Respecting Adult Learners' Journeys

The Zemkes knew that adults learners have expectations about educational objectives in a given course, and it's clear these should be stated early and often, not just by the classroom teacher but also by the institution. They should be codified in a contract document, at best.

Pre-testing and post-testing are also still needed to assist students to "manage" their expectations and view their own growth. It is popular to overstate the unfairness of testing these days, but I believe adults are capable of affirming objectives and standing up to the measurement of them, as it relates to personal satisfaction and the notion of tuition money well-spent.

Can teachers sharpen up their daily practices, to show respect for adult students' needs and styles, and to make learning sometimes dry material a bit more palatable? Suggestions include:

• utilizing pairs and group work (Long and Porter, 1985) and tolerating “good noise” so long as the discussions stay collaborative and on point. This shows respect for students’ adulthood by modeling normal, daily give-and-take.
• augmenting publishers' offerings with teacher-made puzzles, flash cards, felt boards, word lists, resource lists and bibliographies with website URL's for suggested home study. This enhances the role of the instructor as facilitator and reliable resource for out-of-class, self-directed learning. Thompson (2001) found that irrespective of student gender or age, application of teacher-created materials tends to sustain and attract attention, and make teaching and learning more interesting.
• permitting song and artwork in the lesson, appealing to pupils' creative side. This accepts the alternative learning styles of adult learners. (Take care when selecting a song because some songs have irregular sentence structures and vocabulary not typically used in English conversation.)
• using portfolios to aid learners’ perceptions of their growth as readers and writers, thereby reinforcing the notion of a journey toward an achievable goal - a very grownup concept.  
• instituting the habit of continuous student self-reflection concerning comprehension and satisfaction with progress through journaling. (Black & Henig (2005), Bourner (2003) and many others.) Adult students can feel free to focus on the exploration and discovery process in a less-threatening genre than a formal composition.

On Secondary Motivators for Engaging in Learning

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 adults in the classroom. They called them "truisms" based on a fairly large body of research conducted over the years about the adult learner.

In Truism No. 6 of their article, the Zemkes discuss the importance of increasing or maintaining a sense of self-esteem and pleasure as strong secondary motivators for adults entering into and engaging in new learning experiences. They mention Allen Tough (1979) and his co-researchers as making a major contribution to our knowledge base about adult motivation to learn.

Allen Tough and his research partners developed a model of self-directed learning (1979) which attributed the conscious anticipation of reward and benefits as a significant part of a learner's total motivation for studying. Anticipated benefits of acquiring new skills cluster around feeling pleasure, self-esteem, and enjoying the regard of others. Such persons might also be said to be certain of their control over their own destiny. 

The Zemkes postulate that "teachable moments" appear during the lives of adults and that training should not be delayed, since that will impact actual performance.

When adult students perceive that being engaged in learning, retaining knowledge or skills, and applying same to gaining a material reward (e.g., promotion at work) or gaining a symbolic reward (like credits and degrees) is more beneficial, more important to them than financial impediments, family obligations, or environmental barriers they may encounter they will embark upon their quest for learning and deserve our support as teachers.


READ ABOUT IT:

Tough, Allen. 1979, The Adult's Learning Projects, 2nd ed. Toronto: Ontario Institute of Studies in Education.

Zemke, Ron, and Susan Zemke. "30 Things We Know for Sure About Adult Learning," TRAINING Magazine, June 1981. Minn: Lakewood Publications. (Revisited in June 1995 -- they asked themselves, "Has anything changed?") Found at: http://www.trainingmag.com/sites/default/files//TrainingMagazine_1995_AdultsLearning.pdf

Integrative versus Instrumental Motivation

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 conducted over the years about the adult learner.

In their Truism No. 5, the authors assert that adults who seek out a learning experience do so out of a kind of instrumental motivation -- "learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself."  Much research on motivation theory followed their early article.

Rebecca Oxford and Jill Shearin (1994) in their groundbreaking article, "Language learning motivation: Expanding the theoretical framework," (Modern Language Journal, 78, 12-28,) identified several factors that impact motivation in second language learning, including attitudes toward the target language and its speakers, goals and personal attributes. They show us that a student's motivation influences how how high their proficiency level becomes in a given new language, the level of time and effort they devote to learning, whether they'll be able to pass achievement tests, how long they can continue to maintain L2 language skills after study is concluded, and even if they'll pass on an interest and desire in that skill to their children.

Oxford and Shearin pointed out the importance of learner motivation, since "... [it is] considered by many to be one of the main determining factors in success" in mastering a new skill.

Integrative vs Instrumental 

Learners with an instrumental motivation want to learn a new skill or language because of a practical reason, e.g., getting a salary bonus or job promotion or maybe a GED diploma or college acceptance; all of which could potentially bring about a better lifestyle for them and their families. It makes sense then, that if a learner perceives the lesson content to be relevant and transferable to other situations, s/he will find learning meaningful, and motivation will increase.

Unlike these students, who seek out a learning experience, as the Zemkes state, "... because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought, ... learning is not its own reward," integratively motivated language learners are using language for social interaction. These sorts of language students are deeply interested in the people and culture of the language. They are likely to devote much personal effort, time and expense in acquiring the L2, even to amassing a private library of materials or circle of friends who speak the target language. Several studies have found that language learners who are integratively motivated are more successful than those who are instrumentally motivated.

The experienced language teacher recognizes that both types of pupils in their classroom have something to contribute to the lesson, and may in fact end up equally successful in the L2 learning task by end of semester.