Adult Learning: Implications for Teaching in Social Work Education

The new Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) requires practice teachers and academic tutors to foster student empowerment while at the same time ensuring practice competence. A model for achieving these aims is that of adult learning. This paper traces the development of adult learning research and offers suggestions for effective teaching methods. It argues that the principles of adult learning could provide a unified framework for professional training and that, moreover, this educational approach could be used to benefit social work practice itself.