Teach Grown Ups Well: The Essentials
Community
Capacity Building
Academic Rigour
Teaching grown-ups well means recognising that adult learning is human, collective, and complex. Adults do not learn in isolation, and neither do educators. Learning unfolds through relationship, shared meaning, challenge, and reflection — within real-world conditions that are rarely simple or controlled.
Academic Rigour
Capacity Building
Academic Rigour
Teach Grown-Ups Well is a philosophy and practice of adult education grounded in academic rigour, evidence-informed practice, and a deep respect for the realities in which people live and work.
Capacity Building
Capacity Building
At the heart of this work is the AoLA belief that capacity-building is a collective process. Professional growth for educators develops over time, in community, through cycles of practice, feedback, reflection, and refinement.
Outcome for Participants and Organisations
By the end of the program, participants demonstrate strengthened professional judgement, confidence in complexity, and the ability to design and facilitate learning that holds in real-world conditions. Organisations benefit from educators who are adaptive, ethical, and sustainable in their practice.
Work
Work
Teaching grown-ups well is not about simplifying complexity. It is about learning to work within it — together.
Teach Grown Ups Well: The Program
Program Core Philosophy
Program Core Philosophy
Teaching Grown-Ups Well is grounded in Critical Realism, recognising that adult learning occurs within complex, open systems shaped by structures, relationships, and realities beyond individual control. Learning is both personal and collective, academically rigorous and deeply human.
Program Purpose
Program Core Philosophy
The Teach Grown-Ups Well 12-month program is the practical expression of the Teaching Grown-Ups Well philosophy. It translates academic rigour, collective capacity-building, and WellNHappy principles into a sustained professional learning journey for teachers of adults.
The Program
Program Design Principles
Program Design Principles
- Learning unfolds in complex, open systems and must be designed accordingly.
- Educators are learners and develop best in community.
- Research informs practice, but professional judgement guides action.
- Personal sustainability is integral to professional capability.
- Growth is often uncomfortable and supported through reflection and relationship.
The First 6 months
Program Design Principles
The First 6 months
Quarter 1 – Reality, Self, and Adult Learning
- · Understanding adult learning in real-world contexts
- · Teaching identity, presence, and credibility
- · Evidence-informed foundations of adult learning
- · WellNHappy practices for awareness and grounding
Quarter 2 – Design, Language, and Meaning
- · Learning design for complexity
- · Assessment beyond compliance
- · Questioning, dialogue, and meaning-making
- · WellNHappy practices for reflection and regulation
The next 6 months
Program Design Principles
The First 6 months
Quarter 3 – Relational Practice and Ethical Judgement
- · Teaching as relational and ethical practice
- · Power, responsibility, and trust in adult learning
- · Decision-making under pressure
- · WellNHappy practices for resilience and self-regulation
Quarter 4 – Adaptation, Evaluation, and Sustainability
- · Evaluating learning in open systems
- · Leading learning within organisations
- · Reflective practice as ongoing capability-building
- · WellNHappy practices for sustainability and purpose
Program Principles: Teaching Grown-Ups Well
Meta-Theory of Adult Learning
These program principles translate the AoLA Meta-Theory of Adult Learning into practical, academically aligned guidance for designing, facilitating, and assessing adult learning across formal and informal contexts.
Core Design Principles
1: Learning through Change
Learning is both a response to change and a mechanism through which adults make sense of change. Programs must acknowledge learners’ life transitions and support reflection, adaptation, and transformation.
2. Learning as Identity Work
Adult learning engages the whole person. Programs must create psychologically safe environments that is trauma informed, acknowledge imposter feelings, prior experiences, and the emotional risks of learning.
3: Learning in Community
Community is not an optional extra but a core learning condition. Programs must intentionally cultivate peer learning, dialogue, and collaborative meaning-making.
4: Learning with Joy
Joy supports cognitive engagement, belonging, and persistence. Programs should legitimise curiosity, fascination, and informal conversation as valid learning processes.
5: Learning as Practice
Adult learning is most powerful when it is embedded in authentic practice. Assessment and learning activities should mirror real-world contexts and professional decision-making.
Assessment Design Commitments
AoLA assessment moves beyond the traditional academic essay to evaluate applied understanding, professional judgement, and reflective capacity. Assessment is designed to build capability, not merely measure compliance.
- Practice-based portfolios aligned to professional standards
- Reflective narratives demonstrating learning through change
- Community-based inquiry and peer collaboration artefacts
- Applied projects responding to authentic workplace or community challenges
- Professional conversations and oral defence of practice
Educator Capability Building
AoLA recognises that many adult educators enter teaching through professional expertise rather than formal education degrees. AoLA programs are designed to build educator capability through academically aligned, practice-based learning that honours prior experience while developing theoretical confidence.
Educators are positioned as learners within a professional community, modelling reflective practice, collaboration, and lifelong learning.
AoLA Commitment
AoLA is committed to teaching grown-ups well by designing learning that is human, rigorous, joyful, and grounded in real life.based learning that honours prior experience while developing theoretical confidence.
Educators are positioned as learners within a professional community, modelling reflective practice, collaboration, and lifelong learning.