Adult education occurs whenever individuals engage in sustained, systematic learning in order to affect changes in their attitudes, knowledge, skills or belief systems. Learning, instruction and developmental processes are the primary foci of educational psychology research and theorizing, but educational psychologists' work in these domains has centred primarily on the childhood and adolescent school years. More recently, a number of educational psychologists have studied learning and development in adulthood. These efforts have resulted in what is termed adult educational psychology.

Adult education occurs whenever individuals engage in sustained, systematic learning in order to affect changes in their attitudes, knowledge, skills, or belief systems. Learning, instruction, and developmental processes are the primary foci of educational psychology research and theorizing, but educational psychologists' work in these domains has centered primarily on the childhood and adolescent school years. More recently, however, a number of educational psychologists have studied learning and development in adulthood. The results of these efforts have resulted in what is now called adult...