Adult Learning Theories

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Summary In this summary I will summarize two articles that I have read about adult learning theories. The first article, “Adult Learning Theory: Applications to Non-Traditional College Students”, goes into what classifies someone as an adult learner, the things that make adult learning difficult, and ways to help overcome those issues. The second article, “Adult Learning Theory for the Twenty-First Century”, talks more about how much the view on adult learning has changed here of late and what that means for adult learners. In the article “Adult Learning Theory: Applications to Non-Traditional College Students” Kenner & Weinerman focus on students who are between the ages of twenty-five and fifty. One of the many challenges that face adult learners is that they have world experience. They tend to want to take their knowledge from the workplace into an academic environment and most times the knowledge that has gotten them through so much of their lives already will not help them in an academic setting. Because adults are set in their ways, it is difficult to break old habits to form new learning habits. In being aware of this problem, instructors can come up with ways to form new learning habits. Instructors have to come up with ways to show the adult learners that they can examine their text to form their own opinions and help the student link their coursework in one class to another so that they can feel that there is a relevant purpose to learning the text and putting in the time. Instructors can also help by giving detailed, step-by-step directions. It helps an adult learner to know exactly what they are doing and what they are being graded on. Adult learners are more likely to respond to a detailed syllabus due to the fact that they have made the choice to return to school and so they are going to be more

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