Jack R. Cunningham

Book Review: Adult Learning Methods, 2nd EditionAdult Learning Methods, 2nd Edition. by GalbraithMichael W.. Malabar, FL.: Kreiger Publishing Company, 1998. ISBN: 1-57524-015-7.

Adult Learning Methods, 2nd Edition is a revision of a text with the same name originally released in 1990. The purpose of the original book was to inform a rapidly expanding adult education discipline of the dominant teaching and learning methods in use by adult educators. During the period of the 1990s, the adult education field continued to demonstrate dynamic expansion, gaining a maturity and acceptance as a serious educati?nal endeavor. Obviously, the teachmg/ learning methods also underwent considerable change. The purpose of 2nd Edition is to present several methods of teaching adults not covered in the original version. Galbraith is professor of Adult Education at Florida Atlantic University. He has been a consistent contributor to the adult education discussion throughout the 1990s. As editor of the book, he enlisted the top contributors to the field of adult education to write chapters. The book reads like a whos who in adult education. The reader will recognize Richard Ackerman, Harvard; Stephen Brookfield, St. Thomas; Gary Conti, Oklahoma State; Huey Long, Oklahoma University; Victoria Marsick, Columbia University; Burton Sisco, University of Wyoming; Raymond Wlodkowski, Regis University, and a host of other significant writers. Part one describes the basic issues attendant to the teaching of adults. This part (six chapters) overviews

Book Review: Becoming a Critically Reflective TeacherBecoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, by BrookfieldStephen D.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995. 296 pp.

This volume answers the need of ministers for fresh homiletical ideas and different approaches for their sermons. The 156 sermon briefs are based on scripture passages from the Revised Common Lectionary. Each Sunday features a message from Old Testament, Gospel, and Epistle lessons. The Sundays are identified according to the Christian Year, recognizing and honoring the major festivals of the Church Ecumenical. A worship theme prefaces a listing of readings, a call to worship based on the Psalm for the day, a pastoral prayer, and the three sermon briefs. The aim of the lectionary is to present in a three-year cycle all of the major teachings of the Bible from preachable texts. Faithful use of the lectionary for text selection has produced homiletical variety and has, in many cases, rescued preaching programs from the subjectivity of the preachers private interests. This volume presents the work of forty-three contributions from several denominations. Additional features include twelve devotions for preachers, sermons for special days, hymn suggestions for each Sunday, benedictions, a complete lectionary listing in one place, a listing of contributors, and an index by scriptural reference. The book is an excellent resource for preachers. The choice of able contributors and the handy format make it a highly useful volume. Editor Michael Duduit is publisher and editor of Preaching magazine, Visiting Professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and editor of Handbook ofContemporary Preaching.

30.95. ISBN 0-7879-0131-8.

Since the late 1960s, the literature of adult education has expanded from a few seminal researchers to an avalanche of writers investigating any conceivable comer of the field. Almost from the time Malcolm Knowles attempted to define a distinct separation between pedagogy and andragogy, debate has centered on the validity of adult education incorporating learnercentered theory and methodology. Teacher-centered practitioners have criticized adult educators for a perceived lack of didactic structure and objective outcomes. Patricia Crantons two books clearly chronicle the movement of adult education away from traditional, behavioral, teacher-centered philosophy toward a progressive, transfonnative, learner-centered approach. Planning Instruction for Adult Learners takes tentative steps toward an adult education design by introducing readers to adult learner characteristics and basic Knowlesform andragogy. From these beginnings, Cranton leads the reader through the basics of learning domains, levels of learning, objective forming, and other typically Magerian discussions. Using hierarchical taxonomies, the author de-

Book Review: Planning Instructions for Adult LearnersPlanning Instructions for Adult Learners, by CrantonPatricia. Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989. 215 pp.

given to helping families become full partners in the Christian education process. Christian Education covers a broad spectrum of church educational opportunities. The reader is presented with a number of possibilities not normally found in similar works. Therein may be the greatest weakness of the book. The number of subjects covered necessitated that depth of content be sacrificed. This text could be used in an introductory course in Christian education. It certainly could assist the minister of education in the task of organizing and facilitating the educational program of the church.

19.95. ISBN 0-921332-24-6.Working With Adult Learners, by CrantonPatricia. Toronto: Wall and Emerson, 1992. 234 pp.

articles are supplemented with sidebars or shadow inserts. Case studies, interviews, and dialogues are used. Discussion of more volatile issues are often presented in the form of debate with two writers taking opposing sides of the issue. The reader is given the integrity of determining which position (if any) is to be accepted. Most of the authors confront the issues of leadership and programming from a philosophical position of ownership by the singles. Effective leadership is promoted as enlisting singles into leadership positions within the singles ministry and then encouraging self-directedness. One important doctrine of the book is inclusion of singles as people of the church. While a singles program is viewed as critical to the ministry of the church, most of the writers are insistent that singles be integrated into corporate leadership and ministry roles. Isolating singles into cohort programs is viewed as damaging to both singles and to the church. Controversial issues are confronted in Single Adult Ministry. Unmarried sexual activity, divorce, remarriage, homosexuality, and children of singles are some of the subjects the reader will discover. Most of the articles take a conservative, biblical approach to counseling and discipline but demonstrate a sensitivity and graceful resolution to these issues. It is in the discussion of these areas that the debate style of format creates an interesting tension for the reader. The diversity of opinion regarding ministry style is evident in these discussions. Single Adult Ministry is not a textbook to be chosen as a primary book for a seminary course. It is unapologetically methodological and practical. It does not address important developmental issues. It is a good resource for ministers with singles and could be helpful as practical reading assignments in college and seminary courses which have the primary focus on single adult ministries.