Educating Adult Learners: Bridging Learners’ Characteristics and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

The attainment of higher educational qualification is seen as a way to improve one’s life. People are responding by increasing their participation in workplace training and returning to schools for formal qualifications. This contributes to greater diversity in the classroom in terms of age, prior knowledge, experience, and motivations in learning. The pedagogy of teaching adult learners has predominantly been informed by characteristics or life-stage views of adult learners. Drawing on survey results on the learning preferences and behaviors of adult learners, this chapter argues that besides considering adult learner characteristics when designing pedagogy, it is equally important to focus on the science of learning. Specifically, teaching adult learners should take a holistic approach where both the learner characteristics and the learning sciences are considered.