IMPLICATIONS FROM RESEARCH FINDINGS

What does this research say to adult learners?

Participants in Learning for Life can serve as models of excellence for adult learners to relate to and emulate:

• The first and perhaps most courageous step for adult learners it to put past problems behind them and dare to enroll in ABLE programs. Study participants have proven that success is mainly a matter of surviving failures.

• Purpose is the key to success in adult education. The word “purpose” has three meanings. It means having motivation. It means having determination and it means having a goal. No tutor or teacher can give you purpose. It is your gift to yourself and your contribution to the learning process.

• All adult learners bring as “baggage” to ABLE programs the wisdom and fallacies of past experiences. In sharing their hopes and fears with peers, tutors and teachers, participants learned to reassess past beliefs, revise present behaviors and share their understanding with others. In any ABLE program, participants are both learners and teachers.

• Participants who were most satisfied with their lives did not necessarily complete college degrees, own two houses or have professional careers. They tailored the basic skills learned in ABLE programs to address their specific interests and goals. Once participants gained the self-esteem that was a significant outcome of program success and recognition, they fashioned their world according to their own satisfaction rather than identifying with other people’s expectations.

• Participants identified critical issues in ABLE programs and problems inherent in higher education. These issues are every adult learner’s concern. The problems of professionalization, the pressure to complete ABLE programs quickly and the lack of directed higher education funding for GED completers must be addressed by a coalition of adult learners speaking on their own behalf.

What does this research say to practitioners?

Listening to adult learners’ voices raises several points of interest for practitioners:

• Initial contact with adult learners must establish a “trusting” relationship. The personal bond between the learner and the “caring” practitioner is a crucial catalyst in the learning process.

• A grasp of adult learners’ “risk factors” and support systems is as important as an assessment of their skills.

• Adult learners who enroll in ABLE programs with specific goals and the determination to pursue them are the most likely candidates for success. An initial goal-setting meeting, incremental plans, and periodic follow-up sessions are essential program components for all learners.