Second50Years Marketing Blog

By Elinor Gale

Whether you’re training senior volunteers or presenting a retirement planning seminar, how do you ensure that you’re getting your message across? What are the best practices for helping seniors learn?

In this article, we’ll give you tips for teaching seniors, based on adult learning theory and the adaptations or accommodations educators have made for senior adult learners.

To help adults learn, it’s important to recognize and work with their strengths and accommodate their particular needs.

Characteristics of Adult Learners

In general, adult learners are independent, self-directed, practical and goal-oriented. They want learning to be relevant and useful. They bring experience, skills and knowledge to their learning and have opinions about topics to be addressed.

The most successful adult educators act as facilitators, understanding what motivates their students to learn and guiding them to their own knowledge rather than talking at them and supplying them with facts.

Motivators

What motivates adult learners? They may be seeking stimulation, personal advancement, or new relationships. They may be meeting someone else’s expectations, learning for the sake of learning or acquiring new skills to participate in community work or other volunteer opportunities.

Learning Styles

It’s generally accepted that people don’t all learn the same way. They have different ways of approaching and processing information, interacting with others, and managing their lives. Extensive research and development of learning-style theory includes many systems for classifying and organizing our understanding of the various learning styles.

For example, one popular theory is Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, which assumes the existence of seven learning “intelligences”: verbal-linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

Another, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, derived from the works of Carl Jung, discusses personality styles based on the way individuals relate to the external world, take in information, make decisions and manage their daily lives.

In her book, Learn More Now: 10 Simple Steps to Learning Better, Smarter, and Faster, Marcia Conner, an expert on adult learning, says:

“People in my workshops frequently ask whether learning styles change over time. Because they are body-based, they change with your physiology, which doesn’t change all that dramatically after certain stages of growth. What changes are your senses. As these become more refined, you grow into your strongest preferences, and as your senses degrade, you adjust, compensating with senses that are still sharp.

“For example, most preschoolers tend to prefer tactile/kinesthetic approaches, partly because their gross-motor skills have developed the most. As children fine-tune and develop skills for writing, reading, speaking, and even visualizing, their natural learning preferences emerge. Auditory skills develop around the second grade, and visual skills mature around the third grade.

“In contrast, as adults begin to lose their eyesight, they become less dependent on images to take in information. If their hearing decreases, they try to relate to their environment more through sight or movement. If you’re not able to reach out and touch something, you begin to compensate by using your other senses.”

You can learn more about adult learning by going online and exploring “adult learning” and “learning styles.” Karl and Marcia Conners’ website, contains a wealth of information, articles and listings of resources on the topic.

Guiding Senior Learners

Senior learners have their own, special set of needs, skills and experiences that are important for you to consider when you’re preparing a class or workshop.

Create a supportive environment

• Create a comfortable, informal and safe learning environment that helps learners feel welcome and confident.
• Be positive and supportive. And be a patient, good listener.
• Lead your students to their learning rather than lecture at them.

Relate the information to needs and experiences of learners

• Help seniors relate new knowledge to the wealth of experience, knowledge and skills they bring to their learning.
• Assess needs and abilities before a workshop or class or at its start.
• Base learning activities and instruction on your learners’ needs, interests and abilities.
• Encourage small group discussion and social interaction, enabling seniors to share with and learn from their peers.

Accommodate for physical limitations, including declining hearing, vision and limited mobility.

• Help learners move closer to sound or image sources.
• Combine auditory and visual in your presentations.
• Use contrasting colors and easy-to-read print on visuals and handout material.
• Make sure lighting is adequate and without glare or direct sunlight.
• Speak to be heard, using extra voice and media amplification if necessary
• Speak slowly and distinctly without acronyms and jargon. Read material aloud when possible.
• Minimize distractions, including background noise and uncomfortable room conditions; make sure room temperature is moderate and ventilation adequate.
• Be aware of declining energy, wandering attention and discouragement. Take appropriate breaks and allow time for an encouraging word.

Create appropriate learning pace

• Allow adequate time for all aspects of learning, including response to stimuli, questions and group discussion.
• Keep sessions short (50 to 60 minutes), discussions brief, and present small amounts of information at a time.
• Keep time pressure at a minimum.
• Avoid sudden surprises or changes.
• Promote self-pacing by learners
• Foster confidence and success by moving from easy to more difficult material, building on earlier successes.
• Provide refreshments when possible and DON’T FORGET restroom breaks.

Organize the learning activities and make them meaningful

• Be highly organized.
• Suggest goals and objectives and help learners develop their own goals.
• Use materials and information that will have real meaning to the learner, and use concrete examples, based on their past experiences.
• Use a stimulating approach that appeals to several senses.
• Minimize tasks that require memorization.
• If memory work is required, help the learners develop cueing devices such as visual images, rhymes and acronyms; seek cues that are familiar or that can be tied to past knowledge.
• Use review aids and encourage practicing techniques.

Involve the learner in the instructional process

• Help learners be actively involved in all aspects of the learning process.
• Encourage them to come up with learning goals, approaches and resource needs.

Evaluate and assess (if appropriate)

• Provide feedback on their progress, using positive feedback techniques.
• When appropriate, encourage peer feedback.
• Help participants talk about and review their learning.

A final word

Senior learners come to your workshops or classes with great reservoirs of knowledge, experience, and skills. You can help guide them to new learning and acquisition of new skills by attending to their learning goals, creating a positive learning environment and building on what they already know. And, never underestimate the learning and pleasure you’ll gain from them.

*Adapted from material on Guiding Older Learners:
http://www.agingincanada.ca/older_learners.htm

Resources:

Learn More Now: 10 Simple Steps to Learning Better, Smarter, and Faster, by Marcia Connor

http://www.agingincanada.ca/older_learners.htm

Elinor Gale is a contributing writer to www.second50years.com