Connecting With the Adult Learner's Worldview

Effective Teaching Strategies To Connect With The Adult Learners’ Worldview

Today’s complex and fast-moving environment places the need for higher education educators to use flexible approaches in their teaching. All educators know that teaching is a challenging yet rewarding task. Teaching may appear easy; the work is highly complex with many causes impacting the learning environment both internal and external. Every human being holds a worldview, and that worldview influences how adult learners learn and how they present themselves, especially in a classroom setting. Learning how to navigate adult learners worldview and helping the adult learners themselves navigate their own worldview and those around them becomes an important task for educators. While many of these forces are not controlled by the educator, this chapter shares strategies that work well with adult learners. The authors consider adult learners enrolled in higher education to fall into this category. Malcom Knowles has contributed widely to the field of adult learners and adult education (Knowles, 1968, 1980, 1984) and has defined adult learners as people of legal age who are in a learning setting. Knowles developed a theory of adult learning that he called androgogy which holds four basic principles which include involving adults in the learning process, helping adult learners draw from past experiences, create active learning experiences rather than memorization and understanding that adults want to use what they are learning right away.