Characteristics of Adult Learning
1.2. Characteristics of adult learning
Education of children is compulsory, formal and standardized. Adult learning is voluntary and intentional. The aim of adult education is the independent self-directed learner. Adults tend to resist a learning process which is incongruent with their self-concept as autonomous individuals and does not correspond to their needs and interests.
Adult learning is learner-centered
What children learn in school should be useful to them — but later in life. Child learning is subject-centered. Adult learning is learner-centered. Adults focus on direct application. Given their daily obligations in job, profession, family and community they learn to cope with the pressures and problems of life they are facing. In consequence the adult educator’s concern is not only and not even primarily the logical development of a subject matter but the needs and interests of the learners. "Andragogy (adult education) calls for program builders and teachers who are person-centered, who don’t teach subject matter but rather help persons learn" (Knowles). However, the interests of adults are their real needs. Or the solutions learners have in mind do not solve their problems. The adult educator often has to enter into a "needs negotiation" (Bhola) with learners when teaching new needs about boiled water or a balanced diet, about clean surroundings, preventive health practices or small families. In the dialectical process of needs negotiation the needs as felt by the learners and the needs as seen by the adult educators must be brought together to reach a consensus on the "real" needs. These real needs must correspond to the experience of adult learners. If an adult gets the impression that his experience is not being valued he feels rejected as a person. New learnings take on meaning as adults are able to relate them to their life experience. Experienced adult educators, therefore, build into the design of their learning experiences provision for the
Education of children is compulsory, formal and standardized. Adult learning is voluntary and intentional. The aim of adult education is the independent self-directed learner. Adults tend to resist a learning process which is incongruent with their self-concept as autonomous individuals and does not correspond to their needs and interests.
Adult learning is learner-centered
What children learn in school should be useful to them — but later in life. Child learning is subject-centered. Adult learning is learner-centered. Adults focus on direct application. Given their daily obligations in job, profession, family and community they learn to cope with the pressures and problems of life they are facing. In consequence the adult educator’s concern is not only and not even primarily the logical development of a subject matter but the needs and interests of the learners. "Andragogy (adult education) calls for program builders and teachers who are person-centered, who don’t teach subject matter but rather help persons learn" (Knowles). However, the interests of adults are their real needs. Or the solutions learners have in mind do not solve their problems. The adult educator often has to enter into a "needs negotiation" (Bhola) with learners when teaching new needs about boiled water or a balanced diet, about clean surroundings, preventive health practices or small families. In the dialectical process of needs negotiation the needs as felt by the learners and the needs as seen by the adult educators must be brought together to reach a consensus on the "real" needs. These real needs must correspond to the experience of adult learners. If an adult gets the impression that his experience is not being valued he feels rejected as a person. New learnings take on meaning as adults are able to relate them to their life experience. Experienced adult educators, therefore, build into the design of their learning experiences provision for the