Funded Research

Adult Educator Program Outcomes: Guidelines for Practice

June 2009

By Kareen McCaughan and Sybil Wilson
Brock University

Description

Executive Summary (PDF 20 KB)

Full Report (PDF 353 KB)

There are no formal standards of practice or agreed-upon competencies to which adult educators are accountable. Yet adult educator development programs offer a similar mix of courses (McCaughan and Wilson, 2006) as those in professional teacher education programs. There are even parallels between some core courses, for example, teaching strategies.

In the field of adult education, (practicing adult educators, graduates, and instructors/facilitators of adult educator development programs) are there shared expectations of what competencies adult educators should have? How may these expectations impact the curriculum of adult educator-preparation programs?


Background

Programs that prepare adult educators (teachers of adults) are not classified as professional programs. However, graduates of these programs expect to gain the same range of competencies as those programs preparing elementary and secondary-school teachers, i.e. knowledge, skills and attitudes.

A significant difference between the two groups, however, is that the expectations of graduates of teacher education programs are usually established by a regulating body, which, in some educational jurisdictions, is a College of Teachers. The College develops “standards of practice” often based on expected competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that a certified teacher should have.

A similar regulating body does not exist for adult educators.

Given the general movement towards professionalizing disciplines like teaching, adult educators will continue to lose ground relative to elementary and secondary-school teachers until steps are taken to build a professional presence that is recognizable to educational institutions, community organizations and its own practitioners. In developing a set of expectations, this study contributes to the building of a foundation for the professionalization of adult educators (teachers of adults).

Goal

This research project aimed to investigate what stakeholders of adult educator development programs perceive to be the core competencies of adult educators. Specifically, the study aimed to answer four main questions:

  • What are important competencies of adult educators?
  • What is the difference between adult educator development program graduates’ and instructors’/facilitators’ perceptions of important competencies of adult educators?
  • What important competencies do graduates and instructors/facilitators perceive to be developed as outcomes during adult educator programs?
  • What is the relationship between important competencies (as expectations) and competencies developed as outcomes of adult educator development programs? 

 

There are no formal standards of practice or agreed-upon competencies to which adult educators are accountable. Yet adult educator development programs offer a similar mix of courses

Il n’y a pas de norme de pratique ou d’habiletés généralement acceptées envers lesquelles les andragogues seraient imputables. Toutefois, les programmes de formation des andragogues offrent un ensemble de cours semblables