Emotion is a pervasive force in adult learning -- from fear, anxiety, dread, shame, and doubt to hope, excitement, joy, desire, and pride. For the most part, however, practitioners and scholars view the adult learning process as conceptual, rational, and cognitive. If emotion is considered positively, it is as a helpful adjunct to the learning process. More often, it is regarded as a potential barrier that has to be worked through if effective learning is to occur. Although we are only beginning to attend to the powerful role that emotion can play in our lives as teachers and adult learners, a small but growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship provides an opportunity to revisit earlier assumptions in the field. This volume seeks to build on this emerging scholarship by focusing on the emotional self across a range of adult learning settings: basic and higher education, workplace learning, and formal and informal contexts. Topics include: The meaning and role of emotions in adult learning Adults in programs for the 'academically underprepared' Emotional challenges of adult learners in higher education Adult learning and the emotional self in virtual online contexts Fostering awareness of diversity and multiculturalism Adult learning in the workplace Exploring the affective domain of informational and arts-based learning Teaching and emotions in a nonformal educational setting The emotional self in adult learning The chapters demonstrate, in different ways, the growing integration of emotion into more holistic, constructive ways of learning and knowing. As we attune to the emotional atmosphere in which we work, we stand a better chance of helping adult students achieve their educational goals--and we become better educators in the process. This is the 120st volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Noted for its depth of coverage, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education is an indispensable series that explores issues of common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors, and policymakers in a broad range of adult and continuing education settings, such as colleges and universities, extension programs, businesses, libraries, and museums.

Learning is an inseparable part of human experience. Understanding how adults learn and applying that expertise to practical everyday situations and relationships opens the window on a broader understanding of the capacity of the human mind. Dorothy MacKeracher's Making Sense of Adult Learning was first published in 1996, and was acclaimed for its readability and value as a reference tool. For the second edition of this essential work, MacKeracher has reorganized and revised many of the chapters to bring the text up-to-date for contemporary use. Concepts are presented from learning-centred and learner-centred perspectives, while related learning and teaching principles provide ideas about how one may enable others to learn more effectively. Written for people preparing to become adult educators, Making Sense of Adult Learning provides background information about the nature of adult learning and the characteristics that typify adult learners. This new edition will be quick to assert its place as the premier guide in the field.

The mental well-being of children and adults is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what we can do. "We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are our children." Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 years as an emotion scientist, he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults – a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he’d endured. And that was the beginning of Marc’s awareness that what he was going through was temporary. He wasn’t alone, he wasn’t stuck on a timeline, and he wasn’t “wrong” to feel scared, isolated, and angry. Now, best of all, he could do something about it. In the decades since, Marc has led large research teams and raised tens of millions of dollars to investigate the roots of emotional well-being. His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers, and schools) is a system called RULER, a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. RULER has been proven to reduce stress and burnout, improve school climate, and enhance academic achievement. This book is the culmination of Marc’s development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. It is tested, and it works. This book combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don’t have to be. Marc Brackett’s life mission is to reverse this course, and this book can show you how.

"Not just for students in adult education, Making Sense of Adult Learning is for anyone working with adults in a variety of settings: business, industry, organizations, colleges, universities, and training projects. Learning is at the heart of human experience, and this guide provides essential keys to understanding how adults learn and to applying that knowledge to practical, everyday situations"--Book jacket.