Principles of adult learning

Javed Mazher | [email protected]

Principles of Adult LearningTraining of Trainers


Objectives of the session

Better understanding of adult learning…

How to make the learning personal, real and engaging…

8 tips that improve your odds for success …

≠ Not a ‘how to train’ session…


Adult Learning ⃝ ⃝ ⃝

Adult learning is defined as 'the entire range of

formal, non-formal and informal learning,

activities which are undertaken by adults after a

break since leaving initial education and

training, which results in the acquisition of new

knowledge and skills'.


8 Principles of Adult Learning ⃝ ⃝ ⃝

Active LearningActive participation through discussion, feedback and activities creates more learning than passive listening.

Problem-centricAdults are not there just to get more information. If your presentation doesn’t help them solve their pressing issues, it will be forgotten.

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Previous Experience

New information has to be linked to previous knowledge and experience or it will not be remembered.

RelevanceIf the information being presented is not relevant to the listener’s life and work, it will not get their attention. .

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Emotional Connection

Presentations that connect with a learner’s emotions are more likely to be remembered, recalled and learned.

Self LearningAdult learners have some strong beliefs about how they learn. These beliefs, whether accurate or not, can interfere or enhance their learning.

5 6

AlignmentAdults expect that a presenter’s content, learning outcomes and activities be aligned together. If the learning outcomes do not match the content, the learner feels disconnected and learning is hampered.

FunLearning should be fun! As a presenter, if you are not having fun presenting your information and facilitating learning, then you should stop.

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8 Principles of Adult Learning ⃝ ⃝ ⃝


Do not tell adult ‘WHAT IS THIS’…

Tell them ‘HOW & WHERE IT WILL WORK’…


Who are your participants?

Prisoner

Vacationer

Combative Judger

The learner


The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads better-informed parties to find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed parties.


Experience

Bias

Perception

We put colors on what we learn

Belief

Stop being a prisoner of your own mind!!!


8 tips that improve your odds for success as a trainer…

1. Credibility

2. Accurate

3. Relevant

4. Current

5. Practical

6. Usefulness

7. Involve

8. Affirmation


Your training session should not resemble a ‘Wedding reception’….

Have you ever attended marriage receptions where you met up with a lot of people?Pretty- courteous folks,chatty, breezy, mindless conversational overload,lots of names and polite smiles exchanged, and THEN…!

You returned home and the new faces were soon forgotten.

And THEN……You wondered what did you really go there for?In this age of internet and information savvy world, it is obtuse to just dump information on participants which they can easily procure from the web or numerous other resources.

Many of the Training Sessions end up being like these wedding receptions…Lots of ParticipantsPlenty of information which is downloaded and passed on,Innumerable data- and-graph- heavy PPTs add nausea


4 methods of adult learning…


Adult Learning Cycle

Experience Reflect

ConcludeApply

What you see/ observe OR face

What? Review of information related to experience

So What??What and how you can doNow What??

Use strategies you’ve planned


In any training set up: the trainer, the learner & the learning (content) are the three elements which interact.

Ideal learning happens at the meeting point of these.

Alternatively, let us suppose that these three elements form a triangle.The question then arises: Which side of the triangle is the most important one and why?’ [Group exercise]

Exercise 1:Who is the V.I.P in the Workshop?

Trainer

Learner Learning

1 2

3


Exercise 2:Game of recap…

the BUCKET and the BALL Game


Thank you!

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn………..

Principles of adult learning

Self Improvement