The Adult Learner, Fifth Edition: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development

As leading authorities on adult education and training, Elwood Holton and Richard Swanson have revised Malcolm Knowles' exemplary work on adult learning. While retaining the best from the past editions, they incorporate the latest developments in adult learning theory and practice into this major revision.

This new book is divided into three parts. The first part contains the classic chapters that describe the roots and principles of andragogy. The second part contains four new chapters that examine:
*The latest perspectives on andragogy
*The application of andragogy in human resource
development
*New advancements in understanding adult learning
*Practical applications of adult learning theory

The new chapters incorporate developments from recent research in adult learning, human resource development, cognitive psychology, adult development, and educational psychology. The last part of the book contains an updated selection of topical readings that advance the theory and practice of adult learning.

This new edition is an ideal introductory book for adult learning practitioners and students.

The late Malcolm Knowles' cornerstone work on adult learning theory and practices is updated with the latest advances in the field. In this new edition, Elwood Holton and Richard Swanson build upon Knowles' foundation to give:
* The latest perspectives on adult learning and its application in adult education and human resource development.
* New developments in understanding adult learning (andragogy in practice)
* Methods for developing effective adult learning programs
* The basics of learning theories
* Why and how teaching adults is difference from teaching children
* A self-diagnostic tool (ready to photcopy) to determine your skill level as a trainer

The late Malcolm S. Knowles, Ph.D., was one of the leading authorities on adult education in the second half of the twentieth century. He wrote the first major accounts of informal adult education and the history of adult education in the United States, authoring more than 200 articles and 18 books. He is famous for his adaptation of the theory of Andragogy as a conceptual basis for adult education and learning, and was a significant force in reorienting adult educators from 'educating people' to 'helping them learn'.

Elwood F. "Ed" Holton holds an impressive record of accomplishments in adult and continuing education and human resource development. He is the founding editor of Human Resource Development Review, a past president of the Academy of Human Resource Development and author of over 200 publications, including academic and professional articles in HRD, performance improvement and psychology journals. In addition to his academic role as the Jones S. Davis Distinguished Professor of Human Resource, Leadership and Organization Development at Louisiana State University, he has more than twenty years' HRD and performance improvement consulting experience with a wide variety of private, public, and non-profit organizations.

Richard Swanson is a past president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), founding editor of Advances in Developing Human Resources, a scholarly journal sponsored by AHRD, and founding editor of the Human Resource Development Quarterly, the research journal of AHRD and American Society for Training and Development. The AHRD presented him with the Outstanding HRD Scholar Award in 2000 and in 2001 he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was inducted into AHRD's Human Resource Development Scholar Hall of Fame. He has performed consulting work for leading US corporations and is an internationally recognized authority on organizational change, performance improvement and financial analysis of human capital investments.