Adult Education Classes Research Articles

Speechant: a vowel notation system to teach English pronunciation

This paper introduces a new vowel notation system aimed at aiding the teaching of English pronunciation. This notation system, designed as an enhancement to orthographic text, was designed to use concepts borrowed from the representation of musical notes and is also linked to the acoustic characteristics of vowel sounds. Vowel timbre is represented in terms of the height of the symbol and vowel duration in terms of the length of the symbol. The Speechant system was evaluated in EFL adult education classes in Portugal. A formal assessment that measured the impact of a term's tuition by looking at changes in accent ratings of the learners over that period showed that the group taught using the Speechant system showed greater improvements in pronunciation than the control group. Speechant may be an especially useful aid to pronunciation teaching in situations in which foreign languages are taught without the benefit of technological support.

Moral Treatment of the Insane: Provisions for Lifelong Learning, Cultural Engagement, and Creativity in Nineteenth-Century Asylums

The current interest in the role of lifelong learning and cultural engagement for change is not new. This article looks at a most unusual precedent and a neglected area in the historiography of adult education – the use of cultural education provision in asylums in the nineteenth century to promote cure and restoration of the ‘insane’ to society. Focusing on the example of Crichton Royal Institution in Scotland, but with reference to other asylums, the many activities offered to patients – formal adult education classes, access to asylum libraries and museums, publication of asylum periodicals, musical and theatrical entertainments, drawing and painting, and attendance at cultural events beyond the asylum walls – are discussed. The article examines the reasons for their introduction, assesses the impact that such activity had on the lives of this most marginalized of social groups, and argues that they can be seen as an early and innovative example of lifelong learning in practice.

Reading, Writing, & Cooking: Partnering With Adult Education Classes to Teach Nutrition to Low-income Adults

Reading, Writing, & Cooking: Partnering With Adult Education Classes to Teach Nutrition to Low-income Adults

Keep on taking the courses

For years my wife has had the privilege of belonging to an adult education class taken by one of the foremost glass-engravers in the country. The latter fits this into an incredibly demanding life — imagine weeks of arduous and intricate work on a glass panel being occasionally and unpredictably destroyed in the toughening process — purely out of love and affection for her devoted pupils. And in spite of the manifest quality of her sensitive, inspiring, and individually-tailored teaching, this consummate craftsman has to jump through a host of bureaucratic hoops in order to continue the class. For example it has recently been decreed that she must produce advance plans, wonderfully fashionable but utterly inappropriate for her proven teaching style, for every session. And now she is also sent on …

Educating the people: Cours d’adultes and social stratification in France, 1830–1870

This essay examines the formation, operation, and social effects of adult education classes in France during the nineteenth century. These classes were created and operated prior to the formation of France’s national education system and were part of the expansion of primary schooling for the working class, or more generally for “the people”. The more formally organised classes were typically held at local Catholic and non‐sectarian primary schools throughout France, but this essay argues that classes held in a variety of other settings contributed to the diversity of adult education courses offered in the 1830s and 1840s. During this early period, the diversity of adult education courses led to wide‐ranging social effects, including a challenge to the existing political and social order. Ultimately, however, adult education courses were incorporated into the developing national primary education system and became part of the formation of a generalised system of social distinction that defined and reproduced hierarchies of class and gender in modern French society.

Gênero textual exposição oral na educação de jovens e adultos

Este artigo apresenta resultados do trabalho com o gênero textual Exposição Oral (EO) em uma turma da modalidade EJA - Ensino Médio de uma escola pública da cidade de Caxias do Sul. O propósito deste trabalho é auxiliar estudantes a ampliar seu repertório de gêneros de textos orais e subsidiar os professores a elaborar um trabalho didático-pedagógico sistematizado, sequência didática (SD), para a apropriação do gênero exposição oral. Também inserimos a exposição oral no conjunto de gêneros que podem ser trabalhados na implantação/implementação de uma rádio escolar, proporcionando um desempenho satisfatório nesse ambiente discursivo. Este estudo integra a pesquisa-ação Mídias e escola: letramentos e gêneros textuais e utiliza os dispositivos de problematização, ação, reflexão, ação, transformação.

The Connections among Immigration, Nation Building and Adult Education English as a Second Language Instruction in the United States

Since its inception at the turn of the last century, adult education English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction in the United States has been entwined with immigration processes and ideas of the nation. In spite of current uncertainty about the overhauling of federal immigration policy, increasingly anti-immigrant laws in states such as Arizona, and attempts to restrict immigration in cities like Hazelton, Pennsylvania, demand for ESL instruction continues to be the fastest-growing sector of adult basic education (U.S. Department of Educational Statistics, 2005). Adult educators need to know about the origins of English-language teaching in the United States because the past can reveal ways to better shape the future. invites us to use imagination to enter the lives of our predecessors, a kind of cross-cultural experience through time. Indeed, none of us has come to our worldview through logic alone; we are all formed in large part by our own personal and social histories. History is not the story of strangers, aliens from another realm; it is the story of us had we been born a little earlier (Fry, 2006, p. 3). This article offers a history of adult education ESL instruction in the United States, followed by a discussion of key issues in the immigration literature that impact adult educators and their work in program development and classroom teaching. A Brief of Adult Education ESL Adult education ESL originated as part of the settlement house movement, made famous by Hull House in Chicago. Founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 (Addams, 1910), Hull House served the needs of recent immigrants, most of whom were from Southern and Eastern Europe. Settlement houses marked the beginning of the field of social work in the United States, and adult education classes, including English education, were intimately linked to that endeavor. Around the same time, the ethnic press was emerging in large industrial cities, and with it came ethnic organizations devoted to maintaining the immigrant's native languages and cultures (Mohl, 1982). The Polish, German, and Irish were able to create parochial schools, but Chinese, Greek, Russian, and Jewish immigrants faced more barriers, and established afternoon and weekend classes. Ethnic organizations were run by immigrants, and their goals were to teach English and promote bilingualism/biculturalism for youth. The International Institutes Around 1910, the International Institute movement began as part of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). International Institutes assisted immigrants in finding housing and work, and they offered English classes. The YWCA, a Protestant organization, grew from the social gospel movement, which emphasized the protection of women and immigrants over evangelism (Mohl, 1982). The International Institutes' pluralistic approach to immigration was in stark contrast to that of the public schools, where the unabashed goal was to eliminate immigrant languages and cultures in order to produce Americans. Before, during, and after WWI, anti-immigrant sentiment was steadily building in the United States, and the founder of the International Institutes movement, Edith Terry Bremer, spoke against the xenophobic discourses of the time. In regards to the Americanization Movement, she said, was ignorance in it; there was the arrogant assumption that everything American was intrinsically superior to anything foreign. There was fear in it. There were the germs of hate in it. None of these things make for anything but a sharp division, a deeper separation between peoples (Cited in Mohl, 1982, p. 119). Bremer saw immigrants' languages and cultures as resources that would contribute both to the newcomers' success and to the richness of the nation. Her contemporary was Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology (Stocking, 1974), who used anthropology to argue for racial equality and the benefits of immigration, just as Bremer did. …

The Meaning Depends: Learning about Me and My Learning

This reflective paper discusses aspects of my personal development as an adult learner. Though that development is reflected in my practice as an adult educator, I do not explore those implications in the paper. Instead, I grapple with what is means to make meaning, to determine how I know what I think I know (Taylor, Marienau, & Fiddler, 2000). I explore the tension for me between external authority and self-authorship, between dualistic and dialectical thinking, and between a single and multiple identities. I provide examples of the power of reflection and reflective writing for making meaning. constructivist view of meaning making is implicit in my reflections. I explore the embedded assumption of self-agency in this view and question whether I can really escape the sociocultural filters as I choose who I want to be. I conclude with a celebration of my development to date and a determination to keep on learning! I Thought I Became a Dialectic Thinker I wrote an analysis of my learning perspective in February 2007 using a lifespan approach in a knowledge paper for an adult education class. The title was A Progression From Dualist to Dialectic. I wrote about my original perspective that there was one truth from the fight authority and my development to authoring my own truths and commitments. I used the following two personal experiences to illustrate my perspective transformation, what Kegan (1994) would call development of a self-authored mind from a socialized mind. Mrs. Brendle, my third grade teacher, told me the correct English was, Are coming to dinner? not Are coming to dinner? I remember that I told Mrs. Brendle she had to be wrong because my Dad always said yous. Up to this point, I believed what my parents told me, and I believed my teachers. This is the first time that I remember the two authorities in my life were telling me something different. Which one was the true authority? I understood at that time that there was only one right answer. I had to choose one or the other way of speaking, but I could not choose one or the other person. I needed to please both, so I said you at school and yous at home. It was not until I studied German in high school that I understood the language issue came from my Pennsylvania Dutch culture. My daughter was born when I was 27. I had to figure out how to care for this life. Her father had some ideas; my mother told me one thing; my mother-in-law told me another; my neighbor gave me advice; I read Dr. Spock. When I did something different from the most recent advice offered, someone was always saying, Well, I guess my way was not good enough. I had to be the mother; I had to make a decision. I could not wait for a certain answer, if there was one to figure out. I had to do something. I quickly learned that my decision was crucial: it depended on the context; it depended on the child; it depended on what I decided was the most important thing to accomplish at the time. I created my own role of mother. It included not losing who I was before I was a mother. I gave up the idea that there was some ultimate truth out there for me to discover about parenting and just did the best I could as I understood it. In reflecting on this, I remember this as my first really adult thinking, creating my own meaning and troth from the multitude of authoritative voices, not making a dialectical either/or choice. Not Yet Arrived! I took the Kolb inventory in another adult education class, and the results did not show me as a strong reflective observer. The professor for this class had indicated that reflective observation was critical for dissertation-quality work. I struggled with this in my learning journal. I thought I was good at this, but now it seems I am not, so I have to talk to my professor about this. In this conversation with my professor, her question to me was, How about disagreeing with the results? …

Práticas de letramento na educação de jovens e adultos

This article discusses literacy education practices in events with newspapers and magazines, in which participated 27 reading students and a teacher in a Youth and Adult Education class in a municipal public school of Florianópolis in 2007. The theoretical perspective adopted for the data analysis is that of the New Literacy Studies (Street 2003; Barton 1994; Gee 2004, 2005;  Dionísio 2007a, 2007b) with an emphasis on the models of autonomous and ideological literacy proposed by Street (2003). The data presented demonstrate the existence of reading and writing practices in a Youth and Adult Education (EJA) which, at certain times, come close to the autonomous literacy education model, and at others, the ideological model. The data also reveal that linking educational practices to social practices allows understanding the plurality of the literacy practices, generating meanings helpful to students in relation to the methodology of teaching used and the reading and writing in use.

A randomized controlled trial comparing an adult education class using cognitive behavioural therapy (“stress control”), anxiety management group treatment and a waiting list for anxiety disorders

Background: Anxiety disorders are extremely common and regularly treated in group settings. At present there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of group anxiety management courses.Aims: To examine the relative efficacies of a six week cognitive behavioural adult education evening class, a traditional anxiety management group and a waiting list group in the treatment of anxiety disorders.Method: Individuals with a DSM IV anxiety disorder were randomized to either a cognitive behavioural therapy adult education evening class (Stress Control), anxiety management group treatment or a waiting list control condition. Both active treatments lasted 2 hours per week for 6 weeks in total.Results: There were no significant differences between any of the groups on the main outcome measure. Stress Control and Anxiety Management showed significantly greater mean reductions on the Fear Questionnaire than the Waiting List group post-treatment but this difference was no longer present at one month follow-up. There were no differences at any time point between anxiety management and Stress Control. The initial presence of depression was highly predictive of poor outcome.Conclusions: This study does not support the routine use of Stress Control or Anxiety Management in group settings for individuals referred to secondary care with anxiety disorders. Further research is required to determine if specific individuals would benefit from these approaches or whether they should be included in a stepped-care pathway for the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Patient-centered approach for improving prescription drug warning labels

Objective To use a patient-centered approach to refine warning labels promoting the safe use of prescription drugs among patients, regardless of literacy level. Methods Ten discussion groups were conducted among adults recruited from a general internal medicine clinic and four adult education classes. Participants completed face-to-face cognitive interviews with literacy assessment to determine comprehension of the 10 most commonly used drug warning labels, followed by a discussion group that solicited feedback for revising text and icons. Results In all, 85 adults participated; 56% had limited literacy skills. Feedback from discussion groups indicated that the majority of icons were confusing, used difficult language, and text and icons were often discordant. Participants sought actionable language in the most simple and concise manner. In comprehension testing, five of the warning labels reached a set standard of >80% comprehension; the remaining labels were revised and three others modified on patients’ request. A universal icon that conveyed ‘Caution’ was used for one label (“use only on your skin”) as patients were unable to agree on an acceptable visual representation. Conclusion A patient-centered approach to designing consumer medication information could improve the comprehensibility of existing warning labels. Practice implications Pharmacies should review existing drug warnings to assess adequacy among patients, particularly those with limited literacy. Pharmacists should confirm patients understand auxiliary warnings to support safe and effective use.

"Doctoral Strange Love or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb": A Report on the University College Dublin James Joyce Research Colloquium, 16-19 April 2008

"Doctoral Strange Love or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb":A Report on the University College Dublin James Joyce Research Colloquium, 16-19 April 2008 Christopher Whalen (bio) There is a new event on the Joyce calendar. For graduate students, it is another welcome opportunity to enjoy a free busman's holiday. Hosted by the University College Dublin James Joyce Research Centre, the format devised by the organizers Anne Fogarty and Luca Crispi is distinct from other established Joycean gatherings, such as the Dublin and Trieste summer schools, the symposia, or the Zurich workshops. Speakers sit down to deliver their papers to an audience small but perfectly formed. Around twenty graduate and postdoctoral scholars join the twelve speakers at each session. Other participants are, of course, welcome and swell the pairs of ears to between forty and fifty people. This smaller, more specialist scale enables one to speak to most, if not all, of those in attendance during the course of the four-day event. There were no parallel sessions, and almost everyone was able to stay until the end, so the intellectual exchanges gathered a sustained momentum. Students came from Taiwan, Lithuania, India, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine, and North America, as well as Ireland and the United Kingdom, aided by generous scholarships that covered travel and accommodation costs and waived the registration fee. The colloquium format is a throw-back to the Paris Colloques Joyce of the 1980s that Fritz Senn remembers fondly in his Murmoirs.1 Speaking of memoirs, the colloquium reflected an emergent trend in Joyce studies: autobiography. The opening lecture by Michael Groden was a surprisingly personal development of the biography of Ulysses that he had been touting for the past few years. Groden read a section of his latest work in progress: a book about a boy becoming a man reading a book about the invasion of privacy. The project has a manifold impetus. First, there is that common question from Groden's adult-education classes on Ulysses in Toronto and New York: "Why read Ulysses?" Or as Groden preferred to phrase it: "Why did I it? Why did it me?" Then there was a two-page letter he once wrote to Stephen James Joyce attempting to explain why he had devoted his life to the study of the grandfather's work, regretted as soon as it had been posted. This eventually turned into an initially resisted contribution to a collection of essays about privacy edited by his second wife and high-school sweetheart, Molly Peacock.2 The writing has continued to lengthen. Despite this test airing, the book [End Page 13] is not aimed at a Joycean nor even an academic readership. Groden hopes it will attract new readers to Ulysses. Some of us now know more about Groden's private life than we could have ever wished for (a stark contrast to Senn's book, which is characteristically cagey about his personal affairs). But the auto-biographical approach, particularly when it is so carefully reflective, does have its merits. Having confessed to a lonely childhood hobby of counting and tabulating his collection of bottle tops while listening to and keeping statistics on the pop-music charts on the radio, it is evident how and why Groden, once a freshman mathematics major at Dartmouth, went on to develop an expertise in the genetic study and indexing of manuscripts. Anne Fogarty also encouraged an autobiographical slant from the other speakers. Emer Nolan admitted that she could not be as lucid as Groden because she has not had all the therapy he has had before going on to speak about her experiences as a graduate student from Ireland in the 1980s. She never read Ulysses while she was at University College Dublin and only considered writing her Ph.D. dissertation on Joyce at Cambridge when she realized that working on George Eliot under the supervision of Dame Gillian Beer would be a dead-end. Hers was the first Cantab. thesis on Joyce since Colin MacCabe ruffled feathers. Vicki Mahaffey spoke candidly on how one of the hard things about research is to retain one's sense of wonder and how patience...

Education for Older Adults with Early-Stage Dementia: Health Promotion for the Mind, Body, and Spirit

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 13-week adult education class for older adults with early-stage dementia titled Health Promotion for the Mind, Body, and Spirit. The mixed method research design (N = 14) used a quasiexperimental one-group pretest/posttest and the qualitative methods of focus group and phone interview with caregivers. Pre and posttest measures included the Mini-Mental State Exam, Geriatric Depression Scale–Short Form, and the General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale. There were significant changes in general perceived self-efficacy scores and a reported increase in “growth through confidence” from the participants and caregivers. Age range of the participants was 67 to 89 years of age (M = 78.8, SD = 5.9) The course was theoretically driven by the Corbin and Strauss Trajectory Model for Chronic Illness Management (Corbin & Strauss, 1991). The study highlights the inclusion of an adult education course for people with early stage dementia as part of the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Southern Maine.

Reviews: Lifelong Learning: Concepts and Contexts, Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship, Class Concerns: Adult Education and Social Class, Recruitment, Retention and Retirement in Higher Education: Building and Managing the Faculty of the Future, Perspectives on Distance Education: Lifelong Learning and

Reviews: Lifelong Learning: Concepts and Contexts, Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship, Class Concerns: Adult Education and Social Class, Recruitment, Retention and Retirement in Higher Education: Building and Managing the Faculty of the Future, Perspectives on Distance Education: Lifelong Learning and

"This Holy Man": Impressions of Metropolitan Anthony

Reviewed by Barbara Newman Northwestern University "This Holy Man": Impressions of Metropolitan Anthony. By Gillian Crow. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2005. xvi + 251 pp. $17.95 When I came to London as a graduate student in 1979, my chief concerns were learning to navigate the labyrinthine catalogue of the British Library and finding a sandwich shop I could afford. But I had another agenda as well. Having recently decided to join the Orthodox Church, I was seeking instruction, which I could not find in the ethnic enclaves of parish life. Thus it happened that, after plunking down three pounds for an adult education class on Russian Orthodoxy, I found myself scrunched into a third-grader's desk at a school in West Kensington, listening to a wizard with a mellifluous bass voice and incandescent eyes tell us why St. Seraphim of Sarov had fled his monastery to live as a hermit in the forest. During break, as I sipped my tea and tried to look inconspicuous, I too wanted to flee when, to my horror, I saw the wizard heading straight toward me. He had noticed an unfamiliar face so, naturally enough, he came to introduce himself and ask, "Now who are you?" I fumbled for a moment and replied, "Ummm—could you ask me an easier question?" That inauspicious meeting was my first encounter with "this holy man," the Russian archbishop of London—known to his fellow hierarchs as Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, to readers around the world as Anthony Bloom, and to his disciples simply as "Father Anthony." During the eight months I spent at his cathedral of All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, I realized that I had stumbled into a living laboratory of hagiography. Waiting at the bus stop in Knightsbridge, I could hear miracle stories as readily as complaints about the weather. The faithful shared anecdotes with love and wonder, tinged with a possessive edge. Women competed jealously for the privilege of cleaning the church on Mondays because the bishop might pass through, en route to his monastic cell behind the altar, and scatter words of life. When he heard confessions, the line snaked all the way from the icon screen to the back of the church, and when he preached, all chatter and squirming ceased. Despite her title with its careful quotation marks, Gillian Crow claims that Bishop Anthony was "not a saint but, like everyone, a human being with his sins and weaknesses" (xi). Fair enough—but if we are waiting for a human being without sins and weaknesses, saints by definition do not exist. (Wasn't even Jesus unreasonable [End Page 260] when he cursed the fig tree, although "it was not the season for fruit"?) What Crow really means, I suspect, is that her subject was not a saint in the style of medieval hagiography—one of those insufferable prigs who, even in infancy, refused the breast on Fridays. By that standard, though, not even medieval saints were "saints." It was literary convention that required biographers to smooth away all flaws, to write as if every clash of personalities were a titanic struggle between God and Satan, every chance event a divine intervention. These days, we prefer our saints in their full humanity, complete with infuriating sins and embarrassing weaknesses. For what matters is not perfection but love. "No one can renounce the world," Bishop Anthony liked to say, "until she has seen the light of eternity shining in a human face." In this admiring but honest biography, Gillian Crow gives us as true a reflection of one such face as we are likely to find. Born André Blum in Lausanne, Switzerland, only months before World War I, Metropolitan Anthony would become one of the most extraordinary churchmen of the twentieth century. Through his charismatic preaching, lectures, and radio broadcasts, he was responsible for the conversion of thousands, bringing hope to the persecuted Soviet church even as he transformed the Orthodox diaspora in Britain...

Literacy education as treatment for depression in patients with limited literacy and depression

Individuals with limited literacy and those with depression share many characteristics, including low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, and shame. To determine whether literacy education, provided along with standard depression treatment to adults with depression and limited literacy, would result in greater improvement in depression than would standard depression treatment alone. Randomized clinical trial with patients assigned either to an intervention group that received standard depression treatment plus literacy education, or a control group that received only standard depression treatment. Seventy adult patients of a community health center who tested positive for depression using the 9-question Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and had limited literacy based on the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM). Depression severity was assessed with PHQ-9 scores at baseline and at 3 follow-up evaluations that took place up to 1 year after study enrollment. Changes in PHQ-9 scores between baseline and follow-up evaluations were compared between the intervention and control groups. The median PHQ-9 scores were similar in both the intervention and control groups at baseline (12.5 and 14, respectively). Nine-question Patient Health Questionnaire scores improved in both groups, but the improvement was significantly larger in the intervention group. The final follow-up PHQ-9 scores declined to 6 in the intervention group but only to 10 in the control group. There may be benefit to assessing the literacy skills of patients who are depressed, and recommending that patients with both depression and limited literacy consider enrolling in adult education classes as an adjuvant treatment for depression.

Market Socialism Meets the Lost Generation: Motivational Orientations of Adult Learners in Shanghai

In Western countries, women and men, young and old, enroll in adult education for different reasons. This is even more the case in China. This study helps Shanghai program planners better appreciate learners by understandinghow motivational orientations vary as a function of gender and age. The Chinese version of the Education Participation Scale was administered to 448 adults enrolled in Shanghai adult education classes. It had a factor structure loosely comparable to the English version. Women were more inclined than men to be enrolled for social stimulation, social contact and cognitive interest. However, gender differences were less pronounced than those for age. The Cultural Revolution and pressures of market socialism in postmodern Shanghai appeared to shape motivational orientations of participants who came of age between 1966 and 1976. Just the fact that learners were asked about motivational orientations may change the politics of human subjectivity in Shanghai adult education.

GED Scholars Initiative at Kent State University “Inspiring the inspired”

The GED Scholars Initiative (GEDSI) is a federally funded project of the Ohio Literacy Resource Center at Kent State University (KSU). The Ohio Literacy Resource Center (OLRC) serves as resource center for adult educators and practitioners who provide direct services to adults enrolled in adult basic literacy education (ABLE) classes. The OLRC and the Academic Success Center (ASC), a division of Undergraduate Studies at KSU are the principal partners in the development of the GEDSI. The Initiative is currently being piloted at the Kent and Stark campuses. The GEDSI was established to create and enhance academic, technology, and financial supportive services for GED graduates. This article focuses on females who have obtained their GED and are full‐ or part‐time students at KSU. The women in this study participated in one‐on‐one interviews and a formal questionnaire that included these items: They were homeschooled or dropped out of high school and began a GED program at a later date. The results of this preliminary investigation have led to the establishment of a peer mentor group, a computer lab and technology workshops, a shadowing program for interested GED graduates in the community, and closer collaboration with the GED Scholars at Kent State in the planning for the second year of the federally sponsored Initiative.

EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON ACHIEVEMENT OF ADULT LEARNERS IN INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY CLASSES

A structured eight-week cooperative learning intervention was implemented in two Year 11 Psychology classes. Each class was taught alternately under cooperative learning and traditional instruction. Three different measures of student achievement were used: a pretest, a 10-item quiz, and an overall posttest. In addition, all students completed the Learning Preference Scale – Students (LPSS; Barnes, Owens, & Straton, 1990) at posttest. The results indicated no overall effects on academic achievement. Rather, it was found that the effects of cooperative learning differed across the two classes. Further, significant differences were found in preferred learning styles between the two classes. It was concluded that successful implementation of cooperative learning in adult education classes relies upon effective teacher management skills.

'I told them not to love one another!' Gender, Christianity and the role of adult education in the Ugandan response to HIV/AIDS

'I told them not to love one another!' Gender, Christianity and the role of adult education in the Ugandan response to HIV/AIDS Marc Fiedrich1 (bio) Introduction: Acknowledging The Boundaries Of Adult Education The only vaccine to combat HIV/AIDS is education. (…) Unlike other contagious diseases, AIDS is easy to prevent and preventive education works. (proceedings of workshop, UNESCO 2001) The image of education as an injection drug is a popular and compelling one, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. But while it provides a welcome boost to health education activities, it also carries substantial risks. The most pertinent is perhaps that education here appears as an external force that penetrates societies and individuals and reforms them in a predefined way. Such an overestimation of the powers of education is not only bound to create disappointment, it also skews our interpretation of failure once it does occur. When education fails to produce the 'rational' behaviour changes it is believed to harness (condom use, abstinence, faithfulness), inflated expectations are rarely blamed, instead education's unfulfilled promise is explained by pointing to 'barriers' that allegedly stood in its way: tradition, ignorance or, simply, 'culture'. In this paper I argue that it is more useful to think of the moral boundaries within which education takes place than of the barriers to it. Crucially, the idea that education may push boundaries while at the same time proceeding within boundaries allows us to consider the educational process as an expression of the historical and political contexts within which it takes place. By contrast, a focus on barriers to education easily dehistoricises and depoliticises the endeavour, forgetting that education reproduces rather than invents societies. [End Page 17] I start out by looking at why facilitators in one adult education programme in Madudu, central Uganda either evaded the issue of HIV/AIDS or limited themselves to hastily disseminated, moralising reminders about the value of faithfulness and abstinence. This tendency is all the more surprising when considering that the same group of facilitators eagerly discussed questions about HIV/AIDS and sex during their own training to become adult educators. Why did they regard such a discussion as inappropriate or difficult in the context of an adult education class? A first line of explanation considers the long-standing link between adult education and Christian organisations and practices. Learning rituals in the classes resonated with those of Christian worship and this I argue has consequences for the moral boundaries of debate. In short, facilitators and participants were not comfortable for class discussions to contemplate without immediate condemnation those practices and beliefs they took to be 'un-Christian'. Some adult educators may consider this a barrier to 'open debate' and one that in this case may carry serious health risks. It is argued here that recognition of such boundaries is a helpful first step for exploring means of working within them as well as expanding them. This is not to say that adult education should avoid challenging the sometimes undoubtedly bigoted views of learners but it is to say that, for better or worse, the control programmes can exercise over actual debates in classes is far more limited than widely imagined. To recognise this puts into perspective some of the contradictions that have plagued adult education practitioners ever since Freirean conscientisation efforts were first criticised. The perception of gender relations is a second important aspect explaining why debates in the classes were more likely to stick with solemn pledges to marital faithfulness than to address safer sex practices. Far from being self-assured patriarchs, I argue that many Ugandan men, rightly or wrongly, perceive their male authority to be on the wane. HIV/AIDS may well be a contributing factor, since public debate on the issue tends to condemn what was previously widely considered a virtue - men's sexual prowess. Being the wife of a man with largely unfulfilled patriarchal aspirations can be a delicate role to assume and this may prove all the more true for women learners. That is so because schools in Uganda have long been regarded not only as a place of opportunity for women but also as a risk to their feminine integrity. Thus...