Joellen E. Coryell

Implementing E-Learning components with adult English language learners: Vital factors and lessons learned

The growing use of both computers and the Internet in adult English language classrooms has widespread implications for English language programs. As computer access increases, so do new learning technologies in adult literacy education. Specifically, this paper is interested in the case of adult English language instruction, also commonly referred to as English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and blending e-learning components as tools for supporting English acquisition. Increasingly in adult English language classrooms, e-learning is being employed as an instructional strategy. Given the multitude of options, how do instructors and program directors of English Language Learners (ELLs) begin to choose an approach that is right for their programs and learners? Through the analysis of survey and focus group data, this study explored how programs across the United States are successfully implementing e-learning components in their adult English language classrooms.

Case Studies of Internationalization in Adult and Higher Education: Inside the Processes of Four Universities in the United States and the United Kingdom

This report outlines a method for learning about the internationalization processes at institutions of adult and higher education and then provides the analysis of data gathered from the researchers’ own institution and from site visits to three additional universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was found that campus internationalization requires a deep understanding and appreciation of the institutional context. In addition, although elements of internationalization may be implemented, the findings indicate there is a need to underpin these approaches with (a) a shared understanding of what internationalization is and the ways it should ultimately impact student learning within an institution and (b) a collection of assessment methods for evaluating internationalization efforts and learning outcomes. Implications and recommendations for further research are also offered.

Collaborative, Comparative Inquiry and Transformative Cross-Cultural Adult Learning and Teaching: A Western Educator Metanarrative and Inspiring a Global Vision.

Intentionally designing international perspectives into adult educator preparation programs is a step toward developing instructors’ social and instructional cache of understandings about learning, knowledge, and facilitative methodologies that transcend their own Western cultural influences. In a class offered through an MA in adult learning and teaching program at a large Southwestern university, students examined their personal perceptions about adult education and investigated adult learning and knowing in international settings. Through symbolic convergence and narrative analyses, the research found that the use of a collaborative, comparative inquiry framework indicated an initial Western educational metanarrative. Throughout the course, the framework also provided a cognitive and emotional scaffold to underpin the social nature of transformative learning and to inspire a global educational vision.

Becoming real: adult student impressions of developing an educational researcher identity

This study investigated the inner experiences of adults learning to become educational researchers. Through narrative analysis of doctoral students’ tales of memorable early encounters in conducting research, insight was gained into the self-questioning tension, conflict, and drama often experienced. A discussion about how to utilize students’ reflective writings to provide appropriate developmental support in doctoral programmes is provided.

Cosmopolitan Adult Education and Global Citizenship: Perceptions From a European Itinerant Graduate Professional Study Abroad Program:

Today’s sociopolitical and economic conditions require adults to engage in informed, culturally sensitive coexistence. Correspondingly, adult educators need to design experiences that help prepare learners for cross-cultural collaboration and socially responsible careers in a global age. Framed through cosmopolitanism and situated learning theories, the purpose of this study was to investigate adult learners’ sense and development of global citizenship through engagement in an innovative itinerant master’s degree program. The investigation of the experiences and contexts of this program’s community of practice provides important insight into adult global citizenship development and cosmopolitan instruction.

Those Mean Girls and Their Friends: Bullying and Mob Rule in the Academy.

This article highlights the stories and experiences of three White women who were victims of bullying and mobbing in academic settings. Related literature grounds their experiences and offers insights related to the phenomena including definitions of mobbing and bullying, characteristics of bullies, the prevalence of bullying and mobbing, and the effects of such behaviors on the victims.

Adult Learning and Doctoral Student Research Forum Participation: Insights into the Nature of Professional Participatory Experience

Few research studies have focused on student learning as conference participants. Framed by situated cognition and informal learning theories, this qualitative study investigated how participation in a uniquely designed, international doctoral forum may have played a role in students’ educational development as scholars. Findings indicate that participation in the forum had positive influences on doctoral student learning and development including enhanced understandings of the research process and the larger professional community of scholarly practice as well as increased confidence and motivation regarding students’ own dissertation studies and identities as developing researchers. The paper concludes with suggestions for designing the kinds of forums and experiences that might simultaneously extend pedagogic practice and support doctoral student development. Recommendations for further research are also discussed.

Rhyme, Response, and Reflection: An Investigation of the Possibilities for Critical Transformative Learning Through Adult Poetry Reading:

This article summarizes the results of a study of 22 self-identified poetry readers. The project was designed to discover the reasons why adults read poetry, how the love of poetry was inspired, and what they learn from poetry. Through qualitative data analyses, findings indicate that via multiple reading strategies and reflective personal engagement with the prose, our participants constructed new, more critical perspectives that transformed their worldviews. Implications on how poetry and embodied, emotional, and spiritual knowing can be effective learning resources for critical transformative learning are provided.

Capacity building at mid-programme: an international education development programme in Malawi

ABSTRACT This article reports on a case study of a mid-programme capacity building evaluation within a large education aid programme collaboration between non-governmental educational organisations in Malawi and US university literacy faculty. The article outlines the programme context and its formal and informal capacity building inputs. Analyses of data collected on capacity building at the midpoint of the programme are offered. The authors argue that capacity is built along the life of large programmes, and evaluating capacity building development (and understanding its challenges) before the end of the programme can help cross-national teams of administrators and implementers in modifying programme operations.

The Use of Learning Contracts in an Italian University Setting.

This mixed-methods study illustrates the implementation of Malcolm Knowles’s 1986 model of learning contracts in a current Italian University context. The study attempted to improve and adapt the tool to a master’s degree course at the University of Padua. Three professors conducted the integrated course, making extensive efforts to share the aims of their programs and involve the students in this research. The findings helped us reflect on how to improve the contract and better involve the students. Finally, the technology must be improved to be more user-friendly for use in blended courses.