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Adult Education in China
Adult education means the educational form that is different from the form of common full-time education. Adult education is open to all ages and sexes. Through this educational process, the members of the society who are regarded as adults will be able to increase their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve their skills and professional qualifications to change the situation of the life.

The history of Adult Education
In 1949, the common program formulated by the first session of the Chinese people's political consultative conference (CPPCC), clearly confirmed that China needed to put emphasis on the education of the working class. It addressed the serious situation of illiteracy, which was then more than 80 percent of the population. From 1949 to 1966, it was the beginning and development period of adult education in new China. From 1966 to 1976, adult education could not be carried out normally due to the impact of the ten-year "cultural revolution". Since 1978, when China entered the new era of modernization, adult education has been rapidly restored and developed.

Four Types of Adult Education
With the development of the education system in China, the government gradually pay attention to adult education and have four types of adult education: Adult college entrance examination, higher education self-taught examination, open education and network education (distance education).

Adult College Entrance Examination
This is a regular form of adult education. There is only one exam every year, probably in the middle of October. Classes are usually held on weeknights or weekends.

Adult Self-taught Examination
Adult self-taught exam faces all adult and does not need to provide a certificate of formal schooling to be able to sign up. It only needs to have id card to register in an institute of examination of education of each province to register during the regulation period. Candidates take the exam by studying various subjects on their own.

Open Education
Compared with traditional academic education, it is a new teaching model that combines traditional face-to-face teaching, textbook autonomous learning, and online real-time courses and online classes.

Network Education
Network education is taught through network course, study style is convenient, suit the adults whose jobs are busy and do not have a fixed time to have a class. Enrollment time is relatively loose, divided into spring and autumn admission. The examination time is quite many, every month has the entrance examination.

The Aim of Adult Education
The fundamental purpose of adult education is to expand educational opportunities, improve national quality and “implement lifelong education”. The primary purpose of adult education is to provide a second chance for those who are poor in society or who have lost access to education for other reasons in order to achieve social justice and equal access to education. In the 1960s, the idea of "lifelong education" was raised, and began the transition of Chinese education. Adult education begins focusing on the cultivation of social responsibility to develop lifelong education theory.

Aims
The primary purpose of adult education is to provide a second chance for those who are poor in society or who have lost access to education for other reasons in order to achieve social justice and equal access to education. Therefore, adult education is often a social policy of the government. With the development of economy and the progress of society, the requirement of human quality has been raised. In the 1960s, the proposition of "lifelong education" was put forward, which led to the change of contemporary educational concepts.

Eduard C. Lindeman's theories
Eduard C. Lindeman was the first expert who gave a systematic account of adult education. In his theory of education, education is regarded as a lifelong process. He pointed out that due to the constant development and change of social life and the surrounding environment, knowledge, and information are in a cycle of constant transmission, supplement and update, which requires people to keep learning to adapt to the changes in the outside world. At the same time, he believes that adult learners should not only learn for the needs of work and survival but also give adults the opportunity to enrich themselves. He insists that adult education is an inspiring life-changing tool. Adult education should not only help people improve their skills and abilities in work, but also guide people to find happiness outside work.

Otherwise, Linderman also proposed that the most valuable resource for adult learners is the learner's experience. He believes that the purpose of adult education is to give meaning to all kinds of experience. Experience can enhance learners' autonomous learning and cognitive ability.

In addition, Linderman believes that adult education is an important means of improving society. The basic function of adult education is to promote the physical and mental development of adult learners. He argues that adult education is a powerful tool for social activists. Through adult education, the personal code of conduct and cultural knowledge of adult learners should be improved to gradually improve the social atmosphere and order.

Andragogy
The principles of Andragogy flow directly from an understanding of the characteristics of adults as learners and can be recognized when we understand the characteristics of adults, and see the way those characteristics influence how adults learn best.[18] Teachers who follow the principles of Andragogy when choosing materials for training and when designing program delivery, find that their learners progress more quickly, and are more successful in reaching their goals.[18]

Malcolm Knowles introduces Andragogy as the central theory of adult learning in the 1970s, defining Andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn. Knowles's Andragogy theory helps adults use their experiences to create new learning from previous understandings. Knowles believes that preparation for learning is related to the relevance of learning to adult life, and that they bring an ever-expanding experience that can serve as a learning resource.

Andragogy proposes the following six main assumptions about adults as learners:

1) As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being；

2) An adult has rich experiences that accumulated through family responsibilities, work-related activities, and prior education；

3) The readiness of an adult to learn is closely connected to the developmental tasks of his or her social role；

4) As a person matures, he or she refers to immediacy application of knowledge rather than the future application of knowledge which used to have occurred in his or her childhood；

5) An adult is motivated to involve in any form of learning based on his or her internal drives rather than external ones；

6) Adults need to know why they need to learn something.

Further, Knowles suggests that these characteristics should be taken into consideration when designing programmes for adults as well as facilitating their learning process.

Also,Knowles proposes a model of self-directed learning. In Knowles's view, self-directed learning is a process. Individuals will actively diagnose their learning needs, propose learning goals, select and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluate learning results. This learning model makes them think that they are the masters of learning, thus encouraging the confidence of adult learners to learn actively.