A review of selected research related to the use of techniques of adult education

The purpose of this thesis was to review the existing research on techniques for adult education and to develop a scheme by which such techniques could be classified in a logical construct. The research reviewed was restricted to that literature pertaining only to educational programmes designed and conducted with adults. The findings of the selected studies on each technique were summarized and the technique was placed in the classification scheme. Many of the existing research studies are not comparable with each other, because of poor research designs and the affect that they were not conceived under the same theoretical framework so that similar variables were not controlled. Research studies dealing with certain techniques were particularly scarce such as those concerned with Information techniques like the lecture, form, panel, debate, symposium and dialogue. The bulk of the research tended to be concerned with techniques involving learner participation, such as group discussion and skill practice. In the case of certain techniques no valid research was found. In addition to research pertaining to techniques, the literature dealing with the classification of techniques for adult education was also examined and the Newberry system was adopted as the most valid for purposes of this study. This system of classification produces a two dimensional scale which placed a technique in terms of the degree of learner Involvement on the one hand, and ascending measures of concreteness of subject matter on the other. On the basis of the research reviewed, each technique considered has been placed in a cell on the Newberry Scale.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat