The purpose of this study was to determine Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet's significance and development as a leader in adult education. This study provided information on her life, her individual and collaborative contributions with Harry Overstreet in adult education, and her interest in poetry. Data were collected using online database searching; review of published, unpublished, and informal documents of Bonaro Overstreet; and correspondence and interviews with professional colleagues, employers, and personal acquaintances. Interviews were conducted with current authorities in the field of adult education for informational purposes. Bonaro Overstreet did not influence or alter the course of adult education as a field of study. Her strength was in her role of practitioner and contributor to research, theory, and professional development of the adult education field. She broadened the depth of adult education as an advocate of knowing oneself and acting responsibly in the context of democratic responsibility.

The problem of this study was to determine to what extent contemporary adult education theory has similarities to and origins in ancient Athenian ideas about education. The methodology used in the study combined hermeneutics and the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. Primary sources incuded Aristotle, Plato, Aristophanes, and Diogenes Laertius; secondary sources included Jaeger, Marrou, Dover, and Kennedy. In the analysis of Athenian adult education, three groups of adult educators were identified—the poets the sophists, and the philosophers. The poets were the traditional educators of the Greek people; their shared interest or way of perceiving the world emphasized the importance of community cohesion and health. In Athens in the mid-fifth century B.C., a new group of educators, the sophists, arose to fill a demand of adults for higher and adult education in the skills necessary to participate in the assembly and courts. The sophists emphasized a pragmatic human interest and taught the skill of rhetoric. Socrates and Plato created a new school of educators, the philosophers, who became vigorous ideological opponents of both the poets and the sophists. The philosophers exhibited a transcendental interest or approach to knowledge; the purpose of life was to improve the soul, and the preferred …

This study assesses the continuing education needs of social caseworkers employed by the Community Care for the Aged, Blind and Disabled Program Division of the Texas State Department of Human Resources. A model by which needs assessments and discrepancy evaluation can be conducted was identified. The study was designed to answer three major questions. These were (1) What are the behavioral competencies critical to the effective practice of C.C.A.B.D. social casework within the Texas State Department of Human Resources? (2) What are the current continuing education needs of C.C.A.B.D. caseworkers with respect to these competencies? (3) What significant discrepancies exist as to the perception of these needs among caseworkers, supervisors, and administrators that hold implications for continuing education program planning. The needs assessment model developed in this study is designed to overcome many of the limitations of traditional approaches to needs assessment by defining critical job requirements from the perspective of current practice as well as administrative policy, establishing a profile of the successful worker as a model for staff development, and integrating the perceptions of administrators, supervisors, and workers in identifying continuing education needs.

The University of Piano was a private, liberal arts college with a campus in Piano, Texas and an extended campus in Frisco, Texas. The University was incorporated in 1964 under the original name of the University of Lebanon. Classes began in temporary space in downtown Dallas in 1964 and continued on its campuses in Piano and Frisco until the summer of 1976. The University of Piano was comprised of two separate schools within the University: the School of Developmental Education and the Frisco College of Arts and Sciences. This study explores the curricula of both schools and the students and faculty who participated in both programs. This study focuses on the establishment, development and final closing of a wholly privately supported university which accepted both traditional college students and students whose basic academic skills or neurological development prevented their acceptance into traditional college programs. It addresses the history of the University, the roles of its leaders, and the lasting effects of its programs.

This study examined the historical development of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and its contributions to adult education both in Nigeria and in other African nations. This was aimed at providing up-to-date insight into the department's contributions to the development of adult education in Nigeria and in other African nations. Specifically, this study examined the department's founders and their goals, the department's management structure, its relationship with other adult education agencies in Nigeria and in Africa, its programs and services, and the participants in these. This study reveals that the department's founders were both British and Nigerian politicians, educators, and humanitarians. They were concerned with eradicating illiteracy, preparing adults for democratic roles, and improving the economic well-being of these adults. The department does not have a consistent pattern of management. The selection of its leadership is usually based on seniority and academic merits. The department initially relied on donations and on the revenues from the local, state, and federal governments of Nigeria to operate. It now relies on those from the profit from its services to the public and on those from Nigeria's state and federal governments. The department interacts with other departments of the university and with other …

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions of faculty development programs by two groups of full-time community college faculty members—arts and sciences instructors and vocational-technical instructors. To guide the development of this study, the following research questions were formulated. 1. Do organized faculty development programs have the same impression on the arts and sciences faculty members as on the vocational-technical members? 2. What specific effects do these faculty members believe that faculty development programs have had on instructional strategies, related faculty activities and professional attitudes? 3. To what extent do these faculty members perceive that the faculty development program is related to the reward system? 4. To what degree do faculty members perceive that institutional or departmental innovations have resulted from faculty development programs. What types of innovations have occurred, and what types should occur?

The application of Gowin's knowledge vee as a means to design instruction for adult Bible study was investigated in this study. The study was designed to determine whether subjects using this instructional approach differed from subjects using traditional instructional materials regarding their attitudes toward Bible study, attendance, knowledge retention, application of study materials to life, and recruitment of new class members.

This study identified the number of learning projects undertaken by thirty-eight retired educators and examined the extent to which these experiences were associated with the body weight and the exercise patterns of the subjects. A list of 1091 names of retired educators was obtained and 400 names were randomly selected to receive a brief survey seeking responses to demographic, personal and miscellaneous questions relating to their efforts to continue to pursue learning. Interviews were arranged with thirty-eight subjects who met established criteria. The 19 8 3 Metropolitan Height and Weight Tables were used to estimate weight characteristics and a probe sheet was designed to identify the number of hours spent exercising in activities vigorous enough to increase heart beat. In-depth interviews were conducted by the investigator using the questions from Tough's Interview Schedule for Studying Some Basic Characteristics of Learning Projects, and the probe sheet designed by the investigator. The interviews focused on the efforts to continue learning during the past twelve months and on the participation in vigorous exercise during the past twelve months. Findings were analyzed by computing t-tests for independent means and the Pearson product moment method of correlation. Comparisons of the results from this study were …

A lack of research in adult literacy for both native speakers and speakers of English as a second language led to the development of the Test of Affixes in Syntactic Structures (TASS) for use in a pilot study (Dogger, January 1978) in which knowledge of derivational morphology was tested to determine its possible relationship with reading for English as a second language students. Test construction was followed by a thorough verification procedure which is the purpose of this study. In September 1978 the following measures of test strength were established: construct validity, content validity, item difficulty, item discrimination, internal consistency, rational equivalence, and concurrent validity. The degree of relationship between reading proficiency, as demonstrated by subject performance on the Iowa Silent Reading Test, Level III (ISRT,III), and knowledge of derivational affixes, as demonstrated by subject performance on TASS, was also established. Results show that successful performance on the ISRT, III includes reading strategies beyond those required for successful performance on TASS. In other words, mastery of language structures as represented by English orthography is necessary but not sufficient for college-level reading proficiency.