Lesson 3. Learning styles of adult learners
The age of senior mentors and entrepreneurs affect how they learn. As adult individuals, they have unique learning styles. Awareness of how a senior mentee is as an adult learner helps a mentor to take the right position and make well-designed plans for mentoring.
- ADULT LEARNING PRINCIPLES
According to Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy, there are 8 principles of adult learning.
| Principles of Andragogy | |
| Self-directed | Adults are autonomous and self-directed, meaning that they live under a large degree of self-governance according to their own laws, beliefs and values. |
| Learn by doing | Adults learn through direct experience; therefore, their training and learning interventions must include active and practical participation and offer implementable techniques and methodologies that will immediately improve their everyday lives. |
| Relevance | Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life. |
| Experience | Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities. |
| All of the senses | Adult learners need multi-sensory learning and teaching methodologies, delivery techniques that meet the needs of audio, visual, reading/writing, kinaesthetic, dependent and independent learning preferences. |
| Practice | Content that draws from real-world examples and relatable scenarios and which builds on direct experience will lead to a more meaningful understanding of the subject. |
| Personal development | As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal. |
| Involvement | Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. |
According to Transformative Learning of Jack Mezirow, the learning of an adult can be summed up in 10 steps:
- Experience of a need for change (disorienting dilemma)
- Reflection
- Critically assess assumptions
- Realize have gone through the same process
- Explore options
- Once the learner has come to a new understanding, a plan of action is devised
- Acquiring knowledge and skills
- Trying out new roles
- Building competence and self-confidence
- Reintegration on the basis of one’s new perspective
- MENTORING, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ADULT LEARNING
Mentoring can contribute to the transfer of learning between mentor and mentee. Because it provides:
- different styles of learning, methods and techniques according to individual needs
- opportunities to practise
- feedback and follow-up support
- resources and support to build their own learning
- problem-based learning opportunities
- opportunity to bring their own past experiences
- defining their own goals