Gary J. Dean Ph.D.
Professor / Department Chairperson
Department of Adult and Community Education
104 Davis Hall, 570 S. 11th Street
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, PA 15705
Teaching
Over the years, Dr. Dean has taught all of the courses available in the Master of Arts in Adult and Community Education. Currently, he specializes in the following courses:
ACE 621: The Adult Learner
The Adult Learner focuses on adults as learners, including physiological, psychological, and sociological characteristics that affect adult learning.
Prerequisite: Permission
ACE 623: Organization and Administration in Adult and Community Education
This course introduces the student to basic theories of leadership management and organizational structure. It includes study and application of tasks, tools, strategies, and leadership roles of adult and community education administrators.
Prerequisite: Permission
ACE 625: Facilitating Adult Learning
This course examines teaching and learning theories as they relate to adults: the teaching-learning process in a variety of educational settings; instructional methods, techniques, and devices which are effective with adults; and instructional designs and evaluative methods effective in the teaching-learning process.
Prerequisite: Permission
ACE 650: Current Topics in Adult and Community Education
Explores current issues, trends, and topics in depth in a workshop format. Topics will be selected by the faculty and announced in advance of the semester in which the course is to be offered. Topics may include issues in continuing higher education, volunteerism, adult career development, managing nonprofit organizations, group processes in adult education, and current issues in research.
Prerequisite: Permission
GSR 615: Elements of Research
Selection of a research problem, data collection, types of research, research reports, and use of the library and computer in connection with research problems are studied. Elements of statistics are introduced. This course provides background for preparation of the thesis and enables the student to become an intelligent consumer of products of academic research.
Prerequisite: Permission
ACE 745: Practical Research in Adult and Community Education
Practical research in adult and community education is designed to have students conduct and report a formal research study in their field of interest. Students formulate a research problem and design a plan of inquiry that will provide an answer(s) to their stated research problem. Students must be able to interpret their research findings and communicate them both orally and in writing at a professional level.
Prerequisite: Permission
The videos linked here were made for the course, ACE 745, Practical Research in Adult and Community Education. In this course, students learn how to do research by completing an empirical research project. The videos were produced to help students understand basic issues in designing and conducting a research study.
Getting Started
This video explores basic issues in conceptualizing a research study.
Problem Statement and Research Questions
In this video, the process of how to write problems statements and research questions are described.
Research Process
This video provides an overview of the process of developing and conducting an empirical research study.
Research Report
This video describes the elements of a written report of an empirical research study.