The Changing Landscape of Adult Learning Theory

Since the founding of the field of adult education, the task of explaining how adult learners learn has been a major one on the part of both researchers and practitioners. Adult learning, after all, is the glue that holds together an otherwise widely disparate field, a field that ranges from adult basic education (ABE) to human resource development, and from educational gerontology to continuing professional education. The variety of settings in which adult education occurs, the range of curricula, and the diversity of the students have caused the field to be a sprawling—some would say incoherent—entity, united in the one common goal of facilitating adult learning. After some 80 years of study, we have no single answer, no one theory or model of adult learning. What we have instead is a colorful mosaic of theories, models, sets of principles, and explanations that combined create the knowledge base of adult learning. At the center of these theories and models is the adult engaging in formal and informal learning activities that address some perceived need or interest. Whether enrolled in an ABE class, participating in a management training session at work, or learning to trace his or her family history, the adult is engaged in learning. The more we know about the identity of the learner, the context of this learning, and the learning process itself, the better able we are to design effective learning experiences.