Adult learning is a vast area of educational research and probably one of the most complicated ones. Adults learn differently and have different strategies in learning. Adults Learning Theory and Principles explain in details these strategies and sheds more light on how adults cultivate knowledge.



Talking about adult learning brings us to the concept of Andragogy. According to the article Malcolm Knowles, an American practitioner and theorist of adult education, defined andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn”. Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning as:

Adults are internally motivated and self-directedAdults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiencesAdults are goal orientedAdults are relevancy orientedAdults are practicalAdult learners like to be respected


Tom Whitby wrote this great article ” Pedagogy Vs Andragogy ” in which he argued for using these same principles of adults learning in kids learning. I highly recommend this article to those of you interested in learning more about Andragogy. I am also sharing with you this interesting research paper written by Knowles entitled : The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Check it out to learn more.
This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).