1970年代國際間的成人教育研究開始蓬勃發展，而且以北美地區的產出最為可觀，此時成人教育的研究範圍才逐漸成形，但臺灣目前的研究現況如何？應是關心成人教育發展者的關注焦點。本研究分析二十年間1984年至2004年7月所通過之成人教育博碩士論文摘要，主要發現如下：（1）最近十年臺灣成人教育學位論文的數量大量成長，佔所有論文590篇的90％，最近五年的數量總和更達到380篇佔所有論文的64.4％；（2）成人參與成人教育的議題與機構提供成人教育的情形是臺灣成人教育研究者最感興趣的主題；（3）分析的學位論文以應用問卷調查方法佔多數並以現況描述與關係探討為研究目的；（4）以學校中的教師與教育行政人員為研究對象是臺灣成人教育學位論文研究取樣的特色，據上述結論本研究亦提出未來臺灣成人教育研究的建議。

Up until the 1970s, there began the rapid expansion of adult education research in all over the world, especially the overwhelming number of studies produced in North America, and it has come to set the boundaries of the field. What happens in Taiwan in terms of adult education research? The researcher conducted a meta-analysis to look at the research theses in adult education collected from the Dissertation and Thesis Abstract System in Taiwan from 1984 to 2004. The research found: during the last ten years the number of adult education dissertations and these had a considerable growth, that represents 90% of the total; the most favorable topics of the adult education researchers is adults' participation and institutional provisions; the majority of the methods employed is questionnaire survey to describe the current state and relationship of variables as research purpose; teachers and administration as the research target is a character of the theses. Based on the conclusions, recommendations are made for future research of adult education in Taiwan.