Monday, December 12, 2016

A Dozen Things You Need to Know about Adult Learners - Ralph G. Brocket, Tomorrow's Professor

The second key to effective teaching is to know the adult learner. In 1928, E.L. Thorndike and his colleagues published an important study that showed adult learning ability is more stable than previously believed. Since then, educators and psychologists have been pushing back the frontiers of knowledge to the point where, today, we know much about cognitive and psychomotor processes in adulthood and have developed a vast range of theories designed to explain how adults learn. An in-depth discussion of theory and research is beyond the scope of this book. However, I would like to introduce you to some ideas that can help you gain a basic understanding of adult learner characteristics. In this chapter, I share a dozen points and some tips for each that you can use immediately to help you better understand the adults you are teaching. https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1529