Adult civic education assists adults to acquire the competencies necessary for participation in civic life. After World War II, adult civic education sought to promote citizen participation, individual development, and the creation of an aware and informed citizenry. These efforts were accomplished through liberal education, public affairs education, political education, human relations, leadership, and participation training, and community development. Both the community development study and action approach and forms of group learning were used extensively in developing adult citizens. The ultimate purpose of adult civic education was to create a public opinion able to assess critically the accomplishment of government and citizens able to identify and solve common social problems.
Adult education literature in the 1920's, 1930's, and early 1940's was examined to identify conceptions of and approaches to adult civic education held by leaders of the American adult edu cation movement. Adult education advocates and theorists began in the mid 1920's to distinguish between "adult education" and other forms of "education for adults." In this conception, adult education was a "study" and "learn" approach to life. Adult edu cators gave mixed answers to the questions of whether adult edu cation should have a program proinoting specific kinds of social action and what should comprise the content to adult civic educa tion. Several experimental approaches to adult education for civic intelligence were undertaken. Discussion as a method for coopera tive learning emerged as the educational method most congruent with the purposes of adult civic education.
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