Knowledge sharing and learning processes: case study of portuguese technological schools and higher education institutions

Paper to be presented at the ESREA Conference Learning to Change? The Role of Identity and Learning Careers in Adult Education, 7-8 December, 2006, Université Catholique Louvain, Louvain–la-Neuve, Belgium

The interest in adult learners has increased over the last few years. When we study their biographies, we realize that they reveal uncertainty and sometimes a lack of confidence concerning their potential. However, we also realize that some of them have developed approaches to deal with these difficulties and have become autonomous and independent learners. This situation may be related to the pathways chosen during their lifetime. As a consequence, we may have different identities emerging from different institutions. In Portugal, adults may choose Universities or Technological Schools to pursue their education. Is this choice dependent on how they lived before? And has this choice affected the way they learn and develop their autonomy and independence? The Portuguese case shows that there are similarities between students from Technological Schools and Universities but also differences, mostly related with the approach used to learn and the way teachers take into consideration the way students learn. It seems that Technological Schools have “best practices” that should be shared with the other institutions.