Education Commons^™

Learner-Centered Instructors' Beliefs About Adult Learning: A Phenomenological Study, Sarah Scherling

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The population of adult learners in higher education continues to increase. In many cases, the majority of faculty teaching adult learners are adjunct instructors. These instructors bring a rich background of experience and expertise to the classroom, but may lack experience in designing and implementing effective instructional practices for adult learners. Instructional practices of adjunct instructors are influenced by their beliefs about teaching and learning. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to examine learner-centered adjunct instructors' beliefs about adult learning and how these beliefs influence their instructional practices. The study used written reflection, interview, and classroom observation data …

Older Undergraduate English Majors And Their Self-Described Value Of English, Joseph W. Price

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this multiple case study was to develop an understanding of what older nontraditional undergraduate English majors voiced as the challenges, attributes, and promises concerning their choice of that academic major.

Ten participants took part in this study; these were students enrolled during the Spring 2012 semester as English majors at an urban state university in the Midwest. Data from ten interviews were analyzed using a combination of structural and verses coding. Thirteen themes surfaced that cut across cases and questions and offered insight and explanation to the research question and sub questions. These included (in alphabetical order): …