The most popular and well-known adult learning theory is Malcolm Knowles' andragogy. Andragogy is the art and science of teaching adult learners. This is in contrast to pedagogy which is the practice of teaching children. There are six principles of andragogy. These principles are assumptions that can be applied to a group of learners and do not necessarily apply to individual learners.

Action mapping is a faster way to design business training, and it focuses on what employees are actively doing on the job rather than trying to teach them a lot of information. Naturally, this makes it far easier to measure improvements in employee performance, because the process clarifies exactly what employees should be doing to perform their jobs correctly.