Adult Education and Its Delivery Forms Dissertation

Introduction

Adult education is a dynamic topic at this time because of the continuous global changing in every sector of society from the individual behavior of a person to the technological evaluation. Though the change is so complex so it needs to be accommodated by the community members, which is possible by general education (education from childhood). But the problem is that, the persons who didn’t take education from their childhood, how they will accommodate with the changing world. For solving this problem the topic “Adult Education” is arisen with a great possibility. But it needs to be researched on adult education to a wide extent.

The objective of the Research

The main objective of the research is to search the necessity of adult education based on some basic questions regarding adult education. What are-

• What is the origin of adult education?
• Actually, who is an adult and what is adult education?
• With what purpose adult education is going on?
• What are the areas/fields of adult education?
• Why adult education is significant (to its wide extent)?
• What are the weaknesses of the present adult education system and how these weaknesses can be removed?
• What types of institutions are engaged with adult education?

The study has been accomplished the research by analyzing the above questions and am going to furnish the research result.

Literature Review

• (Lovett, Clarke and Kilmurray, 1983). The writers described the necessity of Adult Education and community education for Community Action and Social Change; also describe the impact of this learning on trade unions and the labor movements.
• (Davis and McCallon, 1974). The writers assessed the needs of learning and specified learning objectives emphasizing terminal objectives, also selected the resources for learning of adult education.
• (UNESCO, 1949). The UNESCO explained the concept the adult education in comparison with primary education and exemplified the significance of adult education with perpetual motion, also described the impact of adult education on the crisis of civilization.
• (Allen and Bass, 1930). The writers insisted on the Evening Industrial School for vocational education, unit courses and training for the industrial workers.
• (Coles, 1969). In this book, the writer described the aims and purposes of adult education of developing countries and engaged agencies for providing several programs.
• (Miller, 1964). The writer described Adult Education from several special perspectives for significant behavioral changes.
• (Grattan, 1955). The writer described the Definition and Implications of vocational education and how Proliferate Man Leads the Way of adult education and the comments of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Origin of Adult Education

Acute research on adult education is important both for the country and the citizens of the country. Actually, adult education was first established in Norway in the first half of the 18^th century when there was an extreme situation of the industrial revolution. There were two vital reasons behind the establishment of adult education. The first one is so that the laborers can participate in productive activities with constant development. And the second one is the new condition and training possibilities for the labor, and emancipation & removing social division of labor. With this two another tend can be added. That is, a belief that training of labor results from national unification and reinforcement of governing classes. These are due to that from the time of industrial revolution in European countries because of technological development the behavior of modern people begun changing in the community as well as in the organization. So the persons who had no education felt the necessity of acquiring minimum education and who were educated but unfamiliar with so many modern concepts felt the necessity of acquiring the new knowledge to accommodate with those changing behavior, which became possible by adult education. This is the introduction of adult education (Merriam and Brockett, 1996). In the United Kingdom adult education was first established in the first half of the 19^th century.

Concept of adult and adult education

Before introducing adult education at first the study will indicate, who are adults? Basically, they are adults who control their own life according to their will, who can take any decision for their life, who can guess what is good or bad for their life and who dislikes being treated like children. So adult education is the arrangement of graduation for the persons who didn’t get admitted into any school or who have no such academic knowledge, which should be belonged by a high school accomplisher or who can’t read, write and speak English efficiently and fluently. In other words, adult education is such minimum graduation for the persons who are not as literate as to perform their functions in the job, or family, or community. General Conference of UNESCO in 1976 accepted the following definition of the concept of adult education-

“The term adult education denotes the entire body of organized educational processes whatever the content, level and method (whether formal or otherwise), whether they prolong or replace initial education in school, colleges and universities, as well as in apprenticeship, whereby persons regarded as adults by the society to which they belong develop his or her abilities and reach their knowledge, improve their technical or professional qualification or turn them in a new direction and bring about changes in their attitudes or behavior in twofold perspective of full personal development and participation in balance and independent social, economic and cultural development” (Matheson, 1991).

So the study clearly depicts adult education and the readers are must desiring to know more about adult education, which the study is going to provide.

The field/area of Adult Education has been widely expanded though it is related to social science. Adult education teaches the learners about every kind of social sector. We may exemplify the sectors such as literacy, adult basic education, vocational education, human resources training, community development, nursing, occupational therapy, nutrition, educational technology etc. These are the areas/fields of adult education and now the study is providing an overview of provider, content and receiver of adult education-

Table 1. Different providers, contents and disadvantaged receivers groups in adult education. Source: Bhola, H.S. (1988).

The purpose and function of Adult Education

The study on adult education has shown that there are many purposes of adult education, which are accomplished by two main functions, one is compensational function and another is the function of a further continual function. Compensational function refers to the arrangement of education for the adult, who did not take education in their youth, to fill up that academic gap. Here adult education tries to include the socially excluded adults, who have been excluded from the knowledge-based society because of accelerated development and globalization. This is the purpose of compensational function and for accomplishing this purpose adult education provides some essential learning course such as (Adult Education, n.d.) –

• Accomplishment of their primary education
• Achieving of functional literacy
• Achieving the basic training of unskilled person
• Retraining the surplus unemployed persons who are vocational surplus
• Retraining the women who worked before, but for a certain time, they were inactive
• Education of immigrants and those groups who are inadequately integrated with the society.

The function of further continuous education refers to the gathering the modern knowledge, skills and values, attitudes and habits, which helps an adult to accommodate the modern demands, which are so related to scientific, technological, social, political and cultural development. This education also refers to the learning for long-lasting adjustment of an adult with the faster and more comprehensive changes of the developed world. So this education helps the adults to adjust themselves (as a deserved person) with the changing demand of qualification in society as well as in the work environment. These are the purpose of the function of further continuous education, which is accomplished by the following services-

• Provide advanced vocational training
• Provide education for developing the civic society
• Provide education for peach, citizenship and democracy
• Provide knowledge for protecting environment
• Teaching of foreign language
• Providing education of health care
• Provider education of elderly people
• Provide education for integrating the disabled people.

So the study shows that the main purpose of adult education is not different than the education for the young, but it is specialized for the adult with so many specialized and selected institutions (that will be discussed later). Actually, it is a part of lifelong learning and its main purpose is to make capable the educated or uneducated adults to accommodate the changing knowledge of the world of today.

Significance of Adult Education

At the introductory stage of the study where it mentioned the objective of the research, there were some questions, one of which is- why adult education is essential from time to time. The question clearly means that adult education is very important. The importance of adult education cannot be ignored; it is the demand of the time. Let it be analyzed with some evidence. Adult education helps a person to cope with the community he/she belongs to. Because every time the behavior, thinking, attitude, need, want, demand, the standard of living, knowledge of the community members are developing.

Presently the concept of lifetime employment has been diverted into the concept of lifetime employability. It means an employee will continue his/her job in an organization till then he/she can fulfill the demand of the organization. When the organization thinks that any of its employees cannot fulfill their demand then they will dismiss the person. In this situation, only those persons will be survived who will acquire the new knowledge (a part of adult education) to accommodate the changing demand. Adult education provides several training according to the requirement of the organization to the unskilled adult person, acquiring which many adult persons can be employed in any organization as skilled employees.

Adult education can produce matured citizens who will effectively contribute to the development of the social conditions with their improved minds. Adult education is a way for removing unemployment from society. The main cause of unemployment is illiteracy, lack of skill, lack of wide knowledge, etc, which can be removed by adult education. For instance, the person who doesn’t belong a better academic background and for which he/she are not getting any job, by acquiring such adult education program can make his/her earning way.

DAEL (The Division of Adult Education and Literacy) in America engaged with adult education with a wide area of Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English Language Acquisition emphasizing reading, writing, math, English language competency, and problem-solving, (Miller, 2006) helping the citizen to be skillful to be productive workers, family members, and citizens. Adult education assists a nation for sustainable scientific and economic improvement with encouraging democracy and justice, prepares a world of a peaceful culture where violent conflict and war are replaced by dialogue.

Adult education helps the adults enrich their autonomy and the sense of responsibility, make themselves deserving for dealing with the transformations taking place in the economy and also makes them able to control their destiny and society facing the challenges ahead. Julius K. Nyerere the president of the United Republic of Tanzania said that “First we must educate adults. Our children will not have an impact on our economic development for five, ten, or even twenty years”. (Thomas, 1975).

Weaknesses and Suggestions of/for adult education

Adult education obviously fruitful for the country’s development, but adult education may go in vain if the proper education system is not followed. At the beginning time of adult education in Japan, the UK, the USA, the US or any other country this program failed, because of some major faults in the adult education system. Such as, they behave with the adult students as they used to do with the children or young students, they are provided the same syllabus as provided for the young, also the teachers were not so expert for adult teaching though the behavior of adult and young are not same. As a result, the dropout rate of adult students was so high, even it was 50% to 100% in US & UK only twenty years ago. To overcome this failure the research on adult education started and is continuing yet now.

So the study stated that, though the behavior of the adult and the young are not same, so some specialized teachers have to be created by proper training and if necessary for this specialized institution in abroad have to be engaged.

Some institutions follow the catechism educational system for their adult education program, where the adult students can’t interact their opinions, views and experiences with the trainers. As a result the students hardly learn something, which is a cause of the failure of adult education programs. So this catechism training system has to be diverted into a dialogue training system.

There are also other causes for the failure of adult education. For example, one adult person who didn’t get an education because of a financial problem or any other problem now is feeling the necessity of education, but can’t go to the adult education center because of hesitation or shyness. These types of persons have to be inspired anyhow. Because if these people acquire adult education, with the development of their mental standard at a time social and cultural standard of a country will be developed. There is also one kind of person who is educated and doing a job, wants to acquire higher graduation for his/her professional improvement, but doesn’t get enough time for taking that graduation. For these people, institutions engaged with adult education have to arrange available evening programs.

Recommendations

The study has recognized some principles, which should be followed for the adult education system. Firstly, the needs for adult education have to be assessed on the basis of hazards, target population and social context. Secondly, some supporters have to be arranged for the program. Thirdly, certain learning objects and content areas have to be established. Fourthly, the appropriate method, which will be followed for the program has to be selected. Fifthly, the above plans have to be implemented in a session. And finally, the implemented programs have to be evaluated according to whether if achieve its objective or not.

Institutions for Adult Education

Many types of institutions engaged with adult education can be found. Mainly it is classified into two types. One is school & non-school educational organization. In the contemporary school system education is provided to children and youngsters as well as adults (Adult Education, n.d.).

This system provides two types of educational schemes. One is the ‘work and study’ scheme and another is the ‘on the job’ scheme. These schemes help the adult students to gather knowledge about certain functions, which he/she is going to be employed for. These schools also provide primary or secondary education to the adult who couldn’t acquire it in his/her youth. In an organization the education system is informal. There an employee is trained well regarding the newly adapted technology so that, he/she can accomplish the goal of the organization successfully.

Besides the school system, there are many specialized educational organizations for adult education (Adult Education, n.d.). It is an informal educational system and here the programs are thought by the staff specialized for adult education. “Such kinds of organizations are a folk school in Scandinavian countries and in Germany, university extensions in Great Britain, communal colleges in the USA, open universities in Croatia. There is a special type of adult education center in bigger firms or companies” (Adult Education, n.d.).

These institutions arrange vocational training and in-service training for their employers to adapt to their developed needs. These programs aimed for the development of efficient and competitive human resources according to the market. There are so many voluntary and professional non-educational organizations such as trade unions, political parties, non-governmental organizations, which provide adult education (Adult Education, n.d.).

These organizations teach their members some basic issues, which help them to acquire some specific objective. The non-government organization is very much effective for bringing any country close to the standard of a developed country by promoting adult education. Professional association informs their members about a new profession and scientific information, also conduct their licensing. Many private institutions also engaged with adult education. These institutions work with many goals such as the teaching of a foreign language to the adult so that he/she can join with a foreign job, professional training such as computer technology course and also non-professional training. These types of institutions are increasing day by day in developed countries as well as in transitional countries with dynamic adult education programs.

Conclusion

Continuous change is a common thing in every sector of the world due to globalization and modernization. One product of today will be more developed tomorrow and much more developed the day after tomorrow. So, it is developing gradually and after one time the original product will be obsolete when nobody will demand that product. This type of change is occurring in every sector of the world, where every human being of the world have to be coped with this change if he/she wants to lead his/her life successfully, otherwise, he/she will be frustrated in every sector of his/her life. As a result, it will be the only cause for behavioral discrimination, economic backwardness, damage to the socio-cultural structure. It is possible for any country to remove this frustration from the mind of its citizen through a continuous adult education process, not as a one-time process, which must be well planned and well organized. So the study emphasizes that no nation can ignore the significance of adult education if it wants to accommodate the continuous global changes if it wants to compete with the competitive world if it wants to be or remains as a developed nation.

References

ADULT EDUCATION (n.d.). The Concept of Adult education. Web.

Allen, Charles. and Bass, M. R. (1930). Adult Education: The Evening Industrial School. The Century co, 1930.

Bhola, H.S. (1988). World Trends and Issues in Adult Education, UNESCO, 1988.

Coles, E. Townsend (1969). Adult Education in Developing Countries. Pergamon Press: University of Michigan. 1969.

Davis, L. Nolan. and McCallon, Earl (1974). Evaluating Workshops: A Practitioner’s Guide to Adult Education. Learning Concepts: the University of Michigan, 1974.

Grattan, Clinton Hartley. (1955). In Quest of Knowledge: A Historical Perspective on Adult Education. Association Press: University of California, (1955).

Lovett, Tom. Clarke, Chris., and Kilmurray, Avila. (1983). Adult Education and Community Action: Adult Education and Popular Social Movements. Avila Kilmurray, Croom Helm: University of Michigan, 1983.

Matheson, David J. (1991). Non-Vocational, Non-Formal Further Education in Highland Region in Scotland and the Canton of Valais in Switzerland. Journal of Comparative Education, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1991), pp. 153-164.

Merriam, Sharan B. and Brockett, Ralph G. (1996). The Profession and Practice of Adult Education: An Introduction (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series). Jossey-Bass. 1996.

Miller, Harry L. (1964). Teaching and Learning in Adult Education. Macmillan. 1964.

Miller, Mev (2006). Field Guide to ABE Educational Research. 2^nd Edition SABES. 2006. Web.

Thomas, Jean (1975). World problems in education; a brief analytical survey, UNESCO, 1975. Quoted in Campaigning for literacy, UNESCO, 1984 by reciting Julius K. Nyerere in Adult Education: A limitless field. Web.

UNESCO, (1949). Adult education: current trends and practices. UNESCO: University of Michigan. 1949.

Bibliography

ADULT EDUCATION (n.d.). The Concept of Adult education. Web.

Allen, Charles. and Bass, M. R. (1930). Adult Education: The Evening Industrial School. The Century co, 1930.

Bhola, H.S. (1988). World Trends and Issues in Adult Education, UNESCO, 1988.

Coles, E. Townsend (1969). Adult Education in Developing Countries. Pergamon Press: University of Michigan. 1969.

Davis, L. Nolan. and McCallon, Earl (1974). Evaluating Workshops: A Practitioner’s Guide to Adult Education. Learning Concepts: the University of Michigan, 1974.

Grattan, Clinton Hartley. (1955). In Quest of Knowledge: A Historical Perspective on Adult Education. Association Press: University of California, (1955).

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Matheson, David J. (1991). Non-Vocational, Non-Formal Further Education in Highland Region in Scotland and the Canton of Valais in Switzerland. Journal of Comparative Education, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1991), pp. 153-164.

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UNESCO, (1949). Adult education: current trends and practices. UNESCO: University of Michigan. 1949.