FEATURED ONLINE SESSION
“Adult Learning Theory”
with Sharan Merriam
Description: Learning is embedded in our everyday lives as we strive to understand what is happening around us, as we do our best to “keep up” with new changes at work and in our community, and as we make meaning of the events in our own personal lives. As educators, the better we understand how adults learn the more effective our practice. Reviewed in this presentation are the foundational theories of adult learning including andragogy, self-directed learning and transformational learning. The second half of the presentation will update participants on new thinking and research in adult learning theory including critical perspectives, embodied learning, spirituality and learning, and non-Western ideas about learning and knowing.
About the Speaker:
Sharan B. Merriam is Professor Emeritus of Adult Education at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA. Her doctorate is in adult education from Rutgers University. Before coming to Georgia, she served on the faculties of Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Institute of Social Science Studies, University Putra Malaysia.
Merriam’s research and writing activities have focused on the foundations of adult education, adult development, adult learning, and qualitative research methods. For five years she was coeditor of Adult Education Quarterly, the major research and theory journal in adult education. She is a four-time winner of the prestigious Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education for books published in 1982, 1997, 1999, and 2007. Her most recent books are Learning in Adulthood (2007), Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing (2007), The Third Update on Adult Learning Theory (2008), and Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (2009). She regularly presents seminars on adult learning and qualitative research throughout North America, southern Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. In 1998 she was a Fulbright Scholar to Malaysia, and in 2006 she was a Visiting Scholar at Soongsil University in South Korea.
