ABSTRACT
The active concern predominates among those who identify themselves as adult educators. Scholarly papers often begin with remarks to the effect that as society becomes more complicated and the speed of change accelerates, adults are compelled to keep learning to keep up. According to the second meaning of the term ‘practice,’ Participation in adult education (PAE) research might be important to the principles according to which administrators, teachers and program planners are trained. The tendency to view PAE as a rational means-end relationship obscures the important point, rarely observed, that people may undertake formal programs of learning due to a lack of clear goals, and not because of them, or a desire to obtain goals within the new environment and not because they already have them. A comprehensive theory of PAE would have to do more than deal with reasons for learning as a function of position in the life cycle or motivational orientation.
