How Technolgy Can Be Better Used to Meet the Needs of Adult Learners

How Technolgy Can be Better Used to Meet the Needs of Adult Learners Professor Krista Hilton Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio

Adult Learners: Here’s one definition of adult learners. “Half the people in the room are secretly working on their "real" jobs; half are so relieved not to be doing their real jobs, they've turned their minds entirely off. Half already know half the stuff being taught and are playing Buzzword Bingo on their Palms; half will never need to know more than half of it (Stewart, 2001, p.184)." While those who have worked with adult learners may recognize the above characteristics in some of their students, “Higher education institutions define adult learners by using chronological age and additional factors such as delayed post-secondary enrollment, part- time attendance, full-time work while enrolled, financial independence, single parenthood, military service, and lack of a standard high school diploma (Brookfield, 1986, p37).” In the early 1970s Malcolm Knowles introduced the term "andragogy," in an attempt to describe the differences between children and adult learners (Knowles, Swanson, & Holton, 2005). Andragogy is the antonym of pedagogy. In pedagogy, the concern is with transmitting the content, while in andragogy, the concern is with facilitating the acquisition of the content. (Reischmann, 2008). The characteristics identified by Knowles and others are: The Need to Know. Adults want to know why they need to learn something before undertaking learning (Knowles et al., 2005). Facilitators must help adults become aware of their "need to know" and make a case for the value of learning. The Learners' Self-Concept. Adults believe they are responsible for their lives (Knowles et al., 2005). They need to be seen and treated as capable and self-directed. Facilitators should create environments where adults develop their latent self-directed learning skills (Brookfield, 1986). The Role of the Learners' Experiences. Adults come into an educational activity with different experiences than do youth (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). There are individual differences in background, learning style, motivation, needs, interests, and goals, creating a greater need for individualization of teaching and learning strategies (Brookfield, 1986; Silberman & Auerbach, 1998). The richest resource for learning resides in adults themselves; therefore, tapping into their experiences through experiential techniques (discussions, simulations, problem-solving activities, or case methods) is beneficial (Brookfield, 1986; Knowles et al., 2005; McKeachie, 2002; Silberman & Auerbach, 1998). Hilton 2

Readiness to Learn. Adults become ready to learn things they need to know and do in order to cope effectively with real-life situations (Knowles et al., 2005). Adults want to learn what they can apply in the present, making training focused on the future or that does not relate to their current situations, less effective. Orientation to Learning. Adults are life-centered (task-centered, problem-centered) in their orientation to learning (Knowles et al., 2005). They want to learn what will help them perform tasks or deal with problems they confront in everyday situations and those presented in the context of application to real-life (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). Motivation. Adults are responsive to some external motivators (e.g., better job, higher salaries), but the most potent motivators are internal (e.g., desire for increased job satisfaction, self- esteem). Their motivation can be blocked by training and education that ignores adult learning principles (Knowles et al., 2005). Kathleen Cerone (2008), writing in the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education Journal, expanded on these characteristics in her discussion of the implications they carry for instructors working with adult learners.  Adults need to be actively involved in the learning process.  Adults need scaffolding to be provided by the instructor. Scaffolding should promote self-reliance, and it should allow learners to perform activities they were unable to perform without this support.  Adults have a pre-existing learning history and will need support to work in the new learner-centered paradigm.  Adults need the instructor acting as a facilitator.  Adults need consideraton of their prior experience. The instructor should acknowledge this prior experience. Adults need to connect new knowledge to past events.  Adults need to the link between what they are learning and how it will apply to their lives. They want to apply immediately their new knowledge. They are problem centered.  Adults need to feel that learning focuses on issues thatdirectly concern them and want to know what they are going to learn, how the learning will be conducted, and why it is important.  Adults need to test their learning as they go along, rather than receive background theory.  Adult learning requires a climate that is collaborative, respectful, mutual, and informal. Hilton 3

Dr. Gary Kuhne, in his presentation titled “Ten Characteristics of Adults as Learners” also addressed the implications of Knowles’ characteristics. Adults Generally Desire to Take More

Control Over Their Learning

Adults tend to be self-directed in their lives, although responsibilities with jobs, families, and other organizations can remove a degree of their freedom to act. Adulthood brings an increasing sense of the need to take responsibility for our lives and adults strongly resent it when others take away their rights to choose. They do not like being relegated to a "passive" position.

Implications:  Always seek to include the adult in the planning of educational efforts.  Allow for self-assessment and evaluation  Understand adult learners desire a peer relationship with instructors, rather than a

hierarchical one.  Recognize that adults also expect greater availability of instructors.

Adults Draw Upon Their Experiences as a Resource in Their Learning Efforts

The adult's experience is a key resource in any learning effort. Adults have a greater reservoir of life experiences simply because they have lived longer and seen and done more. This is a critical distinction between adults and traditional learners. Consciously or unconsciously, adults tend to link any new learning to their prior learning, a body of knowledge that is rooted in their life experiences. They evaluate the validity of new ideas and concepts in light of how the idea or concept "fits" their experience.

Implications:  Take the time to get to know more about the experiences of our learners and seek to help them to link new ideas to such prior learning.  Encourage discussion on how new ideas fit the experience of learners.

Adults Tend to be Highly Motivated in Learning Situations

Higher motivation is linked to the fact that most adult learning is voluntary. Adults are making personal choices to attend schooling, even when such schooling is tied to professional development or job skills. Whenever an individual is able to choose to learn, s/he is much more motivated to learn.

Implication: Hilton 4

 Spend less effort trying to motivate adult learners and concentrate our time on facilitating the learning they are already motivated to pursue.

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Adults Are Pragmatic in Learning

Adults are particularly motivated to learn information that seems immediately applicable to their situation and needs. They tend to be frustrated with "theory" that needs to be stored away for future use or learning for the sake of learning. Certainly there are exceptions to this principle, but the percentage of exceptions is quite low.

Implications:  Tie the content of programs to the application needs of the learners.  Always use needs assessment strategies

 Weigh the content of education toward the utilitarian, not the theoretical.

The Learner Role is Secondary for Adults

For most adults, the "student" role is a minor and secondary role. This is in sharp contrast to traditional age learners for whom the learner role is both their primary social role and the main basis for their self-identity. Adults fulfill multiple roles and these multiple roles inevitably create conflicting and competing demands on the adult learner. Multiple roles cause most adults have far less time and energy to read, study, or learn.

Implications:   More flexibility in adult education programs than in traditional education.   Give assignments far ahead of time   Accept that jobs and families can create obstacles for the learner, and be willing to extend deadlines for assignments.

  Accept that the learners will not see their educational efforts as necessarily the highest priority in their lives   Accept that learners will be preoccupied at times with other roles and responsibilities.

Many Adults Lack Confidence in Their Learning

Many adults have had somewhat negative learning experiences in their traditional schooling. For a variety of reasons, they feel inadequate when it comes to learning through formal educational programs. Still other adults, who may have done well in their earlier schooling, still lack confidence for further schooling efforts due to what they perceive as rusty study skills, poor reading skills, test anxiety, or other such learning barriers.

Implications:  Employ learning strategies that build higher confidence in adult learners.  Take the time to teach better study skills and ways of improving reading comprehension.  Use collaborative learning approaches in the classroom can do much to alleviate anxiety. (i.e., turn the classroom from a competitive environment to a collaborative one)

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Adults Can Be Resistant to Change

Learning often involves changes in our attitudes or actions. Adults tend to be somewhat resistant to such changes because life itself teaches us that change is not always for the better and that many of the outcomes of change are unpredictable.

Implications:  Adult learners need more explanation of the "why" of changes, not just the "how."  Link new concepts to older, understood, and accepted concepts for adult learners.  Seek for incremental changes through our education efforts rather than global changes,

allowing the "proof" gained from such incremental change to encourage the adult learner to explore yet more change.

Adults Are More Diverse

Adults vary from each other as learners in terms of age and experiences much more than traditional age learners. Such differences can be used as a powerful resource for adult learning. Through collaboration in small groups, adults can benefit from their variety of experiences. Dialogue with other adults enables adult learners to perceive more nuances of application, and possible problems with new concepts, then could ever be gained from private reflection.

Implications:  Allow more time for interaction between adults to allow learners to network together to sharing of perspectives and experiences.  Make effort to present material in a variety of ways to accommodate different learning styles.

Adults Must Compensate for Aging in Learning

Aging brings with it a number of physical complications that can impact on adult learning efforts. The percentage of such complications increases with age. Such complications are not really due to intelligence. Although the speed of learning tends to decrease with age, the depth of learning tends to increase. In other words, adults tend to learn less rapidly with age, but what they learn is learned at a deeper and more integrative level. As adults age, vision and hearing can also create barriers in educational programs. As adult educators, we must pay much more attention to sound and lighting when dealing with adult learners.

Implication:   Pay more attention to the physical learning environment to compensate for aging issues.

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Study of adult learners by others (Rager, 2003; Marsick &Watkins, 2001; Conlan, Grabowski, & Smith (2003) has also suggested three primary teaching methodolgies. They are:  Action Learning: Work on a real project or problem as the way to learn.  Experiential/Situational Learning: Learning by doing; learner directly involved with the material being studied rather than just thinking and talking aout the material.  Project Learning: Students work in groups to solve challenging problems that are authentic and often interdisciplinary. Learners decide how to approach a problem and what activities to pursue.  Self-Directed Learning: Informal and incidental learning is at the heart of adult education because of its learner-centered focus and the lessons that can be learned from life experience. It is defined as the process in which individuals take on the responsibility for their own learning process by diagnosing their personal learning needs, setting goals, identifying resources, implementing strategies and evaluating the outcomes. Technology: With the information presented here regarding adult learners and their needs, it is the goal of this session is to brainstorm potential uses of currently available technology in better meeting the needs of adult learners. Possible Technologies: Text, Email, Phone, Chat Interactive Video Conferencing using platforms such as Elluminate Bulletin Boards Smartboard Laptop/PC connections in classroom or online Skype Simulation software YouTube/video clips Creation software—PowerPoint, video presentations Clickers http://ocio.osu.edu/elearning/toolbox/depth/clickers Online Games online lectures (created and existing) http://www.tonybates.ca/2012/08/05/whats- right-and-whats-wrong-about-coursera-style-moocs/ References

Brookfield, S. D. (1986). Understanding and facilitating adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-

Cercone, K. (2008). Characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design.

AACE Journal, 16(2), 137-159. Hilton 9

Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K.. (2003). Adult learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging

perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 05/21/2013, from

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Kuhne, Gary (n.d.) Course content, “Introduction to adult education.” Retrieved from

(http://www.coitweb.uncc.edu/~dcassidy/References/Ten%20Characteristics.htm on

05/24/13.

Knowles, M. S., Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. III (2005). The adult learner: The definitive

classic in adult education and human resource development (6th ed.). California:

Elsevier Science and Technology Books.

Marsick, V. J. & Watkins, K. E. (2001). Informal and incidental learning. New Directions for

Adult & Continuing Education, v. 89, p. 25-34.

Rager, K. B. (2003). The self-directed learning of women with breast cancer. Adult Education

Quarterly. v. 53, no. 4, p. 277-293.

Reischmann, Jost (2004): Andragogy: History, meaning, context, function. Retrieved from

http://www.andragogy.net. Version Sept. 9, 2004, on May 24, 2013.