As the population ages, more older adults seek learning opportunities in various educational settings. This article highlights the understanding of older adult learners and the greater heterogeneity within this demographic. I explore why and how older adults learn, including their learning needs, the challenges of aging that may affect their…

This article provides an overview of adult learning theory, focusing on the theories covered in this issue of New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education. In offering a brief synopsis of each article and reflecting on the ways adult learning theories have evolved since the first update was published in 1993, this article explains several…

This article introduces Taiwan's innovative lifelong learning programs for middle-aged and older adults, and discusses their social influence. The innovative active aging learning programs launched in 2008. The purpose of implementing active aging learning is to work at the grassroots level with the hope of providing increasingly comprehensive and…

The "alone together" paradox is a phenomenon that occurs when adults make meaning of their learning in the online environment. By way of being "alone together," the online environment manifests a context for incidental and informal learning.

Interconnections between workplace and organizational learning can highlight the ongoing changes taking place that prestage the need for learning cities and regions. The diverse institutions that comprise cities and regions can function as organizational learning mechanisms in the 21st century. Learning cities themselves can also be conceptualized…

Intuitive knowing is one of the most complex and misunderstood ways of knowing. It is difficult to put into words and verbalize. Intuition is spontaneous, heart-centered, free, adventurous, imaginative, playful, nonsequential, and nonlinear. People access intuitive knowledge through dreams, symbols, artwork, dance, yoga, meditation, contemplation,…

This article highlights four concepts related to embodied knowledge for community awareness: (1) possibilities; (2) risk; (3) collective engagement; and (4) performance. It examines the author's narrative study investigation manifested in a performance text as a case study on how women embodied repressed knowledge and released it through…

Educating adults to tap into the wisdom of their inner life can happen in many contexts: (1) higher education classrooms; (2) workshop and retreat settings; and (3) psychotherapy settings. Adults can also facilitate the development of their inner life through various self-directed learning efforts, by learning from life experience, and through…

Cultural institutions are rich locations for adult learning. Despite apparent differences in mission, they are similar in many ways. Similarities include social and historical development, educational philosophy and objectives, epistemological tensions and contestations, and challenges associated when attracting and educating adult visitors. In an…

This chapter focuses on "learning processes" in the workplace from concepts emerging in the field of adult education, without straying into pedagogies and programs that can enhance learning. It discusses four topics on learning processes that seem to be particularly important for addressing key purposes and issues of workplace learning from an…

Narrative is not only a method for fostering learning; it is also a way to conceptualize the learning process. In this chapter, the authors examine what narrative learning is, how it works, and how it can be used more intentionally and effectively in the education of adults. This article aims to stimulate further conversation and thought about the…

A complete theory of adult learning must take into consideration the learner, learning process, and context. Andragogy, self-directed learning, consciousness, critical theory, feminism, transformational learning, and situated cognition contribute to understanding of this complex phenomenon. (SK)

The brain, a pattern-finding organ, seeks to create meaning through establishing or refining existing neural networks; this is learning. Emotion affects what is learned and what is retained.

This chapter presents a brain-based model of adult learning and connects the model to practice.

The first part of the process model for experiential learning (EL) includes student characteristics and needs (role of experience and prior knowledge, different learning processes, active involvement, affiliation needs, life context) and conceptual foundations of EL (definitions of knowledge, elements of cognition, constructivist teaching,…