Fostering adult learners’ competence to adapt appropriately to our ever-changing world is a primary concern of adult education. The purpose of the present article is novel and examines whether the consideration of modes of learning (instruction, performance, and inquiry) could assist in the design of adult education that facilitates self-directed learning and enables learners to think and perform adaptively. The concept of modes of learning originated from the typology of Houle. However, to date, no study has reached beyond this typology, especially concerning the potential of using modes of learning in the design of adult education. Specifically, an apparent oversight in adult learning theory is the foremost importance of the consideration of whether inquiry is included in the learning process: its inclusion potentially differentiates the purpose of instruction, the nature of learners’ performance, and the underlying epistemological positioning. To redress this concern, two models of modes of learning are proposed and contrasted. The reinforcing model of modes of learning (instruction, performance, without inquiry) promotes teacher-directed learning. A key consequence of employing this model in adult education is that learners may become accustomed to habitually reinforcing patterns of perceiving, thinking, judging, feeling, and acting—performance that may be rather inflexible and represented by a distinct lack of a perceived need to adapt to social contextual changes: a lack of motivation for self-directed learning. Rather, the adapting model of modes of learning (instruction, performance, with inquiry) may facilitate learners to be adaptive in their performance—by encouraging an enhanced learner sensitivity toward changing social contextual conditions: potentially enhancing learners’ motivation for self-directed learning.

中文翻译：

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通过自主学习来适应不断变化的世界的挑战

培养成人学习者适当地适应不断变化的世界的能力是成人教育的主要关注点。本文的目的是新颖的，并检验对学习模式（教学、表演和探究）的考虑是否有助于设计成人教育，促进自主学习并使学习者能够适应性地思考和执行。学习模式的概念起源于 Houle 的类型学。然而，迄今为止，还没有研究超越这种类型，特别是关于在成人教育设计中使用学习模式的潜力。具体而言，成人学习理论的明显疏忽是考虑学习过程中是否包含探究的最重要因素：它的包含可能会区分教学目的、学习者表现的性质以及潜在的认识论定位。为了解决这个问题，提出并对比了两种学习模式。学习模式（教学、表演、无探究）的强化模式促进了教师指导的学习。在成人教育中采用这种模式的一个关键后果是，学习者可能习惯于习惯性地强化感知、思考、判断、感觉和行动的模式——这种表现可能相当僵化，表现为明显缺乏适应的需要社会环境变化：缺乏自主学习的动力。相反，学习模式（教学、表现、