Given the median age of today's workforce and the aging of the
workforce, it was appropriate to examine learning styles of adults. This
knowledge is necessary for facilitators of adult educational programs to
provide adults a learning environment that can provide maximum
opportunity for adults to learn.
The research problem, that learning styles do not change as people
age, was addressed. People will resort to different styles when situations
necessitate they do so to learn a particular item. The data revealed that
environmental factors have different effects on people's learning styles.
Implications of this study are far reaching into many areas of research.
An implication is in the area of child psychology, as to "when are learning
styles acquired?" This research has implications of holistic education theory
of the individual learners and with added factors that may be influencers of
history and conditions. The complexity of learning styles is influenced by
background experiences of learning, as opposed to the basic cognition
acquisition generally utilized. There are undisputed facts that: no thing
succeeds llke success, and nothing improves the likeliliood of repeated
actions llke a value added or a "good" feeling about an experience. Learners
will try to replicate situations they find to be successful as much as possible.
The things learners can control are: selecting the course as close to the time
they like for study purposes, day of week, length, etc., and choosing an
instructor, which may be influenced by gender, nationality etc. Also, the
style of the class format influences their choices.
Learners may not understand the mechanics of "Matching Their
Learning Style to the Teaching Style", but 'they do understand their llkes and
preferences. Learners will not understand all they are attempting to
accomplish in their search for achieving this match, but professional
educators must recognize these influences and assist the learners by helping
match the style of instructional techniques with the learning style of the
adult learner to maximize the learning experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219569 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Seifert, Linda, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Linda Seifert |
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