href="#ub3f8ef6f-b339-5f81-811c-8286e4c3d9e6">Part IV present material on topics that intersect with adult learning, such as memory and cognition, adult development, and so on.
The chapters in Part I, “Adult Learning in Contemporary Society,” center on the context of adult learning. Chapter 1 sets the sociocultural context for adult learning in North America. In it, we discuss three forces—demographics, globalization, and technology—that have shaped adult learning today. It is important to understand how the interaction of those three factors has led to changes in both what adults want to learn and the learning opportunities provided for them. Chapter 2 is a new chapter devoted to the ubiquitous presence of technology in all forms of adult education from formal to nonformal to informal and self-directed learning environments. Directly related to the sociocultural context of adult learning are the environments where learning takes place, the subject of Chapter 3. These range from educational and noneducational institutions, such as hospitals and government agencies, to nonformal and community-based agencies, to incidental and informal learning that is more self-directed than structured by others. Also in this chapter we explore the concepts of organizational learning and the learning organization, lifelong learning and the learning society. The fourth chapter in Part I summarizes the literature on who participates in primarily formal adult learning activities, why people participate, and what they choose to learn. We also take a critical look at key questions of access and opportunity and examine the gaps between the rhetoric and the reality in the provision of formal and nonformal learning activities in our society.
Part II, “Adult Learning Theory,” builds on foundational material in adult learning, material that is at the heart of our field of adult education. The topics covered in these chapters represent the field's efforts in distinguishing itself from the education of children. We begin Chapter 5 with a description and critique of the best known of these theories, Knowles's (1980) concept of andragogy. Based on six characteristics of adult learners, andragogy focuses on the adult learner as distinguished from preadult learners. In this chapter we also cover one other model of learning, McClusky's (1970) theory of margin, which has great intuitive appeal to adult learners introduced to it. McClusky considers how everyday life and transitions can be both an opportunity and a barrier to engaging in an adult learning activity. In Chapter 6 we explore the rich array of work that has been completed on self-directed learning. Addressed are the goals and processes of self-directed learning, the concept of self-directedness as a personal attribute of the learner, recent approaches to self-directed learning, and some suggestions for building research and theory in this area. Currently, self-directed learning along with transformative learning has taken center stage in research and writing. Chapter 7 summarizes the development of transformational learning, reviews the burgeoning recent research in this area, and examines unresolved issues inherent in this approach to adult learning. In Chapter 8, the last chapter of Part II, we look closely at the role of experience in learning: both how adult learning builds on prior experience and how experience shapes learning. The concepts of experiential learning, reflective practice, and situated cognition are also examined in this chapter.
Part III, “Newer Approaches to Adult Learning,” contains three chapters. There is a burgeoning interest in embodied or somatic learning, spirituality and learning, and narrative approaches to learning, topics addressed in Chapter 9. We uncovered so much recent material in these areas that, had space allowed, we could have easily devoted a full chapter to each of these subjects. Chapter 10 explores Eastern and indigenous approaches to adult learning. Because the majority of the knowledge base represented in Learning in Adulthood is from a Western perspective, characterized by cultural values of privileging the individual learner and cognitive processes over more holistic approaches, we wanted to introduce readers to other epistemologies, other ways of thinking about learning and knowing. We hope we have done that through brief introductions to five non-Western perspectives. The final chapter in Part III is an update of critical theory, postmodernism, and feminist pedagogy. These three perspectives draw from literature outside the field of adult education. Scholars have applied these perspectives to our field, enlarging our understanding by inviting us to question how the structural inequities based on race, gender, class, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, and so on affect learning.
Part IV, which we have titled “Learning and Development,” brings together material from philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology, and so on that has a bearing on adult learning. Chapter 12 focuses on adults' developmental characteristics. Beginning with biological and psychological perspectives on adult development, we move to sociocultural and integrated perspectives. The work on adult development in recent years places less emphasis on age and stage models and more on the effect of such factors as race, gender, class, and ethnicity. Much has been written lately about cognitive development in adulthood, and so this is treated separately in Chapter 13. Here we review several theoretical models of cognitive development as well as present the concept of dialectical thinking. Chapter 14 reviews the work on intelligence, especially as it has been studied from a developmental or aging perspective. Drawing on several disciplines and summarizing recent work on memory and aging, expertise, cognitive and learning styles, and brain-based research, Chapter 15 on the brain, memory, and cognitive functioning is one of the few compilations of its kind in an adult learning textbook.
Finally, in the last chapter we step back from the accumulated knowledge base to summarize and integrate the material on adult learning presented in earlier chapters. Chapter 16 also reflects how we ourselves have come to think about learning in adulthood.
About the Authors
Sharan B. Merriam is professor emerita of adult education and qualitative research methods at the University of Georgia. Merriam's research and writing activities have focused on the foundations of adult education, adult development, adult learning, and qualitative research methods. She has published more than 30 books and dozens of chapters and articles and held major editorship roles throughout her career. For 5 years she was coeditor of Adult Education Quarterly, the major research and theory journal in adult education. She was also coeditor for the book series Professional Practices in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning. She has won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education for four different books. Various of her books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Farsi, Italian, and French. Her most recent books include Qualitative Research in Practice: Examples for Discussion and Analysis (with Robin S. Grenier, 2019), Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (with Elizabeth J. Tisdell, 2016), A Guide to Research for Educators and Trainers of Adults (with Patricia Cranton, 2015), and Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice (with Laura Bierema 2014). Based on her widespread contributions
