Zemkes Were Ahead of Their Time

Back in June, 1981, Ron and Susan Zemke sought to enumerate the things we as teachers / trainers / facilitators / classroom aides / tutors know about  (1) adult learners and their motivation; (2) designing curriculum for adults; and (3) working with adult in the classroom.  Training, v18 n6 p45-46,48-49,52 Jun 1981. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ246636  They call them "truisms" based on a fairly large body of research done about the adult learner.

ON CURRICULUM DESIGN. Adult learners tend to seek out short-term, relevant, practical, budget-friendly, and accessible courses. The Zemkes point out in list item 7 that the preference for application of concepts to relevant problems increases with the age. Nowadays,we often offer courses of shorter duration, with a distance learning component, and culminating in a certificate.

In item 10 of their list of truisms about adult learners, they talk about the need for a "conceptual overlap" with what is already known, for the efficient processing of new information. Likewise, we in the ESL world speak of "schema theory" and "background knowledge" as put forward by Patricia L. Carrell from Southern Illinois University, in her article, "Schema Theory and ESL Reading Pedagogy," published in December, 1983, by TESOL Quarterly v17 n4, http://203.72.145.166/tesol/tqd_2008/VOL_17_4.PDF#page=25

Carrell discusses the importance of background knowledge in teaching reading to EFL/ESL students, which became formalized as "schema theory," and basically says that efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge (called the reader’s "background knowledge," and the previously acquired knowledge structures which are called "schemata."

The Zemkes were further prescient in suggesting (in list item 15) that courses and materials need to be designed to reflect different viewpoints and value sets when working with adults in different life stages. This has become increasingly relevant to ESL curriculum design, as we in the USA absorb many more refugees into our classrooms from war-torn nations, where our pupils have lived lives vastly different from those we enjoy in our modern, fast-paced western world. Their points of view and experiences cannot be diminished or dismissed out of hand, but should be acknowledged and incorporated into lessons and texts.