Lifelong Learning/ Adult Learning

Although there is no specific age range which determines what will be referred to as 'Lifelong Learning' it can often be referred to as 'Adult Learning'. Lifelong learning tends to refer to adults returning to education or

  

training at some stage or repetitively throughout their  lives.

With a job for life no longer guaranteed, an open market for immigrant workers and fast changing technology it has never been more important for adults to view their education as a continuum rather than end target. While no concrete figure has ever been placed on how many times people actually change Job/Career in their lifetime it has been suggested by researchers that it may be up to as many as 5-7 times, with career change being one of the greatest factors involved in returning to education.

In the following blogs we will be looking at ways in which children learn therefore in this blog it may be interesting to look at how adults learn in contrast to children and some of the agreed and not so well agreed theories on the differences. In order to do so we will look to the work of Malcolm Knowles and his 'Basic Assumptions' of how adults learn or 'Androgogy'.

Andrgogy

For Knowles, andragogy is main up of five basic assumptions of the characteristics of adult learners that differ from that of child learners:

          1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being.

2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.

3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.

4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.

5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal

Differences between adult and child learning

Lets combine what we already know about Child learners and Knowles basic assumptions to find the basic differences in adult and child learning

Independence of learner: A child remains dependant on the teacher for constant guidance and it will
mostly be the teachers choice as to how and when things are taught. Knowles would argue that an adult will work much better in an independent self directing environment, where a teacher acts as a facilitator to encourage and suggest further learning.

Past Experience: Compared to that of a child, an adult learner will posses a great wealth of past life experience, which they often hold in high regard. This should be allowed to drawn upon in group discussion in new learning environments.

Readiness to learn (a need to Know): Children are often unaware of what they need to learn therefore a curriculum is in place to support their education. However adult learners returning to education will mostly do so to learn something they need to know, possibly for a new job or professional development. therefore they have a much more immediate readiness to learn.

Orientation to learning: Again, children are limited by the curriculum to what they may learn and it is mostly basic around specific subject matter. Where as adult learners may respond better to learning through the practical application of a new subject and are more performance centered in their learning.

Motivation to learn: It is suggested that a child motivation to learn will mostly be extrinsic, to please or conform to parents, teachers and society's expectation. However adult learners will be intrinsically motivated or discovering new knowledge for themselves. Although adults could also be extrinsically motivated to please an employer or gain a promotion at work.



References and other useful links:

Rosenberg McKay, D. How Often Do People Change Careers? Guide to Career Planning since 1997 (2006)

Knowles, M. et al (1984) Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

http://www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/b-andra.htm