Adult Learners
Why are adult learners so diffrent from high school students?
I believe that adult are fix in there ways in that they found something that works for them and I need to show them other ways that may also work for them, so their have more tool to work with.
It is very true for many adults that they have established patterns and habits for themselves that may not be conducive to learning. However, I believe the biggest difference is that adults, who have entered the workforce, find that they are primarily concerned with learning what is actually applicable to their career/job. If they are simply doing busy work, learning theories but not facts, or simply learning something that is too abstract, they quickly lose faith in the teacher and the course. Relating all course content back to the "real world" I believe helps to move past most learning difficulties for adults.
Adult learners usually fall into two groups: the 1st came because they "Want " to learn new skills and knowedgle. They are the easy ones, all they need is a good guide to helpexpand their insight. They second group is often their as a result of economy and job security. You will usually have to convince them the value of being their and give them more direct skills and knowedgle that they can directly relate to a field of employment.
Our adult students fall into two groups - those freshout of high school (essentially still high schoolers) and those that have been out of school for several years. Their fundamental difference is perspective. High schoolers are constantly told that they will need to know this some day, but have yet to be in the situation where that proves to be true. The older students come back saying "what do you know, they were right" and that they wish they had listened better in high school. The older students are now ready to listen as long as the lesson has a reasonable rationale. The high schoolers still just don't really care.
I have come to find out that the students recently out from highschool are the students who sometimes don't take school all that serious. Especially, if they still live with parents. Those students that have families or are older tend to have the stress of having to accomplish the skill training because their families depend on them to finish. Sometimes, that's not always the case. I like to mix my students with different age groups so that they gain different behaviors and maturity levels from one another.
Reply to Denise Nunez's post: I think it is unfair to categorize all the students fresh out of high school as not taking school seriously. I'm glad you wrote at the end end "that's not always the case." They do take it seriously, it is that culturally for that age group, apathy is cool, so they have a hard time expressing excitement in a classroom setting.
I like what you said about mixing the age groups, the older studnts benefit from the enthusiasm and technology skills of the younger ones, and the younger ones benefit from the maturity and perspective of the older ones.
Because adults wear many hats family, children, aging parents etc they do NOT want to waste time. They are insistent that your do not waste their time and want information that is black and white
