THE ADULT LEARNING PROGRAM

Adults have special needs and requirements as learners:

• Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to work on projects that reflect their interests and be guided to their own knowledge. They must be shown how the class will help them reach their goals.
• Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base. To help them do so, they should draw out on their fellow participants’ experience and knowledge which is relevant to the topic. They must relate to theories and concepts and recognize the value of experience in learning.
• Adults are goal-oriented. Upon enrolling in a course, they usually know what goal they want to attain. They, therefore, appreciate an educational program that is organized and has clearly defined elements and  must be shown how the class will help them attain their goals. The classification of goals and course objectives must be addressed early in the course.
• Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them. Objectives for adult participants must be clearly identified before the course begins. This means that theories and concepts must be related to a setting familiar to participants. This need can be fulfilled by letting participants choose projects that reflect their own interests.
• Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work. They may not be interested in knowledge for its own sake. Participants need to know explicitly how the lesson will be useful to them on the job.
• As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect. Facilitators must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the classroom. These adults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and be allowed to voice their opinions freely in class.

Motivating the Adult Learner
Another aspect of adult learning is motivation. At least six factors serve as sources of motivation for adult learning:

• Social relationships: to make new friends, to meet a need for associations and friendships.
• External expectations: to comply with instructions from someone else; to fulfill the expectations or recommendations of someone with formal authority.
• Social welfare: to improve ability to serve mankind, prepare for service to the community, and improve ability to participate in community work.
• Personal advancement: to achieve higher status in a job, secure professional advancement, and stay abreast of competitors.
• Escape/Stimulation: to relieve boredom, provide a break in the routine of home or work, and provide a contrast to other exacting details of life.
• Cognitive interest: to learn for the sake of learning, seek knowledge for its own sake, and to satisfy an inquiring mind.

Barriers and Motivation
Unlike children and teenagers, adults have many responsibilities that they must balance against the demands of learning. Because of these responsibilities, adults have barriers against participating in learning. Some of these barriers include lack of time, money, confidence, or interest, lack of information about opportunities to learn, scheduling problems, and perhaps problems with child care and transportation.

Motivation factors can also be a barrier. What motivates adult learners? Typical motivations include a requirement for competence or licensing, an expected (or realized) promotion, job enrichment, a need to maintain old skills or learn new ones, a need to adapt to job changes, or the need to learn in order to comply with company directives.

The best way to motivate adult learners is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers. Facilitators must learn why their students are enrolled (the motivators); they have to discover what is keeping them from learning. Then the facilitators must plan their motivating strategies. A successful strategy includes showing adult learners the relationship between training and an expected promotion.

Learning Tips for Effective Facilitators
Facilitators must remember that learning occurs within each individual as a continual process throughout life. People learn at different speeds, so it is natural for them to be anxious or nervous when faced with a learning situation. Positive reinforcement by the facilitator can enhance learning, as can proper timing of the instruction.

Learning results from stimulation of the senses. In some people, one sense is used more than others to learn or recall information. Facilitators should present materials that stimulate as many senses as possible in order to increase their chances of reaching success.

There are four critical elements of learning that must be addressed to ensure that participants learn. These elements are:

1. motivation
2. reinforcement
3. retention
4. transference

Motivation. If the participant does not recognize the need for the information (or has been offended or intimidated), all of the facilitator’s efforts to assist the participant to learn will be in vain. The facilitator must establish rapport with participants and prepare them for learning; this provides motivation. Facilitators can motivate students via several means:

• Set a feeling or tone for the lesson. Facilitators should try to establish a friendly, open atmosphere that shows the participants they will help them learn.
• Set an appropriate level of concern. The level of tension must be adjusted to meet the level of importance of the objective. If the material has a high level of importance, a higher level of tension/stress should be established in the class. However, people learn best under low to moderate stress; if the stress is too high, it becomes a barrier to learning.
• Set an appropriate level of difficulty. The degree of difficulty should be set high enough to challenge participants but not so high that they become frustrated by information overload. The instruction should predict and reward participation, culminating in success.

In addition, participants need specific knowledge of their learning results (feedback ). Feedback must be specific, not general. Participants must also see a reward for learning. The reward does not necessarily have to be monetary; it can be simply a demonstration of benefits to be realized from learning the material. Finally, the participant must be interested in the subject. Interest is directly related to reward. Adults must see the benefit of learning in order to motivate themselves to learn the subject.

Reinforcement. Reinforcement is a very necessary part of the teaching/learning process; through it, facilitators encourage correct modes of behaviour and performance.

• Positive reinforcement is normally used by facilitators who are teaching participants new skills. As the name implies, positive reinforcement is “good” and reinforces “good” (or positive) behaviour.
• Negative reinforcement is the contingent removal of a noxious stimulus that tends to increase the behaviour. The contingent presentation of a noxious stimulus that tends to decrease a behaviour is called Punishment. Reinforcing a behaviour will never lead to extinction of that behaviour by definition. Punishment and Time Out lead to extinction of a particular behaviour, but positive or negative reinforcement of that behaviour never will.

When facilitators are trying to change behaviours (old practices), they should apply both positive and negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement should be part of the teaching-learning process to ensure correct behaviour. Instructors need to use it on a frequent and regular basis early in the process to help the students retain what they have learned. Then, they should use reinforcement only to maintain consistent, positive behaviour.

Retention. Students must retain information from classes in order to benefit from the learning. The facilitators’ jobs are not finished until they have assisted the learner in retaining the information. In order for participants to retain the information taught, they must see a meaning or purpose for that information. The must also understand and be able to interpret and apply the information. This understanding includes their ability to assign the correct degree of importance to the material.

The amount of retention will be directly affected by the degree of original learning. Simply stated, if the participants did not learn the material well initially, they will not retain it well either.

Retention by the participants is directly affected by their amount of practice during the learning. Facilitactors should emphasize retention and application. After the students demonstrate correct (desired) performance, they should be urged to practice to maintain the desired performance. Distributed practice is similar in effect to intermittent reinforcement.

Transference. Transfer of learning is the result of training — it is the ability to use the information taught in the course but in a new setting. As with reinforcement, there are two types of transfer: positive and negative.

• Positive transference, like positive reinforcement, occurs when the participants uses the behaviour taught in the course.
• Negative transference, again like negative reinforcement, occurs when the participants do not do what they are told not to do. This results in a positive (desired) outcome.

Transference is most likely to occur in the following situations:

• Association — participants can associate the new information with something that they already know.
• Similarity — the information is similar to material that participants already know; that is, it revisits a logical framework or pattern.
• Degree of original learning — participant’s degree of original learning was high.
• Critical attribute element — the information learned contains elements that are extremely beneficial (critical) on the job.

Although adult learning is relatively new as field of study, it is just as substantial as traditional education and carries the potential for greater success. Of course, the heightened success requires a greater responsibility on the part of the facilitator. Additionally, the learners come to the course with precisely defined expectations. Unfortunately, there are barriers to their learning. The best motivators for adult learners are interest and selfish benefit. If they can be shown that the course benefits them pragmatically, they will perform better, and the benefits will be longer lasting.