ABSTRACT
This is a fundamental question that has been researched for decades. A key issue is not only how adults learn, but maybe even more importantly what motivates them to learn. In Chapter 6, enhancing the adult’s motivation to learn is discussed. If you can fundamentally understand this, you will have a much better chance of your training efforts being successful. Learning in adulthood is different from many of the formal educational experiences that most of us had growing up. We are older, wiser, and realize there is much more on the line than in our younger, more formative years. We all have good and bad experiences from which we have learned. Some of these ex plain part of our motivation, or lack thereof, surrounding training and the whole educational process. There is still a lot we don’t know about the adult learner, but we do know a few things. A few factors we are sure o f
• Adults are normally more reserved than adolescents and less likely to ac tively participate in the learning process. This can be broken down by educational levels, demographics, and a whole plethora of other ways. In the next chapter, we will talk more of these factors and what we as train ers can do about them.
