5
Leveraging Adult Learner Differences
Adults do not consistently participate in learning, either formal (planned) or informal (unplanned), throughout their life. Generally, younger and more highly educated workers are more likely to participate in learning efforts of all kinds than their older or less educated counterparts. Adults are less likely to participate in education and training:
• The lower their level of schooling
• The lower their level of educational attainment
• The lower their socioeconomic status
• When they cannot get away from work or get supervisory approval
• When they face social pressures from home or family not to participate
• When they do not perceive that education or training will benefit them
• When they are unfamiliar with how to apply what they learn
• When they are unfamiliar with what educational or learning opportunities are available
• When they do not have time
• When they do not have the resources (such as transportation) to get to the opportunity
• When they lack child care or other support systems to help them participate in education or training
What Principles of Adult Learning Are Important for Learning Professionals?
Several important principles about adult learners guide many aspects of adult learning situations. Generally, these principles may be summarized as making assumptions about adults as learners, motivating adult learners, planning instruction for adults, working with groups of adults, working with individual adult learners, helping learners transfer what they learned, and considering the barriers faced by adults in learning.
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Take care that you do not assume that all adults have the same characteristics. Some adults do not share the general characteristics that are widely attributed to adult learners. Indeed, the trend is to consider individual characteristics and learning styles. Still, it is important for you to have a fundamental understanding of adult learning theory as presented in this section. |
Basic Rule 4Assumptions About Adults as Learners
Well-known author and theorist Malcolm Knowles stated that most adult learners are autonomous. Most of them want to take charge of their lives, their learning, and their careers. They are self-directed, meaning they are willing to initiate their own learning efforts when they see the need to do so. When the moment is right because adults are encountering a personal situation that prompts them to learn—what is called a teachable moment (Havighurst 1952)—adults see the need to learn and are highly motivated to do so. Such teachable moments occur when adults are confronting a work or life problem or feel that they are about to face such a problem. As a simple example, adults become highly motivated to learn about Japan just before they go there; similarly, they become interested in learning about babies just before they become parents.
Self-directed learning does not, however, mean that adults prefer to learn individually or in isolation. Instead, studies of such learning indicate that learners may draw on at least 10 other resources as they pursue individualized learning projects. Many adults prefer group interaction to less-social settings for learning.
Few adults want to hear about history, theory, or background when they are motivated to learn; rather, they want to build on their own wealth of knowledge and experience. In short, they come to learning with their own sense of identity and sense of what they already know. Adults usually find it difficult to learn if the learning clashes with their values, beliefs, or previous experience.
Assumptions About Motivating Adult Learners
Adults are motivated to learn for different reasons. These motivators may generally be categorized into six groups:
• Build social networks: Make new acquaintances
• Meet expectations: Comply with what supervisors or others want the learners to do
• Advance in their careers: Prepare for, or meet, requirements for promotion by moving up the organization chart or by moving across the technical career ladder of increasing expertise
• Be stimulated: Find escape and adventure through learning
• Help others: Meet perceived social obligations to other people
• Learn for its own sake: Enjoy the free play of the mind in pursuit of knowledge and skills.
Efforts to motivate learners will work best when they are tied to the appropriate reasons that attracted the learners to participate in a learning situation. Active learning, in which learners are actively engaged in the learning process, has been shown to lead to better outcomes (Baepler, Walker, and Driessen 2014).
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Learners set out to learn for different reasons. Their reasons for learning should be considered in the design of learning experiences. Do this by surfacing what learners want from the learning experience early on in that experience. |
An especially effective technique is to ask learners why they want to learn. This can be done by questionnaire or email before they participate in a learning event, or it can be done at the outset of training by posing the question to the learner group and flip charting what they said. Then the talent developer should ensure that learners’ expectations are met. One way to do that is to conclude a training session by reviewing the flip-chart list that learners provided and ensuring that each problem they wanted to solve has been addressed in the training.
Assumptions About Planning Instruction for Adults
Adults do not like general learning experiences; rather, they prefer focused learning that centers around how to apply key ideas, principles, or the experience of others. Older adults may take longer to acquire new knowledge or skills because they tend to be more careful about learning something to ensure they do it right. They are less willing than younger people to experiment without careful planning (Czaja and Sharit 2016).
Adults invest their egos heavily in what they learn and how they learn. They do not like to make mistakes that make them appear stupid, foolish, or incompetent. For this reason, the learning environment should provide support and encouragement. Young adults, who grew up with web access, are quite willing to learn online. But older adults are sometimes less willing or less desirous of learning experiences that minimize face-to-face interaction.
Assumptions About Working With Groups of Adults
The setting in which adults learn must be comfortable to them both physically and psychologically. For that reason, adults do not favor sitting on hard chairs through long, boring lectures; rather, they prefer active and interactive settings in which to learn—stimulating, but safe psychologically. Adults come to group learning events with expectations about what will happen, and the learning process works most effectively when their expectations are surfaced and addressed.
Adults generally respond best to learning situations in which facilitators pose questions, provide just enough information to serve as a foundation for discussion, give learners the chance to participate in the discussion, and yield opportunities for them to interact with their peers. Consequently, facilitation skills are of crucial importance to teachers or talent developers of adults.
Of greatest importance is knowledge of how to pose open questions, typically understood to mean questions beginning with who, what, when, where, why, or how. (Closed questions, in contrast, begin with is, was, did, or have.)
In groups, some adults tend to be more participative than others. A typical challenge for facilitators is to seek balanced participation. They can do this by calling on otherwise silent people or going around the group and asking each person to offer a comment or an answer to a question.
Adults typically need opportunities to practice or apply new knowledge or skills. That means it is often wise to ask groups of learners to engage in open-ended activities in which they must come up with a group answer to a difficult problem, analyze case studies, participate in role plays, or take part in any learning activity that encourages interaction.
In online and blended experiences, it is particularly important to find ways to increase learner engagement and interaction. If facilitators do not do that, it is likely they will experience growing dropout rates. There are many ways to increase learner interaction. Some practical tips include:
• Provide activities that require participant interaction
• Ask for feedback from all learners to check who is still active in the online program
• Give students the chance to meet on their own in online breakout sessions
• Ask learners to share resources, tools, and experiences
• Host synchronous experiences as well as asynchronous experiences
• Ask participants to assess or evaluate each other’s work to increase group interaction
Care must be taken with some older learners when using online methods. Not everyone is equally skilled with technology. To address that issue, it is sometimes helpful to give learners an orientation experience at the outset of a technology-based, or even a blended, presentation. For instance, some learners expect the facilitator to walk them through the technology requirements of the learning experience and to check that their technology is adequate. Other learners have expectations about facilitators that stem from their experiences in classroom events; they may expect the facilitator to open an online experience by reviewing the syllabus and explaining what learning tasks are to be accomplished. While the latter approach may be common in classrooms, it is less common in online or even blended experiences where learners are encouraged to be proactive in reading syllabi and lessons.
Assumptions About Working With Individual Adult Learners
Individual learning efforts often tap theories and practice of coaching and mentoring. Those working with individuals have the advantage of being able to find out what motivates individuals and direct attention to those motivators. Often just a few questions can help a facilitator in a one-on-one learning situation determine how much an individual is interested in building social networks, meeting supervisory expectations, advancing their careers, finding adventure, helping others, or learning for the sake of learning.
As a simple example, an online facilitator might ask participants in a course to post their answers to preliminary questions. Among them:
• What experience have you had with the topic of this course?
• What challenges do you face on a daily basis as you deal with the topic of this course?
• What do you like least about this topic—and why?
Assumptions About Helping Learners Transfer What They Learned
A topic of perennial interest to talent developers is how to increase transfer of training, sometimes called transfer of learning. It is commonly understood that less than 8 percent of off-the-job training transfers back to the job in changed behavior. That means each dollar spent on training yields only eight cents of impact.
There are several reasons why adults do not transfer what they learned. One big reason is short-term memory loss. Adults forget about 80 percent of what they hear within 48 hours. Hence, to increase memory retention, talent developers must find ways to make it easy for learners to apply what they learned. Techniques to do so may include giving them job aids (such as checklists) or practical tools that they can use immediately on their jobs.
Another reason why adults do not transfer what they learn is that supervisors and co-workers are seldom in the same training session. When workers return to their jobs from training, their supervisors and co-workers may not support their efforts to apply what they learned. In fact, they may even ridicule such efforts. (“Where did you learn that? From talent developers? What do they know!”) Group norms, the unspoken ways that people relate to each other in small groups, influence how much people are willing to apply what they learned. To increase transfer of learning, talent developers must consider ways to help impact on-the-job norms.
Here are a few simple tips to increase the transfer of learning:
• Give participants memorable instruction, since adults tend to remember interesting stories more than rules, principles, theories, or descriptions
• Appeal to as many senses as possible, since learners will tend to remember better when appeals are made to a range of senses, such as sight, hearing, touch, and smell
• Relate training to what learners already know, purposely working to build on it
• Identify the on-the-job problems that learners face, and make an effort to help them solve those problems
Considering the Barriers Faced by Adults in Learning
Adults face many barriers that hold them back from learning as they may need or want to. Such barriers center on lack of time, money, self-esteem, interest, or management support; scheduling difficulties or life responsibilities that may conflict with learning opportunities; care of others (such as children or elderly parents); and transportation.
It is particularly effective to find out what barriers adults perceive in their learning process. Talent developers should simply ask, usually at the outset of training or at the end, what barriers the learners perceive may affect their ability to apply what they learn and what organizational leaders can do to knock down those barriers.
Adult Characteristics That Affect Adult Learning
Adults differ from children in the simple, and obvious, sense that they are older. And that is important, because there are fundamental differences between children and adults stemming simply from age. Children have few, if any, age-related problems. But as adults age, it is a well-known fact that their senses of sight and hearing decline. Adults also experience changes in how well they remember things and how willing they are to participate in planned learning experiences such as group training.
Age-Related Differences in Hearing
Nearly one in three U.S. adults between ages 65 and 75 experiences some form of hearing loss. About 1.5 of every three U.S. adults 75 years or older also experience hearing loss. “We are born with a set of sensory cells, and, at about age 18, we slowly start to lose them,” says Hinrich Staecker, MD, PhD, director of the otology and neurotology program at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. But because age-related hearing loss, called presbycusis, progresses so slowly, most people don’t notice any changes until well after age 50. There is no one reason that hearing loss occurs; rather, there are many.
The point to understand is that adults—particularly older adults—may need help to hear as they participate in planned learning experiences. Loss of hearing does occur with age, presenting an obstacle for adult learners as they grow older.
Age-Related Differences in Sight
As the population ages, vision loss will pose a major challenge for individuals and organizations alike if they are to help people maintain their skills and learn effectively. Talent developers need to be vigilant about this challenge.
Age-Related Differences in Memory
While people may tell bad jokes about memory loss and old age, the reality is that memory loss is not solely dependent on age or even necessarily affected by it. According to C.E. Barber (2005), “out of 42.7 million Americans over 60, loss of memory for recent events affects 7 to 10 percent (3 to 4 million). For some, recall is just slowed down. For others, memory impairment becomes both noticeable and troublesome.”
The conclusions to be drawn from age and memory research are these:
• There are three types of memory—sensory, short-term, and long-term. Age-related problems may actually stem from sensory loss because people cannot see or hear what they are learning.
• Older adults may have more fragile short-term memory than younger adults.
Age does not have a relationship to long-term memory as far as research has shown.
Other Age-Related Differences in Learning
Although there are elements of “wear and tear,” the idea of “use it or lose it” seems best in regard to learning as people age. Having concluded this, it seems useful to give advice about how we can better cope with the aging process. Since the nervous system undergoes complex changes late in life, it is best not to alter it further. Alcohol and certain drugs that act on the central nervous system can impair cognitive abilities (Selkoe 1996). Scientists, however, may be able to develop effective drugs that stop some of the effects of the aging process.
Environment is critical to consider in the aging process. A study that ended in 1994 assessed the mental abilities of more than 5,000 adults (Rosenzweig and Bennett 1996). The study’s results revealed that there are several key environmental factors that reduce risk of mental decline as people age. First is having work that involves high complexity and low routine. Second is maintaining intact families. Third is participating in continuing education activities and social events.
Age-Related Differences in Learning Disabilities
According to the Foundation for People With Learning Disabilities, about 2 percent of the U.S. population has a learning disability. The number of people over age 60 with a learning disability is expected to grow by 36 percent from 2001 to 2021. Nearly one in three people who have a learning disability claim that they do not maintain contact with any friends or family.
There are many kinds of learning disabilities. Perhaps best known is dyslexia, the tendency for the brain to scramble the order of printed words. But there are many others, some not so well documented, understood, or commonly diagnosed. Talent developers of the future must become aware of these possible learning disabilities and be prepared to make reasonable accommodations so that learners can keep their knowledge, skills, and attitudes up to date and can receive training despite the learning disabilities from which they suffer.
The phrase learning disability, sometimes called a learning disorder, is actually a general term. Generally, anything that interferes with an individual’s ability to learn amounts to a learning disability. According to University College London, up to 10 percent of children experience learning disorders (2013). Few schools are well-equipped to detect these issues with children, even though learning disabilities can hamper the ability of schoolage children to progress through school successfully. Even fewer employers are equipped to deal with the impact of learning disabilities on employee job performance, yet there can be little doubt that disorders in learning will not make it easy for workers to do their jobs.
In the U.S., the Americans With Disabilities Act requires employers to make reasonable accommodation for those with learning disabilities—as well as other disabilities—to help them do their jobs. Reasonable accommodation means the employer should make modifications to the work or to the way the work is done so that disabled workers can perform.
As applied to learning events, academic institutions discuss accessibility. It is a form of reasonable accommodation, and it does affect employers whose talent development efforts are necessary for workers to qualify for their jobs, keep their jobs, or advance in their jobs. The term accessibility means that schools have an obligation to make reasonable accommodation to help disabled students access learning resources, and the same notion applies to employers. For instance, information provided by a video may have to be scripted so that students with hearing disabilities will be able to read the information rather than do what they cannot—that is, listen to it. Print material may have to be translated into braille so that blind people may be able to access it.
Good resources exist for employers to check the accessibility of their talent development efforts. Consider, for instance, these sources:
• Burton Blatt Institute. 2012. Demand-Side Employment Placement Models Accessible Training Checklist. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University.
• Accessibility Training and Tutorials: lynda.com/Accessibility-training-tutorials/1286-0.html
Many other resources about accessibility can be found online.
Aspects of Brain Chemistry and Physiology Affecting Adult Learning
One of the most exciting developments in recent years to affect education and training is the emergence of brain neuroscience or learning science, which is the study of how the brain works, both chemically and physiologically. The implications of learning science for training are profound, and researchers have only scratched the surface of understanding what makes the brain work, how to tap into knowledge of the brain to improve the learning process, and how age affects the brain and the learning process. While space is limited here to discuss this complex topic, the goal is to introduce some important information about how learning science affects what is known about the brain and the learning process, how an understanding of the brain may influence training practice, and how age affects the human brain’s capacity to learn.
How Learning Science Affects What Is Known About the Brain and the Learning Process
The human brain is a marvelous creation. And yet, according to some estimates, computers will have reached the ability to simulate human thought by about 2020, if present trends continue (Moravec 1997). By 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue Supercomputer was good enough to best reigning World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov.
About the size of a cauliflower head, the brain regulates body chemistry, controls the body’s movement, handles automatic functions such as breathing, and allows human beings to think and feel. Composed of about 100 billion cells called neurons, the brain functions through electrochemical signals. Most people know that the brain consists of such basic parts as a medulla (at the top of the spinal cord), the cerebellum, and cerebrum or cortex. The medulla regulates automatic body functions such as heart rate and breathing, the cerebellum helps coordinate movement of the limbs, and the cerebrum is the center of thought and of important senses. There are, of course, many other parts to the brain, all commonly thought to control different human functions.
The brain is also commonly divided by a big fold in the middle that creates a right side and a left side. These are associated with different aspects of thought. The left brain controls reason and analysis; the right brain is the center of creative thinking and feeling. The left side of the body is wired to the right side of the brain; the right side of the body is wired to the left side of the brain. Roger Sperry conducted groundbreaking research on the two parts of the brain. He conducted experiments with an individual who lost half of his brain. The left side of the brain tends to be fact-oriented, relies on logic, uses words, and is present- and past-oriented. The right side of the brain relies on feelings, focuses on the big picture (not details), and is present- and future-oriented.
Awareness of brain architecture provides only a partial understanding of how the brain works. Since the brain functions through electrochemical signals, brain chemistry is essential to an awareness of how the brain works. The study of brain chemicals is often associated with brain neurochemistry. A few examples of neurochemicals include:
• Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that affects emotional functions
• Serotonin, which affects moods and sleep
• Acetylcholine, which assists motor function
• Nitric oxide, a gas that can also serve as a neurotransmitter
How an Understanding of the Brain May Influence Training Practice
Talent developers should remain attuned to advances in brain chemistry and physiology to be aware of how that information may increase the efficiency and effectiveness of training. People exercise their bodies to get in shape. They can also exercise their brains to attune their attention, memory, mood, sleep, and even their learning. According to a research study of 700 Chicago residents with an average age of 80, published in an online edition of Neurology, researchers found that older people who engage in stimulating mental activities such as chess or reading newspapers can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. So, there is reason to conclude that mental exercise can reduce the risk of developing dementia in older people.
Consequently, adults who engage in planned training are being mentally stimulated. This can also reduce the risk of developing dementia. Unfortunately, research also shows that older adults are much less likely to participate in training or other planned learning events than younger people.
Awareness of how the brain works can influence learning in five specific ways. First, each person’s brain is unique. Just as faces are different, so are brains. Individuals have different learning styles. Second, the brain requires significant challenge. People become frustrated if the learning challenge is too great but become bored and indifferent if the learning challenge is too easy. Third, the brain is a physical organ and is therefore subject to the same influences as any other organ. Excessive heat, light, bad food, and other environmental influences can affect the quality of the brain’s operations. Fourth, the brain’s ability to learn is influenced by emotions and feelings. What is learned best is associated with significant emotional events, such as extraordinary successes or miserable failures. Fifth and finally, as discussed earlier in this chapter, we each possess multiple intelligences or special mental strengths.
How Age Affects the Human Brain’s Capacity to Learn
As the U.S. population ages—and, indeed, the global population is also aging—interest is growing in how age may affect the human brain’s capacity to learn as older workers become an important resource to meet possible future talent shortages. While we have all heard that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” that old saying is just plain wrong. Few differences distinguish young and old people. While older people—those beyond traditional retirement age of 65—do tend to require more time to master new skills, that is not because their brains are not as agile as younger people. Rather, the difference tends to center on the extra care that older people take to “get it right.” They do not wish to lose face by performing badly and therefore tend to be more cautious in trying out new things.
A key issue in understanding the difference between younger and older workers is the difference between crystallized and fluid intelligence, first described by psychologist Raymond Cattell. His theory was later refined through work with John Horn. Fluid intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to see relationships without previous practice or knowledge; crystallized intelligence refers to an individual’s learning from experience. Fluid intelligence centers around thinking and reasoning abstractly and solving problems; crystallized intelligence includes reading ability. Generally speaking, both types of intelligence increase from childhood through adolescence. However, fluid intelligence reaches a peak in adolescence and then declines after age 30. Crystallized intelligence never peaks and grows through all phases of adulthood. As a result, younger adults tend to do best with problem solving and trying out new experiences, while older adults do best by building on their experience.
Individuals sustain the ability to learn effectively unless they become prone to diseases affecting age—most notably Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder named for the German medical doctor Alois Alzheimer. It is a progressive disease that destroys brain cells, creating problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. According to the Alzheimer’s Association (2019):
• As many as 5.2 million people in the United States are afflicted with Alzheimer’s.
• 10 million Baby Boomers will develop Alzheimer’s in their lifetime.
• Every 71 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.
• Alzheimer’s is the seventh-leading cause of death.
• The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid, and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year.
There are other dementia disorders that can affect the learning abilities of older people. Dementia, a term referring to loss of memory and other mental abilities, interferes with daily life and is caused by physical changes in the brain. While Alzheimer’s is the most common, accounting for about 50 to 70 percent of cases of age-related brain disorders, other dementias include:
• Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): This is a condition in which people have problems with memory, language, or other mental functions sufficiently to be noticed by others, but not enough to affect their ability to function independently on a daily basis.
• Vascular Dementia: Caused by diminished blood flow to the brain, it is the second most common type of dementia. It develops when impaired blood flow to parts of the brain deprives cells of food and oxygen.
• Mixed Dementia: This results when Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia occur at the same time.
• Dementia With Lewy Bodies: Characterized by abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein that form inside the brain’s nerve cells, it results in memory problems, confusion, and other cognitive problems. The deposits are called Lewy Bodies because Lewy was the scientist who first identified them.
• Parkinson’s Disease: Beginning with problems affecting bodily movement, Parkinson’s can lead to difficulties with speech, movement, and muscle control.
• Frontotemporal Dementia: A rare disorder affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, it presents faster than Alzheimer’s. Initial symptoms include changes in personality and judgment as well as rude or off-color remarks.
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): A rare and frequently fatal disorder that afflicts nearly one in 1 million people per year globally, it typically affects individuals older than age 60. Its initial symptoms involve impaired memory, thinking, and reasoning. It can include also changes in personality and behavior, depression, and agitation.
• Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus: A rare disorder caused by an inability of fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord to drain normally, it leads to loss of bladder control and mental decline.
• Huntington’s Disease: A fatal brain disorder, it prompts problems with balance and coordination and personality changes, and leads to trouble with memory and concentration.
• Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome: A brain disorder caused by a deficiency of vitamin B-1, it leads to gaps in memory and problems in learning new information. People have a tendency to make up information that they cannot remember. It is accompanied by lack of coordination and unsteadiness.
Talent developers should learn more about these dementias, since an aging population makes it more likely that such disorders will surface increasingly and may affect the ability of older workers to learn (Rothwell, Sterns, Spokus, and Reaser 2008). Talent developers should be prepared to spot possible symptoms and refer individuals who may need help to proper medical professionals.
Individual Development Planning
Individual development plans (IDPs) are used in many organizations. They can be used to plan learning that will:
• Help workers meet the minimum entry-level requirements for their jobs
• Help workers keep their skills current as times, and job requirements, change
• Help workers advance in their careers, preparing for vertical promotions on the organization chart to manage people or horizontal promotions on the organization chart to exercise greater technical expertise in their areas of specialization
IDPs can thus be tied to performance management reviews to address present work requirements, tied to potential assessment to address future promotion requirements, or both.
A typical IDP indicates:
• The name of the person whose development is being planned
• The name of the person who approves the IDP (such as an immediate organizational supervisor)
• The date or time period that the IDP covers
• The development needs to be addressed
• The performance or instructional objectives to be met (what are the measurable developmental targets?)
• The developmental activities to be completed to meet the performance or instructional objectives (how will the performance or instructional objectives be met?)
• The resources needed to carry out the developmental activities (how much time, money, or other resources are necessary to carry out the developmental activities?)
• The evaluation methods, if any, used to determine if the development activities were carried out and the instructional or performance objectives were met (how well were the development needs met?)
Many other issues could be addressed on the IDP. Those issues could include:
• Competencies that need to be developed
• Knowledge, skills, attitudes, or other characteristics that need to be acquired or changed
• Learning resources that may need to be used
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) that are to be influenced by the IDPs
• Organizational strategic needs to be addressed by the individual’s pursuit of development
• Career goals tied to the development needs
Many examples of IDPs can be found on the web; see one in Figure 5-1. Many books have also been written about IDPs. Among them are books by Blokdyk (2018, 2020), Bruce (2010), and Nuhic (2017). IDPs can be used to close gaps between competencies required at present or needed for promotion in the future (see Rothwell, Graber, Dubois, Zaballero, Haynes, Alkhalaf, and Stager 2015).
IDPs can be related to other documents. Among those are performance improvement plans (PIPs) for workers who are not meeting their job requirements to help them meet those requirements, probationary plans (PPs) for workers who are in a trial period, and individual learning contracts (ILCs), in which workers “negotiate” a learning plan.
Getting It Done
In chapter 5, you learned about assumptions commonly made about adult learning and how those assumptions about adult learning may affect training. You also learned which adult characteristics affect adult learning and aspects of brain chemistry as it affects learning.
Figure 5-1. Sample Individual Development Plan
Consider these questions:
1. What assumptions about adults are particularly important for TD professionals?
2. How would you describe what is unique about teaching adults?
3. How would you describe what might be unique about teaching older adults?
If it is true that the best way to learn something is to be required to teach it, prepare a brief presentation on the topics presented in this chapter, and be prepared to share it with your colleagues.