ABSTRACT
Organized adult education activities can be traced back to colonial experience in the United States and Canada, but the awareness of adult education as a field of professional practice usually is dated with the founding of the American Association for Adult Education in 1926. A trained cadre of adult educators would have a common identity, might well delineate appropriate career patterns, and could make a measurable difference in the practice of adult education. The training of adult educators in North America is based upon several assumptions. Assumptions that underlie the preparation of adult educators have stimulated efforts by several writers to delineate who should be trained and what competencies should be obtained through training. Most training of adult educators is unsystematic and episodic. Most observers of training in adult education would have to cite on-the-job experience as the major means through which practitioners become ‘competent’ or ‘proficient.’
