Tag: policy

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Creating older adults technology training policies: lessons from community practices

Author/s: Michael Nycyk and Margaret Redsell

Edition: Volume 47, Number 2, July 2007

Summary: Influencing government policy in adult learning areas requires consistent efforts in having findings noticed by educational policymakers. Submissions by Adult Learning Australia and researchers have called for unified educational policies and practices across Australia. This paper argues that, whilst it is important to address macro issues of policy formation, research into micro issues can also be valuable in assisting policy formation. Using information technology and communication teaching in a community centre, it considers analysis of informal daily policies and practices and what is working at the everyday level is important. Student experience examples at one centre teaching these skills to older adult are reported to show the types of policies and practices which maximised the long-term running of the centre and long periods of student retention. Like researchers addressing macro adult learning issues, it requires consistent reporting of results to educational policy-makers to remind them of what practices and policies do work for older adults.

Keywords: education, policy, practices, policy formation, student experience, student retention, technology, older adults

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Getting connected: insights into social capital from recent adult learning research

Author/s: Barry Golding

Edition: Volume 47, Number 1, April 2007

Summary: This paper begins by teasing out the nature of social capital and its particular and current relevance to adult learning policy and practice in Australia. The paper identifies a number of benefits and significant problems with social capital as an organising construct for adult learning research and policy in Australia. Some connections are made between social capital and lifelong learning, and important distinctions are drawn between ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital. I draw on my experiences and insights over the past seven years using network diagrams as a research tool. Network diagrams are identified as a useful tool for charting relationships between learning organisations and individuals. The paper suggests ways of using the network relationships in these diagrams as a proxy for social capital in a range of formal and informal settings in which adult learning occurs in Australia. Network diagrams are seen to have particular utility in situations where communities and organisations become too small for surveys, where relationships become complex and ambiguous as well as in rural and remote communities where distance and spatial relationships affect access to learning.

Keywords: social capital, adult learning, policy, practice, research, lifelong learning

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A volunteer training framework

Author/s: Moira Deslandes and Louise Rogers

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: Volunteering SA (VSA) has responded to the need to revise and expand the training offered to volunteers. It has developed a volunteer training framework to provide structure and guidance for the sector in making policy and financial decisions about directions and type of training that volunteers require and desire, where the training can lead and what recognition can be given for it. Basic entry-level volunteer training is the focus of the framework. However, other planks in the training framework include training and identifying pathways from basic entry-level volunteer training to accredited training. This approach offers clear linkages and pathways for volunteers and organisations, and it is anticipated this will build a culture of continuous service improvement.

Keywords: volunteering, training, framework, policy, pathways

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The emergence of continuing education in China

Author/s: Xiao Chen and Gareth Davey

Edition: Volume 48, Number 1, April 2008

Summary: This article reports on continuing education in China. It discusses the emergence of the field in the 1980s, the Chinese characteristics of continuing education, recent developments, and limitations. Continuing education became available in China in the 1980s following a change in government policy and economic reform. It caters mainly for training specialist technicians, although the field has recently diversified to include programs for government officials, leaders of public services, teachers and the general public. Continuing education is increasing in popularity due to the developing economy that demands a skilled workforce. However, several problems and challenges limit the field’s development, including inaccessibility (particularly for the general public), out-dated curricula and teaching methods, and limited legislation. These issues need to be addressed if continuing education in China is to develop further, be of high quality and meet the needs of society.

Keywords: China, continuing education, policy, skilled workforce

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Investigating students’ beliefs about Arabic language programs at Kuwait University

Author/s: Shaye S. Al-Shaye

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: The current study attempted to identify students’ of Arabic programs beliefs about their chosen programs. To achieve this purpose, a survey was developed to collect the data from randomly selected students in liberal-arts and education-based programs at Kuwait University. The results showed that students were statistically differentiated as a function of different beliefs insofar as the Arabic language programs are concerned. Yet beliefs were not just confined to materialistic benefits; students tended to value other types of benefits as well. Implications for educational policies and recommendations for future research were also included. The most important implication is that students along with their beliefs should be included in evaluating or revising the educational programs.

Keywords: Arabic programs, liberal arts, education, policy

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Water, weeds and autumn leaves: learning to be drier in the Alpine region

Author/s: Annette Foley & Lauri Grace

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: Our paper explores how and what adults living and working in the Alpine region of Victoria understand and are learning about the changes to water availability, in a time when the response to water availability is subject to extensive debate and policy attention. Interviews for this study were conducted in the towns of Bright and Mount Beauty, with participants drawn from across the Alpine region. The interviews focused on what local stakeholders from the Alpine region understood about water availability in the region and how and what they had learned about living and working with climatic changes in their local area. The findings of our study see that there was evidence of a strong understanding of the direct and indirect impact of climate change on participants’ local community area. The study also sees evidence of learning through a community ‘frames of reference’ as outlined by Berkhout, Hertin and Dann et al.

Keywords: water availability, policy, climate change, community

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.