Exploring the Principles of Andragogy: Some Comparison of University and Community College Learning Experiences

The learning experiences of 740 University and Community College students from various programs have been examined from the andragogical perspective. Through the analysis of fifteen aspects of the learning process, discrepancies of real and expected learning experiences were traced to institutional, program and individual characteristics. While the principles of andragogy remain valid as instructional guidelines for postsecondary institutions, the present findings draw attention to the importance of intellectual maturity as a basic source for organizing meaningful learning for adult students.Les expériences de 740 étudiants en divers domaines et de niveaux soit universi-taire, soit collégial ont été examinées sous un angle andragogique. De par l'analyse, sous quinze aspects du progrès d'apprentissage, il ressort des diver-gences réelles et anticipées attribuables aux caractéristiques individuelles des institutions et des programmes. Bien que les principes de l'andragogie demeurent valides comme indicateurs du niveau d'instruction dans les institutions d'en-seignement postsecondaire, les résultats de cette étude attirent l'attention sur l'importance d'une maturité intellectuelle comme élément essentiel d'un en-seignement adéquat conçu pour les étudiants adultes

Retirement, social support and mental wellbeing: a couple-level analysis

Social support is increasingly acknowledged as an important resource for promoting wellbeing. We test whether social support changes around retirement. We also examine whether social support moderates dynamics in mental wellbeing around retirement and consider both own and spouse’s retirement. Using longitudinal data from Australia, we find little effect of own or spouse’s retirement on social support. However, in fixed-effects models, dynamics in mental wellbeing are significantly different between those with low/high social support. Using pension eligibility as an instrument, we find that own retirement causally improves mental wellbeing for women (weaker evidence for men) and by a similar degree for those with low/high social support. We also estimate responses to life satisfaction and find evidence that spill-over benefits from spousal retirement are much larger for individuals with low social support

Adapting to Change: What Motivates Manitoban Schools to Learn

This study assesses the relative importance of environmental, intraorganizational, and contextual factors that explain the process and outcomes of organizational learning in six Manitoba schools. Based on the data provided by 265 teaching staff and their principals, the present findings verified that transformational leadership, supportive school culture, and flexible school structure were persistent factors in accounting for organizational learning and adaptation. Environmental variables acted as motivational forces that served to break away from individual and organizational inertia. The effect of contextual factors reasserted the idea that schools were unique and that changes could not simply be transplanted without considering the characteristics of staff and their schools.Cette recherche évalue l'importance relative de facteurs environnementaux, intraorganisationnels et contextuels pour expliquer le processus et les résultats de l'apprentissage organisationnel dans six écoles au Manitoba. Reposant sur les données fournies par 265 enseignants et directeurs d'écoles, les résultats ont confirmé que le leadership transformationnel, un milieu scolaire coopératif et une structure scolaire souple constituent, de façon systématique, des facteurs explicatifs dans l'apprentissage organisationnel et l'adaptation. Des variables environnementales agissaient comme forces motivationnelles permettant de s'éloigner de l'inertie individuelle et organisationnelle. L'effet des facteurs contextuels a réaffirmé la notion selon laquelle les écoles sont uniques et que les changements ne pouvaient pas tout simplement être transposés sans tenir compte des caractéristiques du personnel enseignant ou de l'école

General and proximal associations between unpaid eldercare, time constraints and subjective well-being

Population aging requires understanding the implications of eldercare. Using American Time Use Surveys, we find caregivers spend less time on personal care, social activities/sports, and more on housework, than individuals who do not provide any eldercare. They also report higher stress and lower happiness. In addition, caregivers may not provide care every day, but on days they do, they also spend more time on housework and less on paid work, and report higher levels of sadness than on days they do not provide care. Regular caregivers experience worse well-being than non-caregivers, but also experience additional strain on days they provide care

Solitary days, solitary activities, and associations with well-being among older adults

Objectives.- Drawing on activity theory of aging, we examined whether solitary activities may be associated with negative well-being, as they may reflect social isolation. Using American Time Use Surveys, with information on "with whom" individuals engaged in activities over a 24 hr period, we created measures capturing solitary days and solitary activities to understand their prevalence and associations with well-being. Methods.- At the daily level, we examined associations between solitary days and proportion of the day in solitary activities with life satisfaction. At the activity level, we examined associations between engaging in an activity alone versus with others and emotional state during the activity. Results.- Solitary days and higher proportion of the day spent in solitary activities were associated with lower life satisfaction. These associations were attenuated controlling for individual covariates. Engagement in activities alone was associated with lower levels of happiness and higher levels of sadness and pain during the activity, and association with happiness remained even adjusting for covariates. Discussion.- A sizable proportion of older adults reported solitary days, and proportion of the day spent in solitary activities increases by age. Examining lived experiences of older adults and presence of others during activities could contribute to research on social isolation

Contour of the day : social patterning of time in later life and variation in reported well-being in activities

Objective: To contextualize experiences of activities during the day and investigate whether the contour of the day is correlated with well-being during activities. Methods: Drawing on American Time Use Surveys, we employ sequence and cluster analyses to create distinct typologies of daily life patterns, and bivariate analyses to describe whether well-being across activities varies by these typologies. Results: We identified four typologies characterized by different primary activity of the day: leisure (22.7%), TV (22.4%), housework (47.5%), and work (7.5%). Individuals in the work and leisure clusters tend to report more positive well-being and individuals in the housework and TV clusters tend to report more negative well-being in experiences of activities during the day. We also found that well-being experiences in the same activity differed across individuals in the different typologies. Conclusion: Understanding the daily life patterns of older adults may be important, given its correlation with well-being during activities

Dynamics of parental work hours, job insecurity, and child wellbeing during middle childhood in Australian dual-income families

This study examines the relationship between parental employment characteristics and child well-being during middle childhood in Australian dual-earner families. Parental employment provides important resources for children’s wellbeing, but may also be associated with variations in parental time availability, parental stress levels and wellbeing, differences in parenting styles and variations in household dynamics. Further, there may be gender differences in how mothers’ and fathers’ employment characteristics relate to child wellbeing, as well as variations by age. Our study contributes to existing research by 1) examining longitudinal data that enables us to examine changes in the association between parental work hours, job insecurity and child wellbeing, within and across parent-child relationships; 2) focusing on dual-employed households to examine the effects of mothers’ and fathers’ employment characteristics on girls’ and boys’ wellbeing; and 3) testing possible mediators in the relationship between parental employment characteristics and child well-being. Drawing on 3 waves of data from two cohorts of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (N = 3,216), from 2004 to 2012, we find that mothers who work long hours on average over the study period have children with poorer socio emotional development, while fathers with increasing work hours have children with poorer socio-emotional development. Mothers’ job security is associated with better child development comparing both across mothers and within mothers over time. We find little evidence that these associations are mediated by parenting style or work-family balance, suggesting further research is needed to understand the mechanisms linking parental employment with children’s outcomes