How To Teach Adults …and Why… Or “Grown-ups Are Not Just Big Kids”

1. How To Teach Adults …and Why… Or “Grown-ups Are Not Just Big Kids”

2. Pedagogy Andragogy

3. Characteristics of Adult Learners • Impatient or urgent • Definite needs or goals, problem centered approach • Need quick success • Have experience to share • Fearful of embarrassment • Easily frustrated • Established values, beliefs and opinions • Need to feel self-directed • How-tos rather than theory • Increased variation in learning styles • Need to be treated as adults

4. Differences among Adult Generations • Traditionalist or Silent • Born between 1925 and 1945 • Baby Boomer • Born between 1946 and 1964 • Gen X • Born between 1965 and 1980 • Millennial or Gen Y • Born between 1981 and late 1990s

6. 6 Basic Characteristics of Adult Learners (Knowles) • Are internally motivated and self-directed • Bring life experiences and knowledge to learning • Are goal-oriented • Are relevancy-oriented • Are practical • Want to be respected

7. Types of Adult Learners • Based on level of participation or interaction • Reflective (subjective, reflective, watching) • Conceptual (detail oriented, notes, abstract thinking ) • Practical (concrete, shortcuts, experience, feeling) • Creative (active, experimentation, practice, doing) • Based on learning type (Kolb) • Diverging (feeling & watching) • Assimilating (thinking & watching) • Converging (thinking and doing) • Accommodating (feeling & doing) • 3. Based on learning style • Visual • Auditory • Tactile/Kinesthetic

8. Applications in your classroom • Present information in “bite-size pieces” that can be mastered easily • Make new information meaningful and practical • Introduce one concept at a time and show progression to next • Use feedback and frequent summarization as reinforcement • Allow self-learning, practice if it is possible • Accept the difference in learning rates. Repetition may be needed, but respectfully • People learn by doing; hands-on whenever possible • 8. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT!

9. Teaching strategies • and how to adapt them to adult learners • Lecture: • 15-20 minute sections spaced with learning activities • Problem-based Learning: • encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills • Educational Games: • competition or achievement in relation to a goal • Discussion: • best for active learning and retention • Role Play: • should be realistic and relevant

10. Pike’s Laws of Adult Learning (Teaching!) • Adult learning is enhanced by hands-on experience. • People do not argue with their own data. Use activities that will encourage learner to generate own concepts techniques to “make it theirs.” • Learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun you are having. Humor can alleviate the stress and anxiety of a new learning situation. • Learning has not taken place until behavior has changed. It’s not what you know (or think you know), it’s what you do.

11. REMEMBER! • Over a period of 3 days, learning retention is as follows: • 10% of what you read • 20% of what you hear • 30% of what you see • 50% of what you see and hear • 70% of what you say • 90% of what you say and do