Caffarella, Rosemary S. 1946-

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CAFFARELLA, Rosemary S. 1946-
(Rosemary Shelly Caffarella)

PERSONAL:

Born 1946. Education: Springfield College, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1968; Michigan State University, M.A. and Ed.S., 1973, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Education, Cornell University, 435 Kennedy Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Early career includes teaching and administrative positions at the University of Northern Colorado, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Maine; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, currently professor of education and department chair. Visiting scholar and lecturer at universities, including Texas A & M University, Pennsylvania State University, University of British Columbia, University of Georgia, University of Calgary, Melbourne University, University of Putra, Taipei Physical Education College, and National Chi Nan University. Consultant to international, national, and local organizations and governments.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Cyril House Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education, 2000, for Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide; D.H.L., University of New Hampshire, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Program Development and Evaluation Resource Book for Trainers, Wiley (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Sharan B. Merriam) Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1991, 3rd edition, with Sharan B. Merriam and Lisa M. Baumgartner, 2006.

Planning Programs for Adult Learners: A Practical Guide for Educators, Trainers, and Staff Developers, foreword by Malcolm S. Knowles, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1994, 2nd edition, 2002.

Contributor to books, including New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1999; Conceptions of Self-Directed Learning, edited by G. Straka, Waxmann Press (Munster, Germany), 2000; Handbook of Adult Education, edited by E. Hayes and R.W. Wilson, Jossey-Bass, 2000. Contributor to journals, including Initiatives and Studies in Higher Education.

SIDELIGHTS:

Education professor Rosemary S. Caffarella has specialized in the study of improving adult education techniques and programs. She has published several guides on education, including the award-winning Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, which some reviewers have compared to an earlier book on the same topic, Adults As Learners by Patricia Cross. Caffarella's book has been viewed as a helpful update to the Cross work, which was published in the early 1980s. National Forum contributor Margaret E. Holt, for example, complimented the work as "a much-needed contribution to the library of adult education." Learning in Adulthood is organized in five sections that discuss such topics as the adult as learner, classroom environment, challenges in teaching adults, the learning process, and theories in adult learning. Geoffrey Squires, writing for the Journal of Higher Education, noticed some lapses in the text, such as insufficient discussion on group learning and a lack of "perspectives of social psychology." Squires noted that the authors intend for their text to be specific to adult learners, but the critic observed that the authors also point out many parallels between adults and children as learners: "Unlike many books on adult learning, this one shows many of the continuities and commonalities between learning in childhood and adulthood, it acknowledges the pervasive diversity and contingency of adult learning, and it is honest in its recognition that current theories and models are not really up to the unifying task." Viewing the result as a "transitional" work in the field, Squires concluded that Learning in Adulthood is "thorough and balanced" and "the writing lucid and succinct."