South Africa’s adult educators in the community college sector: Who they are and how they view their training, their work and their position

This article examines the work context of South Africa’s state-employed adult educators. It is based largely on a recent cross-sectional study of adult educators commissioned by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which draws on the DHET’s database of adult educators and qualitative information gained from visits to adult education and training centres in all nine provinces. The study enquired into adult educators’ working lives, their qualifications, their sense of whether their training was adequate, the issue of further training, their understanding of their work, their conditions of service and the support they believe they need. The study showed that the number of adult educators employed by the DHET is declining steadily and that the working conditions of adult educators are uneven: a few work in fairly well-resourced urban centres, but many work in poor conditions, with little support. Nevertheless, the study indicated that almost all the adult educators view their role in a positive light. Confident of support from one another, they have a definite shared identity as a social group and express a strong commitment to their learners and the communities in which they work. Overall, they constitute a group with strong, yet poorly tapped, potential to contribute to positive community development.

Using Process Evaluation Results to Compare Peer and Adult Leader Delivery of the Paws (Peer-Education about Weight Steadiness) Club Program

To date, there is limited published literature on process evaluation of adolescent health promotion programs. In this paper, we describe the methods and results of PAWS Club process evaluation over 2 years of implementation to compare the effectiveness of delivery by peer and adult leaders. PAWS (Peer-education About Weight Steadiness) Club was a 12-week healthy lifestyle program, delivered to 6th and 7th graders by peer and adult educators, using cluster randomized controlled design. Peer educators were 8th graders in the program schools and adult educators were staff/teachers in the program schools. Trained university students filled out fidelity logs at each session led by peer and adult educators to assess program delivery. The fidelity logs included questions to collect information about the number of participants, duration of the session, percent of activities completed, and if lessons started on time, lesson objectives were clearly stated, lesson objectives were emphasized, demonstrations were visible to participants, all activities were completed, the leader was familiar with lessons, the leader maintained an appropriate pace, the leader kept participants on track, and the leader asked if participants had any questions. Adult educators had a higher mean performance for all questions compared to peer leaders. Significant differences were observed for emphasizing lesson objectives (p = 0.005), making demonstrations visible to participants (p = 0.031), being familiar with the lesson plan (p = 0.000), maintaining an appropriate pace (p = 0.000), keeping participants on track (p = 0.000), and asking if participants had any questions (p = 0.000). Significance was set at p < 0.05. Findings from the current study have implications for designing and conducting a process evaluation of complex healthy lifestyle programs with adolescents in schools. Additional training of peer educators may be needed to enhance program delivery.

Self-efficacy experiences in day care and primary school from the children’s perspective: A starting point for the reflection of didactic and methodological competences of adult educators

This paper discusses self-efficacy as a key factor in children managing the transition to primary school, the threshold to formal education and further learning processes. In presenting results of a qualitative-longitudinal interview study of German preschool and primary school children’s perspectives on their self-efficacy experiences, it furnishes evidence for enhancing self-efficacy in pedagogical practice in a so-called mastery climate. Co-determined or self-determined opportunities for playing without adult intervention prove to be central in this to children’s self-efficacy. Following on from this, the discussion will make references to the pedagogical relevance of child-led or unsupervised play for the promotion of self-efficacy in both settings. In addition, based on the reflection of the concept of generational order, the study points to concrete starting points to focus on necessary didactic and methodological competences of adult educators for the appropriate design of child-oriented co-determined or self-determined learning settings.

The Intersection of Confucianism and Western Teaching in Taiwanese Adult Education

Adult education is a significant feature of the Taiwanese education landscape and is recognized as significantly contributing to national economic development. Given the importance of adult education in Taiwan, an investigation of teaching approaches and an understanding of interplay of teaching approaches with Taiwanese culture is worthwhile because such investigations provide a platform for reflection and subsequent evolution of teaching approaches. In the present article, the authors delve into the heritage of Taiwan to explore teaching practices from the standpoint of the teachings of Confucius and Western teaching approaches. Data were collected via survey of 39 randomly selected adult educators from premium universities in Tapai along with interviews. The results point to the persistent dominance of Confucian instructional methods despite some use of Western teaching approaches.

Beyond the Trifold in Civics Presentations: The Measure of Youth Policy Arguments

Youth are increasingly engaging in civic action to address social injustices. Many adult educators are also looking for instructional resources that support youth voice as a way to promote adolescent civic development and community change. Alas, assessment tools to support youth voice and policy argumentation are lacking. Existing tools overemphasize public speaking skills and rely on dated artifacts such as cardboard trifold posters. In this article we introduce the Measure of Youth Policy Arguments (MYPA), a tool designed to aid in the development and assessment of high-quality youth policy presentations. We also describe how to use the MYPA in formative and summative contexts. Additionally, we provide initial evidence for the validity and reliability of the MYPA. Furthermore, we argue that MYPA has applications in preparing youth for policy presentation and in assessing learning outcomes associated with youth voice projects.

THE INTEGRATION OF EXPERIENTIAL TECHNIQUES IN ADULT EDUCATION AND THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THEIR ADOPTION

The present research is a quantitative approach to the experiential learning provided in adult education. It focuses on the investigation of the experiential teaching techniques adopted and applied by adult educators at Vocational Training Institutes (VTI), based on their individual and work characteristics. The sample consisted of 317 instructors of public and private VTI, which was a product of inventory sampling, and was conducted at national level. A standard questionnaire, that was prepared for the needs of this research was used as a research tool. The results of the research are presented through descriptive, but also inductive statistical methods and confirm that adult educators use a variety of experiential teaching techniques in their work, with some of them being more preferred than others that seem to be less popular. In addition, the individual-work characteristics of educators affect, in some cases, the degree and intensity with which they utilize some experiential techniques, during the teaching process.

A Culturally Immersive Approach to Teaching Cultural Tolerance in a Pandemic

This paper is one approach to teaching graduate students in education to become culturally empathetic. This paper was written when America’s racial divide expanded and Black and Brown Americans were killed by police who were not charged, and White American nationalists who want to “Make America Great Again”. The pandemic that locked down our nation and stopped business as usual left people isolated and idol thus creating a petri dish for civil unrest to grow. The population of adult educators was immersed in other cultures through critically analyzing ethnographies, memoirs, through the lens of cultural theories. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that graduate adult education students can develop empathy for populations, they will encounter within their spaces of work that they may feel oppose their access to opportunity. Participants boast about how the narratives reminded them of the common plight amongst populations previously viewed unfavorably. Within these themes, learners acknowledged that the process had transformed how they think about the other.