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Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Adult Learning Programs
Dorothy D. Billington, Ph.D.
With
our ever-accelerating speed of change in both knowledge and technology, it is
clear that we adults have a choice: We either continue to learn throughout our
lives, or we allow our skills and knowledge to quickly slide into obsolescence.
The same principle applies to companies: Those who fail to continually teach
and train employees quickly slide into obsolescence.
Private
employers spend $210 billion a year for training, while the government spends
an additional $5 billion. Are these training programs doing the job? Some are;
some are not. Highly effective adult learning requires certain conditions. The
question is, what are those conditions?
Because
few studies have examined what type of learning environment best helps adults
to grow and develop, I conducted a four-year study of this question. Why
connect growth with learning? Because significant learning and personal growth
are inseparable; growth is learning. The term growth here refers to the
maturity of our thought processes. Just as children develop from simple to
complex thinking, we adults can continue to mature in the way we think. And the
way we think affects our character development, moral judgment, interpersonal
relationships, impulse control, self-concept, and how well we function in our
environment. Yet we have all noticed that not all adults continue to grow; some
cease to learn; thus they cease to grow.
The
study investigated which factors in adult learning environments best facilitate
adult growth and development. Sixty men and women who began doctoral programs
when between ages 37 and 48 participated. They completed two tests measuring
adult development, a questionnaire, and 17 were interviewed. All measures
revealed the same results. It was as though this research snapped multiple
pictures of a barely visible phenomenon from various angles, and when
developed, all pictures revealed the same clear image.
Results
revealed that adults can and do experience significant personal growth at
midlife. However, adult students grew significantly only in one type of
learning environment; they tended not to grow or to regress in another type.
What was the difference? The seven key factors found in learning programs that
stimulated adult development are:
1.
An
environment where students feel safe and supported, where individual needs and
uniqueness are honored, where abilities and life achievements are acknowledged
and respected.
2.
An
environment that fosters intellectual freedom and encourages experimentation
and creativity.
3.
An
environment where faculty treats adult students as peers--accepted and
respected as intelligent experienced adults whose opinions are listened to,
honored, appreciated. Such faculty members often comment that they learn as
much from their students as the students learn from them.
4.
Self-directed
learning, where students take responsibility for their own learning. They work
with faculty to design individual learning programs which address what each
person needs and wants to learn in order to function optimally in their
profession.
5.
Pacing,
or intellectual challenge. Optimal pacing is challenging people just beyond
their present level of ability. If challenged too far beyond, people give up.
If challenged too little, they become bored and learn little. Pacing can be
compared to playing tennis with a slightly better player; your game tends to
improve. But if the other player is far better and it's impossible to return a
ball, you give up, overwhelmed. If the other player is less experienced and can
return none of your balls, you learn little. Those adults who reported
experiencing high levels of intellectual stimulation--to the point of feeling
discomfort--grew more.
6.
Active
involvement in learning, as opposed to passively listening to lectures. Where
students and instructors interact and dialogue, where students try out new
ideas in the workplace, where exercises and experiences are used to bolster
facts and theory, adults grow more.
7.
Regular
feedback mechanisms for students to tell faculty what works best for them and
what they want and need to learn--and faculty who hear and make changes based
on student input.
In
contrast, in learning programs where students feel unsafe and threatened, where
they are viewed as underlings, life achievements not honored, those students
tend to regress developmentally, especially in self-esteem and self-confidence.
In programs where students are required to take identical lockstep courses,
whether relevant to professional goals or not, and where they are often
expected to spend several years working on a dissertation that is part of a
professor's research project instead of on a topic of their choice, they grow
less. In other words, students grow more in student-centered as opposed to
faculty-centered programs.
A clear and simple mini-lab on effective and ineffective adult learning environments can be observed in English-as-Second-Language classes for new immigrants. In classes where students feel safe, where lessons are focused on current language needs, where students are asked for input on what helps them most to learn, where students are actively involved in interesting and fun exercises, where there's lots of laughter and congeniality, students of all ages and backgrounds learn English fast and well. In classes where students are made to feel inadequate and threatened, little is learned.
These
findings support the thinking of Malcolm Knowles, recognized as the father of
adult learning; his trailblazing work underlies many of our most effective
adult education programs. He reminded us that in optimal adult learning
programs, where adults learn best, both students and faculty also have fun, for
it is exhilarating to REALLY learn.
References:
Billington,
Dorothy D. (1988) Ego Development and Adult Education. Doctoral Dissertation,
The Fielding Institute. Dissertation Abstracts International, 49 (7).
(University Microfilms No. 88-16, 275).
Knowles,
Malcolm. (1986) The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston: Gulf
Publishing.