Learning with Adults: The Role of Practice in the Formation of Adults

Abstract

Practice  has for a long time been an important feature of adult learning and the debates centering around this field. It is  common to attach importance to this aspect of an adult’s learning and life trajectory in evaluations of university programmes focusing specifically on adults. The emphasis here is on engaging the adults’ life experiences. This is based on the belief, following Freire, that the starting points of effective learning are the learners’ concrete existential situations. With this view in mind, different sites of practice (family, work, communal etc.)  are regarded as important  sites of learning.