1. Republic of the Philippines
Tarlac State University
College of Education
Lucinda Campus, Tarlac City
Summer 2014
Chapter IV: Developmental Dimensions of Learning
Topic: How Adults Learn
Submitted by:
April S. Candelaria
BSED 1D-1 (Sched 4)
Submitted to:
Mrs. Felicitas Quilondrino
Professor

2. How Adults Learn?
It is important to have an understanding of how adults learn if we are to become effective
instructors. Learning is a "change of state" from the "present state" where we are comfortable
with our thoughts, feelings and behavior to a desired state with new thoughts, feelings etc.
The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcolm Knowles as cited by Stephen Lieb
(1991). He identified the following characteristics of adult learners:
 Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves.
 Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experience and knowledge that may include
work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education.
 Adults are goal-oriented.
 Adults are relevancy-oriented.
 Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work.
 As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect.
Two major ones will be:
1. The time the learner has been away from the learning
2. and the other is motivation.
Under motivations there are six factors that serve as sources of motivation for adult learning.
They are:
 Social relationship
 External expectations
 Social welfare
 Personal Advancement
 Escape/Stimulation
 Cognitive interest
Cyril Houle's survey on what motivates learners identified three categories of motivational
styles:
1. Goal-oriented learners use education to accomplish well defined objectives,
2. Activity-oriented (Social) learners who take part for the social contact,
3. Learning-oriented learners seeking knowledge for knowledge sake.
Others have developed Houle's model and suggest that adults learn because of:
1. An increase in self-esteem,
2. A sense of pleasing and impressing others,
3. Achieving a sense of satisfaction and pleasure

3. The change of state model shown above is also accompanied by an emotional state which might
be one of excitement, anger, foreboding or even fear. An etutor will require the necessary skills
to manage learners through these various emotional states and baring in mind that research
suggests that:
 adults have less time for learning,
 pressures of day-to-day tasks limit the adult's attention span,
 adults see the etutor as a source of information,
 adults do not see themselves as learners,
 an adult's willingness to learn is not related to his or her ability to learn,
 adults often work in repetitive, static situations,
 adults become motivated to learn when the information they're provided with is seen as
important and relevant.
To maximize adult learning, it's important to understand the principles of adult learning and
motivation. The following basic principles will help an etutor improve the amount of information
their adult elearners will retain:
 Create a pleasant "environment" within which the learning process will take place.
Remember first impressions are so important for future relationships. Use games or "ice-
breakers" to achieve this.
 Keep them active. First begin with ideas and concepts familiar to the elearner and build
upon their experiences.
 Use examples to stress to them the importance of what they are learning as it relates to
their lives. Remember just talking about something doesn't always convince elearners
about the necessity of a particular learning activity. People learn by "doing".
 Get feedback and act upon it quickly.
 Help the elearners understand the meaning of the new knowledge or skills they are
acquiring and also help them to identify new skills that are required for other parts of the
course.
In 1973 Malcolm Knowles proposed that adults require certain conditions to learn and he used
the term andragogy to explain these conditions.
Andragogy - is the art and science of adult education and Knowles's andragogic model for
successful adult education asserts that:
1. Letting learners know why something is important to learn,
2. Showing learners how to direct themselves through information,
3. Relating the topic to the learner's experiences,
4. People will not learn until they are ready and motivated to learn,
5. Helping learners overcome inhibitions, behaviors and preconceived beliefs about
learning.