Understanding that adults bring unique sets of experiences and challenges, educating adults requires a mix of approaches. As an adult educator, I lean towards the constructivist theory that a student learns through trial, error and logic using prior knowledge to contribute to or challenge their existing knowledge set (Drew, 2022). This complements andragogy’s assumptions of an adult learner’s experiences being significant to learning (Knowles et al., 2020). Andragogy also asserts that adults need to be in control of their learning, which complements Dewey’s progressive-democratic theory of allowing the students to lead (own) the experience while the teacher acts as facilitator and arbiter (Knowles et al., 2020). This forms the core of my beliefs: adults, as lifelong learners, can and should own their educational journey, and instructors/instructional designers (I/ID) should facilitate their inquiry into the topic of consideration.
To meet the needs of students, it is my belief that an I/ID should approach curriculum using a combination of Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum—that iterative repetition is key, a student doesn’t need to know everything the first time they encounter a topic, and each cycle of learning allows for increased complexity—and Bloom’s Domains of Learning during objective creation (Harden, 1999). Bloom’s taxonomy allows an I/ID to target which level of complexity, or order of learning, at which the students are currently performing or aim to achieve (Drew, 2022). This targeted approach is essential for efficiency and to avoid a cognitive overload of students.
In an increasingly online world, there are a few principles of e-learning that are also especially important. I ascribe to the multimodal learning theory as described in Mayer’s 10 teaching strategies to order things in a way that is clear, concise, and easily digestible (Mayer, 2017). This approach ties back into andragogy as adults need to understand the value of information provided in a problem-centered approach to learning (Knowles et al., 2020).
As a way of meeting the needs of adults varied life experience, it is critical to approach curriculum with an aim to address as many forms of learning as possible—for example, both learning styles and accessibility needs. It is my belief that all curricula should be developed to be as inclusive in design and execution as possible by using the 7 principles of universal design (What is Universal Design, 2020).
Ultimately, the adult educator seeks to create an environment where an adult has access to materials, guidance through rationales, and models to harness to further their pursuit of relevant knowledge.
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