Twelve Universal Principles of Adults as Learners

When children learn, they are establishing basic knowledge matrixes on which they will build as they mature. Children may need more help than adults in developing and populating their knowledge matrixes. Adults learn by building on the knowledge structures they have already established, by enhancing these structure, expanding them, and modifying their knowledge to the suit the circumstances in which they will apply it. The following are 12 basic principles (and two additional ones) you should use in supporting adult learning, based partially on the often quoted “Laws of Learning” of corporate consultants Thiagi, Inc.

Relevance 

Effective learning is relevant to the life and work of a learner. Activities that create links between a learning situation and the real world are useful for a learner in transforming knowledge to a form that he or she can use. After any learning activity, learners should be invited to examine their learning and discuss strategies for applying what they have learned in their real-world context.

Previous experience 

New learning should always be linked to and build on the existing experiences of a learner. Participants in any learning experience bring a variety of knowledge and experience to the learning session. The learning session should be adjusted to ensure that it reaches the different levels and different relevant experiences of the learners.

Self-direction 

Adults, as learners, are self-directed. This is the reason they have chosen the learning experiences they are currently undergoing. Not everyone should be forced to participate in every activity. Involving participants in setting their goals and selecting appropriate types of learning activities is an ideal design.

Expectations 

New learners' reactions to a learning session are shaped by their expectations as related to the content area, depth of the content, learning format, fellow participants, and teacher. Encouraging learners with challenging activities and shortcut techniques is always helpful. Recognizing the efforts of participants is important to and helpful to the learners.

Self-image 

Learners have ideas and perceptions of what types of learners they are. These perceptions can either enhance or interfere with their learning. Reassure your participants about their ability to learn new concepts and skills, provide motivating and challenging tasks for them, and ensure frequent and early success by introducing tasks in a pattern to become progressively more complex. Do not patronize your learners with simple or trivial tasks. However, incorporate learning tasks at different levels of difficulty and complexity to suit all present. If the learners are working in groups, you may wish to have more advanced learners serve as teachers, leaders, or facilitators.

Multiple criteria 

Adult learners rely on a variety of standards to judge their learning experiences and accomplishments. Encourage your participants to choose personal standards and scoring systems. Provide different methods and criteria for achieving success. Learners may wish to develop alternate criteria for measuring performance.

Alignment 

Adult learners appreciate recognizing that learning objectives, content, activities, and assessment methods are aligned. A learning situation should resemble a practice situation. Teach and test for the same content, and always be sure that you are checking for mastery of the indicated learning objectives.

Active learning 

Active responding produces more effective learning than does passive listening or reading. If you are using lectures or reading assignments to teach, active learning episodes such as quizzes, problems, or puzzles should always be interspersed. Provide your learners with ample opportunities to respond by asking questions, encouraging them to ask questions or participate in discussions, and questioning their answers to questions.

Practice and feedback 

Learners cannot master skills without repeated practice accompanied by relevant feedback. Don't confuse understanding a procedure with the ability to perform it. Plan ample time in activities to provide extensive practice and feedback. Make sure that the learning activities incorporate immediate, useful, and constructive feedback from peers and experts. Create rating scales, checklists, or similar devices to ensure that the feedback is objective and useful.

Individual differences 

Different people learn in different ways. All teaching and training activities should accommodate a variety of learning styles. Plan that participants can participate by writing, speaking, drawing, or role play. Encourage and permit learners to learn as individuals, in pairs, or in teams.

Learning domains 

Different types of learning require different types of teaching and training strategies. Recognize that there are different types of training, content, and objectives. Avoid using the same kind of activity to teach different types of training or content. Use the appropriate design to help participants achieve different objectives, which may be related to knowledge and concepts, procedures, attitudes, or general principles.

Response level 

Learners master their skills and knowledge at the level at which they are required to respond during the learning and evaluation processes. If learning requires participants to discuss a procedure or observe it, don't assume that they will be able to apply or perform it. If you want participants to solve problems, the learning activity should require them to solve similar problems. Always avoid trivial, closed questions with recognition or rote memory answers. Challenge learners with authentic problems that require innovative solutions.

Reinforcement 

Participants learn to perform behaviors that are successful and rewarded. Make sure that learning activities provide opportunities for rewards. Require participants to make frequent decisions and responses. Provide feedback and reward partial achievement.

Emotional learning 

Any event accompanied by intense emotions will result in long-lasting learning. Many types of learning and training, simulation, role play, or case solutions can add emotional elements to learning. However, when emotion is too intense, it will interfere with learning. It is helpful to debrief participants, after emotional activities, to reflect on their feelings and learn from their personal reflections.