[ Foreword ]
[ Summary of the Conference ]
The United States Department of Education and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held a conference on adult learners, April 6, 8, 1998. The purposes of this conference were to identify barriers that prevent certain groups of adults from participating in lifelong learning opportunities and to deepen our understanding of practices and institutional arrangements that better enable such adults to learn.
As formal and informal learning continue to play a growing role in the well being of individuals in society, access to, and participation in, educational programs become increasingly important issues for those adults who might otherwise be left out. There is no question that the 21st century is going to demand more learning from adults. Whether the demand will be to acquire new skills, to stay current with the knowledge environment of one's job, to be a better parent or citizen or a more effective consumer will not make a difference. The bottom line for the learner is that the choices that he or she makes are based on knowledge rather than ignorance and prejudice. Unfortunately, in most countries, including the United States, there are groups of individuals who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to continue learning. Some of these adults have a weak educational foundation, others speak a language other than that of the country in which they live, and still others believe that learning is for the young. In many cases, these categories overlap. Some societies are becoming more economically and socially bifurcated. No democratic society can afford to have a sizable portion of its population unable to keep up with social and economic changes as societies become older and more diverse. Therefore it is important to identify what works for these populations so that we can reach them before they are disenfranchised.
The conference was convened to discuss the barriers that adults face in participating in educational programs and to identify successful programs that appear to serve them well. The design of the conference reflected the concerns about adults considered most at risk—that is adults who face barriers to continuous learning. The goal was to enable policymakers to draw lessons from practitioners and researchers about providing adequate opportunities to meet the growing learning needs of adults. The conference was organized to bring together practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to discuss how adult education and training providers, workplaces, and community-based learning opportunities might be adapted to meet the needs of those who are most at risk of confronting these barriers.
The conference was structured around three workshops: (1) immigrants with low literacy skills, (2) adults who lack basic literacy skills, and (3) older adults. For each workshop, a scholar prepared an issue paper describing the dimensions of the problem and raised relevant research questions. Practitioners administering successful programs presented papers describing their programs.
In addition to these workshops, the conference offered a number of plenary sessions. Professor Jim Greeno presented a conceptual paper reviewing recent evidence on how adults learn in workplaces, and why many past and current programs and policies were deficient in meeting the learning needs of particular groups of adults. The second plenary session presented emerging themes from the workshops. The third plenary session asked participants to reflect on: "What makes a learning society?" The final plenary session focused on "strategies and policies to support adult learning." The participants included officials from the OECD, UNESCO, the European Commission, the World Bank, and the United States.
The conference produced insights based on papers and policy recommendations. Although the purpose of the conference was to draw from practitioners' and researchers' lessons about serving the adult learner, James Greeno was asked to address the question of how adults learn at work. This conceptual paper was commissioned as the first step in reviewing research on learning at work with the follow-up goal of developing a theoretical and conceptual synthesis of learning in settings other than work. Greeno defined learning as "improved participation in interactive systems." Rather than focus on particular subpopulations, Greeno emphasized that all workers do know what matters and are able to participate effectively in the social system. Following Greeno's paper, the conference focused on issues discussed in the workshops.
Workshop I: Immigrants with Low Literacy Skills
Immigrants, especially those whose language differs from that of the host country, constitute a sizable proportion of at-risk adults. In some countries their unemployment rates are noticeably higher than those of the host population. In all OECD countries adults whose language is not that of the host country are more likely to exhibit low levels of educational attainment and have trouble in accessing work and learning opportunities.
In addition, more care must be taken in identifying the learning needs of immigrants and in planning, monitoring, and evaluating the learning opportunities available to them, since there are considerable differences among the cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, and educational levels of immigrants.
The discussion in this workshop centered on strategies for working with adults who have native literacy and those who do not, as well as strategies for dealing with multiple foreign language groups. Roger Díaz de Cossío of the National Institute of Adult Education, Mexico, presented a paper on "Adult Education, Migration, and Immigrant Education". He examined the history of immigration in Mexico and the United States. He identified successful programs and commented on the importance of further cooperation between the United States and Mexico in solving significant issues through research and policy discussions. Susan Chou Allender of Adult Multicultural Education Services, Australia, presented a paper entitled, "Australia's Migrants and Refugees: Opening the Door to Lifelong Learning." The paper describes how policy and institutional approaches recognize diversity in the design and delivery of services. It details how policies and practices were developed to overcome learning barriers faced by migrants and refugees and to improve the effectiveness of learning. She describes a number of exemplary curricula and classroom practices. For example, the basic elements of the new adult education model include various modules, such as academic and diversified modules, based on the needs expressed by adults.
Workshop II: Adults Who Lack Basic Skills
Evidence from research indicates that in all countries the least educated adults receive the least amount of continuing education and training. The least educated also do not perform well in the labor market. The lower the level of educational attainment, the higher the rate of unemployment and the lower the amount of relative earnings. Although some countries may create more jobs that require less education, in the long run it is usually people with more education who do well in the labor market. In high-growth economies, high-technology firms with highly educated workers are the primary sources of productivity increases. Therefore, it is in the best interest, not only of individuals, but also of countries, to have individuals who possess basic academic competencies so they can pursue further education and training when the economies require more educated workers.
Valerie Clements, from the Human Resources Development Canada, moderated the second workshop. This workshop focused on native language speakers with low levels of basic literacy or numeracy skills. Different causes and appropriate strategies were discussed, including the impact of poor early education, learning disorders, and other problems. Stephen Reder of the United States offered a very informative look at the characteristics of the adult learner population, how first-level learners are defined, and how current programs address their needs. Judith Alamprese, also from the United States, presented information on Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs in the United States and identified areas of research. She specifically emphasized the need for research in the relationship between Adult Basic Education program operations and learner progress. Most of the discussion centered on classroom-based programs.
Workshop III: Older Adults
As life expectancy rises in OECD countries, older adults who are in their final job or retired, are a large and, in most countries, growing share of the total population. Recent surveys have substantiated the fact that low levels of literacy are a significant problem for a large portion of the older adult populations. Data from most OECD countries indicate that the participation rate of adults in education and training is lower for older workers, and there is a sharp decline after age 55. Employers appear to be reluctant to invest in the education and training of older workers. As often noted in the literature, aging persons, as well as society as a whole, will benefit if older adults are valued as sources of wisdom and experience and perceived as vital and productive individuals who continue to learn, grow, and contribute throughout their later lives.
This workshop focused on how learning changes as adults age. The moderator, Ladislav Cerych of the Czech Republic, directed the discussion to the learning needs of a rapidly growing number of older adults. Günther Dohmen of Germany identified reasons for the low participation in education programs of the older population in Germany. He made recommendations for contextual, "real world" learning opportunities that consider older learners’ previous knowledge as valuable. Both Günther Dohmen and Toshio Ohsako of Japan stressed the barriers to participation in learning opportunities among the elderly, such as concerns about keeping pace with younger learners, the connection of past experiences with learning to new learning opportunities, lack of transportation, and high course fees. Ohsako pointed out the relationships between the increase in adult participation in learning programs and the Japanese government's budget. One of the most successful projects in the networking project is called, "Volunteers databank for lifelong learning." This project often builds projects for the elderly on various other volunteer projects. Ohsako emphasized the relationships between the increase in adult participation in social learning and health, and the impact on participants'; pensions and medical expenses.
In addition to these workshops, two papers were commissioned under the general heading of: "What Makes a Learning Society?" Makoto Yamaguchi's paper "Adult Learners," describes in detail the Japanese society, and focuses on social learning. She states that to create a learning society people must be equipped not only with specific skills but also with a positive attitude toward learning from each other. Åsa Sohlman's paper, "The Culture of Adult Learning in Sweden," on the other hand, is more concrete in offering specific recommendations on how Sweden's "learning culture" plans to advance the society to a lifelong learning orientation. The Swedish Parliament established a 5-year program of adult education targeted to the unemployed and those employees who lack high school diplomas. Under this law, municipalities are responsible for arranging most of this investment in adult education. The municipalities prepare the training criteria for their residents and apply for the grants awarded by the government. Both Yamaguchi and Sohlman emphasize the evolution of cultural, economic, and social programs that affect the success of adult learning efforts specific to their countries.
What distinguished this conference from other such meetings was the dialogue that took place among the delegates and the different perspectives that were presented by representatives of international organizations, such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the European Commission, that comprised the final panel. To capture that discussion, we asked Keith Drake of the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, to summarize it. Drake's intent was not to produce the proceedings of the conference, but to present the reader with an insight into the discussions. Drake noted that the current preoccupation with lifelong learning reflects the fact that governments have failed to learn from past experiences with adult learning. He called for better measurement and management of learning processes outside structured settings, and better assessment of the payoffs for such learning. Finally, he observed that learning societies depend on having healthy initial education, well developed work-based learning, and well developed community-based learning.
Certain themes emerged from the discussions of the conference. These were:
Public Policy Recommendations
The following chapters include the papers presented at the conference, a compendium of resource materials and contacts prepared by Tarja Tikkanen of Finland (appendix A), and the list of delegates (appendix B).
| [ Foreword ] |
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[ Summary of the Conference ] |
This page last modified 28 Sept 1999. (lvb)