Thinking about adult learners

In the Ultimate Training Workshop Handbook, Klatt looks in Chapter 2 at the process of learning and habits. Specifically, I found interesting the section where he talked about adult learners and how they differ from traditional child learners.

Since adults are older and have more experience, they bring that with them to a class or a workshop. I have seen this myself this semester in my Comm 101 class as students will often be able to attribute concepts to personal examples because they have experience in a certain area. Klatt mentions that it's important to allow adult leaners to adapt what you are teaching them into what they already know, so as a teacher I must be aware of the experience level my students bring into the classroom.

Klatt also notes how adults are often looking for real life problems and solutions rather than academic ideas. While this translates well to a workshop, for me in an academic setting teaching at Boise State I feel like this may not always be the case. However, from personal experience and based on the text, it seems that, even in an academic setting, as adults we look for ways to apply our knowledge. The more I can show my students how their knowledge applies to their world, the more likely they are to engage with the content I'm teaching them.

Adult learners also prefer to direct themselves instead of an instructor telling them every single thing to do. In my classroom I can see how it is beneficial to give students broad directions but let them take their activities and discussions in a way that they feel like can learn something. Of course, since my classes are mostly freshmen, sometimes a little more direction is needed to stay on task and I have to be aware of the situation to make sure they have a good balance of freedom and direction.