Adult Learning Overview

Principles

Definition

Adult learning is an academic field and area of practice that investigates the principles, processes, and contexts governing how adults acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies throughout their lifespan, characterized by attention to factors such as prior experience, motivation, and self-direction, and central to lifelong education theory and effective adult educational design.

Ontological type

Core Theories

Instructional Strategies

Motivation and Engagement

Key developments

Key Figures

Social-Contextual Learning era

Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger stand as core representatives of the social-contextual learning era, shaping the view that learning is embedded in social participation and real practice. Lave's situated learning perspective explains how newcomers acquire expertise through authentic activity and gradual legitimate peripheral participation within professional communities. Wenger's concept of communities of practice elaborates how mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire organize learning as participation in legitimate workplace communities. Donald Schön's reflective practitioner framework and David Boud's emphasis on reflection and dialogue anchor the era's focus on turning workplace experience into professional growth.

Transformative Knowledge Translation era

Ian D. Graham [1] is associated with Radboud University Nijmegen [3] and the University of Toronto [4] in the Transformative Knowledge Translation era (2009–2015). His key contributions include shaping knowledge translation practices that move evidence into practice, underscoring the importance of implementation and durable change for this era, as described in Knowledge Translation in Health Care: Moving from Evidence to Practice [6]. Sharon E. Straus [2] is linked with the University of Toronto [4] and McMaster University [5] during this period. Her contributions center on advancing knowledge translation in health care, promoting evidence-informed practice and policy-oriented implementation, as reflected in Knowledge Translation in Health Care: Moving from Evidence to Practice [6], a landmark for the era.

AI-Driven Adaptive Learning era

Eszter Hargittai [1] is a distinguished scholar in the AI-Driven Adaptive Learning era, with affiliations at Northwestern University [2] and Princeton University [3]. Her key contribution in this era comes from the 2017 paper Old Dogs, New Clicks: Digital Inequality in Skills and Uses among Older Adults [4], which documents how older adults experience digital inequality in both skills and uses, highlighting the need for accessible, inclusive, and adaptive learning designs to ensure equitable lifelong learning opportunities in increasingly data-driven educational ecosystems.