| Adult learner types | | Print | |
| Reinhard Hohmann | 19.02.2008 | Science - Articles [en] [de] | ||||||
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Adults learn differently. For teachers in adult education, it is therefore difficult to focus on individual learning types when preparing lessons. Do “learner types” in fact exist at all? And how can they be reliably described? This was the question investigated by a Germany study. The result? There are two poles: the positive and the negative learning syndrome. Leaving aside mixed forms and individual particularities, two clearly distinguishable learning syndromes exist. Those who belong to the first positive learning syndrome are stable when it comes to learning, they can pursue different methods of solving problems in challenging tasks, do not give up quickly when difficulties arise, are generally driven by learning confidence and explain their success as a result of their talent, efforts and capabilities. In negative scenarios (when learning was not so successful), they attribute this to their own failures, lack of effort and low level of commitment. This type of learners prefers knowledge and activity oriented learning environments. The opposite learner type – the negative learning syndrome - is associated with significantly worse characteristics for successful learning. Those that belong to this category tend to quickly throw in the towel when difficulties arise, have only limited powers of concentration, little strategic knowledge, poorly developed learning confidence and the tendency to attribute failures and likewise successes to external circumstances rather than their own abilities. They prefer to make the instructor responsible for the fact that a course did not result in the desired success. If an examination was a success, this is because “I got lucky” or profited from a positive atmosphere on the course. This learner type tends towards learning environments which are not likely to pose learning challenges that are too high and therefore entail only a low risk of failure. What is the consequence of this finding for coordinators of adult education? A particular challenge lies in designing an experience-oriented, narrative-focussed learning environment in discussion groups, debating clubs or discussion rounds. This is attractive to participants who have little learning confidence and poorly developed learning strategies. Above all it appeals to older education participants who, although they are prepared to learn, no longer necessarily wish to face high cognitive challenges. Things in life are discussed, there is exchange with other participants and communicatively stimulating contact with each other is enjoyed. This constellation has very positive aspects. In particular participants who would otherwise retreat or give up in the face of more demanding formats are given access to institutional continuing education. However, there is a crucial disadvantage which should not be overlooked. Measured in terms of the thought and learning abilities which these participants are capable of in principle, too little tends to be demanded of them. They particularly do no extend their repertoire of metacognitive strategies and as a result fall increasingly behind when it comes to solving new types of tasks. What needs to happen? - It is not a question of abandoning experience-oriented learning environments or replacing them with knowledge or activity oriented environments. Instead, the task lies in incorporating demanding work elements step by step, providing the opportunity in a targeted manner to independently solve difficult tasks once in a while, discussing different methods of solving the problem (“How do we approach this?”) in the learning group and testing which methods prove to be more or less suitable. Courses and seminars should not stop at presenting the facts and exchanging experiences but must also seek the global connections and reasons behind individual cases. Only then when a systematic approach is adopted, when individual learning steps are planned and when it is necessary to discuss things with each other in the team will learning in adult education be sufficiently challenging and also increase the ability of learners to deal with learning tasks alone, only relying on themselves. The three-year research project “Variation of learning environments and its effects on learning success” is coordinated by the German Catholic Association for Adult Education (Katholischen Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft für Erwachsenenbildung - KBE) in Bonn. Almost 900 participants from a wide range of courses were questioned about their learning habits and learning style and were also confronted about exercise tasks and learning success checks. This made it possible to investigate to what extent the self-assessment of the learners tallied with their objective learning success. Literature Kaiser, A., Kaiser, R., Hohmann, R. (Hg.) (2007): Lernertypen - Lernumgebung – Lernerfolg. Erwachsene im Lernfeld. EB-Buch 26. Bielefeld. |
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