Patterns of Adult Learning

The Fall semester is quickly approaching.  Some of us will be taking classes, some of us will be teaching/facilitating classes.  For those who will be teaching/facilitating classes, I’ve listed a few patterns of adult learning to help you with your preparation.  Teaching adults demands an understanding of adults as learners.  This information is taken from the book, Creative Bible Teaching by Lawrence Richards and Gary Bredfeldt.

Patterns of Adult Learning

1. Desire for a safe environment.  Every adult teacher must understand that adults generally feel inhibited by and fearful of the educational setting.  This means there is a need to aid all students by creating a comfortable, safe environment where relationships are mutually supportive.

2. Desire to be emotionally engaged. When adults report positive learning outcomes from an educational experience, they are spoken of most often in emotional terms, not cognitive terms.  “That class is great.  We have some really intense sharing and openness.  I have learned so much from our discussions.”

3.  Desire to meet a challenge.  Adult learning occurred when adults sense the successful completion of a significant intellectual  challenge.  This also leads to high levels of retention of new information.

4.  Desire for a reflective opportunity.  Most adults feel they receive too much information to process in a satisfactory way.  They feel as though they have experienced information overload because teachers do not give time to assimilate new information into past experience and understandings.

5. Desire to feel like they are being stretched.  Adult learners begin with feelings of enthusiasm for new information,, but then become somewhat frustrated by their inability to assimilate the new information into their existing patterns and experiences. They tend to return to their previously held perspectives and patters of life.  But they can no longer be comfortable there.  New thinking has made the old patterns binding.

6.  Desire for the unexpected.  Adults enjoy and respond most actively to the unexpected. Learners will often say that learning happened unexpectedly. It is as if there is a breakthrough moment that occurs for adults when their thinking is brought from the anticipated to the unforeseen.

7.  Desire for a learning community.  Adult learners often report how important a group dynamic is to their own learning experience. Adult learners seem to prefer a learning setting that fosters a sense of mutual support as opposed to competition.   Adults seem to need a smaller group within the large group to support their learning and to provide a sense of belonging.

Keep these things in mind as you plan and prepare for your classes this fall.  Enjoy your learners and enjoy learning along with them.