Leading faculty members in educational psychology, who are expert classroom teachers, describe inherent difficulties encountered when teaching different subject matter in educational psychology to diverse populations of students, including undergraduate teacher candidates, psychology and child development majors, and graduate students in education and psychology. Educational psychology addresses subject matter as diverse as child and adolescent development, motivation, learning theories, student assessment, teacher expertise, and research methods and statistics. Drawing from their years of classroom experience, as well as their expertise in designing and conducting educational research, the contributing authors report their successful instructional efforts and innovations designed to increase student learning and knowledge of the discipline.

Eight of the thirteen chapters describe investigations of adults' literacy skills based on analyses of the National Adult Literacy Survey. The studies describe how work contributes to literacy, associations between literacy skills and reading practices, reciprocal effects of education and literacy, gender differences in literacy abilities, the relationship between literacy and voting behavior, the literacy skills of adults having one or more learning disabilities, and the construct validity of the NALS. One chapter summarizes the major findings of the NALS and another discusses federal educational policies that shaped the NALS. Two additional chapters describe research programs pertaining to dimensions of literacy that are significant to a more comprehensive understanding of literacy in the United States: family literacy education and health care. The National Adult Literacy Survey has provided literacy researchers and practitioners with a wealth of knowledge about American adults' literacy proficiencies. Literacy for the 21st Century was developed with the idea that the NALS contains useful information to inform public educational policy, suggest new directions for literacy research, and assist in adult literacy education program development. The ideas presented in this book should enable policymakers, social leaders, and educators to more fully consider national assessment data, thereby prompting actions necessary to enable all citizens to achieve greater opportunities in their work and lives.

The time is right for this comprehensive, state-of-the-art Handbook that analyzes, integrates, and summarizes theoretical advances and research findings on adult development and learning - a rapidly growing field reflecting demographic shifts toward an aging population in Western societies. Featuring contributions from prominent scholars across diverse disciplinary fields (education, developmental psychology, public policy, gerontology, neurology, public health, sociology, family studies, and adult education), the volume is organized around six themes:

• theoretical perspectives on adult development and learning
• research methods in adult development
• research on adult development
• research on adult learning
• aging and gerontological research
• policy perspectives on aging.

The Handbook is an essential reference for researchers, faculty, graduate students and practitioners whose work pertains to adult and lifespan development and learning.

Adult education occurs whenever individuals engage in sustained, systematic learning in order to affect changes in their attitudes, knowledge, skills, or belief systems. Learning, instruction, and developmental processes are the primary foci of educational psychology research and theorizing, but educational psychologists' work in these domains has centered primarily on the childhood and adolescent school years. More recently, however, a number of educational psychologists have studied learning and development in adulthood. The results of these efforts have resulted in what is now called adult educational psychology. The purpose of this volume is to introduce this new subfield within educational psychology. Section 1 focuses on the interplay between learning and development in adulthood, how various forms of instruction lead to different learning outcomes for adults, description of the diverse social contexts in which adult learning takes place, and the development of metacognitive knowledge across the life span. Section 2 describes both research and theory pertaining to adult intellectual functioning, thinking, and problem-solving skills within various contexts. Section 3 describes research in a variety of adult learning domains; discusses the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of reading in adulthood and the applications of reading in real-life circumstances; examines an educational intervention developed to promote forgiveness; and relates the outcomes of an intervention designed to educate parents about their children's mathematics learning. Section 4 summarizes the themes and issues running throughout this, the first book that has sought to span the gulf between adult education, adult development, and educational psychology.

Adult education occurs whenever individuals engage in sustained, systematic learning in order to affect changes in their attitudes, knowledge, skills, or belief systems. Learning, instruction, and developmental processes are the primary foci of educational psychology research and theorizing, but educational psychologists' work in these domains has centered primarily on the childhood and adolescent school years. More recently, however, a number of educational psychologists have studied learning and development in adulthood. The results of these efforts have resulted in what is now called adult educational psychology.
The purpose of this volume is to introduce this new subfield within educational psychology. Section 1 focuses on the interplay between learning and development in adulthood, how various forms of instruction lead to different learning outcomes for adults, description of the diverse social contexts in which adult learning takes place, and the development of metacognitive knowledge across the life span. Section 2 describes both research and theory pertaining to adult intellectual functioning, thinking, and problem-solving skills within various contexts. Section 3 describes research in a variety of adult learning domains; discusses the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of reading in adulthood and the applications of reading in real-life circumstances; examines an educational intervention developed to promote forgiveness; and relates the outcomes of an intervention designed to educate parents about their children's mathematics learning. Section 4 summarizes the themes and issues running throughout this, the first book that has sought to span the gulf between adult education, adult development, and educational psychology.

Colleges and universities are increasingly becoming significant sites for adult education scholarship-in large part due to demographic shifts. With fewer U.S. high school graduates on the horizon, higher education institutions will need to attract "non-traditional" (i.e., older) adult learners to remain viable, both financially and politically. There is a need to develop a better corpus of scholarship on topics as diverse as, what learning theories are useful for understanding adult learning? How are higher education institutions changing in response to the surge of adult students? What academic programs are providing better learning and employment outcomes for adults in college? Adult education scholars can offer much to the policy debates taking place in higher education. A main premise of this handbook is that adult and continuing education should not simply respond to rapidly changing social, economic, technological, and political environments across the globe, but should lead the way in preparing adults to become informed, globally-connected, critical citizens who are knowledgeable, skilled, and open and adaptive to change and uncertainty. The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education provides rich information on the contemporary issues and trends that are of concern to adult and continuing education, of the programs and resources available to adult learners, and of opportunities to challenge and critique the structures embedded in the field that perpetuate inequity and social injustice. Adult education is a discipline that foresees a better tomorrow, and The Handbook is designed to engage and inspire readers to assist the field to seek new paths in uncertain and complex times, ask questions, and to help the field flourish. The Handbook is divided into five sections. The first, Foundations situates the field by describing the developments, core debates, perspectives, and key principles that form the basis of the field. The second, Understanding Adult Learning, includes chapters on adult learning, adult development, motivation, access, participation, and support of adult learners, and mentoring. Teaching Practices and Administrative Leadership, the third section, offers chapters on organization and administration, program planning, assessment and evaluation, teaching perspectives, andragogy and pedagogy, public pedagogy, and digital technologies for teaching and learning. The fourth section is Formal and Informal Learning Contexts. Chapters cover adult basic, GED, and literacy education, English-as-a-Second Language Programs, family literacy, prison education, workforce development, military education, international development education, health professions education, continuing professional education, higher education, human resource development and workplace learning, union and labor education, religious and spiritual education, cultural institutions, environmental education, social and political movements, and peace and conflict education. The concluding Contemporary Issues section discusses decolonizing adult and continuing education, adult education and welfare, teaching social activism, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and straight allies, gender and its multiple forms, disability, older adults and intergenerational identities, race and ethnicity, working class, whiteness and privilege, and migrants and migrant education. The editors culminate with consideration of next steps for adult and continuing education and priorities for the future.

One of the liveliest areas of research in the social sciences is reading. Scholarly activity is currently proceeding along a number of different disciplinary lines, addressing a multitude of questions and issues about reading. A short list of disciplines involved in the study of reading would include linguistics, psychology, education, history, and gerontology. Among the important questions being ad dressed are some long-standing concerns: How are reading skills acquired? What are the basic components of reading skill? How do skilled readers differ from less skilled ones? What are the best ways to approach instruction for different groups of readers-young beginning readers, poor readers with learning problems, and teenage and adult illiterates? How can reading skill best be measured-what standardized instruments and observational techniques are most useful? The large volume of textbooks and scholarly books that issue forth each year is clear evidence of the dynamic nature of the field. The purpose of this volume is to survey some of the best work going on in the field today and reflect what we know about reading as it unfolds across the life span. Reading is clearly an activity that spans each of our lives. Yet most accounts of it focus on some narrow period of development and fail to consider the range of questions that serious scholarship needs to address for us to have a richer under standing of reading. The book is divided into four parts."

The time is right for this comprehensive, state-of-the-art Handbook that analyzes, integrates, and summarizes theoretical advances and research findings on adult development and learning - a rapidly growing field reflecting demographic shifts toward an aging population in Western societies. Featuring contributions from prominent scholars across diverse disciplinary fields (education, developmental psychology, public policy, gerontology, neurology, public health, sociology, family studies, and adult education), the volume is organized around six themes:

• theoretical perspectives on adult development and learning
• research methods in adult development
• research on adult development
• research on adult learning
• aging and gerontological research
• policy perspectives on aging.

The Handbook is an essential reference for researchers, faculty, graduate students and practitioners whose work pertains to adult and lifespan development and learning.

Leading faculty members in educational psychology, who are expert classroom teachers, describe inherent difficulties encountered when teaching different subject matter in educational psychology to diverse populations of students, including undergraduate teacher candidates, psychology and child development majors, and graduate students in education and psychology. Educational psychology addresses subject matter as diverse as child and adolescent development, motivation, learning theories, student assessment, teacher expertise, and research methods and statistics. Drawing from their years of classroom experience, as well as their expertise in designing and conducting educational research, the contributing authors report their successful instructional efforts and innovations designed to increase student learning and knowledge of the discipline.