Adult Learning Theory

Application of Adult Learning Theory

1. Adults have a need to know why they should learn something.

Adults spend a considerable amount of time and energy exploring what the benefits are of them learning something and the costs of them not learning something before they are willing to invest time in learning it. It is seldom convincing for them to be told by someone (even the boss) that it would be good for them.
Training should be based on valid needs of the intended audience. All information provided about the training, including lesson plans, should include reasons for learning. The benefits of learning should be clearly shown. Activities should be based around real work experiences.

2. Adults have a deep need to be self-directing.
Present training with as many options for learning as possible.

3. Adults have a greater volume and different quality of experience than youth.

Adults bring into the learning situation a background of experience that is a rich resource. Adults have a broader base of experience on which to attach new ideas and skills and give them richer meaning. The more explicit these relationships (between the old and the new) are made - through discussion and reflection - the deeper and more permanent the learning will be. Experience is to adults, the chief source of self-identity. If adults' experience is not made use of in a training experience, adults may see it as a rejection of themselves.
Design training activities that reflect the actual work the learners perform. Provide activities that permit learners to compare the theoretical aspects of the training with their experiences.

4. Adults become ready to learn when they experience in their life situations a need to know or be able to do in order to perform more effectively and
Don't do an information dump on learners, calling it training, and tell learners they need to know the information for future use. See 5 below.

5. Adults enter into a learning experience with a task-centered (or problem-centered or life-centered) orientation to learning.

Youth (conditioned by schools) have a subject-centered orientation to learning where they focus on learning content to pass a test. Adults by virtue of life and work experiences develop a task-centered or problem-centered orientation to learning. If training is developed around problem solving, then adults will learn content with the intention of using it.
Design training so that learners are solving problems or are performing tasks as close to those encountered back on the job as possible. When large amounts of information support the problem solving activities, present this information as reference material. Teach learners how to use the information to successfully complete the problem solving activities. Again, don't do an information dump. Focus activities on "doing" something with information rather than simply "knowing" the information.

6. Adults are motivated to learn by both extrinsic and intrinsic