Discrepancies between Intentions and Practice : Re‐examining Some Basic Assumptions about Adult and Continuing Professional Education

s English There are two recurring notions in the literature of continuing professional education (CPE) which greatly influence how those responsible for the delivery of continuing education for professionals go about developing that education. These two notions are programme planning and andragogy. In this paper we propose that a reliance on these two notions as foundations upon which continuing professional educators provide education may be inappropriate. We contend that the current model of programme planning in adult education (and used in CPE) may not be congruent with the actual behaviour or needs of professionals in the field and that, contrary to claims of ‘programmers’, a power and authority and an epistemological gap remains between provider and client. We further contend that the notion that there is a theory of adult education (andragogy) which is distinct from a theory of child education (pedagogy) is false and diverts attention of educators from critically examining the central issues of how adults learn, why they change (or fail to change) and the role of the adult educator in this process. It is our hope that by examining what seem to us to be major inconsistencies within and between current theory and practice of adult education we will contribute to what we see as a growing debate about the purposes and practices of continuing professional education.