In 2011, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training published a report titled “Learning while working: how skills development can be supported through workplace learning”, exploring the differences in adult learning programs across EU Member States. It mentions individual motivation of adult students as a key factor in determining the effectiveness of the courses or training programs. This entails that the way adults prefer to learn is important and shouldnot be overlooked.
Personal Motivation
Adult learning depends more strongly on personal motivation. Whereas children and teenagers are more likely to follow instructions without question, adults may need to be provided with stronger reasons to pursue learning opportunities. As such, vocational training programs and other such initiatives need to be valuable and useful.
The above-mentioned report states that adults are more likely to make the effort to learn something new if doing so increases their overall employability, or if it helps them gain a better understanding of their sector on the whole. So, learning can be a vehicle with which adults can branch out into other areas, or become capable of taking on a wider variety of responsibilities. Organizations offering educational opportunities could therefore want to keep that in mind, and focus on ways to help employees become more flexible workers, or move in the direction they want to.
Variety
One way in which adults learn is similar to the way younger people learn, both require a variety of teaching methods in order to learn best. Learners can generally be divided into auditory, visual and tactile learners. Adults may be more aware of which teaching method they prefer, and should thus probably be given the option to choose between the teaching methods.
What does set adults apart is that they are likely to have personal experience to draw from. They may prefer to incorporate this experience into their education, meaning that the line between students and teachers doesnot have to be as clearly drawn. Adult students could participate more in classes, and relate the information those provide to the information they have already accumulated.
In short, the way adults prefer to learn needs to be kept in mind in order to create educational programs f that hold benefits for both employees and employers. Generally, adults prefer to learn in a way that actively incorporates their personal skills and goals. This means adults probably should be active participants in their own learning processes, and not taught down to.
Barabara Haenen