Comparative Study of Adult Education Practitioners and Professors on Future Knowledge and Skills Needed By Adult Educators

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare practitioners' opinions concerning knowledge and skills needed by future adult educators with those of professors. The sample population of practitioners was 78 NUCEA members who were deans or directors of continuing education.

Practitioners, through two rounds of questionnaires, priority ranked thirty knowledge and thirty seven skill statements identified and priority ranked by professors of adult education in an earlier Delphi Study. Kendall Tau Coefficients computed for both knowledge and skill statement rankings between the two samples indicated that professors and practitioners tended to agree more on skill statement relative ranking than on knowledge statement relative ranking. It was concluded, from examination of means and rank order, that differences, as well as convergence, of opinion exist between the two study populations regarding the sampled knowledge and skill areas needed by future adult educators.

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