Designing an Adult Education Program.

Overview & Synopsis

Intended for planners of adult education curriculums, this literature review explains the concepts involved in designing an adult education program, provides information about the roles of the people involved in the adult education process, cites some program planning models, and applies the program planning principles to an Adult Basic Education (ABE) and a General Educational Development (GED) program. Part 1 of the report tells how to ascertain the needs and interests of adult learners, formulate educational objectives, develop a curriculum and learning experiences to meet those needs, and evaluate how the objectives have been met. Part 2 examines the people in adult education: learner characteristics, teacher training and traits, qualifications and duties of the administrator/director of adult education, and the counselor's role. With diagrams, part 3 examines four programming models: Tyler's general design for analyzing an educational curriculum; Houle's system of education specifically for adults; Knowles's concept of program development based on "andragogy" (instruction of adults rather than of children), and an English as a Second Language/Adult Basic Education needs-based model. Part 4 describes the program in Forest Lake, Minnesota, applying the needs-based model to the ABE program and Houle's model to the GED program. (KC)