ldentification of Needs for Higher Education of Adults

Abstract

The paper, which is a summary of a longer study, presents the most important conceptual and methodological approaches to the identification of the needs for adult education. The conceptual approaches are related to the theoretical treatment of the needs, such as the behaviourist and development-humanist theory of the needs applied in psychology, the class-strata needs theory developed by sociologists, and an understanding of the needs characteristic of marketing. A special chapter considers the applicability of individual conceptual approaches to identification of the needs for adult education within higher education. A consequence of multiplicity of conceptual approaches to the identification of the needs is a methodological pluralism which becomes evident in empirical work. In the subsequent chapter the author outlines the already established methods for identification of the needs and "a case study" carried out by the researchers of the former Centre for the Development of the University. In the conclusion the author makes a few proposals for improvement of the identification of the needs for adult education in the sphere of Slovenian higher education.