Who are adults?
It was agreed that ‘Adult Education’ (AE) for the purpose of the project encompasses the following:

• Age definition: 18 + would be the minimum starting age of an adult learner;
• Socio-economic/cultural factors: groups which have traditionally suffered disadvantage, and for whom AE may represent personal and perhaps vocational empowerment; people with disabilities, ex-offenders/prisoners, women/men, rural/isolated communities, immigrants, asylum seekers, minority ethnic groups etc;
• Interruption between initial and post-initial education. Therefore the AE public may be seen or defined by institutions and authorities as “non-traditional”;
• Vocational and non-vocational: as in the broad definition of “Continuing Education” (CE), this may include continuing professional development (CPD) and work-based learning (WBL);

The differences between methods of teaching adults and younger students
An examination of the methodologies of adult education makes clear the differences between teaching adults and teaching younger students. According to Knowles (1978), there are four main differences. The first field is the self-image: adults want to be self-directed, while children depend on others. Secondly, adults have many more practical experiences than children do and generally speaking they give more weight to these experiences than they do to other sources. The third main field consists of learning skills, willingness, and readiness. Knowles points out that children have to learn, while for adults it is function of current planned needs. Finally, the learning of children is subject-centred and it becomes relevant in longer term: the learning of adults is problem-, or plan-centred, and it is directly applicable. Of course, these clear-cut differences include all the problems of the generalisation. Are most really children subject-centred when learning? At what point will a child become an adult? After reaching the age of 18 or after obtaining a certain number of life experiences? (Stephens, 1989)

Teaching adults
Despite the fact that adults often have many formal and informal learning experiences, just as often many of them dislike learning, because they fear failure or have unhappy memories of earlier learning experiences. This is why the choice of appropriate teaching methodologies can play a highly significant role. In any given learning situation, the previous experiences of adults can vary considerably and individuals often wish to determine the pace of their own learning activity. It also needs to be remembered that adult learners often insist on learning styles and techniques which have worked for them in the past and the successful teacher will always link new skills to former ones (Stephens, 1989). The knowledge and skills, which a group of adults have acquired will naturally vary, and they need time and space to acquire new knowledge and new skills. The role of the teacher is not negligible because most learners require a flow of knowledge and support from teachers. However, when seeking to create a successful learning environment for adults, thoroughly familiar as they should be with the methodologies and techniques of adult education, teachers need always to remember that adults are much more than simply grown-up children.

Aims of methods of the studies
ALPINE Work Group ’Teaching, Learning and Adults’ has been examining methods of teaching and learning appropriate for adult learners. With the implementation of an international comparative analysis of different selected educational programmes for adults, we have aimed to focus on the most successful methods and methodologies for teaching adults. A further objective is to better understand the influence of the social environment on different methods of teaching adults.

First, the examination is based on the Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory. This method aims to analyse the different learning styles in different study fields. Secondly, based on adult education programme descriptions, we present a comparative analysis. The adult education programme descriptions were prepared according to Knox’s classical comparative analysis. These case studies allow us to provide a picture of adult educational methods in various countries in Europe, including EU member states as well as candidate countries.

Conclusion
The aims never determine only one method, they determine a set of alternative methods. The strategy helps in choosing the most convenient method in the given case. Strategies tell us what to do under given circumstances to achieve our aims, while methods tell us how we have to do it, including the means, procedures, and activities. The styles are connected with the methodologies of the activities but they only refer to the learning style, they indicate the best choices within the different learning methods. A well-chosen strategy has to reconcile the general ‘aim-method’ relation and the individual ‘personality-style’ relation and other specific circumstances.