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- Dictionarya·dult ed·u·ca·tion
noun
- 1. educational programs or courses for adults who are out of school or college.
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Definition. Education specifically targeting individuals who are regarded as adults by the society to which they belong to improve their technical or professional qualifications, further develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge with the purpose to complete a level of formal education, or to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies in a ...
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On 4 July 2024, the Education and Data Statistics Commission...
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adult education, any form of learning undertaken by or provided for mature men and women. In a 1970 report, the National Institute of Adult Education (England and Wales) defined adult education as “any kind of education for people who are old enough to work, vote, fight and marry and who have completed the cycle of continuous education, [if any] commenced in childhood.” Adult education comprehends such diverse modes as independent study consciously pursued with or without the aid of libraries; broadcast programs or correspondence courses; group discussion and other “mutual aid” learning in study circles, colloquia, seminars or workshops, and residential conferences or meetings; and full- or part-time study in classes or courses in which the lecturer, teacher, or tutor has a formal leading role.
(Read Arne Duncan’s Britannica essay on “Education: The Great Equalizer.”)
Types of adult education can be classified as follows:
1. Education for vocational, technical, and professional competence. (Such education may aim at preparing an adult for a first job or for a new job, or it may aim at keeping him up to date on new developments in his occupation or profession.)
2. Education for health, welfare, and family living. (Such education includes all kinds of education in health, family relations, consumer buying, planned parenthood, hygiene, child care, and the like.)
3. Education for civic, political, and community competence. (Such education includes all kinds of education relating to government, community development, public and international affairs, voting and political participation, and so forth.)
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Any classification of agencies and institutions involved in adult education must necessarily be arbitrary, given the great variety found not only among nations but within single nations. The following are the general types.
The folk high schools, first established in Denmark and now found in all Scandinavian countries, are residential schools in which young adults who have completed formal schooling and usually have had some subsequent work experience pursue at least several months of study. The study aims at furthering both moral and intellectual development and instilling an understanding of local and national traditions and conditions. Although at first they were independent or separate institutions, they are now frequently promoted or supported by communal boards of education. Although rarely exported with success in their pure form, the folk high schools have influenced the development of residential forms of adult education in countries as diverse as Canada, Kenya, India, and The Netherlands.
Nonresident adult-education centres, which are the most widely distributed specialized institutes for adult education, are represented by such organizations as “workers’ academies” in Finland, “people’s high schools” in Germany and Austria, “adult education centres” in Great Britain, and “people’s universities” in The Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland. The distinguishing characteristics of these institutions are that they are independent of the general education authorities, at least in terms of programming; that student attendance is voluntary and part-time; and that teachers and administrators are either volunteers or professionals offering mainly part-time services. Traditionally these schools do not prepare students for examinations or offer training in advanced vocational skills. Typically the curriculum includes instruction in practical and domestic crafts, fine arts, music and drama, familial and social problem solving, and modern languages, as well as instruction designed to reinforce primary and secondary education.
Agricultural extension services, though almost wholly an American development, are conducted on a scale great enough to rate separate mention. The extension service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts agricultural, home economics, and even public affairs programs in every county in the United States. It has had special significance in developing “demonstration” as a method of adult education and in emphasizing the adoption of new farming practices.
The open university, a recent British institution, is significant for its new dimension and sharp break with previous degree programs for adults. In some educationally advanced countries—such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States—adults have long had opportunities to pursue part-time education leading to university degrees, but these programs have usually been carbon copies of programs offered to regular undergraduates. The open university, in theory at least, aspires to a kind of universal higher education. It is intended to serve only mature or older adults studying part-time; it has no standardized entry requirements; and it attempts to combine various educational technologies and techniques—correspondence instruction, mass-communication media, personal counseling, and short-term residential courses.
Commercial enterprises have provided correspondence courses or class instruction (part- or full-time) for adults who are usually seeking some form of vocational qualification (but who may, however, be simply seeking “self-improvement,” as in speed-reading programs). Such schools may be licensed or supervised by state agencies (as in Sweden and The Netherlands), or they may be self-policing through associations offering accreditation. Some schools are nonprofit organizations.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jun 15, 2022 · Why is adult education crucial? The speed of today’s changes calls for opportunities to learn throughout life, for individual fulfilment, social cohesion, and economic prosperity. Education can no longer be limited to a single period of one’s lifetime.
The meaning of ADULT EDUCATION is continuing education. How to use adult education in a sentence.
They define adult education as: activities intentionally designed for the purpose of bringing about learning among those whose age, social roles, or self-perception define them as adults. This definition has the virtue of side-stepping some of the issues around the meaning of ‘adult’ – but doesn’t fully engage with the nature of 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,
May 30, 2022 · A futures orientation should define adult education, as much as education at all moments, as an education entangled with life. Adults are responsible for the world in which they live as well as the world of the future.
