ABSTRACT
Much more is understood now than twenty-five years ago about what adults are interested in learning, how and where they choose to learn and for what reasons. We are indebted to the work of a number of key researchers for these understandings, which make it clear that adult learning is not confined within conventional institutions or conveyed only by qualified teachers. Much adult learning is self-planned and quite deliberate. It may be, as Tough noted in 1971 ‘initiated for highly practical reasons’ and be motivated by ‘curiousity, interest and enjoyment’. The learning that goes on in public places, whether it is described as education, training or community development, is only the tip of the iceberg.
