Innovative Forms and Metods in Adult Education: Foreigh Experience

Abstract

The article deals with the adult education that is seen as a concept of recurrent and lifelong learning. Adult learning is characterized by different ways and methods, different conditions, from those of children's education, and has its theoretical base in the principles of adult learning. As proved, the goals of adult education are to help adult learners satisfy their personal needs and achieve their professional goals, therefore, its ultimate goal might be to achieve human fulfillment. It is stressed that the adult education has an important role for the development of adult soft skills that can include social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, and leadership traits. The author focuses on adult learning in groups that is more student-centered and participatory in nature, and discribes three types of group learning, each affiliated with the different kinds of knowledge (instrumental, communicative, emancipatory). It is stated, when structuring adult learning groups and implementing group learning, the nature of group learning, the facilitator's role, forming groups according to a group size and membership all must be considered. Special attention is focused on using a participatory approach in adult education that is experience-centered, related to learners' real needs, directed by learners themselves, and is seen as a process of growth and discovery so the most effective. Futher, it discusses the selection of appropriate learningtraining methods in adult education.