In the field of adult basic education, there are two strategies that have been found to be of particular value to student learning: multiple intelligences and purpose-based learning. However, putting these learning theories into practice is not always as easy as an educator might at first believe. Adult basic education teacher Dylan Emerick-Brown…

There is a strong and growing argument for higher educational attainment in the United States. The jobs that are expected to support the economy in the coming years will depend on a skilled workforce that is able to learn and adapt quickly to new challenges. However, demographic patterns demonstrate that relying on the traditional K-16 pipeline to…

"Focus on Policy" is NCSALL's (National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy's) newest publication. Its purpose is to synthesize research findings and highlight policy implications of these findings. "Focus on Policy" forgoes the usual academic conventions to provide its readers with an easy-to-understand summary of research. This…

How do ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs shape adult learners, and how do adult learners, in turn, shape their programs? Beyond the acquisition of important skills (such as greater fluency in the English language) what are the bigger internal meanings for adults of participating in ABE/ESOL…

In much research, learners' perspectives tend to be considered in light of a program's expectations or U.S. society's definitions of learner needs, rather than considering how learners would define and make sense of their own experiences, hopes, and needs. In contrast, this study considers learners' meanings as the fundamental starting point for…

The authors carefully followed for a year or more the inner experiences of learning and change of 41 ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners from all over the world. They were enrolled in three distinct U.S. programs (a community college, a family literacy site, and a workplace site), each oriented to…

While many previous studies have examined the economic impact of the General Educational Development (GED) on labor market outcomes, the results from these studies are all based on regression analyses that employ questionable comparison groups. As a result, all previous studies of the economic impact of the GED likely suffer from "selectivity…