Factors That Motivate Adults to Learn

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Five factors that motivate adults to learn

Another thing to instruct. It’s something more to understand, and the two don’t necessarily go together. Our role is to assist learning, or to do all possible to ensure that individuals learn what we wish to teach them. Implementing five fundamental concepts into your programme design can help guarantee that your participants really understand. These are based on years of adult learning experience.

Personal Advantage:  Adult learners need to be able to recognise the personal advantage of what they are studying and how it meets a need they possess. They are inclined to learn if they are studying:

  • Solves or avoids a problem for them.
  • It provides an opportunity or higher status.

Experiences: Adult learners bring a diverse set of expertise and knowledge to each learning session. They are driven to study if the education: 

  • engages them in sharing their knowledge.
  • expands on what they already know.
  • It confirms their knowledge.

Adult learners are self directed and require some influence of what they’re understanding. 

  • Take control of their education by making decisions regarding the content and procedure.
  • Support for their colleagues’ development.
  • Must have had some independence in the educational process.

Adult learners are engaged, pragmatic, and like to learn by doing. They learn best when: 

  • The learning has an immediate application.
  • They actively engage in the education process.
  • Before leaving a learning program, they can practice new abilities or test new information.

Styles of Learning

Adult learners learn in a number of methods, from handson and physical to utilizing their eyes, hearing, and/or reasoning to acquire new skills and information. They gain knowledge when: 

  • The learning taps into a variety of learning methods that suit their tastes and activate their “multiple intelligences’; and 
  •  Various means are employed to depict the subject being learnt.

Factors affecting learning

Andragogy is the next critical notion for all organizers of adult learning. This is the most widely used model of adult learning and motivational concepts. Malcolm Knowles has identified and compared the andragogical and pedagogical approaches. The main factors affecting adult education are:

  1. Self-Concept: Andragogy presupposes that adult learners are fairly self-directed and autonomous in their methodology. As an individual evolves, his or her personality shifts from that of a dependent person to that of a self-directed human being.
  2. Adult Learner Experience: As a person grows older, he or she accumulates a rising reservoir of experience, which serves as an expanding source for learning. Therefore, adult learners prefer to learn when they can integrate new material with prior knowledge and love participating in debates, research papers, field trips, and so on.
  3. Readiness to Learn: As a person grows older, his or her willingness to learn becomes more focused on the maturation demands of his or her social duties. There is an inherent requirement to discover gaps between current innovation and advanced information in order to appropriately fulfill societal duties.

Adult learners pursue higher education for a multitude of reasons,  and it is critical for higher education institutions to comprehend these reasons in an attempt to provide adequate services.

  • A strong foundation of pertinent educational objectives, community components that provide a feeling of belonging, interconnections, and compelling opportunities that promote proficiency, competence, and ability must be the starting point for programs created for busy adult learners. The involvement of an organized and inspiring instructor, intelligent peer participation, proper technology use, and an active, diverse learning style are a few of the foundation’s most crucial components.
  • Even the most motivated and well-organized worker has a lot to handle when it comes to higher education. The capacity to learn from previous mistakes is crucial, even when lapses in judgment, poor academic performance, or missed deadlines may cause fear in certain students. Counselors for student assistance, teachers, and advisers ought to be on hand to offer criticism, coaching, and recommendations that encourage students to keep their attention on the future.
  • The ability to develop a leadership capacity is crucial for academicians, technical and administrative personnel, and consultants. When there is collaboration, information exchange, and defined communication strategies, it is simpler for the student to decide who to address when they need help. Advisors and faculty members should also learn how to recognise when constructive communication and action are required.
  • Support staff have the chance to review and reconnect the student with their initial goal and purpose for seeking higher education when the student begins to question their decision to engage in school or loses sight of their intrinsic desire to complete the programme.