This week’s mini training looks at a concept called “Adult Learning Principles”. While there are hundreds of learning theories, principles and beliefs about learning styles, I honestly believe these 6 principles had the biggest effect on how I delivered my training and the results that my students received.
I’m sure you can agree with me – adults are different to kids! And if you are delivering any sort of content to adult learners, be that face to face or online, then you need to take that into consideration.
Based on the work of Malcolm Knowles, from the 1970’s, these principles work REGARDLESS of the subject matter you are training.
Let’s have a look.
1. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed
What does this mean?
As adult learners we have our own drivers and motivators… for example you might be driven to sign up for a course because you need the qualification for a job promotion, or a pay rise. Or you might sign up for online sales training because you want to get new clients.
Your students are internally motivated when they sign up for your course… they have their own driver for doing so.
How should you use this?
Ask them all about the reason for signing up!!
This does a couple of things for you.
Firstly, this is great research for you and it helps you to understand the inner workings of your target market. The more you know and understand them, the easier it is to attract them.
Secondly, it shows your students that you care about what is going on for them – which is always good.
And lastly, it helps you to make sure that you can meet those needs. The clearer you can be about their intentions, the easier it is for you to provide win – win really.
2. Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to the learning environment
What does this mean?
As adults, we know stuff!! (I know – ground breaking news hey)
When your students enrol with you, they already have a head full of knowledge, and much more importantly, they know that they do.
It’s not unusual to come across students who despite paying for your course, firmly believe that they know more than you do, and that their opinion is right.
It’s also not unusual to come across students who’ve had certain beliefs or opinions for a long long time, which you have to work against. As an example, as a personal trainer you’ll have clients who believe that low fat is best, and have been taught this for the past 20 odd years, despite the fact you know most low fat products are full of sugar and flavourings. You might have to work very hard to convince them that what they’ve always thought to be “right”, isn’t necessarily the only way.
How should you use this?
Before you start training, make a list of any old mindsets that you think your students might come into the course with – this will help you work around them before they even come up.
I also strongly recommend asking students what they already know at the very beginning of a course. For example, when training the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, I start the class by asking students if they have any training experience, and what they have already done in the past. This helps me tailor the class to suit their needs, but also lets me pick out which mindsets I might clash with.
3. Adults are goal oriented
What does this mean?
Adult learners love really clear goals – they like to know what they are trying to achieve… and even more so, they like to be congratulated when they get there.
Think about the simple to do list. Lots of people love a to-do list, because it allows them to clearly see their goals for the day and they get to tick it off as they go, allowing the little moments to celebrate and feel better about doing it.
How should you use this?
Set REALLY clear goals for your students or get them to set their own goals. You can set goals around how quickly the work will be completed, around implementation (I love this one!!) or around the results they want to achieve.
When setting goals, try and make them really tangible… so that both you and your students will know when they have smashed them – and you can all do a little happy dance together.
4. Adults are relevancy oriented
What does this mean?
As adults we are always busy… right? I know I am and I am sure that you are too. Which means that we all hate wasting our time on stuff that isn’t relevant to us.
I’m sure you’ve been to a training session in the past where you walked out at the end and thought to yourself “well, that’s 2 hours of my life I am never getting back”…. It’s the same when you have to sit through someone trying to sell you something you don’t want.
We hate having our time wasted… and we all want to know that what we are learning is useful to us (unlike my high-school calculus… which I never, ever use!)
How should you use this?
Firstly – make sure that you content is relevant to your student’s needs. Keep your titles and sales pages clear and make sure that they know what they are getting to avoid any disappointment or bad reviews.
Secondly – the more you know about them, the easier it is to keep them happy. Ask you students what they want to learn, ask them about their needs and their goals… and keep a record of all of your research.
5. Adults are practical
What does this mean?
They like to DO stuff… plain and simple.
More importantly, they learn much better when they do it themselves. If you can get your students to be hands on and implement straight away, they’ll learn much quicker and get better results.
How should you use this?
Spend less time teaching and more time getting them to do it.
You can build practical time into your classes, set students activities, and get them to implement information straight after they have learnt it.
The sooner they implement the better.
6. Adults liked to be respected
What does this mean?
Well I think this one is fairly straight forward. Adults like to feel respected!
You hate it when someone talks down to you, treats you like a fool or disrespects you… and just as you hate it, your students hate it too.
Simple.
How should you use this?
A great place to start is to show respect for what your students do know… the best way to do this is to allow them to share their thoughts, opinions and feelings in a group environment, where they feel like they can contribute. This can be in a classroom, or in an online forum or social media group.
Secondly, people love it when you ask for their opinion or feedback personally, it makes them feel like their opinion matters (which it does). Reach out and ask them to send you feedback. Give them credit for this via social media or in class.
So there you go – 6 principles that I promise you, will change the way that students interact within your course and the results that they get.
This honestly was the biggest turning point for the training that I’ve run. I’ve implemented these into online courses and face to face courses and seen huge success.
Do you use these? How could you start using them right now?
Share your thoughts
Your tough love specialist and ass kicking training buddy
– Sam
We all need to adjust to our own method of transferring information however, I tend to use metaphors and experiential learning regardless if they are adults or young people we all have our own unique way that we interpret information and digest what we have learnt, it is excellent to see research into the practical ways or principals used by someone back in my era, keep up the great work.