The use of systematic reviews of research in Adult Education: perspectives and trends

Abstract

The paper briefly describes the main phases to conduct a systematic review of research and discusses the use of this method in adult education and lifelong learning. Electronic educational databases and journals on adult education and research reviews with the highest impact factor were screened to determine which types of systematic reviews (qualitative reviews or mixed methods research synthesis vs. meta-analysis) are used and which topics (e.g. employment, lifelong learning) are investigated the most in the reviews. The objective is to obtain a portrayal of the systematic review literature in the field of adult education and lifelong learning of the last five years.