Principles of adult learning: the learning process.

Learning involves adding to the knowledge and skills of a student, and can be divided into a 'process' and an 'end product' or 'outcome'. In formal teaching, the focus is on pre-defined end products and it is hoped that the improvements in knowledge and skills are relatively permanent. However, this is not always the case, which is why it becomes important to examine the concept of 'transfer' more closely. 'Transfer' describes how well the knowledge and skills learned in one context can be applied by the student in another context. Several factors influence transfer. This paper describes the ways in which specific factors related to the student, the content of the course and the learning situation itself can influence the learning of new knowledge and skills. Furthermore, it examines how particular methods of learning can enable the knowledge and skills thus gained to be more easily applied in other circumstances.