Training Needs Assessment - Working with Adult Learners

These resources include information on the particular common needs of adult learners and
how to meet those needs most effectively in a training setting. There is also information on
personal learning styles, which can inform your training design.

 Adult Learning Principles

File Type:
 
Word Document
 
Pages:
 
2

Included in this tool are five principles of adult learning, information on how to address the needs and
priorities of adult learners, and strategies for working with them successfully. The five principles
expand on the need for trust in the group, the wealth of knowledge and experience participants bring
to the training, their need for a guide rather than the ultimate authoritative voice, making training
meaningful, and avoiding participant impatience.

 Teaching Adult Learners: Tips and Styles

File Type:
 
Word Document
 
Pages:
 
2

An easy-to-read form covering tips on effectively teaching adult learners and teaching methods to
match common adult learning styles. The tips match ideas about how adults learn best (e.g., when
the learning experience is active rather than passive, when learning is reinforced) with appropriate
actions, such as providing participants with opportunities to apply the information and skills they have
just learned.

 Essential Principles of Adult Learners

File Type:
 
Word Document
 
Pages:
 
2

A list of key factors to help you conduct successful training programs for adult learners. The list
focuses on concepts such as what adults need at an interpersonal level while learning, their
perceptions of content from a global perspective, and their need for immediate application of their
learning.

 Learning Styles

File Type:
 
Word Document
 
Pages:
 
1

An overview of learning styles and how to create variety for the Doers, Feelers, Observers, and
Thinkers in your audience. The text describes these four types of learners and the training methods
that work best for each of them. For example, Doers like to be actively involved in the learning
process and usually respond well to practise, applying concepts and simulations.

 Personal Learning Styles Inventory

File Type:
 
Excel Spreadsheet
 
Pages:
 
2

A tool for assessing one’s personal learning style. Inventories and identifies issues such as comfort
levels with types of experiential and general learning and ways of processing and using information.
You may wish to use this self-assessment tool with course or workshop participants. It can be useful
to administer the tool before planning your training as a guide to the ways your target audience
learns best.

 Application of Adult Learning Theory

File Type:
 
PowerPoint Presentation
 
Slides:
 
24

A slide presentation on the principles of adult learning theory. It explores, for example, the issue of
common learning (i.e., do we all learn in the same way?). It also examines how adult learning theory
might be applied and adapted when designing training programs and effective group facilitation. The
material was designed for educational settings in Africa, yet the principles apply to all regions of the
world.