ADULT LEARNING

Adult Learning



Adult Learning

As a registered nurse or indeed as a student nurse undertaking training, teaching others may it be peers, clients or their families is an important factor that is practised in a variety of contexts, day to day. As The Code of Professional Conduct (2002) states the nurse is personally accountable for their practice and must maintain and improve professional knowledge and competence. It also states that the role of the nurse is certainly to work in an open and co-operative manner with patients, clients and their families, foster their independence and recognise and respect their involvement in the planning and delivery of care. Indeed if patients are to be involved in the planning of this care, their understanding and learning of their illness/reason for their stay in hospital is of paramount importance. When teaching others nurses must be active rather than passive, practice in a variety of contexts, using measurable objectives and understand the importance of motivation. It is therefore important to understand as a nurse, that different people may learn in many different ways, and that differing approaches may have to be taken into consideration. There are various learning theories and approaches to maximise understanding.

Knowles (1984) theory of andragogy is an attempt to develop a theory specifically for adult learning. Andragogy makes assumptions about the design of learning. Adults need to know why they need to learn something, adults need to learn experientially. Adults approach learning as problem solving and finally adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. Knowles theory identifies that strategies such as case studies, role-playing, simulation and self -evaluation are most useful. There are four principles of andragogy as identified by Knowles. The first identifies that adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.

Knowles' assumptions can help with the younger age range as well as adults, though at what age students become responsible for their own learning is a matter of debate, after all the physiological development of the student has a large bearing on the ability of the learner to be an autonomous learner. However I have found the clear statement of aims both at a micro scale during lessons and on a macro scale regarding the content of the course useful for both the teacher and learner. In my teaching I find that students value an opportunity to have input into their course even though their language proficiency remained an obstacle to their self-expression. The setting of their learning in a wider context with the presentation of the future choices that their present learning will lead to has been important in stimulating their motivation over more challenging sections of the course. For example whilst teaching the layout of tables in Microsoft Word, it was useful to show the students how tables were to be used in future programmes such as Microsoft Access and how tables are employed to aid the layout of printed material such as newspapers, together with online ...