggy A.; Watson, William R.; Watson, Sunnie Lee

2017-01-01

Despite the increased attention given to MOOCs over the last four years, learners' voices have been noticeably absent. This virtual ethnographic study was designed to examine the experiences of 12 adult learners with bachelors' and masters' degrees, enrolled in a four-week MOOC on the topic of human trafficking. Through the lenses of self-directed…

Communication Strategies of Adult ESL Learners: A Discourse Perspective.

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Clennell, Charles

1995-01-01

Examines the communication strategies used by adult second-language learners of English when performing contrasting pedagogic tasks. The article suggests that existing descriptions of communication strategies ignore the pragmatic function of such devices in interactive discourse and offers a reclassification that differentiates strategies…

Current Trends in Adult Degree Programs: How Public Universities Respond to the Needs of Adult Learners

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Gast, Angela

2013-01-01

Although many adult students turn to online degree programs due to their flexibility and convenience, a majority of prospective adult learners prefer to take classes on traditional brick-and-mortar campuses. This chapter examines how public research universities create pathways to degree attainment and boost degree completion rates among adult…

Teaching a High-Level Contextualized Mathematics Curriculum to Adult Basic Learners

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Showalter, Daniel A.; Wollett, Chelsie; Reynolds, Sharon

2014-01-01

This paper reports on the implementation of a high level contextualized mathematics curriculum by 12 adult basic instructors in a midwestern state. The 10-week pilot curriculum embedded high level mathematics in contexts that were familiar to adult learners. Instructors' weekly online posts were coded, and the following themes emerged: (a)…

AN APPLIED INTERLANGUAGE EXPERIMENT INTO PHONOLOGICAL MISPERCEPTIONS OF ADULT LEARNERS

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Paul Tench

2001-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of the experiment described here was to attempt to measure adult learners' percetual interlanguage in phonology. The implementation of a methodology involving context-less lists of English words selected for their potential phonological problems is described, and the way in which learners process words they are listening to is discussed. The results of 13 Korean adults' perceptions and misperceptions are analysed: the most misperceived vowels were ID:/ and the short vowels /u, A, I, E, D, z/;c onsonants were mainly misperceived in word-final position, but 18, v, b, p, rl were misperceived to some extent in any position, and /S, j/ before the vowel /i:/; consonant clusters involving /f, 1, r/ were particularly subject to misperception. These findings have implications for the design of English pronunciation teaching materials for Koreans.

The Difficulties of English as a Foreign Language (EFL Learners in Understanding Pragmatics

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Fauzia

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Pragmatics is the study of the relation of signs to interpreters. For English foreign language (EFL learners, the knowledge and comprehensible input of pragmatics is much needed. This paper is based on research project. The writer did the research survey by giving some respondents questionnaire. The respondent is some students from UAD, which is taken randomly. Besides using open questionnaire, the writer also got the data from in depth interview with some EFL learners, the native speaker who teaches English, and also did literature review from some books. The result of the research then gives some evidences that EFL learners difficulties in understanding the English pragmatics occurs in 1 greeting, 2 apologizing, 3 complimenting, and 4 thanking. The factors that promotes EFL learners’ difficulties in understanding because 1 the different culture and values between native speaker and learners; 2 habit that the usually use in their daily life.

Participatory Photography: Can It Help Adult Learners Develop Agency?

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Yang, Kyung-Hwa

2014-01-01

This article draws on a participatory photography project conducted with 10 socioeconomically disadvantaged adult learners for six weeks within the framework of production pedagogy. Throughout the project, the participants took photographs about their lives in response to three prompts that I gave: (1) take photographs of people that are important…

‘Not an ogre’:adult music learners and their teachers, a corpus-based discourse analysis

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Shirley, Rachel

2015-01-01

Adult learners are an under-researched group in music education. Although music education research often uses texts (interviews, autobiographical accounts, survey responses), linguistic analysis has not yet been used in this area. Meanwhile, the internet has become a source of support and expression for adult music learners, through blogs and forums. This presentation describes part of the research undertaken for my MA in English Language, which uses a corpus of online texts to investigate di...

Learner Characteristics and Understanding Nature of Science: Is There an Association?

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Çetinkaya-Aydin, Gamze; Çakiroglu, Jale

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations between preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and their learner characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness level, and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the…

DESIGNING INSTRUCTION FOR THE TRADITIONAL, ADULT, AND DISTANCE LEARNER: A New Engine for Technology-Based Teaching

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Lawrence A. Tomei

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Adult students demand a wider variety of instructional strategies that encompass real-world, interactive, cooperative, and discovery learning experiences.Designing Instruction for the Traditional, Adult, and Distance Learner: A New Engine for Technology-Based Teaching explores how technology impacts the process of devising instructional plans as well as learning itself in adult students. Containing research from leading international experts, this publication proposes realistic and accurate archetypes to assist educators in incorporating state-of-the-art technologies into online instruction.This text proposes a new paradigm for designing, developing, implementing, and assessed technology-based instruction. It addresses three target populations of today's learner: traditional, adult, and distance education. The text proposes a new model of instructional system design (ISD for developing effective technology-based education that involves a five-step process focusing on the learner, learning theories, resources, delivery modalities, and outcomes.

An adult learner's learning style should inform but not limit educational choices

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Barry, Margot; Egan, Arlene

2018-02-01

Adult learners are attracted to learning opportunities (e.g. course offers) which seem promising in terms of allowing them to match their choices to their own perceived predispositions. To find out more about their personal learning style, some adult learners may fill in a questionnaire designed by researchers who aim (and claim) to enable both course providers and learners to optimise learning outcomes. The evaluation of these questionnaires measures learning styles using indicators developed for this purpose, but the results are not conclusive and their utility is therefore questionable. This narrative review critically examines some of the research which explores the usefulness of considering students' learning styles in adult education. The authors present a discussion - which remains hypothetical - on why the use of learning styles measures continues to be popular despite the absence of rigorous research findings to support this practice. Factors discussed by the authors include confirmation bias (making choices which confirm our prejudices) and user qualification (limiting availability to trained users, e.g. psychologists) as well as limited resources and skills in evaluating research, paired with educators' quest to implement evidence-focused techniques. The authors conclude that while learning styles assessments can be useful for the purpose of reflection on strengths and weaknesses, they should play a limited role in educational choices.

Making Maths Useful: How Two Teachers Prepare Adult Learners to Apply Their Numeracy Skills in Their Lives outside the Classroom

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Brooks, Carolyn

2015-01-01

This pilot case study of two teachers and their learner groups from Adult and Community settings, investigates how numeracy teachers, working with adult learners in discrete numeracy classes, motivate and enable learners to build on their informal skills and apply new learning to their own real-life contexts. Teachers used a range of abstract and…

How Do Novice and Expert Learners Represent, Understand, and Discuss Geologic Time?

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Layow, Erica Amanda

This dissertation examined the representations novice and expert learners constructed for the geologic timescale. Learners engaged in a three-part activity. The purpose was to compare novice learners' representations to those of expert learners. This provided insight into the similarities and differences between their strategies for event ordering, assigning values and scale to the geologic timescale model, as well as their language and practices to complete the model. With a qualitative approach to data analysis informed by an expert-novice theoretical framework grounded in phenomenography, learner responses comprised the data analyzed. These data highlighted learners' metacognitive thoughts that might not otherwise be shared through lectures or laboratory activities. Learners' responses were analyzed using a discourse framework that positioned learners as knowers. Novice and expert learners both excelled at ordering and discussing events before the Phanerozoic, but were challenged with events during the Phanerozoic. Novice learners had difficulty assigning values to events and establishing a scale for their models. Expert learners expressed difficulty with determining a scale because of the size of the model, yet eventually used anchor points and unitized the model to establish a scale. Despite challenges constructing their models, novice learners spoke confidently using claims and few hedging phrases indicating their confidence in statements made. Experts used more hedges than novices, however the hedging comments were made about more complex conceptions. Using both phenomenographic and discourse analysis approaches for analysis foregrounded learners' discussions of how they perceived geologic time and their ways of knowing and doing. This research is intended to enhance the geoscience community's understanding of the ways novice and expert learners think and discuss conceptions of geologic time, including the events and values of time, and the strategies used

Examining English Language Learning Motivation of Adult International Learners Studying Abroad in the US

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Weger, Heather D.

2013-01-01

The present study reports on the motivations of adult, international learners of English, studying English 20 hours a week in a US-based Intensive English Program (IEP). Though often used as participants in language acquisition studies, there are few studies of these learners' motivational profiles. In the current study, a questionnaire designed…

The Effect of an Educator's Teaching Style on the Math Anxiety of Adult Learners

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Hosch, Mary L.

2014-01-01

Many adults are obstructed from specialized professions based on their anxiety of math. Math anxiety has been extensively researched for over 3 decades. Scholars have attempted to define its origins as well as the means to eliminate its often-debilitating effect on learners. Research indicates that learners with math anxiety often give up career…

Training Mentors as Educational Advisors for Adult Learners. Process Manual.

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Singer, Elizabeth W.

Materials used by the director of a project designed to assist key personnel in businesses, industries, and agencies with the educational counseling of their employees are presented. The objectives of the project, "Training Mentors as Educational Advisors of Adult Learners," were to: (1) provide two training sessions in educational…

The Adult Learner of French in an Anglophone Setting | Kwofie ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Unlike most other papers which are devoted to the discussion of the problems of normal French language teaching / learning in anglophone settings, this paper examines specifically the anglophone adult learner of French, his needs and objectives. The paper provides a brief history of the introduction of French into Africa, ...

Andragogy for Teen and Young Adult Learners with Intellectual Disabilities: Learning, Independence, and Best Practices

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Bowman, Stephanie L.; Plourde, Lee A.

2012-01-01

Teens and young adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) meet the criteria of teen and adult learners chronologically, but may be deficient in many other areas of teen and adult learning. The spectrum of intellectual and adaptive capabilities among teens and adults with ID is vast, with each individual being unique. There are specific teaching…

Harmonic biases in child learners: In support of language universals

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Culbertson, Jennifer; Newport, Elissa L.

2015-01-01

A fundamental question for cognitive science concerns the ways in which languages are shaped by the biases of language learners. Recent research using laboratory language learning paradigms, primarily with adults, has shown that structures or rules that are common in the languages of the world are learned or processed more easily than patterns that are rare or unattested. Here we target child learners, investigating a set of biases for word order learning in the noun phrase studied by Culbertson, Smolensky & Legendre (2012) in college-age adults. We provide the first evidence that child learners exhibit a preference for typologically common harmonic word order patterns—those which preserve the order of the head with respect to its complements—validating the psychological reality of a principle formalized in many different linguistic theories. We also discuss important differences between child and adult learners in terms of both the strength and content of the biases at play during language learning. In particular, the bias favoring harmonic patterns is markedly stronger in children than adults, and children (unlike adults) acquire adjective ordering more readily than numeral ordering. The results point to the importance of investigating learning biases across development in order to understand how these biases may shape the history and structure of natural languages. PMID:25800352

The Lure of Non-Credit Studio Art Classes for Adult Learners

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Murray, Gina C.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the motivation and satisfaction of adult learners who participated in non-credit studio art classes. Leisure motivation has been researched by educators, philosophers, psychologists, and social scientists (Candy, 1991; Brookfield, 2005: Dewey, 1980; Knowles, 1998; Maslow, 1970; Rogers, 1961, Stebbins,…

The Influence of Social Media on Adult Learners' Knowledge Construction and Democratic Participation

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Feldman, Eric M.

2015-01-01

This paper provides a resource on the impact of social media on adult learners' construction of knowledge, particularly as it pertains to adult education's role in fostering a robust democratic society. There has been an increase in the literature in recent years that explores the various aspects of social media use, such as the incivility of…

Closing the Gap: Opportunities for Distance Education to Benefit Adult Learners in Higher Education

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Carlsen, A.; Holmberg, C.; Neghina, C.; Owusu-Boampong, A.

2016-01-01

Distance education in higher education is a fast-growing and widespread phenomenon. As many adults are unable to participate in on-campus education, distance education offers flexible learning paths that greatly enhance accessibility to higher education. Exploring distance education's potential to increase the participation of adult learners in…

Why Do Learners Choose Online Learning: The Learners' Voices

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Ilgaz, Hale; Gulbahar, Yasemin

2017-01-01

Offering many advantages to adult learners, e-Learning is now being recognized--and preferred--by more and more people, resulting in an increased number of distance learners in recent years. Numerous research studies focus on learner preferences for online learning, with most converging around the individual characteristics and differences, if not…

Adult English Language Learners' Perceptions of Audience Response Systems (Clickers) as Communication Aides: A Q-Methodology Study

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Rodriguez, Lisa Ann; Shepard, MaryFriend

2013-01-01

This study explored the perceptions of adult English language learners about audience response systems (clickers) as tools to facilitate communication. According to second language acquisition theory, learners' receptive capabilities in the early stages of second language acquisition surpass expressive capabilities, often rendering them silent in…

Aptitude, Phonological Memory, and Second Language Proficiency in Nonnovice Adult Learners

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Hummel, Kirsten M.

2009-01-01

This study explores the relationship between aptitude, phonological memory (PM), and second language (L2) proficiency in nonnovice adult learners of English as an L2. Native speakers of French (N = 77) enrolled in a university Teaching English as a Second Language program were the participants in the study. Exploratory factor analysis revealed…

Exploring Part-Time Teacher Professional Development and Best Practices on Adult Learners' Outcomes

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Brown, Sandra K.

2017-01-01

The issue of limited part-time teacher professional development and its effect on adult learners' success at an adult education center in the northeast United States was addressed in this study. At the research site, almost 50% of the teaching staff are adjuncts. Professional development opportunities have been limited, with only 1 opportunity…

Harmonic biases in child learners: in support of language universals.

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Culbertson, Jennifer; Newport, Elissa L

2015-06-01

A fundamental question for cognitive science concerns the ways in which languages are shaped by the biases of language learners. Recent research using laboratory language learning paradigms, primarily with adults, has shown that structures or rules that are common in the languages of the world are learned or processed more easily than patterns that are rare or unattested. Here we target child learners, investigating a set of biases for word order learning in the noun phrase studied by Culbertson, Smolensky, and Legendre (2012) in college-age adults. We provide the first evidence that child learners exhibit a preference for typologically common harmonic word order patterns-those which preserve the order of the head with respect to its complements-validating the psychological reality of a principle formalized in many different linguistic theories. We also discuss important differences between child and adult learners in terms of both the strength and content of the biases at play during language learning. In particular, the bias favoring harmonic patterns is markedly stronger in children than adults, and children (unlike adults) acquire adjective ordering more readily than numeral ordering. The results point to the importance of investigating learning biases across development in order to understand how these biases may shape the history and structure of natural languages. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The impact of an immersive elective on learners' understanding of lifestyle medicine and its role in patients' lives.

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Mattison, Melissa J; Nemec, Eric C

2014-10-15

To design an immersive, active learning, lifestyle medicine (LM) elective and evaluate its impact on a pharmacy learners' ability to understand the challenges of implementing lifestyle changes. A 3-credit elective was developed that incorporated goal setting and immersion into the realm of LM as experienced by both the patient and the practitioner. Learners were assessed via a survey instrument, formal assignments, reflections, and the Presidential Fitness Challenge. Learners reported that their ability to initiate LM as a primary intervention within a care plan significantly increased after taking this course. They also improved their overall health. By identifying and implementing self-identified lifestyle modifications, learners increased confidence in their abilities to produce evidence-based outcomes for patients. Learners were able to understand the challenges of trying to change their daily habits as they undertook their own personal goals.

How Do Chinese ESL Learners Recognize English Words during a Reading Test? A Comparison with Romance-Language-Speaking ESL Learners

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Li, Hongli; Suen, Hoi K.

2015-01-01

This study examines how Chinese ESL learners recognize English words while responding to a multiple-choice reading test as compared to Romance-language-speaking ESL learners. Four adult Chinese ESL learners and three adult Romance-language-speaking ESL learners participated in a think-aloud study with the Michigan English Language Assessment…

Innovation in Doctoral Degrees Designed for Adult Learners: A Hybrid Model in Personal Financial Planning

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Grable, John E.

2011-01-01

Innovation in doctoral degree program development and delivery provides an effective counterpoint to the expert-apprentice model established in the Middle Ages. The author outlines the importance of innovation in reaching adult learners and describes an innovative hybrid PhD program designed to allow aspiring doctoral adult-age students to pursue…

Constructing Proxy Variables to Measure Adult Learners' Time Management Strategies in LMS

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Jo, Il-Hyun; Kim, Dongho; Yoon, Meehyun

2015-01-01

This study describes the process of constructing proxy variables from recorded log data within a Learning Management System (LMS), which represents adult learners' time management strategies in an online course. Based on previous research, three variables of total login time, login frequency, and regularity of login interval were selected as…

Adult English Language Learners Constructing and Sharing Their Stories and Experiences: The Cultural and Linguistic Autobiography Writing Project

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Park, Gloria

2011-01-01

This article is the culmination of the Cultural and Linguistic Autobiography (CLA) writing project, which details narrative descriptions of adult English language learners' (ELLs') cultural and linguistic experiences and how those experiences may have influenced the ways in which these learners constructed and reconstructed their identities.…

Using storytelling with adult EFL learners: an enriching classroom experience

OpenAIRE

Adriana Vecino

2016-01-01

Storytelling has obvious benefits in the development of speaking and listening skills, vocabulary and memory abilities. It also nurtures reading and writing skills and offers learners opportunities to increase their confidence. Given the great value in employing storytelling as a support when learning a foreign language, I decided to use this technique with one of my adult EFL classrooms and observe the benefits and possible constraints. This paper presents the theoretical foundat...

Morphological Awareness Intervention: Improving Spelling, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension for Adult Learners

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Bangs, Kathryn E.; Binder, Katherine S.

2016-01-01

Adult Basic Education programs are under pressure to develop and deliver instruction that promotes rapid and sustained literacy development. We describe a novel approach to a literacy intervention that focuses on morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units contained in words. We argue that if you teach learners that big words are comprised…

The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

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Alroudhan, Hayat Eid

2016-01-01

This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the…

A Study of Career Development, Learning Motivation, and Learning Satisfaction of Adult Learners in Unconventional Scheduling Graduate Programs

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Chu, Hui-Chin; Hsieh, Mei-Chi; Chang, Shan-Chih

2007-01-01

The study aimed at investigating the relationships among career development, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction of adult learners in master's programs at S University. Questionnaires were distributed with 211 valid returns (71%). The results indicated that some of the demographics are factors affecting both of the learners' learning…

Understanding the Development of Chinese EFL Learners' Email Literacy through Exploratory Practice

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Chen, Yuan-shan

2016-01-01

While many empirical studies demonstrate the effects of instruction on enhancing second language (L2) learners' pragmatic competence (Rose, 2005), few have attempted to gain an understanding of the quality of classroom life in addition to instructional efficacy. Drawing on the framework of Exploratory Practice (Allwright, 2005), the present study…

L2 Learners' Assessments of Accentedness, Fluency, and Comprehensibility of Native and Nonnative German Speech

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O'Brien, Mary Grantham

2014-01-01

In early stages of classroom language learning, many adult second language (L2) learners communicate primarily with one another, yet we know little about which speech stream characteristics learners tune into or the extent to which they understand this lingua franca communication. In the current study, 25 native English speakers learning German as…

True to life English for adult learners : pre-intermediate : teacher's book

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Gairns, Ruth

1995-01-01

True to Life is a five-level course for adults. To ensure a high level of motivation, the course focuses on contemporary themes, language and learning styles that are relevant to adult learners. The Starter level provides between 40 and 60 hours of class work. The other levels provide between 72 and 96 hours of class work, depending on the various options used. The range of extra materials (photocopiable worksheets, tests and videos) create a comprehensive and flexible teaching package. The ready-made lessons can be used as they stand, saving teacher time, or adapted using the optional activities suggested in the Teacher's Book.

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE SUCCESSFUL LEARNER: A Case Study of IGNOU

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Sindhu P. NAIR

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The growth of enrolment in the ODL system has been considerable. However, another parameter of significance in the context of Open and Distance learning is the learner success rate. While enrolment rates have been very encouraging in distance education, the pass-out rates haven’t been similar. There is a need to focus on the dynamics involved after a learner enrols himself in an OU and what drives him to stay focussed and complete his academic pursuit successfully or alternatively what holds or slows his academic progress and eventually makes him drop out. The study highlights that there are both institution-based (that is OU-based and learner-centric factors that could facilitate learners to successfully complete their studies. There are both controllable and uncontrollable factors that affect the OU learners’ success rate. This study attempts to capture the learner-centric factors and OU-related factors that have facilitated the learners to successfully complete their study. The paper delves into those key aspects or factors which would have facilitated the passed out learners in successfully completing their programmes in the open system. The findings are of direct interest, both from an institution perspective and that of a distance learner. It provides inputs to the Open and distance learning system, towards formulating appropriate strategies that further facilitate learners to successfully pass out. Also the findings serve as indicators/guide rules for any learner in the open system.

The relation of cognitive learning strategies to psychosocial employability attributes amongst black adult learners in the economic and management sciences field

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Melinde Coetzee

2014-07-01

Research purpose: The objective of the research was to investigate the relation between adultlearners’ cognitive learning strategies (measured by the examination preparation inventoryand their psychosocial employability attributes (measured by the employability attributesscale. Motivation for the study: Recent research has made important progress in understanding thenotions of cognitive learning styles in learning and psychosocial employability attributes insustaining individuals’ employability in the contemporary world of work. However, researchon how adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies influence the psychosocial attributes theyneed to manage and sustain their employability has been lacking. Research approach, design and method: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design wasused, involving a stratified proportional random sample of 1102 predominantly early careerblack female undergraduate level adult learners. The participants were enrolled for distancelearning studies in the economic and management sciences field at a South African highereducation institution. Main findings: Canonical correlation and multiple regression analysis indicated the abstracttheoretical and factual practical cognitive learning strategies as useful predictors of theparticipants’ overall level of psychosocial employability attributes and especially their levelsof career self-management and proactivity. Practical/managerial implications: Learning practitioners should strive to integrate cognitivelearning strategies in the design of learning and assessment activities in order to fosterthe psychosocial employability attributes adult learners need to manage their continuedemployability in the contemporary workplace. Contribution: The study contributes new insights to the employability and learning andeducation literature. The results may potentially inform formal learning and assessmentdesign in order to improve adult learners’ learning performance and employability.

Agricultural Extension Agents' Perceptions of Effective Teaching Strategies for Adult Learners in the Master Beef Producer Program

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Strong, Robert; Harder, Amy; Carter, Hannah

2010-01-01

The purpose of the study reported here was to explore and describe how Extension agents selected teaching strategies for adult audiences. Andragogy is hypotheses concerning the attributes of adult learners (Knowles, Swanson, & Holton III, 2005). Extension agents responsible for teaching the Master Beef Producer (MBP) program were purposively…

Second Language Acquisition of Syntactic Movement in English by Turkish Adult Learners

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Reyhan Agcam

2015-12-01

Full Text Available There has been much discussion on the involvement of Universal Grammar (UG in Second Language Acquisition (SLA process. Despite growing research in the field, few precise answers to the problem have been suggested so far. Hence, recent L2 studies within the generative framework have shifted from investigating this issue to determining whether or not interlanguage grammars exhibit natural language characteristics (Can, Kilimci & Altunkol, 2007. The present study aimed to investigate L2 acquisition of syntactic movement in English noun clauses by Turkish adult learners. Accordingly, L1 involvement in SLA was sought through examining the upper intermediate Turkish learners’ knowledge about the movement in question. The study addressed the questions of whether or not Turkish adult ESL learners have problems, stemming from L1 interference, with the construction of the syntactic movement in English noun clauses, and whether or not there is any order of acquisition between the noun clauses in subject position and object position along with various wh-words. The study reported related findings, and concluded with a few pedagogical implications for practice, and a couple of suggestions for further directions.

Student Debt, Problem-Solving, and Decision-Making of Adult Learners: A Basic Qualitative Study

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Brooks, William J.

2013-01-01

A basic qualitative research study was conducted to develop insights into how adult learners employ problem-solving and decision-making (PSDM), when considering college financing, student loans, and student debt. Using the social media Website Facebook, eight qualified participants were recruited. Participants were interviewed via telephone, and…

A Semantic Representation Of Adult Learners' Developing Conceptions Of Self Realisation Through Learning Process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badie, Farshad

2016-01-01

based on educational informatics. I shall draw your attention to the fact that in information sciences an ontology is described as an explicit (and formal) specification of a shared conceptualisation on the domain of interest. Ontologies of a thing/phenomenon support different researchers in providing......Learning is the reflective activity that enables the learner to draw upon her/his previous experiences and background knowledge to conceptualise, realise, understand and evaluate the present, so as to shape her/his future actions and to construct and develop new knowledge for her(him)self. Learning....... This research will conceptually focus on multiple categories through the adult learners’ developing conceptions of learning. The focus will be on different categories from the basic conceptions to excellent ones. I will take an appropriate model of students’ developing conceptions of learning into my...

Whose voice matters? Learners

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Sarah Bansilal

2010-01-01

Full Text Available International and national mathematics studies have revealed the poor mathematics skills of South African learners. An essential tool that can be used to improve learners' mathematical skills is for educators to use effective feedback. Our purpose in this study was to elicit learners' understanding and expectations of teacher assessment feedback. The study was conducted with five Grade 9 mathematics learners. Data were generated from one group interview, seven journal entries by each learner, video-taped classroom observations and researcher field notes. The study revealed that the learners have insightful perceptions of the concept of educator feedback. While some learners viewed educator feedback as a tool to probe their understanding, others viewed it as a mechanism to get the educator's point of view. A significant finding of the study was that learners viewed educator assessment feedback as instrumental in building or breaking their self-confidence.

Virtual Simulation in Leadership Development Training: The Impact of Learning Styles and Conflict Management Tactics on Adult Learner Performance

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Putman, Paul G.

2012-01-01

Adult learners can develop leadership skills and competencies such as conflict management and negotiation skills. Virtual simulations are among the emerging new technologies available to adult educators and trainers to help adults develop various leadership competencies. This study explored the impact of conflict management tactics as well as…

Benefits and Challenges in Using Computers and the Internet with Adult English Learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Terrill, Lynda

Although resources and training vary from program to program, adult English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) teachers and English learners across the country are integrating computers and Internet use with ESOL instruction. This can be seen in the growing number of ESOL resources available on the World Wide Web. There are very good reasons for…

Unravelling the Lifelong Learning Process for Canadian Workers and Adult Learners Acquiring Higher Skills

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Taylor, Maurice; Trumpower, David; Pavic, Ivana

2013-01-01

This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated aspects of formal, non-formal and informal learning for workers and adult high school learners seeking literacy and essential skills. Three key themes emerged from the qualitative data: motivations for participation in various forms of learning; seeking out informal learning…

The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

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Hayat Eid Alroudhan

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs, as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2 research. The present study discusses the syntactic structure of RRCs in English and Arabic with regard to the use of resumptive pronouns and the use of overt versus covert relative markers as related to the definiteness of the head noun. This study is carried out using an acceptability judgment test as the tool for data collection. A sample of 100 male and female adult Arabic speakers is used with the aim of identifying potential acquisition problems. The results obtained provide further support for first language (L1 transfer. This study concludes that participants accepted the use of resumptive pronouns and preferred the overt relative markers determined by definiteness. It is further discovered that certain factors influenced the acquisition process such as participants’ age, age of learning, and age of immersion. The current study has some pedagogical implications for the teaching of relative clauses in the EFL context. Keywords: English Relative Clauses, Restrictive Relative Clauses, Relative pronoun, Arab Learners of English

Modeling the effects of multicontextual physics instruction on learner expectations and understanding of force and motion systems

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Deese Becht, Sara-Maria Francis

1999-11-01

The purpose of this study is two-fold involving both practical and theoretical modeling components. The practical component, an experiential-learning phase, investigated a study population for effects that increasing levels of multicontextual physics activities have on student understanding of Newtonian systems of motion. This contextual-learning model measured learner convictions and non-response gaps and analyzed learner response trends on context, technology, challenge, growth, and success. The theoretical component, a model-building phase, designed a dynamic-knowing model for learning along a range of experiential tasks, from low to high context, monitored for indicators of learning in science and mathematics: learner academic performance and ability, learner control and academic attitude, and a learner non- response gap. This knowing model characterized a learner's process-of-knowing on a less to more expert- like learner-response continuum using performance and perspective indices associated with level of contextual- imagery referent system. Data for the contextual-learning model were collected on 180 secondary subjects: 72 middle and 108 high, with 36 physics subjects as local experts. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups differing only on context level of force and motion activities. Three levels of information were presented through context-based tasks: momentum constancy as inertia, momentum change as impulse, and momentum rate of change as force. The statistical analysis used a multi-level factorial design with repeated measures and discriminate analysis of response-conviction items. Subject grouping criteria included school level, ability level in science and mathematics, gender and race. Assessment criteria used pre/post performance scores, confidence level in physics concepts held, and attitude towards science, mathematics, and technology. Learner indices were computed from logit- transforms applied to learner outcomes

Do Adult ESL Learners' and Their Teachers' Goals for Improving Grammar in Writing Correspond?

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Zhou, Ally A.; Busch, Michael; Cumming, Alister

2014-01-01

Recent research has identified certain goals of adult second language (L2) learners and their teachers for writing instruction in English as a second language (ESL), yet questions remain as to whether students' and teachers' goals correspond in ways that achieve instructional objectives and facilitate L2 development. The present study compared L2…

Gallery Educators as Adult Learners: The Active Application of Adult Learning Theory

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McCray, Kimberly H.

2016-01-01

In order to better understand the importance of adult learning theory to museum educators' work, and that of their profession at large, museum professionals must address the need for more adult learning research and practice in museums--particularly work informed by existing theory and work seeking to generate new theory. Adult learning theory…

Profiling Learners' Achievement Goals when Completing Academic Essays

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Ng, Chi-Hung Clarence

2009-01-01

This study explored adult learners' goal profiles in relation to the completion of a compulsory academic essay. Based on learners' scores on items assessing mastery, performance-approach, and work-avoidance goals, cluster analyses produced three distinct categories of learners: performance-focused, work-avoidant, and multiple-goal learners. These…

The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

OpenAIRE

Hayat Eid Alroudhan

2016-01-01

This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the syntactic structure of RRCs in English and Arabic with regard to the use of resumptive pronouns and the use of overt versus covert relative markers as relat...

Learner Characteristics and Understanding Nature of Science. Is There an Association?

Science.gov (United States)

Çetinkaya-Aydın, Gamze; Çakıroğlu, Jale

2017-11-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations between preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and their learner characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness level, and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the current study was 60 3rd-year preservice science teachers enrolled in the Nature of Science and History of Science course. Using a descriptive and associational case study design, data were collected by means of different qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. Analysis of the data revealed that preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and nature of scientific inquiry were highly associated. Similarly, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness levels, and faith/worldviews of the preservice science teachers were found to be significantly associated with their understanding of nature of science. Thus, it can be concluded that there might be other factors interfering with the learning processes of nature of science.

Understanding Challenges Physics Teachers Come Across as They Implement Learner-Centred Approaches in Lesotho

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Qhobela, Makomosela; Moru, Eunice Kolitsoe

2014-01-01

Teacher-centred strategies have dominated most physics lessons in Lesotho. This study attempted to understand the contributing factors for the choice of teacher-centred teaching instead of learner-centred teaching with the goal of informing a professional development programme designed to address this problem. The paper responds to the research…

Students' Perceived Understanding Mediates the Effects of Teacher Clarity and Nonverbal Immediacy on Learner Empowerment

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Finn, Amber N.; Schrodt, Paul

2012-01-01

This study examined students' perceived understanding as a mediator of the relationship between student perceptions of teacher clarity, nonverbal immediacy cues, and learner empowerment (i.e., meaningfulness, competence, and impact). Participants included 261 undergraduate students who completed survey instruments. Results of structural equation…

Adult learners' perceptions of MOOC motivation, success, and completion: a virtual ethnographic study

OpenAIRE

Loizzo, Jamie Lynn

2015-01-01

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been credited with disrupting the traditional classroom and challenging distance education models in higher education. MOOCs were developed with the intention of opening up education to the masses, specifically those in developing countries who could not readily access educational resources or opportunities. However, early quantitative reports have shown that MOOC participants tend to be adult learners who already possess bachelor's or master's degrees...

From Heroic Victims to Competent Comrades: Views of Adult Literacy Learners in the Research Literature

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Belzer, Alisa; Pickard, Amy

2015-01-01

This research synthesis analyzed qualitative depictions of adult literacy learners and identified five ways in which they are typically characterized: the Heroic Victim, the Needy (Problem) Child, the Broken (but Repairable) Cog, the Pawn of Destiny, and the Capable Comrade. These types do not capture the diversity or complexity of all adult…

Understanding Transfer as Personal Change: Concerns, Intentions, and Resistance

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Young, Jeani C.

2013-01-01

Adult education is about change. Change in knowledge and understanding. Change in attitudes and beliefs. Change in skills and behaviors. The transfer that adult educators and learners often want to achieve is that change. In situations where transfer equals change, models of change can be useful to describe, support, and predict transfer. This…

Motivations of Adults for Non-Formal Conservation Education and Volunteerism: Implications for Programming

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Van Den Berg, Heather A.; Dann, Shari L.; Dirkx, John M.

2009-01-01

Adult conservation education is growing nationally. We investigated adults' motivations to take part in Michigan's Conservation Stewards education and volunteerism program. We used three theoretical frames (adult education orientations, volunteerism motivations, and leisure benefits sought) to understand learners' involvement. Adults' education…

PHONOLOGICAL FOSSILIZATION OF THE JAVANESE ADULT LEARNERS OF ENGLISH: R&D OF A MODEL OF TEACHING MATERIALS OF ENGLISH PHONOLOGY FOR EFL LEARNERS

OpenAIRE

Senowarsito Senowarsito; Sukma Nur Ardini

2017-01-01

This paper presents preliminary study of R&D on Teaching Materials Model of English Phonology for EF2L. The preliminary study aims at finding out the phonological fossilization of adult learners of English in Javanese context and figuring out the factors influencing them. 25 fourth-semester Javanese students of English Departement from 5 universities in Semarang municipality were selected as respondents. The data were collected from observation, interview and documentation. The results show t...

PROFILING THE PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES SHAPING THE FOSSILISED IL OF ADULT SPANISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE. SOME THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS.

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Rafael Monroy Casas

2001-06-01

Full Text Available In the ever-growing literature dealing with the acquisition by adults of the phonetics and phonology of a foreign language (FL, research has tried to provide an answer to the complex nature of cross-language transfer. The fact that despite idiosyncratic differences and sociolinguistic variation most adults learners of a foreign language (FL speak with an accent which is a reflection of their native language (NL and that their progress is impaired at a certain stage prompted a host of questions such as whether adults follow identical or different paths of development in their approach to a foreign language, whether those speaking the same native language are able to identify target language categories in the same way, whether perception and production are interdependent, the nature of the learning abilities and the interplay of transfer with universals. These and other problems relating to foreign language speech have been approached from different angles and theoretical frameworks (see Leather & James (1 99 1 for an overview, and more recently Leather (1999. The research reported here, based on the oral production of sixty-five Spanish adult learners of English as a FL, tries to shed some light on one of well-known problems related to the acquisition of a foreign language by non-native speakers: the analysis of different types of phonological processes shaping the fossilised interlanguage (IL of adult FL learners in order to see a whether they are adhered to by those adult learners sharing identical L1; b whether frozen IL reflects transfer from the leamer's L1 or is the result of developmental (Le. universal processes. In this connection we(1987 and SimilarityIDifferential Rate Hypothesis (1999 or Ekman's Markedness Differential Hypothesis (1977 and Structural Conformity Hypothesis in connection with some of the processes under analysis. Optimality Theory will be brought in in dealing with some problems encountered under Cluster Simplification

Increasing Access to Learning for the Adult Basic Education Learner with Learning Disabilities: Evidence-Based Accommodation Research

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Gregg, Noel

2012-01-01

Accommodating adult basic education (ABE) learners with learning disabilities (LD) is common practice across many instructional, testing, and work settings. However, the results from this literature search indicate that very few empirically based studies are available to support or reject the effectiveness of a great deal of accommodation…

Adult Learner Graduation Rates at Four U.S. Community Colleges by Prior Learning Assessment Status and Method

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Hayward, Milan S.; Williams, Mitchell R.

2015-01-01

The completion agenda demands higher community college graduation rates among adult learners, and prior learning assessment (PLA) is a promising solution. PLA permits students to earn credit for college-level learning acquired outside of higher education and is associated with improved student outcomes. However, little is known regarding community…

Exploring educators' understanding of developing learners' reading ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study explored what three Intermediate Phase English First Additional Language teachers understood about reading and teaching reading, and the strategies they used to develop learners' reading skills. Data gathered through interviews and observations of classroom practice were used to consider the extent of their ...

Predicting Workplace Transfer of Learning: A Study of Adult Learners Enrolled in a Continuing Professional Education Training Program

Science.gov (United States)

Nafukho, Fredrick Muyia; Alfred, Mary; Chakraborty, Misha; Johnson, Michelle; Cherrstrom, Catherine A.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to predict transfer of learning to workplace among adult learners enrolled in a continuing professional education (CPE) training program, specifically training courses offered through face-to-face, blended and online instruction formats. The study examined the predictive capacity of trainee…

Conceptualizing Success And Performance for Adult Learners: Merging the Contexts of Adult Education and Professional Training

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Rieger Gil

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the concepts of learning performance and learning success within the context of adult learners. The focus is on how these concepts have been defined in the literature, as they are anchored in different didactic theories and how they can effectively be applied to learning contexts with adults. Due to the divergent approaches and definitions in the literature, this article compares, categorizes and merges the literature, providing an overview and recommendations for practice. The overview refers to a critical examination of constructivism based approaches compared to other didactic learning theories such as cognitivism or behaviorism. Adult education presents itself as a dynamic area that can develop progressively, in both the professional and educational environments. Nowadays, it is important to be able to collect and use information quickly. This makes it possible to gain an advantage and deal with problems or questions in more focused ways. One must deal with increasing demands and a higher number of competitors not only in professional life. A synthesis of the literature can be presented by examining the terms of learning performance and learning success in different approaches, regarding implementations, definitions, historical developments as well as continuative and connected concepts, tendencies or point of views.

"We Had a Blast!": An Empirical Affirmation of Blended Learning as the Preferred Learning Mode for Adult Learners

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Asunka, Stephen

2017-01-01

As many important issues pertaining to blended learning within the Sub-Saharan African context remain unexplored, this study implemented a blended learning approach in a graduate level course at a private university in Ghana, with the objective of exploring adult learners' attitudes, experiences and behaviors towards this learning approach, as…

Working with language learner histories from three perspectives: Teachers, learners and researchers

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Sarah Mercer

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Recent developments in SLA, such as learner-centredness, social constructivism, the postmethod era, and complexity perspectives, have highlighted the need for more localized, situated understandings of teaching and learning and greater recognition of learner individuality and diversity. In this article, I suggest an effective way of meeting these needs is to employ learner histories. This powerful form of writing allows learners to use their L2 to engage in authentic, personally meaningful communication with others about their identities, experiences, perceptions and emotions related to their language learning histories. As a text type, they are able to facilitate a more holistic perspective of the learner’s life and reveal the unique interconnections that an individual makes across various domains. They also enable the situated, contextualised and dynamic nature of their learning experiences to become apparent and provide learners with a genuine, motivating purpose for writing. Exploring data generated in Austria with tertiary-level EFL learners, I seek to illustrate some of the rich potential of these text types from three perspectives, namely, those of the teacher, learner and researcher.

Understanding the Effects of Training Programs for Vulnerable Adults on Social Inclusion as Part of Continuing Education

Science.gov (United States)

de Greef, Maurice; Segers, Mien; Verte, Dominique

2012-01-01

According to the increasing rates of unemployment and poverty a significant share of the European population can be considered at-risk-of-social exclusion. In order to combat social exclusion adult education seemed to be a possible tool, which can increase social inclusion among adult learners. This study explores factors relating to training…

Teaching internet use to adult learners: The LANL experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, S.; Comstock, D.

1995-12-01

The Research library at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been teaching an Internet class to adult learners since May 1994. The class is a team effort, combining lecture/demo with hands-on practice using Gopher and the World Wide Web. What started out as a small short-term project has become a weekly class available to any Lab employee or associate. More than 250 people have been taught to find basic reference materials and to navigate the Internet on the Gopher and World Wide Web. The class is one of the first classes offered by the Research Library to be filled every month, and one Laboratory group has recommended that their staff attend this class in preparation for more advanced Internet and HTML classes as part of their group training. The success of this class spurred development by the Research Library of more specific subject classes using Internet resources, specifically business and general science resources.

Revamping occupational safety and health training: Integrating andragogical principles for the adult learner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex Albert

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Despite attempts to improve safety performance, the construction industry continues to account for a disproportionate rate of injuries. A large proportion of these injuries occur because workers are unable to recognize and respond to hazards in dynamic and unpredictable environments. Unrecognized hazards expose workers to unanticipated risks and can lead to catastrophic accidents. In order to enhance hazard recognition skills, employers often put new and experienced workers through formal hazard recognition training programs. Unfortunately, current training programs primarily rely on instructor-centric pedagogical approaches, which are insensitive to the adult learning process. In order to ensure effective adult learning, training programs must integrate learner-centric andragogical principles to improve engagement and retention in adult trainees. This paper aims to discuss training program elements that can potentially accelerate the adult learning process while improving safety knowledge retention. To this end, the researchers reviewed relevant literature on the cognitive processes of adult learning, essential components of effectual training programs and developed a reliable framework for the training and transfer of safety knowledge. A case example of successfully using the framework is also presented. The results of the study will provide safety trainers and construction professionals with valuable information on developing effective hazard recognition and receptor training programs, with the goal of improving construction safety performance.

Understanding Adult Overweight and Obesity

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... Step in the Right Direction Understanding Adult Overweight & Obesity View or Print All Sections Definition & Facts The terms “overweight” and “obesity” refer to body weight that is greater than ...

Developing the master learner: applying learning theory to the learner, the teacher, and the learning environment.

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Schumacher, Daniel J; Englander, Robert; Carraccio, Carol

2013-11-01

As a result of the paradigm shift to a competency-based framework, both self-directed lifelong learning and learner-centeredness have become essential tenets of medical education. In the competency-based framework, learners drive their own educational process, and both learners and teachers share the responsibility for the path and content of learning. This learner-centered emphasis requires each physician to develop and maintain lifelong learning skills, which the authors propose culminate in becoming a "master leaner." To better understand the development of these skills and the attainment of that goal, the authors explore how learning theories inform the development of master learners and how to translate these theories into practical strategies for the learner, the teacher, and the learning environment so as to optimize this development.The authors begin by exploring self-determination theory, which lays the groundwork for understanding the motivation to learn. They next consider the theories of cognitive load and situated cognition, which inform the optimal context and environment for learning. Building from this foundation, the authors consider key educational theories that affect learners' abilities to serve as primary drivers of their learning, including self-directed learning (SDL); the self-assessment skills necessary for SDL; factors affecting self-assessment (self-concept, self-efficacy, illusory superiority, gap filling); and ways to mitigate the inaccuracies of self-assessment (reflection, self-monitoring, external information seeking, and self-directed assessment seeking).For each theory, they suggest practical action steps for the learner, the teacher, and the learning environment in an effort to provide a road map for developing master learners.

Learning Difficulty and Learner Identity: A Symbiotic Relationship

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Hirano, Eliana

2009-01-01

This paper reports on a longitudinal case study of an adult EFL learner who perceived himself as having difficulty learning English. Both learning difficulty and learner identity are viewed as being constructed in discursive interactions throughout one's life and, hence, amenable to reconstruction. Data collected from classroom interactions,…

Adults learning Finnish as a foreign language : role of support, emotions and reasons connected with learning

OpenAIRE

MacKenzie, Ashley

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to examine adults learning Finnish as a foreign language while striving to understand the reasons behind their decisions to do so, the support that was individually offered to the participants, how they felt throughout the learning process, and whether or not they found themselves to be self-reliant learners, as per Knowles’ andragogy theory. This study set out to examine adult language learners participating in the language and integration program at Pa...

Faith Is Confidence: The Implication of Psychosocial Components in Faith-Based Educational Programs on Expressive Communication Skills of Adult Learners

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Lynch, Erin M.

2016-01-01

Faith-based programs for adult learners have environmental factors that differentiate them from non-faith based programs, but explicit empirical studies evaluating the impact of the psychosocial factors have been lacking in the literature. This study comparatively examines the achievement level of expressive communication skills as measured…

What Is This Thing Called Learner's Lexicography?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Sandro

2010-01-01

Learner lexicography as a research area has attracted increased attention during the past decades, but what is actually the true nature of learner lexicography? This question calls for a complex answer. Learner lexicography has as its objective to develop principles that help practitioners......, namely its functions, data and structures, as this strengthens the basis of learner lexicography because it leads to a proper study and understanding of the competences and needs of learners. Finally, the modern theory of dictionary functions encourages theoretical and practical lexicographers to adopt...

[Understand the tobacco industry's strategy for recruiting teens: Lessons from a 1973 marketing document].

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Dautzenberg, B

2018-06-01

For years, the tobacco industry has organized the inoculation of tobacco addiction to adolescents. The analysis of a 1973 RJReynols ® document identified ten physical and psychological factors in order to increase the number of young users for a brand of cigarettes. These young people are classified into three groups: pre-smokers, learners and smokers. The taste for pre-smokers and learners and nicotine for smokers are main physical parameters. The industry clearly knows that tobacco is mainly consumed because of nicotine addiction, so it is necessary to make adolescents addict. It is interesting to note that cigarette pack was in 1973 a positive factor to attract young smokers, whereas now with the arrival of the neutral packaging, the tobacco industry declares that packaging has no influence to attract teenagers ! Of the psychological factors, the only negative factor is the self-image of the smoker. The tobacco industry already recognized in 1973 that smokers were unhappy about smoking. For learners, self-image and the experience of adults are most important factor, which is why the industry strives to create a positive image and convey message that smoking initiation is a ritual to become adult. According to the tobacco industry, stress and alleviation of boredom are also important points in turning pre-smokers into learners and learners into smokers. This article aims to provide practical tools for understanding industry initiatives targeting adolescents. The attached tool can be used by the teens or adults involved to understand the optimization of teenagers tobacco marketing. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Understanding Learners' Motivation and Learning Strategies in MOOCs

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Alario-Hoyos, Carlos; Estévez-Ayres, Iria; Pérez-Sanagustín, Mar; Delgado Kloos, Carlos; Fernández-Panadero, Carmen

2017-01-01

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have changed the way in which OER (Open Educational Resources) are bundled by teachers and consumed by learners. MOOCs represent an evolution towards the production and offering of structured quality OER. Many institutions that were initially reluctant to providing OER have, however, joined the MOOC wave.…

Learners, teachers and curriculum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Karen Bjerg

2008-01-01

of virtual e-learning, interviews with teachers and 10 learner participants in a virtual classroom setting, and discourse analysis of curriculum developed for the particular e-learning course The research has taken place in the context of a study of e-learning and virtual teaching of Danish as a Second...... language for adults. The research results indicate that teachers seem to compensate by trying to create virtual communities of learning. Learners, however, experience disembedded relations. Conversely, curriculum development, on tends to ‘exploit’ the conditions of disembedding social relations in e-learning......, locationally distant”. The aim of the paper is to analyse and discuss how different positions in e-learning settings result in different answers to modernity. These settings can be applied to either teacher, learner or curriculum positions. The research was based on a qualitative longitudinal case study...

Exploring Adult Digital Literacy Using Learners' and Educators' Perceptions and Experiences: The Case of the Second Chance Schools in Greece

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Jimoyiannis, Athanassios; Gravani, Maria

2011-01-01

The research reported in this paper aspires to shed light into adult digital literacy using learners' and educators' experiences and perceptions at Second Chance Schools, a project in Greece aiming at combating social exclusion through education. In exploring the above, this investigation uses a case-study approach within a qualitative paradigm…

The Effectiveness of Storytelling on Adult Learning

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Caminotti, Enzo; Gray, Jeremy

2012-01-01

Purpose: As two doctoral students and adult learners, the authors strongly believe that story telling can be a great tool for educators working with adult learners. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of how effective storytelling can be for adult learners. Design/methodology/approach: The approach of this paper is one of gathering…

Emergent Target Language Identities among Latino English Language Learners

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Ciriza-Lope, Maria; Shappeck, Marco; Arxer, Steven

2016-01-01

During 2nd language acquisition, a learner's identity is consigned, juxtaposed, coconstructed, and reified through various affective positions and mitigating linguistic behaviors. Our study of adult Latino ESL students in Dallas, Texas, shows how language socialization experiences are shaped by the learners' affective stances toward the project of…

Rights of Postsecondary Readers and Learners

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Greenbaum, JoAnne; Angus, Kathryn Bartle

2018-01-01

A position statement on the rights of adult readers and learners was adopted by the CRLA board in 2002 and published with a theoretical rationale in ["Journal of College Reading and Learning"] "JCRL," Spring 2003. The statement was a guideline for educators seeking to improve the quality of adult education. In 2016, at the…

The Role of the University of the Third Age in Meeting Needs of Adult Learners in Victoria, Australia

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Hebestreit, Lydia

2008-01-01

Many older adults are interested in learning long past the age dictated by social norms. Some want to learn simply for the joy of learning, others because of the social contacts made by joining a community of learners, and still others want to learn so that they have a purpose in life. The University of the Third Age (U3A) is one of several models…

The Alignment of Teaching Methodology and Learning Outcomes: The Effect of Students’ Presentations on the Development of English Language Proficiency of Adult Learners

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Venera Ulker

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using students’ presentations on improving English language skills of adult learners and assess its potency to reach the expected learning outcomes. The research was conducted in the Continuing Education Center, Ishik University, Erbil, KRG, Iraq. The target population consisted of 23 English language learners (university graduates, and currently working in the sphere of Education. This study consisted of three major phases: first, explanation, preparation, presentation of the students’ works on the topic of interest and observation of students’ performance, second, teacher-student and student-student discussion of the video-recorded presentations. The last step was the application of the survey, which was designed to measure the participants’ attitude toward the mini-projects they presented in the class. The data were analyzed by means of frequency and percentage, as well as a summarization of the discussions. The main findings show that students’ attitude toward oral presentations, prepared on the topic of their own interest, have a positive attitude on students’ motivation toward learning English and help the adult learners to improve their language in general, and the productive skills in particular.

Understanding Oral Reading Fluency among Adults with Low Literacy: Dominance Analysis of Contributing Component Skills

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Mellard, Daryl F.; Anthony, Jason L.; Woods, Kari L.

2012-01-01

This study extends the literature on the component skills involved in oral reading fluency. Dominance analysis was applied to assess the relative importance of seven reading-related component skills in the prediction of the oral reading fluency of 272 adult literacy learners. The best predictors of oral reading fluency when text difficulty was…

Whose voice matters? LEARNERS | Bansilal | South African Journal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

International and national mathematics studies have revealed the poor mathematics skills of South African learners. An essential tool that can be used to improve learners' mathematical skills is for educators to use effective feedback. Our purpose in this study was to elicit learners' understanding and expectations of teacher ...

A Chinese young adult non-scientist's epistemologies and her understandings of the concept of speed

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Cao, Ying; Brizuela, Barbara M.

2015-08-01

Past research has investigated students' epistemologies while they were taking courses that required an integrated understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts. However, past studies have not investigated students who are not currently enrolled in such classes. Additionally, past studies have primarily focused on individuals who are native English speakers from Western cultures. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether Hammer and his colleagues' claims concerning learners' epistemologies could be extended to individuals who lack advanced mathematics and science training, have had different cultural and learning experiences, and have grown up speaking and learning in another language. To this end, we interviewed a participant with these characteristics about her understandings of the concept of speed. Our findings show that previous theoretical frameworks can be used to explain the epistemologies of the individual examined in this study. The case suggests that these theories may be relevant regardless of the learner's mathematics and science background, language, educational experience, and cultural background. In the future, more cases should be examined with learners from different academic backgrounds and cultures to further support this finding.

Collaborative technologies, higher order thinking and self-sufficient learning: A case study of adult learners

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Clare S. Johnson

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The inclusion of online elements in learning environments is becoming commonplace in Post Compulsory Education. A variety of research into the value of such elements is available, and this study aims to add further evidence by looking specifically at the use of collaborative technologies such as online discussion forums and wikis to encourage higher order thinking and self-sufficient learning. In particular, the research examines existing pedagogical models including Salmon’s five-stage model, along with other relevant literature. A case study of adult learners in community-based learning centres forms the basis of the research, and as a result of the findings, an arrow model is suggested as a framework for online collaboration that emphasises the learner, mentions pre-course preparation and then includes three main phases of activity: post, interact and critique. This builds on Salmon’s five-stage model and has the benefit of being flexible and responsive, as well as allowing for further development beyond the model, particularly in a blended learning environment.

Listening in Older Second Language Learners: The Teachers’ Perspective

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Agata Słowik

2017-07-01

Full Text Available There are various theories, strategies and techniques regarding teaching different language skills. At the same time, as practice shows listening remains the most challenging skill for the educators to teach effectively and for the learners to master. Moreover, both the learners and their teachers have their own, not infrequently rather disparate, subjective theories, as well as learning and teaching preferences. Older adult learners are a peculiar case as they are a very diverse group, aware of their needs and cognitive abilities. At the same time, their teachers are unfortunately often unaware of these needs and do not adapt the materials to suit their students. The aim of this paper is, thus, to present the opinions of the teachers of older adult students and to provide basis for future research.

Elderly Learners and Massive Open Online Courses: A Review.

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Liyanagunawardena, Tharindu Rekha; Williams, Shirley Ann

2016-01-07

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become commonplace in the e-learning landscape. Thousands of elderly learners are participating in courses offered by various institutions on a multitude of platforms in many different languages. However, there is very little research into understanding elderly learners in MOOCs. We aim to show that a considerable proportion of elderly learners are participating in MOOCs and that there is a lack of research in this area. We hope this assertion of the wide gap in research on elderly learners in MOOCs will pave the way for more research in this area. Pre-course survey data for 10 University of Reading courses on the FutureLearn platform were analyzed to show the level of participation of elderly learners in MOOCs. Two MOOC aggregator sites (Class Central and MOOC List) were consulted to gather data on MOOC offerings that include topics relating to aging. In parallel, a selected set of MOOC platform catalogues, along with a recently published review on health and medicine-related MOOCs, were searched to find courses relating to aging. A systematic literature search was then employed to identify research articles on elderly learners in MOOCs. The 10 courses reviewed had a considerable proportion of elderly learners participating in them. For the over-66 age group, this varied from 0.5% (on the course "Managing people") to 16.3% (on the course "Our changing climate"), while for the over-56 age group it ranged from 3.0% (on "A beginners guide to writing in English") to 39.5% (on "Heart health"). Only six MOOCs were found to include topics related to aging: three were on the Coursera platform, two on the FutureLearn platform, and one on the Open2Study platform. Just three scholarly articles relating to MOOCs and elderly learners were retrieved from the literature search. This review presents evidence to suggest that elderly learners are already participating in MOOCs. Despite this, there has been very little research into their

Creating a Village: The Impact of the Opportunity to Participate in Synchronous Web Conferencing on Adult Learner Sense of Community

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Gable, Karla

2012-01-01

Community is a place where people go to feel comfortable. It is important to develop strategies for enhancing a sense of community in the online learning environment designed for adult learners. The purpose of this study was to determine if adding a synchronous conferencing experience to an asynchronous course impacted overall sense of community,…

Scope of Cooperative Learning (CL Strategies in Teaching English to Saudi Adult EFL Learners: A Study of Practical Barriers and Possible Implications

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Muhammad Ishtiaq

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This study aims at investigating the teachers’ practices and perceptions in teaching English in Saudi Arabia by viewing their stance on Cooperative Learning (CL — an innovative teaching approach proposed to raise the language proficiency level of adult EFL learners. The study has been conducted in Qassim University, Saudi Arabia—a vibrant and flourishing EFL context. A quantitative tool (a questionnaire has been used to collect data and to serve qualitative purposes. It reports 80 EFL teachers’ (40 males and 40 females perceptions about CL using a 17-items comprehensive survey covering all the possible barriers in the way of implementing CL strategies in EFL classes. The survey items also explore how the EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia foresee the implications of making such an innovative move in their classes. The responses have been analyzed on a 5-point Likert scale which ranges from strongly disagree-disagree-neutral-agree-strongly agree. Major findings are that CL strategies have practical barriers but their implications are far more positive. The barriers are mainly due to the wrong learning habits of the adult EFL learners in Qassim University and lack of will and vision of the educational administration. The study recommends that CL strategies need to be given due consideration and support by the administrators and policy makers to raise the proficiency level of adult EFL learners. The study also allays the misconception that majority of the practitioners in English language teaching field are not ready to practice and implement CL strategies in their classes.

Students' Understanding of Dictionary Entries: A Study with Respect to Four Learners' Dictionaries.

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Jana, Abhra; Amritavalli, Vijaya; Amritavalli, R.

2003-01-01

Investigates the effects of definitional information in the form of dictionary entries, on second language learners' vocabulary learning in an instructed setting. Indian students (Native Hindi speakers) of English received monolingual English dictionary entries of five previously unknown words from four different learner's dictionaries. Results…

Supporting wellness in adult online education

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Jacklyn J. Thompson

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Online education cannot continue to grow at the current pace while ignoring a crucial component of campus support, wellness for adult online learners. This paper brings awareness to the concept of wellness as an important student support service in adult online education. It includes a summarized review of relevant literature and identifies specific wellness concerns of adult online learners. The paper also provides examples of how three American higher education institutions are addressing the issue of wellness promotion in online learning. It identifies areas for improvement in current wellness initiatives and offers recommended strategies for supporting adult online learner wellness to professional organizations, institutions, instructors, and distance learners.http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.6.1.100

A Visualisation-Based Semiotic Analysis of Learners' Conceptual Understanding of Graphical Functional Relationships

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Mudaly, Vimolan

2014-01-01

Within the South African school curriculum, the section on graphical functional relationships consists of signs which include symbols, notation and imagery. In a previous article we explored the role visualisation played in the way learners understood mathematical concepts. That paper reported on the learners' fixation with the physical features…

Students’ Written Production Error Analysis in the EFL Classroom Teaching: A Study of Adult English Learners Errors

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Ranauli Sihombing

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Errors analysis has become one of the most interesting issues in the study of Second Language Acquisition. It can not be denied that some teachers do not know a lot about error analysis and related theories of how L1, L2 or foreign language acquired. In addition, the students often feel upset since they find a gap between themselves and the teachers for the errors the students make and the teachers’ understanding about the error correction. The present research aims to investigate what errors adult English learners make in written production of English. The significances of the study is to know what errors students make in writing that the teachers can find solution to the errors the students make for a better English language teaching and learning especially in teaching English for adults. The study employed qualitative method. The research was undertaken at an airline education center in Bandung. The result showed that syntax errors are more frequently found than morphology errors, especially in terms of verb phrase errors. It is recommended that it is important for teacher to know the theory of second language acquisition in order to know how the students learn and produce theirlanguage. In addition, it will be advantages for teachers if they know what errors students frequently make in their learning, so that the teachers can give solution to the students for a better English language learning achievement.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2015.180205

Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

Evaluating a Bilingual Text-Mining System with a Taxonomy of Key Words and Hierarchical Visualization for Understanding Learner-Generated Text

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Kong, Siu Cheung; Li, Ping; Song, Yanjie

2018-01-01

This study evaluated a bilingual text-mining system, which incorporated a bilingual taxonomy of key words and provided hierarchical visualization, for understanding learner-generated text in the learning management systems through automatic identification and counting of matching key words. A class of 27 in-service teachers studied a course…

Contextualized Workforce Skills and ESL Learner Identity

Science.gov (United States)

Vafai, Maliheh Mansuripur

2016-01-01

This article reports on an empirical case study centering on adult ESL learners' motivational patterns for learning English and its relevance to their career goals. It looks at past patterns of immigrant insertion within the socioeconomic context of the US and explores current trends in adult ESL curriculum development focused on the task of…

Learners' Motivation for Literacy in the Mother Tongue 1: Ibadan ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study examines the desirability of and motivational needs for basic literacy in the mother tongue and library use in lbadan metropolis. Data were collected through indepth interviews with 25 adult basic learners. The study reveals a strong desire for literacy in the mother tongue by the respondents. The learners' ...

网络环境下成人英语自主学习模式探析%On the Analysis of English Self-learning mode of Adult learners

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨涵

2012-01-01

With the development of multimedia network technology and application, teacher-centered classroom teaching traditional pattern transfers completely to the new autonomous learning mode of learners as center. Teachers should improve English learning environment of learners, improve English autonomous learning awareness and motivation of adult learners, and strengthen the training of English learning. Teachers should guide adult learners to study English independently by making full use of multimedia cyber source.%随着多媒体网络技术的飞速发展和应用，以教师为中心的课堂授课传统模式彻底地转向以学生为中心的新型自主学习模式。教师应通过充分利用多媒体、网络资源，改善成人学习者的学习环境，培养他们利用网络自主学习英语的意识和动机，加强他们对英语学习的训练，逐步让他们养成网络自主学习英语的习惯。

An Event Related Field Study of Rapid Grammatical Plasticity in Adult Second-Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Bastarrika, Ainhoa; Davidson, Douglas J.

2017-01-01

The present study used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate how Spanish adult learners of Basque respond to morphosyntactic violations after a short period of training on a small fragment of Basque grammar. Participants (n = 17) were exposed to violation and control phrases in three phases (pretest, training, generalization-test). In each phase participants listened to short Basque phrases and they judged whether they were correct or incorrect. During the pre-test and generalization-test, participants did not receive any feedback. During the training blocks feedback was provided after each response. We also ran two Spanish control blocks before and after training. We analyzed the event-related magnetic- field (ERF) recorded in response to a critical word during all three phases. In the pretest, classification was below chance and we found no electrophysiological differences between violation and control stimuli. Then participants were explicitly taught a Basque grammar rule. From the first training block participants were able to correctly classify control and violation stimuli and an evoked violation response was present. Although the timing of the electrophysiological responses matched participants' L1 effect, the effect size was smaller for L2 and the topographical distribution differed from the L1. While the L1 effect was bilaterally distributed on the auditory sensors, the L2 effect was present at right frontal sensors. During training blocks two and three, the violation-control effect size increased and the topography evolved to a more L1-like pattern. Moreover, this pattern was maintained in the generalization test. We conclude that rapid changes in neuronal responses can be observed in adult learners of a simple morphosyntactic rule, and that native-like responses can be achieved at least in small fragments of second language. PMID:28174530

Reading-Strategy Use by English as a Second Language Learners in Online Reading Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Ho-Ryong; Kim, Deoksoon

2011-01-01

This study investigates adult English language learners' reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. The learners joined the online Independent English Study Group (IESG) and worked both individually and collaboratively. This qualitative case study aims (a) to assess college-level ESL learners' use of…

Journey through Transformation: A Case Study of Two Literacy Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Duckworth, Vicky; Ade-Ojo, Gordon O.

2016-01-01

The study draws on life history, literacy studies, and ethnographic approaches to exploring social practices as a frame to explore the narratives of two UK adult literacy learners who provide a description of their engagement with a transformative curriculum and pedagogical approach. One of the learners reveals his frustration at the lack of…

Understanding and Targeting Indonesian Young Adult Internet Users

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Andreas Chang

2010-11-01

Full Text Available As the number of global internet users increases, companies’ online advertisement expenditure also grows rapidly. Companies face challenges in targeting the right customers. Understanding which websites are often visited by target users and what they do on the internet will help companies direct their online advertisement to the right target. Using questionnaires, this study examines which sites are most often visited by Indonesian young adult internet users and what they do on the internet. It aims to understand the patterns of behavior of these users. The findings of this study provide some understanding to the marketers. Of consequence, such understanding would help them to select where and what to do with their advertisements when they are targeting the young adult internet users in Indonesia. 

Differences in number and distribution of striatal calbindin medium spiny neurons between a vocal-learner (Melopsittacus undulatus and a non-vocal learner bird (Colinus virginianus

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Elena eGarcia-Calero

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Striatal projecting neurons, known as medium spiny neurons (MSNs, segregate into two compartments called matrix and striosome in the mammalian striatum. The matrix domain is characterized by the presence of calbindin immunopositive (CB+ MSNs, not observed in the striosome subdivision. The existence of a similar CB+ MSN population has recently been described in two striatal structures in male zebra finch (a vocal learner bird: the striatal capsule and the Area X, a nucleus implicated in song learning. Female zebra finches show a similar pattern of CB+ MSNs than males in the developing striatum but loose these cells in juveniles and adult stages. In the present work we analyzed the existence and allocation of CB+MSNs in the striatal domain of the vocal learner bird budgerigar (representative of psittaciformes order and the non-vocal learner bird quail (representative of galliformes order. We studied the co-localization of CB protein with FoxP1, a transcription factor expressed in vertebrate striatal MSNs. We observed CB+ MSNs in the medial striatal domain of adult male and female budgerigars, although this cell type was missing in the potentially homologous nucleus for Area X in budgerigar. In quail, we observed CB+ cells in the striatal domain at developmental and adult stages but they did not co-localize with the MSN marker FoxP1. We also described the existence of the CB+ striatal capsule in budgerigar and quail and compared these results with the CB+ striatal capsule observed in juvenile zebra finches. Together, these results point out important differences in CB+MSN distribution between two representative species of vocal learner and non-vocal learner avian orders (respectively the budgerigar and the quail, but also between close vocal learner bird families.

Adult learning: What nurse educators need to know about mature students

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Cynthia Spies

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Most nurse educators regard students who enter postgraduate studies as adult learners capable of self-direction and independent learner behaviour. Therefore, a mismatch between the nurse educator’s expectation of adult learners and actual adult learner conduct may result in disappointment and even frustration for both educator and learner. Purpose: This article is a report of a secondary analysis of data that were collected to explore the high-fidelity simulation learning experiences of a group of postgraduate nursing students.The secondary analysis was done to determine whether adult learners who bring professional knowledge and experience to a postgraduate learning environment displayed adult learner conduct as proposed by educational theorist Malcolm Knowles. Method: Using a qualitative descriptive research design, data were gathered from 18 postgraduate nursing students who participated in high-fidelity simulation in a nursing school at a higher education institution in South Africa. The nominal group technique was used to collect the students’ ideas about improving their simulation learning experiences. A secondary qualitative analysis of the primary nominal group data was done. Findings: Data either confirmed or belied adult learner behaviour. Although the findings suggested self-directed and independent learner behaviour, they also revealed behaviour evident of dependence on the educator. Conclusion: Mature students have well established ways of thinking and doing that may hinder learning. Educators have to support adult learners in developing effective learning techniques in order to maximise the benefits of their experience and knowledge by fostering independence and self-direction.

Adults' and Children's Understanding of How Expertise Influences Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Danovitch, Judith H; Shenouda, Christine K

2018-01-01

Adults and children use information about expertise to infer what a person is likely to know, but it is unclear whether they realize that expertise also has implications for learning. We explore adults' and children's understanding that expertise in a particular category supports learning about a closely related category. In four experiments, 5-year-olds and adults (n = 160) judged which of two people would be better at learning about a new category. When faced with an expert and a nonexpert, adults consistently indicated that expertise supports learning in a closely related category; however, children's judgments were inconsistent and were strongly influenced by the description of the nonexpert. The results suggest that although children understand what it means to be an expert, they may judge an individual's learning capacity based on different considerations than adults.

Promising Instructional Practices for English Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Prince, Johanna

2018-01-01

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory case study was to understand how teachers, working with English Language Learners (ELLs), expanded their knowledge and instructional practices as they implemented a one-to-one iPad® program. Background: English Language Learners experience linguistic, cultural, and cognitive shifts that can be…

"Harry Potter" and the English Language Learner.

Science.gov (United States)

Coatney, Kathy

2001-01-01

Describes one teacher's success with using "Harry Potter" in a program to teach elementary school English language learners. Provides comprehension strategies incorporated to help learners understand the story. Highlights the importance of creating a classroom environment with a low level of anxiety, the implications of the program, and the value…

Connecting with Texts: Teacher Candidates Reading Young Adult Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Bull, Kelly Byrne

2011-01-01

Preparing teachers to understand their students' reading processes so that they can guide their students toward connecting with texts in meaningful and personal ways are goals that can be met through the study of young adult literature. Twenty-first century learners live in an increasingly interconnected world and have access to countless texts…

Consistencies far beyond chance: an analysis of learner preconceptions of reflective symmetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Kainose Mhlolo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This article reports on regularities observed in learners' preconceptions of reflective symmetry. Literature suggests that the very existence of such regularities indicates a gap between what learners know and what they need to know. Such a gap inhibits further understanding and application, and hence needed to be investigated. A total of 235 Grade 11 learners, from 13 high schools that participate in the First Rand Foundation-funded Mathematics Education project in the Eastern Cape, responded to a task on reflective symmetry. Our framework for analysing the responses was based on the taxonomy of structure of the observed learning outcome. The results indicated that 85% of learner responses reflect a motion understanding of reflections, where learners considered geometric figures as physical motions on top of the plane. While this understanding is useful in some cases, it is not an essential aspect of mapping understanding, which is critical for application in function notations and other analytical geometry contexts. We suggest that if this gap is to be closed, learners need to construct these reflections physically so that they may think of reflections beyond motion.

Understanding Violations of Gricean Maxims in Preschoolers and Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mako eOkanda

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This study used a revised Conversational Violations Test to examine Gricean maxim violations in 4- to 6-year-old Japanese children and adults. Participants’ understanding of the following maxims was assessed: be informative (first maxim of quantity, avoid redundancy (second maxim of quantity, be truthful (maxim of quality, be relevant (maxim of relation, avoid ambiguity (second maxim of manner, and be polite (maxim of politeness. Sensitivity to violations of Gricean maxims increased with age: 4-year-olds’ understanding of maxims was near chance, 5-year-olds understood some maxims (first maxim of quantity and maxims of quality, relation, and manner, and 6-year-olds and adults understood all maxims. Preschoolers acquired the maxim of relation first and had the greatest difficulty understanding the second maxim of quantity. Children and adults differed in their comprehension of the maxim of politeness. The development of the pragmatic understanding of Gricean maxims and implications for the construction of developmental tasks from early childhood to adulthood are discussed.

Flipped Instruction with English Language Learners at a Newcomer High School

Science.gov (United States)

Graziano, Kevin J.; Hall, John D.

2017-01-01

Research on flipped instruction with English Language Learners (ELLs) is sparse. Data-driven flipped research conducted with ELLs primarily involves adult learners attending a college or university. This study examined the academic performance of secondary ELLs who received flipped instruction in an algebra course at a newcomer school compared to…

Supporting and mentoring mature learners : a 'train-the-trainer' programme for facilitators of ICT learning for older adults

OpenAIRE

Formosa, Marvin

2015-01-01

Mature learning refers to the process in which adults aged in the (circa) 50 - 75 age bracket, individually and in association with others, engage in direct encounter and then purposefully reflect upon, validate, transform, give personal meaning to and seek to integrate their ways of knowing. The handbook draws on practical experience, from planning and running events, to suggest ways to teach and train mature learners. It serves as a resource book to guide new projects that address the life ...

Teaching English to Young Learners Through Songs

OpenAIRE

Yuliana, Yuliana

2003-01-01

Teaching English to Young Learners has become a trend nowadays. In every school, English is taught as one of the main subjects. In teaching young learners is not like teaching adults, children have their own way of learning. Since children like to play and have fun, the learning and teaching process should be suited with the nature of the children themselves. One of the forms of fun activities for children is through music, and songs are the common form of music that children know. Through th...

Shifting Power to the Learner

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Wolf, Alison

2010-01-01

Decades of reform have resulted in a system of further education that treats adults like children, with limited control over the qualifications they choose to pursue. This needs to change. Money must follow learners, not government contracts, and so create a genuinely demand-led system. The author proposes new financial and regulatory structures…

Comparison of Word Recognition Strategies in EFL Adult Learners: Orthography vs. Phonology

Science.gov (United States)

Sieh, Yu-cheng

2016-01-01

In an attempt to compare how orthography and phonology interact in EFL learners with different reading abilities, online measures were administered in this study to two groups of university learners, indexed by their reading scores on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). In terms of "accuracy," the less-skilled…

Demystifying Educational Resilience: Barriers of Bahamian Nontraditional Adult Learners in Higher Education

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Hunter-Johnson, Yvonne

2017-01-01

Within the past 30 years, the number of nontraditional learners who pursue higher education has increased. This gravitation to higher education can be attributed to the changing value of the nontraditional learner regarding higher education as a direct link to improving the quality of employment, family, and financial stability. Despite the desire…

Instructional games: Scientific language use, concept understanding, and attitudinal development of middle school learners

Science.gov (United States)

Mongillo, Geraldine

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the influence of instructional games on middle school learners' use of scientific language, concept understanding, and attitude toward learning science. The rationale for this study stemmed from the lack of research concerning the value of play as an instructional strategy for older learners. Specifically, the study focused on the ways in which 6 average ability 7th grade students demonstrated scientific language and concept use during gameplay. The data were collected for this 6-week study in a southern New Jersey suburban middle school and included audio recordings of the 5 games observed in class, written documents (e.g., student created game questions, self-evaluation forms, pre- and post-assessments, and the final quiz) interviews, and researcher field notes. Data were coded and interpreted borrowing from the framework for scientific literacy developed by Bybee (1997). Based on the findings, the framework was modified to reflect the level of scientific understanding demonstrated by the participants and categorized as: Unacquainted, Nominal, Functional, and Conceptual. Major findings suggested that the participants predominantly achieved the Functional level of scientific literacy (i.e., the ability to adequately and appropriately use scientific language in both written and oral discourse) during games. Further, it was discovered that the participants achieved the Conceptual level of scientific literacy during gameplay. Through games participants were afforded the opportunity to use common, everyday language to explore concepts, promoted through peer collaboration. In games the participants used common language to build understandings that exceeded Nominal or token use of the technical vocabulary and concepts. Additionally, the participants reported through interviews and self-evaluation forms that their attitude (patterns included: Motivation, Interest, Fun, Relief from Boredom, and an Alternate Learning

Modeling Learner Situation Awareness in Collaborative Mobile Web 2.0 Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Helmi; Nordin, Norazah; Din, Rosseni; Ally, Mohamed

2016-01-01

The concept of situation awareness is essential in enhancing collaborative learning. Learners require information from different awareness aspects to deduce a learning situation for decision-making. Designing learning environments that assist learners to understand situation awareness via monitoring actions and reaction of other learners has been…

Exploring the Relationship between Annotation Use of EFL Learners and Their Learning Styles

OpenAIRE

Şakar, Asım

2015-01-01

This study explores the relationship between (perceptual and cognitive) learning styles and the use of hypermedia annotations by intermediate EFL learners while reading a hypermedia text. The participants were 44 EFL adult learners studying English for academic purposes. Data were collected through a software tracking tool, a learning styles survey and interviews. Results did not indicate a significant relationship, suggesting that learners with different learning styles had similar patterns ...

Adult reading teachers’ beliefs about how less-skilled adult readers can be taught to read.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janet McHardy

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Despite large-scale interventions, significant numbers of adults worldwide continue to have problems with basic literacy, in particular in the area of reading. To be effective, adult reading teachers need expert knowledge at practitioner level. However, practices in adult reading education vary widely, often reflecting the individual beliefs of each teacher about how an adult can learn to read. In this study, phenomenographic analysis was used to identify categories of approaches to teaching adult reading, used by a group of 60 teachers in Western Australia and New Zealand. Four approaches were identified: reassurance, task-based, theory-based and responsive. It is argued that for teachers to become effective and consistent in responding to learner needs, they must understand their own beliefs and the consequences of these. The identification of different approaches in adult reading education is an important step in this process.

Factors influencing the recruitment and retention of literacy learners in Oman

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Barwani, Thuwayba; Kelly, Edward F.

1985-12-01

The study investigates factors influencing the recruitment and retention of learners in the national adult literacy programme in Oman. Personal interviews were conducted in the interior and Capital regions of Oman (N=102). Respondents included 46 randomly selected enrolled learners, 26 randomly selected dropouts and 30 unenrolled adults. Results of the interviews were content-analyzed and frequencies, cross tabulations and Chi-square were calculated. Findings indicated regional differences in the adults' motivation for enrolling, but the spiritual motive was over all the most significant. Men and women reported different patterns of conflict and obstacles in completing their literacy studies: Men indicated work demands as their biggest obstacle while women complained about family responsibilities. Programme attrition was mainly attributed to structural characteristics of the programme.

Sensitizing Young English Language Learners Towards Environmental Care

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Castillo, Rigoberto; Rojas, María del Pilar

2014-01-01

This paper reports an action research study aimed at understanding how to sensitize young English language learners towards caring for the environment. The pedagogical intervention in a 5th grade class consisted in the use of creative writing strategies to express learners' ideas. Three stages were followed: "recognizing facts,"…

A Learner Perspective on Barriers to E-Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Karen; Newton, Cameron; Sawang, Sukanlaya

2013-01-01

This study aims to identify and categorize barriers to e-learning adoption and the relative impact of those barriers on learners. It contributes to the understanding of learner perceptions of barriers, the different types of barriers and their relative importance. This study used a quantitative methodology grounded in previous literature. The…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Learners with Severe Support Needs

Science.gov (United States)

Hartmann, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

This article presents the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework as one way to understand how to support learners with severe disabilities and how to support their access to authentic and appropriate curricula that improves their quality of life. Two key ideas from the UDL framework, (a) understanding learner variability and (b) supporting…

Understanding of how older adults with low vision obtain, process, and understand health information and services.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyung Nam

2017-10-16

Twenty-five years after the Americans with Disabilities Act, there has still been a lack of advancement of accessibility in healthcare for people with visual impairments, particularly older adults with low vision. This study aims to advance understanding of how older adults with low vision obtain, process, and use health information and services, and to seek opportunities of information technology to support them. A convenience sample of 10 older adults with low vision participated in semi-structured phone interviews, which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Participants shared various concerns in accessing, understanding, and using health information, care services, and multimedia technologies. Two main themes and nine subthemes emerged from the analysis. Due to the concerns, older adults with low vision tended to fail to obtain the full range of all health information and services to meet their specific needs. Those with low vision still rely on residual vision such that multimedia-based information which can be useful, but it should still be designed to ensure its accessibility, usability, and understandability.

Using Data Collection Apps and Single-Case Designs to Research Transformative Learning in Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Roessger, Kevin M.; Greenleaf, Arie; Hoggan, Chad

2017-01-01

To overcome situational hurdles when researching transformative learning in adults, we outline a research approach using single-case research designs and smartphone data collection apps. This approach allows researchers to better understand learners' current lived experiences and determine the effects of transformative learning interventions on…

A Longitudinal Study on Learner Career Advancement in MOOCs

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yuan; Paquette, Luc; Baker, Ryan

2014-01-01

In this paper, we present progress towards a longitudinal study of the post-course career advancement of MOOC learners. We present initial results and analysis plans for how to link this to in-course behaviour, towards better understanding the goals of all MOOC learners.

Electronic Reading and Digital Library Technologies: Understanding Learner Expectation and Usage Intent for Mobile Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Hyman, Jack A.; Moser, Mary T.; Segala, Laura N.

2014-01-01

Mobile information technology is changing the education landscape by offering learners the opportunity to engage in asynchronous, ubiquitous instruction. While there is a proliferation of mobile content management systems being developed for the mobile Web and stand-alone mobile applications, few studies have addressed learner expectations and…

Unskilled Work and Learner Identity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kondrup, Sissel

2014-01-01

. The main argument is that participation research must abandon the notion of motivation as an individual attribute and apply a dialectic concept of learner identity acknowledging work-life as a pivotal space for learning and formation of identity. I outline how a work-life-historical approach combining......The paper examines how unskilled work forms conditions for meeting the obligation to position oneself as an educable subject and engage in formal learning activities. Sensitivity to peoples’ work-life-experiences is necessary to understand their orientation toward different learning activities...... a critical theoretical approach inspired by Salling-Olesen’s and Archer’s concepts of identity and concerns can contribute to an understanding of the relationship between work and learner identity. Through narrative work-life interviews I examine how engagement in unskilled work in small and medium sized...

Revaluing the reading process of adult ESL/EFL learners through critical dialogues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Koomi Kim

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The authors explore language developmental processes of university English language learners. The used Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA and In-depth Reading Interviews as heuristic tools to generate critical dialogues with students to reflect on their L1 and English language learning processes and perceptions. The studies show that RMA and In-Depth Reading Interviews lead the teachers researches-and english language learners to critical learnable and teachable moments.

Teaching English to Young Learners and Factors to Consider in DesigningThe Materials

OpenAIRE

Sukarno, -

2008-01-01

Teaching English to young learners at elementary school is different from that to adults. The English teachers to young learners in elementary school, therefore, need to comprehend and to apply the theories of language teaching-learning to young learners and language classroom management. Besides, the English teachers are not only required to be able to teach well but also to be able to design materials so that they can apply approaches, methods, and techniques of teaching-learning English ap...

Goal-Setting and Self-Reflection to Enhance Learners' Interaction in an ESP Context

Science.gov (United States)

Lozano Velandia, Sergio Andrés

2015-01-01

This qualitative action research study explored the interactions of young-adult learners carrying out self-reflection on their learning processes in an ESP (English for special purposes) course at an airline training-center in Bogotá, Colombia. Needs analysis revealed that learners had poor knowledge of technical English, and lacked strong…

Learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text in multimedia learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Fenesi, Barbara; Kim, Joseph A

2014-01-01

Research on metacognition has consistently demonstrated that learners fail to endorse instructional designs that produce benefits to memory, and often prefer designs that actually impair comprehension. Unlike previous studies in which learners were only exposed to a single multimedia design, the current study used a within-subjects approach to examine whether exposure to both redundant text and non-redundant text multimedia presentations improved learners' metacognitive judgments about presentation styles that promote better understanding. A redundant text multimedia presentation containing narration paired with verbatim on-screen text (Redundant) was contrasted with two non-redundant text multimedia presentations: (1) narration paired with images and minimal text (Complementary) or (2) narration paired with minimal text (Sparse). Learners watched presentation pairs of either Redundant + Complementary, or Redundant + Sparse. Results demonstrate that Complementary and Sparse presentations produced highest overall performance on the final comprehension assessment, but the Redundant presentation produced highest perceived understanding and engagement ratings. These findings suggest that learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text, even after direct exposure to a non-redundant, effective presentation.

Feedback on Feedback: Eliciting Learners' Responses to Written Feedback through Student-Generated Screencasts

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Toro, María; Furnborough, Concha

2014-01-01

Despite the potential benefits of assignment feedback, learners often fail to use it effectively. This study examines the ways in which adult distance learners engage with written feedback on one of their assignments. Participants were 10 undergraduates studying Spanish at the Open University, UK. Their responses to feedback were elicited by means…

Factors Affecting the Level of Test Anxiety among EFL Learners at Elementary Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Aydin, Selami

2013-01-01

Many studies on test anxiety among adult language learners have been performed, while only a few studies have dealt with overall test anxiety. In addition, these studies do not specifically address test anxiety in foreign language learning among elementary school language learners. Thus, this study aims to investigate the level of test anxiety…

The Role of Private Speech in Cognitive Regulation of Learners: The Case of English as a Foreign Language Education

Science.gov (United States)

Sarab, Mohamad Reza Anani; Gordani, Yahya

2015-01-01

Investigations into the use of private speech by adult English foreign language (EFL) learners in regulating their mental activities have been an interesting area of research with a sociocultural framework. Following this line of research, 30 advanced adult EFL learners were selected via the administration of Oxford quick placement test and took a…

The value of health professions education: the importance of understanding the learner perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandars, John; Walsh, Kieran

2016-07-01

The value of health professions education (HPE), with increasing demand for value resultant on financial constraint, has come under increasing scrutiny. An essential aspect for critical consideration is the extent to which the value ascribed by the learner differs from that of the HPE provider, especially in relation to the learning Methods and assessment of the HPE curriculum. The challenge of reconciling the tensions and differing perspectives of the learners and HPE providers can be met through co-production of the curriculum. The focus of the co-production approach is the recognition of the importance of diversity and social justice.

Learners for life : student approaches to learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Artelt, Cordula; Baumert, Jürgen; Julius-McElvany, Nele; Peschar, Jules

2003-01-01

What are students like as learners as they approach the end of compulsory education? The answer matters greatly, not only because those with stronger approaches to learning get better results at school but also because young adults able to set learning goals and manage their own learning are much

TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH SONGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuliana Yuliana

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Teaching English to Young Learners has become a trend nowadays. In every school, English is taught as one of the main subjects. In teaching young learners is not like teaching adults, children have their own way of learning. Since children like to play and have fun, the learning and teaching process should be suited with the nature of the children themselves. One of the forms of fun activities for children is through music, and songs are the common form of music that children know. Through this paper, the writer wants to show that through songs, children could enhance their language skills, such as speaking, listening and writing.

Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Meihua

2017-06-01

The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.

Language Learning Strategies of Language e-Learners in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Solak, Ekrem; Cakir, Recep

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the use of language learning strategies of e-learners and to understand whether there were any correlations between language learning strategies and academic achievement. Participants of the study were 274?e-learners, 132 males and 142 females, enrolled in an e-learning program from various majors and…

Adults' motivation of learning English as a second language

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

吴梦楠

2005-01-01

English learning is extensive among adults. Their motivations are classified into two types: the integrative one and the instrumental one.Obviously the integrative motivation makes the learners more active and joyful in learning process. Teachers find ways to cultivate and inspire the adult learners' motivation of learning L2, to design and deliver language instruction with care and sensitivity, and to assess rather than test the learners' learning for inducing a positive reaction.

Investigating the Determinants of Adults' Participation in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Owusu-Agyeman, Yaw

2016-01-01

This study investigates the determinants of adult learners' participation in higher education in a lifelong learning environment. The author argues that the determinants of adult learners' participation in higher education include individual demands, state and institutional policy objectives and industry-driven demands rather than demographic…

The Three Little Wolves Go to College: A Picture Book Lesson for Young Adult EFL Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Chia-Ho

2015-01-01

For at least three decades, scholars have discussed the rationale for using picture books with English learners of all ages. Research on how older ESL and EFL learners can benefit from picture books, however, remains scarce. This study explored 25 Taiwanese university EFL learners' engagement in a predicting-reading-confirming-integrating plus…

Understanding the Academic Procrastination Attitude of Language Learners in Turkish Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Bekleyen, Nilüfer

2017-01-01

The prevalence of academic procrastination has long been the subject of attention among researchers. However, there is still a paucity of studies examining language learners since most of the studies focus on similar participants such as psychology students. The present study was conducted among students trying to learn English in the first year…

THE ELUSIVENESS OF LEARNER-CENTRED TEACHING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ervin Kovačević

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This research will explore teaching styles of university professors. Teaching style is an umbrella term for teaching decisions made during the entire teaching process – planning, delivery, and evaluation. Contemporary university teachers are advised to adopt the learner-centred teaching style which is assumed to produce remarkable possibilities. In the Fall Semester 2015 fifty-two respondents in different faculties of International University of Sarajevo were surveyed using The Principles of Adult Learning Scale inventory designed by Gary J. Conti. Inventory scores were calculated according to guidelines suggested by the author of the inventory. The scores revealed that majority of respondents strongly supported teacher-centred rather than learner-centred styles of instruction. Scores were analysed on gender lines and across three different faculties, namely: Arts and Social Sciences; Business and Administration; Engineering and Natural Sciences. In all five groups none of the seven teaching style indicators was found to conform with the learner-centred teaching criteria. There was no statistically significant difference between the two genders’ preference for a teaching style. And there was no statistically significant difference between teaching style preference across the three different faculties.The results of this research imply that the learner-centred style of instruction is not frequently implemented. Secondly, the results indicate that the requirements necessary for proper application of the learner-centred teaching style are not easy to meet in current written and unwritten norms. Finally, the results show that traditional teaching styles, which have been preserved in different scientific fields, still predominate in universities.

Learning Havens for Stressed Adult Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Seay, Sandra E.

2005-01-01

Having stressful workdays is not the sole prerogative of adult students enrolled in educational leadership programs. According to a report released by the American Institute of Stress in 2002, 80% of adult workers felt stress in the workplace. From this it can be assumed that a certain amount of stress accompanies every adult who enters an evening…

Strategies to address learner aggression in rural South African secondary schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gunam D. Singh

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Managing learner aggression in the school system is central to learners’ academic performance and holistic development. In order to manage learner aggression, it is important to understand the contributory factors and the forms of learner aggression. This article reports on an investigation of factors contributing to learner aggression in rural secondary schools in the Empangeni district of KwaZulu-Natal in order to identify the forms of learner aggression and to establish strategies to manage such aggression in these secondary schools. A qualitative research design was adopted to investigate the phenomenon through an interview process with participants from five rural secondary schools. The findings showed that the factors contributing to learner aggression include family factors, environmental factors and school-related factors whilst the most common forms of learner aggression in schools are verbal aggression, physical aggression and bullying. The article concludes with the role that the school, parents and the Department of Education can play in addressing learner aggression in schools.

Non-Native Japanese Learners' Perception of Consonant Length in Japanese and Italian

Science.gov (United States)

Tsukada, Kimiko; Cox, Felicity; Hajek, John; Hirata, Yukari

2018-01-01

Learners of a foreign language (FL) typically have to learn to process sounds that do not exist in their first language (L1). As this is known to be difficult for adults, in particular, it is important for FL pedagogy to be informed by phonetic research. This study examined the role of FL learners' previous linguistic experience in the processing…

Scope of Cooperative Learning (CL) Strategies in Teaching English to Saudi Adult EFL Learners: A Study of Practical Barriers and Possible Implications

OpenAIRE

Muhammad Ishtiaq; Muhammad Sabboor Hussain

2017-01-01

This study aims at investigating the teachers’ practices and perceptions in teaching English in Saudi Arabia by viewing their stance on Cooperative Learning (CL) — an innovative teaching approach proposed to raise the language proficiency level of adult EFL learners. The study has been conducted in Qassim University, Saudi Arabia—a vibrant and flourishing EFL context. A quantitative tool (a questionnaire) has been used to collect data and to serve qualitative purposes. It reports 80 EFL teach...

Where Adults Go: A Multiple Case Study of Adult Serving Undergraduate Colleges and Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon-Williams, Shelley B.

2010-01-01

This research is an exploratory multiple case study of adult serving undergraduate colleges and universities. Using the Council of Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Principles of Effective Practice for Serving Adult Learners, this study examines the differences of adult serving undergraduate colleges across the three sectors of higher…

Evidence for cross-script abstract identities in learners of Japanese kana.

Science.gov (United States)

Schubert, Teresa; Gawthrop, Roderick; Kinoshita, Sachiko

2018-05-07

The presence of abstract letter identity representations in the Roman alphabet has been well documented. These representations are invariant to letter case (upper vs. lower) and visual appearance. For example, "a" and "A" are represented by the same abstract identity. Recent research has begun to consider whether the processing of non-Roman orthographies also involves abstract orthographic representations. In the present study, we sought evidence for abstract identities in Japanese kana, which consist of two scripts, hiragana and katakana. Abstract identities would be invariant to the script used as well as to the degree of visual similarity. We adapted the cross-case masked-priming letter match task used in previous research on Roman letters, by presenting cross-script kana pairs and testing adult beginning -to- intermediate Japanese second-language (L2) learners (first-language English readers). We found robust cross-script priming effects, which were equal in magnitude for visually similar (e.g., り/リ) and dissimilar (e.g., あ/ア) kana pairs. This pattern was found despite participants' imperfect explicit knowledge of the kana names, particularly for katakana. We also replicated prior findings from Roman abstract letter identities in the same participants. Ours is the first study reporting abstract kana identity priming (in adult L2 learners). Furthermore, these representations were acquired relatively early in our adult L2 learners.

Insights for Teachers of Adults, presented at: NFPF/NERA’S 40TH CONGRESS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund Larsen, Lea

2012-01-01

In this paper, I examine the field of adult learners from the teachers’ perspective. Firstly, I identify the characteristics of adults as learners and their particular needs, which teach- ers must be aware of and deal with. Secondly, I propose a combination of adult learners’ characteristics with...

Understanding adult neurogenesis beyond its role in learning and memory formation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ab Latif Wani

2017-04-01

Full Text Available There has been a shift in the understanding of brain, neurons, and their functional role over the last two decades. Earlier it was believed that the brain was a static organ and was not subject to any change throughout life. An understanding was developed later that brain reorganizes its structure by a specific property called neuroplasticity. Recent research shows that the brain generates new neurons even in the adult stage, and this process is called adult neurogenesis. Although researchers still not have all the answers about the newborn neurons, and why and how they are generated, and what is their role, some have highlighted the importance of these in learning and memory formation, and even in memories of fear and spatial navigation. A wide range of environmental experience influences the generation of newborn neurons and their functional variability. There are questions about how different environmental experiences cause the differences in the generation of new neurons. Recently the field of optogenetics attempted to answer the questions on adult neurogenesis. However there are still questions about adult neurogenesis which needs a more naturalistic approach, for their better understanding.

Exploring Lifelong Learners Engaged in an Astronomy-Related Massively Open Online Course

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Impey, Chris David; Wenger, Matthew; Formanek, Martin; Romine, James M.

2016-01-01

Massively open online courses (MOOCs) are becoming increasingly popular ways to reach diverse lifelong learners all over the world. Although MOOCs resemble more formal classes (e.g. videos of content, quizzes, activities), they are often used by informal audiences from home. Recently, MOOCs have become more utilized by universities to conduct outreach as they explore how to use MOOCs to reach new potential learners. Despite the rapid adaption of MOOCs, little is known about individuals who choose to take a MOOC, how they interact with the course materials, and what motivates them to finish the course.We present results of a study of lifelong learners engaged in an astronomy "101" MOOC. Through analysis of registered learners' behaviors as well as self-reported responses to a survey about science, we were able to characterize a subset of the learners engaged in the MOOC during its first offering. Overall, 25363 learners from over 100 countries registered for the MOOC. Of those, 14900 accessed at least one part of the course. Learners were recruited to complete a survey of their knowledge and attitudes towards science. Of the learner group who opened the course, 2889 individuals completed the survey, 2465 of those were able to be linked to their usage of the MOOC through a unique identifier.Learners represented a wide-range of ages, professions, and previous science experience. The best predictors for MOOC completion were engagement in the first activity and first writing assignment and engagement in the online forum. Learners were very interested in science prior to their registration, had higher basic science knowledge that most undergraduate students enrolled in a parallel astronomy course, and used online searches and science sites to get their information about science. As we reach out to a worldwide audience to learners in these massively open online courses, understanding their motivations and behaviors will be essential. This work is helping us understand and

Inside Out: Detecting Learners' Confusion to Improve Interactive Digital Learning Environments

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Arguel, Amaël; Lockyer, Lori; Lipp, Ottmar V.; Lodge, Jason M.; Kennedy, Gregor

2017-01-01

Confusion is an emotion that is likely to occur while learning complex information. This emotion can be beneficial to learners in that it can foster engagement, leading to deeper understanding. However, if learners fail to resolve confusion, its effect can be detrimental to learning. Such detrimental learning experiences are particularly…

The Effects of Multimedia Task-Based Language Teaching on EFL Learners' Oral L2 Production

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BavaHarji, Madhubala; Gheitanchian, Mehrnaz; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni

2014-01-01

This study examined the effects of tasks, with varying levels of complexity, i.e. simple, + complex and ++ complex tasks on EFL learners' oral production in a multimedia task-based language teaching environment. 57 EFL adult learners carried out a total of 12 tasks, in sets of four tasks within three different themes and different levels of…

Assessing Adult Learner’s Numeracy as Related to Gender and Performance in Arithmetic

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Adeneye O. A. Awofala

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The study investigated adult learner numeracy as related to gender and performance in arithmetic among 32 Nigerian adult learners from one government accredited adult literacy centre in Lagos State using the quantitative research method within the blueprint of descriptive survey design. Data collected were analysed using the descriptive statistics of percentages, mean, and standard deviation and inferential statistics of factor analysis, independent samples t-test, and multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed that numeracy skill assessed by the numeracy self-assessment scale was a multi-dimensional construct (numeracy in everyday life, numeracy in workplace, and numeracy in mathematical tasks. Adult learners showed average numeracy strength as gender differences in perception of numeracy skills and performance in arithmetic among adult learners reached zero-tolerance level. Numeracy in workplace and numeracy in mathematical tasks made statistically significant contributions to the variance in adult learners’ performance in arithmetic. Based on this base line study, it was thus, recommended that future studies in Nigeria should investigate adult learners’ numeracy skills using more robust and psychometrically sound instruments such as the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS and the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS.

Symphony: A case study for exploring and describing design methods and guidelines for learner-centered design

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Quintana, Christopher

Learner-centered design is an evolving software design perspective addressing the needs of learners---a specific audience trying to work in and understand new work practices in which they have a novice or naive understanding. Learner-centered design involves designing software that incorporates work support features (or scaffolding features) informed by social constructivist learning theories. By adopting a constructivist "learning by doing" perspective, scaffolds should support learners so they can mindfully engage in previously inaccessible work activity, which in turn allows those learners to progressively gain a better understanding of the new work. While there is an intuitive notion of "learner-centered design", there is less specific design information for developing learner-centered software. As a result, learner-centered software results from "educated guesses" and ad-hoc design approaches rather than from systematic design methods. Thus there is a need for specific design guidance to facilitate the development of learner-centered tools that help learners see the tasks, terminology, tools, etc. in the new work context and engage in that work. The research in this dissertation provides a more specific base of learner-centered design descriptions, methods, and guidelines to analyze work practices and design and evaluate scaffolds. The research approach involves using the development of Symphony---a scaffolded integrated tool environment for high-school students learning the work of computational science inquiry---as a case study to develop the learner-centered design approach. Symphony incorporates a variety of science tools with process scaffolding to support students in performing complex air pollution investigations. Six ninth-grade students used Symphony to investigate air quality questions for several weeks in an environmental science class. The student testing helped assess the effectiveness of the software scaffolding and in turn, the learner

Library Literacy Programs for English Language Learners. ERIC Digest.

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McMurrer, Eileen; Terrill, Lynda

This digest summarizes the history of public libraries and library literacy programs; describes current delivery models; and discusses initiatives in library literacy, profiling one successful public library program that serves adult English language learners and their families. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)

Including a learner with physical disabilities: stressful for teachers?

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I. Eloff

2002-08-01

Full Text Available Learners with physical disabilities have been entering mainstream schools for some years now. Whereas early research on inclusive education necessitated a strong focus on the needs of the learners, there has also been a recent interest in the role of the teachers in inclusive education. By adopting constructivism as the paradigm for inquiry a study was undertaken to establish the stress factors for teachers who have to include a learner with a physical disability in their mainstream classes. The rationale for the study is threefold: i Learners with physical disabilities are entering mainstream schools increasingly, ii it is often assumed that inclusive education is too stressful for teachers to cope with, and iii related research has shown that increased contact with individuals with disabilities has a positive effect on attitudes towards individuals with disabilities. In accordance with the dialectical methodology of constructivism, the Teacher Stress and Coping Questionnaire and in-depth interviews were utilised to establish the stress factors and the extent of the stress factors that may be present. The aim of the constructivist inquiry process is to promote understanding and reconstruction. In this article the quantitative results indicate overall low or non-existent levels of stress in teachers who have to include a learner with a physical disability, and the results therefore contribute to our understanding of this situation. The qualitative results reconstruct the meanings that these teachers attach to the inclusion of a learner with a physical disability and reveal some albeit limited concerns about the communication processes between parents and teachers and a perceived lack of pre-service training.

Explainers' development of science-learner identities through participation in a community of practice

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Richardson, Anne E.

The urgent environmental issues of today require science-literate adults to engage in business and political decisions to create solutions. Despite the need, few adults have the knowledge and skills of science literacy. This doctoral dissertation is an analytical case study examining the science-learner identity development of Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers. Located in San Francisco, CA, the Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception dedicated to nurturing curiosity and exploration. Data collected included semi-structured interviews with sixteen former Field Trip Explainers, participant observation of the current Field Trip Explainer Program, and review of relevant documentation. Data analysis employed constant comparative analysis, guided by the communities of practice theoretical framework (Wenger, 1998) and the National Research Council's (2009) Six Strands of Science Learning. Findings of this research indicate that Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers participate in a community of practice made up of a diverse group of people that values curiosity and openness to multiple ways of learning. Many participants entered the Field Trip Explainer Program with an understanding of science learning as a rigid process reserved for a select group of people; through participation in the Field Trip Explainer community of practice, participants developed an understanding of science learning as accessible and a part of everyday life. The findings of this case study have implications for research, theory, and practice in informal adult science learning, access of non-dominant groups to science learning, and adult workplace learning in communities of practice.

The adult learner a neglected species

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Knowles, Malcolm

1990-01-01

This edition reflects the latest work and advances in adult learning theory. Readers learn to develop meaningful programmes and use new techniques for effectively teaching adults. After examining the various theories of learning, the book presents the reasons why teaching adults is so different than teaching children. The book contains 13 appendices (100 pages) which give an overview of brain dominance technology and whole-brain thinking. There is also a self-diagnostic tool (photocopiable) for determining the competency of trainers, guidelines for learning contracts and ideas on how to switch from being a teacher to being a "facilitator of learning".

Maximing Learning Strategies to Promote Learner Autonomy

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Junaidi Mistar

2001-01-01

Full Text Available Learning a new language is ultimately to be able to communicate with it. Encouraging a sense of responsibility on the part of the learners is crucial for training them to be proficient communicators. As such, understanding the strategies that they employ in acquiring the language skill is important to come to ideas of how to promote learner autonomy. Research recently conducted with three different groups of learners of English at the tertiary education level in Malang indicated that they used metacognitive and social startegies at a high frequency, while memory, cognitive, conpensation, and affective strategies were exercised at a medium frewuency. This finding implies that the learners have acquired some degrees of autonomy because metacognive strategies requires them to independently make plans for their learning activities as well as evaluate the progress, and social strategies requires them to independently enhance communicative interactions with other people. Further actions are then to be taken increase their learning autonomy, that is by intensifying the practice of use of the other four strategy categories, which are not yet applied intensively.

An Appraisal of Financial Authority Transfers' Prior-Knowledge in Adult Learning Assessment

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A. Ettien

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research aimed at reviewing financial authority trainers prior knowledge in adult learners' learning assessment. For this aim, we tried to verify the fol-lowing research hypothesis: Ivorian financial authority trainers are able to assess adult learners correctly. Knowles andragogy principles are the comparison basis. We were positively impressed by trainers awareness of some of the principles of andragogy relative to their avoidance of summative assessment in favor of task-based assessment and problem-solving activities. However, the same trainers tendency to ignore the self-directedness nature of adult learners as well as their ability to engage in self-assessment made us believe that a sound training in adult learning assessment would help each of them become a better adult trainer.

Understanding Self-Directed Learning in the Context of Mobile Web 2.0--Case Study with Workplace Learners

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Gu, Jia

2016-01-01

This paper presents the findings from a multiple-case study which has investigated the impact of mobile Web 2.0 technologies on self-directed learning (SDL) of workplace learners by exploring participants' learning experiences with a mobile App. Drawing on existing literatures, we examined learners' SDL personal attributes and process in the…

The Contributions of Phonological and Morphological Awareness to Literacy Skills in the Adult Basic Education Population

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Fracasso, Lucille E.; Bangs, Kathryn; Binder, Katherine S.

2016-01-01

The Adult Basic Education (ABE) population consists of a wide range of abilities with needs that may be unique to this set of learners. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relative contributions of phonological decoding and morphological awareness to spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension across a sample of ABE students. In…

Supporting Online Learners: Blending High-Tech with High-Touch

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Dolan, Sean; Donohue, Chip; Holstrom, Lisa; Pernell, Latonia; Sachdev, Anu

2009-01-01

Effective and easily accessible student support services are essential to the success of adult learners. A student-centered approach is especially important in the design and delivery of online courses, professional certificates, and degree programs for early childhood professionals. A student-first approach is essential for non-traditional adult…

Reviewing the Evidence on How Adult Students Learn: An Examination of Knowles' Model of Andragogy

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McGrath, Valerie

2009-01-01

While there may be similarities between adults and children in how they learn (such as language, interaction and communication), many writers argue that adult learners are different from child learners in a number of ways. This article aims to review how adults learn through examining one particular theory of adult learning. Two conflicting…

Air Writing as a Technique for the Acquisition of Sino-japanese Characters by Second Language Learners

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Thomas, Margaret

2015-01-01

This article calls attention to a facet of the expertise of second language (L2) learners of Japanese at the intersection of language, memory, gesture, and the psycholinguistics of a logographic writing system. Previous research has shown that adult L2 learners of Japanese living in Japan (similarly to native speakers of Japanese) often…

Differentiated Technology-based Interventions for Enhancing Understanding, Flow and Self-efficacy by Learners with Developmental and Attention Deficits

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Voldborg, Hanne; Sorensen, Elsebeth Korsgaard

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the potential of digital technologies for strengthening the participation and inclusion of learners with developmental and attention Deficits (focus learners) into the mainstream classroom. The paper describes the authors’ approach to the challenge of researching the extent...

The early phase of /see symbol/ production development in adult Japanese learners of English.

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Saito, Kazuya; Munro, Murray J

2014-12-01

Although previous research indicates that Japanese speakers' second language (L2) perception and production of English /see symbol/ may improve with increased L2 experience, relatively little is known about the fine phonetic details of their /see symbol/ productions, especially during the early phase of L2 speech learning. This cross-sectional study examined acoustic properties of word-initial /see symbol/ from 60 Japanese learners with a length of residence of between one month and one year in Canada. Their performance was compared to that of 15 native speakers of English and 15 low-proficiency Japanese learners of English. Formant frequencies (F2 and F3) and F1 transition durations were evaluated under three task conditions--word reading, sentence reading, and timed picture description. Learners with as little as two to three months of residence demonstrated target-like F2 frequencies. In addition, increased LOR was predictive of more target-like transition durations. Although the learners showed some improvement in F3 as a function of LOR, they did so mainly at a controlled level of speech production. The findings suggest that during the early phase of L2 segmental development, production accuracy is task-dependent and is influenced by the availability of L1 phonetic cues for redeployment in L2.

Learner Satisfaction in Online Learning: An Analysis of the Perceived Impact of Learner-Social Media and Learner-Instructor Interaction

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Andersen, Jeffery C.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between general course satisfaction, learner-instructor interaction, and the learner-social media interaction scores of participants. This study used an online survey with 60 questions to gather the participants' demographic data, learner-instructor interaction data, learner-social…

Action towards hope: Addressing learner behaviour in a classroom

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Raelene LeeFon

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Unruly learners and disciplinary problems are an intractable part of every teacher’s teaching experience. It appears that, even though most schools have enacted a code of conduct to regulate learner behaviour, this does not always have the desired effect. Disciplinary problems in schools impact negatively on the teaching and learning environment as well as on teachers’ personal and professional well-being and morale. Framed within the context of a biblical worldview, this article narrates the experiences of one teacher who decided to take action towards hope. The situation in her classroom was quite desperate with learners coming to school unprepared and behaving very badly and parents being uninterested in the performance of their children at school. She realised that she could not change the learners or their parents unless she started with herself. In this context, she, as a postgraduate student under the supervision of the co-authors, embarked on an action-research project to promote positive learner behaviour. By collaborating with the learners on a set of classroom rules, engaging in reflective teaching and changing her own behaviour towards the learners, the situation in her classroom improved. Based on her experiences, this article argues that teachers should empower themselves with knowledge and a better understanding of the concept of discipline rather than viewing the classroom as a battlefield. It is important to acknowledge and show respect and appreciation for each learner in his or her own context.

Examining learner-centered training with teen volunteer staff at an aquarium

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Bautista, Raelene M.

This research project examined the effects of a training program that focused on helping youth volunteers create a learner-centered interaction at an Aquarium. This study explored whether this learner centered training resulted in an increased ability to identify learner-centered engagement as well as reported changes in practice. Most research on training programs and professional development, that introduces learner-centered strategies examines adult teachers working in formal environments. This study examined youth volunteer staff in an informal science institution that participated in a weekly one-hour training for four weeks during their eight week long summer volunteer program. The data showed that some of topics introduced in the learner centered training, such as the importance of visitors' prior knowledge and the use of objects, were identified more often as good practice after the training. In addition, participants seemed to hold on to some of their original perceptions of good practices, such as providing positive reinforcement and modifying their physical posture to make the visitors feel comfortable. The investigation also revealed that conversation patterns changed in some participants' practice as a result of the training.

To a Deeper Understanding of Loneliness amongst Older Irish Adults.

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Squires, Susan Elaine

2015-06-01

Loneliness can play a significant role in the wellbeing of older adults. This article describes a qualitative method for using case notes from the clinical records of older individuals in order to investigate the priority concerns spontaneously reported by older adults to deepen our understanding of both the context in which reported loneliness occurs in Ireland and the potential triggers. The participants in this study represent a cross-section of older adults who participated in the Technology Research for Independent Living Clinic (TRIL). Data were collected from participants through interviewer case notes at the TRIL centre in St James's hospital, Dublin. 624 participants (431 females; 193 males) ranging in age from 60-92 years (Mean 73 years, SD 7 years) took part in the study. All were community dwelling and provided consent. A thematic analysis from grounded theory was used to evaluate the case notes for each participant. Preliminary results highlight the richness of phenomenological experience to enhance our understanding of loneliness and provide an opportunity to better understand the precursors and variability that loneliness may take. In this study we found themes in the case note analysis linking social loneliness with self-imposed limitations on social engagement due to declining health while predominate themes for emotionally lonely focused on psychological issues of stress and anxiety associated with adverse life events. The results suggest the importance of case notes to inform clinical practice. Qualitative results provided insights into differing live events of older Irish adults, which help distinguish the causal differences between social and emotional loneliness.

EXPLORING THE CURRICULUM DIMENSIONS OF THEORIES-BASED ADULT EDUCATION - A SAMPLE COURSE OF SOUTHEAST ANATOLİAN REGION

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Emel Ültanır

2010-07-01

Full Text Available As a result of social change over the past 20 years, there has been an economy-induced population movement in Turkey from eastern locales and rural areas to western regions and city centres. The effects of this domestic migration exemplify the problems of “integration faced by a migrating population”. In Turkey the role of Public Education Centres is primarily to provide pre-vocational training to adult learners. The aim of this research is focused upon the following five research questions: a What are the motivating factors for adults attending courses? b Are the syllabi consistent with contemporary adult education theories? c Which media are being used in the courses? d Are adult learners being taken on excursions outside of the classroom to workshops and factories? e What methods exist for measuring learning outcomes? The researchers developed a questionnaire to collect data. The questionnaire was composed within a framework of questions to provide insight to the following: i Characteristics of adult learners, ii The constructivism principles used in adult education, iii Teaching techniques suitable for adults, and iv Motivations behind course enrollment of adult learners. The content validity of the questionnaire was provided by expert opinions. Students attending Turkey-Mersin Public Education Centres between 2007-2008 were chosen as the subject population, with the questionnaires being distributed to 60 adult learners in this research. The findings can be summarized by the following: In the study it was found that students within the same course possessed educational backgrounds ranging from university graduates to those who had never attended a day of school in their lives. The motives behind course attendendance exhibits a diversity of viewpoints among the adult learners. Most of the learners stated that they were learning the subject material for the first time.

Guidelines for Providing Accommodations Using CASAS Assessment for Learners with Disabilities

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CASAS - Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (NJ1), 2005

2005-01-01

These guidelines address methods for administering Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) assessments using accommodations for learners with documented disabilities. The suggested accommodations for disability categories include provisions for: (1) Accommodations in test administration procedures; and (2) Use of appropriate CASAS…

A Pilot Study Comparing Total Physical Response Storytelling[TM] with the Grammar-Translation Teaching Strategy to Determine Their Effectiveness in Vocabulary Acquisition among English as a Second Language Adult Learners

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Castro, Ruben

2010-01-01

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS[TM]) compared to the Grammar-Translation approach for acquiring and retaining new vocabulary in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The subjects were adult Hispanic learners with limited literacy. An experimental design approach was used to gather…

The Study of the Phenomenon of Hesitation as a Cognitive Process in Iranian French Learners' Oral Production

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Rahmatian, Rouhollah; Mehrabi, Marzieh; Safa, Parivash; Golfam, Arsalan

2014-01-01

Hesitation, when speaking a foreign language, is studied through its components: beginnings, pauses, and repetitions. This paper aims to identify, through the study of this phenomenon, vulnerable zones among Iranian learners when they speak French. A case study of 30 adult learners shows that hesitation is not random and at different levels (A1 to…

Application of Learner Corpora to Second Language Learning and Teaching: An Overview

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Xu, Qi

2016-01-01

The paper gives an overview of learner corpora and their application to second language learning and teaching. It is proposed that there are four core components in learner corpus research, namely, corpus linguistics expertise, a good background in linguistic theory, knowledge of SLA theory, and a good understanding of foreign language teaching…

Why and How Do Distance Learners Use Mobile Devices for Language Learning?

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Demouy, Valérie; Jones, Ann; Kan, Qian; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Eardley, Annie

2016-01-01

Most of the literature on mobile language learning is located in classroom contexts, and often concerns the use of resources developed by teachers or researchers. However, we also need to understand learner initiated practices, in informal as well as formal settings, where mobile language learners are increasingly using digital resources. In this…

Brain responses before and after intensive second language learning: proficiency based changes and first language background effects in adult learners.

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Erin Jacquelyn White

Full Text Available This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2 grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1 background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese. Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1-L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1 higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2 with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., "grammaticalization" are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning.

Brain responses before and after intensive second language learning: proficiency based changes and first language background effects in adult learners.

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White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1-L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., "grammaticalization") are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning.

Take-home video for adult literacy

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Yule, Valerie

1996-01-01

In the past, it has not been possible to "teach oneself to read" at home, because learners could not read the books to teach them. Videos and interactive compact discs have changed that situation and challenge current assumptions of the pedagogy of literacy. This article describes an experimental adult literacy project using video technology. The language used is English, but the basic concepts apply to any alphabetic or syllabic writing system. A half-hour cartoon video can help adults and adolescents with learning difficulties. Computer-animated cartoon graphics are attractive to look at, and simplify complex material in a clear, lively way. This video technique is also proving useful for distance learners, children, and learners of English as a second language. Methods and principles are to be extended using interactive compact discs.

Exploring the Concept of Learner Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Research

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Nga Thanh Nguyen

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This research explores how the concept of learner autonomy is understood and used in Vietnamese higher educational settings. Data were collected through interviews in Vietnamese with four university lecturers in Hanoi, Vietnam and then reported in an English language thesis. The problems confronted by the lecturers were in understanding the concept of learner autonomy, the complexities of translation equivalence for the concept from one language to another, and the impact of culture in interpreting the concept of learner autonomy. The paper concludes with recommendations for educators to be sensitive to cultural and linguistic considerations when transferring concepts from one culture to another.

The natural number bias and its role in rational number understanding in children with dyscalculia. Delay or deficit?

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Van Hoof, Jo; Verschaffel, Lieven; Ghesquière, Pol; Van Dooren, Wim

2017-12-01

Previous research indicated that in several cases learners' errors on rational number tasks can be attributed to learners' tendency to (wrongly) apply natural number properties. There exists a large body of literature both on learners' struggle with understanding the rational number system and on the role of the natural number bias in this struggle. However, little is known about this phenomenon in learners with dyscalculia. We investigated the rational number understanding of learners with dyscalculia and compared it with the rational number understanding of learners without dyscalculia. Three groups of learners were included: sixth graders with dyscalculia, a chronological age match group, and an ability match group. The results showed that the rational number understanding of learners with dyscalculia is significantly lower than that of typically developing peers, but not significantly different from younger learners, even after statistically controlling for mathematics achievement. Next to a delay in their mathematics achievement, learners with dyscalculia seem to have an extra delay in their rational number understanding, compared with peers. This is especially the case in those rational number tasks where one has to inhibit natural number knowledge to come to the right answer. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mathematics and science teachers' understanding and practices of ...

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Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives ... school level understand and implement learner-centered pedagogy. ... prove that teachers' knowledge and skills as regard learner-centred pedagogical ...

Talking Science in Multilingual Contexts in South Africa: Possibilities and challenges for engagement in learners home languages in high school classrooms

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Msimanga, Audrey; Lelliott, Anthony

2014-05-01

This paper discusses the nature of learner engagement with science content during small group discussions in which learners use their home languages. We observed that learners reverted to their home languages in small group discussions, yet very little is known about the dynamics of learner engagement when they use their home languages in classroom discussions in South Africa and elsewhere. We analysed transcripts of discussions by three small groups in a Grade 10 Chemistry class. Contrary to teachers' fears that learners may not engage meaningfully with science content when talking in their home languages, all three groups spent over 90% of discussion time on task. Learners made and supported claims, challenged each others' ideas and questioned each others' thinking. Although the levels of critique varied between the groups, there was evidence of negotiation of understandings of the concepts. We argue that use of learners' home languages for engagement with difficult concepts may be a legitimate resource for science teachers to create opportunities for learner conceptual understanding. Further research is needed to understand the dynamics of teacher and learner use of their languages in science lessons, the best teaching strategies to achieve this, how teacher educators may model these strategies without undermining the need by both parents and learners' for English language proficiency to access social goods.

The Slow Learner in Homemaking Classes in Junior and Senior High Schools.

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McKay, Shirley E.

This thesis is the result of efforts made to gain an understanding of the slow learner in order to obtain background material for the future writing of a homemaking textbook, which will be geared to the needs and objectives of below average individuals. Included are discussions of such topics as: (1) What Is the Slow Learner Like, (2) Identifying…

EGameFlow: A Scale to Measure Learners' Enjoyment of E-Learning Games

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Fu, Fong-Ling; Su, Rong-Chang; Yu, Sheng-Chin

2009-01-01

In an effective e-learning game, the learner's enjoyment acts as a catalyst to encourage his/her learning initiative. Therefore, the availability of a scale that effectively measures the enjoyment offered by e-learning games assist the game designer to understanding the strength and flaw of the game efficiently from the learner's points of view.…

Exploring the Concept of Learner Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Research

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Nga Thanh Nguyen; Donna Tangen; Denise Beutel

2014-01-01

This research explores how the concept of learner autonomy is understood and used in Vietnamese higher educational settings. Data were collected through interviews in Vietnamese with four university lecturers in Hanoi, Vietnam and then reported in an English language thesis. The problems confronted by the lecturers were in understanding the concept of learner autonomy, the complexities of translation equivalence for the concept from one language to another, and the impact of culture in interp...

Towards Understanding Listening Comprehension in EFL Classroom: The Case of the Saudi Learners

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Bano, Farah

2017-01-01

The present study aimed at making a pedagogical exploration into listening comprehension skills and examining the problems faced by learners in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom situation at Jazan University, Jazan city, Saudi Arabia. To analyze the problems, two very important processes were considered; namely, top-down and…

The Effect of Genre-Based Teaching on EFL Learners' Speaking Performance

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Mohammad Bagher Khatibi

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract The present study examined the effect of genre-based tasks on EFL learners' speaking performance and probed whether genre-based tasks may empower EFL learners to perform better on speaking tests. A further concern of the study was to explore whether the effect of genre-based tasks on speaking ability of EFL learners varied across different age groups, i.e. teenagers (13-16 years old and young adults (24-27 years old. To this end, some generic based consciousness-raising tasks (CRT were adapted from the model proposed by Benedict (2006 to develop control of a genre used as the treatment procedures. Two different speaking tests of different genres (e.g. recount, report, review, etc., used as pretest and posttest, were administered to 120 senior university students majoring in English language translation. The results indicated that consciousness-raising tasks significantly affected EFL learners' speaking performance. However, the effect of generic-based CRTs did not vary across different age groups. Overall, the findings provided empirical support for the facilitative effect of generic-based consciousness-raising tasks on speaking performance of EFL learners. The findings may promise implications for EFL speaking syllabuses and provide guidelines to designers to accommodate the insights derived from the genre-based instruction perspective.

Teachers' use of questioning in supporting learners doing science investigations

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Umesh Ramnarain

2011-01-01

Full Text Available I examine how teachers employ a questioning strategy in supporting Grade 9 learners doing science investigations in South African schools. A particular focus of this study was how teachers use questioning in contributing towards the autonomy of these learners. The research adopted a qualitative approach which involved the collection of data by means of classroom observations and interviews with five teachers at schools resourced for practical work. The analysis of transcript data revealed that teachers support learners by asking probing questions at all stages of the investigation. The teachers used a questioning strategy in enabling the learners to understand more clearly the question or hypothesis they intended investigating, to review and reconsider their planning, to rethink some of their actions when collecting data, to make sense of their data, and to revisit and amend their plan after generating incorrect findings. The significance of this study, in making explicit teacher questioning at the stages of the investigation, is that it provides a guideline for teachers on how to support learners attain greater autonomy in doing science investigations.

Learner corpus profiles the case of Romanian learner English

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Chitez, Madalina

2014-01-01

The first three chapters of the book offer relevant information on the new methodological approach, learner corpus profiling, and the exemplifying case, Romanian Learner English. The description of the Romanian Corpus of Learner English is also given special attention. The following three chapters include corpus-based frequency analyses of selected grammatical categories (articles, prepositions, genitives), combined with error analyses. In the concluding discussion, the book summarizes the features compiled as lexico-grammatical profiles.

Language Teacher Candidates' Self-Assessment Process for Teaching to Young Learners in EFL Classes

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Genç Ilter, Binnur

2017-01-01

Teaching a foreign language to young learners have some differences from teaching adults. Young children have concentration problems and they tend to change their mood every ten minutes and need more creative activities than adults. Therefore, foreign language teachers have to choose interesting activities for them and foreign language teacher…

Learner Personas in CALL

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Heift, Trude

2007-01-01

In examining the titles of this year's conference presentations, the author noticed quite a few papers that focus on learner-specific issues, for instance, papers that address learning styles, learner needs, personality and learning, learner modeling and, more generally, pedagogical issues that deal with individual learner differences in…

Translanguaging and the Writing of Bilingual Learners

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Velasco, Patricia; García, Ofelia

2014-01-01

This article makes the case for using translanguaging in developing the academic writing of bilinguals. It reviews the emerging literature on learning and teaching theories of translanguaging and presents theoretical understandings of biliteracy development and specifically on the teaching of writing to bilingual learners. The article analyzes…

Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as a Foreign Language Persian Learners

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Asgari, Azadeh; Bin Mustapha, Ghazali

2010-01-01

This study aims to investigate the attrition rate of EFL concrete and abstract vocabulary among continuing and non-continuing Iranian female and male English language learners across different proficiency levels. They are students of a University and majored in different fields (between 20 and 25 years old). There was no treatment in this study…

High school learners' mental construction during solving optimisation problems in Calculus: a South African case study

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Deonarain Brijlall

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This qualitative case study in a rural school in Umgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, explored Grade 12 learners' mental constructions of mathematical knowledge during engagement with optimisation problems. Ten Grade 12 learners who do pure Mathematics participated, and data were collected through structured activity sheets and semi-structured interviews. Structured activity sheets with three tasks were given to learners; these tasks were done in groups, and the group leaders were interviewed. It was found that learners tended to do well with routine-type questions, implying that they were functioning at an action level. From the interviews it appeared that learners might have the correct answer, but lacked conceptual understanding. Exploring learners' mental constructions via their responses to activity sheets and interviews enabled common errors and misconceptions to be identified. Themes that emerged were that learners: 1 lacked the understanding of notation dy/dx, 2 had not constructed the derivative and minima/maxima schema, 3 had some difficulty in modelling problems, 4 preferred rules and formulas, and 5 applied algebraic notions incorrectly. Inferences are drawn for curriculum developers and teachers. This study also formulated itemised genetic decompositions for particular tasks, which contribute to APOS theory.

An Explanation for the Morpheme Acquisition Order of Second Language Learners

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Larsen-Freeman, Diane E.

1976-01-01

Reports on a study designed to yield data that would suggest a reason for the reported morpheme sequence. A significant correlation was found between the common morpheme difficulty order of the learners and the frequency of occurrence of these morphemes in adult native-speaker speech. (Author/RM)

Music training improves the ability to understand speech-in-noise in older adults

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Belleville, Sylvie; Zendel, Benjamin; West, Greg; Peretz, Isabelle

2017-01-01

It is well known that hearing abilities decline with age, and one of the most commonly reported hearing difficulties reported in older adults is a reduced ability to understand speech in noisy environments. Older musicians have an enhanced ability to understand speech in noise, and this has been associated with enhanced brain responses related to both speech processing and the deployment of attention, however the causal impact of music lessons in older adults is poorly understood. A sample of...

Reading Interventions to Support English Language Learners

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Corella, Jolene

2012-01-01

High stakes assessments conducted in the southwestern United States demonstrate that fewer than 50% of English language learners (ELLs) are achieving proficiency levels in reading fluency. The purpose of this study was to understand if reading interventions using the framework of Samuels's repeated reading (RR) strategy increased student…

A Survey on the Education and Training of Adult and Community Educators for the Workplace.

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Cooper, Tom; And Others

1995-01-01

Interviews with 26 adult/community educators, business/industry training officers, and employees in occupations requiring high education levels revealed the following preferences for an adult/community education specialization: course content based on learner needs, flexibility in courses delivery, recognition of prior learner, and formal…

Focus on Form, Learner Uptake and Subsequent Lexical Gains in Learners' Oral Production

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Alcon-Soler, Eva

2009-01-01

This descriptive study reports findings on the relationship between focus on form, learner uptake and subsequent lexical gains in learners' oral production. The data for the study consisted in 17 45-minute audio-recorded teacher-led conversations, 204 learners' diaries (17 sessions x 12 learners) reporting what they had learned after each…

Learners' perspectives on the provision of condoms in South African public schools.

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de Bruin, W E; Panday-Soobrayan, S

2017-12-01

A stubborn health challenge for learners in South African public schools concerns sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2015, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) proposed the provision of condoms and SRHR-services to learners in schools. This study aimed to contribute to the finalisation and implementation of DBE's policy by exploring learners' perspectives on the provision of condoms and SRHR-services in schools. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted with learners (n = 116) from 33 public schools, to assess their attitudes, social influences, and needs and desires regarding condom provision and SRHR-services in schools. The majority of learners did not support condom provision in schools as they feared that it may increase sexual activity. Contrarily, they supported the provision of other SRHR-services as clinics fail to offer youth-friendly services. Learners' sexual behaviour and access to SRHR-services are strongly determined by their social environment, including traditional norms and values, and social-pressure from peers and adults. Learners' most pressing needs and desires to access condoms and SRHR-services in school concerned respect, privacy and confidentiality of such service provision. Implementation of DBE's policy must be preceded by an evidence-informed advocacy campaign to debunk myths about the risk of increased sexual activity, to advocate for why such services are needed, to shift societal norms towards open discussion of adolescent SRHR and to grapple with the juxtaposition of being legally empowered but socially inhibited to protect oneself from HIV, STIs and early pregnancy. Provision of condoms and other SRHR-services in schools must be sensitive to learners' privacy and confidentiality to minimise stigma and discrimination.

Applying adult learning practices in medical education.

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Reed, Suzanne; Shell, Richard; Kassis, Karyn; Tartaglia, Kimberly; Wallihan, Rebecca; Smith, Keely; Hurtubise, Larry; Martin, Bryan; Ledford, Cynthia; Bradbury, Scott; Bernstein, Henry Hank; Mahan, John D

2014-07-01

The application of the best practices of teaching adults to the education of adults in medical education settings is important in the process of transforming learners to become and remain effective physicians. Medical education at all levels should be designed to equip physicians with the knowledge, clinical skills, and professionalism that are required to deliver quality patient care. The ultimate outcome is the health of the patient and the health status of the society. In the translational science of medical education, improved patient outcomes linked directly to educational events are the ultimate goal and are best defined by rigorous medical education research efforts. To best develop faculty, the same principles of adult education and teaching adults apply. In a systematic review of faculty development initiatives designed to improve teaching effectiveness in medical education, the use of experiential learning, feedback, effective relationships with peers, and diverse educational methods were found to be most important in the success of these programs. In this article, we present 5 examples of applying the best practices in teaching adults and utilizing the emerging understanding of the neurobiology of learning in teaching students, trainees, and practitioners. These include (1) use of standardized patients to develop communication skills, (2) use of online quizzes to assess knowledge and aid self-directed learning, (3) use of practice sessions and video clips to enhance significant learning of teaching skills, (4) use of case-based discussions to develop professionalism concepts and skills, and (5) use of the American Academy of Pediatrics PediaLink as a model for individualized learner-directed online learning. These examples highlight how experiential leaning, providing valuable feedback, opportunities for practice, and stimulation of self-directed learning can be utilized as medical education continues its dynamic transformation in the years ahead

Predictors of Successful Learning in Multilingual Older Adults Acquiring a Majority Language

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Henrike K. Blumenfeld

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Understanding language learning in later life can elucidate how linguistic experiences and age-specific cognitive skills can be leveraged for language acquisition, providing insight into how lifelong experiences configure our learning capacity. In this study, we examined to what extent acquisition and maintenance of a non-native language (English is scaffolded by cognitive skills and previous linguistic experiences in older adults; and to what extent these cognitive/linguistic factors predict older learners’ success in acquiring novel functional language. We recruited 53 participants who were native speakers of Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, and Somali, had continued to learn English as adults, and were currently exposed to majority-English contexts. To identify contributors to participants’ English skills, we administered a language history and self-reported proficiency interview, brief cognitive testing, and verbal fluency tasks in L1 and English. We found that digit span and orientation measures were cognitive predictors of English proficiency, while similarity of known languages to English, L1 skills, and English language exposure were linguistic predictors of English skills. To examine participants’ ability to maintain language knowledge and to learn new functional English, we also conducted a preliminary longitudinal service-based study in a subset of 19 participants using our Specific-Purpose English Communication System for Seniors (SPECSS curriculum. In this subset of SPECSS learners, we identified digit span and orientation, but not age, as cognitive predictors of short-term language maintenance. Further, better novel English learning as a result of our curriculum was observed in learners whose other known languages were less similar to English. Findings inform best practices in developing language curricula for older adults, and help generate new hypotheses on preparedness for language learning across the adult lifespan with a

Get it together: Issues that facilitate collaboration in teams of learners in intensive care.

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Conte, Helen; Jirwe, Maria; Scheja, Max; Hjelmqvist, Hans

2016-05-01

The study describes issues that facilitate collaboration in teams of learners in an interprofessional education unit in intensive care. A descriptive qualitative study design was applied using semi-structured interviews based on the critical incident technique and qualitative content analysis. Nineteen participants, eight learners in their specialist training, nine supervisors and two head supervisors in Sweden identified 47 incidents. Teams of learners having control was the core issue. Motivation, time, experiences and reflection were central issues for facilitating collaboration. Efficiently training teams how to collaborate requires learners having control while acting on their common understanding and supervisors taking a facilitating role supporting teams to take control of their critical analysis.

Exploring Linguistic Identity in Young Multilingual Learners

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Dressler, Roswita

2014-01-01

This article explores the linguistic identity of young multilingual learners through the use of a Language Portrait Silhouette. Examples from a research study of children aged 6-8 years in a German bilingual program in Canada provide teachers with an understanding that linguistic identity comprises expertise, affiliation, and inheritance. This…

Auditory and Cognitive Factors Underlying Individual Differences in Aided Speech-Understanding among Older Adults

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Larry E. Humes

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This study was designed to address individual differences in aided speech understanding among a relatively large group of older adults. The group of older adults consisted of 98 adults (50 female and 48 male ranging in age from 60 to 86 (mean = 69.2. Hearing loss was typical for this age group and about 90% had not worn hearing aids. All subjects completed a battery of tests, including cognitive (6 measures, psychophysical (17 measures, and speech-understanding (9 measures, as well as the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing (SSQ self-report scale. Most of the speech-understanding measures made use of competing speech and the non-speech psychophysical measures were designed to tap phenomena thought to be relevant for the perception of speech in competing speech (e.g., stream segregation, modulation-detection interference. All measures of speech understanding were administered with spectral shaping applied to the speech stimuli to fully restore audibility through at least 4000 Hz. The measures used were demonstrated to be reliable in older adults and, when compared to a reference group of 28 young normal-hearing adults, age-group differences were observed on many of the measures. Principal-components factor analysis was applied successfully to reduce the number of independent and dependent (speech understanding measures for a multiple-regression analysis. Doing so yielded one global cognitive-processing factor and five non-speech psychoacoustic factors (hearing loss, dichotic signal detection, multi-burst masking, stream segregation, and modulation detection as potential predictors. To this set of six potential predictor variables were added subject age, Environmental Sound Identification (ESI, and performance on the text-recognition-threshold (TRT task (a visual analog of interrupted speech recognition. These variables were used to successfully predict one global aided speech-understanding factor, accounting for about 60% of the variance.

Adult Appeal.

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Stinehart, Kathleen; Kornegay, Jane G.

1997-01-01

To reach older, nontraditional students and alumni, alumni associations must offer a different type of programming Suggestions include ignoring class years of alumni, bringing current and former adult students together, emphasizing career connections, supporting networking, featuring a college speaker to satisfy lifelong learners' hunger for…

Delivering Instruction to Adult Learners. Revised Edition.

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Cantor, Jeffrey A.

This one-stop guide for trainers and educators of adults in industry, business, or the professions details a results-oriented instructional strategy that is based on the following principles for instructing adults effectively: (1) act as a leader, helper, guide, change agent, coordinator, and facilitator of learning; (2) promote active…

A Case Study of Peer Review Practices of Four Adolescent English Language Learners in Face-to-Face and Online Contexts

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Vorobel, Oksana

2013-01-01

Peer review is a complex collaborative activity, which may engage English language learners in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and carry many potential benefits for their language learning (Hu, 2005). While many research studies focused on peer review practices of adult language learners in academic settings in the USA or abroad in…

Don't forget the learner: an essential aspect for developing effective hypermedia online learning in continuing medical education.

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Sandars, John; Homer, Matthew; Walsh, Kieran; Rutherford, Alaster

2012-03-01

There is increasing use of hypermedia online learning in continuing medical education (CME) that presents the learner with a wide range of different learning resources, requiring the learner to use self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. This study is the first to apply an SRL perspective to understand how learners engage with hypermedia online learning in CME. We found that the main SRL skills used by learners were use of strategies and monitoring. The increasing use of strategies was associated with increasing interest in the topic and with increasing satisfaction with the learning experience. Further research is recommended to understand SRL processes and its impact on learning in other aspects of hypermedia online learning across the different phases of medical education. Research is also recommended to implement and evaluate the learning impact of a variety of approaches to develop the SRL skills of hypermedia online learners in CME.

Multicultural Education: Learners with Diverse Linguistic and Cultural Background : A Case Study of one Primary School in Norway

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Tosic, Milan

2012-01-01

Abstract This study aims to investigate how a primary school in Norway addresses learners with diverse linguistic and cultural background, in this study referred as culturally and linguistically diverse learners (CLD learners). The study is founded on the premises of multicultural education (MCE) which is considered essential to address the education of CLD learners. Therefore, the scope of the study is based on a five- category theoretical framework comprising: understanding the concept ...

The role of teacher imagination in conceptualising the child as a second language learner

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Ewa Guz

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In order to initiate and maintain meaningful interaction in a young learner L2 classroom, an adult teacher needs to approach children in ways consistent with their developmental profile and adjust teaching methodology so as to accommodate young learners’ current skills. This requires the ability to predict the child’s possible responses to classroom events by imagining what s/he might think and how s/he might behave when presented with specific instructions. Bearing in mind that the teacher’s perception of the world is purely and completely adult in nature, in order to be effective, educators need to create a mental image or a concept of a young learner by gathering knowledge about his or her developmental characteristics and fully grasping the pedagogical implications of this knowledge. In this paper, we aim to explore the role of imagination in the conceptualisation of a child as a second language learner amongst university level pre-service teachers involved in an early primary EFL education programme. We report on qualitative research based on data obtained in the course of a two semester teacher training course of 35 BA and 30 MA students majoring in English. In the study, we focused on the working image of the child’s developmental characteristics created by the participants and their ability to employ this in their teaching. Our data show a substantial discrepancy between the participants’ theoretical conceptions concerning the business of teaching and the actual actions undertaken during lessons with young learners. Although participants were able to successfully identify the most distinctive developmental characteristics of primary-level learners, they experienced difficulty with integrating them into actual classroom practice.

Evaluation of the City and Guilds Level 3 Adult umeracy Support ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cce

College also runs a number of higher education (HE) courses. ... linking this with strategies, methods and skills to teach adult numeracy learners. .... The assessment helped provide detailed learner profiles against the Level 3 specifications ...

Developing the Adult Learning Sector: Lot 3: Opening Higher Education to Adults. Contract EAC 2012-0074. English Summary

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Dollhausen, Karin; Lattke, Susanne; Scheliga, Felicia; Wolters, Andrä; Spexard, Anna; Geffers, Johannes; Banscherus, Ulf

2013-01-01

Widening adult participation in higher education as part of the development of lifelong learning strategies has been promoted by the European Union since the 1990s. Only recently, the 2011 Council resolution on a renewed European agenda for adult learning underlined the need to encourage higher education institutions to embrace adult learners. The…

Barriers to Adult Learning: Bridging the Gap

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Falasca, Marina

2011-01-01

A fundamental aspect of adult education is engaging adults in becoming lifelong learners. More often than not, this requires removing barriers to learning, especially those relating to the actual organisational or institutional learning process. This article explores some of the main barriers to adult learning discussed in the literature and…

A Study of Learners PerceptIon and AttItude towards BA/BSS Program of SSHL of Bangladesh Open UnIversity

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Sabiha SULTANA

2011-07-01

Full Text Available In the present day open and distance education has become a significant way of the development of higher education. Bangladesh Open University (BOU, the only public institution in Bangladesh offers several formal and non-formal programs from secondary to post graduate level through distance mode. The main objectives of BOU’s program is to provide flexible and need based education particularly to the rural and disadvantaged groups like woman, agricultural workers, unemployed youths, uneducated adults, on-the-job people etc. The School of Social Science, Humanities and Language (SSHL at the BOU offers Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Social Science (BA/BSS to create efficient and skilled manpower in the country. The focuses of this paper is to find out learners’ views and attitude towards BA/BSS program at BOU. In this study, 187 respondents were randomly selected from 15 tutorial centers of 2 Regional Resource centers (RRCs of BOU. The study showed that 62% learners were male and the mean age of the learners was 34.05 years (minimum 22; maximum 54. More than 50% learners were married and nearly half (47.6% of them were private employees and 86.6% were Muslims. Amongst them, 72.2% were come from urban areas and residing around 23.08 km from the tutorial centers. Most (72% of the learners of BA/BSS program stated that the program was as usual but 24.1% expressed that it was difficult to understand but 97.7% learners responded that text materials were up to the mark. Regarding the media programs, 61% of the learners gave their opinion that TV programs were at the level best but they wanted to watch these at the evening or night schedule. It was surprising that 26.2% of the learners had bitter experience with the services of RRCs. Finally, some measures have been proposed to offer effective and more popular educational program through BOU.

Differential Outcomes of Adult Education on Adult Learners' Increase in Social Inclusion

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de Greef, Maurice; Verté, Dominique; Segers, Mien

2015-01-01

To date a significant share of the European population can be considered at risk of social exclusion. It has been argued that adult education programmes are a powerful tool to support vulnerable adults increasing their social inclusion. This study aims to answer the question if and which subgroups of vulnerable adults experience an increase in…

An investigation into the opportunity to learn that is available to Grade 12 mathematics learners

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Gerrit Stols

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the opportunity to learn (OTL that is available to Grade 12 mathematics learners. Learner workbooks were analysed in terms of time on task, curriculum coverage, curriculum coherence, and cognitive demand. Based on these elements, experienced mathematics teachers judged the opportunity that the learners have to achieve more than 60% for each topic. According to the workbooks, the average number of active learning days in this sample was 54.1 days per annum. This resulted in limited curriculum coverage in almost all sections in 16 of the 18 under-performing schools. In these schools, learners spent most of their time practising routine procedures. The high correlation of 0.95 (p < 0.001 between the experts'prediction about the opportunity to learn in the different schools (based on the learner workbooks and learners' actual performance in the Grade 12 exam shows that the number, the coverage, the cognitive level, and the coherence of activities play a major role in understanding learner performance.

College-Level Arabic Heritage Learners: Do they belong in Separate Classrooms?

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Hana Zabarah

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Arabic heritage language learners have different skills, needs, and reasons to study the language than true beginners. This study highlights these elements, justifying heritage language learners’ placement into classes specifically addressing these issues. While both types of Arabic learners strive to learn the same language, heritage learners almost certainly bring some cultural background and linguistic skills to the classroom, often giving them an advantage over second language learners. In order to appreciate and understand the unique qualities these students have, a 16-item survey was administered to incoming college-level heritage students for three consecutive academic years. It was designed to capture language background, exposure, skills and needs, and students’ reasons for studying Arabic. Addressing the needs of heritage speakers of Arabic in the classroom will allow them to reach higher proficiency levels at an accelerated rate. Ignoring these qualities will ultimately lead to high attrition rates.

A Case Study on English Language Learners' Task-Based Interaction and Avatar Identities in Second Life: A Mixed-Methods Design

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Chen, Julian ChengChiang

2014-01-01

English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…

Bringing Chatbots into education: Towards Natural Language Negotiation of Open Learner Models

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Kerlyl, Alice; Hall, Phil; Bull, Susan

There is an extensive body of work on Intelligent Tutoring Systems: computer environments for education, teaching and training that adapt to the needs of the individual learner. Work on personalisation and adaptivity has included research into allowing the student user to enhance the system's adaptivity by improving the accuracy of the underlying learner model. Open Learner Modelling, where the system's model of the user's knowledge is revealed to the user, has been proposed to support student reflection on their learning. Increased accuracy of the learner model can be obtained by the student and system jointly negotiating the learner model. We present the initial investigations into a system to allow people to negotiate the model of their understanding of a topic in natural language. This paper discusses the development and capabilities of both conversational agents (or chatbots) and Intelligent Tutoring Systems, in particular Open Learner Modelling. We describe a Wizard-of-Oz experiment to investigate the feasibility of using a chatbot to support negotiation, and conclude that a fusion of the two fields can lead to developing negotiation techniques for chatbots and the enhancement of the Open Learner Model. This technology, if successful, could have widespread application in schools, universities and other training scenarios.

The Reading Comprehension Strategies of Second Language Learners: A Spanish-English Study

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Acosta Caballero, Karen Anelice

2012-01-01

Reading comprehension of school-aged students is an important topic of research; however, research on the reading comprehension of adult foreign/second language learners whose first language is English is limited, especially studies investigating the reading comprehension strategies that readers of different proficiency levels use when they…

Towards a Culturally Sensitive and Deeper Understanding of "Rote Learning" and Memorisation of Adult Learners

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Tan, Po-Li

2011-01-01

This article aims to provide evidence that "rote learning" or "memorisation" is a complex construct and is deeply embedded in the East Asian culture. An in-depth understanding of this learning approach is increasingly crucial considering the complex demography of contemporary higher education nowadays. Not only is there a rise…

Learner-to-learner visual acuity screening: A solution for early ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The National School Health Policy guidelines (2002) stipulate that primary school learners should have their vision, speech, hearing, mental health, teeth, ... This project created greater awareness among learners, parents and teachers ...

Battling Obesity in K-12 Learners from an Exercise Physiology Perspective

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Rattigan, Peter; Biren, Greg

2007-01-01

Physical education practitioners and programs have the opportunity and obligation to help children become physically educated, healthy, and active adults. This article discusses the battle against obesity in K-12 learners from an exercise physiology perspective and focuses on the fact that practitioners have all the tools they need to battle this…

High risk of suicide among highschool learners in uMgungundlovu District KwaZuluNatal Province South Africa

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N Khuzwayo

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Background. Worldwide, suicide affects the most vulnerable populations, including adolescents and young adults. It is estimated that suicide will contribute more than 2% to the global burden of disease by 2020. Information about the prevalence of suicidal behaviour and the sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors associated with suicide in the South African (SA rural context is important for local and national policy and contributes to global understanding of the phenomenon.Objective. To investigate key demographic factors and behaviours associated with planning and attempting suicide among high-school learners.Methods. In a cross-sectional study, we used stratified random sampling to select 16 schools in uMgungundlovu District, KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA. All grade 10 learners (N=1 759 at these schools completed a self-administered questionnaire (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Data analysis was carried out with Stata 13 statistical software using generalised estimating equations.Results. In total, 222 learners (12.6% of the 1 759 had made plans to attempt suicide during the previous 12 months, 261 (14.8% had actually attempted suicide, and 218 attempts had resulted in the learner being treated by a doctor or nurse (12.4%. The risk of planning suicide increased with age. For male learners, being threatened with a weapon on school property (adjusted odds ratio (AOR 3.7, 95% confidence interval (CI 1.9 - 7.1; p<0.01 or bullied through Facebook or WhatsApp (AOR 3.1, 95% CI 1.5 - 7.1; p<0.01 significantly increased the likelihood of making a suicide attempt that resulted in treatment by a doctor or nurse. For female learners, engaging in risk behaviours increased this likelihood, risk factors including being physically hurt by someone they were dating (1 - 3 times AOR 3.3, 95% CI 1.9 - 5.7; p<0.01, ≥4 times AOR 10.0, 95% CI 2.5 - 40.2 (p<0.01 and number of drinks consumed

An Investigation of the Problems Jordanian EFL Learners Encounter in Presupposition Triggered by Certain Factive Verbs

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Hamzah Saleh Ghammaz

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at investigating the problems that Jordanian EFL learners encounter in presupposition triggered by certain factive verbs. Specifically, it sought to find out whether there is a relationship between the subjects’ proficiency level in English and their correct recognition of presupposition triggered by certain factive verbs. It also aims at identifying which factive verbs are much more difficult than others in terms of the presupposed meaning. The subjects of the study were 70 adult learners of English at the University of Jordan. They belong to two different proficiency levels: Intermediate and Advanced. A special test was prepared to elicit the data needed for investigation. The test required the subjects to circle the best choice that presupposes a given sentence. The results showed that the Advanced Group outperformed the Intermediate Group on all the target factive verbs, and the factive verb “ be aware of ” proved to be the most difficult one followed by “forget”. The importance of this study lies in that it invistigates the semantic behaviour of some verbs in English language what contributes to understanding the general semantic system of the language, and this is the main tast of linguists. The study recommended that further investigation should be made in the area of presupposition and factive verbs in order to pinpoint the sources of difficulty for learners. The results of those investigations can be used to improve EFL learning and teaching in Jordan.

Understanding the Health Literacy of America Results of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy

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Cutilli, Carolyn Crane; Bennett, Ian M.

2009-01-01

Health literacy refers to an individual’s ability to understand healthcare information to make appropriate decisions (S. C Ratzen & R. M. Parker, 2000). Healthcare professionals are obligated to make sure that patients understand information to maximize the benefits of healthcare. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) provides information on the literacy/health literacy levels of the U.S. adult population. The NAAL is the only large-scale survey of health literacy. The results of t...

Making the Case for Irish through English: Eco-critical Politics of Language by Learners

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John L. Murphy

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This paper examines recent accounts by Americans who have learned Irish. Their narratives from the West of Ireland express what translation theorist Michael Cronin calls ‘individualist politics of language’. He claims that the English-speaking majority will determine the survival of 21st century Irish.  Cronin shifts Irish into a globalized, ‘late modern’ network. Foreign-born learners enter this network when they choose to study Irish. They counter the stereotype of Irish schoolchildren forced into rote recitation of a moribund language.  Patricia Monaghan combines goddess-worship with academic research into indigenous spirituality, place-name lore, literature, and the Irish environmental inheritance. Her travelogue and reports by five other American visitors to Gaeltachtaí are compared with John Montague and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s literary depictions of 20th-century Irish-born school-level learners.Feminist, post-colonial, and literary criticisms enrich understanding of how American students apply ecological and cultural strategies that seek to recover this indigenous language. Choosing to make the case for Irish, adult students share Cronin’s ‘individualist politics’. In English-language books, American advocates preserve and expand a linguistic ecology in which Irish may survive.

The Effect of Recommendation Systems on Internet-Based Learning for Different Learners: A Data Mining Analysis

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Liu, Chen-Chung; Chang, Chia-Jung; Tseng, Jui-Min

2013-01-01

A general challenge facing Internet-based learners is how to identify information objects which are helpful in expanding their understanding of important information in a domain. Recommendation systems may assist learners in identifying potentially helpful information objects. However, the recent literature mainly focuses on the technical…

Artistic Understanding and Motivational Characteristics

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Lekue, Pablo

2015-01-01

This study aims to analyse artistic understanding in primary and secondary education and the relationship between this understanding and motivational characteristics such as goal orientation, engagement in art activities and attitude to art education at school, which determine (according to prior research) learners' academic achievement, in…

The Impact of Spiritual Learning on the Lives of Adults in Postsecondary Martial Arts Educational Programs

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Ingram, Jeffrey G.

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether spiritual learning impacts the lives of adult learners in martial arts educational programs. The impact of spirituality has been claimed as a meaningful connection; however, it is not currently known how spiritual learning impacts the lives and experiences of adult learners with these programs. Spiritual learning…

Investigating Learner Attitudes toward E-Books as Learning Tools: Based on the Activity Theory Approach

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Liaw, Shu-Sheng; Huang, Hsiu-Mei

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the use of e-books as learning tools in terms of learner satisfaction, usefulness, behavioral intention, and learning effectiveness. Based on the activity theory approach, this research develops a research model to understand learner attitudes toward e-books in two physical sizes: 10? and 7?. Results suggest that screen…

Development of the Learner Self-Directedness in the Workplace Scale

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Karina De Bruin

2011-10-01

Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure learner selfdirectedness in the workplace. Motivation for the study: Learner self-directedness appears to be an essential characteristic to keep up with the demands of the world of work. There is no brief instrument currently available to measure learner self-directedness in the workplace. Research design, approach and method: The researchers fitted the responses of 519 participantsto 22 items to the Rasch rating scale model. Main findings: The researchers retained 13 of the original 22 items. The hierarchy of item locations supported the construct validity of the scale. Hierarchical factor analysis showed the presence of one higher-order factor and three residual first-order factors. The higher-order factor accounted for almost five times as much of the common variance as did the strongest residual first-order factor. The Rasch analysis and the factor analysis suggested that the 13-item Learner Self-Directedness in the Workplace Scale (LSWS measures a single one-dimensional construct (α = 0.93. Practical/managerial implications: The instrument can help employers to understand and support employees’ self-directed learning efforts. Contribution/value-add: This research resulted in a brief instrument to measure learner selfdirectedness in the workplace. This instrument is unique in the South African context.

AN ANALYSIS OF CONVERSATION STRUCTURE OF LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

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Ahmad Sofwan

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Learners of English as a foreign language need to develop skills in conversation as part of their discourse competence. It is important that they learn the structure of the conversation for them to be able to produce a well-communicative language when speaking to other people. The theory of conversation analysis is used to analyze the organization and the features of the conversation of learners of English as a foreign language, including exchange structure, turn-taking strategies, adjacency pairs, repair, and sequences within the conversation. The recorded casual conversation among learners is transcribed and analyzed. It is expected that this study helps learners understand the importance of conversation organization and contribute to the development of the learners‘ communication skills and to the enhancement of their discourse competence.

Understanding and Teaching Generation Y

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Reilly, Peter

2012-01-01

English teaching professionals working with children in primary school, adolescents in secondary school, or adults at university know that learners nowadays think and behave differently than those from previous generations. These students were born into a world of information technology; they prefer to multitask rather than focus on one thing at a…

Picturebooks in Educating Teachers of English to Young Learners

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Smiljana Narančić Kovač

2016-11-01

Full Text Available There are three major aspects of studying picturebooks which are relevant for future FL teachers: familiarity with a range of picturebooks, theoretical considerations, and practical issues, such as evaluating picturebooks, understanding their potential in FL learning and an ability to design activities for young learners. To exemplify ways of addressing picturebooks in pre-service teacher education, this article shows how these aspects are covered in the study programme of primary English at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Croatia. Beginning with a brief explanation of how this programme evolved from the seminal work of Mirjana Vilke, it also presents examples of picturebook-related activities for use with young learners, designed by pre-service students. The article concludes that an understanding of the theoretical and historical background to picturebooks empowers teachers to use them in their teaching practice in an efficient way.

Learner's Passport

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Bogdan Jug

1996-12-01

Full Text Available For the first time learner's passport was pre­ sented at the international conference on permanent education, taking place in Rome in December 1994. This document is not meant for students only but for the entire population. It should contain notes on any format education, additional education, working experiences, cultural activities, sport results, awards, prizes and recommen­ dations. The mission of learner's passport is to gather all documents in one place, a handy book­ let which gives one an overall view over his/her achievements. It should help personnel departments in choosing the right person for a certain job as well as indirectly stimul ate additional activities of the learner's passport holder.

Understanding Older Adult's Perceptions of Factors that Support Trust in Human and Robot Care Providers.

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Stuck, Rachel E; Rogers, Wendy A

2017-06-01

As the population of older adults increase so will the need for care providers, both human and robot. Trust is a key aspect to establish and maintain a successful older adult-care provider relationship. However, due to trust volatility it is essential to understand it within specific contexts. This proposed mixed methods study will explore what dimensions of trust emerge as important within the human-human and human-robot dyads in older adults and care providers. First, this study will help identify key qualities that support trust in a care provider relationship. By understanding what older adults perceive as needing to trust humans and robots for various care tasks, we can begin to provide recommendations based on user expectations for design to support trust.

EFL learners' self-evaluation of learning processes after metatalk tasks

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Rejane Teixeira Vidal

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Esta investigação combinou a instrução-focada-na-forma com o ensino baseado em tarefas em contexto de aprendizagem autônoma no cenário de ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira que tem por objetivo o desenvolvimento da interlíngua do aprendiz no que tange à precisão lingüística. Pretendeu-se dar uma contribuição ao entendimento de que, ao produzir a língua alvo enquanto se reflete sobre ela, o aprendiz pode consolidar conhecimento já existente assim como gerar conhecimento do que é novo para ele (Swain, 1998, ajudando-o a compreender e a tornar-se mais consciente de seu processo de aprendizagem como um todo. O estudo atingiu seus principais objetivos: trouxe evidências adicionais à reivindicação de que aprendizes eficientes compreendem o processo subjacente à sua aprendizagem e que tarefas com foco na forma que exploram o diálogo colaborativo via metafala têm o potencial de esclarecer questões do campo de estudo conhecido como "desenvolvimento do aprendiz" (Benson, 2001, além de melhorar a qualidade de sua produção lingüística.This investigation attempted to combine form-focused instruction with task-based learning in the context of autonomous learning in an English as a foreign language scenario with the aim of stretching learners' interlanguage as related to language accuracy. It intended to contribute to furthering the understanding concerning how producing the target language while reflecting on it may trigger cognitive processes that both consolidate existing knowledge and generate linguistic knowledge which is new to the learner (Swain, 1998, helping them understand and become more conscious of their learning process as a whole. The study has achieved the major aims it had set out to accomplish: it provided additional evidence for the claim that successful learners understand the process underling their own learning and that form-focused tasks which explore collaborative dialogue via metatalk have the

A research-based study of foreign students' use of grammatical codes in five leading British learners' dictionaries

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Marjeta Vrbinc

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Grammatical codes are one of several ways of including grammar in learners' dictionaries. In our research we focussed on the usability and user-friendliness of learners' dictionaries as regards grammatical information. The results presented and discussed in this article are based on answers obtained by a questionnaire that tested the understanding of codes found in five leading British monolingual learners' dictionaries and the success of the explanations of the same codes provided in the front matter of each dictionary. The results are presented by dictionaries and by codes. The most important finding of this research is that the understanding of the code and thus its usefulness depends on the code itself rather than on the dictionary.

Critical thinking and creativity in nursing: learners' perspectives.

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Chan, Zenobia C Y

2013-05-01

Although the development of critical thinking and the development of creativity are major areas in nursing programme, little has been explored about learners' perspectives towards these two concepts, especially in Chinese contexts. This study aimed to reveal nursing learners' perspectives on creativity and critical thinking. Qualitative data collection methods were adopted, namely group interviews and concept map drawings. The process of data collection was conducted in private rooms at a University. 36 nursing students from two problem-based learning classes were recruited in two groups for the study. After data collection, content analysis with axial coding approach was conducted to explore the narrative themes, to summarise the main ideas, and to make valid inferences from the connections among critical thinking, creativity, and other exogenous variables. Based on the findings, six major themes were identified: "revisiting the meanings of critical thinking"; "critical thinking and knowledge: partners or rivals?"; "is critical thinking criticising?"; "revising the meanings of creativity"; "creativity and experience: partners or rivals?"; and "should creativity be practical?". This study showed that learners had diverse perspectives towards critical thinking and creativity, and their debate on these two domains provided implications on nursing education, since the voices of learners are crucial in teaching. By closing the gap between learners and educators, this study offered some insights on nursing education in the new curriculum, in particular to co-construct nursing knowledge which is student-driven, and to consider students' voices towards understanding and applying creativity and critical thinking in nursing. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

``We also wanted to learn'': Narratives of change from adults literate in African languages

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Trudell, Joel; Cheffy, Ian

2017-10-01

This article discusses the impact of literacy programmes on those who learned to read and write in their own African languages. It draws on adult learners' reflections on the significance of literacy and numeracy in their everyday lives as evidenced in interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015 in rural sites in five African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana. The research approach was influenced by the Most Significant Change (MSC) method of monitoring and evaluation, which collects and examines narratives that reveal beneficiaries' perceptions of change related to a given programme. This study emulates this approach in that it seeks to learn about perceived changes attributed to literacy acquisition from the perspectives of the beneficiaries, without imposing pre-established indicators. In the rural adult learners' view, literacy enabled lifelong learning outcomes that rivalled the results of primary schooling. Literacy programme graduates demonstrated extensive ongoing learning after they learned to read, write and calculate, consequently acquiring new literacy practices and new understandings of themselves. Even though many of those interviewed had been unable to attend school, they viewed the practices of reading and writing that they developed outside of school as equivalent to the practices of adults who had been educated in primary school.

The role of private speech in cognitive regulation of learners: The case of English as a foreign language education

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Mohamad Reza Anani Sarab

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Investigations into the use of private speech by adult English foreign language (EFL learners in regulating their mental activities have been an interesting area of research with a sociocultural framework. Following this line of research, 30 advanced adult EFL learners were selected via the administration of Oxford quick placement test and took a test of solving challenging English riddles while their voices were being recorded. Later, instances of the produced private speech were analyzed in terms of form, content, and function. It was demonstrated that private speech with its different forms, contents, and functions plays a very crucial role in cognitive regulation of EFL learners which has important implications for the context of language learning classrooms. In addition, participants seemed to produce qualitatively different kinds of L2 private speech, which brought us to the conclusion that it would be necessary to consider quality and not just quantity in studying psycholinguistic concepts, such as cognitive regulation and private speech.

The effect of nutrition training for health care staff on learner and patient outcomes in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Marples, Owen; Baldwin, Christine; Weekes, C Elizabeth

2017-07-01

Background: Nutrition training for health care staff has been prioritized internationally as a key means of tackling malnutrition; however, there is a lack of clear evidence to support its implementation. Systematic reviews in other fields of training for health care staff indicate that training strategies may have a beneficial impact on learner and patient outcomes. Objectives: We assessed whether nutrition training for health care staff caring for nutritionally vulnerable adults resulted in improved learner and patient outcomes and evaluated the effectiveness of different training strategies. Design: A systematic review of trials of nutrition training for health care staff was conducted. Six databases were searched with key terms relating to malnutrition and nutrition training. Studies were categorized according to cognitive (didactic teaching), behavioral (practical implementation of skills), and psychological (individualized or group feedback and reflection) training strategies. Where sufficient data were available, meta-analysis was performed according to study design and training strategy. All study designs were eligible. The risk of bias was evaluated in accordance with Cochrane guidance. Results: Twenty-four studies met the eligibility criteria: 1 randomized controlled trial, 4 nonrandomized controlled trials, 3 quasi-experimental trials, 13 longitudinal pre-post trials, 2 qualitative studies, and 1 cross-sectional survey. Results from a number of low-quality studies suggest that nutrition training for health care staff may have a beneficial effect on staff nutrition knowledge, practice, and attitude as well as patient nutritional intake. There were insufficient data to determine whether any particular training strategy was more effective than the others. Conclusions: In the absence of high-quality evidence, low-quality studies suggest that nutrition training for health care staff has some positive effects. However, further randomized controlled trials are

Adults Contemplating University Study at a Distance: Issues, themes and concerns

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Chris Morgan

2003-04-01

Full Text Available This study identifies and explores a range of themes, issues and questions that commonly confront adults contemplating enrolment in university, and why they persist. The study focuses particularly on issues facing prospective adult distance education learners. From a range of interviews, six themes were identified including fears, motivation, support from home, academic preparedness, suitability of programs, and identity change.It is argued that the more effective we become at information provision, guidance and preparation of adult pre-entry open and distance learners, the more likely students will experience a smooth transition to study, thus improving both student satisfaction and retention rates. Successful intervention with prospective distance education learners at this early point should aim to assist the process of informed decision making, which could result equally in an individual deciding not to pursue university study. The findings in this study should be particularly useful for those academics, course advisors, student counsellors, teachers in preparatory programs, and university information and support officers, and others who provide adult distance students, with pre-enrolment information and advice.

Distributional vowel training may not be effective for Dutch adults

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Wanrooij, K.; De Vos, J.F.; Boersma, P.

2015-01-01

Distributional vowel training for adults has been reported as "effective" for Spanish and Bulgarian learners of Dutch vowels, in studies using a behavioural task. A recent study did not yield a similar clear learning effect for Dutch learners of the English vowel contrast /æ/~/ε/, as measured with

EFL Learners' Use of Direct Strategies in Competitive and Cooperative Learning Contexts

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Zarei, Abbas Ali; Layeq, Hamide

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative teaching techniques on Iranian adult EFL learners' use of direct strategies. To this end, a sample of 88 non-English major university students at Sohrevardi Nonprofit College in Qazvin were assigned to two groups, and each group received instruction under one of the treatment…

Understanding Disorder Within Variation: Production of English Grammatical Forms by English Language Learners.

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Bedore, Lisa M; Peña, Elizabeth D; Anaya, Jissel B; Nieto, Ricardo; Lugo-Neris, Mirza J; Baron, Alisa

2018-04-05

This study examines English performance on a set of 11 grammatical forms in Spanish-English bilingual, school-age children in order to understand how item difficulty of grammatical constructions helps correctly classify language impairment (LI) from expected variability in second language acquisition when taking into account linguistic experience and exposure. Three hundred seventy-eight children's scores on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension (Peña, Bedore, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, & Goldstein, 2008) morphosyntax cloze task were analyzed by bilingual experience groups (high Spanish experience, balanced English-Spanish experience, high English experience, ability (typically developing [TD] vs. LI), and grammatical form. Classification accuracy was calculated for the forms that best differentiated TD and LI groups. Children with LI scored lower than TD children across all bilingual experience groups. There were differences by grammatical form across bilingual experience and ability groups. Children from high English experience and balanced English-Spanish experience groups could be accurately classified on the basis of all the English grammatical forms tested except for prepositions. For bilinguals with high Spanish experience, it was possible to rule out LI on the basis of grammatical production but not rule in LI. It is possible to accurately identify LI in English language learners once they use English 40% of the time or more. However, for children with high Spanish experience, more information about development and patterns of impairment is needed to positively identify LI.

MAT@USC Candidates and Latino English Language Learners

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Lomeli, Cynthia Leticia

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to further understand the perceptions of MAT@USC teacher candidates and how their perceptions and previous experiences affect the educational experiences of Latino English language learners. Three questions were developed to guide this study: (1) What are the perceptions of MAT@USC candidates in selected courses…

Developing an In-depth Understanding of Elderly Adult's Vulnerability to Climate Change.

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Rhoades, Jason L; Gruber, James S; Horton, Bill

2018-05-08

Recent reports highlight the vulnerability of elderly adults to climate change, yet limited research has focused on this topic. To address this, the purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of elderly adult's vulnerability to climate change within the context of a specific community. A case study methodology utilizing a community-based action research approach was employed to engage elderly participants living in Bridgeport, CT, in exploring their vulnerability to current and predicted climate stressors with a focus on extreme heat, flooding and storms, and air pollution. This research identifies personal characteristics that interact with contextual factors to influence elderly adult's vulnerability to climate change. Personal characteristics include health, economic, and social considerations. Contextual factors include the adequacy of emergency preparedness measures, transportation resources, and coping and recovery resources. As a result of the interplay of these characteristics and factors, predicted climate changes could have serious consequences for Bridgeport's elderly adults. This research provides a contextualized and detailed illustration of how climate change could overwhelm elderly adult's adaptive capacity and highlights the need for support services to provide safeguards. The issues and concerns raised may bear similarities to other locations, especially urban settings facing similar climate stressors with similar socioeconomic conditions. The findings suggest a need for further research to improve our understanding and serve as the basis for collaborative adaptation planning that engages elderly communities with local governments and a broad coalition of partners to keep elders safe.

Supporting Wellness in Adult Online Education

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Thompson, Jacklyn J.; Porto, Stella C. S.

2014-01-01

Online education cannot continue to grow at the current pace while ignoring a crucial component of campus support, wellness for adult online learners. This paper brings awareness to the concept of wellness as an important student support service in adult online education. It includes a summarized review of relevant literature and identifies…

Adult learners in a novel environment use prestige-biased social learning.

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Atkisson, Curtis; O'Brien, Michael J; Mesoudi, Alex

2012-08-13

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed arrowheads and attempted to maximize hunting success, measured in caloric return. Our main findings are that (1) participants preferentially learned from prestigious models (defined as those models at whom others spent longer times looking), and (2) prestige information and success-related information were used to the same degree, even though the former was less useful in this experiment than the latter. We also found that (3) participants were most likely to use social learning over individual (asocial) learning when they were performing poorly, in line with previous experiments, and (4) prestige information was not used more often following environmental shifts, contrary to predictions.  These results support previous discussions of the key role that prestige-biased transmission plays in social learning.

Integrating Adult Learning and Technologies for Effective Education: Strategic Approaches

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Wang, Victor C. X.

2010-01-01

As adult learners and educators pioneer the use of technology in the new century, attention has been focused on developing strategic approaches to effectively integrate adult learning and technology in different learning environments. "Integrating Adult Learning and Technologies for Effective Education: Strategic Approaches" provides innovative…

Drawing Analogies between Logic Programming and Natural Language Argumentation Texts to Scaffold Learners' Understanding

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Ragonis, Noa; Shilo, Gila

2014-01-01

The paper presents a theoretical investigational study of the potential advantages that secondary school learners may gain from learning two different subjects, namely, logic programming within computer science studies and argumentation texts within linguistics studies. The study suggests drawing an analogy between the two subjects since they both…

Children's and adults' understanding of death: Cognitive, parental, and experiential influences.

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Panagiotaki, Georgia; Hopkins, Michelle; Nobes, Gavin; Ward, Emma; Griffiths, Debra

2018-02-01

This study explored the development of understanding of death in a sample of 4- to 11-year-old British children and adults (N=136). It also investigated four sets of possible influences on this development: parents' religion and spiritual beliefs, cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, and experience of illness and death. Participants were interviewed using the "death concept" interview that explores understanding of the subcomponents of inevitability, universality, irreversibility, cessation, and causality of death. Children understood key aspects of death from as early as 4 or 5years, and with age their explanations of inevitability, universality, and causality became increasingly biological. Understanding of irreversibility and the cessation of mental and physical processes also emerged during early childhood, but by 10years many children's explanations reflected not an improved biological understanding but rather the coexistence of apparently contradictory biological and supernatural ideas-religious, spiritual, or metaphysical. Evidence for these coexistent beliefs was more prevalent in older children than in younger children and was associated with their parents' religious and spiritual beliefs. Socioeconomic status was partly related to children's biological ideas, whereas cognitive ability and experience of illness and death played less important roles. There was no evidence for coexistent thinking among adults, only a clear distinction between biological explanations about death and supernatural explanations about the afterlife. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fostering learners' interaction with content: A learner-centered mobile device interface

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Abdous, M.

2015-12-01

With the ever-increasing omnipresence of mobile devices in student life, leveraging smart devices to foster students' interaction with course content is critical. Following a learner-centered design iterative approach, we designed a mobile interface that may enable learners to access and interact with online course content efficiently and intuitively. Our design process leveraged recent technologies, such as bootstrap, Google's Material Design, HTML5, and JavaScript to design an intuitive, efficient, and portable mobile interface with a variety of built-in features, including context sensitive bookmarking, searching, progress tracking, captioning, and transcript display. The mobile interface also offers students the ability to ask context-related questions and to complete self-checks as they watch audio/video presentations. Our design process involved ongoing iterative feedback from learners, allowing us to refine and tweak the interface to provide learners with a unified experience across platforms and devices. The innovative combination of technologies built around well-structured and well-designed content seems to provide an effective learning experience to mobile learners. Early feedback indicates a high level of satisfaction with the interface's efficiency, intuitiveness, and robustness from both students and faculty.

Understanding Learning Style Variations among Undergraduate Students

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N. Jayakumar

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A study was conducted in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu state to understand the learning styles of students. The term learning style refers to the way or method or approach by which a student learns. The study explored the possible learning style variations among agricultural, horticultural, engineering and arts & science students and their association with academic achievement. One hundred and twelve students were randomly selected from the four streams and their learning styles were analyzed. In the agricultural and horticultural streams, a majority of the students were auditory learners. They were also found to be predominantly unimodal learners. Overall, it was found that majority of the students were visual learners followed by auditory and kinesthetic style. The highest percentage of kinesthetic learners was found among engineering students. Trimodal learners scored the highest mean percentage of marks. The influence of learning styles on the academic achievements of the students did not show a significant relationship.

Modified Assessment for Adult Readers: Collage. User's Guide. Final Report.

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Wilt, Gaie Isett

A project was conducted to design an alternative assessment tool for use with adult learners traditionally identified as reading below fifth-grade level. This assessment allows for the creation of a goal-oriented Individual Education Plan that is personalized to the learner's needs and educational goals. The approach, analogous to the art…

Teachers' perceptions of school nutrition education's influence on eating behaviours of learners in the Bronkhorstspruit District

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Mojisola D Kupolati

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Qualitative investigation can provide invaluable information towards understanding the influence of school nutrition education (NE. The study explored teachers' perceptions of the immediate impact of NE on learners' eating behaviours. Twenty-four primary school teachers in the Bronkhorstspruit district, Gauteng, South Africa, who taught nutrition topics to grades four to seven learners, participated in three focus group discussions. Transcript data obtained was analysed using the thematic approach of the framework method. Findings indicated that school support for NE was limited, which undermined the capacity of school NE to influence healthy eating behaviours of learners. The need to strengthen teachers' capacity to model positive eating behaviours was identified. Learners were perceived as being not completely ignorant of healthy eating, with limited capacity to effect changes within the resource-constrained environment. Negative influences like unhealthy choices of food from food vendors and peer influences were identified as needing to be discouraged. Positive influences like the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP and the school vegetable garden were to be encouraged. Understanding the prevailing school situation and environment and teachers' perceptions and roles in school NE is important in addressing issues that weaken the influence of NE on learners' eating behaviours.

Addressing the Difficulties of Learners in the Reading Class ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study evaluates reading comprehension instruction at senior high schools in Accra. Classroom observation was used to identify the techniques used by teachers in the reading class and questionnaire was used to collect information from learners about the difficulties they have in understanding text. It reports that the ...

Assessing Learner Satisfaction by Simultaneously Measuring Learner Attitude, Motivation, Loyalty and Service Quality in English Academies

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Huong, Vu Thi; Casadesus, Marti; Marimon, Frederic

2017-01-01

The aims of this study are threefold in their approach to English academy teaching: (i) to assess learner satisfaction, (ii) to assess the impact of satisfaction on loyalty and (iii) to assess the three constructs that we considered to be the antecedents of learner satisfaction: learner motivation, learner attitude and service quality. To collect…

An Investigation of the Guidance Counselling Needs of Adults with Dyslexia in the Adult Educational Guidance Initiative (AEGI)

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Elftorp, Petra; Hearne, Lucy

2014-01-01

The experiences of adult learners with dyslexia is an under-researched area in Ireland at present. This article will discuss the findings from phase one of a mixed methods research study, which is investigating the guidance counselling needs of clients with dyslexia within the Adult Education Guidance Initiative (AEGI). The research is underpinned…

LEARNERS SATISFACTION FACTORS IN NEUROLOGY RELATED MOOCs

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Ionela MANIU

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to investigate the factors that are influencing student satisfaction in case of neurology related massive open online courses (MOOCs. We analyzed data collected from learners enrolled in 40 neurology related MOOCs, by manually looking for information in these courses reviews. The main identified satisfaction factors can be grouped into the following categories: content related factors: course content, additional materials, assignments, external research and teaching - learning related factors (teacher presentation techniques / style: engaging, clear, coherent, knowledgeable, sharing / explanation, interactive, excitement, considering student’s needs, inspiring, sense of humor. Competences, skills and objectives pursued by neurology related MOOCs are also discussed. Analyzing these factors can be useful in new courses management (design and implementation and also in understanding the needs (motivation, behaviors, perception of 21st century learners interested in neurology related fields.

A multidimensional approach to understanding the potential risk factors and covariates of adult picky eating.

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Ellis, Jordan M; Schenk, Rebecca R; Galloway, Amy T; Zickgraf, Hana F; Webb, Rose Mary; Martz, Denise M

2018-06-01

Adult picky eating (PE) has received increased attention in the eating behavior literature due to its important association with adult avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). The current study tested a model of potential risk factors of adult PE behavior, including perceived early parental feeding practices. An exploratory model was also utilized to understand associations with different aspects of adult PE behaviors. A sample of 1339 US adults recruited through Amazon's MTurk completed an online survey that included the recently developed Adult Picky Eating Questionnaire (APEQ), retrospective reports of parental feeding practices, and other measures of eating behavior and demographic variables. A structural equation modeling procedure tested a series of regression models that included BMI and disordered eating behaviors as covariates. SEM modeling indicated that retrospective reports of greater parental pressure to eat, higher disgust sensitivity, lower PE age of onset, and experiencing an aversive food event were associated with general adult PE behavior. Results also indicated parental encouragement of healthy eating may be a protective factor, and that men endorsed higher levels of adult PE. Exploratory analyses indicated that cross-sectional predictors and covariates were differentially related to specific aspects of PE as measured by the APEQ subscales. Early experiences, including parental approaches to feeding, appear to be potential risk factors of PE behavior in adults. A nuanced understanding of adult PE is important for the prevention and treatment of severe PE behaviors, related psychosocial impairment, and ARFID. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enabling Pedagogy and Andragogy for 21st-Century Sign Language Users and Learners

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Hermann-Shores, Patricia

2017-01-01

Enabling pedagogy and andragogy is discussed as a form of lifelong learning in which learners attain competences and skills as children (pedagogy) and as adults (andragogy) that enable them to engage in independent learning in the 21st century. Throughout the article the author avoids as much as possible the labels "deaf" and…

Adult Learning in Health and Safety: Some Issues and Approaches.

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O Fathaigh, Mairtin

This document, which was developed for presentation at a seminar on adult learning and safety, examines approaches to occupational safety and health (OSH) learning/training in the workplace. Section 1 examines selected factors affecting adults' learning in workplace OSH programs. The principal dimensions along which individual adult learners will…

Understanding How Overweight and Obese Emerging Adults Make Lifestyle Choices.

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Cha, EunSeok; Crowe, James M; Braxter, Betty J; Jennings, Bonnie Mowinski

To better understand health-related decision making among overweight and obese emerging adults. A cross-sectional design was used in the parent study involving overweight and obese emerging adults, ages 18-29 years. The goal of the parent study was to screen participants' diabetes risk and identify characteristics of emerging adults with prediabetes (N=107). A sub-sample of respondents (n=34) from the parent study were invited to participate in focus group interviews depending on whether they had prediabetes (three groups) or they did not have prediabetes (four groups). Each focus group interview lasted 90-120 minutes following a semi-structured interview guide. Conventional content analysis was used in the data analysis. Because of the similarities between participants with and without prediabetes, the findings were synthesized and reported in the aggregate. Moreover, during the analysis, the authors decided that rational choice theory provided a useful organizing structure for presenting the data. Emerging adults' behavioral decisions were rational reactions to their personal competence, perception of health, environment, and availability of resources to handle problems. Calculation of trade-offs and estimations of resource availability were often used when making decisions. Emerging adults choose unhealthy behaviors due to inaccurate information and insufficient competence to practice healthy lifestyles rather than because of laziness or being irrational. Behavioral interventions for emerging adults need to help them develop skills to enhance health literacy and problem solving, thereby enhancing their awareness of available resources and decreasing the perceived cost of making healthy choices. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information-seeking strategies and science content understandings of sixth-grade students using on-line learning environments

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Hoffman, Joseph Loris

1999-11-01

This study examined the information-seeking strategies and science content understandings learners developed as a result of using on-line resources in the University of Michigan Digital Library and on the World Wide Web. Eight pairs of sixth grade students from two teachers' classrooms were observed during inquiries for astronomy, ecology, geology, and weather, and a final transfer task assessed learners' capabilities at the end of the school year. Data included video recordings of students' screen activity and conversations, journals and completed activity sheets, final artifacts, and semi-structured interviews. Learners' information-seeking strategies included activities related to asking, planning, tool usage, searching, assessing, synthesizing, writing, and creating. Analysis of data found a majority of learners posed meaningful, openended questions, used technological tools appropriately, developed pertinent search topics, were thoughtful in queries to the digital library, browsed sites purposefully to locate information, and constructed artifacts with novel formats. Students faced challenges when planning activities, assessing resources, and synthesizing information. Possible explanations were posed linking pedagogical practices with learners' growth and use of inquiry strategies. Data from classroom-lab video and teacher interviews showed varying degrees of student scaffolding: development and critique of initial questions, utilization of search tools, use of journals for reflection on activities, and requirements for final artifacts. Science content understandings included recalling information, offering explanations, articulating relationships, and extending explanations. A majority of learners constructed partial understandings limited to information recall and simple explanations, and these occasionally contained inaccurate conceptualizations. Web site design features had some influence on the construction of learners' content understandings. Analysis of

A Survey into the Motivations of Adult English Learning

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

薛源

2016-01-01

#%Adult English learners have their own unique characteristics. This research adopts a questionnaire consisting of 9 di-mensions to explore their English learning motivations, which turn out to be mainly instrumental ones. And the author has postu-lated suggestions about adult English teaching.

Multilingual classrooms, language and literacy learners: Global childhoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Mette Vedsgaard; Daugaard, Line Møller; Cox, Robyn

2015-01-01

childhoods of young multilingual and multiliterate learners, but explore globalised classrooms from various perspectives: the perspectives of learners, teachers and policymakers. In combination, the papers in the symposium offer a nuanced description of the tensions and dilemmas in contemporary multilingual...... classrooms across the globe and a multifaceted analysis of the multilingual nature of global childhoods. The first paper reports on research study conducted in primary schools in Sydney, Australia which investigated how multilingual children understand their own linguistic practices and how they report...... this practice. The children were asked to consider the role of their mulitingualism in their daily classroom experiences. The second paper, based on a linguistic ethnographic case study in Denmark, explores language ideological aspects of global childhoods as they are negotiated in and around ’mother tongue...

The History of the Democratic Adult Education Movement in Spain

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Oliver, Esther; Tellado, Itxaso; Yuste, Montserrat; Larena-Fernández, Rosa

2016-01-01

Background/Context: Traditional adult education in Spain treated the learner as a mere object that could be shaped by the educator. Although current practices of the democratic adult education movement in Spain reveals a completely opposite standpoint on adult education, there has been little analysis of the several influences converging and…

Meta-synthesis on learners' experience of aggression in secondary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This meta-synthesis is on research conducted by different researchers in a team research project on learners' experience of aggression in secondary schools in South Africa. The objective was to obtain a broader understanding of their experience of aggression in different contexts in South Africa, as well as possible ways to ...

Teaching listening to older second language learners: Classroom implications

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Agata Słowik

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Listening is often listed as the most challenging language skill that the students need to learn in the language classrooms. Therefore the awareness of listening strategies and techniques, such as bottom-up and top-down processes, specific styles of listening, or various compensatory strategies, prove to facilitate the process of learning of older individuals. Indeed, older adult learners find decoding the aural input, more challenging than the younger students. Therefore, both students’ and teachers’ subjective theories and preferences regarding listening comprehension as well as the learners’ cognitive abilities should be taken into account while designing a teaching model for this age group. The aim of this paper is, thus, to draw the conclusions regarding processes, styles and strategies involved in teaching listening to older second language learners and to juxtapose them with the already existing state of research regarding age-related hearing impairments, which will serve as the basis for future research.

Using Tiered Assignments to Engage Learners in Advanced Placement Physics

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Geddes, Kimberly A.

2010-01-01

This article presents lesson plans that incorporate tiered objectives and brainstorming techniques as means for differentiating instruction and ensuring that learners are challenged at levels commensurate with their abilities even though they are developing an understanding of the same physics concepts. A listing of materials and resources…

Points of Transition: Understanding the Constructed Identities of L2 Learners/Users across Time and Space

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Adawu, Anthony; Martin-Beltran, Melinda

2012-01-01

Using sociocultural and poststructuralist theoretical lenses, this study examines the narrative construction of language-learner identity across time and space. We applied cross-narrative methodologies to analyze language-learning autobiographies and interview data from three English users who had recently transitioned to a U.S. context for…

The Relationship between Learner Autonomy and Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Iranian EFL Learners with Different Language Proficiency Level

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Ebrahim Azimi Mohammad Abadi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Vocabulary learning is incredibly noteworthy to English language acquisition. It is unfeasible for a learner to communicate without the required vocabulary. In high education levels, learners are habitually forced to become autonomous and make conscious effort to learn vocabulary outside of the classroom. Consequently, the autonomy of the learners plays an important role in developing and enhancing their vocabulary. Learner autonomy is a huge assistance for learners in vocabulary learning since it provides the learners with numerous diverse privileges such as independency from teacher. The researcher investigated whether there is any statistically significant relationship between learner autonomy and vocabulary learning strategies use in Iranian EFL learners with different language proficiency levels. To meet the above purpose, a total number of 190 male and female EFL learners participated in this study. The methodology underlying this study was quantitative (thorough the administration of two questionnaires and two language proficiency test – TOEFL for advanced group, and Nelson for intermediate level. The quantitative data was analyzed using a set of correlational analysis revealing a significant positive correlation between learner autonomy and vocabulary learning strategies use in high proficient group, and a significant positive relationship between these two constructs in low proficient group, however not as strong as in the advanced group.

Get up and Sing! Get up and Move! Using Songs and Movement with Young Learners of English

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Shin, Joan Kang

2017-01-01

Teachers of young learners (YLs) often use songs and movement to engage children in the classroom. However, are there missed opportunities for language learning and practice that can be added to what they are already doing in their English for young learner (EYL) classes? A deeper understanding of the importance of music in children's lives and…

Exemplary Teachers of English Language Learners: A Knowledge Base

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Clayton, Courtney

2013-01-01

The number of English language learners (ELL) in schools continues to rise. However, statistics reveal that the majority of classroom teachers have no training in working with ELLs (NCES, 2011). Because of this, it is critical to understand how teachers can be successfully prepared to teach ELLs. Through in-depth inquiry, this study explored what…

Brain Dominance And Speaking Strategy Use of Iranian EFL Learners

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Nastaran Mireskandari

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The present study investigated the effect of brain dominance on the use of Language learning speaking strategies. One hundred forty two undergraduate students of Shiraz University, Iran, participated in this study. The Hemispheric Dominance Test (HDT was employed to categorize participants as right-, left- and whole-brain dominant, and a Speaking Strategy Questionnaire was administered to evaluate their use of speaking strategies. The results were analyzed using a one-way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA to investigate whether there were any significant differences between the three brain dominant groups in their overall use of speaking strategies. A MANOVA was also run to investigate whether the groups had preferences regarding the use of any particular strategy type. Results indicated a statistically significant difference between the whole brain dominant participants and both left brain and right brain dominant learners for using compensation speaking strategies. To teach and learn more effectively, instructors and learners need to better understand and appreciate individual differences and how they can affect the learning process. They could find ways to combine activities that accommodate both left and right brain learners, employing not only the usual linear, verbal model, but also the active, image-rich, visuo-spatial models so that learners would be able to use both hemispheres.

An Analysis of Learners in Introductory Astronomy Massive Open Online Courses

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Buxner, Sanlyn; Formanek, Martin; Impey, Chris David; Wenger, Matthew

2016-06-01

We describe learners enrolled in three iterations of introductory astronomy massive open online courses (MOOCs). These courses are offered through commercial providers and facilitated by an instructional team at the University of Arizona. We describe an ongoing study of those who enroll, engage in, and complete these courses. The course has undergone several revisions, including integrating pedagogical techniques, found to be effective for in-person courses, to increase engagement including peer review, online discussions, and the use of cohorts. In its current version, learners enroll on a continual basis and complete 11 weeks of course content; they watch videos, complete content quizzes, submit writing assignments, complete peer review of other students’ work, and complete online citizen science projects. Tens of thousands of students has signed up for these courses but completion rates are much lower, around 10%. We have collected survey data from over 8,500 of these learners to assess their basic science knowledge, attitudes towards science and technology, motivations for taking the courses, and information about other ways they engage in science related activities. We present information about these learners, including their demographics, motivations, how they use the courses, and what factors lead to increased engagement and completion. Additionally, we present how survey data from these learners compare to 26 years of data we have collected from parallel group of undergraduate non-science major students enrolled in astronomy courses at the University of Arizona. Overall, we find that learners who enroll in the MOOCs have more interest in science and higher basic science knowledge that undergraduates who pay tuition for a similar course. Our work is helping us understand how to better serve learners in MOOCs and bridge more traditional courses with these types of courses.

A Development of Game-Based Learning Environment to Activate Interaction among Learners

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Takaoka, Ryo; Shimokawa, Masayuki; Okamoto, Toshio

Many studies and systems that incorporate elements such as “pleasure” and “fun” in the game to improve a learner's motivation have been developed in the field of learning environments. However, few are the studies of situations where many learners gather at a single computer and participate in a game-based learning environment (GBLE), and where the GBLE designs the learning process by controlling the interactions between learners such as competition, collaboration, and learning by teaching. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework of educational control that induces and activates interaction between learners intentionally to create a learning opportunity that is based on the knowledge understanding model of each learner. In this paper, we explain the design philosophy and the framework of our GBLE called “Who becomes the king in the country of mathematics?” from a game viewpoint and describe the method of learning support control in the learning environment. In addition, we report the results of the learning experiment with our GBLE, which we carried out in a junior high school, and include some comments by a principal and a teacher. From the results of the experiment and some comments, we noticed that a game may play a significant role in weakening the learning relationship among students and creating new relationships in the world of the game. Furthermore, we discovered that learning support control of the GBLE has led to activation of the interaction between learners to some extent.

Mental Imagery and Idiom Understanding in Adults: Examining Dual Coding Theory

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Hung, Pei-Fang

2010-01-01

This study examined idiom understanding in 120 neurologically healthy adults, ages 20-29 (20s Group), 40-49 (40s Group), 60-69 (60s Group), and 80-89 (80s Group) years old. Each participant was administered a familiarity task, definition explanation task, mental imagery task, and forced-choice comprehension task. Twenty idioms, 10 transparent and…

Captivating Lifelong Learners in the Third Age: Lessons Learned from a University-Based Institute

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Talmage, Craig A.; Lacher, R. Geoffrey; Pstross, Mikulas; Knopf, Richard C.; Burkhart, Karla A.

2015-01-01

The prevalence of learning providers for third agers continues to expand alongside the growth of the older adult population, yet there remains little empirical evidence on what types of learning experiences are most desired by lifelong learners. This article examines the effects that different learning topics have on attendance at classes hosted…

Learner-Generated Noticing Behavior by Novice Learners: Tracing the Effects of Learners' L1 on Their Emerging L2

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Park, Eun Sung

2013-01-01

This study examines novice learners' self-generated input noticing approaches and strategies. It is motivated by previous research on input enhancement which yielded insights that learners are naturally prone to notice certain aspects of L2 input on their own without any external means to channel their attention. Two L1 groups (Japanese and…

Learners' perceptions of learners regarded as having a homosexual orientation in an independent secondary school environment.

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Mostert, Hendrik P; Myburgh, Chris; Poggenpoel, Marie

2012-10-04

In schools today discrimination based on sexual orientation takes place on a regular basis. This form of discrimination leads to aggression towards learners perceived to be homosexual, as well as towards those with a homosexual orientation. For more than 15 years South Africa has been a democratic country with laws that protect learners who have a homosexual orientation. Nevertheless, aggression and discrimination towards these learners still occur in schools. Aggression often leads to verbal and physical bullying of the victims by perpetrators. The objectives of this research were to explore and describe Grade 11 learners' experiences of aggression towards learners perceived to be homosexual as well as those with a homosexual orientation in an independent secondary school environment. The research design was qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual in nature. The data for this investigation consisted of essays based on a published newspaper photograph, phenomenological group interviews, observations and field notes. Tesch's method of data analysis was used, and an independent coder assisted. Three themes were identified, discussed and supported by a literature control: that learners experience that it is right and acceptable to have a homosexual orientation; that they experience ambivalence towards homosexual orientation of learners; and experienced feelings that it is wrong to have a homosexual orientation. Recommended guidelines are provided to address aggression towards learners perceived to be homosexual and those with a homosexual orientation.

A philosophical examination of Mead's pragmatist constructivism as a referent for adult science education

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Furbish, Dean Russel

The purpose of this study is to examine pragmatist constructivism as a science education referent for adult learners. Specifically, this study seeks to determine whether George Herbert Mead's doctrine, which conflates pragmatist learning theory and philosophy of natural science, might facilitate (a) scientific concept acquisition, (b) learning scientific methods, and (c) preparation of learners for careers in science and science-related areas. A philosophical examination of Mead's doctrine in light of these three criteria has determined that pragmatist constructivism is not a viable science education referent for adult learners. Mead's pragmatist constructivism does not portray scientific knowledge or scientific methods as they are understood by practicing scientists themselves, that is, according to scientific realism. Thus, employment of pragmatist constructivism does not adequately prepare future practitioners for careers in science-related areas. Mead's metaphysics does not allow him to commit to the existence of the unobservable objects of science such as molecular cellulose or mosquito-borne malarial parasites. Mead's anti-realist metaphysics also affects his conception of scientific methods. Because Mead does not commit existentially to the unobservable objects of realist science, Mead's science does not seek to determine what causal role if any the hypothetical objects that scientists routinely posit while theorizing might play in observable phenomena. Instead, constructivist pragmatism promotes subjective epistemology and instrumental methods. The implication for learning science is that students are encouraged to derive scientific concepts based on a combination of personal experience and personal meaningfulness. Contrary to pragmatist constructivism, however, scientific concepts do not arise inductively from subjective experience driven by personal interests. The broader implication of this study for adult education is that the philosophically laden

A New Approach of an Intelligent E-Learning System Based on Learners' Skill Level and Learners' Success Rate

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Mohamed, Hafidi; Lamia, Mahnane

2015-01-01

Learners usually meet cognitive overload and disorientation problems when using e-learning system. At present, most of the studies in e-learning either concentrate on the technological aspect or focus on adapting learner's interests or browsing behaviors, while, learner's skill level and learners' success rate is usually neglected. In this paper,…

Executive functions and inhibitory control in multilingual children: evidence from second-language learners, bilinguals, and trilinguals.

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Poarch, Gregory J; van Hell, Janet G

2012-12-01

In two experiments, we examined inhibitory control processes in three groups of bilinguals and trilinguals that differed in nonnative language proficiency and language learning background. German 5- to 8-year-old second-language learners of English, German-English bilinguals, German-English-Language X trilinguals, and 6- to 8-year-old German monolinguals performed the Simon task and the Attentional Networks Task (ANT). Language proficiencies and socioeconomic status were controlled. We found that the Simon effect advantage, reported in earlier research for bilingual children and adults over monolinguals, differed across groups, with bilinguals and trilinguals showing enhanced conflict resolution over monolinguals and marginally so over second-language learners. In the ANT, bilinguals and trilinguals displayed enhanced conflict resolution over second-language learners. This extends earlier research to child second-language learners and trilinguals, who were in the process of becoming proficient in an additional language, while corroborating earlier findings demonstrating enhanced executive control in bilinguals assumed to be caused by continuous inhibitory control processes necessary in competition resolution between two (or possibly more) languages. The results are interpreted against the backdrop of the developing language systems of the children, both for early second-language learners and for early bilinguals and trilinguals. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Interactive Exhibits Foster Partnership and Engage Diverse Learners at Their Local Libraries

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LaConte, K.; Dusenbery, P.; Fitzhugh, G.; Harold, J. B.; Holland, A.

2016-12-01

Learners frequently need to access increasingly complex information to help them understand our changing world. More and more libraries are transforming themselves into places where learners not only access STEM information, but interact with professionals and undertake hands-on learning. Libraries are beginning to position themselves as part of learning ecosystems that contribute to a collective impact on the community. Traveling STEM exhibits are catalyzing these partnerships and engaging students, families, and adults in repeat visits through an accessible venue: their public library. The impact of the STAR Library Education Network's (STAR_Net) Discover Earth: A Century of Change exhibit on partnerships, the circulation of STEM resources, and the engagement of learners was studied by an external evaluation team. The STAR_Net project's summative evaluation utilized mixed methods to investigate project implementation and its outcomes. Methods included pre- and post-exhibit surveys administered to staff from each library that hosted the exhibits; interviews with staff from host libraries; patron surveys; exhibit-related circulation records; web metrics regarding the online STAR_Net community of practice; and site visits. A subset of host libraries recruited professionals, who delivered programming that connected Earth systems science, weather, climate, and conservation themes from the exhibit to local issues. Library patrons improved their knowledge about STEM topics presented in the exhibits and associated programming, and patrons viewing the exhibit reflected the demographics of their communities. In a follow-up survey, patrons reported spending an average of 60 minutes looking at the exhibit over their cumulative visits to the library. In contrast, visitors might visit a museum only once to look at a comparably-sized traveling exhibit due to barriers such as cost and distance. Exhibit host libraries reported an increase in the circulation of Earth science

Andragogical Methods to Sustain Quality Adult Education in Ethiopia

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Yilfashewa Seyoum

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This study aims to analyse the extent andragogy serves as a means to secure quality in adult education programs. It attempts to scrutinize how active learning methods are implemented effectively in adult education program in the Eastern part of Ethiopia. A survey research design was adapted as a method of the study. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were employed to select respondents (515 male and 285 female adult learners and 30 facilitators.Questionnaire and interview was used to gather pertinent information about the adult education program. Descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA were used as a means for data analysis. The findings show that active learning methods employed by facilitators were not satisfactorily implemented. The least rated active learning methods employed by facilitators were role play and project methods. And, the most highly used and rated active learning method was collaborative learning. There was a significance mean difference between first and second year adult education followers (in favour of second year learners in experiencing active learning.

ECG Rhythm Analysis with Expert and Learner-Generated Schemas in Novice Learners

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Blissett, Sarah; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo; Sibbald, Matthew

2015-01-01

Although instruction using expert-generated schemas is associated with higher diagnostic performance, implementation is resource intensive. Learner-generated schemas are an alternative, but may be limited by increases in cognitive load. We compared expert- and learner-generated schemas for learning ECG rhythm interpretation on diagnostic accuracy,…

41 CFR 50-202.3 - Learners, student learners, apprentices, and handicapped workers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... than the minimum wage prescribed in § 50-202.2 to the same extent such employment is permitted under... Management Other Provisions Relating to Public Contracts PUBLIC CONTRACTS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 202-MINIMUM WAGE DETERMINATIONS Groups of Industries § 50-202.3 Learners, student learners, apprentices, and...

Connected minds technology and today's learners

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Pedrò, Francesc

2012-01-01

In all OECD countries, digital media and connectedness are integral to the lives of todays learners. It is often claimed that these learners are ""new millennium learners"", or ""digital natives"", who have different expectations about education. This book contributes to the debate about the effects of technology attachment and connectedness on todays learners, and their expectations about teaching. The book sets out to answer the following questions: Can the claim that todays students are ""new millenium learners"" or ""digital natives be sustained empirically? Is there consistent research evidence demonstrating the effects of technology on cognitive development, social values, and learning expectations? What are the implications for educational policy and practice?

Learner Perceptions and Experiences of Pride in Second Language Education

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Ross, Andrew S.; Stracke, Elke

2016-01-01

Within applied linguistics, understanding of motivation and cognition has benefitted from substantial attention for decades, but the attention received by language learner emotions has not been comparable until recently when interest in emotions and the role they can play in language learning has increased. Emotions are at the core of human…

Reading Processing Skills among EFL Learners in Different Proficiency Levels

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Dhanapala, Kusumi Vasantha; Yamada, Jun

2015-01-01

This study aims to understand how EFL learners in different reading proficiency levels comprehend L2 texts, using five-component skills involving measures of (1) vocabulary knowledge, (2) drawing inferences and predictions, (3) knowledge of text structure and discourse organization, (4) identifying the main idea and summarizing skills, and (5)…

Stress Judgment and Production in English Derivation, and Word Reading in Adult Mandarin-Speaking English Learners.

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Chung, Wei-Lun; Jarmulowicz, Linda

2017-08-01

For monolingual English-speaking children, judgment and production of stress in derived words, including words with phonologically neutral (e.g., -ness) and non-neutral suffixes (e.g., -ity), is important to both academic vocabulary growth and to word reading. For Mandarin-speaking adult English learners (AELs) the challenge of learning the English stress system might be complicated by cross-linguistic differences in prosodic function and features. As Mandarin-speakers become more proficient in English, patterns similar to those seen in monolingual children could emerge in which awareness and use of stress and suffix cues benefit word reading. A correlational design was used to examine the contributions of English stress in derivation with neutral and non-neutral suffixes to English word and nonword reading. Stress judgment in non-neutral derivation predicted word reading after controlling for working memory and English vocabulary; whereas stress production in neutral derivation contributed to word reading and pseudoword decoding, independent of working memory and English vocabulary. Although AELs could use stress and suffix cues for word reading, AELs were different from native English speakers in awareness of non-neutral suffix cues conditioning lexical stress placement. AELs may need to rely on lexical storage of primary stress in derivations with non-neutral suffixes.

Category learning strategies in younger and older adults: Rule abstraction and memorization.

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Wahlheim, Christopher N; McDaniel, Mark A; Little, Jeri L

2016-06-01

Despite the fundamental role of category learning in cognition, few studies have examined how this ability differs between younger and older adults. The present experiment examined possible age differences in category learning strategies and their effects on learning. Participants were trained on a category determined by a disjunctive rule applied to relational features. The utilization of rule- and exemplar-based strategies was indexed by self-reports and transfer performance. Based on self-reported strategies, the frequencies of rule- and exemplar-based learners were not significantly different between age groups, but there was a significantly higher frequency of intermediate learners (i.e., learners not identifying with a reliance on either rule- or exemplar-based strategies) in the older than younger adult group. Training performance was higher for younger than older adults regardless of the strategy utilized, showing that older adults were impaired in their ability to learn the correct rule or to remember exemplar-label associations. Transfer performance converged with strategy reports in showing higher fidelity category representations for younger adults. Younger adults with high working memory capacity were more likely to use an exemplar-based strategy, and older adults with high working memory capacity showed better training performance. Age groups did not differ in their self-reported memory beliefs, and these beliefs did not predict training strategies or performance. Overall, the present results contradict earlier findings that older adults prefer rule- to exemplar-based learning strategies, presumably to compensate for memory deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhancing Digital Literacy and Learning among Adults with Blogs

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Sharp, Laurie A.

2017-01-01

Digital literacy and learning among adults has been identified as an area requiring research. The purpose of the present study was to explore technology acceptance and digital collaborative learning experiences with blogs among adult learners. This analysis employed a quasi-experimental mixed-methods approach guided by a sociocultural theoretical…

Brain Responses before and after Intensive Second Language Learning: Proficiency Based Changes and First Language Background Effects in Adult Learners

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White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner’s first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1–L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., “grammaticalization”) are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning. PMID:23300641

Multidimensional Learner Model In Intelligent Learning System

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Deliyska, B.; Rozeva, A.

2009-11-01

The learner model in an intelligent learning system (ILS) has to ensure the personalization (individualization) and the adaptability of e-learning in an online learner-centered environment. ILS is a distributed e-learning system whose modules can be independent and located in different nodes (servers) on the Web. This kind of e-learning is achieved through the resources of the Semantic Web and is designed and developed around a course, group of courses or specialty. An essential part of ILS is learner model database which contains structured data about learner profile and temporal status in the learning process of one or more courses. In the paper a learner model position in ILS is considered and a relational database is designed from learner's domain ontology. Multidimensional modeling agent for the source database is designed and resultant learner data cube is presented. Agent's modules are proposed with corresponding algorithms and procedures. Multidimensional (OLAP) analysis guidelines on the resultant learner module for designing dynamic learning strategy have been highlighted.

Digging Deeper into Learners' Experiences in MOOCs: Participation in Social Networks outside of MOOCs, Notetaking and Contexts Surrounding Content Consumption

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Veletsianos, George; Collier, Amy; Schneider, Emily

2015-01-01

Researchers describe with increasing confidence "what" they observe participants doing in massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, our understanding of learner activities in open courses is limited by researchers' extensive dependence on log file analyses and clickstream data to make inferences about learner behaviors. Further, the…

Effective instruction for English learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Calderón, Margarita; Slavin, Robert; Sánchez, Marta

2011-01-01

The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or instructing them. Margarita Calderón, Robert Slavin, and Marta Sánchez identify the elements of effective instruction and review a variety of successful program models. During 2007-08, more than 5.3 million English learners made up 10.6 percent of the nation's K-12 public school enrollment. Wide and persistent achievement disparities between these English learners and English-proficient students show clearly, say the authors, that schools must address the language, literacy, and academic needs of English learners more effectively. Researchers have fiercely debated the merits of bilingual and English-only reading instruction. In elementary schools, English learners commonly receive thirty minutes of English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction but attend general education classes for the rest of the day, usually with teachers who are unprepared to teach them. Though English learners have strikingly diverse levels of skills, in high school they are typically lumped together, with one teacher to address their widely varying needs. These in-school factors contribute to the achievement disparities. Based on the studies presented here, Calderón, Slavin, and Sánchez assert that the quality of instruction is what matters most in educating English learners. They highlight comprehensive reform models, as well as individual components of these models: school structures and leadership; language and literacy instruction; integration of language, literacy, and content instruction in secondary schools; cooperative learning; professional development; parent and family support teams; tutoring; and monitoring implementation and outcomes

Inducing omnipotence or powerlessness in learners with developmental and attention difficulties through structuring technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Voldborg, Hanne; Sorensen, Elsebeth Korsgaard

2017-01-01

at school? Using this lens, the authors examine, to what extent technology may assist teachers to create more ideal learning environments by reducing the threat for these learners and enable them to participate in learning. Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), digital templates, timers and calendars......, become aware and understand their own role in the classroom. This paper suggests technologies for structuring and overviewing as basic assistive tools for equalizing the learning possibilities for learners with developmental and attention difficulties in an inclusive school setting....

Exploring teams of learners becoming "WE" in the Intensive Care Unit--a focused ethnographic study.

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Conte, Helen; Scheja, Max; Hjelmqvist, Hans; Jirwe, Maria

2015-08-16

Research about collaboration within teams of learners in intensive care is sparse, as is research on how the learners in a group develop into a team. The aim of this study was to explore the collaboration in teams of learners during a rotation in an interprofessional education unit in intensive care from a sociocultural learning perspective. Focused Ethnographic methods were used to collect data following eight teams of learners in 2009 and 2010. Each team consisted of one resident, one specialist nurse student and their supervisors (n = 28). The material consisted of 100 hours of observations, interviews, and four hours of sound recordings. A qualitative analysis explored changing patterns of interplay through a constant comparative approach. The learners' collaboration progressed along a pattern of participation common to all eight groups with a chronological starting point and an end point. The progress consisted of three main steps where the learners' groups developed into teams during a week's training. The supervisors' guided the progress by gradually stepping back to provide latitude for critical reflection and action. Our main conclusion in training teams of learners how to collaborate in the intensive care is the crucial understanding of how to guide them to act like a team, feel like a team and having the authority to act as a team.

The M-Learning Experience of Language Learners in Informal Settings

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Sendurur, Emine; Efendioglu, Esra; Çaliskan, Neslihan Yondemir; Boldbaatar, Nomin; Kandin, Emine; Namazli, Sevinç

2017-01-01

This study is designed to understand the informal language learners' experiences of m-learning applications. The aim is two-folded: (i) to extract the reasons why m-learning applications are preferred and (ii) to explore the user experience of Duolingo m-learning application. We interviewed 18 voluntary Duolingo users. The findings suggest that…

ESL Instruction and Adults with Learning Disabilities. ERIC Digest.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Robin; Terrill, Lynda

This digest reviews what is known about adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners and learning disabilities, suggests ways to identify and assess ESL adults who may have learning disabilities, and offers practical methods for both instruction and teacher training. Topics covered in some detail include identifying and diagnosing learning…

An investigation into the impact of reflective teaching on EFL learners autonomy and intrinsic motivation

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Elahe Fallah

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study has sought to explore the effect of reflective teaching on learner autonomy and the intrinsic motivation of Iranian upper-intermediate female learners. The subjects included 60 adult upper-intermediate EFL learners chosen out of ninety, based on the scores obtained through administration of the TOEFL exam. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a the experimental group - taught by a reflective teacher - and b the control group instructed by an unreflective teacher. The motivation questionnaire and the autonomy questionnaire were administered to both groups to make sure that the two groups were not significantly different in terms of the level of motivation and autonomy. The experimental group was then taught by the reflective teacher and the control group was taught by the unreflective teacher who adopted no tangible reflective actions. Finally, both groups sat for motivation and autonomy questionnaires. The results indicate that reflective teaching leads to the enhancement of both learners’ autonomy and the intrinsic motivation level.

On the Awareness of English Polysemous Words by Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners

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Sulafah Abdul Salam Alnamer

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study measures the extent to which Arabic-speaking EFL learners are aware of polysemy in English. It also investigates whether the English proficiency level of Arabic-speaking EFL learners plays a role in their ability to distinguish between the various meanings of English polysemous words, and whether they face problems when they encounter these words in unusual contexts (i.e. the contexts that employ the extended meanings of the target polysemous words. To these ends, a translation test in which the participants were asked to give full Arabic translation for fifteen English sentences was designed. The words open, run, and make were the target polysemous words in this study. The Results show that Arabic-speaking EFL learners have little awareness of polysemy in English, and their English proficiency level does play a role in their ability to distinguish between the different meanings of English polysemous words. It was also found that Arabic-speaking EFL learners have no problems guessing the primary meaning of the English polysemous words. However, they face difficulty guessing the extended meanings of polysemous words in unusual contexts. Moreover, some Arabic-speaking EFL learners can guess the extended meanings of the polysemous words they encounter in familiar contexts, or when they understand some cues provided to disambiguate these words. This study concludes with some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further studies.

Help! They Don't Speak English: Partnering Preservice Teachers with Adult English Language Learners

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Hooks, Laura M.

2008-01-01

It is well documented that parent and family involvement in children's education correlates with success in school. The increasing number of English Language Learners in public schools has created a need for teacher educators to prepare preservice teachers to be able to work with families who have limited English. This study examined the outcomes…

Demonstrating Empathy: A Phenomenological Study of Instructional Designers Making Instructional Strategy Decisions for Adult Learners

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Vann, Linda S.

2017-01-01

Instructional designers are tasked with making instructional strategy decisions to facilitate achievement of learning outcomes as part of their professional responsibilities. While the instructional design process includes learner analysis, that analysis alone does not embody opportunities to assist instructional designers with demonstrations of…

Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence.

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Wang, Dianjian; Lai, Hongling; Leslie, Michael

2015-12-01

The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are characterized by the frequent use of substitution, approximation, circumlocution, literal translation, exemplification, word-coinage, repetition, and the infrequent use of cultural-knowledge and paralinguistic CSs. The rare use of paralinguistic strategies is found to be typical of Chinese English learners. The high frequency of literal translation, one first language (L1)-based strategy in our study sample, suggests that FL learners' use of L1-based CSs may depend more upon the developmental stage of their target language than the typology distance between L1 and the target language. The frequency of repetition reveals one fact that the Chinese English learners lack variety and flexibility in their use of CSs. Based on these findings, it was indicated that learners' use of CSs is influenced by a variety of factors, among which the development stage of their interlanguage and their cultural background are identified as two important factors. Some implications are finally suggested for the English foreign language teaching practice in China.

Training Using Technology in the Adult ESL Classroom

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McClanahan, Lorna

2014-01-01

In this article I discuss two reasons for the slow adoption of technology as an instructional tool in adult English as a Second Language (ESL) education. I outline recent facts about the relationships between today's adult ESL learners and technology, and then construct a background of theoretical support in favor of integrating technology in…

A History of the Adult Distance Education Movement.

Science.gov (United States)

Pattison, Sherry

From ancient Greece to the rise of modern science in the 18th and 19th centuries, liberal adult education was a predominant philosophy. Progressivism, which developed in opposition, had the greatest impact on adult education. It viewed the teacher as a guide, consultant, and resource; the learner as responsible for learning in partnership with the…

Maslow's Theories and Educating the Disadvantaged Adult.

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Long, Jerry

1982-01-01

Summarizes Abraham Maslow's concepts of the organization of the personality with implications for educating the disadvantaged adult learner. Special attention is given to personality syndromes and the effect they have on the expression of behavior. (JOW)

CONCEPTUAL CHALLENGES IN UNDERSTANDING INNOVATIVE EDUCATION IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

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Mikhail Klarin

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The paper suggests shifts in educational thinking about adult and continuing education practices including: goal setting, nature of the learner, character of education, and its elements including the sources in the educational process, evaluation of its outcomes, and social (micro-social role of education. The author explores innovative vs. conventional adult learning, and introduces several new approaches to adult education. Several conceptual challenges (paradoxes are considered that do not fit the traditional educationalist’s thinking. The conceptual shifts are explored as cognitive gaps, leading to insights about the nature of adult education, and pragmatic changes in shaping education to transform individual and collective experience.

The motivation of lifelong mathematics learning

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Hashim Ali, Siti Aishah

2013-04-01

As adults, we have always learned throughout our life, but this learning is informal. Now, more career-switchers and career-upgraders who are joining universities for further training are becoming the major group of adult learners. This current situation requires formal education in courses with controlled output. Hence, lifelong learning is seen as a necessity and an opportunity for these adult learners. One characteristic of adult education is that the learners tend to bring with them life experience from their past, especially when learning mathematics. Most of them associate mathematics with the school subjects and unable to recognize the mathematics in their daily practice as mathematics. They normally place a high value on learning mathematics because of its prominent role in their prospective careers, but their learning often requires overcoming personal experience and motivating themselves to learn mathematics again. This paper reports on the study conducted on a group of adult learners currently pursuing their study. The aim of this study is to explore (i) the motivation of the adult learners continuing their study; and (ii) the perception and motivation of these learners in learning mathematics. This paper will take this into account when we discuss learners' perception and motivation to learning mathematics, as interrelated phenomena. Finding from this study will provide helpful insights in understanding the learning process and adaption of adult learners to formal education.

What's an Adult Numeracy Teacher to Teach? Negotiating the Complexity of Adult Numeracy Instruction

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Ginsburg, Lynda

2017-01-01

In this Forum article, the author addresses how to assist adults in improving mathematics and numeracy literacy. Ginsburg observes educators who strive to address their learners' educational gaps and needs are finding themselves in an environment of competing priorities and expectations that can be expressed as mathematics numeracy education. What…

Emotional Intelligence of Self Regulated Learners

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Rathore, Ami

2018-01-01

The study was conducted on self regulated learners of senior secondary school. The main objectives of the study were to find out significant dimensions of emotional intelligence held by self regulated learners. To compare the emotional intelligence dimensions of self regulated learners, in terms of subject and gender. To find out the relationship…

Literacy and Awareness of Segmental Structure in Adult Learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, David

This research investigates the amount of metalinguistic knowledge one can assume when teaching an adult to read. In addition, it questions the source of this awareness and whether it relates to general cognitive development, to schooling, or specifically to the act of learning to read. The subjects were sixty monolingual adults enrolled in a…

Making the Invisible Visible: A Model for Delivery Systems in Adult Education

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Alex, Jennifer L.; Miller, Elizabeth A.; Platt, R. Eric; Rachal, John R.; Gammill, Deidra M.

2007-01-01

Delivery systems are not well defined in adult education. Therefore, this article reviews the multiple components that overlap to affect the adult learner and uses them to create a model for a comprehensive delivery system in adult education with these individual components as sub-systems that are interrelated and inter-locked. These components…

The Effect of Problem Solving Task on Critical Reading of Intermediate EFL Learners in Iranian Context

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Masoud Khalili Sabet

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The attempt in this study is to investigate the effect of teaching critical thinking through problem solving on  reading comprehension performance of EFL intermediate learners. In so doing, forty including twenty male and twenty female intermediate students studying English in an institute in Ardabil, Iran, were selected based on their scores on Preliminary English Test and assigned into control and experimental groups. Afterwards, the sample TOEFL reading comprehension pre-test was administered to both of these groups to ensure homogeneity. The learners in experimental group were taught through problem solving instruction and the learners in control group were taught through traditional method of instructing reading comprehension. After ten sessions of instruction, the same sample TOEFL reading comprehension as post-test was given to the learners to measure the possible differences between pre-test and post-test. The finding revealed teaching problem solving had statistically significant effect on EFL learners reading comprehension performance. Conclusion can be drawn to confirm that teaching critical thinking through problem solving bring better understanding of the text.

SELF-ASSESSMENT AMONG YOUNG LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

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Arni Sukmiarni

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The implementation of self-assessment among young learners becomes a challenging issue to include in English classroom assessment. The common belief that children cannot self-assess accurately as adults do seems to yield that the inclusion of self-assessment in TEYL is still not prevalent yet. Self-assessment is an assessment involving the ability in assessing one’s own performance in learning. This is strongly related to one’s metacognition development. The tendency of earlier research investigating metacognitive capacities of young children concludes that mecognition in children is a late developing skill (Lai, 2011. In fact, more recent empirical studies conclude that young children have capability of simple metacognition thought (Lai, 2011. Hence, the inclusion of self-assessment in TEYL can be implemented as an assessment supporting other assessment conducted in classroom. Self-assessment is beneficial in improving students’s own awareness of their learning progress. In Indonesian context, English as a foreign language, has been taught in elementary school since 1994 and generally formative and summative assessments as classroom assessments are employed to assess student’s progress in learning. Self-assessment is an assessment that needs to be considered to include in classroom assessment. This paper discusses self-assessment among young learners, in this context elementary school students studying English.

Self-Assessment among Young Learners of English

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Arni Sukmiarni

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The implementation of self-assessment among young learners becomes a challenging issue to include in English classroom assessment. The common belief that children cannot self-assess accurately as adults do seems to yield that the inclusion of self-assessment in TEYL is still not prevalent yet. Self-assessment is an assessment involving the ability in assessing one’s own performance in learning. This is strongly related to one’s metacognition development. The tendency of earlier research investigating metacognitive capacities of young children concludes that mecognition in children is a late developing skill (Lai, 2011. In fact, more recent empirical studies conclude that young children have capability of simple metacognition thought (Lai, 2011. Hence, the inclusion of self-assessment in TEYL can be implemented as an assessment supporting other assessment conducted in classroom. Self-assessment is beneficial in improving students’s own awareness of their learning progress. In Indonesian context, English as a foreign language, has been taught in elementary school since 1994 and generally formative and summative assessments as classroom assessments are employed to assess student’s progress in learning. Self-assessment is an assessment that needs to be considered to include in classroom assessment. This paper discusses self-assessment among young learners, in this context elementary school students studying English.

Instructional principles used to teach critical comprehension skills to a Grade 4 learner

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Suzanne Beck

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The current approach to reading comprehension instruction is not producing the desired outcomes. Provincial, national and international tests indicate that more than half of South African learners cannot read, understand and answer basic comprehension questions. This research project was informed by Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. A case study was conducted with a ten-year old Grade 4 boy who experienced difficulty with understanding comprehension questions. A six-week intervention was designed to improve his comprehension abilities and to identify instructional principles that were appropriate for him. Interviews and observations were conducted and inductively analysed. Findings showed that the learner was well equipped to retrieve explicitly stated information but struggled with higher-order level questions such as drawing inferences or evaluating content. Certain instructional practices were more favourable than others when teaching reading strategies.

A NEED FOR CONCEPTUALLY FLUENT LANGUAGE LEARNERS: RETHINKING THE USE OF TRANSLATION METHOD IN THE TEACHING OF IDIOMS

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Fatma YUVAYAPAN

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Recently the notion of conceptual fluency has attracted much attention owing to its potential to native-like use of foreign language. It has conclusively been shown that comprehending the concepts of the target language, L2 learners may acquire the ability to speak as native speakers. Situated within the framework of developing conceptual fluency of L2 learners, this study examined whether the type of instruction has an effect on the conceptual fluency development of beginner level adult EFL learners. The participants consisting of 38 beginner level preparatory students of School of Foreign Languages of Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University were divided into two groups. The experimental group was exposed to a translation method rested on the comparison of L1 and L2 concepts to learn idioms taken from the songs while the control group learned these idioms through traditional translation method. The data included students’ one minute response paper gathered after each treatment which lasted 3 weeks and a 20 item-multiple-choice post-test. An ANCOVA analysis of the post-test scores showed that the experimental group accomplished better than the control group. The content analysis of the students’ one minute response paper also highlighted that translation method rested on the comparison of L1 and L2 concepts increased the awareness of the participants towards the non-literal meaning of English idioms. It appears that translation method comparing L1 and L2 concepts might contribute to the conceptual fluency development of beginner level adult L2 learners.

Creative Ageing? Selfhood, Temporality and the Older Adult Learner

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Sabeti, Shari

2015-01-01

This paper is based on a long-term ethnography of an adult creative writing class situated in a major urban art gallery in the United Kingdom. It takes the claims of one group of older adults--that creative writing made them "feel younger"--as the starting point for exploring this connection further. It places these claims broadly within…

Math Autobiographies: A Window into Teachers' Identities as Mathematics Learners

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McCulloch, Allison W.; Marshall, Patricia L.; DeCuir-Gunby, Jessica T.; Caldwell, Ticola S.

2013-01-01

Mathematics autobiographies have the potential to help teachers reflect on their identities as mathematics learners and to understand their role in the development of their students' mathematics identities. This paper reports on a professional development project for K-2 teachers (n = 41), in which participants were asked to write mathematics…

A Comparison of Chinese and Colombian University EFL Students Regarding Learner Autonomy

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Ximena Paola Buendía Arias

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This research seeks to gain deeper understanding of learner autonomy in English as a Foreign Language students from different cultures through the identification and analysis of similarities and differences between Chinese and Colombian students from two public universities: Tianjin Foreign Studies University in China and Universidad Surcolombiana in Colombia. Data were gathered using questionnaires and interviews for comparative research. The participants’ responses were analyzed using quantitative methods such as independent samples t-test and qualitative methods such as data codification and triangulation were also used. The results indicate a significant difference between the two groups of learners regarding their autonomy. Complementarily, their autonomy-enhancement difficulties were diagnosed.

Critical relationships between teachers and learners of school mathematics

OpenAIRE

Wright, P.

2017-01-01

This article draws on critical theories and perspectives on mathematics education to explain the tendency of mathematics teaching worldwide to remain focused on developing procedural understanding, despite repeated calls from the mathematics education community for a more relevant and engaging curriculum. It highlights how conventional approaches to teaching mathematics contribute towards alienating a high proportion of learners and reproducing inequities within society. The article reports o...

Using Biographical Prompts to Build Community in an Online Graduate Course: An Adult Learning Perspective

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Lohr, Kathy D.; Haley, Karen J.

2018-01-01

Adult learners are taking advantage of the availability and convenience of online education. Mature learners in online higher education classrooms bring a wealth of experience filtered through cultural, generational, and socioeconomical differences. The purpose of this research was to explore community building in an online graduate course by…

The Effect of Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on EFL Learners' Reading Anxiety

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Shabnam Abbasnezhad

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of reading instructional approach called MCSR- Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on reducing intermediate EFL learner's reading anxiety. Based on a pretest-posttest design, MCSR was implemented with 64 EFL learners at intermediate level. They received EFL reading instruction according to MCSR over two and a half months. A questionnaire called English as a Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory EFLRAI was group-administered atthepretest and the posttest. Quantitative results indicated that participating students demonstrated significant gains in reducing reading anxiety. This study highlighted our understanding by considering the effectiveness of MCSR program and also it elaborated the effects of using strategies like MCSR in overcoming the big problem of reading anxiety among EFL learners as non-native students. And teachers changed the focus of attention from using traditional methods for teaching the essential skill of reading to modern programs like MCSR in order to remove their students' anxiety and stress in reading.

Speaking out on Behalf of the Voiceless Learners: Written Corrective Feedback for English Language Learners in Iran

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Nemati, Majid; Alavi, Sayyed Mohammad; Mohebbi, Hassan; Masjedlou, Ali Panahi

2017-01-01

To date, L2 researchers have studied the effect of feedback on improving L2 learners' writing from different perspectives. However, there are a lot of aspects which are not comprehensively researched yet, such as L2 learners' and teachers' perceptions and practices about feedback. To close the gap, this study investigates language learners'…

Fluency-dependent cortical activation associated with speech production and comprehension in second language learners.

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Shimada, K; Hirotani, M; Yokokawa, H; Yoshida, H; Makita, K; Yamazaki-Murase, M; Tanabe, H C; Sadato, N

2015-08-06

This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain regions underlying language task performance in adult second language (L2) learners. Specifically, we identified brain regions where the level of activation was associated with L2 fluency levels. Thirty Japanese-speaking adults participated in the study. All participants were L2 learners of English and had achieved varying levels of fluency, as determined by a standardized L2 English proficiency test, the Versant English Test (Pearson Education Inc., 2011). When participants performed the oral sentence building task from the production tasks administered, the dorsal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) showed activation patterns that differed depending on the L2 fluency levels: The more fluent the participants were, the more dIFG activation decreased. This decreased activation of the dIFG might reflect the increased automaticity of a syntactic building process. In contrast, when participants performed an oral story comprehension task, the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) showed increased activation with higher fluency levels. This suggests that the learners with higher L2 fluency were actively engaged in post-syntactic integration processing supported by the left pSTG. These data imply that L2 fluency predicts neural resource allocation during language comprehension tasks as well as in production tasks. This study sheds light on the neural underpinnings of L2 learning by identifying the brain regions recruited during different language tasks across different modalities (production vs. comprehension). Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

PHONOLOGICAL FOSSILIZATION OF THE JAVANESE ADULT LEARNERS OF ENGLISH: R&D OF A MODEL OF TEACHING MATERIALS OF ENGLISH PHONOLOGY FOR EFL LEARNERS

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Senowarsito Senowarsito

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents preliminary study of R&D on Teaching Materials Model of English Phonology for EF2L. The preliminary study aims at finding out the phonological fossilization of adult learners of English in Javanese context and figuring out the factors influencing them. 25 fourth-semester Javanese students of English Departement from 5 universities in Semarang municipality were selected as respondents. The data were collected from observation, interview and documentation. The results show that phonological fossilizations occur on vowel (/e/ instead of /i/ in ‗english‘ /ˈɪŋ.glɪʃ/, /a/ instead of /æ/ in ‗aspect‘ /ˈæs.pekt/, it also occurs in /Ʌ,e, ǝ/ mostly in initial sound , consonant (/nð/ instead of /ð/ in ‗the‘ /ðǝ/, /ŋ/ instead of /ʤ/ in ‗change‘ /tʃeɪndʒ/, also in /tʃ, ϴ,ð,ʃ,v,Ʒ,z,j,k,g, suffix –ed and –es, and silent letter, and diphthong (/o/ instead of /ǝu/ in ‗over‘ /ǝuvǝr/ and in ‗power‘ /paʊər /, also in/ei,au/ . Factors affecting the occurrence of phonological fossilization are 1 the interference of respondents‘ mother tongue, such as Javanese tends to add sound /n/ in /nðǝlɔk/ ‗ndelok‘ and it interferes in pronouncing ‗the‘ to /nðǝ/ instead of /ðǝ/; 2 the learning materials of English Phonology course does not yet accommodate the learner‘s errors and or learner‘s fossilizations. These findings can be used as recommendation to develop teaching materials of English Phonology for EF2L.

Perceptions of conflict of interest: surgeons, internists, and learners compared.

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de Gara, Christopher J; Rennick, Kim C; Hanson, John

2013-05-01

Making a conflict of interest declaration is now mandatory at continuing medical education CME accredited events. However, these declarations tend to be largely perfunctory. This study sought to better understand physician perceptions surrounding conflict of interest. The same PowerPoint (Microsoft, Canada) presentation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQSOvch7Yg0&feature=g-upl) was delivered at multiple University of Alberta and Royal College CME-accredited events to surgeons, internists, and learners. After each talk, the audience was invited to complete an anonymous, pretested, and standardized 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) questionnaire. A total of 136 surveys were analyzed from 31 surgeons, 49 internists, and 56 learners. In response to the question regarding whether by simply making a declaration, the speaker had provided adequate proof of any conflicts of interest, 71% of surgeons thought so, whereas only 35% of internists and 39% of learners agreed or strongly agreed (P = .004). Further probing this theme, the audience was asked whether a speaker must declare fees or monies received from industry for consulting, speaking, and research support. Once again there was a variance of opinion, with only 43% of surgeons agreeing or strongly agreeing with this statement; yet, 80% of internists and 71% of learners felt that such a declaration was necessary (P = .013). On the topic of believability (a speaker declaration makes him or her and the presentation more credible), the 3 groups were less polarized: 50% of surgeons, 41% of internists, and 52% of learners (P = .2) felt that this was the case. Although two thirds of surgeons (68%) and learners (66%) and nearly all internists (84%) felt that industry-sponsored research was biased, these differences were not significant (P = .2). Even when they are completely open and honest, conflict of interest declarations do not negate the biases inherent in a speaker's talk or research when it is

Classroom Management Strategies to Address the Needs of Sudanese Refugee Learners: Support Document--Methodology and Literature Review

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Burgoyne, Ursula; Hull, Oksana

2007-01-01

This document presents the methodology and literature review for the research report "Classroom Management Strategies to Address the Needs of Sudanese Refugee Learners" (ED499673), which examined the extent to which English language, literacy and numeracy teachers used classroom management strategies to meet the needs of adult Sudanese…

Researching transformative learning spaces through learners' stories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maslo, Elina

spaces, learning to learn through languages, learners´ stories, qualitative research method Methodology or Methods/Research Instruments or Sources Used A number of semi structured qualitative interviews have been conducted with three learners of Danish as second language. The language learners...... in the paper is on the research process and methodological tools. The goal of this paper is to show, that learners´ stories have a huge potential in researching learning processes. References Benson, P. & D. Nunan (2004). Lerners´ stories. Difference and Diversity in Language Learning. Cambridge University...... to use learners´ stories as a research methodology in the field of learning in general and language learning in particular....

Synthesizing Technology Adoption and Learners' Approaches towards Active Learning in Higher Education

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Chan, Kevin; Cheung, George; Wan, Kelvin; Brown, Ian; Luk, Green

2015-01-01

In understanding how active and blended learning approaches with learning technologies engagement in undergraduate education, current research models tend to undermine the effect of learners' variations, particularly regarding their styles and approaches to learning, on intention and use of learning technologies. This study contributes to further…

Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions of Barriers English Language Learners Face in Mathematics

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Franklin, Martha A.

2013-01-01

There is a disparity of mathematics achievement between native English speakers and English language learners (ELL). This study sought to understand the barriers ELL kindergarten students faced in being successful in mathematics. The purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to explore kindergarten teachers' perceptions…

Primary Trait Analysis to Assess a Learner-Centered, Upper-Level Mathematics Course

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Alsardary, Salar; Pontiggia, Laura; Hamid, Mohammed; Blumberg, Phyllis

2011-01-01

This study presents a primary trait analysis of a learner-centered, discrete mathematics course based on student-to-student instruction. The authors developed a scoring rubric for the primary traits: conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, application of understanding, and mathematical communication skills. Eleven students took an exam…

Understanding unskilled work as a condition for participation in adult education and training

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kondrup, Sissel

2015-01-01

This article discusses how to comprehend why people working unskilled jobs are less likely than other groups to position themselves as educable subjects and engage in adult education and training. This article outlines how different research traditions examining recruitment to and participation...... in adult education and training reveal and explain distinctive participation patterns. These traditions are critically reviewed in order to identify how they provide certain understandings and entail certain blind spots. The review reveals a striking absence of research into unskilled work and thus...... a tendency to overlook how engagement in specific kinds of work condition people’s perception of adult education and training. It is finally argued that future research must pay closer attention to people’s specific work-life and examine how engagement in specific historical, social and material (changing...

Issues of promoting learner autonomy in EFL context

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Pichugova Inna L.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper is focuded on investigating the phenomenon of learner autonomy, which has mostly been explored in Europe and the USA and is now attracting attention of researchers and academics in many other countries including Russia. Learner autonomy through a focus on learner reflection and taking responsibility for one’s own learning processes has become a central concern in the recent history of language teaching. However, many language teachers, who are committed to concepts of learnercentredness and autonomy, struggle with the ways to foster learner autonomy or at least to encourage the idea of learner autonomy in language classroom. The study aims at investigating what the most important issues which have a great impact on developing learner autonomy are. Having given special attention to conditions which can insure development of learner autonomy, a model covering seven issues relating to the subject matter has been designed. The authors state that such aspects as choice, goals and needs, support, emotional climate, learning strategies, learner attitude and motivation, and self-esteem should be considered as the goal to promote learner autonomy in EFL context.

Plays Well with Others: A Study of EFL Learner Reciprocity in Action

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Ozkose-Biyik, Cagri; Meskill, Carla

2015-01-01

Classroom observation studies suggest that the teacher-calculus is complex and sensitive to learner behaviors. In language education, this becomes particularly important due to strong emphasis on productive interpersonal interaction. This study set out to understand what constitutes positive learning behaviors in an EFL context. The construct of…

Improving Learner Handovers in Medical Education.

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Warm, Eric J; Englander, Robert; Pereira, Anne; Barach, Paul

2017-07-01

Multiple studies have demonstrated that the information included in the Medical Student Performance Evaluation fails to reliably predict medical students' future performance. This faulty transfer of information can lead to harm when poorly prepared students fail out of residency or, worse, are shuttled through the medical education system without an honest accounting of their performance. Such poor learner handovers likely arise from two root causes: (1) the absence of agreed-on outcomes of training and/or accepted assessments of those outcomes, and (2) the lack of standardized ways to communicate the results of those assessments. To improve the current learner handover situation, an authentic, shared mental model of competency is needed; high-quality tools to assess that competency must be developed and tested; and transparent, reliable, and safe ways to communicate this information must be created.To achieve these goals, the authors propose using a learner handover process modeled after a patient handover process. The CLASS model includes a description of the learner's Competency attainment, a summary of the Learner's performance, an Action list and statement of Situational awareness, and Synthesis by the receiving program. This model also includes coaching oriented towards improvement along the continuum of education and care. Just as studies have evaluated patient handover models using metrics that matter most to patients, studies must evaluate this learner handover model using metrics that matter most to providers, patients, and learners.

Factors Contributing Decreased Performance Of Slow Learners

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Dr. L. Kannan

2015-03-01

compared to less than 50 percentage of marks majority 3666 have less than 80 percentage of attendance this difference of observation among both genders has got statistical significance p0.007were male students with low performance has got low percentage of attendance. In this study the family type has gotno association with the level of performance. To analyze simultaneously on all the variables gender understanding the language unable to study on their own unhappy with the subjects and problem with their class mates. These answers differ significantly among low performers compared to high performers. Finally the study has been concluded that low achievers slow learners needs to concentrate on their regularity of attending their classes so that to have a better performance in their subsequent internal examinations. Many students felt they were not able to study on their own and perform in their internal assessment examination so students can be encouraged group discussions and effective mentorship programme can be generated in order to have better performance in their internal examinations.

ICT USAGE BY DISTANCE LEARNERS IN INDIA

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Ashish Kumar AWADHIYA

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Open Universities across the world are embracing ICT based teaching and learning process to disseminate quality education to their learners spread across the globe. In India availability and access of ICT and learner characteristics are uneven and vary from state to state. Hence it is important to establish the facts about ICT access among learners, their ICT usage patterns and their readiness to use ICT for educational purpose. In view of this, a study was conducted with the objective to find out the access level of ICT among distance learners. The analysis indicates that maximum learners have desktop/laptops and most of them are accessing internet very frequently from their home. The analysis also indicates that maximum respondents are browsing social networking sites followed by educational and e-mail service providing websites. Findings suggest that there is a need to generate ICT based tutorials complemented with social networking tools and mobile applications. Study also shows that learners are equipped with mobile phones and they are browsing internet through it and also availing support services offered by the university. Hence possibility of integrating mobile phone services may be used for providing learner support services and content delivery.

The Promise and the Pathway: Marketing Higher Education to Adults

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Stein, David S.; Wanstreet, Constance E.; Saunders, Charles T., Jr.; Lutz, Michelle L.

2009-01-01

This study analyzed the content of college and university Web site home pages to determine the frequency of marketing messages that might persuade adult learners to enroll at the institution. The findings suggest that colleges and universities in this study do not have adult-oriented marketing messages and are giving scant attention to the…

Learners' independent records of vocabulary

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaw, Philip; Leeke, Philip

1999-01-01

Handbooks recommend a variety of quite complicated procedures for learning and remembering vocabulary, but most learners only engage in very simple procedures. The aim of this project was to establish a basis for identifying optimal vocabulary recording procedures by finding out what learners...

Mapping the Framing of Culture in U.S. Adult Education over the Past Decade

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Kang, Haijun; Yelich Biniecki, Susan M.

2015-01-01

We are working with more culturally diverse adult learner populations than we have ever had in adult and continuing higher education (Merriam & Bierema, 2014). Culture has become one of the most popular discussion topics in adult learning classrooms and both instructors and students are showing great interest in culture's interaction with…

Transitions between School and Work: Some New Understandings and Questions about Adult Mathematics.

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Beach, King

There is dissonance between the lives of adult students in rural Nepal in a subsistence-level agrarian community and their participation in school. The concept of "transfer" has several shortcomings from the standpoint of understanding relations between mathematical reasoning in the classroom and in the workplace. It is more helpful to…

Buffalo City learners' knowledge of abortion legislation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2014-06-19

Jun 19, 2014 ... Objectives: This research investigated Grade 11 learners' knowledge of the CTOP Act and ... those learners attending schools formerly designated for African learners during Apartheid .... be performed if, in the opinion of a medical practitioner, ..... of pre-termination of pregnancy counselling to the woman.

Dimensionality in Language Learners' Personal Epistemologies

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Nikitina, Larisa; Furuoka, Fumitaka

2018-01-01

This study aimed to examine dimensionality in language learners' epistemic beliefs. To achieve this, a survey was conducted using a newly-developed research instrument-"Language Learners' Epistemic Beliefs" (LLEB) questionnaire. Based on a review of literature, it was proposed that language learners' epistemic beliefs would cluster in…

Adult-Rated Oceanography Part 1: A Project Integrating Ocean Sciences into Adult Basic Education Programs.

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Cowles, S.; Collier, R.; Torres, M. K.

2004-12-01

Busy scientists seek opportunities to implement education and outreach efforts, but often don't know where to start. One easy and tested method is to form collaborations with federally-funded adult education and adult literacy programs. These programs exist in every U.S. state and territory and serve underrepresented populations through such major initiatives as adult basic education, adult secondary education (and GED preparation), and English language acquisition. These students are workers, consumers, voters, parents, grandparents, and members of every community. They have specific needs that are often overlooked in outreach activities. This presentation will describe the steps by which the Oregon Ocean Science and Math Collaborative program was developed. It is based on a partnership between the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, Oregon State University College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon Sea Grant, and the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center. It includes professional development through instructor institutes; teachers at sea and informal education opportunities; curriculum and web site development. Through the partnership described here, instructors in adult basic education programs participate in a yearlong experience in which they develop, test, and adapt innovative instructional strategies to meet the specific needs of adult learners. This, in turn, leads to new prospects for study in the areas of ocean science and math and introduces non-academic careers in marine science to a new community. Working directly with instructors, we have identified expertise level, instructional environment, instructor background and current teaching strategies used to address science literacy and numeracy goals of the adult learners in the State of Oregon. Preliminary evaluation of our ongoing project in meeting these goals will be discussed. These efforts contribute to national goals of science literacy for all, by providing

Exploring high school learners' perceptions of bullying.

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Blake, Patricia; Louw, Johann

2010-12-01

Learners' perceptions of aspects of school life that are sufficiently serious to interfere with their schoolwork were investigated. Bullying was a form of behaviour that was singled out for inclusion and further exploration in the study. Learners from three coeducational Western Cape Education Department schools were surveyed: 414 Grade 8 and 474 Grade 9 learners completed an anonymous, voluntary self-report questionnaire. Factors identified as most frequently interfering with their schoolwork included classmates not listening in class, feeling overwhelmed by schoolwork, teacher absenteeism, and verbal fighting. When asked specifically about bullying, 40% of learners indicated that they frequently experienced bullying at school-although they ranked it as much lower when compared to other potentially problematic school experiences. Furthermore, although the majority of learners indicated they thought teachers considered bullying a problem, few felt there was anything that school staff could do to counteract bullying effectively. These findings suggest that learners perceive bullying as an unavoidable part of school experience and have normalised this aggressive behaviour.

Te Rita Papesch: Case Study of an Exemplary Learner of Maori as an Additional Language

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Ratima, Matiu Tai; Papesch, Te Rita

2014-01-01

This paper presents a case study of the life experiences of one exemplar adult second language Maori learner--Te Rita Papesch. Te Rita was one of 17 participants who were interviewed as a part of the first author's PhD study which sought to answer the question: what factors lead to the development of proficiency in te reo Maori amongst adult…

Understanding Business Majors' Learning Styles

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Giordano, James; Rochford, Regina A.

2005-01-01

Recently, business education programs have experienced a decline in enrollment and an increase in attrition. To understand these issues and recommend solutions, the learning styles of 503 first-year business majors at an urban community college were examined. The results demonstrated that: (a) 94% of the participants were analytic learners; (b)…

Teaching language arts to English language learners

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Vásquez, Anete; Smith, Philip C

2013-01-01

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Teaching Language Arts to English Language Learners provides readers with the comprehensive understanding of both the challenges that face ELLs and ways in which educators might address them in the language arts classroom. The authors offer proven techniques that teachers can readily use to teach reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary as well as speaking, listening, and viewing skills. A complete section is also devoted to ways teachers can integrate all five strands of the language arts curriculum into a comprehensive unit of study w

Relationships among Teachers' Attitudes, Behaviors toward English Language Learners, Experience, and Training

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Mitchell, Sandra L.

2016-01-01

Public school teachers must meet the unique needs of English language learners (ELLs) in the general education classroom. There is a need to understand teacher attitudes toward ELLs because attitudes can explain and influence teacher behavior and professional practice. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationships between…

Understanding the effect of workload on automation use for younger and older adults.

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McBride, Sara E; Rogers, Wendy A; Fisk, Arthur D

2011-12-01

This study examined how individuals, younger and older, interacted with an imperfect automated system. The impact of workload on performance and automation use was also investigated. Automation is used in situations characterized by varying levels of workload. As automated systems spread to domains such as transportation and the home, a diverse population of users will interact with automation. Research is needed to understand how different segments of the population use automation. Workload was systematically manipulated to create three levels (low, moderate, high) in a dual-task scenario in which participants interacted with a 70% reliable automated aid. Two experiments were conducted to assess automation use for younger and older adults. Both younger and older adults relied on the automation more than they complied with it. Among younger adults, high workload led to poorer performance and higher compliance, even when that compliance was detrimental. Older adults' performance was negatively affected by workload, but their compliance and reliance were unaffected. Younger and older adults were both able to use and double-check an imperfect automated system. Workload affected how younger adults complied with automation, particularly with regard to detecting automation false alarms. Older adults tended to comply and rely at fairly high rates overall, and this did not change with increased workload. Training programs for imperfect automated systems should vary workload and provide feedback about error types, and strategies for identifying errors. The ability to identify automation errors varies across individuals, thereby necessitating training.

The Usage of Loanwords by Japanese Learners and Their Background : case of English Native Speakers (Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. SASAKI Yoshinori)

OpenAIRE

堀切, 友紀子

2010-01-01

In the field of Teaching Japanese as a Second Language, the study of Japanese loanwords has focused on their acquisition, and Japanese loanwords tend to be an obstacle for Japanese learners. However, actual situations about loanword usage by English native speakers need to be identical. The purpose of this research is to understand the process involved in the cognition, emotion and usage of loanwords by Japanese learners. An investigatory interview was conducted with 11 Japanese learners who ...

Adult educators' core competences

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Wahlgren, Bjarne

2016-06-01

Which competences do professional adult educators need? This research note discusses the topic from a comparative perspective, finding that adult educators' required competences are wide-ranging, heterogeneous and complex. They are subject to context in terms of national and cultural environment as well as the kind of adult education concerned (e.g. basic education, work-related education etc.). However, it seems that it is possible to identify certain competence requirements which transcend national, cultural and functional boundaries. This research note summarises these common or "core" requirements, organising them into four thematic subcategories: (1) communicating subject knowledge; (2) taking students' prior learning into account; (3) supporting a learning environment; and (4) the adult educator's reflection on his or her own performance. At the end of his analysis of different competence profiles, the author notes that adult educators' ability to train adult learners in a way which then enables them to apply and use what they have learned in practice (thus performing knowledge transfer) still seems to be overlooked.

When Learner Inquiries Arise: Marking Teacher Cognition as It Unfolds “In-The-Moment”

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Drew S. Fagan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2015v68n1p75 With the understanding that teacher cognition itself is ever-emergent, originating and framed by engagement with social activities (Johnson & Golombek, 2011, the current study examines one expert English as a Second Language (ESL teacher’s micro-analysis of her classroom practices when addressing learner inquiries in-themoment, and how such analysis leads the teacher to alter her conscious awareness of what it means to teach language even at an advanced point in her career. Bridging the methodologies of conversation analysis and ethnographic analysis, two distinct practices were used by the teacher when addressing learner inquiries: doing answering and modeling exploration. Each practice is detailed with a focus on their varied constructions and the speciic verbal and nonverbal communicative cues found to inluence their uses. Numerous and simultaneous factors are shown to afect the teacher’s management of learner inquiries, factors both paralleling and contradicting her perceptions of teaching. he paper concludes with a discussion on how the indings not only connect to the current teacher cognition literature but also advocates for opening up the methodological tools used in SLTE to more fully understand teacher learning.

Understanding Monitoring Technologies for Adults With Pain: Systematic Literature Review.

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Rodríguez, Iyubanit; Herskovic, Valeria; Gerea, Carmen; Fuentes, Carolina; Rossel, Pedro O; Marques, Maíra; Campos, Mauricio

2017-10-27

Monitoring of patients may decrease treatment costs and improve quality of care. Pain is the most common health problem that people seek help for in hospitals. Therefore, monitoring patients with pain may have significant impact in improving treatment. Several studies have studied factors affecting pain; however, no previous study has reviewed the contextual information that a monitoring system may capture to characterize a patient's situation. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to (1) determine what types of technologies have been used to monitor adults with pain, and (2) construct a model of the context information that may be used to implement apps and devices aimed at monitoring adults with pain. A literature search (2005-2015) was conducted in electronic databases pertaining to medical and computer science literature (PubMed, Science Direct, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore) using a defined search string. Article selection was done through a process of removing duplicates, analyzing title and abstract, and then reviewing the full text of the article. In the final analysis, 87 articles were included and 53 of them (61%) used technologies to collect contextual information. A total of 49 types of context information were found and a five-dimension (activity, identity, wellness, environment, physiological) model of context information to monitor adults with pain was proposed, expanding on a previous model. Most technological interfaces for pain monitoring were wearable, possibly because they can be used in more realistic contexts. Few studies focused on older adults, creating a relevant avenue of research on how to create devices for users that may have impaired cognitive skills or low digital literacy. The design of monitoring devices and interfaces for adults with pain must deal with the challenge of selecting relevant contextual information to understand the user's situation, and not overburdening or inconveniencing users with

Institutional Barriers for Adults' Participation in Higher Education in Thirteen European Countries

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Saar, Ellu; Täht, Kadri; Roosalu, Triin

2014-01-01

This study focuses on institutional barriers that adult learners experience while participating in higher education programmes. We developed a holistic measure of diversification, accessibility, flexibility and affordability of higher education for adults. Based on pre-economic-crisis data across Europe we then explored the impact of macro-level…

Development of affective modelling competencies in primary school learners

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Piera Biccard

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Learner affect and beliefs about mathematics are complex and multifaceted aspects of mathematical learning. Traditional teaching and learning approaches in mathematics education often result in problematic beliefs about mathematics. Since beliefs influence what learners learn and how they deal with learning mathematics, it is essential that the roles of beliefs and affect in mathematics classrooms are carefully examined. In solving modelling problems, learners and teachers take on new roles in the classroom: learners are placed in an active, self-directing situation in which they solve real-world problems. When learners engage in modelling tasks, they display and integrate cognitive, meta-cognitive and affective competencies. A modelling approach therefore allows one to detect learner beliefs in an authentic learning environment. Will this environment lead to students having more positive and productive dispositions towards mathematics? This article presents partial results of a study documenting the development of modelling competencies in learners working in groups over a period of 12 weeks. Through a design research approach, 12 learners working in groups solved three modelling problems, and transcriptions of learner interactions, questionnaires and informal interviews revealed that learner beliefs improved over this short period when exposed to modelling tasks. The results are encouraging, and may provide mathematics education with an avenue to develop more positive learner beliefs in mathematics.

An Exploration of the Validity and Potential of Adult Ego Development for Enhancing Understandings of School Leadership

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James, Chris; James, Jane; Potter, Ian

2017-01-01

An adult ego development (AED) perspective accepts that the way adults interpret and interact in the social world can change during their life-span. This article seeks to analyse the validity and potential of AED for enhancing understandings of educational leadership practice and development. We analysed the AED literature and interviewed 16…

High-School Students' Epistemic Knowledge of Science and Its Relation to Learner Factors in Science Learning

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Yang, Fang-Ying; Liu, Shiang-Yao; Hsu, Chung-Yuan; Chiou, Guo-Li; Wu, Hsin-Kai; Wu, Ying-Tien; Chen, Sufen; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Tsai, Meng-Jung; Lee, Silvia W.-Y.; Lee, Min-Hsien; Lin, Che-Li; Chu, Regina Juchun; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an online contextualized test for assessing students' understanding of epistemic knowledge of science. In addition, how students' understanding of epistemic knowledge of science interacts with learner factors, including time spent on science learning, interest, self-efficacy, and gender, was…

Understanding Students' Use and Value of Technology for Learning

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Beckman, Karley; Bennett, Sue; Lockyer, Lori

2014-01-01

Despite significant research in the field of educational technology, there is still much we do not fully understand about students' experiences with technology. This article proposes that research in the field of educational technology would benefit from a sociological framing that pays attention to the understandings and lives of learners. Within…

Autonomous Learner Model Resource Book

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Betts, George T.; Carey, Robin J.; Kapushion, Blanche M.

2016-01-01

"Autonomous Learner Model Resource Book" includes activities and strategies to support the development of autonomous learners. More than 40 activities are included, all geared to the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical development of students. Teachers may use these activities and strategies with the entire class, small groups, or…

High school learners' mental construction during solving ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Structured activity sheets with three tasks were given to learners; these tasks were done in groups, and the group leaders were interviewed. It was found that learners tended to do well with routine-type questions, implying that they were functioning at an action level. From the interviews it appeared that learners might have ...

Negotiating Multiple Audiences of L2 Learners on Facebook: Navigating Parallel Realities

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Shafie, Latisha Asmaak; Yaacob, Aizan; Singh, Paramjit Kaur A/P Karpal

2016-01-01

As social network sites have become popular with university students, it is easier to understand how students employ social network sites seamlessly in their academic and personal lives. L2 learners often employ Facebook to improve their English language proficiency by communicating with their native and non-native English speakers. Facebook is…

An Analysis of Lexical Errors of Korean Language Learners: Some American College Learners' Case

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Kang, Manjin

2014-01-01

There has been a huge amount of research on errors of language learners. However, most of them have focused on syntactic errors and those about lexical errors are not found easily despite the importance of lexical learning for the language learners. The case is even rarer for Korean language. In line with this background, this study was designed…

Backward Design: Targeting Depth of Understanding for All Learners

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Childre, Amy; Sands, Jennifer R.; Pope, Saundra Tanner

2009-01-01

Curriculum design is at the center of developing student ability to construct understanding. Without appropriately designed curriculum, instruction can be ineffective at scaffolding understanding. Often students with disabilities need more explicit instruction or guidance in applying their schema to new information. Thus, instruction must not only…

Technologies for learner-centered feedback

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Jane Costello

2013-09-01

Full Text Available As the number, type, and use of technologies to support learning increases, so do the opportunities for using these technologies for feedback. Learner-centered feedback is a core to the teaching-learning process. It is related to assessment in describing how learners perform in their learning, their gain in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Feedback, types of feedback, guidelines for effective learner-centered feedback, and feedback’s relationship to assessment are presented. Methods of providing feedback, for example, automated, audio scribe pens, digital audio, etc., and the related technologies are described. Technologies that allow instructors to make informed decisions about the use of various methods for feedback are discussed.

Development of the living thing transportation systems worksheet on learning cycle model to increase student understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Rachmawati, E.; Nurohman, S.; Widowati, A.

2018-01-01

This study aims to know: 1) the feasibility LKPD review of aspects of the didactic requirements, construction requirements, technical requirements and compliance with the Learning Cycle. 2) Increase understanding of learners with Learning Model Learning Cycle in SMP N 1 Wates in the form LKPD. 3) The response of learners and educators SMP N 1 Wates to quality LKPD Transportation Systems Beings. This study is an R & D with the 4D model (Define, Design, Develop and Disseminate). Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis in the form of advice description and assessment scores from all validates that was converted to a scale of 4. While the analysis of quantitative data by calculating the percentage of materializing learning and achievement using the standard gain an increased understanding and calculation of the KKM completeness evaluation value as an indicator of the achievement of students understanding. the results of this study yield LKPD IPA model learning Cycle theme Transportation Systems Beings obtain 108.5 total scores of a maximum score of 128 including the excellent category (A). LKPD IPA developed able to demonstrate an improved understanding of learners and the response of learners was very good to this quality LKPD IPA.

Divergent Language Choices and Maintenance of Intersubjectivity: The Case of Danish EFL Young Learners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

aus der Wieschen, Maria Vanessa; Sert, Olcay

Using CA of 2 hours of video-recordings, this study illustrates the interactional resources employed by Danish young EFL learners and their teacher in maintaining intersubjectivity and pedagogical foci. The results reveal two sequential formats that help to ensure student understanding, as well...

Errors in the Production of Adult Early and Late Bilinguals

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Teresa Lee

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This study examines the grammatical knowledge of adult second language (L2 learners and heritage speakers. Given the differences in the mode and age of acquisition between L2 learners (late bilinguals and heritage speakers (early bilinguals, the question arises as to whether and how these groups differ from each other in their knowledge of Korean. To address this question, the present study looks at the production of Korean relative clauses by three groups of learners (26 L2 learners, 11 simultaneous bilinguals, and 38 early sequential bilinguals. The results of a written production task showed that all three groups made similar types of errors such as those involving the use of incorrect word order and case markers. Yet differences were also observed in the nature of errors made by these three groups. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications are drawn for classroom instruction.

Online Interaction Quality among Adult Learners: The Role of Sense of Belonging and Perceived Learning Benefits

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Diep, Nguyet A.; Cocquyt, Celine; Zhu, Chang; Vanwing, Tom

2017-01-01

The present study employs social cognitive theory (SCT) and social capital as the guiding frameworks to explain online interaction quality among learners in a blended learning program (N = 179). Capturing performance expectancy by perceived learning benefits and online interaction quality with nuanced cognitive measures, the study aims to validate…

Not just trust: factors influencing learners' attempts to perform technical skills on real patients.

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Bannister, Susan L; Dolson, Mark S; Lingard, Lorelei; Keegan, David A

2018-06-01

As part of their training, physicians are required to learn how to perform technical skills on patients. The previous literature reveals that this learning is complex and that many opportunities to perform these skills are not converted into attempts to do so by learners. This study sought to explore and understand this phenomenon better. A multi-phased qualitative study including ethnographic observations, interviews and focus groups was conducted to explore the factors that influence technical skill learning. In a tertiary paediatric emergency department, staff physician preceptors, residents, nurses and respiratory therapists were observed in the delivery and teaching of technical skills over a 3-month period. A constant comparison methodology was used to analyse the data and to develop a constructivist grounded theory. We conducted 419 hours of observation, 18 interviews and four focus groups. We observed 287 instances of technical skills, of which 27.5% were attempted by residents. Thematic analysis identified 14 factors, grouped into three categories, which influenced whether residents attempted technical skills on real patients. Learner factors included resident initiative, perceived need for skill acquisition and competing priorities. Teacher factors consisted of competing priorities, interest in teaching, perceived need for residents to acquire skills, attributions about learners, assessments of competency, and trust. Environmental factors were competition from other learners, judgement that the patient was appropriate, buy-in from team members, consent from patient or caregivers, and physical environment constraints. Our findings suggest that neither the presence of a learner in a clinical environment nor the trust of the supervisor is sufficient to ensure the learner will attempt a technical skill. We characterise this phenomenon as representing a pool of opportunities to conduct technical skills on live patients that shrinks to a much smaller pool of

Alcohol use amongst learners in rural high school in South Africa

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Thembisile M. Chauke

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Drinking behaviour by adolescents is a significant public health challenge nationally and internationally. Alcohol use has serious challenges that continue to deprive adolescents of their normal child growth and development. Drinking is associated with dangers that include fighting, crime, unintentional accidents, unprotected sex, violence and others. Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate drinking patterns, and factors contributing to drinking, amongst secondary school learners in South Africa. Method: The sample included 177 male (46.6% and 206 female (53.4% respondents in the age range from 15–23 years, selected by stratified random sampling. Results: The results indicated that 35.5% of male and 29.7% of female respondents used alcohol. Both male and female respondents consumed six or more alcohol units (binge drinking within 30 days; on one occasion the consumption was 17.5% and 15.9% respectively. It was found that alcohol consumption increases with age, 32.2% of 15–17 year-olds and 53.2% of 18–20 year-olds consumed different types of alcohol. It was deduced that 28.9% respondents reported that one of the adults at home drank alcohol regularly, and 9.3% reported that both their parents drank alcohol daily. It was found that 27.6% of the respondents agreed that friends made them conform to drinking. The tenth and eleventh grade reported 15.2% of male and 13.9% of female respondents were aware that alcohol can be addictive. Conclusion: This study found that age, gender, parental alcohol use and peer pressure were found to be the major contributing factors to alcohol use amongst learners Prevention campaigns such as introducing the harmful effects of alcohol use amongst learners are of utmost importance in reducing alcohol use amongst learners in South Africa.

Alcohol use amongst learners in rural high school in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Chauke, Thembisile M; van der Heever, Hendry; Hoque, Muhammad E

2015-01-01

Drinking behaviour by adolescents is a significant public health challenge nationally and internationally. Alcohol use has serious challenges that continue to deprive adolescents of their normal child growth and development. Drinking is associated with dangers that include fighting, crime, unintentional accidents, unprotected sex, violence and others. The aim of the study is to investigate drinking patterns, and factors contributing to drinking, amongst secondary school learners in South Africa. The sample included 177 male (46.6%) and 206 female (53.4%) respondents in the age range from 15–23 years, selected by stratified random sampling. The results indicated that 35.5% of male and 29.7% of female respondents used alcohol. Both male and female respondents consumed six or more alcohol units (binge drinking) within 30 days; on one occasion the consumption was 17.5% and 15.9% respectively. It was found that alcohol consumption increases with age, 32.2% of 15–17 year-olds and 53.2% of 18–20 year-olds consumed different types of alcohol. It was deduced that 28.9% respondents reported that one of the adults at home drank alcohol regularly, and 9.3% reported that both their parents drank alcohol daily. It was found that 27.6% of the respondents agreed that friends made them conform to drinking. The tenth and eleventh grade reported 15.2% of male and 13.9% of female respondents were aware that alcohol can be addictive. This study found that age, gender, parental alcohol use and peer pressure were found to be the major contributing factors to alcohol use amongst learners Prevention campaigns such as introducing the harmful effects of alcohol use amongst learners are of utmost importance in reducing alcohol use amongst learners in South Africa.

Oral Computer-Mediated Interaction Between L2 Learners: It’s About Time!

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanguas, Íñigo

2010-10-01

Full Text Available This study explores task-based, synchronous oral computer-mediated communication (CMC among intermediate-level learners of Spanish. In particular, this paper examines (a how learners in video and audio CMC groups negotiate for meaning during task-based interaction, (b possible differences between both oral CMC modes and traditional face-to-face (FTF communication, and (c how this oral computer mediated negotiation compares to that found in the text-based CMC literature. Fifteen learner-to-learner dyads were randomly assigned to an audio group, a video group, and a FTF control group to complete a jigsaw task that was seeded with 16 unknown lexical items. Experimental groups used Skype, free online communication software, to carry out the task. The transcripts of the conversations reveal that oral CMC groups do indeed negotiate for meaning in this multimedia context when non-understanding occurs between speakers. In addition, results showed differences in the way audio and video groups carry out these negotiations, which were mainly due to the lack of visual contact in the audio group. No differences were found between video and FTF groups. Furthermore, oral CMC turn-taking patterns were shown to be very similar to FTF patterns but opposite to those found in written synchronous CMC. Oral CMC interaction patterns are shown to be more versatile.

Language Learner Strategies for Building EFL Learners’ Autonomy

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Hooshang Khoshsima

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The critical discussions and matters in enhancing students’ learning performance, knowledge, and language proficiency have received a remarkable degree of attention in educational contexts. This study was undertaken to encourage learners to build the required competence in the foreign language by utilizing learning strategies so that they could become autonomous learners. Language learners' learning difficulties while learning a foreign language were identified in this study. With regard to problems which language learners faced in learning a foreign language, the teachers are able to recognize and to utilize appropriate language learning strategies in order to develop autonomy in learners who conceptualize and use those strategies in the foreign language. The research design adopted for the present study was survey method. The data for the study were collected with the use of a questionnaire. This questionnaire was administered to a total of 60 EFL learners who were selected from a university in Iran. It was used to assess learners’ awareness and perceived use of strategies and to provide data on their best utilized strategies. Results have been driven through statistical analysis. The analyzed data reveal the students’ styles and assist teachers to take part in shifting the strategies and heighten language learners' autonomy. The findings support the claim that knowing and making language learners aware of the most appropriate strategy would assist learners to improve their autonomy and to enhance their learning.

Artificial learners adopting normative conventions from human teachers

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Cederborg Thomas

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This survey provides an overview of implemented systems, theoretical work, as well as studies of biological systems relevant to the design of artificial learners trying to figure out what a human teacher would like them to do. Implementations of artificial learners are covered, with a focus on experiments trying to find better interpretations of human behavior, as well as algorithms that autonomously improve a model of the teacher. A distinction is made between learners trying to interpret teacher behavior in order to learn what the teacher would like the learner to do on the one hand, and learners whose explicit or implicit goal is to get something from the teacher on the other hand (for example rewards, or knowledge about how the world works. The survey covers the former type of systems. Human teachers are covered, focusing on studies that say something concrete about how one should interpret the behavior of a human teacher that is interacting with an artificial learner. Certain types of biological learners are interesting as inspiration for the types of artificial systems we are concerned with. The survey focus on studies of biological learners adopting normative conventions, as well as joint intentionality team efforts.

Learner Motivation and Interest

OpenAIRE

Daskalovska, Nina; Gudeva, Liljana Koleva; Ivanovska, Biljana

2012-01-01

There are a lot of factors which influence success in learning. However, one of the most important factors is the learner’s motivation to reach the desired goals. Research and experience show that learners with strong motivation can achieve a lot regardless of circumstances. Studies of motivation in second language learning have led to several distinctions, one of which is the distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation. According to this distinction, some learners are motivat...

Tweetalige aanleerderswoordeboek . bilingual learner's dictionary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Correct pronunciation is not guaranteed, because only syllabification and the main stress are indicated in words. Grammatical guidance is also not given to such an extent that learners will be able to generate correct sentences on their own. The role that contrastive analysis and error analysis can play to anticipate learners' ...

Invertebrates and Organ Systems: Science Instruction and "Fostering a Community of Learners"

Science.gov (United States)

Rico, Stephanie A.; Shulman, Judith H.

2004-01-01

This paper is the third in a set of papers that explores the understanding and implementation of the educational system, "Fostering a Community of Learners" (FCL) across subject matters. We examine how FCL is influenced by the discipline of science, the teaching of science, and the conceptions that teachers have surrounding these two topics. We…

Learner Beliefs about Sociolinguistic Competence: A Qualitative Case Study of Four University Second Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jinsuk; Rehner, Katherine

2015-01-01

This article explores the beliefs about second language (L2) sociolinguistic competence of four university-level advanced L2 learners. It places particular emphasis on 1) how these university learners conceptualized L2 sociolinguistic competence; 2) how they thought about two different language learning contexts (viz., the L2 classroom versus…

What Adult ESL Learners Say about Improving Grammar and Vocabulary in Their Writing for Academic Purposes

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Zhou, Ally A.

2009-01-01

Linguistic accuracy plays an important role in the quality of written texts, yet the explicit teaching of linguistic form--particularly grammar--for the purpose of improving learners' writing has generated an ongoing debate. Furthermore, students' voices about their learning are often ignored because they are perceived as not knowing what they…

An Investigation of Big Five and Narrow Personality Traits in Relation to Learner Self-Direction in Undergraduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Kirwan, Jeral

2014-01-01

Self-direction in learning is a major topic in the field of adult learning. There has been extensive coverage of the topic by theorists, researchers, and practitioners. However, there have been few studies which look at learner self-direction specifically as a personality trait. The present study addresses the relationship between learner…

Phonological Development in Hearing Learners of a Sign Language: The Influence of Phonological Parameters, Sign Complexity, and Iconicity

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Ortega, Gerardo; Morgan, Gary

2015-01-01

The present study implemented a sign-repetition task at two points in time to hearing adult learners of British Sign Language and explored how each phonological parameter, sign complexity, and iconicity affected sign production over an 11-week (22-hour) instructional period. The results show that training improves articulation accuracy and that…

Technologies for Learner-Centered Feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Costello, Jane; Crane, Daph

2013-01-01

As the number, type, and use of technologies to support learning increases, so do the opportunities for using these technologies for feedback. Learner-centered feedback is a core to the teaching-learning process. It is related to assessment in describing how learners perform in their learning, their gain in knowledge, skills, and attitudes.…

Experimenting with Theory of Change for Interculturality and Mutual Learning in Adult Education

Science.gov (United States)

Raymer, Annalisa L.

2016-01-01

With a goal of creating conditions wherein college students of adult learning paired with international adult learners form mutual partnerships for educational mentoring, where to begin? How to take into account the contextual factors and priorities of multiple stakeholders in creating academic courses and learning-focused partnerships while…

WORK AND LEARNER IDENTITY

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kondrup, Sissel

2015-01-01

The aim of this article is to suggest a theoretical framework than can assess to how people’s engagement in specific historical and social work practices are significant to their development, maintenance or transformation of a learner identity. Such a framework is crucial in order to grasp how...... different groups have distinctive conditions for meeting the obligation of forming a proactive learner identity and engage in lifelong learning prevalent in both national and transnational policies on lifelong learning....

CONTINUOUS EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ADULTS – PURPOSE OF AN ACTIVE LIFE ON THE LABOUR MARKET

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Mergeani Nicea

2017-11-01

Full Text Available An active life on the labour market implies, besides the existence of jobs, continuous education and training of adults. Regardless of age, every person needs new knowledge, which one can obtain either by self-teaching or by attending training courses. The development of technology and information influences lifelong learning, which is why, in recent years, greater emphasis has been put on the education and training of adults. In this respect numerous Centers of Professional Training of Adults have been established, some of them attracting their learners through the implementation of projects financed from European funds, which meant free participation of adults to various courses of specialization, training or (requalification. The article highlights the importance of continuous education and training of adults related to the economic and social benefits deriving from it. The article analyzes some of the aspects of continuous education and training of adults that fosters active participation of adults in the labour market, concluding that, for an active professional life, the establishment of relationships between employers, employees, trainers and learners is required.

Learner Agency within the Design of an EAP Course

Science.gov (United States)

Seppälä, Riina

2015-01-01

To meet the demands of today's society and working life, higher education should support the development of learner agency. How the agency of individual learners emerges in university courses and what kind of agency empowers the learners to face new challenges should be considered. In this article, the focus is on learner agency enabled and…

Experiences of learners from informal settlements

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Erna Kinsey

problem is further compounded if educators are not trained to work with learners from ... to locate problems that emerge with the learners themselves rather than within the system ..... "Black students' school success: coping with the burden of ...

Effects of Sound, Vocabulary, and Grammar Learning Aptitude on Adult Second Language Speech Attainment in Foreign Language Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Kazuya

2017-01-01

This study examines the relationship between different types of language learning aptitude (measured via the LLAMA test) and adult second language (L2) learners' attainment in speech production in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. Picture descriptions elicited from 50 Japanese EFL learners from varied proficiency levels were analyzed…

Profiling Mobile English Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Byrne, Jason; Diem, Robert

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to use an app-embedded survey to profile language learner demographics. A total of 3,759 EFL language learners from primarily eight L1 backgrounds (French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Thai) responded to the survey embedded within a popular English grammar app. This app has over 500,000…

Turning university professors into competent learners

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stefanova, Eliza; Ilieva, Miroslava; Nikolova, Nikolina; Stefanov, Krassen

2008-01-01

Stefanova, E., Ilieva, M., Nikolova, N, & Stefanov, K. (2008). Turning university professors into competent learners. In H. W. Sligte & R. Koper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th TENCompetence Open Workshop. Empowering Learners for Lifelong Competence Development: pedagogical, organisational and

Designing Classroom Activities for Teaching English to Children

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Emma Malia

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses some ideas on activities teachers of young learners make young learners do by way of materials. The paper also gives a number of suggested analyses of selecting or designing an activity to use with young learners. The suggested analyses of the activity deal with goals, input, procedures, outcome, teacher role, learner role and organization. The idea is not only to help young learners understand the language they hear but also to encourage young learners, who developmentally have shorter attention span composed to adults, to learn English naturally.

Understanding the Learning Process in SMEs

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, James; Gannon-Leary, Pat

2007-01-01

A major obstacle to the diffusion of management development learning technologies from Higher Education Institutions to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is a lack of understanding about how SME learners learn. This article examines the nature of learning in SMEs and considers the incidence of informal support for informal learning.…

Development and Validation of the Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about English Language Learners Survey (MTBELL)

Science.gov (United States)

Gann, Linda; Bonner, Emily P.; Moseley, Christine

2016-01-01

Given the increasing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in secondary mathematics classrooms, it is imperative that mathematics teacher educators develop measures for determining how and why secondary mathematics teachers (SMTs) understand and respond instructionally to these students. This paper reports on the initial development and…

The Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Program Completion among Adult Basic Education Students

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Batiste, Mildred M.

2014-01-01

Program completion among adult learners attending adult basic education programs has been found to be an area of struggle. Cognitive ability has always been the primary factor for determining an individual's ability. However, non-cognitive ability has been proposed as a significant factor in academic success. Many attrition models have been…

Varied Understanding and Application of Counter Transference in Active Music Therapy in Adult Psychiatry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Inge Nygaard

2006-01-01

The article presents varied ways of understanding and applying the clinical concept of counter transference. The sources are drawn from the author's own clinical praxis, from psychoanalytic and music therapy literature and from a qualitative interview examination among experienced music therapist...... applying the concept in music therapy improvisational work in adult psychiatry.......The article presents varied ways of understanding and applying the clinical concept of counter transference. The sources are drawn from the author's own clinical praxis, from psychoanalytic and music therapy literature and from a qualitative interview examination among experienced music therapists...

Learners' experiences of learning support in selected Western Cape schools

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Olaniyi Bojuwoye

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The study explored Western Cape primary and secondary school learners' experiences regarding the provision and utilization of support services for improving learning. A qualitative interpretive approach was adopted and data gathered through focus group interviews involving 90 learners. Results revealed that learners received and utilized various forms of learning support from their schools, teachers, and peers. The learning support assisted in meeting learners' academic, social and emotional needs by addressing barriers to learning, creating conducive learning environments, enhancing learners' self-esteem and improving learners' academic performance.

Work and Learner Identity -Developing an analytical framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kondrup, Sissel

within the field of lifelong learning to be sensitive to the significance of specific historical, social and material work practices when examining learner identities. First I argue that the hegemonic consensus about the necessity of lifelong learning calls for an increased attention to the different....... Then I present and discuss how Archer’s critical realist approach and her concepts of personal identity, natural, practical and social concerns (Archer 2000, 2003) and how Salling-Olesen’s life-historical approach rooted in critical theory (2002,2007) can contribute to the understanding of the relation...

Corrective feedback, learner uptake, and feedback perception in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tingfeng Fu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The role of corrective feedback in second language classrooms has received considerable research attention in the past few decades. However, most of this research has been conducted in English-teaching settings, either ESL or EFL. This study examined teacher feedback, learner uptake as well as learner and teacher perception of feedback in an adult Chinese as a foreign language classroom. Ten hours of classroom interactions were videotaped, transcribed and coded for analysis. Lyster and Ranta’s (1997 coding system involving six types of feedback was initially used to identify feedback frequency and learner uptake. However, the teacher was found to use a number of additional feedback types. Altogether, 12 types of feedback were identified: recasts, delayed recasts, clarification requests, translation, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, explicit correction, asking a direct question, repetition, directing question to other students, re-asks, and using L1-English. Differences were noted in the frequency of some of the feedback types as well as learner uptake compared to what had been reported in some previous ESL and EFL studies. With respect to the new feedback types, some led to noticeable uptake. As for the students’ and teacher’s perceptions, they did not match and both the teacher and the students were generally not accurate in perceiving the frequency of each feedback type. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of context in affecting the provision and effectiveness of feedback and its relationship to student and teacher perception of feedback.

Putting the learner in the spotlight – Future directions for English teachers

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Anne P A Swan

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This paper asserts that English teachers’ understanding of their professionalism enables them to ‘put the learner in the spotlight’ through their highly-developed awareness of local contexts of English use. Changing attitudes to English language teacher identity include a revaluation of the’ native-non-native speaker’ dichotomy which is fast becoming irrelevant as teachers assert new identities based on factors such as professional beliefs about their teaching, understanding their students’ needs and understanding the role of English in their contexts. In a globalising world, these aspects no longer require ‘so-called’ native speaker skills, such as pronunciation and knowledge of ‘English’ culture. In fact, dwelling at length on the issues surrounding native and non-native speaker teacher identity tends to cloud understanding of what qualities English teachers need. Interviews with multilingual teachers of English, working in a variety of countries, have revealed an understanding of the diminishing importance of the ‘native speaker’ and the concomitant growth in the confidence of the multilingual teacher. This confidence has been acquired through depth of linguistic knowledge, through observance of other cultures, and through resistance to the encroachment of English by finding a place for the language which satisfies the needs of multilingual users without requiring subservience. In discovering these strengths of multilingual teachers, I show how stepping outside the boundaries of one’s own limited environment allows English language teachers, wherever they come from, to develop a truly enlightened international professionalism which puts learners firmly in the spotlight.

Advancing Learner Autonomy in TEFL via Collaborative Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, George M.; Shan, Tan Hui

2015-01-01

The present paper begins by situating learner autonomy and collaborative learning as part of a larger paradigm shift towards student-centred learning. Next are brief discussions of learner autonomy and how learner autonomy links with collaborative learning. In the main part of the paper, four central principles of collaborative learning are…

Using Educative Assessments to Support Science Teaching for Middle School English-language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Buxton, Cory A.; Allexsaht-Snider, Martha; Suriel, Regina; Kayumova, Shakhnoza; Choi, Youn-jeng; Bouton, Bobette; Baker, Melissa

2013-03-01

Grounded in Hallidayan perspectives on academic language, we report on our development of an educative science assessment as one component of the language-rich inquiry science for English-language learners teacher professional learning project for middle school science teachers. The project emphasizes the role of content-area writing to support teachers in diagnosing their students' emergent understandings of science inquiry practices, science content knowledge, and the academic language of science, with a particular focus on the needs of English-language learners. In our current school policy context, writing for meaningful purposes has received decreased attention as teachers struggle to cover large numbers of discrete content standards. Additionally, high-stakes assessments presented in multiple-choice format have become the definitive measure of student science learning, further de-emphasizing the value of academic writing for developing and expressing understanding. To counter these trends, we examine the implementation of educative assessment materials—writing-rich assessments designed to support teachers' instructional decision making. We report on the qualities of our educative assessment that supported teachers in diagnosing their students' emergent understandings, and how teacher-researcher collaborative scoring sessions and interpretation of assessment results led to changes in teachers' instructional decision making to better support students in expressing their scientific understandings. We conclude with implications of this work for theory, research, and practice.

Understanding the Effect of Workload on Automation Use for Younger and Older Adults

Science.gov (United States)

McBride, Sara E.; Rogers, Wendy A.; Fisk, Arthur D.

2018-01-01

Objective This study examined how individuals, younger and older, interacted with an imperfect automated system. The impact of workload on performance and automation use was also investigated. Background Automation is used in situations characterized by varying levels of workload. As automated systems spread to domains such as transportation and the home, a diverse population of users will interact with automation. Research is needed to understand how different segments of the population use automation. Method Workload was systematically manipulated to create three levels (low, moderate, high) in a dual-task scenario in which participants interacted with a 70% reliable automated aid. Two experiments were conducted to assess automation use for younger and older adults. Results Both younger and older adults relied on the automation more than they complied with it. Among younger adults, high workload led to poorer performance and higher compliance, even when that compliance was detrimental. Older adults’ performance was negatively affected by workload, but their compliance and reliance were unaffected. Conclusion Younger and older adults were both able to use and double-check an imperfect automated system. Workload affected how younger adults complied with automation, particularly with regard to detecting automation false alarms. Older adults tended to comply and rely at fairly high rates overall, and this did not change with increased workload. Application Training programs for imperfect automated systems should vary workload and provide feedback about error types, and strategies for identifying errors. The ability to identify automation errors varies across individuals, thereby necessitating training. PMID:22235529

The Effect of Flipped Model of Instruction on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension: Learners' Attitudes in Focus

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi, Mehrnoosh; Hamzavi, Raouf

2017-01-01

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of flipped model of instruction on EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. Moreover, this study aimed at identifying EFL students' attitudes toward flipped model of instruction. To this end, 60 EFL learners studying at an accredited private language institute in Isfahan were first…

Learning environment, learning styles and conceptual understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrer, Lourdes M.

1990-01-01

In recent years there have been many studies on learners developing conceptions of natural phenomena. However, so far there have been few attempts to investigate how the characteristics of the learners and their environment influence such conceptions. This study began with an attempt to use an instrument developed by McCarthy (1981) to describe learners in Malaysian primary schools. This proved inappropriate as Asian primary classrooms do not provide the same kind of environment as US classrooms. It was decided to develop a learning style checklist to suit the local context and which could be used to describe differences between learners which teachers could appreciate and use. The checklist included four dimensions — perceptual, process, self-confidence and motivation. The validated instrument was used to determine the learning style preferences of primary four pupils in Penang, Malaysia. Later, an analysis was made regarding the influence of learning environment and learning styles on conceptual understanding in the topics of food, respiration and excretion. This study was replicated in the Philippines with the purpose of investigating the relationship between learning styles and achievement in science, where the topics of food, respiration and excretion have been taken up. A number of significant relationships were observed in these two studies.