Five Principles Of Adult Learning

[Michelle Benitone]

When we step into adulthood, many of us choose to take classes to meet personal and/or career goals. Adult students are special because they step foot into a classroom with the desire to learn. They are there to learn something new or become certified in a particular field.

The type of learner that makes up your classroom can easily be identified by conducting a short learning style assessment at the beginning of class. This assessment will benefit you and the students and will allow you and your students to be successful. This information will be as valuable to the adult student as it is to you.

As an instructor, listen carefully for teaching moments and take advantage of them. When an adult learner says or does something that triggers a topic on your agenda, be flexible and teach it right then.

Similar to readiness to learn, Malcolm Knowles spoke of adult learner orientation, noting that adults move away from subject-based learning, which centers around simply knowing about a concept, towards problem-based learning, which focuses on knowledge that tangibly contributes to problem solving.

Scenario-based learning can be incredible for teaching your adult learners problem-solving skills while avoiding costly mistakes on the job. See how this style of learning can engage learners and help them perform better in their roles.

Have you held a professional development course at your organization and found your audience to seem disengaged and disinterested? Have you put hours into developing a curriculum, working on your presentation style, and collecting relevant materials, only to have a sneaking suspicion that your audience members were checking emails or nodding off on the other side of the Zoom screen?

2. Adults pull from their own experiences. Unlike children, adults have years of real-life experience to draw on when learning something new. Include real-world examples and realistic scenarios in your training to connect with the past experiences of the learners. Do a skills assessment prior to your program, and strategically leverage the skills of your audience in the course design.

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Providing training and planned learning experiences to practitioners and community partners is fundamental to effective public health. The extent to which principles of adult learning currently guide such training is unknown and likely varies widely. The purpose of this article is to introduce five principles of adult learning and discuss how each can be applied in assessing trainee needs, planning and delivering training, and evaluating training processes and outcomes. Training guided by these principles should facilitate adult learning, collaborative efforts, and mutual respect between agencies, practitioners, and community partners.

The term andragogy can be supposedly equivalent to the term pedagogy. Andragogy in Greek means man-leading in comparison to pedagogy, which in Greek means child-leading. However, it should be noted that the term pedagogy has been used since the Ancient Greek times, while Alexander Kapp, a German educator, first used the term andragogy in 1833.

I highly encourage you to read the 9 Tips To Apply Adult Learning Theory to eLearning. In this article I discuss how Knowles' 5 adult learning theory assumptions can be translated to modern day eLearning experiences, so that you can integrate the 4 principles of Andragogy into your eLearning course for maximum learner engagement and motivation.

For centuries, education has provided a foundation for societal growth and prosperity. Up until the mid-20th century, however, our understanding of learning theory was informed mostly through observation and research dedicated to the education of children (i.e., pedagogy).

As society advanced, the need for more highly qualified workers steadily grew, necessitating a need for more formal education opportunities for adults. While efforts were made to support these needs, adult education at the time was viewed as an uncoordinated enterprise that failed to advance any specific kind of knowledge.

Knowles theorized that adult learning and childhood learning are entirely different and that adults do not process or retain information in the same manner as children. As such, he proposed an alternative set of assumptions about adult learners that serve as the basic adult learning principles:

As Knowles noted, adult learners use their accumulated life experiences in their learning and place a significant emphasis on achieving long-term goals. This focus sets adult education apart from traditional teaching methods, offering a distinctive and effective framework for the educational development of adult learners.

Adults might face a variety of challenges when trying to learn, whether in school or at work. This means that learning as an adult requires different strategies and support compared to when we were younger. Some common challenges include:

The same applies, she says, to UOPX classrooms, where information, collaborative opportunities and deadlines are presented to students, who can then leverage everything according to their experiences and schedules.

"All of this mimics what they might experience in a work environment while teaching them techniques and giving them tools to further their knowledge and skills applicable to the career path they chose," Savron says.

Michael Feder is a Content Marketing Specialist at University of Phoenix, where he researches and writes on a variety of topics, ranging from healthcare to IT and everything in between. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars program, and a New Jersey native!

Dr. Marc Booker, University of Phoenix Vice Provost for Strategy, has more than two decades of experience working with online and distance education students at the post-secondary level. He currently oversees critical path academic initiatives to improve the student experience. Dr. Booker is a regular speaker, author and contributor to national higher education associations.

Developed by Malcolm Knowles in 1968, Adult Learning Theory or andragogy is the concept or study of how adults learn and how it differs from children. It aims to show how adult learning is distinct and identify the learning styles which suit them best.

As adults, we want what we are learning to be actually applicable to our everyday lives, instead of being general learning about a subject. We want to learn practical skills that help us solve problems and work better.

Many instructional design methodologies, like ADDIE, have an analysis phase. Within this, you analyze everything from who, what, when, and where to how. This is also a perfect time to consider how andragogy applies.

At this stage, you should assess how previous training performed and whether it may or may not have fitted into the framework. Also ask how you can plan out the practical applications of training so your employees, customers, etc. see the real value of training for them.

As mentioned above, adults like to be involved in every stage of their learning, so involve them as much as possible. For example, with employee training, before you develop courses ask what they actually want to learn and how they would like to learn.

During learning, encourage collaboration, opinions, and discussions with other learners and instructors. Then, once training is completed, ask for feedback on everything from exams to content to software used to train. It will give the learners a sense of participation throughout the process.

In the past, corporate learning has often been a mandatory activity done at a certain time. Now with technologies like an LMS, you can create a much more self-directed, independent learning environment for your adult learners.

As the theory states, adults like to know how the training will have an immediate application and benefit for them. So, when creating your course content, inject it with as many real-world examples as possible.

You can do this in a few simple ways, including adding assessments and simulations that outline specific problems a learner might actually encounter, and then getting your learners to use their skills to overcome it.

Everyone has goals. You want to learn a new language. You want to learn to bake. You want to read more books. But, how we move from those goals or intentions to action and results can be a difficult proposition.

This challenge is especially true when people are trying to set financial goals. Our research has identified that financial educators and other practitioners need to take into account the person, their environment, their goals, and their situation in order to help people improve their money management habits.

To get to these five principles we leveraged our financial well-being research on how people make financial decisions assembled from many fields of study, and gathered input from experts and practitioners in this field.

Our report, Effective financial education: Five principles and how to use them, discusses each principle and gives examples of tested strategies and tips for ways to put them into practice. Check out our summary for a quick reference to the principles and how they can foster financial well-being .

Learning programs should clearly demonstrate what the learner gains from their interaction, or learners will be quick to disengage. Show the value of the content, and learners will be much more likely to engage with it.

You can follow the principles of Self-directed Learning theory, and allow your employees to drive their own learning journey. Employees can be encouraged to identify their own learning needs, plot how to achieve their goals, find resources, then assess their own progress.

Although using existing experience can help adults more quickly understand new information, there is a downside. The experience that learners draw from might be outdated, incorrect, biased, or incomplete.

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