WHAT IS ADULT EDUCATION?

The concept of adult education tends to be thought of as an educational process for adults.
However, this is not the sphere in which adult education acts.
Education is adult education: for forming adults. Education is to become mature. This principle
is valid in any stage of one’s life. Education is the education of children, youth, adults and
seniors with the endless aim of forming a responsible being. Even though levels of responsibility
may vary, what does not change is that the response must always be convincing and conveniently
committed. When UNESCO works to achieve their objectives, which is international education
for peace, it does so urging that this aim be taken seriously, maturely and as an adult throughout
all stages of life and as each circumstance demands.
For UNESCO there is not an educational process if there is not a slow acquiring of values that
guarantee a peaceful coexistence. Adult education is synonymous with education in general.
Both expressions–“adult education” and “education” by itself- indicate their goal: the
appropriation of a spirit capable of transforming minds in any place and time. This book offers a
vision of the resolutions and decisions of UNESCO´s general conferences and Executive Board
meetings on adult education from 1946 to 2005.
The context of adult education
The adult education process drives towards the achievement of the capability to individually use
reason on the subject matter in question.
Adult education is oriented at the use, at any age, of attitudes and skills prone to clarifying any
distortions in communication, favoring “why,” “how,” “when” and “where” as well as the “what
for” in all situations. The Recommendation on the Development of Adult Education affirms that
civic, political, trade union and co-operative education activities should be aimed particularly
towards developing independent and critical judgment and implanting or enhancing the abilities
required by each individual in order to cope with changes affecting living and working
conditions, by effective participation in the management of social affairs at every level of the
decision-making process.
In the process of achieving adulthood, we must perform the following actions: investigate,
reflect, report, decide, receive information and organize it, plan, ask and study. These actions
help us to acquire truthful and quality knowledge; to define the strategies and adjust them to
reality; focus new options or offer alternative explanations to the information; and to unmask any
distortions and deformations. The Recommendation supports these type of activities by saying,
Adult education (1946-1958)
The aim of education for children, youth, adult and seniors is to train them in a spirit which
enables them to freely judge. It also has a practical aim, but its highest aim is more humanistic.
The main goal is to achieve its humanistic and ethical aims in recognizing that understanding is
more important than knowledge, since only this produces a responsibility towards morals and
wisdom. This leads it to highlight the social function of education especially in circumstances
which stress the conviction that societies can change with the help of a coordinated human effort.
Education of social responsibility, a civic and political sense, the sense of justice, participation,
international understanding and development is a single requirement.
All human training must promote aptitudes for social analysis and the ability to judge between
plural values and contradictory ideologies. It would be necessary to train in cultural discernment,
avoiding ethical uncertainty and the loss of identity; to learn how to permanently educate in the
analysis of prevailing values and the impact on mentalities and behaviors which produce modes
of appreciating them. This is why participants agreed that UNESCO should take due account of
the entire educational continuum, from preschool to higher education, including formal and non-
formal approaches, technical and vocational education, the fight against illiteracy, adult and
lifelong learning, as is proclaimed in the General Conference in 20011; and repeated almost
literally in 2003.

Adult Learning
As professionals in the training and education space, it is essential that we understand the unique
learning requirements of our adult learners to ensure that our training interventions are effective.
The process of engaging adult learners in a learning experience is known as Andragogy.
The term was originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, but was later
developed into an adult education by the American educator, Malcolm Knowles who arguably
stands as one of the most influential writers in this field.
Knowles distinguishes adult learning from the ‘pedagogical’ approach of child learning in a
number of theoretical ways.
In my book ‘The Fundamental Principles Behind Effective Adult Learning Programs’ we
explore how these theoretical concepts of adult learning apply to the way we design and develop
our training programs and facilitate the learning experience; but here I have briefly summarised
them to help you embed these principles into your courses and training.
It is believed that we take on the components of an adult learner between the ages of twelve to
fifteen years old.
Therefore, variations of these principles of adult learning have become prevalent talking points
in the development of training and curricula in recent years and are increasingly becoming more
widely used in the goals of schools, colleges, training organizations, universities and, slowly,
businesses to enable students and staff to become effective lifelong learners.
In order for adults to learn effectively, training needs to be designed in a way that meets the
following core principles of adult learning:
1. Self-Directing
The first difference Knowles proposes is that adults are autonomous and self directing, meaning
that they live under a large degree of self-governance and to their own laws, beliefs and values.
They need to know the benefits, values and purposes of a learning program. They need to know
why they are learning what they’re learning. If they cannot appreciate the purpose or value, they
will be reluctant to engage in the learning intervention.
2. Learn by doing
Adults learn through direct experience; therefore, their training and learning interventions must
include active and practical participation and offer implementable techniques and methodologies
that will immediately improve their everyday lives.
3. Relevance
The content of a training program must be meaningful and relevant to the adult learners, their
lives and their business. They have to very clearly see why and how this is important to them
personally and how it applies to their life.
The immediate use of the learning needs to be clearly understood by the learner. If they can’t
see how they personally can apply the learning to their own life and roles, it is suggested that
motivation towards the training intervention will be significantly reduced.
4. Experience
Adult learners need to be able to draw upon their past experiences to aid their learning. Training
needs to be contextualized to use language that they are familiar with. We need to select case
scenarios and examples that they can relate to, as well as refer to their direct past life, work and
social experiences to bring the meaning of the learning into their world as they understand it.
5. All of the Senses
Adult learners need multi-sensory learning and teaching methodologies. We must ensure that
our learning interventions have appropriately proportioned delivery techniques that meet the
needs of audio, visual, reading/writing, kinesthetic, dependent and independent learning
preferences.
6. Practice
Adult learners are often engaged in learning because a problem needs to be solved. Practicing
skills in a controlled environment allows them to grow self-efficacy in new tasks that prepare
them to act autonomously outside of the learning environment. The more an adult learner can
practice new skills, competencies or the application of knowledge, the more transformational
impact the learning intervention will have.
7. Personal Development
The intrinsic, personal desires and ambitions of an adult learner need to be considered when
planning and delivering adult learning programs. As learners get older, their cause for
participation in learning programs often moves from external drivers (such as getting a
promotion), to internal drivers, like simply learning out of pure pleasure or interest in learning
something new.
8. Involvement
Effective adult learning programs have planned for learner feedback and consultation. Adults
need to feel as though they have a sense of responsibility, control and decision-making over their
learning. They need to be involved in the planning, evaluation and consultation of their own
learning process to be fully on board with its successful execution.
In terms of education, this requires the flexibility of the learning situation, the learning program
and most importantly, the educator to actively involve the participant in a way that allows them
to have a degree of control over what they do, or, in fact, how much they learn.
In my eBook, we take a look at the basics of what these principles mean for the learner, the
educator and the overall considerations that need to be made in order to prepare an effective
learning program.
You can learn more about creating and delivering effective adult learning programs in
my Advanced Train the Trainer & Curriculum Design online course.
Teaching Methods in Adult Education
Introduction
Adult education is a very controversial topic; the fact that the adult learning method is to a great
extent different from the system in which pupils/students of various ages are schooled is felt in
the assimilation of knowledge, in the means which they put into practice and understanding at a
conceptual level of the theories and models proposed in the course program.
Altogether, adults do not think classical methods used in teaching courses (both in presentations
materials and in applied exercises during seminars) are engaging and valuable enough- thus the
lack of focus on understanding the information that often looks flat, devoid of substance.
Assuming all students are adults and should be treated accordingly, universities take fault in
using alike teaching methods regardless of age. According to the social segment that we relate to,
maturity in modern society is sensed differently. The higher education system considers teaching
/ learning / evaluation methods as being suitable for every student, without a clear distinction
based on age. This may raise the following question: what differentiates the students aged 19
(adults according to the legal system) from students aged 29? The logical reply is life experience,
both professionally and personally-base. From a general point of view, both types of students are
seen as adults regardless of the way they assimilate received information – based on their life
experience. Thereby, experience reflects on the way students conceptualize and use information
in a practical manner; the most relevant example is the corporate policy of selecting candidates
based on expertise: junior, intermediate and senior. A junior - whatever results he may have had
in school will retain his junior title until his exposure will give a higher degree of proficiency.
Experience brings a capacity to understand / conceptualize much higher, and thus change the
way to treat a subject, a theory or a task (both in a teaching career and in all other social
environments).
Adult skills are not necessarily more developed than those of younger students; however they are
easily implemented in real life due to experience gained through exposure. A student of an
average age may have far greater potential than an adult; still it is necessary to have the basic
principles of assimilation, understanding and conceptualization in order to achieve performance
in college education. Instead, an adult will need a more practical perspective to link concepts to
actual situations. Though an adult’s IQ can be lower than that of a younger student, his mindset
will be more oriented towards concrete examples and thus a way of teaching interactive, focused
on practical issues.
This study reports to adults following the psycho-pedagogical module in University. This topic
stands out due to the fact that adult education raises questions about the differentiation of
teaching methods from adults to younger students, the development of adults to in becoming
teachers being a current issue in educational paradigms.
The psycho-pedagogical module mastered in universities spans three years and includes teaching
basic concepts needed for primary, secondary and tertiary education (grades 1-4, 5-8 and high
school). The subjects taught include educational psychology, theory of pedagogy, curriculum
theory and classroom management, and include classic presentation skills that require ongoing
support seminars and practical workshops in a school class. The three-year cycle ends with a
thesis certifying the skills needed to teach students in a pre-university context.
The intensive form of the psycho-pedagogical module merges the disciplines taught in the initial
training of teachers in two semesters, and is addressed exclusively to faculty graduates. In the
current context, faculty graduates who will finish this intensive form of education are considered
adults and their profession requires acquiring all concepts necessary for teaching in the school
system in an alert form. The difference between the usual learning of the psycho-pedagogical
module (in the faculty) and the delivery in an intense form stands to be only the length, the
curricula being identical.
Theoretical facts on the choice of following the intensive psycho-pedagogical
module
Malcolm Knowles’s ‘The Modern Practice of Adult Education- from pedagogy to andragogy’
states that the difference between younger students learning mindsets and adult learning mindsets
are that younger students need structure and adults require self-assertion and individual learning.
The purpose of the policy used for adults is not only to teach – simple presentation of
information – but to aid them in learning. Knowles names the method which consists in
helping/mentoring adults, andragogy, differentiating it from pedagogy at the operational level.
The main focus remains teaching concepts and gaining certain competences for the alleged
occupation (in this Adults who attend this form on tuition (the intense psycho-pedagogical
module) are obviously going through a significant process of change in conjunction with their
career. Students aiming for a bachelor's degree are not bound to follow this type of schooling this
being optional. Generally speaking, students do not see themselves working in the education
system, this being the reason why they do not attend the module. This malicious thinking
towards teachers in Romania – due to low salaries in the education system compared to private
business segments and other political factors, determines students to follow a different career
path. The fact that adults (former students) return in universities to follow the psycho-
pedagogical module – in a form which consists in paying for the courses – represents a major
change for them. They take these courses in a shallow manner (not attending lectures / not
performing the tasks they are given, papers, projects, etc.) due to the change of status that comes
with the entry into the classroom. Once entering the classrooms and participating in lectures,
adults become again students thereby losing their title as graduates. In Knowles’s terms, this can
generate frustration – an adult’s demand for recognition of his status. The classical presentation
(used in classic pedagogy) cannot be moulded on the elements which compose Knowles’s
andragogy due to the lack of impact it has on adults, because of their social status. case a
teaching career) yet at an operational level conceptualization of acquiring information and skills
must differ from pedagogy.