The investigation attempted to determine whether oral communication apprehension was related to employment status of students enrolled in adult basic education programs. Unemployed adults demonstrated greater reticence on a measure of oral communication apprehension than did employed adults. Programs designed to maximize oral communicative…

Provides an appraisal of the characteristics of adult basic education and continuing education programs relevant to the five dimensions of lifelong learning: (1) age-specific to age-inclusive; (2) formal to nonformal pedagogy; (3) individual to collective learning; (4) social maintenance to social change; and (5) intraorganizational to…

Describes the work of William T. Richardson, a principal figure in the Port Royal Experiment. Richardson taught and supervised the teaching of several thousand newly freed Black adults in the Sea Islands during the Civil War. His work offers a look at an early chapter in adult basic education's history. (Author/CH)

Reports the development and testing of a practical instrument, the Self-Description Questionnaire, that can be used by teachers to identify the psychosocial factors contributing to learning problems experienced by low literate adults. Provides examples of how teachers can use the framework and data obtained from the instrument. Includes the…

Path analysis of data from 349 English as a Second Language (ESL), 111 adult basic education (ABE), and 154 adult secondary education students indicated that student persistence contributed to reading achievement only in ESL and had a negative effect in ABE. Initial ability, individualized curricula, and full-time staff were primary influences on…

Review of Quigley's "Rethinking Literacy Education" (1997) identifies areas of ambivalence over whether a vision for adult literacy education can be achieved. Themes include the social view of illiteracy, "happy consciousness," attrition and resistance, and action research. (SK)

Replicating an Indiana study, 261 responses from British Columbia adult educators revealed a high degree of support for codes of ethics and identified ethical dilemmas in practice. Half currently operated under a code. Responses to whether codes should have a regulatory function were mixed. (Contains 44 references.) (SK)

A telephone survey of 129 Iowa adults who had not completed high school determined reasons for lack of participation in adult basic education. Factor analysis of 32 reasons yielded 4 interpretable factors: low perception of need, perceived effort, dislike of school, and situational barriers. Low perception correlated with age and situational…

One hundred sixty adult basic education students functioning at or below the sixth-grade level rated the extent to which they needed to learn 20 functional tasks. Factor analysis suggested three broad categories: everyday reading and writing, math and measurement, and special literacy tasks. Cluster analysis identified distinct subgroups based on…

Wisconsin's General Educational Development score requirements are the highest in the United States. Data from 480 test takers before the raised standards and 480 after show the latter group studied more weeks, received significantly higher scores, and had more postsecondary education and employment opportunities. The failure rate increased by 50%…

Content analysis of five consumer education workbooks used in adult literacy classes examined depictions of the market and literacy learners as consumers. A hidden curriculum that promotes ideologies disrespectful of learners was discerned. The ideologies maintain inequalities by blaming financial failure on consumers, ignoring the larger social,…

The study was created of a typology of low-literate adults based on deterrents to participation in adult basic education. Deterrent information obtained from 160 low-literate adult students was used as the database for the research. Six types of low-literate adults were identified. The typology provides a basis for program development to meet the…

An Indiana survey of 113 of 248 adult basic educators, 113 of 117 trainers, and 23 of 29 continuing educators identified ethical dilemmas they face. Fifty-two percent believed a code of ethics should be created and enforced by professional associations, covering broad issues. Those who had experience with codes were positive about them. (SK)

Prison inmates (n=71) were randomly assigned to an experimental group (computer-assisted and traditional instruction) or control group (traditional only). The study attempted to avoid flaws of similar research by using the same traditional instructors, same length of instruction, and posttest administration after 4 weeks. No differences in reading…

A study of relationship between teaching style (measured by Principles of Adult Learning Scale) and student achievement based on teacher assessment involved teachers and students in an adult basic education (ABE) program. Though teaching style and achievement are linked, approach in ABE and English as a second language settings differs from more…