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Techniques For Teaching The Adult Learner
Techniques For Teaching The Adult Learner
Adult Learner
Jane J. Hawk, DNP, CS, CPAN, RN
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Harborview Medical Center
Seattle, Washington
Objectives
Compare & contrast different learning &
thinking styles.
List characteristics of adults as learners.
Identify needs & motivation sources of the
adult learner.
Discuss the implications for mentors of
adult learners.
Compare strategies to enhance & facilitate
learning in adults.
“Always walk through life as if you have
something new to learn and you will.”
~ Vernon Howard
Learning
Occurs within each individual
Continual, life-long process
Different speeds
Result from stimulation of the senses
• one sense used more than others
• Learning & thinking style preferences
Thinking Styles
• Reflective
• Creative
• Practical
• Conceptual
Thinking Styles
Reflective
• View new info subjectively
• Relate new info to past experiences
• Often ask “why?”
• Examine their feelings about what they are learning
Creative
• Always ask “why?”
• Make excellent trouble-shooters
• Create own short-cuts and solutions
Thinking Styles
Practical
• Want facts without “nice to know” additions
• Seek simplest, most efficient way to do things
• Not satisfied until they know how to apply their new
skills to their job/other interest
Conceptual
• Accepts new info only after seeing the big picture
• Want to know how things work, not just final outcome
• Curious about related concepts to main subject
3 Primary Sensory Learning
Visual
Channels
• Visually illustrated or demonstrated
• “Show me”
• Graphics/illustrations/images, demos, animations
Auditory
• Spoken word; sound of your voice
• Lectures, discussions
Kinesthetic/Tactile
• Touched or manipulated; “hands-on”; “let me do it”
• Written assignments, taking notes, examination of objects, participation in activities
Social relationships
• Make new friends, relationships with
associations/groups
External expectations
• Complying with instructions from formal
authority
Social Welfare
• Serve mankind, provide community service
Adult Motivation Sources for Learning
Personal Advancement
• Professional advancement, stay ahead of competitors
Escape/Stimulation
• Relieve boredom, break from home/work routine, provide
contrast to other exacting details of life
Cognitive Interest
• Learn for sake of learning, satisfy the inquiring mind
Adult Motivation Sources for Learning
~ Winston Churchill
Needs of Adult Learners
Meaningful, relevant information
• Planned in response to learning or
personal/work situations
• Should provide solutions to problem
encountered in these situations
To know what is expected of them
• Expectations/learning objectives clearly stated
at the beginning
Needs of Adult Learners
Activities/opportunities to assist them to
associate new learning with past
experiences
• Best learning takes place when new info is tied
to/built upon past learning experiences
To feel their experiences are respected
• Need to feel accepted and respected; that
opinions are listened to and valued.
Needs of Adult Learners
Receive information in a variety of ways
• Appealing to multiple senses including visual, auditory
and tactile approaches
Actively involved in process
• Allow to learn by doing; learn what they practice.
Feel a sense of self-direction
• Enhanced learning with control/influence over focus &
direction of learning
• Self-guided captures interest and encourages participant
responsibility in process
Needs of Adult Learners
Freedom from anxiety
• Defensiveness, anxiety can block learning
• Environment should foster intellectual freedom and
encourage experimentation and creativity
~ H. G Wells
Learning Processes for Adult
Learners
Real-World Scenarios
• Learn/Practice skills
• Judgment
• Problem solving
• Critical thinking
Inquiry: Asking why?
Reflection
• Meaningful exploration of values, feelings, relationship of
self to other
Interactive questioning
Implications for Mentors
Create a supportive, threat-free and accepting
learning environment; make it easy to be right and
make mistakes
Eliminate unnecessary anxieties
Provide educational experiences based on person’s
job and/or life situations
Build/capitalize on the learner’s strengths
Use the learner’s experience as a resource for
learning; tie new information to things the learner
already knows
Implications for Mentors
Allow learner to set own learning pace
Employ a variety of teaching styles
Integrate theory with practice
Provide continuous feedback; offer positive
reinforcement and specific, constructive
feedback
Use problem-centered rather than subject-
centered approach
Facilitating Adult Learning
Assist learner to define their own learning
needs and objectives
Organize what is to be learned
Foster learner decision-making & problem
solving
Help the learner to understand how to use
learning resources
Progressively decrease the learner’s
dependency on educators
Facilitating Adult Learning
Reinforce self-concept of learner as doer
by providing progressive mastery
Provide supportive climate with feedback
to encourage change and risk taking
Aim to develop a spirit of critical
reflection, self-direction, mutual respect,
voluntary participation and collaboration
Tips for Effective Instructors
4 critical elements of learner to address
• Motivation
• Reinforcement
• Retention
• Transference
Tips for Effective Instructors
Motivation: Need to know
• Set a feeling/tone: friendly, open atmosphere
• Set an appropriate level of concern
• Best learning under low to moderate stress
• Too high stress = barrier
• Provide specific feedback
• Reward for learning
• Doesn’t have to be monetary
• Learner must have interest in subject
• Interest r/t reward; must see benefit
Tips for Effective Instructors
Reinforcement
• Very necessary!
• Positive
• Reinforces good behavior
• Negative
• Punishes bad behavior
• Ensures correct behavior
• Frequent and early in process to foster retention
Tips for Effective Instructors
Retention
• Necessary to gain benefit from learning
• Must see meaning/purpose of new info
• Must understand & be able to interpret & apply
info
• Affected by degree of initial learning
• If not learned well, will not retain
• Practice, practice, practice
Tips for Effective Instructors
Transference
• Ability to use the new info in a new setting
• Positive: uses behavior taught in course
• Negative: Participants do not do what they are told not
to do
• Most likely to occur:
• Association: new info associated with old info
• Similarity: new info similar to old info
• Degree of initial learning = high
• Critical attribute element: new info contains extremely
beneficial on the job
“Education consists of mainly what we have
unlearned.”
~ Mark Twain