The idea of the university has been a matter of intense debate for well over a century. The essential nature, role and purpose of the university have long been questioned. The debate has only intensified as universities have multiplied and expanded across the globe, and the demands made upon them by different stakeholders have grown and…

The German gymnasium teacher Alexander Kapp (1800-1869) was to all appearances the first one to use the "andragogy concept" as a term for "adult learning." In 1833 he published the book "Platon's Erziehungslehre, als Pädagogik für die Einzelnen und als Staatspädagogik. Oder dessen praktische Philosophie." This book…

Taking an autobiographical approach, I tell the story of my experiences facilitating adult development, in a polytechnic and as a management consultant. I relate these to a developmental framework of Modes of Being and Learning that I created and elaborated with colleagues. I connect this picture with a number of related models, theories,…

Engineering educators are often not familiar with the theories and research findings of educational psychology, adult development, curriculum design, and instruction design. Even the published research in engineering/computing education does not sufficiently leverage this body of knowledge. Often in the educational reports and recommendations by…

Since the 1980s, educators in adult basic education and special education have speculated that a substantial if unknown percentage of adults have specific learning disabilities (LDs) and have sought to identify and address effectively the needs of these learners. Two rarely intersecting bodies of historical literature on LDs provide the background…

Historical development of adult education in Croatia can be identified in seven phases: (1) the beginning of the 20th century and the period between the two World Wars; (2) World War II; (3) period from 1945 to the early 1950s; (4) early 1950s to 1965; (5) period between 1965 and 1980; (6) 1980s; and (7) period after the fall of the Berlin…

Reviews self-directed lifelong learning among adults in London from 1558-1640 as nurtured by individuals, organizations, self-improvement publications, and colleges. (EM)

This paper explores the ideas of six adult educators from the 1920s to determine the relevance of their thinking to modern adult educators. Three were chose from Britain: Albert Mansbridge, Basil Yeaxlee, and Richard Tawney. From the United States, three influential theorists in the area were Edward Thorndike, John Dewey, and Eduard Lindeman.…

Dean Troutt leads the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and makes a cogent argument for continuing studies for our nation's adults. (Editor)

Many of the great successes in the history of American education have been in the adult learning area. Some examples include the Americanization of immigrants, the public library movement, cooperative (agricultural) extension, continuing professional education, and distance education. Despite these achievements, adult education has enjoyed little…

This document consists of the print version of the spring and fall 1988 issues of an electronic journal; each of the issues contains three conventional articles and an exploratory "forum" article. In the spring issue, the articles and authors are "Propaganda and Adult Education" by Richard J. Novak (12 references); "The…

A guide to resources in adult education is presented in two sections: a "pathfinder" and an annotated bibliography. In section 1 a scope note defines adult education and provides a brief history of adult education in the U.S. Subsequently, a number of "pathfinder" references are listed: introductory adult education materials (3); card catalog…

These proceedings contain 47 papers presented at a conference focusing on nonformal adult education. Papers deal with 12 adult/continuing education content areas. These content areas and representative paper focuses are adult development (the role of gerontology programs in life transitions, the impact of development on adult learning), aging…

This paper identifies and describes specific applications of knowledge from other disciplines to adult education. It is observed that the concept of adult educators' borrowing from other fields has been widely discussed in both North and South America. Verner's criteria for selecting usable material are cited. The following four general topics of…

This paper reviews significant events and resources that have emerged since the 1992 publication of "Adult Literacy Education: Current and Future Directions. An Update" by Hanna Fingeret. It analyzes major milestones in research and practice in literacy education that have occurred in the last decade. The paper begins by looking at the…