Helping Adults Learn

Many of us today work in roles where we help adults learn, e.g. coaches, teachers, mentors, or trainers. Our success with helping them learn, requires we understand some fundamental things about those we attempt to help.

In this short article, I share three important assumptions about adult learners.

Assumption No. 1:   Adult learners have an independent self-concept.

Let’s face it, adults make many important decisions every single day about family, work, finances, health, et cetera. This means that adults have an independent self-concept where they see themselves as capable of making decisions about their own lives. Because of this independent self-concept, when helping them learn, the instructor must design the learning program in a way that is respectful of who they are.

You respect the adult learner by building choices into whatever you are attempting to help them learn. This tells them that you respect their maturity and understand their desire to have some level of control over what they learn.

Educator E.C. Knowles explained that this is a psychological need of adults. He stated that when adults feel someone is forcing their will upon them, without giving them the opportunity to participate in the decision, those learners will likely experience resentment and resistance at the subconscious level, where our self-concept resides.

Assumption No. 2:   Adult learners are Typically Internally Motivated

This assumption is based on the work of educators like Abraham Maslow and C. Rogers who talked about how adults are motivated to learn for their own self-actualization, to reach their greatest potential. In other words, they want to experience growth and development potential in what they spend their time learning. From a practical perspective, this means ensuring that before you attempt to help an adult learn, you want to always show them how they can personally  benefit from the learning.

Most onboarding experiences use the entire onboarding experience to show new employees how to satisfy customers. This makes good sense because they are there to begin a new work experience. The smart employer, however, will use the adult learner’s internal desire to show them how they themselves might use what they are learning towards their own developmental potential. It meets their intrinsic need.

Assumption No. 3:   Readiness to Learn

This assumption is based on the premise that adults tend to learn when they are ready to take on a new role in life, whether as a new parent, employee, or volunteer. This assumption can be proactively used by suggesting to the adult learner how they might be able to use the learning experience in their future. You can give the learner a glimpse of its possible potential, creating readiness where it may not be present.

Conclusion:   Adult learners are unique in that they are independent thinkers who are looking for ways to live into their own potential, and to use what they learn to have better lives. When those who help adults learn understand the desires of adult learners and how to approach learning experiences based on those desires, they will be able to design and present learning in a way that creates a great learning experience for those learners.