WHY IS ADULT EDUCATION DIFFERENT,
ESPECIALLY AT VUL?

We've all sat through lecture classes, frequently struggling to "stay awake" and attentive after a long day at work.  One of the giants in education, Dr. Chevalier Jackson, summed up the situation nicely when he said:  "In teaching the primary requisite is to keep him awake." Sometimes it felt like you were attending the 13th or 14th year of high school instead of "higher education" to prepare you to readily apply what you are learning in the classroom!

Well, "Adult Education" is really different, especially at VUL!  At VUL, adult education is for "real people" with real life experiences, not for "teenagers" who have had little experience with the real world.

Adult Motivation to Learn

  • Adults seek out learning experiences in order to cope with specific life-changing events, e.g., marriage, new job, being laid off, etc.

  • The more life changing events an adult encounters, the more likely he or she is to seek out learning opportunities.  Just as stress increases as life-change events accumulate, the motivation to cope with change through engagement in a learning experience increases.

  • Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so primarily because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought.  Learning is a "means to an end, not an end in itself."

A Curriculum Designed for Adults at VUL

  • Adults tend to be less interested in survey courses.  They tend to prefer single concept, single-theory courses that focus heavily on the application of the concept to relevant problems.  This tendency increases with age.

  • Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are going to keep -- and use -- the information.  Integration of new knowledge and skill requires transition time and a focused effort on application.

  • Adults bring a great deal of life experience to higher education, and this is an invaluable asset to be tapped and used because adults can learn much from dialogue with respected peers and faculty.

  • Regardless of the media used, on the internet or in the classroom, straightforward how-to-do is the preferred content orientation.

  • Adults see the need for application and how-to information as their primary motivation for learning in any course.

  • Self-direction does not mean isolation.  Studies of self-directed learning indicate that self-directed projects and studies involve an average of 10 other people as resources, guides, encouragers, and the like.

  • The key for the professor is the balance of new material, discussion, and the sharing of relevant student/faculty experiences.  The professor is less an "advocate" and more an "orchestrator" and "learning resource person."

Copyright 2006 Virginia University of Lynchburg. All rights reserved.