Adult Education Learning Model

The learning model of adult education assumes that the practice of adult education should start with, and focus consistently on, the distinctive ways adult learners experience participation in education. In this learner-centered model, all curricular, pedagogic, and evaluative decisions are shaped by what we know about adults' experiences of learning. The learning model assumes that adults display a distinctive motivation toward their learning; that they prize the incorporation of their experiences, and the critical analysis of these, into the curriculum; that they possess a methodological preference for self-directed modes of learning; that they exhibit distinctively adult modes of cognition; and that they experience certain predictable emotional reactions when returning to learning. From this understanding of learning, certain modes of practice emerge as central to the ...