Abstract

Adults participate in many formal learning activities throughout their lives. The aim of this study is to determine the views of adult learners who participated the Certificate Program for Pedagogical Formation (CPPF), which is a formal adult education program. This study was conducted with the phenomenological design, a qualitative research design. The data required for the research were collected with a data collection tool developed by the researcher. In the study, the participants expressed the positive aspects of the program, in a decreasing order of frequency as, obtaining professional knowledge, faculty members, learning new things, the contribution of the program to personal life and gaining perspective. On the other hand, the participants negatively evaluated the intensive course and exam schedule, the duration of the program, the intensive and verbal content, and the length of the course hours. While the participants evaluated learning new things and gaining perspective as an achievement of the program, they expressed their dissatisfaction with the planning of the program and the learning environment related to it. In light of the findings of the study, it is recommended for policy makers to plan similar programs according to the learning characteristics of adults and make arrangements in this direction. It is also recommended for educators to consider andragogical principles in the learning environment in adult education programs such as certificate programs.

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