Adult/continuing education leaders should use the visioning technique of multiple scenario building to move beyond institutional limitations and seek new opportunities to improve adult and continuing education. (SK)

Early efforts to understand adult learning were by psychologists studying learning in general. Adult educators added such theories as andragogy, self-directed learning, and perspective transformation. New perspectives (sociocultural, critical theory, and feminist) are adding to understanding. (SK)

Examines andragogy through four questions: the meaning, antecedents, facilitation, and purposes of learning. Highlights two persistent tensions in adult learning: freedom versus authority and human agency versus social structures. (SK)

Self-directed learning's contributions to understanding of adult learning include (1) insights into the learning process; (2) challenge to define and debate learner characteristics; and (3) expansion of thinking about formal learning. (SK)

Three popular theories of adult learning have not been fully exploited: (1) Cross' Chain-of-Response Model; (2) Knox's proficiency theory; and (3) McCluskey's Theory of Margin. (SK)

Transformative learning shapes the learner in profound and far-reaching ways. Conceptualizations by Mezirow, Freire, and Daloz are based on viewing learning as change in consciousness, of humans as free and responsible, of knowledge and personal and social construct, and belief in liberal democratic society. (SK)

A framework of the levels, states, and structures of consciousness suggest other ways of knowing than the rational and analytical. Modern science and ancient wisdom are complementary knowledge sources. (SK)

Situated cognition, the concept that learning is integrally situated in everyday activity, enables more accurate understanding of adult learning. Authentic activity, involving situations requiring actual rather than simulated cognitive processes, may be a better basis for adult education. (SK)

Habermas' critical theory focuses on how social structures, organizations, and institutions define, construct, and oppress learning. His theory of communicative action leads to emancipatory, learner-centered educational practice. (SK)

Two strands of feminist pedagogy are (1) the liberatory model, which examines structured power relations and systems of oppression, and (2) the gender model, dealing with women's socialization as nurturers. Adult education teaching strategies and learning environments may be based on aspects of these two models. (SK)

A complete theory of adult learning must take into consideration the learner, learning process, and context. Andragogy, self-directed learning, consciousness, critical theory, feminism, transformational learning, and situated cognition contribute to understanding of this complex phenomenon. (SK)

This reaction paper offers evidence for the effectiveness of nondirective instructional models with special needs young children. The construct of "developmentally appropriate practice" is viewed as a working hypothesis and as a continuous variable, not a dichotomous variable. Relationships between early childhood education and early childhood…

Implementation of a pyramid model to teach behavior management strategies to the staff of an integrated childcare center found improvements in performance of the three trained "specialists," improvements in other staff trained by the specialists, changes in child behavior, and general satisfaction with the training procedures. (DB)

This study, with four preschool children who displayed difficulty maintaining independent on-task behavior, found they were able to learn a self-monitoring strategy (comprising self-talk, self-appraisal, and self-recording) and to maintain the targeted behavior improvements upon removal of the prompts. (DB)

Analysis of the labor participation of 65 mothers of infants and toddlers with disabilities found a slightly greater proportion of 1-parent families than expected, entry into the labor force at approximately the same rate as other mothers, a greater proportion of mothers engaged in part-time employment, and predominance of spouses as childcare…