Adult education and Theory

Due to the large increase in the number of scholars in the field of andragogy, and to the marked increase in the diversity, complexity, and specificity of the work done by sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, we are now in an era where it is impossible for the major general sociological journals to focus heavily on the topics of primary interest to any particular group of sociologists.

This means that articles published in such journals as the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, Adult Education Quarterly, and Social Forces will, of necessity, be very diverse regarding opinions and views of adult education.

It is important to note that diversity is a characteristic both of journals in low-consensus fields and of general journals that cover a wide range of specialties. Such diversity is also an intrinsic characteristic of a discipline that, among other things, attempts to integrate knowledge from diverse fields. In order to give this paper some focus, the three inquiry units presented in this seminar will be maintained and each shall serve as a topic heading. Those three are:

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on which almost all theories of adult learning are based. To summarize, andragogy is premised on at least these four crucial assumptions about the characteristics of learners that are different from the assumptions on which traditional pedagogy is premised. These assumptions are that as individuals mature: 1) their self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward being a self-directed human being; 2) they accumulate a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasingly rich resource for learning; 3) their readiness to learn becomes increasingly oriented to the developmental tasks of their social roles; and 4) their time perspective changes from one of postponed application, and accordingly, their orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of performance-centeredness (Knowles, 1980, 44). This is quoted so extensively for two reasons. First, the world of adult learning (even though Knowles likes to substitute the less-familiar and more difficult word "andragogy") is capsulated in those four elements. First, it is conceivable that at least fourteen theories of how adults learn come from these four tenets (even though they were first suggested by Descartes, whom Knowles
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Merriam Caffarella, Adult Learning, Teaching Adults, Results Kirkpatrick, Descartes Knowles, Antheil Casper, Social Forces, Bishops Knowles, According McClusky, Fisher Weinberg, adult learning, adult education, san francisco, merriam 1993, merriam caffarella, san francisco jossey-bass, training programs, development learning, teaching adults, francisco jossey-bass, training program, theories research adult, research adult learning, ca jossey-bass publishers, merriam caffarella 1999,
Approximate Word count = 1959
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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