Back to School

Although I get next to no good information about what my first grader does in school every day (I don’t remember,mom!) I have some memory of grade school learning,from the exciting and experiential to the tedious but somehow satisfying rote memorization of multiplication tables.  I didn’t spend a lot of time in those days wondering why I was learning or how I’d apply it.  I didn’t secretly think I could have learned what I needed more quickly and less painfully by just googling it.

Now that the days are getting shorter and the mornings are full of small guys and gals wearing their new backpacks,I’ve been thinking about strategies for adult learning.

I got in touch with my friend and colleague,Sue Bennett,the Learning Manager for Philanthropy Northwest,whose tips I elaborate on below.  There’s clear information about how adults prefer to learn,and once you’ve seen it,the best strategies seem intuitive.  Believe it or not (shocker!) the four person panel doesn’t top the list.

Here are some basic characteristics of adult learners and rules of thumb for in-person trainings,workshops,or other interactive learning sessions.

Adult learners are interested in the immediate implications (and applications) of what they learn.  Adults are interested in problem solving – particularly problems that they have encountered or (even better) are right in the middle of tackling.  Often,the very best way for adults to learn is in real-time: we have an immediate problem to solve and we learn just what we need to learn to solve it.

• Find out what people are interested in learning.  This allows you to tailor your comments or to clarify up front what you will or won’t cover.
• Use case studies or examples from the room.
• Give people time to apply what they are learning to their own organization or situation
• Have them develop an action plan
• Give participants a handout to record:   1)Key speaker points,2)my reactions,3)implications for my work,4)next steps/applications

Adults have prior life experience,belief systems,and assumptions – and they bring them to the discussion.  If you want to engage a room,make sure there are opportunities for participants to share and discuss their own experiences,beliefs,and prior knowledge.  The quickest way to lose a room,and enrage an audience,is to act as though participants don’t know anything.

• Make sure your examples are relevant to the people in the room.
• Put people in small groups around a problem to solve
• Learn something about your audience before you begin – whether formally by making some advance calls or informally by wandering around asking questions.  Integrate that information into your training.

Adults learn better when their role is active.  The same could be said of humans of all ages,but adults can fool you,because sometimes they act as though they’d like to absorb information passively.  Don’t let it happen!

• Ask them to share basic information about themselves and their organization
• Break up into small group discussions.  NOTE:  rooms of adults will often resist breaking up into small groups.  They’ll say things like:  “but I don’t want to miss anything that anyone says!  Why don’t we discuss this as a full group instead?!”   Breaking into small groups is almost always the right thing to do.
• Give them a problem,ask for suggestions
• Invite them to share an experience or reflection

Adults learn in different ways.  Again,because adults often act as though they can all learn well by listening doesn’t mean that they can.  We’ve just been well-trained to sit quietly in our seats.

• Vary your methods.  Use visuals.  Offer handouts. Move them around. Give them something to write on.  Ask them to draw.  Ask them to talk to a partner.
• Whenever doing flipchart or listing exercises,encourage people to draw as well as write.
• Offer resources for continued learning after the session.

Reflection helps bring it home.  We often skimp on the reflection,but taking a few minutes to pause during a workshop or training to ask participants to think about what they are taking away and how they’ll apply it helps to cement learning and give it practical value.

• Stop periodically and ask people to share an insight with a partner or in a small group.
• Ask participants to complete this sentence “now that I know this,I will…..”
• Use a structured exercise to invite closing reflections.  One that I like involves a square (what squares with what you already knew?),a triangle (new angles you picked up),and a circle (what’s still circling around in your head).  Cheesy?  Yes.  But effective.

Do these resonate with your experience?  Chime in with your own insights related to working with adults – or stories of your own best and worst experiences as a learner or a facilitator of learning.