Talk:Continuing education

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I oppose a merger with adult education. Instead the high school/college distinction between the two should be drawn out. lots of issues | leave me a message 00:56, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

This article describes adult education, not continuing education. Continuing education is usually ongoing (sometimes mandatory) professional training for lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc. that takes place after leaving graduate school in order to keep professionals up to date. This is especially significant in law and medicine (continuing education has implications for the evolving standard of care). Neutrality^talk 15:57, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Continuing education can refer to both. I've tried to discuss the distinction a little more. --Michael Snow 00:51, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

As the director of lifelong learning programs at a major southwestern university for the past nine years I have found it common among professionals in the field to refer to Continuing Education as the all encompassing term for a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. Within the domain of Continuing Education, professional continuing education is but one specific learning activity generally characterized by the issuance of a certificate or some number of Continuing Education Units (CEU) for the purpose of documenting attendance at a designated seminar or course of instruction taken in order to maintain currency within the profession. Other recognized forms of post-secondary learning activities within the domain include; degree credit courses by non-traditional students, non-degree career training, workforce training, formal personal enrichment courses (both on-campus and online) self-directed learning (such as participation in Internet interest groups, clubs or personal research activities) and experiential learning as applied to problem solving.

Adult learning is not at all the same as Continuing Education; rather it is a description of the approaches and processes used by adults in learning and understanding new concepts as compared to those employed by youth, generally characterized as 24 years old and younger. Malcolm Knowles, most commonly recognized for his theory of Androgogy, in defining the adult learner profile draws a very definitive shift from pedagogical preference to androgogical preference in adulthood. Others, such as King and Kitchener, have theorized that adult learners will adjust their learning along a continuum, ebbing back and forth depending on the learning circumstances.

This article definitely needs work. I just started working for University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) <http://www.ucea.edu> in Washington, DC. Therefore, I don't feel like enough of an expert to edit the article quite yet, but for now will add that we use the term Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) to encompass both professional post-degree training for doctors, lawyers, etc. as well as courses offered for non-traditional students. My understanding is that non-traditional not only includes students who are 25 and older, but also younger students who might be working full-time and are probably attending school only part-time. Another point that needs to be clarified is that continuing education also encompasses degree completion programs through which non-traditional students can earn a degree. —Preceding comment added by Markricher (talk • contribs) 16:01, 27 September 2007 (UTC)