The development problem‑solving methodology was used in this project because the solution to the problem was a product. Rankin (1990) observes that "In many situations, the solution to a problem will be a product (tool, model, system, curriculum, or procedure)" (p. 7). A curriculum for the preparation of adult basic education teachers was the product developed in this project. The procedures utilized in the development of the final product were the following: (a) a review of the literature in which topics pertaining to teacher education in adult education and curriculum development were reviewed, (b) contact with Stateside universities and colleges which have adult teacher education, (c) interviews with the Chancellor, the Dean of Academic Affairs, the Director of the Education Department, and the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program were conducted, (d) development of a questionnaire, (e) the questionnaire was validated by a formative committee, (f) administration of the questionnaire to the adult basic education teachers, (g) analysis of the data, (h) development of the Adult Teacher Education Curriculum, and (i) the final ATEC document was validated by the summative committee.
A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to provide a conceptual framework for the proposed teacher education curriculum in adult education. The literature review included educational journals on adult education, ERIC articles, educational indexes, and textbooks. The topics reviewed included: curriculum evaluation, curriculum elements, contents of a teacher education curriculum in adult education, questionnaire development, curriculum planning and development, curriculum implementation, forces that affect curriculum development, and rationale for a teacher education curriculum in adult education.
Phone calls were made to the Chairperson of the adult education department at several Stateside universities which have undergraduate teacher education programs in adult education. The following criteria for the selection of Stateside colleges or universities which have undergraduate teacher education programs or curricula in adult education were presented to the formative committee for validation: (a) the selected colleges or universities should have a teacher education curriculum in adult basic education, (b) the teacher education program in adult education should be an innovative one, (c) there should be some evidence of the effectiveness of the teacher education curriculum in preparing adult educators, (d) the teacher education curriculum should integrate both theory and practice, (e) it should have a conceptual framework based on the concepts and principles of adult education, and (f) it should be a teacher education program in adult education that can be adapted to other settings. These criteria are suggested in the literature on teacher education in adult education (Brookfield, 1991; Knowles, 1984; Knox, 1986). Four universities and one college were selected from the College Handbook (1994) which includes Stateside colleges and universities in which adult teacher education programs are offered. These universities and the college were selected because they offer adult teacher education programs. Other universities in the College Handbook do not have adult teacher education programs. No changes were made in these criteria by the formative committee. In order to conduct the interviews, visits, or phone calls with the chairpers of the adult education department at Stateside colleges or universities, a set of interview questions was developed (see Appendix A). The purpose of these interviews was to obtain information that could be used in the development of the adult basic teacher education curriculum. The interview questions were developed after reviewing the literature on the topic of curriculum development (McNeil, 1990; Herrscher, 1992; Knowles, 1988). The interview questions were presented to the formative committee for validation.
Interviews with the Dean of Academic Affairs, the Director of the Education Department, the Chancellor at IAU, Ponce Campus, and the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program from the Department of Education of Puerto Rico were conducted to present the project and to obtain suggestions and recommendations from them. A different set of questions for each of these interviews was devised with the purpose of obtaining diverse points of view about the development and implementation of the adult teacher education curriculum according to the position occupied by the persons interviewed (see Appendix B). The literature on adult teacher education was reviewed to develop the interview questions. The interview questions were presented to the formative committee for validation.
The questionnaire was designed to collect data from the adult basic education teachers of the Ponce region that would justify the development of the adult teacher education curriculum. The questionnaire would provide data in terms of courses the curriculum should include, demographic data, number of years working as adult educators, preparation in adult education, interest in obtaining a minor concentration in adult education, teachers' needs in adult education, the necessity of an adult teacher education curriculum, teachers' participation in activities in adult education, and sources of information about adult education. A number of procedures were used to develop the draft questionnaire. Interviews were conducted with the Dean of Academic Affairs, the Chancellor, the Director of the Education Department and with the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program of the Ponce region. The literature reviewed was another source that was used in developing the questionnaire. The data gathered from these sources were used in developing the questionnaire which also included a cover letter (see Appendix C). The purpose of this questionnaire was to obtain information from the adult education teachers that would provide data for the planning and development of a teacher education curriculum in adult education.
The criteria for the validation of the questionnaire were presented to the formative committee in a meeting (see Appendix D). These criteria were obtained from the review of the literature conducted. (Busche, 1991; Fink, 1985; Best and Kahn, 1989, Isaac and Michael, 1990). The formative committee was composed of the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program, the Director of the Planning and Evaluation Office, and the Director for Adult Education Programs (see Appendix E). After reviewing and discussing the criteria, the committee requested a clarification of criterion four. The committee needed to know whether this criterion referred to content validity or face validity. For the purpose of the questionnaire and based on the distinction between content and face validity, this researcher indicated that this criterion referred to content validity. Once this clarification was made, the criterion was accepted as stated. Finally, the committee validated the criteria. In another meeting, the validated criteria were used by the formative committee to validate the questionnaire. The validated questionnaire was accepted by the formative committee as the data collection instrument.
A pilot study was administered to a group of adult basic education teachers randomly selected from the adult basic education teachers' lists. It was administered personally by this researcher to 20 of the 92 adult basic education teachers from the Ponce region. The administration process took approximately two weeks and the analysis of the results took three days.
The questionnaire was then administered to the other 72 adult basic education teachers. The questionnaires were sent to the teachers through the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program of the Ponce region which took approximately one week. The school directors administered the questionnaires to the teachers. Follow‑up phone calls to the school directors were made by this researcher to answer questions and clarify doubts. The questionnaires and the answer sheets were sent back to the regional supervisor's office by the school directors. The process of administering the questionnaire to the teachers and sending them back to the Supervisor's office took approximately two weeks.
An answer sheet was provided to the teachers to answer the questions. A Scantron machine was utilized to read the answers to the questions. The statistical program that was utilized for the analysis of the data was SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) / PC + Version 4.0.
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected. These included frequencies and percentages. The data collected were presented in tables.
A draft of the adult teacher education curriculum was developed. The curriculum draft was developed from input obtained from the literature, the interviews conducted, the questionnaire administered to the adult education teachers, and data from the Stateside colleges and universities contacted. The draft of the adult teacher education curriculum was presented to the formative committee for validation. Criteria for the formative validation of the curriculum draft were developed (see Appendix F). These criteria were obtained from the literature on curriculum evaluation (McNeil, 1990; Herrscher, 1992). The criteria developed were presented to the formative committee for validation. After discussing the validation criteria, these were validated by the committee. The validated criteria were then used to validate the curriculum draft.
The ATEC Implementation Plan was developed from the input obtained in the interviews with the Dean of Academic Affairs, the Director of the Education Department, and the Regional Supervisor of the Adult Education Program (see appendix I). It was suggested that the implementation plan should indicate the names of the courses to be offered, the credit hours for each course, the days and hours to offer the courses and a course schedule.
The ATEC Implementation Plan was presented to the formative committee for validation. The criteria to validate the plan were taken from the institution's manual for the presentation of new academic programs and curricula. The criteria were the following: (a) the implementation plan indicated the courses in the curriculum; (b) the plan indicated the semesters, days and hours to offer the courses; (c) the credit hours for each course were indicated; (d) the total number of credits were included; and (e) a course schedule was included.
The criteria were presented to the formative committee for validation in a meeting. The committee discussed the criteria and validated them. The validated criteria were used later by the committee to validate the implementation plan.
The preliminary curriculum evaluation plan suggested to the formative committee was based on Pratt's tridimensional curriculum evaluation model (Pratt, 1980). This curriculum evaluation model evaluates the effectiveness, the efficiency, and the acceptability of a curriculum. Criteria to validate the curriculum evaluation plan were developed (see Appendix G). These criteria were obtained from the literature on curriculum evaluation and were presented to the formative committee for validation (see Appendix G). The formative committee discussed the criteria and modified the structure of the questions to include a subsection 1.1 in question one and subsections 2.1 to 2.8 in question two rather than having individual questions. After this modification was made, the committee validated the criteria. The evaluation plan to determine the effectiveness of the teacher education curriculum in adult education consisted of the following steps. These were (a) formulation of the questions to be answered, (b) collection of data to answer the questions, (c) analysis and interpretation of the data collected, and (d) modification of the plan, curriculum, or program in the light of the findings. The evaluation plan was enriched by adding specific questions to each dimension (G. Torres, personal communication, May 13, 1994). The curriculum evaluation plan was presented to the summative committee for validation. The committee validated the evaluation plan using the validated criteria.
The final product was an adult teacher education curriculum (see Appendix N). This curriculum was validated by the summative committee (see Appendix O). Criteria for the validation of the curriculum were presented to the summative committee for their validation. These criteria were obtained from IAU's manual "Guía para la redacción de propuestas para el establecimiento de programas‑académicos nuevos" (19911992). The criteria were the following: (a) The teacher education curriculum in adult education contains a statement that presents a philosophical position for the curriculum and relates it to the institutional mission; (b) a rationale for the teacher education curriculum in adult education is provided; (c) the goals and objectives of the teacher education curriculum in adult education are related to the goals and objectives of the institution; (d) the objectives of the teacher education curriculum in adult education describe measurable outcomes; (e) the curriculum establishes the competencies the learners are expected to attain; (f) the curriculum provides a list of the required courses and a description of each course; (g) the instructional materials and the media available for instruction are clearly indicated in the curriculum document; (h) the use of instructional facilities (e.g. classrooms, library, and the laboratories) is addressed in the curriculum document; (i) a time distribution framework for completion of the courses in the curriculum is provided in the curriculum document; (j) there is adequate and sufficient administrative support for the development and implementation of the curriculum; (k) the faculty necessary for the implementation of this curriculum, as well as their qualifications, are clearly stated in the curriculum document; (1) suggestions of assessment techniques that faculty can use to evaluate students' attainment of competencies are included as part of the curriculum document. These criteria were validated by the summative committee as stated. The validated criteria were used by the committee to validate the adult teacher education curriculum.