Adult Learning Concepts
Adult Learning Concepts tests whether you can teach and coach adults in ways that respect their autonomy, prior experience, and need for relevance. Items ask you to choose the strategy that fits an adult learner rather than a child in a classroom.
Knowles' andragogy
- Adults need to know why before investing effort.
- Self-concept: adults want to be self-directed, not lectured.
- Experience is a resource and sometimes a barrier.
- Readiness: adults learn what feels immediately useful.
- Orientation is problem-centered, not subject-centered.
- Motivation is mostly internal.
Teaching moves that follow
- Explain the rationale before the technique.
- Elicit what has worked before; build on it.
- Chunk one skill at a time, then practice with feedback.
- Use teach-back: "Walk me through how you would do it tomorrow," not "Do you understand?"
- Anchor new information to a real problem the client names.
- Engineer small early wins to build self-efficacy.
Worked example
A 58-year-old client needs to read nutrition labels for blood pressure. Ask what she already checks; affirm it. Explain why sodium matters to her (need to know). Teach only sodium and serving size (chunking). Have her compare two cans and explain her choice (problem-centered, teach-back). Set one next-shopping task.
Traps
- Matching "learning styles" to content; evidence is weak and it displaces practice.
- Lecturing theory before the client sees a use for it.
- Treating "Do you understand?" as evaluation.
- Ignoring prior beliefs that filter new information.
- Overloading several skills in one session.