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Adult Learning
A survey (Appendix 1) was conducted at a local company to assess the effectiveness of 5 principles based on age, culture, job scope and educational background. A set of questionnaires was given to 35 respondents across the company from operational level to managerial level.
After careful tabulation, the findings in this report show that while most of the principles applied to adult learning are pertinent, the results shown below depict a slight variation due to different criterion selected.
4.1 THE PRINCIPLE OF ONE THING AT A TIME
From the survey, 100% of the respondents agree that they prefer to have more time to learn a new skill. Out of the 100%, 82.9% of the respondents acquire new knowledge and skills more effectively through a step-by-step explanation. Only 17.1% of the respondents feel otherwise and they prefer all instructions and information to be given rather than a step-by-step explanation. This is consistent with the principle that adults learn better one thing at a time and most of them will feel overwhelmed if they are loaded with too much information. However, it is interesting to note that most of the adults who adhere to this principle belong to the operation and administration level. When their job scope is analysed, those in the senior management actually do not like to learn one thing at a time. In fact, 100% of them prefer to have more information given to them. It may be due to their experience that they have learnt to absorb more information faster.
Age also plays a factor in adult learning. In the following chart, respondents who prefer to learn one task at a time are over 30 years old as compared to their younger counterparts. Perhaps learning a task at a time is deemed boring by the respondents below 30 years old. However, the chart only shows the results according to their age group, not their job scope. In general, the principle of learning one thing at a time is effectively applied to adult learning with a little deviation when criteria such as age and job scope are considered.