ABSTRACT
This study is an empirical investigation of teacher students’ social representations of learning among adults. The study stems from two essential considerations, one theoretical and one more prosaic. The theoretical assumption behind this project is related to the somewhat rhetorical question, often asked, on whether learning among adults differs, in its form and content, from learning among children and adolescents. This question, in turn, is related to the considerable emphasis put on adult education, lifelong learning, and professional development in society today. Lifelong learning, despite being a very old concept or phenomenon, has under the last decades become a panacea in the public discourse on education, professional development, and economic welfare (see e.g., Jarvis, 2007). Students enrolled in teacher education are devoted to the education and fostering of pre-school children, school children or secondary school students. They have given matters related to teaching adults very little mental focus. This position is further reinforced by the content of the teacher education. The major part of the courses and literature in teacher education are theoretically and practically restricted to provide knowledge on children’s way of learning.
