Getting WELL: Workforce Education & Lifelong Learning. Designs for Professional Education and Action Research To Improve the Education and Training of Underserved Youth and Adults. Final Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This report focuses on work force education and lifelong learning as a newly emerging strategy for meeting many challenges of education and work in the 21st century. Chapter 1 introduces the concept, reviews the sociopolitical background to the strategy, and presents the rationale for a new type of professional, Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning Specialists (WELLS). The concept of the WELL Action Research Center (ARC) is introduced as a means to provide a practicum setting for the education and training of WELLS and to develop research-validated knowledge. Chapter 2 develops the concept of a professional degree for educators and human resource professionals who wish to obtain advanced education and training as WELLS. It specifies the need for WELLS, indicates the growing opportunities for professional work as WELLS, and discusses the knowledge and skills that the WELLS curriculum should develop in three major domains: cognitive science foundations of education; educational arts and technology; and culture and human resources policies and practices. The chapter also discusses the role of college faculties in implementing the design for WELLS. Chapter 3 reviews the concept of "action research" and why it is an appropriate approach to both the training of WELLS and to the improvement of work force education and lifelong learning. This is followed by the current national scene in adult literacy research, a description of an ARC community to provide a context for the conduct of action research, and a tentative research agenda for the ARC. (YLB)