Adult education occurs whenever individuals engage in sustained, systematic learning in order to affect changes in their attitudes, knowledge, skills, or belief systems. Learning, instruction, and developmental processes are the primary foci of educational psychology research and theorizing, but educational psychologists' work in these domains has centered primarily on the childhood and adolescent school years. More recently, however, a number of educational psychologists have studied learning and development in adulthood. The results of these efforts have resulted in what is now called adult educational psychology.

The purpose of this volume is to introduce this new subfield within educational psychology. Section 1 focuses on the interplay between learning and development in adulthood, how various forms of instruction lead to different learning outcomes for adults, description of the diverse social contexts in which adult learning takes place, and the development of metacognitive knowledge across the life span. Section 2 describes both research and theory pertaining to adult intellectual functioning, thinking, and problem-solving skills within various contexts. Section 3 describes research in a variety of adult learning domains; discusses the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of reading in adulthood and the applications of reading in real-life circumstances; examines an educational intervention developed to promote forgiveness; and relates the outcomes of an intervention designed to educate parents about their children's mathematics learning. Section 4 summarizes the themes and issues running throughout this, the first book that has sought to span the gulf between adult education, adult development, and educational psychology.

About the Author
Thomas Pourchot, M. Cecil Smith

Reviews

"A 'must read' for researchers, teachers, and graduate students in the fields of educational psychology, adult development, and adult education, this collection will also interest adults seeking insights into their own life-span learning and development."
-CHOICE

"This book should be of interest to many readers. Educational psychologists will discover that learning is not restricted to children, and cognitive aging researchers will discover adult learning may be investigated outside of the laboratory. General readers will learn much about themselves as learners from chapters that are well-written and easy to comprehend."
-Contemporary Psychology

Book Information
ISBN 9780805825244
Author M. Cecil Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 294
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 540g