Annual of social work, Vol. 14 No. 2, 2007.
Review article
MODELS OF ADULT LEARNING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Vlasta Vizek-Vidović
Vesna Vlahović Štetić
Abstract
The paper presents in detail some models of the adult learning relevant for the professional development. It discusses developmental perspectives in the adult age starting from the theory of life span. Within that approach, it is considered that the development determined by biological, psychological and socio-cultural factors in the lifelong perspective includes both the increase and decrease.
Some features of cognitive functioning in the adult age are described – intellectual functioning according to the Catell model of fluid and crystallised intelligence, and the qualitative differences in the cognitive functioning in the formal and post-formal period. It also describes the changes in the expertise and wisdom, as well as the changes in memory related to the adult age. The aforementioned features of the cognitive functioning are connected with the characteristics of the adult learning i.e. the changes in the cognitive functioning in the adult age are a result of continuous learning. In continuation, the cognitive models of the adult learning are described: the model of information processing by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1986), the depth of processing approach by Craik and Lockhart (1972) and the model of social learning by Albert Bandura (1978). Their application in the adult learning is discussed. Apart from the models mentioned above, the models of experiential learning are presented: the Kolb model of experiential learning (1984), the double-loop learning model by Schön and Argyris (1996), and the model of reflective learning with multiple loops (Cowan, 1993). The application of these models in the teaching of adults is described. The final part of the paper provides remarks on the adult learning through the process of supervision.
Keywords
development and learning in the adult age; theory of life span; model of data processing; model of experiential learning
Hrčak ID:
14421
URI
Publication date:
17.7.2007.
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