EDD8500 provides the theoretical foundation for the Adult Education specialization in the EdD program, examining the major theories, models, and principles that explain how adults learn and develop — and how those theories inform instructional practice across the diverse settings where adult education occurs.
Major adult learning theories
The theoretical foundations of the field
- Andragogy: EDD8500 covers Malcolm Knowles's andragogical model — his influential framework arguing that adult learners differ from children in predictable ways: they are increasingly self-directing, bring substantial prior experience that serves as a resource for learning, are oriented toward learning that solves immediate problems or applies to current life situations, and need to understand why they are learning something before undertaking it. The course also examines significant critiques of andragogy, including challenges to its claims of universality across cultural contexts and its sometimes oversimplified contrast with pedagogy
- Transformative learning: The course covers Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory — the process by which adults critically examine and revise their meaning perspectives (the deeply held frames of reference through which they interpret experience), typically triggered by a "disorienting dilemma" that the learner's existing perspectives cannot adequately accommodate
- Self-directed learning: EDD8500 examines self-directed learning theory, building on Allen Tough's foundational research on adult learning projects and subsequently developed by scholars including Ralph Brockett and Roger Hiemstra, examining both the external characteristics of self-directed learning activities and the internal disposition (self-direction as a personal attribute) that enables them
Adult development across the lifespan
The course examines theories of adult growth and development across young, middle, and older adulthood stages, recognizing that adult learners are not a monolithic group but individuals at different developmental stages with different cognitive capacities, life responsibilities, motivational orientations, and learning needs. EDD8500 draws on developmental theorists including Daniel Levinson's seasons of adult life, Erik Erikson's psychosocial stages as they extend into adulthood (generativity vs. stagnation in middle adulthood, integrity vs. despair in later life), and more contemporary life-span development perspectives that emphasize the diversity of developmental trajectories rather than a single normative sequence.
Social contexts of adult learning
EDD8500 examines the social contexts in which adults learn and develop, recognizing that adult education occurs across extraordinarily diverse settings — formal higher education, workplace training and professional development, community-based education, literacy programs, correctional education, military education, faith-based learning communities, and informal learning contexts. The course examines how social, cultural, economic, and institutional factors shape both what adults need to learn and how they are able to access learning opportunities, drawing on sociocultural learning theory and situated cognition perspectives that understand learning as fundamentally embedded in social practice rather than an isolated cognitive act.
Historical and philosophical foundations
The course grounds contemporary adult education practice in its historical and philosophical foundations — from the Lyceum and Chautauqua movements of the 19th century through the progressive education movement (John Dewey's emphasis on experience-based, democratic education), the emergence of adult education as a recognized field in the early 20th century (Eduard Lindeman's The Meaning of Adult Education, 1926), and the subsequent development of the field's distinctive theories and professional organizations. EDD8500 examines the philosophical tensions that have shaped the field, including the ongoing debate between vocational/utilitarian purposes of adult education and its emancipatory/social justice purposes, as articulated by critical theorists and popular educators including Paulo Freire.
EDD8500 assignments include theory application papers, adult development case analyses, and historical foundation essays
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Theory application papers, adult development case analyses, historical foundation essays, andragogy critique papers.
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Frequently asked questions
Knowles's andragogical model has been enormously influential in adult education practice since its systematic presentation in The Modern Practice of Adult Education (1970, revised 1980) — and precisely because of its influence, its limitations have received sustained scholarly scrutiny that EDD8500 treats as essential for practitioners who want to apply adult learning theory thoughtfully rather than as a set of uncritical prescriptions. The most significant critiques the course examines fall into several categories. First, the claim that andragogy describes characteristics unique to adult learners, as opposed to characteristics that develop along a continuum throughout human development, has been challenged — Knowles himself eventually softened his position from presenting andragogy and pedagogy as categorically different models appropriate for adults and children respectively, to describing them as a continuum applicable to learners of any age depending on their developmental stage and context, which substantially weakens andragogy's claim to be a distinct theory of adult learning rather than a set of general instructional principles that apply more strongly as learners mature. Second, andragogy's assumptions about self-direction, experience as a resource, and problem-centered orientation have been criticized for reflecting particular Western, middle-class, and individualist cultural assumptions that may not apply universally across cultural contexts — learners from more collectivist cultural traditions, or from educational backgrounds where teacher authority and structured transmission are deeply valued, may not respond to andragogical approaches in the ways the model predicts, raising questions about whether andragogy describes how adults actually learn or how adults in certain cultural contexts prefer to learn. Third, the theoretical status of andragogy itself has been debated: critics have questioned whether it constitutes a genuine theory (with explanatory and predictive power) or is better characterized as a set of practical principles or assumptions that can guide instructional design but do not explain the underlying mechanisms of adult learning at a theoretical level. For practitioners, these critiques matter because they caution against treating andragogy as a universal formula — the assumption that all adult learners will automatically benefit from self-directed, experience-based, problem-centered instruction can lead to instructional designs that inadvertently disadvantage adult learners who need more structure, who come from educational traditions where self-direction is unfamiliar or uncomfortable, or whose prior experience in a topic area is limited or counterproductive (prior experience is only a resource when it is relevant and accurate — it can also be a barrier when learners must unlearn established but incorrect practices). EDD8500 positions the competent adult educator not as someone who applies andragogy as a recipe but as someone who understands the full range of adult learning theories — including their limitations — and can make informed decisions about which theoretical frameworks and instructional approaches best fit a specific learning context, population, and purpose.