Making Sense of Adult Learning. 2nd ed.

Lori A. Dunn is an ESL teacher and an event coordinator, with a
background in linguistics and education in Okanagan, B.C.

In 1979, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the
University of Toronto began a study that would culminate in a report
entitled Adult Learning Principles and Their Application to Program
Planning, which the Ontario Ministry of Education continued to publish
until 1993. Dorothy MacKeracher was then asked to revise and update the
ALP report, and the result is this comprehensive textbook.

Aimed at a post-secondary audience intending to teach adults, Making
Sense of Adult Learning grounds these students in the contexts and
settings unique to mature learners. MacKeracher’s style, while
necessarily academic, is clear and readable, and the text as a whole is
well organized. Her understanding of the field is based on a
learning-centred approach, meaning that the more “we know about the
basic processes of learning and the unique strategies used [by learners]
… the better able we are to design appropriate resources.”
Essentially, learning is something accomplished by the learner, not
imposed on the learner.

The detailed table of contents is in itself an introduction to the
studies and issues surrounding the adult learner. MacKeracher begins by
examining the assumptions in the field about the learning process and
adult learners. She continues with discussions of learning styles and
cycles, and then the learner’s own mental, emotional, and spiritual
responses to learning. The text also covers the external factors of
relationships, environment, and context in the learning process. The
final chapter looks at various strategies and styles available to
facilitators. I only wish Making Sense of Adult Learning had been on the
curriculum when I studied at university.