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Adult Learners and Learning

Cate Poole

May 17, 2013

Cate Poole

Senior Instructional Designer

SAI Global

Compliance Americas

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Adult Learner

Harassment huh?

Well... nobody is

stalking me so I don’t

really need to pay

attention

Does this

apply to my

job?

Why do I need

to learn this? How will this

benefit me?

Characteristics of Adult Learners

• Adults have pre-existing knowledge (and experience) and will try to make connections with

new material—sometimes leading to

misinformation.

Harassment huh? Well... nobody is

stalking me so I don’t really need to pay

attention

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Characteristics of Adult Learners

• Adult learners are motivated internally and are goal oriented. They want to know why they need

to learn something and how it will benefit them.

Why do I need to learn this?

How will this benefit me?

Characteristics of Adult Learners

• Adult learners seek relevancy in learning. They

need to see the link between what they are

learning and how it will apply to their lives (or jobs).

Does this apply to my

job?

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Characteristics of Adult Learners: Application

• Why is this course is important and what can you expect to learn?

– Importance to the

company

– Laws or policy could be

violated

– Consequences

Why do I need to learn this?

Characteristics of Adult Learners: Application

• How course will help them

– Recognize situations

– Respond appropriately

– Avoid violations

How will this benefit me?

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Characteristics of Adult Learners: Application

• How content relates to workplace

– Scenarios

– Simulation

Does this apply to my

job?

Characteristics of Adult Learners: Application

• Adults have pre-existing knowledge and will try

to make connections with new material—sometimes

leading to misinformation.

- Create context

- Give several examples

- Acknowledge common

misconceptions

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Characteristics of Adult Learners: Application

• And finally...

– Focus on specific behaviors or actions

Adult Learning

The Great Mystery

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Adult Learning

Learning is about memory.

Memory in

Memory out

Adult Learning: Three Types of Memory

Sensory memory

• The first gatekeeper for everything you sense

and perceive

• Most sensations are ignored (brightness of

lights, temperature)

• If a sensation is unusual or significant it goes

into...

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Adult Learning: Short Term Memory

What was that

number?

Adult Learning: Short Term Memory Experiment

5621

885634052

885 634 052

123456789

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Adult Learning: Short Term Memory Application

5621Short and sweet. Training or awareness?

Adult Learning: Short Term Memory Application

885634052Too much information=cognitive overload

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Adult Learning: Short Term Memory Application

885 634 052Present information in manageable chunks—categorize information for later

retrieval

Adult Learning: Short Term Memory Application

123456789 Provide context and draw upon previous knowledge

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Adult Learning: Short Term > Long Term Memory

I NEED to

remember this.

Adult Learning: Encoding

Making agreements with

competitors to control

pricing violates

competition laws.

Competitors

Pricing

Things I could

get in trouble

for.

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Adult Learning: Retrieval

What was that thing

about competitors and

agreements and

pricing?

Competitors

Pricing

Trouble

Adult Learning: Just-in-time Memory

Memory in

Memory out

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Adult Learning: Context Triggers Long-term Memory

One thing to remember...

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Thank you.