Learning styles of adults in education centers

Abstract

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 like success, and nothing improves the likelihood of repeated actions like 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 likes 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.

Date of Award	2005
Original language	English
Supervisor	Francesco Sofo (Supervisor)