Whether it is earning a GED, a particular skill, or technical topic for a career, taking classes of interest, or even returning to begin a degree program or completing it, adult learning encompasses those beyond the traditional university age seeking out education. This type of education could be considered non-traditional as it goes beyond the typical educational path and develops learners that are self-initiated and focused on personal development in the form of gaining some sort of education. Essentially, it is a voluntary choice of learning throughout life for personal and professional development. While there is often a large focus towards K-12 and higher education, it is important that research also focuses on the developing trends, technologies, and techniques for providing adult education along with understanding lifelong learners’ choices, developments, and needs. The Research Anthology on Adult Education and the Development of Lifelong Learners focuses specifically on adult education and the best practices, services, and educational environments and methods for both the teaching and learning of adults. This spans further into the understanding of what it means to be a lifelong learner and how to develop adults who want to voluntarily contribute to their own development by enhancing their education level or knowledge of certain topics. This book is essential for teachers and professors, course instructors, business professionals, school administrators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest advancements in adult education and lifelong learning.

This volume explores the topics of adult learning and education through the specific lens of comparative research. The book is divided into four chapters each of which comprises an analytical essay followed by an anthology of readings from a selection of key texts. These are chosen to illustrate different conceptual and empirical approaches from varying perspectives in different countries. The book is the second of a series dedicated to adult learning and education and developed under the auspices of the ESRALE (European Studies and Research in Adult Learning and Education) project. Its companion books are: Vanna Boffo, Paolo Federighi, Ekkehard Nuissl, Empirical Research Methodology in Adult Learning and Education- Authors and Texts and Simona Sava, Petr Novotny (eds.), Researches in Adult Learning and Education: The European Dimension.

Developing and Sustaining Adult Learners is the second volume in a series of scholarly publications associated with the annual Adult Higher Education Alliance (AHEA, The Alliance) conference. The title of this volume, derived from the theme of the 2012 conference co-sponsored by American Association of Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) in Las Vegas, NV, encompasses significant issues and questions at the forefront of the field of adult education. At the conference, scholars, practitioners, and adult educators gave presentations and received feedback on some of the most significant and timely issues in their praxis. The Alliance, which values collaboration, transformative dialogue, and collegiality among professionals, considers this volume a continuation of those conversations as the presentations were expanded into chapters. We are glad that you are joining the conversation. This volume confirms not only that adult learning, higher education, and both fields of research have many contexts, but also that there is so much more to learn about different perspectives and opportunities for research and practice. Opportunities for symbiotic relationship abound. We hope that Developing and Sustaining Adult Learners will be a book that you pull off your bookshelf, or open in your e-reader, often. We know that as we engage in program and course planning, design and teaching, this book will provide needed refreshment and new vision. When research ideas seem too similar, this volume will also provide many seeds for new opportunities.

We recognize that our society and demands for lifelong learning changes rapidly, and needs to continue to be rapidly effectively infused in changing forms into the teaching and learning process. Conversations about Adult Learning in Our Complex World focuses the study of adult learning to address the issues of living and learning within a complex world- the epitome of the 21st century. Readers will find that this book is valuable for a wide variety of professors, researchers, practitioners, and students in fields related to adult learning and adult education as it reveals emerging research and trends relevant for today and tomorrow. Moreover, this publication represents some of the most innovative and thoughtful scholarship resulting from the work of the Adult Higher Education Alliance and, arguably, the field of adult education. The book is arranged thematically in five sections, each one dealing with a domain where intercultural competence and other fundamental skills may improve the learning experiences for adult learners. The sections include, The Learning Environment and Authentic Teaching, Interculturally Competent Classroom Practices, Programming for Adults—Redesigning University to Serve Adult Learners, Professional Development, Teacher Training, and Leadership Development, and Meaningful Assessment of Programs for Adults.

Now in its fourth edition, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning is well established, and is regarded as the most widely used text about adult education. Fully revised and updated with substantial additional material, this new edition takes account of many changes which have occurred in the field of adult education. With new features for students and researchers, updates incorporate: material on the ethical and political implications of lifelong learning detailed information on changes relating to globalisation increased emphasis on societal changes information on the way technologies are affecting the way people learn changing approaches to knowledge, knowledge acquisition and knowledge assessment. Students of education and education studies will find this an invaluable course companion, whilst practitioners and researchers in adult and lifelong learning will find this new fully-up-to-date edition even broader in scope than the last.

This unique text provides a valuable route map to the development of thinking in adult education and lifelong learning. It includes more than twenty-five seminal articles from the first two decades of the International Journal of Lifelong Education, written by leading authors in the field from the UK, the USA, Australia and Europe. Compiled to show the development of the field, the articles are divided into four sections: From Ault Education... ...to Lifelong Education ...and Lifelong Learning ...to the Learning Society and Beyond. The specially written Introduction by the editor contextualises the selection and introduces readers to the main issues and current thinking in the field. This is the only text of its kind to demonstrate practice and policy internationally over this period, and as the collection of articles are now available in one easy-access place, this is an excellent resource for students and scholars.

This Handbook provides a wide-ranging frame of reference for researching adult and lifelong education and learning. With contributions from scores of established and newer scholars from six continents, the volume covers a diverse range of geopolitical and social territories across the world. Drawing on the multiple heritages that underpin research on education and learning in adulthood, this Handbook addresses the inner tensions between adult education, adult learning, lifelong education, and lifelong learning, by using current research and theorizations from disciplinary backgrounds, including philosophy, psychology, biology and neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, history, political science, and economics. It provides an explicit discussion of the differences and tensions between adult and lifelong education and learning, and locates these in different policy and historical contexts, theories and practices. It explores a variety of discipline-based theoretical perspectives, and highlights how these have influenced, and been influenced by, research in the education and learning of adults. The Handbook also explores the inevitable frictions and dilemmas these present, and carefully examines the role of the international dimension in researching education and learning in formal, non-formal and informal contexts, beyond traditional schooling. This state-of-the-art, comprehensive Handbook is the first of its kind to explore adult education, lifelong education and lifelong learning fully as distinct activities on an international scale. It will be an indispensable reference resource for students of education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and for academic researchers, professionals and policy-makers concerned with adult and community education, further and vocational education, or work-based training and human resource development.