成人發展的理論及其在教育上的意義

Theories of Adult Development and Its Implication in Education

發展不僅是兒童和青少年的事，而是個人終生的歷程，這種新的發展觀念，促使學術界在最近十五年來對成人發展的重視和熱烈地探討，並提出各種成人發展的理論以解釋發展的現象，研究成人發展的途徑，可綜合歸納為二種：即週期論和現象論。週期論著重生命現象的描述和分類，認為個體在一生中的某些時期，均有特別現象存在，而為某一年齡群體的人所同具。本文介紹Le- vinson及Havighuist的理論為代表。階段論則認為發展的過程具有階段性，每人達到的發展階段不同。本文介紹Loevinger的自我發展理論和Perry 的認知和道德的發展理論為代表。週期論在教育上的意義有四：（1）導正成人研究的正確觀念，（2）指出教育的目的在於解決發展任務上的問題；（3）設計教育課 程應依據學習者的發展任務；（4）發展任務的觀點提供輔導成人學習者的基礎；（5）建立教育與發展有意義的聯結。階段論在教育上的意義為（1）教學應配合學習者的發展任務；（2）教育可以促進階段的發展。成人發展理論與成人教育目標的策定，課程內容的設計有關。成入發展理論的研究，在成人教育上具有多重的意義。

Development happens not only on children and adolescences, but also a life-long process. This new idea of development has stimulated many people to study adult development. They suggested various models of adult development to explain the change of a man’s life. In surveying currents rearches on adult development, we can distinguish between two general approaches:“life cycle” or“phases”of life and “stage”approaches. The phasis theory emphasizes the illuminating of life phases or the classification of life cycles. It recognizes that there are phases in our lives and these phases can be identified as common to a given age group. In this article, we introduce Levinson and Havighurst’s theories which have important implications in adult education. Stage theory recognizes the stages of human development. We introduce Loevinger’s ego development theory and Perry’s cognitive and ethical development theory. The implications of the phasic theory in education are: (1) It gives the correct concept in studying the adult development; (2) It indicates that the aim of education is to resolve the problems of developmental tasks; (3) the design of programs of adult education should be based on developmental tasks; (4) the idea of developmental tasks should be the foundation of counsellng adult learners; (5) It establishes a significant link between development and education. The implications of the stage theory in education are: (1) Instruction should match to learners stage; (2) Education can push development. To sum up, theories of adult development can be used to help us setting up the aim of adult education and the content of its curriculum. The study of theories of adult development have multi implications in education.