In the United States, the nomenclature of adult education includes adult literacy, adult secondary education, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) services provided to undereducated and limited English proficient adults. Those receiving adult education services have diverse reasons for seeking additional education. With the passage of the WIA, the assessment of adult education students became mandatory-regardless of their reasons for seeking services. The law does allow the states and local programs flexibility in selecting the most appropriate assessment for the student. The purpose of the NRC's workshop was to explore issues related to efforts to measure learning gains in adult basic education programs, with a focus on performance-based assessments.
In the United States, the nomenclature of adult education includes adult literacy, adult secondary education, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) services provided to undereducated and limited English proficient adults. Those receiving adult education services have diverse reasons for seeking additional education. With the passage of the WIA, the assessment of adult education students became mandatory-regardless of their reasons for seeking services. The law does allow the states and local programs flexibility in selecting the most appropriate assessment for the student. The purpose of the NRC's workshop was to explore issues related to efforts to measure learning gains in adult basic education programs, with a focus on performance-based assessments.
Needs Assessment for Learning and Performance offers comprehensive coverage of the knowledge and skills needed to develop and conduct needs assessments and to analyze, interpret, and communicate results to clients and organizations. Though critical to planning any performance improvement system, needs assessments can feel abstract and vague to students who have not yet managed the process in a professional setting. This first-of-its-kind textbook uses a variety of real-world examples to connect major theories and models to effective principles for practice. Each chapter offers guiding questions, key terms and concepts, recommended readings, and case studies illustrating how needs assessment training can be applied. Graduate students and researchers of instructional design, human resources, performance improvement, program evaluation, and other programs will find this volume relevant to a range of academic and organizational contexts.
Higher education has changed significantly over time. In particular, traditional face-to-face degrees are being revamped in a bid to ensure they stay relevant in the 21st century and are now offered online. The transition for many universities to online learning has been painful—only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many in-person students to join their virtual peers and professors to learn new technologies and techniques to educate. Moreover, work has also changed with little doubt as to the impact of digital communication, remote work, and societal change on the nature of work itself. There are arguments to be made for organizations to become more agile, flexible, entrepreneurial, and creative. As such, work and education are both traversing a path of immense changes, adapting to global trends and consumer preferences. The Handbook of Research on Future of Work and Education: Implications for Curriculum Delivery and Work Design is a comprehensive reference book that analyzes the realities of higher education today, strategies that ensure the success of academic institutions, and factors that lead to student success. In particular, the book addresses essentials of online learning, strategies to ensure the success of online degrees and courses, effective course development practices, key support mechanisms for students, and ensuring student success in online degree programs. Furthermore, the book addresses the future of work, preferences of employees, and how work can be re-designed to create further employee satisfaction, engagement, and increase productivity. In particular, the book covers insights that ensure that remote employees feel valued, included, and are being provided relevant support to thrive in their roles. Covering topics such as course development, motivating online learners, and virtual environments, this text is essential for academicians, faculty, researchers, and students globally.
This guide shows adult educators how to use informal assessments to improve the learning of those they serve. It explains well-established assessment principles and demonstrates how educators can use those principles to devise and conduct assessments in collaboration with their learners. Care is taken to illustrate how the techniques of informal assessment can be implemented across the full range of adult learning settings. Consideration is also given to several current issues and trends in assessing adult learning including multiculturalism, distance learning, learners with disabilities, and using performance/portfolio assessments.
Aimed at the growing number of educators who are looking to move beyond covering the curriculum, Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects provides a comprehensive guide to ensuring students' deeper learning—in which they can transfer their knowledge, skills, and understandings to the world beyond the classroom. Readers will learn how to * Create authentic tasks and projects to address both academic standards and 21st century skills. * Apply task frames to design performance tasks that allow voice and choice for students. * Design and use criterion-based evaluation tools and rubrics for assessment, including those for students to use in self-assessment and peer assessment. * Incorporate performance-based instructional strategies needed to prepare students for authentic performance. * Differentiate tasks and projects for all students, including those needing additional support or challenge. * Effectively manage the logistics of a performance-based classroom. * Use project management approaches to facilitate successful implementation of tasks and projects. * Develop performance-based curriculum at the program, school, and district levels. Authors Jay McTighe, Kristina J. Doubet, and Eric M. Carbaugh provide examples and resources across all grade levels and subject areas. Teachers can use this practical guidance to transform their classrooms into vibrant centers of learning, where students are motivated and engaged and see relevance in the work they are doing.
Whether it is earning a GED, a particular skill, or technical topic for a career, taking classes of interest, or even returning to begin a degree program or completing it, adult learning encompasses those beyond the traditional university age seeking out education. This type of education could be considered non-traditional as it goes beyond the typical educational path and develops learners that are self-initiated and focused on personal development in the form of gaining some sort of education. Essentially, it is a voluntary choice of learning throughout life for personal and professional development. While there is often a large focus towards K-12 and higher education, it is important that research also focuses on the developing trends, technologies, and techniques for providing adult education along with understanding lifelong learners’ choices, developments, and needs. The Research Anthology on Adult Education and the Development of Lifelong Learners focuses specifically on adult education and the best practices, services, and educational environments and methods for both the teaching and learning of adults. This spans further into the understanding of what it means to be a lifelong learner and how to develop adults who want to voluntarily contribute to their own development by enhancing their education level or knowledge of certain topics. This book is essential for teachers and professors, course instructors, business professionals, school administrators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest advancements in adult education and lifelong learning.
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world’s leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book’s four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment.
A comprehensive and research-based text detailing the important relationship between school administration and human resources administration. "The author provides [students] with specific strategies for navigating the treacherous waters of personnel selection, development, retention, and removal. I wish I had the book when I began my work as Director of Personnel." —Zach Kelehear University of South Carolina Human Resources Administration for Educational Leaders balances theory and pedagogy to demonstrate the historical evolution of the human resources function in education, the link between human resources and organizational effectiveness, and the new trends in human resources accountability. Key Features and Benefits: Provides students with samples of the tools that practicing HR administrators use for planning, recruiting, interviewing, selecting, evaluating, compensating, and developing staff personnel Dedicates separate chapters to areas often neglected in other texts: collective bargaining, human resources responsibility for classified personnel, accountability, and organizational climate and the human resources function Features engaging simulations in the form of case studies and critical questions to help students apply the concepts to practice Accompanied by High-Quality Ancillaries Instructors′ Resources on CD-ROM includes a test bank, sample syllabi, PowerPoint slide presentations, and more.
The definition of education and learning has been changing in recent years, as the field experienced, and is still experiencing, many changes. One of those changes is a rise in adult learners in higher education. In order to cope with this particular change and set their classrooms up for success, it is vital for educators to be aware of and fluent in adult instructional strategies. Outcome-Based Strategies for Adult Learning provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of nontraditional education and applications within curriculum development and instructional design. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as experiential learning, instructional design, and formative assessment, this book is ideally designed for educators, academicians, educational professionals, researchers, and upper-level students seeking current research on how instructional strategies can be tied to assessment.
