Learning From Adult Work
Part of being involved in effective professional learning communities is understanding how adults learn best. We do an outstanding job understanding how students learn but we sometimes forget that adults have special needs and requirements as learners.
- Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves.
- Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base.
- Adults are goal-oriented and as a result, they need to know the outcomes and how they are related to their own goals.
- Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something and learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them.
- 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. We must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the professional learning community.
The following resources (PDFs & DOCs) will help professional learning communities better understand the needs of adults and provide ideas about how to work with adult learners.
- Six Hat Protocol
- A Change in Practice Protocol
- Constructivist Protocol for Adult Work
- Critical Incidents Protocol
- Examining Assessments
- Future Protocol a.k.a. Back to the Future
- Networking Protocol
- Preconference Protocol
- Preconference Guide
- The Charett
- Tuning a Plan Protocol
- Tuning Protocol Guidelines
- Tuning Protocol
- Writing Workshop Feedback Protocol
- Creating Metaphors