In the modern world, the role of adult learning becomes more and more important because a growing number of people want to acquire new knowledge and skills either for professional or personal reasons (Rose, Kasworm, & Ross-Gordon, 2010, p. 13). This is why it is important to understand the factors that can affect their education.
Overall, teachers have to accept the idea that many traditional methods of instruction may not be applicable to these people because they can have different cognitive abilities and needs. This is the main issue that should be discussed.
One can argue that cognition and memory have the strongest impact on people. Teachers should bear in mind that as people grow older learning strategies can change due to various factors, especially age. First, according to the findings of psychologists, memory of a person is inevitably affected by age, even if there are no pathologies such as dementia (Nilsson, 2003, p. 7).
For instance, the research indicates that older adults, especially those ones, whose age is fifty or more, do not perform very well when they have to face the tasks requiring simultaneous storage and processing of information (Nilsson, 2003, p. 11). Thus, educators should remember about this issue when they work with adult learners.
Additionally, psychologists report that such cognitive ability also tends to decline even in normal aging (Seel, 2011, p. 561). For example, learners who are older than fifty, may find it more difficult to single out the most relevant information (Seel, 2011, p. 561). For some of them information overload can be a significant problem.
In part, these phenomena can be explained by the fact that many of these people were not engaged in self-directed after the end of their formal education. In other words, some of them may not have practiced their learning skills for a very long time. This is why educators will need to adopt a different set of strategies when they will work with such learners.
Nevertheless, teachers should also take into account that some adults do not lose their cognitive abilities. In fact, they become more skilled at self-directed studies. In fact, they do not want to be guided by teachers (Westell, 2005, p. 7). Thus, one should not assume that every adult learner acts in the same way. Such a view will be too simplistic.
The information about aging and its influence on memory and cognition will be of great use to me. In particular, it will help me develop the tasks that best suits the needs of adult learners. For instance, I will take into account that for some learners it can be difficult to process and memorize too many facts that may be seemingly unrelated to one another.
I will need to focus students’ attention on the most important concepts and ideas that they will need to understand and memorize. Secondly, it may be necessary for me to use visual aids such as graphs or diagrams that can highlight the most important information. Furthermore, I will try to offer these people more opportunities for self-directed studies.
They should know how to study independently. Judging from my experiences, I can tell that it is important to determine what kind of goals learners may set. Some of them can be interested in acquiring certain skills. In turn, many of them are interested in learning for the sake of learning. Thus, an instructor has to use different strategies when teaching these students.
Overall, I can say that other students are also aware of the fact that adult learners may have different needs, and that traditional teaching methods applied in the classroom may not benefit adult learners. I can say that other teachers also pay much attention to such issues as cognition and memory.
They also accept the premise that aging can be a significant factor that affects the education of adults. Moreover, they try to accommodate the learning activities to the cognitive development of adult learners. The tasks developed by these teachers are likely to benefit adults who want to continue their education. There are very things that I would like to change about the course. In my opinion, more attention should be paid to the reasons why many adults choose to continue their education.
For many of them the main priority is self-confidence or self-esteem (Rose, Kasworm, & Ross-Gordon, 2010, p. 13). Usually they attach more importance to self-directed studies. In my view, self-direction is a skill that these people should possess. I would like to know how to help these people with this task. Still, despite these limitations, this course seems to be quite effective. It has given me deep insights into the peculiarities of adult learning.
These example shows that adulthood should not be associated only with professional activities, since at this stage of life a person may still have an inclination to learn. In fact, life-long-learning can prove to be a necessity for every individual. Educators have to keep in mind that the cognitive abilities and needs of adults can be very different and conventional methods of instructions may be beneficial. Additionally, educators should take into account the reasons why a person may want to continue his/her education.
Reference List
Nilsson, L. (2003). Memory function in normal aging. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 107 (179), 7-13.
Rose, A. Kasworm, C. & Ross-Gordon, J. (2010). Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. New York: SAGE.
Seel, N. (2011). Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. New York: Springer.
Westell, T. (2005). Measuring Non-Academic Outcomes In Adult Literacy Programs: A Literature Review. Web.