Teaching adults

In today's post, we will deal with a rather complex and very important topic - adult learning. Adult learning is radically different from the learning of children, who, as a rule, "absorb like a sponge." In our case, it is more complicated. Our adult brains have certain - greater or lesser - limitations that must be taken into account for the process to be effective.

The learning process

The learning process is studied primarily by psychologists. The understanding of the learning process has been dominated over the years by a view that has come to be known as the behavioral-associative approach and has gained many adherents. One of the assumptions of this theory is that people learn by association, and a specific stimulus triggers a response. Pavlov's experiment with a drooling dog is the best-known example of this theory.

Learning is seen as the construction of habits from associations. Repetition, especially when combined with positive reinforcement, helps the learning process. The instructor breaks down knowledge into smaller, logically organized chunks and provides reinforcement to learners. Many of the approaches used in higher education today, such as behavioral objectives, hierarchical curricula and objective knowledge testing, are legacies of the behavioral-associative approach.

Recent guidelines

In recent years, the cognitive approach has emerged as the main theory to explain learning in a higher education environment, where knowledge is complex and information processing is as important as factual recall. Cognitive psychology focuses on memory, reasoning and tasks such as critical thinking and problem solving. It is interested in how learners construct meaning when confronted with new information and how they try to fit it into existing knowledge.

Cognitive psychologists define learning as the process of incorporating new information into existing structures that the learner has created to combine individual pieces of information into a whole. From time to time, there is a need to create new structures. Learning theories applied in higher education settings have been well explained by Bruning (1994) and Casazza and Silverman (1996).

savnitsky's 6 rules

Svinicki (1991) distinguishes six rules of learning based on cognitive theory and their implications for instructors:

• If information is to be assimilated, it must first be recognized as relevant.
  Implication: The more attention is effectively directed to what is to be assimilated (that is, the most important concepts and areas), the greater the likelihood of successful learning.
• During learning, learners transform information so that it is meaningful to them.
  Implication: both the instructor and the learner should use examples, images, discussions and combine them with existing knowledge to increase the relevance of the information.
• Learners store information in long-term memory in a structured way derived from their existing understanding of the world.
  Implication: The instructor can support the organization of new material by giving it a structure, especially one that learners are familiar with, or by encouraging learners to create such structures.
• Learners continually check their understanding, which leads to refinement and repetition of memorized information.
  Implication: In order to support the learning process, numerous opportunities should be created to test and explore the state of knowledge.
• The transfer of knowledge to new contexts is not automatic, but is the result of
  repeated application.
  Implication: At the initial stage of the learning process, it is necessary to provide a foundation for the later application of knowledge in new contexts.
• The learning process is facilitated when learners are aware of their own learning strategies and control their application in practice.
  Implication: the instructor should help learners learn to translate learning strategies into concrete actions at appropriate stages of the learning process.

In the next post, we will take up further aspects of this complex issue.