To: aedmod@pulsar.acast.nova.edu Subject: New Horizons Spring Issue: PART A (fwd) PART A ********************************************************** ********************************************************** ******************** ******************** ************* ************* ******* ******* **** **** *** *** ** ** * NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION * * ISSN. 1062-3183 * ********************************************************** Volume 11 Number 1 Spring 1997 ********************************************************** EDITOR Nancy Gadbow................Nova Southeastern University ASSOCIATE EDITOR Linda Howard................Nova Southeastern University COPY EDITOR Donald Rigg.................Nova Southeastern University EDITORIAL BOARD H. K. (Morris) Baskett......The University of Calgary Ina Sue Brown...............Elmira College Dale Cook...................Kent State University Karen Garver................University of Nebraska Jan Jackson.................California State University Janice Johnson..............University of British Columbia John Kingsbury..............Nova Southeastern University Patricia Lawler.............Widener University Norma Long..................College of Notre Dame of Maryland Robert Preziosi.............Nova Southeastern University Mark Rossman................Graduate School of America Burt Sisco..................University of Wyoming Sue Slusarski...............Kansas State University Marlene Smadu...............Nova Southeastern University NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION is a refereed journal published by Nova Southeastern University's Programs for Higher Education. The journal is transmitted electronically through the Adult Education Network (AEDNET), accessible through BITNET and Internet. There is no charge for NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION as received electronically. Copyright of individual articles is retained by the authors. Any item that appears in NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION may be retrieved without permission. However, when this material is quoted or reproduced, the author, title of the item, and issues must be cited. Page 1 To correspond with NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION send email to horizons@fcae.nova.edu or send postal mail to: NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION Nova Southeastern University Programs for Higher Education 3301 College Avenue Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314. N E W H O R I Z O N S I N A D U L T E D U C A T I O N C O N T E N T S Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1997 I N T R O D U C T I O N Editor's Preface...........................................3 A R T I C L E S Importance of SCANS Employability Skills as Identified by Workers and Supervisors in Oregon by Wayne Fanno and R. Lee Cole....................4 A System for Discerning and Analyzing the Present State of Adult Education Dissertation Research by Thomas A. Lifvendahl...........................15 B O O K R E V I E W TEACHING ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILIITES by Dale R. Jordan Reviewed by Ellen Arnold..........................37 F O R Y O U R I N F O R M A T I O N HOW TO RESPOND TO THE TWO ARTICLES ON AEDNET................41 How to Obtain Back Issues and the Cummulative Index to New Horizons...................................................41 Call for Manuscripts.......................................41 ANNOUNCEMENT OF SPECIAL ISSUE - FALL, 1997.................42 BECAUSE OF THE LENGTH OF THIS ISSUE, IT WILL BE SENT TO ALL AEDNET SUBSCRIBERS DIVIDED AS TWO MESSAGES, NOTED AS PART A (pp. 1-20) AND PART B. (pp. 21-42). Page 2 N E W H O R I Z O N S I N A D U L T E D U C A T I O N Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1997 EDITOR'S PREFACE This issue of NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION contains two articles and a book review. The first article, Importance of SCANS Employability Skills as Identified by Workers and Supervisors in Oregon, by Wayne Fanno and R. Lee Cole, is the report of a study done using an instrument distributed to 30 companies in Oregon to verify employability skills as identified by multiple National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards group. Results confirmed that all 50 skills tested were considered by employers and employees to be important. Thomas A. Lifvendahl, in his article A System for Discerning and Analyzing the Present State of Adult Education Dissertation Research, deals with a topic that has been discussed and debated over the years in this field. The author has crafted a classification system to help organize extant literature, so that researchers and scholars can have access to and be able to interpret the knowledge base. Readers are invited to make these two articles "interactive" by responding on AEDNET and sharing their comments. [Directions to guide this discussion are given in this issue on page 41.] Readers are also encouraged to consider submitting an article for consideration by the editorial board of NEW HORIZONS on a related topic or other topic of interest relevant to adult education philosophy, research, and practice. [See Call for Manuscripts on page 41 for further details.] PLEASE NOTE: A SPECIAL ISSUE IS PLANNED FOR LATER THIS YEAR THAT WILL FOCUS ON ADULT LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. THERE IS STILL TIME FOR A RELEVANT ARTICLE TO BE CONSIDERED AND REVIEWED BEFORE PUBLICATION. Page 3 N E W H O R I Z O N S I N A D U L T E D U C A T I O N Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1997 IMPORTANCE OF SCANS EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AS IDENTIFIED BY WORKERS AND SUPERIVSORS IN OREGON Wayne Fanno and R. Lee Cole Oregon State University ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to verify employability skills as identified by multiple National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards groups, and to determine which if any skills were common to all areas. A list of the one hundred largest non-government employers in Oregon was secured and used as the population. An instrument was developed to be distributed to thirty companies, five in each of the Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM) endorsement areas. Results of the survey found all 50 skills tested rated "Very Important" or "Moderately Important," and that supervisors and frontline workers did not agree on where skills should be obtained. Introduction and Theoretical Framework The educational system has been responsible for providing various types of skills to students. One group of skills that had gained recent attention was employability skills. Although no one group of skills can be given preference to the elimination of other skills, productive employment of students should be one of the primary objectives of an educational system. The State of Oregon had attempted to reform the public education system, primarily through the passage of the Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century (1991). Two of the key components of the Act included the Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM), and the Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM). The CIM was designed to provide a benchmark of performance to be achieved. The CIM "attests to the student's demonstration of mastery of learning outcomes which will meet world class standards" (Oregon Department of Page 4 Education, 1993, p. 1). It was projected that most students would earn their CIM around the tenth grade. Once students earned a CIM, they would then focus on specific areas of instruction by working towards their CAM. The CAM had the option of combining education from high schools, community colleges, universities and industry. A student could select CAM programs from six endorsement areas: Arts and Communications, Business and Management, Health Services, Human Resources, Industrial and Engineering Systems, and Natural Resource Systems. One of the first national reports of this decade that provided a thrust for the change movement was the Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) "What Work Requires of Schools" (1991). From the SCANS competencies and foundational skills, the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Labor provided funding for the National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards groups. Each of the groups then published competency lists for their specific occupations. Within the lists, groups identified employability skills and basic skills for employment to match the foundational skills and competencies found in the SCANS report. The need, and/or importance of SCANS competencies, has been supported by research performed in the area of industrial and organizational psychology (Kanfer, Akerman, Murtha, & Goff, in press; Ackerman & Kanfer, 1993), and by follow-up research to the SCANS report (Herrmann, 1993; Gant, 1993; The National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce, 1995). Other research to support the need for employability skills was completed by Fancher (1981) and Pascarella (1984). They concluded that most employees were released not for the lack of technical job skills or knowledge, but were terminated for absenteeism, insubordination, inability to work with others, and dishonesty. Although most vocational educators supported job specific affective domain work skills in the vocational curriculum, the question remained unclear as to which skills should be taught, and in what manner. The theoretical framework for this study is based in descriptive research. Borg and Gall (1989, p. 331) characterized descriptive research as "primarily concerned with finding out what is'." They identified survey methods as frequently used to collect descriptive data. Purpose of the Study The primary purpose of this study was to verify employability skills as identified by multiple National Page 5 Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards groups, and to determine which if any skills were common to all CAM endorsement areas: Arts and Communications, Business and Management, Health Services, Industrial and Engineering Systems, Human Resources, and Natural Resources Systems. Study Objectives Although the skills standards groups were able to identify skills and competencies thought to be required for workers within specific occupations, they failed to answer several other questions. The missing data then led to the specific objectives for this study, which were as follows: 1. To verify the importance of employability competencies used by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement area groups. 2. To measure the frequency that employability competencies were used by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement groups. 3. To identify how employability competencies were originally acquired by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement groups. 4. To measure if a difference in perception existed between frontline workers and supervisors for objectives one through three of this study. Methods and Procedures The population of the study was made up of Oregon's largest 100 non-government employers, as identified in 1994 by the Oregon Economic Development Department. The group of the 100 largest employers was selected due to the availability of data. The companies represented a total employee base with a yearly average of 223,587 workers. Each company was then assigned to one of the six Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century CAM endorsement areas. The assignments were made using Oregon Economic Development Department identifiers and by phone contact with individual companies and corporations. From each CAM endorsement area, five employers were selected randomly. From each of the thirty companies selected, ten frontline workers and ten supervisors were selected to complete the instrument. A random number list was developed to select the twenty participants at each site. With ten treatment groups and a sample size of 28 per treatment level, a minimum sample of 280 from the 500 surveys sent would be statistically significant for drawing inference from this study (Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs, 1994). Page 6 The specific competencies used for the instrument were developed from identified employability skills, compiled by the National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards groups. The original list of competencies were approved by using a delphi technique and a panel of experts. Fifty competencies were approved for the instrument. A beta test was run to check for errors, unclear questions, or mistakes in format. Although no changes were made to the competencies, both the instructions and wording of the questions were clarified. The instrument was developed by the author, based on the objectives of this study. From the first objective, "To verify the importance of employability competencies used by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement area groups," the researchers developed a scale of one through seven, with one being "Not Important" and seven being "Very Important" to identify at what level the specified NVOSS competencies were being used. The second objective, "To measure the frequency that employability competencies were used by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement area groups," was measured by a 0-100 scale which identified employees level of usage per week of each specified NVOSS competency. Objective three, "To identify how employability competencies were originally acquired by employees across occupational categories as identified by CAM endorsement area groups," was measured by a series of options: Home, On the Job, College/University, Military, School K-12, Sports or Clubs, and Can Not Identify; to identify where the skills were originally acquired. Objective four, "To measure if a difference in perception existed between frontline workers and supervisors for objectives one through three," was determined by demographic information provided by each respondent. The instrument was printed in two formats, one for frontline workers and the other for supervisors. A post hoc test of reliability was run using Cronbach's alpha. Questions one, two, and three were rated to be 0.93, 0.96, 0.90, respectively. The composite reliability rate for the complete instrument was 0.95. Objective one and two were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) tools at an alpha of .05. Objective three was tested using Goodman and Kruskal's tau, a Proportional Reduction in Error (PRE) tool. Objective four used t-test, ANOVA, and Goodman and Kruskal's tau to test the three parts. When an ANOVA showed a significant variance between groups, Tukey's HSD post hoc multiple comparison tests were run to identify the specific group or groups with the significant variance. Page 7 The ANOVA procedures required two major assumptions. First, each of the groups were an independent random sample from a normal population. The precautions of randomization of the sample selection used in this study upholds the independent selection criteria. The second assumption for the procedure was that in the population, the variances of the groups were equal. To test the groups for equal variance, the Levene Test for Homogeneity of Variance was used. It was found that all groups were not homogeneous. Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs (1994) stated that "ANOVA is robust with respect to violations of the assumptions, except in the case of unequal variances with unequal sample sizes." In order to compensate for the unequal variance, the researcher randomly selected samples from groups to equalize sample size to align with the smallest sample group. The groups were reduced only for the ANOVA analysis. Where skills are/should be obtained were categorized as a nominal measure, crosstabulations were selected to analyze the data. Goodman and Kruskal's tau PRE tool was used as an alternative to chi-squared tools. Goodman and Kruskal's tau is computed by comparing the probability of error in two situations (crosstabulation rows and columns) divided by the probability of error of the dependent variable. Although the PRE used a chi-square distribution, it was not a chi-square tool and drew a stronger association between the two groups then chi-square tools were capable of providing. Respondent Information Of the 500 surveys delivered to twenty-five companies, 392 were returned from the twenty-five companies. Of the surveys returned, 355 were usable, for a usable return rate of 71%. The respondents were nearly evenly divided between frontline workers and supervisors, at 51.3% and 48.7% respectively. Over one-third (38.3%) of the respondents had worked with their current company for five years or less, and nearly half (47.6%) were in the 26-50 age category. The largest category for "Highest Education Level" was "High School or GED or Job Training" with 35.2%, closely followed by "Bachelors Degree" at 31.8%. CAM endorsement areas were well represented except for the Arts and Communication group which had no respondents. Findings The first question from the questionnaire dealt with the importance of specific competencies for employment. The form for Frontline Workers asked the participant to answer the question specific to their own employment. The form Page 8 for Supervisors and Administrators asked the participant to answer the question specific to their employees employment. All of the skills rated in the "Moderately Important" or "Very Important" categories. Twenty-eight of the fifty skills ranked in the "Very Important" category. The highest mean for the importance category was 6.50 for "Satisfy customers expectations," while the lowest mean was 3.55 for "Perform computer file transfers." The complete list of competencies ranked by importance was as follows: Satisfy customers' expectations; Communicate well with others; Maintain high standards of attendance and punctuality; Speak clearly and communicate a message; Exhibit positive behavior; Demonstrate non-discriminatory behavior ; Read and comprehend written documentation; Set high standards; Work with team members; Follow oral instructions and verbally explain procedures accurately and clearly; Pay attention to detail; Recognize the necessity of being a team member; Assure confidentiality of information; Choose an ethical course of action in all work assignments and personal involvement with others; Prioritize and organize workload; Practice self-starting techniques; Comply with safety and health rules/procedures; Follow schedules; Complete a team task; Forward information appropriately; Demonstrate understanding and relevance of SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures); Perform simple operations of basic mathematics; Avoid procrastination; Develop initiative-taking and observation skills; Provide feed back to supervisors; Demonstrate time saving habits; Demonstrate effective use of resources; Perform with cost awareness and consciousness; Identify team expectations and service responsibilities; Set and monitor, well-defined personal goals; Adapt to new technology and applications; Use basic numerical concepts such as whole numbers and percentages in practical situations; Recognize organizational structure; Evaluate outcomes; Select an appropriate medium for conveying a message; Develop objectivity; Page 9 Recognize unexpected results (measurement or procedural); Document activities immediately; Identify networking of people in support of organizational effort; Explain the concepts of group trust and systems orientation, within and between teams; Demonstrate good keyboarding skills; Demonstrate a basic knowledge of computer architecture and uses for computers; Identify and explain diversity issues, i.e. values, workstyles, cultures; Use electronic communications techniques; Use charts to obtain or convey quantitative information; Assess and report inventory control ; Use word processing; Use computer spreadsheets; Measure and record weight; and Perform computer file transfers. In order to test objective one across multiple CAM groups, a one-way ANOVA was used. Of the fifty competencies for employment, nineteen showed a significant difference among CAM groups. A post hoc Tukey-HSD analysis was performed to identify specific differences among CAM groups. Of the nineteen competencies reporting a significant difference, only four had groups split between "Moderately Important" and "Very Important" rankings. All fifty of the competencies ranked above "Not Important" by all CAM Groups. To test objective four for importance of competencies, as perceived by frontline workers and supervisors a t-test for independent samples was set at a 0.050 significance level. Five of the fifty skills were found to be significantly different between frontline and supervisor groups. Although differences did exist, four of the five competencies rejected by the null hypothesis were rated as "Very Important" by both frontline workers and supervisor groups. Only "Recognize organizational structure" was split between "Moderately Important" and "Very Important" ratings. All fifty of the competencies ranked above "Not Important " by both frontline workers and supervisors. The second question of the questionnaire dealt with the frequency of use of each of the skills. Means for frequency of use ranged from a high of 71.47 for "Communicate well with others," to a low of 11.41 for "Perform computer file transfers." The standard deviations for frequency were relatively high with a range from 40.95 to 23.83. Rank of importance matched closely with most of the ranks for frequency of use. Only six pairs of rankings differed by Page 10 more than ten positions (ranked #4 for importance and #18 for frequency), and they were as follows: Maintain high standards of attendance and punctuality" (ranked #3 for importance and #27 for frequency), "Perform simple operations of basic mathematics" (#22 and #7), "Adapt to new technology and applications" (#31 and #48), "Use basic numerical concepts such as whole numbers and percentages in practical situations" (#32 and #19), "Demonstrate good keyboarding skills" (#41 and #14), and "Use electronic communications techniques" (#44 and #32). Frequency of use for twenty-three of the fifty skills were found to be significantly different among CAM endorsement groups. A post hoc Tukey-HSD analysis was performed to identify specific differences among groups. Frequency of use for four of the fifty skills were found to be significantly different between frontline worker and supervisor groups. Those skills were: "Maintain high standards of attendance and punctuality;" "Set and monitor, well-defined personal goals;" "Develop initiative-taking and observation skills;" and "Document activities." Most of the skills had response frequencies being bi-polar, or evenly distributed over the range of options. Question three from the questionnaire dealt with where employability competencies were obtained, and where they should be obtained. Where skills are/should be obtained were categorized as a nominal measure, cross tabulations were selected to analyze the data. Goodman and Kruskal's tau Proportional Reduction in Error (PRE) tool was used as an alternative to chi-squared tools. Goodman and Kruskal's tau is computed by comparing the probability of error in two situations (cross tabulation rows and columns) divided by the probability of error of the dependent variable. For comparisons among CAM endorsement areas a 5x7 cross tabulation table was used. The Frontline Workers and Supervisors used a 2x7 cross tabulation table. The CAM endorsement areas had twenty-seven out of fifty reporting significant differences. The primary areas of difference were in the following categories: Home, On The Job, College/University, and School K-12. Frontline workers and supervisors had forty of the fifty employability skills with significant differences. This one question represents an 80% rejection rate for groups that had only rejected 9% of the previous 100 hypotheses tested. The ten skills that were retained were "Demonstrate time saving habits;" "Assess and report inventory control;" "Set high standards;" "Set and monitor, well-defined personal goals;" "Satisfy customers' expectations;" "Forward informationappropriately;" "Assure confidentiality of information;" "Demonstrate understanding and relevance of SOP's;" "Recognize organizational Page 11 structure (chain of command);" and "Identify networking of people in support of organizational efforts." Conclusions Although the conclusions that were drawn from the research could not be applied across all areas of employment in Oregon (given the lack of representation of the Arts and Communications CAM endorsement area), several points could be made about the resulting data. It can be concluded that frontline workers and supervisors across CAM areas tested viewed the importance of the fifty skills of the study very similarly and at a high level of importance. All skills tested resulted in rankings of "Moderately Important" and "Very Important." This high rating, and the agreement of skills importance should be noted by both employers and educators. Based on the findings, many of the CAM endorsement areas were not in agreement on how important skills were and how often skills should be used across all five CAM endorsement areas. Althoughthe skills were rated highly among all the groups, one or more CAM groups ranked various skills at a statistically different level. Inversely, frontline workers and supervisors were close to agreement on the importance of skills and on how often skills were used. This would indicate that the importance and frequency of skills used were linked closer to frontline workers and supervisors then across CAM endorsement areas. Based on the results of supervisor response, the vast majority of these skills should be included in the K-12 curriculum. It was unclear as to whether employees had learned the skills in the K-12 setting, although frontline worker responses would indicate that they perceived the majority of the skills were learned on the job. Recommendations 1. Beyond the K-12 model, teacher preparatory programs should also provide positive input related to teaching employability skills. A job-like setting for students in teacher preparation would allow them to function in an environment that they should expect of their own students in the future. 2. Research regarding the fifty employability skills of this study should be replicated with other state and regional research efforts, and if found to be valid in subsequent research they should be included as primary objectives throughout the K-12 and life long learning curricula. Specifically, employability skills should be written into Page 12 each of the CAM frameworks curricula as a basic or "core" component required for the completion of the CAM. 3. The diversity in responses between Frontline Workers and Supervisors for where obtained presented a need for further research in this area. A follow-up study aimed at students graduating from the K-12 system would provide a response without the confounding factor of later life experiences. 4. Some of the individuals surveyed felt that "Use Word processing, Use of computer spreadsheets, Measure and record weight, and Perform computer file transfers," represented technical skills which were not part of basic employability skills. Future research should analyze the classification of National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards skills as they relate to technical or employability skills. 5. It may be of value to investigate various National Voluntary Occupational Skills Standards lists for skills not included in this study and determine if there would be similar widespread agreement as to their importance in the curriculum of schools. 6. Follow-up studies should explore if the skills that showed a significant difference can be further validated, and why there is a difference between Natural Resource Systems employees and other companies. 7. Finally, the replication of this research at a state and/or regional level would be beneficial because of the failure of the Arts and Communications endorsement area to participate in this study. Populations could be drawn to include state and federal employees to give more employment site options to Arts and Communication and Human Resources endorsement areas. It may be possible that as the Arts and Communications group is included in various state and regional research efforts, there may be differences in the importance of the various employability skills tested. REFERENCES Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1993). Integrating laboratory and field study for improving selection: Development of a battery for prediction air traffic controller success. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, 78,413-432. Borg, W. R., & Gall, M. D. (1989). EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: AN INTRODUCTION. New York: Longman. Fancher, A. J. (1981). THE IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON SKILLS, KNOWLEDGES AND RELATED FACTORS NEEDED FOR SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYMENT IN OREGON. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Oregon State University. Page 13 Gant, C. (1993). AN EXAMINATION OF CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AS A METHOD OF ACHIEVING SCANS THREE-PART FOUNDATION. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University. Herrmann, R. P. (1993). A COMPARISON OF THE PERCEPTIONS THAT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT IN THE BUSINESS SERVICES AREA HAVE CONCERNING SCANS COMPETENCIES AND FOUNDATIONS. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Oklahoma State University. Hinkle, D.E., Wiersma, W., & Jurs, S.G. (1994) APPLIED STATISTICS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., Murtha, T., & Goff, M. (in press). Personality and intelligence in industrial and organizational psychology. In D. H. Saklofske & M. Zeidner (Eds.), INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF PERSONALITY AND INTELLIGENCE. New York: Plenum Publishing Corp. National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce. (1995). FIRST FINDINGS FROM THE EQW NATIONAL EMPLOYER SURVEY. (National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA 19104). Oregon Department of Education. (1993). KEY ELEMENTS OF THE OREGON EDUCATIONAL ACT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (HOUSE BILL 3565). (Oregon Department of Education, Salem, OR 97310). Oregon Education Act for the Twenty-first Century. Oregon Revised Statute, Chapter 329 (1991). Pascarella, P. (1984). THE NEW ACHIEVERS: CREATING A MODERN WORK ETHIC. New York: The Free Press. Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, U.S. Department of Labor. (1991). WHAT WORK REQUIRES OF SCHOOLS. Washington, DC: Author. Page 14 A SYSTEM FOR DISCERNING AND ANALYAING THE PRESENT STATE OF ADULT EDUCATION DISSERTATION RESEARCH Thomas A. Lifvendahl ABSTRACT The field of adult education represented in the dissertations of its seventy-seven graduate programs has expanded in the last 70 years to include a wide range of practices and professional interests. The purpose of this article is to describe the creation of a classification schema capable of indexing this growth. Utilizing historical inquiry and cataloging techniques, the author has created a system for adult education researchers to investigate the knowledge base of adult education dissertations. This schema, The Roger DeCrow/William Rainey Harper Memorial International Classification System of Adult Continuing Education, represents an extensive reformulation of an existing 1960s-era proto system. The schema was used to code the combined dissertation databases of the Research and Evaluation in Adult Continuing Education (RE/ACE) Office of Northern Illinois University and University Microfilms International (UMI). RE/ACE's data are based on the yearly compilation of dissertations submitted by members of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE), while UMI's data encompass all dissertations under their code 0516 (education, adult and continuing). The resulting blended databases will eventually be place on a World Wide Web (W3) listserve through the College of Education at Northern Illinois University. (NIU). Introduction For the last seventy years, there has been significant debate as to meanings undergirding the field of adult education. Is adult education "about" understanding if "there is a distinct art and science of teaching adults" (Elias & Merriam, 1984)? Have adult education practitioners attempted to classify the activities of the field within schemes of understanding and have these schemes been adequate for the task? Is there an all inclusive definition of adult education? If not, how can it be defined? This melange creates a phenomenon manifested repeatedly whenever one asks adult educators to define adult education. Each gives their own unique definition. Jarvis (1990) stated that defining adult education "is among the most problematic [issues] in the field" (p. 6). Page 15 Adult education, as a field of study, is in rapid flux. This paper presumes that understanding adult education is enhanced by the application of new analytic approaches. It provides a cursive overview of how adult education has been historically defined and classified. It chronicles the design, evaluation, and dissemination of a schema for classifying one representation of the field's literature, that of dissertations in adult education. Recommendations and suggestions are made in order to stimulate further inquiry. Definition and Clarification of Adult Education Terms Since the beginning of professional studies in adult education numerous definitions of the field have emerged. Jarvis (1990) noted that "the term [adult education] is first used in Thomas Pole's History and Origins and Progress of Adult Schools (p. 6). Courtney (Merriam & Cunningham, 1989) noted that the "first systematic effort at defining adult education in the modern era came with the founding of the American Association for Adult Education (AAAE) in 1926"(p.16.). Lindeman (1926) expressed the notion that "adult education is confined to adults because adulthood, maturity, defines its limits" (p.5). He further argued that it is a "process" revolving around a set of circumstances. Adult education begins where regular education leaves off. It is situationally dependent, experientially based, and "transformat[ive]" (p. 27). Bryson (1936) defines adult education "as including all the activities with an educational purpose that are carried on by people engaged in the ordinary business of life" (pp. 3- 4). Verner (1962), in contrast, sought to set definitional boundaries for his theory of identification of adult education practices by noting that adult education was centered around the concept that it be mediated by an external "expert" or educational "agent" in order to be considered legitimate adult education. He also excluded from the practice of adult education, methods and techniques that "do not establish and maintain continuing relationships for learning involving a direct exchange between the institution or agent and the learner [my emphasis]" (pp.10-11). Knowles (1980), reflecting themes mentioned earlier, defined adult education in terms surrounding three different topics: the "process" through which adults learn; the "organized activities" [i.e. institutional settings] surrounding adult learning; and the social practice that brings adults together "into a discrete social system" wherein adults engage in learning activities (p. 25). Darkenwald & Merriam (1982) believed that "adult education is Page 16 a process whereby persons whose major social roles are characteristic of adult status undertake systematic and sustained learning activities for the purpose of bringing about changes in knowledge, attitudes, values, or skills" (p. 9). Stubblefield and Rachal (1992), after a comprehensive overview of the origins of the term "adult education" from 1815 to the present day, concluded that clarification of meanings of adult education had to be based on the social or institutional contexts of learning. Their taxonomy contextualized the term within three paradigms: home education, popular education, and educational extension concluding, without attempting to give a definition, that the task of defining adult education is heavily dependent on the conceptual base that grounds one's inquiry. Courtney quoting Liveright & Haygood in the HANDBOOK OF ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION (Merriam & Cunningham, 1989) observed that adult education was a process whereby persons who no longer attend school on a regular full-time basis. . . undertake sequential and organized activities with the conscious intention of bringing about changes in information, knowledge, understanding, or skill appreciation and attitudes; or for the purpose of identifying or solving personal or community problems. (issued during the 1969 Exeter Conference, p. 17) Lastly, Anderson (1993) completed possibly the most comprehensive investigation of definitionsof adult continuing education as a result of her dissertation study at the University of North Texas. Her abstract states the following: This study identified definitions of adult education appearing in three major adult education journals (Journal of Adult Education, Adult Education Journal, Adult Education) and three handbooks of adult education (1948, 1960, and 1970) over a period of 40 years, 1939 to 1979, and concluded there is no one universally accepted definition of adult education. More than 12,700 pages were read and scanned. Definitions were categorized according to a modified Scheffler classification which included five categories: negative, nebulous or broad, stipulative, descriptive, and programmatic. A total of 283 DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS [my emphasis] were identified. Based on these data, more definitions appeared in handbooks than in journals, or one definition for every 22 pages in handbooks and one definition for every 55 pages in journal readings. Page 17 More definitions were found in the stipulative category than in any other category. Writers tended to use the term adult education to fit their own needs in specific situations. This study should be reassuring to persons who are confused as to what adult education is because it points out the fact that authorities in the field have failed to arrive at one acceptable definition. (p. 2642 A) Thus, the term adult education can be interpreted in the broadest terms as a "movement" devoted to the education of adults (Boyd, Apps, & Associates, 1980, pp. 10-11), as a "process" of "systematic and sustained learning" (Darkenwald & Merriam, 1982, p. 9), and as a field of professional practice (Merriam & Cunningham, 1989, p. 19). This cursive review can lead one to observe that defining adult continuing education has been an arduous task involving many researchers. Suffice it to say, adult education seems to possess a chameleon like ability to define itself around unique individual needs generated by the time and place in which it exists. Research Project No study of adult education can become "scientific" (i.e. severely examined) until it "provides itself with a suitable technical nomenclature" (MacKinnon, 1985, p. 161) or schema through which it can be studied. Verner's early work (1962) on classifying adult education processes noted that classification schemes work to: identify a given phenomenon; increase the ability for one to handle the phenomenon for research purposes; create meaningful differential relationships; focus research on primary issues; and provide a logical ordering framework for arranging a phenomenon "so that gaps in knowledge can be recognized and new concepts developed in relation to the known" (p. 11). He further studied past (in 1962 terms) classification arrangements in terms of subject matter: common technical characteristics; sponsoring institutions; function; attitude (cognition, learning processes); and dichotomies (formal-informal, social- HRD, etc.). He concluded that all were wanting and proposed his own as a better alternative. His approach was to analyze methods and techniques employed in adult educational practice through placement on a continuum of student participation (passive to full) and level of abstraction (fully abstract to concrete and direct). In the end, this researcher found that none of the aforementioned systems proved adequate for the task of cataloguing dissertation research in adult education graduate studies. Given the breadth of subjects studied and complexity of contemporary research, a new more Page 18 comprehensive schema needed to be designed that would lend itself to computer mediated data searching. Why Classify and Analyze Adult Education Dissertations? From 1993 to 1995this researcher worked at the Research and Evaluation In Adult Continuing Education (RE/ACE) Office of Northern Illinois University (NIU) designing and validating such a system. His central task was to create a comprehensive, interactive database for researching adult education dissertations, the RE/ACE Dissertation Registry. This project centered itself on dissertations because, as Peters and Jarvis (1991) have noted, adult education doctoral dissertations "are examples of neglected literature" that are under-utilized and need further study. Smith (1970) noted an early need to understand the "rapidly expanding programs" of the field of adult education (p. 138). He was concerned with identifying and critically evaluating the scholarly work of investigators in adult education in order to chronicle the growth of theory building in graduate level adult education research. Authors have also noted the quality of doctoral dissertations; the increased number of professors with research backgrounds leading doctoral studies (Smith, p. 141); the increasing numbers of graduates produced by these programs; the philosophies of research that ground these studies; and the increased critical debate over theory and practice (Merriam & Cunningham, 1989). Therefore, although these authors were laudatory of dissertation research, they seem to indicate that some ordering was required, especially for theory building or definition. They suggest that research on research--meta-research--was needed in order to create "theoretical maps of the research territory [in order to] synthesize theory" (Deshler in Smith, p. 159). Such "mapping" can be accomplished via indexing the body of knowledge represented by adult education dissertations as a form of meta-research. Undergirding these observations has been the conviction that the doctoral degree is seen as the "ultimate [in] educational fulfillment" (Ness, 1957, p. 3) marking one as a "trained scholar" (p. 3). Further, the research requirement of the dissertation study can "contribute to strengthening the problem-solving abilities of professional educators" (D'Onofrio, 1993, p. 131). Thus, dissertations, as a source of research, represent significant bodies of available knowledge worthy of systematic analysis. Page 19 Review of Library Cataloging Literature Designing a classification schema required studying the literature of cataloging. Definitions of cataloging abound within the library community. Viswanathan (1967) defined cataloging as "denot[ing] the various processes adopted in preparing the entries of the reading material [of a library] in a catalogue and its maintenance" (p. 1). These and other definitions (Boll, 1970, p. 3; Wyner and Immroth, 1976, p. 2; Piggott, 1988, pp. 1-2) led this researcher to construct the following working definition that cataloging consists of "systematically reading, clarifying, and defining individual dissertation title / abstracts with the purpose of indexing the resultant data for imputing into an appropriate electronic medium." Cataloging demands high standards of excellence and quality. Svenonius (1989) stated that any "successful" scheme used to catalogue must have specific evaluation criteria: it must be "inclusive as well as comprehensive . . . mean[ing] it must encompass within its limits the whole of knowledge [of adult education]"; it must be" systematic . . . allow[ing] its users to locate whatever they want, easily and logically"; it must be "flexible and expansive . . . [that is] constructed so that any new subject may be inserted without dislocating the general sequence of classification;" it must be able to "recognize knowledge in all its ramifications while [being] capable of admitting new subjects or new aspects of well-established subjects"; and the "terminology employed in the classification schedule must be clear and descriptive, with consistent meaning for both user and the classifier" (pp. 251-252). The user should view the catalog as a dynamic and flexible tool that allows all entries to be quickly and easily found. The catalogue should also be both economic and compact in size to allow for ease of maintenance (p. 5). Lastly, the catalogue designer should be aware that any coding system should be governed by certain realities. These include: knowing that "it would be an error of judgement to consider that this code is perfect and will forever remain the [right] tool for cataloging; [and] that [cataloging] is essentially a laboratory art. It cannot be learned by memorizing the code. It must be applied . . . in that one becomes a cataloguer by cataloging" (Jast quoted in Viswanathan, 1967, p. 29). This researcher has been fully cognizant of these admonitions throughout the design process. Page 20 Initial Schema Design Process An overriding design need was to create a schema that would be different from previous attempts to classify adult education in that it must meet the needs of the interactive, dynamically linked conceptual environment of the World Wide Web. DeCrow (1967) and Niemi's (1976) early work with ERIC cataloging adult education literature provided a proto schema on which to build (Niemi, pp. viii-xi). Designing the schema (see Exhibit 1) was a staged process. The first phase consisted of five distinct steps. Step One, an extensive review of adult education literature was conducted. Contemporary terms applicable to current adult education research were incorporated in order to expand the proto schema. Step Two, descriptors were assigned to appropriate headings while still consciously retaining numeric space between each in order to insure future expansion. It is important to note that each four digit descriptor code can stand alone as a computer based search item. Step Three, the initial schema was circulated for internal evaluation by the RE/ACE professional staff (one Ed.D. and two M.A. degreed adult educators) and appropriate revisions weremade. Step Four, the revised schema was printed and disseminated to the adult education faculty of Northern Illinois University (NIU). Nine professors of adult education were involved in this evaluation stage and critical additions were made that reflected contemporary issues in adult educational doctoral studies (specifically in research methodologies, adult learning characteristics, assessment procedures, instructional methods, and technologically related delivery systems). Once this faculty review was completed and appropriate schema alterations made, the first version of the revised schema seemed ready for Step Five--final review. Forty-two NIU adult education doctoral students evaluated the schema for both content and appropriate terminology. Significant recommendations were made to revise and expand terms denoting physical disabilities, mental handicaps, and minority labeling. After consulting the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for non-biased terminology, appropriate modifications were made. Finally, this researcher acknowledges that "cataloging should always be done with a particular aim in view . . . [and is] depend[ent] on the knowledge, understanding and skill of the cataloguer" (Piggott, p.2). Page 21 From harrisc@fcae.acast.nova.edu Tue Oct 14 08:59:07 1997 Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 07:46:02 -0400 From: Cheri Harris To: aedmod@pulsar.acast.nova.edu Subject: New Horizons Spring Issue: PART B (fwd) This message was submitted by Cheri Harris to list aednet@pulsar.acast.nova.edu. If you forward it back to the list, it will be distributed without the paragraphs above the dashed line. You may edit the Subject: line and the text of the message before forwarding it back. If you edit the messages you receive into a digest, you will need to remove these paragraphs and the dashed line before mailing the result to the list. Finally, if you need more information from the author of this message, you should be able to do so by simply replying to this note. ----------------------- Message requiring your approval ---------------------- Sender: Cheri Harris Subject: New Horizons Spring Issue: PART B (fwd) Cheri Harris harrisc@fcae.acast.nova.edu ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 21:06:29 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nancy F. Gadbow" To: Cheri Harris Cc: New Horizons Editor Subject: New Horizons Spring Issue: PART B PART B Initiation of Coding Titles and abstracts formed the raw data for this study. Tibbo (1993) defined an abstract as "an accurate and concise document representation that lay [sic] at the heart of bibliographic retrieval systems, and more broadly, are essential to effective and efficient information transfer in all scholarly and scientific fields" (p. 8). She recommended that abstracts need to provide the following: background information on the paper; purpose of the work; scope of the study; thesis/argument; description of the test; research method[s] used; data sources; findings, results and conclusions; and suggestions/predictions for future research. Of importance to this study is the fact that the process of coding dissertations was heavily dependenton the clarity of the abstracts read. Tibbo's admonition to work for concise "text analysis" and the recommendations of other cataloging schemata (Piggot, 1988) all stress the need to create a sequential model/formula for classification that links relationships between document segments. These models led to the creation of a systematic coding process known herein as the RNSIO System. This meant that each document was read in order to determine the following: R = What was the research methodology? (0011-0035) N = Was the dissertation done on a non-ACE subject? The defining criteria was the age of the participants involved in the study, and the "social context" of the dissertation research. (0060) S = Who were the subjects being studied? (0070-7150) I = Who were the institutional sponsors? (8000-8900) O = Was the research done outside the United States? (9000-9950) In order to insure accuracy, random re-checks were applied throughout coding. In order to demonstrate system effectiveness, it would be useful to analyze an actual, anonymous, adult education abstract pulled at random from the UMI-ProQuest database and displayed here verbatim. Abstract: This research used the case study method to investigate the relationship of persistence to perceptions of barriers to continued participation, student role fit, and goal commitment among adult students in a non-traditional higher education program. Persistence was defined broadly to include both staying and leaving behaviors. The population included students who were enrolled in a non-traditional weekend college program for the fall, 1983, semester, who were Page 22 between the ages of 25 and 45, who had completed previous college course work, who had a G.P.A. of 2.0 or better, and who had matriculated in the program. The stayers were students who returned to the weekend college for the spring, 1984, semester. The leavers were students who did not return for the spring, 1984, semester. Fifteen stayers and 15 leavers were interviewed using a structured interview guide. The interviews were tape recorded and the data were organized according to the three main categories of interest and additional categories which emerged during the interviews. The findings of this study included the following: the stayers appeared to perceive more barriers, problems or concerns than did the leavers, and the stayers enjoyed a better fit within the non- traditional environment; the stayers enjoyed more immediate and unexpected rewards because of their participation in the non-traditional weekend college program. The leavers gave reasons for leaving related to crises points in their personal or work life. More leavers decided to return to college for personal satisfaction, while more stayers returned to college for work-related goals. This relatively simple abstract can be coded (see Appendix) by completing the following logical steps. First, one codes for R (research method). The abstract clearly states that this dissertation utilized the case study method. The appropriate code for case study is 0016. Second, one must code for N, whether this dissertation is an adult education dissertation. The abstract clearly highlights that this study worked with non-traditional students between 25 and 45; thus the 0060 (not an adult education dissertation) coding is inappropriate. Third, one codes for S (subject being studied). The abstract notes that participation was studied; this code is 1300. Fourth, one now codes for I (institutional sponsor). The abstract repeatedly points out that this was a study conducted within a weekend college setting; thus the code 8001 (colleges, universities) would be deemed appropriate. Finally, one codes for O (was the research for this dissertation conducted outside the United States?). The answer, based on the abstract, is that this study mentions nothing about activities involving an international perspective; thus the use of this coding is inappropriate. Given all this information, the minimal Dissertation Data Set (DDS) would be 0016, 1300, 8001. Page 23 Gathering Data for the RE/ACE Dissertation Registry Running parallel to the schema design process was the gathering of dissertations to be included in the database. The data to be coded was derived from pre-existing RE/ACE records and the abstract archives of University Microfilm International's (UMI) electronic ProQuest database. All coding was done by this researcher alone in order to ensure process consistency. The reader should note that both dissertation titles and abstracts were the sources for data coding. Downloading information from UMI was easily accomplished. UMI's ProQuest Database is a computer disk/read only memory (CD/ROM) product mounted on a multi- user interface available through the NIU computer system backbone. Four CD/ROMs covering the years from 1861 to 1981, 1982 to 1987, 1988 to 1992 and 1993 to 1995 were surveyed. By requesting all dissertations with the UMI field number 0516 (Education, Adult and Continuing) every document with that protocol was retrieved. The information was downloaded onto the hard drive of this researcher's IBM-based personal computer. Finally, the process of information downloading from CD/ROM to personal computer in no way altered the content of the data. The Process of Inputting Information Into the RE/ACE Dissertation Registry Database Each dissertation title, UMI database or RE/ACE database generated, was transferred onto paper. Each printed citation was then entered into a series of four loose-leaf, three ring binders segmented by degree granting institution. Each record consisted of UMI code, name of author, date of degree, dissertation title, and up to five topic codes here referred to as a Dissertation Data Set (DDS). The coding process specifically entailed reading each title (all dissertations in the UMI file up to 1980 are title-only, whereas the RE/ACE Registry Project database contains no abstract information) or each Title/Abstract. Modification of Schema Based On Coding Needs As coding progressed over a four-month time span, this researcher became more adept at analyzing information. Coupled with this came a series of calculated modifications to code descriptors necessitated by the need to fine tune the initial schema to reflect the real coding needs demanded by the data being analyzed. Continued clarification of schema classifications readied it for its nextevaluation stage-- presentation of the schema, the coding methodology, and the Page 24 dissemination plan to the Commission of Professors in Adult Education (CPAE) at the 1994 American Association of Adult Continuing Education (AAACE) meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. Presentation of Schema At the 1994 CPAE Meeting In Nashville The Nashville presentation confirmed design efficacy and esearch methodology. This presentation also elicited suggestions for changing the schema including clarification of descriptors, layout design, and delivery system on which to deploy the database. This presentation also convinced this researcher that the best delivery vehicle for the dissertation database was the World Wide Web. Finally, the schema was placed on the Internet for evaluation by the broadest audience possible, the Adult Education Listserve (AEDNET). This action confirmed the efficacy of the schema with laudatory comments as to its "comprehensiveness" and provided further opportunities for improvement. Application of the Schema, Database, and Search Engine to the Internet The "Web or WWW [W3], is the newest information service to arrive on the Internet" (Krol, p.227) and is seen as the most flexible tool for prowling the Internet existent. It is an "attempt to organize all the information on the Internet, and whatever local information you want, as a set of hypertext documents" (Krol, p. 29). Hypertext "is a method of presenting information where selected words [or number sequences] in the text can be expanded at any time to provide other information about the [document]" (Krol, p. 228). Using hypertext enables words or DDS number sets to be dynamically inter-linked. Although hypertext is a "fairly new concept" (Krol, p. 228), its advantage is that the computer database can be changed at any time to reflect its ever expanding nature. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to "mark up" documents with informational tags that indicate how text in documents should be presented and how documents are linked together. This retrieval format enables access to title/name information freely while facilitating searching for varied coding combinations that make up any given dissertation's DDS combination. Suffice it to say, this is the most desirable platform currentlyavailable for efficiently searching the RE/ACE Dissertation Registry. Page 25 Summary NIU is presently involved in creating a Web Server (a site for Web searches) for the College of Education. The RE/ACE Registry of Dissertations in Adult Education will be carried on it in the future. One cannot accurately determine an exact time as to when the Registry will be on-line. Once functioning, the Registry will be accessible to anyone who has hardware and software capable of linking to it. Setting Up an Evaluation Procedure for Future Change As previously noted, the RE/ACE Registry of Dissertations in Adult Education will never be completed. Continuous revision of the schema, coding, and database are all parts of a continuous process. Providing a mechanism for maintaining quality in the Registry's methodological practices requires some form of evaluation. Fink (pp. 6-9) recommended a six-stage plan for composing a program evaluation. It requires that the evaluation: pose questions about the program that "are a primary basis for judging [its] merits"; set standards of effectiveness that "provide evidence of the program's effectiveness" in ways both measurable and credible; design protocols of evaluation so that "documented effects [of the program] can be linked exclusively to it"; collect data on the program that accurately and consistently measure performance; analyze the data in a manner that expresses clearly the program's effectiveness; and, finally, create a mechanism to report the information to the program's stakeholders. Questions of concern that need to be asked about the effectiveness of the Registry are as follows: 1. Is the schema sufficient for searching the RE/ACE Registration Data Base? 2. In what areas does the schema need to be improved? 3. Is the RE/ACE Registry, in its on-line format, being used? 4. Who is using the Registry? 5. For what reason or purpose is the Registry being used? 6. How can it be improved? Setting performance standards to answer these questions requires time. Because it will take six months to a year after publication of this article to fully implement the on- line version of the Registry, posing these questions now Page 26 helps clarify the type of information that can be requested from W3 users. In the end, the function of any evaluation design is based on discerning whether both the schema and the RE/ACE Registry are meeting the needs of the adult educators using it. Thus, this evaluation design will evolve over time. Observations, Conclusions and Recommendations As was just mentioned, final design parameters for placing the RE/ACE Registry of Dissertations in Adult Education on-line are still being determined. There will be well over eight thousand (8,000) dissertation titles available for researchers to examine and manipulate. Cataloging dissertations accurately is heavily dependent on the quality of title and abstract data received. Many institutions send only title information and this delays their having new dissertations entered into the Registry. As has been pointed out, technology is in a constant state of flux. No one can fully prepare in 1996 for what researchers will need by the year 2000. RE/ACE is constantly working to improve the Registry in ways that the CPAE or any other subsequent association of adult educators deems useful. Further, the Registry is the product of an evolutionary process involving many individuals. Adult education is changing in ways that were not foreseen fifty years ago. Systematically coding and analyzing dissertation research can be seen as one more step to better comprehend the phenomenon called adult education. In conclusion, this is a system of analysis that adult educators could employ to investigate the field's diversity of thought in ways that promote greater understanding of what adult education "is," through systematic clarification of what it "does." The author believes that this classification system, if extensively employed, could ground critique upon a more "realistic," pragmatic worldview. The rich body of research adult education has constructed over the last fifty years demands no less. Finally, the field's continued dynamic growth is such that a comprehensive study of the full range of the literature should be mounted. Ideally, the author would like to see application of this classification system by a group of dedicated scholars to all media and modalities of knowledge dissemination. In the end, by classifying the entirety of the field's research, much of the confusion of "what is adult education," alluded to a the beginning of this article, would be significantly clarified and, hopefully, lessened. Page 27 REFERENCES Anderson, M.M. (1993). A comprehensive review of definitions of adult education. DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS INTERNATIONAL, 53 (08), 2642 A. (University Microfilms No. AAC9300584). Bryson, L. (1936). ADULT EDUCATION. New York: American Book Company. Boll, J.J. (1970). INTRODUCTION TO CATALOGING. (Vol. 1) New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Boyd, R.D., Apps, J.W., and Associates. (1980). REDEFINING THE DISCIPLINES OF ADULT EDUCATION. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Darkenwald, G.G. & Merriam, S.B. (1982). ADULT EDUCATION: FOUNDATIONS OF PRACTICE. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. DeCrow, R. (1967). Research and investigations in adult education. ADULT EDUCATION. XVII (4), 195-259. D'Onofrio, A. , Lawler, P., O'Malley, J.P. & Wilhite, S.C. (1993). Dissertation supervision: A new path, an old guideand reflections on William James. CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW 57 (3), 130-146. Elias, J.L. & Merriam, S.B. (1984). PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ADULT EDUCATION. Malabar: Krieger Publishing. Fink, A. (1995). EVALUATION FOR EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Jarvis, P. (Ed.). (1990). AN INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY OF ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION. London: Routledge. Kroll, E. (1992). THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE & CATALOG. Sebastopol: O'Reilly & Associates. Knowles, M.S. (1980). THE MODERN PRACTICE OF ADULT EDUCATION: FROM PEDAGOGY TO ANDRAGOGY. Chicago: Follett Publishing. Lindeman, E. (1926). THE MEANING OF ADULT EDUCATION. New York: New Republic. Page 28 MacKinnon, B. (Ed.). (1985). AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY A HISTORICAL ANTHOLOGY. Albany: State University of New York Press. Merriam, S.B. & Cunningham, P.M. (1989). HANDBOOK OF ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Niemi, J.A., Grabowski, S.M. & Kuusisto, E.A. (Eds.). (1976). RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION IN ADULT EDUCATION REGISTER. DeKalb: ERIC Clearinghouse In Career Education. Ness, F.W. (Ed.). (1957). A GUIDE TO GRADUATE STUDY: PROGRAMS LEADING TO THE Ph.D. DEGREE. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges. Peters, J.M. & Jarvis, P. (1991). ADULT EDUCATION: EVOLUTION AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Piggott, M. (1988). A TOPOGRAPHY OF CATALOGUING SHOWING THE MOST IMPORTANT LANDMARKS, COMMUNICATIONS AND PERILOUS PLACES. London: Library Association Publishing Ltd. Smith, R.M., Aker, G.F., Kidd, J.R. (Eds.). (1970). HANDBOOK OF ADULT EDUCATION. New York: The Macmillian Company. Stubblefield, H.W. & Rachal, J.R. (1992). On the origins of the term and meanings of "adult education" in the United States. ADULT EDUCATION QUARTERLY. 42 (2), 106-176. Svenonius, E. (Ed.). (1989). THE CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGING. San Diego: Academic Press. Tibbo, H.R. (1993). ABSTRACTING, INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND THE HUMANITIES: Providing access to historical literature. Chicago: American Library Association. Viswanathan, C.G. (1967). CATALOGUING THEORY AND PRACTICE. New Delhi: Today & Tomorrow's Printers & Publishers. Wyner, B.S. & Immroth, J.P. (1976). INTRODUCATION TO CATALOGING AND CLASSIFICATION. 5th ed. Littleton: Libraries Unlimited. Verner, Coolie. (1962). A CONCEPTUAL SCHEME FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PROCESSES FOR ADULT EDUCATION. Washington, DC: Adult Education Association of the U.S.A. Page 29 APPENDIX Classification System of Adult Education As presently constituted the RE/ACE-Northern Illinois University, Roger DeCrow/William Rainey Harper Memorial International Classification System of Adult Education is as follows: 0000 Information Sources 0001 Periodicals 0002 Books, Brochures, and Book Chapter 0003 Technical and Research Reports 0004 Proceedings of Meetings and Symposia 0005 Unpublished Work and Publications of Limited Circulation 0006 Reviews 0007 Bibliographies 0010 Methodology 0011 Experimental/Model 0012 Descriptive/Survey 0013 Historical 0014 Philosophical 0015 Ethnography/Field Research 0016 Case Study 0017 Grounded Theory 0018 Interactive (Action Research) 0019 Critical 0020 Futures Research (Delphi) 0021 Surveys 0023 Collaborative Study 0025 Quantitative Based 0030 Qualitative Based 0031 Heuristic/Phenomenological 0035 Mixed Methods 0060 Non-ACE Dissertations 0070 ACE Dissertations 0100 Philosophy 0105 Policies 0110 General Objectives 0125 Evaluation 0150 Legislation 0175 Finance 0250 Studies and Planning - Local Level 0300 Studies and Planning - State and Regional 0350 Studies and Planning - National Level 0500 History 0550 Biography 0800 Continuing Higher Education 0900 Adult Education as a Field of Study 0950 Adult Education Research Page 30 0990 Reviews, Bibliographies, Information Sources 1100 Adult Learning Characteristics 1150 Mental-Perceptual Abilities 1160 Psychological-Personality Factors 1170 Learning Styles (includes Self-Directed Learning) 1180 Learning To Learn 1190 Lifelong Learning (includes Portfolio- Prior Learning) 1200 Age-Gerontology (includes Retirement Issues) 1210 Gender (Sexual Based Issues) 1220 Marital-Family Status 1300 Adult Education Participation 1400 Faculty Development 1500 Program Planning 1505 Administrative Processes 1510 Assessing Educational Needs 1550 Determining-Refining Objectives 1560 Promotion-Publications 1575 Program Design 1580 Program Delivery 1600 Recruitment of Participants 1650 Selection-Prediction for Success 1700 Retention 1750 Counseling-Guidance 1800 Student Aid and Services 1850 Administration 1890 Relations with Governing-Advisory- Clientele 1895 Other 1900 Policy Studies 1910 Education for Social Change 1920 New Social Movements 1930 Traditional Policy 2200 Learning Environments 2210 Community Education and Development 2220 Training of Development Workers 2230 Rural Communities 2240 Urban Environments 2300 Residential Education 2350 Organizational Development 2600 Instructional Methods 2630 Teaching Styles 2730 Lecture 2735 Coaching, Individual Instruction, Tutoring, Mentoring 2740 Personal Contact 2750 Circulars, Direct Mail 2760 Internship 2765 Apprenticeship 2770 Independent Study Page 31 2780 Programmed Instruction-See also instructional devices 2800 Correspondence Study 2900 Discussion-Groups (includes Study Circles, Focus Groups) 2920 Human Relations, Laboratory Training 2950 Simulations-Gaming 3000 Conferences, Institutes, Workshops, Clinics 3005 Meetings 3020 Short Courses 3060 Travel Study 3165 Work Study 3100 Mass Media 3120 Multi-Media Methods 3150 Audio-Visual Methods 3160 CD/ROM 3170 Videotape 3180 Audio 3190 Film 3200 Distance Education 3210 Educational Television 3220 Educational Radio 3230 Distance Learning 3240 Telephone 3250 Interactive Media 3260 Other Media 3300 Computer-Based Education 3310 Goal Setting 3320 Group Instruction 3330 Computer Assisted Instruction 3340 Tutoring of Volunteers 3350 Teacher/Student Ratio-Relationships 3360 Learning Contracts 3400 Instructional/Curriculum Materials 3410 Reading Materials 3420 Cultural/Occupational Sensitivity 3430 Materials for the Disabled 3440 Multi-Level/Unbiased-Biased 3500 Communications-Instructional Devices 3510 Hardware Development 3520 Software Development 3600 Learning Facilities/Environmental Issues Related to Learning 3610 Classroom Design 3620 Safety 3630 Parking 3640 Transportation 3650 Telephone Access 3660 Breaks 3670 Location Page 32 3800 Personnel and Staffing 3820 Personnel Selection Policies and Practices 3825 Support Services/Consultants 3900 Staff Training and Development 4000 Teachers, Leaders, Change Agents 4100 Law Enforcement, Correctional Personnel 4200 Administrators 4400 Funding Methods and Issues 4600 Education of Special Groups 4620 Age Groups 4625 Young Adults 4630 Middle-aged 4635 Older Adults 4650 Sex Differences 4655 Education of Women 4680 Education of Men 4690 Veterans 4700 Aptitude Groups 4710 Low Aptitude 4750 Disadvantaged Groups 4760 Economically Deprived 4770 Homeless 4780 Migrant 4800 Minority 4810 African American (Black American) 4815 Black Non-Citizen 4820 Hispanic (Latino) 4830 Mexican American/Chicana/Chicano 4840 Native American 4850 Inuit (Eskimo) 4860 Asian American 4870 Immigrant/Refugee/Migrant Workers 4880 Jewish/Yiddish 4900 Other Minority 5000 Disabled 5005 Gifted 5010 Mentally Disabled includes Developmental, Developmental, Learning Impairments & Attention Deficit Disorders) 5025 Physically Disabled (includes Visual & Hearing Impairments) 5040 Behavior Disorder-Drugs & Alcohol 5050 Correctional Education-Inmate 5200 Program Areas 5230 Adult Basic Education-General 5231 ABE-Curriculum, Instructional Materials 5232 ABE-Teachers, Adminis traning of 5233 ABE-Participant Characteristics 5240 Family Literacy 5250 Work-place Literacy Page 33 5280 Literacy Training-Foreign 5285 Literacy Training-Domestic 5290 English as a Second Language 5300 Adult Secondary Education-GED 5350 Adult Elementary Education 5400 Adult Higher Education-Academic Programming 5500 Community Services 5550 Community Development Programs 5650 Nontraditional Studies 5700 Continuing Education In the Professions 5725 Career Change 5750 Engineering, Architecture 5775 Mathematics 5800 Life Sciences 5825 Social Sciences 5850 Medicine and Health (MD/RN) 5900 Education 5920 AE Learning Theory 5930 Libraries, Museums, Information Sciences 5950 Law 5960 Law Enforcement 6000 Other Educational Areas 6010 Religion 6015 Ethics 6020 Writing, Acting 6021 Art 6022 Music 6025 Recreation, Leisure activities 6030 Outdoor Education 6040 Environmental Education 6050 Military Professions 6060 Public Administration 6125 Social Work 6130 Volunteers 6150 Technical Education 6200 Work Place Education 6210 Management 6220 Supervision 6230 Learning Organizations 6240 Downsizing-Rightsizing 6250 Organizational Change 6260 Human Resource Development 6270 Total Quality Management 6300 Labor Education 6500 Occupational Education 6510 Industrial Training 6520 Vocational Rehabilitation 6550 Unskilled, Low Aptitude, Disadvantaged 6575 New Careers, Aides, Paraprofessionals 6600 Clerical 6610 Sales Page 34 6650 Service Occupations 6700 Agriculture-Extension Services 6710 Home Economics 6720 Processing 6735 Machine Trades 6750 Bench-work 6800 Structural Work 6850 Other Occupations 6900 Liberal Education 6950 Health, Mental Health, Patient Education (LPN etc.) 7000 Home Management, Consumer Education, Sensitivity Training 7020 Family, Parent Education 7050 Arts, Crafts, Home Related Recreation 7150 Cross Cultural Training 8000 Institutional Sponsors/Subjects 8001 Colleges, Universities 8005 Cooperative, Rural Extension 8010 Junior Colleges, Community Colleges 8015 Public Schools 8020 Business and Industry 8025 Armed Forces 8030 Private Schools 8040 Community Based Organizations 8050 Unions, Cooperatives 8100 Religious 8200 Libraries, Museums 8250 Proprietary Schools 8300 State, Local Governments 8400 State, Local Non-Governmental Organizations 8500 Federal Government 8600 National Non-Governmental Organization 8700 Voluntary Organizations 8800 Consortia 8900 Charitable Organizations 9000 International Perspective 9020 International Comparative Studies 9040 Developing Nations 9350 Canada 9400 Latin America 9410 South America 9420 Central America 9430 Mexico 9450 Caribbean 9500 Europe 9510 Soviet Union/Russia 9515 Former Soviet Republics 9520 Great Britain-Scotland 9525 Ireland Page 35 9530 Nordic Countries 9540 Germany 9570 Eastern Europe 9650 Middle-Near East 9700 Africa 9710 South Africa 9800 Asia 9810 Japan 9815 China-Taiwan 9820 China-Mainland 9950 Australia, New Zealand, Oceanics Page 36 N E W H O R I Z O N S I N A D U L T E D U C A T I O N Volume 11, Number 1, Spring, 1997 B O O K R E V I E W TEACHING ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES by Dale R. Jordan Reviewed by Ellen Arnold Rochester, New York "The purpose of this book is to show how to reach out to the millions of subliterate adolescents and adults in our culture through strategies that successfully build basic literacy skills in LD learners" (p. ix). And this book accomplishes its' purpose. For those adult educators who are being faced with teaching adults who have diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disabilities, this book provides a wealth of research in a very user friendly way. The book's organization makes it easy to find background information about various learning disabilities, and how to teach learners how to compensate for these challenges. The background sections effectively integrate current research on neurology, cognitive strategy instruction with statistics on frequency and examples from real student's work. This makes the book rich as a resource for adult educators who have little background in the complicated field of remediation of literacy skills in adults with cognitive dysfunction. However, there are some cautions. Although the book is titled TEACHING ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES, the focus is primarily teaching "reading" to these adults, which makes sense given Jordan's strong background in the field of literacy. The thoroughness of the review of both visual and auditory dyslexia should prove to be useful to many frustrated adult educators. The book provides clues for diagnosis and samples of errors that can help educators better understand what happens inside the minds of these learners. It also provides a framework of the "continuum of disability" which practitioners should find helpful. However, no mention is made of those learning disabilities which are not perceptually based, such as Expressive Language Disorder or Disorder of Written Expression (Levine, 1994; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Officially classified as learning disabilities, these difficulties are in communication of what is understood Page 37 or thought (expression), rather than in the process of getting words or print decoded or understood (reception). Another concern is the language used in the book. In some instances, Jordan refers to the specific terminology of the DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS (DSM IV), the most current diagnostic reference guide used by psychologists, educators, and physicians when identifying a specific diagnosis. This book is used as a standard in this country, providing the diagnostician with updated terminology concerning diagnosis and the criteria used. Jordan, however, uses the terms "auditory" and "visual dyslexia" which, although terms derived from their medical roots (Orton, 1925), are not mentioned in the DSM IV and would not be considered as a diagnosis in a current psychological evaluation. That does not negate the relevance of the cluster of symptoms Jordan describes, but the use of this language might be confusing to professionals new to the field of adults with learning disabilities. Current diagnostic criteria place both of these categories under the headingof Reading Disorder. The author makes a plea for providing alternative methods for learning for those students with dyslexia, asking practitioners to keep searching for whatever might work for a given learner. On the other hand, Jordan's descriptions of remediation techniques do not consistently account for individual differences. For example, when discussing the teaching of left to right processing, he states, "At the very first sight of the work page, the student must touch the starting place..."(p. 49). Again, when discussing dyslexia, he states, "It is impossible for learners who are dyslexic to work in silence" (p. 49). Although these are clearly effective strategies for some dyslexic learners, they are not the most efficient for all dyslexic learners. In the section of ADHD, he states that these learners "must develop the habit of carrying a small notebook in which they jot down every assignment, appointment, and obligation" (p. 120). Yet, many successful adults with ADHD have developed personal strategies to compensate for their disorganization that do not include a small notebook. Jordan provides helpful clues for the development of study partners and the use of coaches. However, he does not mention the importance of demystification of the disability on the part of the learner--the process of acceptance, understanding and perspective that seem to be so critical for adults with learning disabilities who are making it successfully as independent adults. (Gerber, 1991). Page 38 The section on ADHD behaviors is particularly troublesome to the naive reader, since the author provides lists of behaviors attributed to these learners. But no reference is made to the continuum of severity for this disorder--the fact that even on the Connors Scale, often used to diagnose ADHD, a certain percentage of behaviors are expected, not ALL of them (Hallowell, 1994). In addition, the description of the cause of ADD is stated as fact, when there is still a great deal of discussion by leading researchers concerning the actual causes (Hallowell, 1994). Another concern is the inaccurate representation of subtests from the "Wechsler Intelligence Scale." It is assumed that Jordan is referring to the "Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised" which is a standard tool of psychologists evaluating adult learners. Or the "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised" which is used by most school psychologists. But the test title as mentioned (and not referenced) by the author is no longer in print, having been renamed and revised several years ago. Jordan's assumption that "attention deficit is indicated by the very wide scatter of subtest scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Test" is also questionable (p. 117). Such a scatter is sometimes present with ADHD, sometimes present with LD, and sometimes not present at all, even when the individual has a documented disability in one of these areas. For those practitioners looking for an excellent overview of what it is like to have a significant reading disability and who are looking for educational approaches to use with these learners, this book is an excellent resource. A better title for this book would be: Teaching Strategies for Adults with Reading Disabilities because that is what it does best. REFERENCES American Psychiatric Assocation. (1994). DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS. (4th ed.) Washington, DC: Author. Gerber, P. J., & Reiff, H.B. (1992). SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES: ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS WITH ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Hallowell, E. M. & Ratey, J. J. (1994). DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION. New York: Pantheon. Page 39 Jordan, D. R. (1996). TEACHING ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Levine, M. (1994). EDUCATIONAL CARE. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service. Orton, S. T. (1925). "Word blindness" in school children. ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY, 14, 581-615. Page 40 N E W H O R I Z O N S I N A D U L T E D U C A T I O N Volume 11, Number 1, Spring , 1997 HOW TO RESPOND TO THE TWO ARTICLES ON AEDNET To respond to the article Importance of SCANS Employability Skills as Identified by Workers and Supervisors in Oregon, please send your comments to AEDNET identifying the subject as "Importance of SCANS." To respond to the article A System for Discerning and Analyzing the Present State of Adult Education Dissertat ion Research, please send your comments to AEDNET identifying the subject as "Adult Education Classification." Responses and discussion on these two articles are encouraged until July 10, 1997. HOW TO OBTAIN BACK ISSUES AND CUMMULATIVE INDEX OF NEW HORIZONS To obtain any issue of NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION, please send your email request as follows: Address message to -- listproc@pulsar.acast.nova.edu (NOT to AEDNET) Subject: -- (not necessary) Message -- get horizons vol6n1 (In this example vol6no1 is the requested issue as selected from the index.) To request an index, type the following in the body of the message: index horizons CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION, founded in 1987, is a refereed electronic journal which provides faculty, graduate students, researchers, and practitioners with a means for publishing their current thinking and research within adult education and related fields. The journal is published two or three times a year and is transmitted through this electronic work -- AEDNET. New horizons publishes research, thought pieces, book reviews, point-counter-point articles, conceptual analysis, case studies, interactive articles, and invitational columns. Page 41 ANNOUNCEMENT OF SPECIAL ISSUE PLEASE NOTE: A SPECIAL ISSUE IS PLANNED FOR LATER THIS YEAR THAT WILL FOCUS ON ADULT LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. THERE IS STILL TIME FOR RELEVANT ARTICLES TO BE SUBMITTED AND REVIEWED FOR THIS SPECIAL ISSUE. BOOK REVIEWS ARE ALSO ENCOURAGED. The editorial staff welcomes articles for review submitted either electronically through AEDNET or as conventional paper copies through regular mail. If you would like to submit an article or obtain guidelines for manuscript submission, you may contact New Horizons in Adult Education by e-mail or mail. E-mail address: horizons@fcae.nova.edu Mailing address: NEW HORIZONS IN ADULT EDUCATION Nova Southeastern University Programs for Higher Education/FCAE 3301 College Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314 Page 42