Adult Learning Ranking of Relevance

¶ … Adult Learning

Ranking of Relevance of the Components of What we Know About Adult Learning

With regard to what we know about adult learners, these are the most relevant reasons to me:

(1) Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are going to keep - and use - the new information (from curriculum design).

(2) Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects over group-learning experiences led by a professional, they select more than one medium for learning, and they desire to control pace and start/stop time (from curriculum design).

(3) the more life change events an adult encounters, the more likely he or she is to seek out learning opportunities. Just as stress increases as life-change events accumulate, the motivation to cope with change through engagement in a learning experience increases (from motivation to learn).

(4) Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so primarily because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought. Learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself (from motivation to learn).

(5) Regardless of media, straightforward how-to is the preferred content orientation. Adults cite a need for application and how-to information as the primary motivation for beginning a learning project (from curriculum design).

(6) Adults tend to take errors personally and are more likely to let them affect self-esteem. Therefore, they tend to apply tried-and-true solutions and take fewer risks (from curriculum design).

(7) Adults bring a great deal of life experience into the classroom, an invaluable asset to be acknowledged, tapped and used. Adults can learn well -and much - from dialogue with respected peers (from in the classroom).

(8) Nonhuman media such as books, programmed instruction and television have become popular with adults in recent years (from curriculum design).

(9) Increasing or maintaining one's sense of self-esteem and pleasure are strong secondary motivators for engaging in learning experiences (from motivation to learn).

(10) the learning environment must be physically and psychologically comfortable; long lectures, periods of interminable sitting and the absence of practice opportunities rate high on the irritation scale.

Reflection Upon Ranking:

When I first began ranking my choices, my number one and number three choices were the same which reinforces that which I firmly believe: that learning taken out of context will go in one of my ears and out the other. When either the professor or myself is able to draw a connection of a concept to something I have previously experienced or have knowledge about, then I can think through the concepts and applications in a way in which I will not tune out. As such, I then find myself truly understanding the concept as opposed to forgetting or misunderstanding the information if I don't have a relationship or something to hook the concept onto. The other factor that is especially relevant to me is that I truly need to feel like I have some control over the learning which is why I enjoy taking online courses which allow me to choose when to study and how to study. Lastly, I am much harder on myself as an adult learner than I was as an adolescent. When I was younger, I did not bother to even look at a teacher's painstaking commentary in my essays whereas now I cannot wait to obtain feedback and I feel an immense amount of passion toward pleasing the instructor, putting forth my best effort, and obtaining the best grade possible.

2. According to the Whole-Part-Whole learning theory, learners scaffold new learning to what they already know. The first part of the learning (the first "whole") refers to building the context and connecting the learner with the organizational framework or, in other words, referred to as building background or connecting to prior learning experiences. In the case of adult learners, the whole part may be accomplished by the teacher explaining and/or the student understanding what the goals are for the subject learning (the Whole-Part-Whole Theory).

In the second stage (the "part" phase), motivation for the new learning may be established. For example, this could be done by having learners state the outcome that they desire. In this part, the skills, techniques, and processes of the new learning are done (the Whole-Part-Whole Theory).