Created by Ivy Brown

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Research on Adult Learners

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Adult learners make up almost 40 percent of U.S. college students.

These students are a small segment (6.5 million) of the more than 90 million adults 25 and older that participate in formal and informal education beyond high school.

According to Wlodkowski, Knowles identified adults by two criteria: an individual who performs roles associated by our culture with adults (worker, spouse, parent, soldier, responsible citizen) and an individual who perceives himself or herself to be responsible for his/her own life.

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Defining Adult Learners

Characteristics of Adult Learners

Have first-hand experience.

Have a great deal of pride, but their ways of “showing it” varies.

Have tangible things to lose so are very cautious in the educational environment.

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Learn from reinforcement (thrive on it).

Wave a strong need to apply what is learned — and apply it now!

Want to be competent in their application of knowledge and skill.

Want a choice in what they learn.

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Theory of Adult Learning

Malcolm Knowles is considered the father of adult learning theory. Trainers and adult educators began to implement practical applications based on Dr. Knowles’ six assumptions.

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Malcolm S. Knowles on Andragogy

Knowles was convinced that adults learned differently to children - and that this provided the basis for a distinctive field of enquiry.

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The kind of teaching and coaching people get makes a big difference on how much they will remember. In general, people in a learning situation retain:10% of what they read20% of what they hear30% of what they see95% of what they teach someone else to do80% of what they use and do in real life70% of what they talk with others50% of what they see and hear

How Do Adults Learn?

Adults need to do something concrete or have an experience.

Adults observe, think about what they have

done (or about their

experience) and how they reacted to it.

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What’s your Motivation Style?

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Goal-oriented Relationship-

oriented learning-

oriented Thrill-oriented

Why Adults Learn?

To learn a specific skill.

For entertainment or personal edification.

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To maintain certification or to obtain a degree

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Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

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1. Put materials into “bite-size chunks” which people are able to understand. Make the material relevant, as close to the actual requirements of that person’s job.

Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

2. Provide plenty of documentation for the learner, usually in the form of hands-on experience and paper documentation.

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Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

3. Let the students work in groups, since they would rather ask other

students for assistance rather

than ask the course instructor.

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Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

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4. Keep the course requirements in perspective to the amount of time for the course (credit hours, for example).

Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

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5. Make certain the student is equipped with enough knowledge and skill to complete the assignment, rather than setting the person up for failure.

Strategies to help motivate Adult Learners

6. Bend the rules, if necessary!

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[Adult education is] a co-operative venture in non-authoritarian, informal learning the chief purpose of which is to discover the meaning of experience; a quest of the mind which digs down to the roots of the preconceptions which formulate our conduct; a technique of learning for adults which makes education coterminous with life, and hence elevates living itself to the level of an experiment.

Eduard Lindeman, What is Adult Education? (1925).

QUOTE FOR THE DAY!

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ReferencesReferences

 Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bloom, B. S. (Ed.), Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy

of educational objectives: The classifi cation of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive

domain. New York: David McKay.Knowles, M. (1980). The modern practice of

adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy (2nd Ed.). New York: Cambridge Books.

 

References cont’d Retrieved August 7, 2009 from

http://www.unitar.org/hiroshima/sites/default/files/11.AF06_WSI_Adult_Learning_Theory.pdf

Solution for Future. Retrieved August 7, 2009 from http://www.solutionsforourfuture.org/site/PageServer?pagename=enrollment_continuing_education_r

Eduard Lindeman, What is Adult Education? (1925). Retrieved August 7, 2009 from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/edu20/quotes.html 04/07/23 2

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