5th Edition

Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Theory and Practice

By Peter Jarvis Copyright 2025
    376 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    376 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Adult Education and Lifelong Learning is regarded as one of the most widely used textbooks about adult education.

    Now part of the Routledge Education Classic Edition series, this key title combines the practical and philosophical to cover all areas related to the topic, including how we understand people as learners, how to teach adults, curriculum planning, distance education and assessment. It doesn’t shy away from complexity and asks difficult questions to provoke the reader into thinking about what lifelong learning really means. Not your basic ‘how-to’ book, it combines practice with theory and points the way to further studies and engagement in the field.

    With a new introduction by Professor Sam Duncan to contextualise the work, this is a must-read text for all education students as well as practitioners and researchers in adult education and lifelong learning.

    1. The person as learner

    2. The learning society 

    3. Education and learning         

    4. Learning      

    5. Perspectives on learning theory         

    6. Developments in learning theory

    7. Teaching adults

    8. The processes of teaching     

    9. Theoretical perspectives on teaching  

    10. Distance education and open learning          

    11. Assessing and evaluating     

    12. Curriculum theory and programme planning 

    13. Practice, theory, research and policy

    14. The professional preparation of teachers of adults     

    Biography

    Peter Jarvis (1937-2018) was an internationally renowned expert in the fields of lifelong learning, adult and continuing education and was founding editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education (Taylor & Francis). He was Professor of Continuing Education at the University of Surrey, UK and was a former Adjunct Professor in the Department of Adult Education, University of Georgia, USA. Peter was a prolific author, whose publications include: The Routledge International Handbook of Lifelong Learning; Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society and Globalization, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society.