How is Adult Learning Different?

[Extract from The 12-Hour MBA Program by Milo Sobel, Prentice Hall.]

Important tips to consider when teaching adults.

• Begin with introductions of yourself and the adult learners.
• Share some of yourself (i.e., humor, experiences, feelings, self). Be honest, authentic, and self-disclosing.
• Make sure their first experiences with the subject or class are as positive as possible.
• Relate learning to adult interests, concerns, and values.
• Selectively emphasize and deal with the human perspective of what is being learned, with applications to the personal lives of the adult learners whenever possible.
• Use needs assessment techniques to determine the felt needs and actual needs of the learners using assessments administered by the instructor and self-assessments by the adult learner.
• Provide opportunities for self-directed learning where adults can participate in setting objectives, selecting instructional methods, self-evaluating, and analyzing their performance.
• Make the learning goals as clear as possible and as appropriate to the learners as possible.
• Give the rationale for assignments, procedures, and instructional methods.
• When possible, clearly state or demonstrate the learning that will result from learning activities.
• Ensure successful learning by planning instructional activities that match the needs and objectives of adult learners.
• Encourage and challenge the learners.
• Make learner reaction and active participation an essential part of the learning process.
• Provide frequent response opportunities for all adult learners on an equitable basis.
• Promote learners’ personal control over the context of learning by involving them in the planning and setting of goals, self-evaluation and determination of their strengths and weaknesses, and recording and analyzing progress.
• Make the criteria for evaluation as clear as possible.
• Use consistent feedback to learners regarding their mastery, progress, and responsibility in learning.
• Use constructive criticism.
• Effectively use praise and reward learning.
• Create a learning environment that is organized and orderly.
• Be aware of the needs of adults: their physiological, safety, love and belongingness, and self-esteem needs and curiosity, sense of wonder, and need to explore.
• Remove or reduce components of learning situations that lead to failure and fear.
• Introduce the unfamiliar through the familiar.
• Use unpredictability and uncertainty to the degree that learners enjoy them with a sense of security.
• Use disequilibrium to stimulate learning by using such methods as contradiction and "leaving them wanting more" and playing the role of the devil’s advocate.
• Use collaboration as an instructional technique to develop and maximize cohesiveness in the group.
• Provide variety in presentational style, methods of instruction, and learning materials.
• Selectively use breaks, physical exercise, and energizers.
• Use humor liberally and frequently.
• Use examples, stories, analogies, and metaphors.

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