LM-Lion Leaders: Make Adult Learning Awesome

Growing up I heard several people say, “Working with people is so hard!” Being a teacher I used to wonder what they meant. Working with students can be challenging, but I wouldn’t call it hard. Working with students was fun, invigorating, and rewarding. How could working with adults be that different?

I found my answer first hand after leaving the classroom four years ago to work in my school’s teacher leadership program. Since then I have been working primarily in adult to adult learning situations providing training, professional development, and 1:1 coaching. There are difficult moments and my thinking has been challenged, but my learning has been prodigious.

I wouldn’t call it hard, I would call it character building. The strategies I had in my tool box were for working with students. It is not the same. My toolbox needed to be updated and adjusted. My tool box now includes a wide array of adult learning tools, activators, discussion/dialogue strategies, and opportunities for teachers and other adult learners to have voice and choice in the learning process. Working with adults can be just as exciting and rewarding as working with children, but the process it takes to get there is different, and requires high trust, communication, and great patience.

My greatest “a-ha” working with adult learners has been that they need a clear cut answer or Why they are doing what they are doing. Once the explanation has been provided with facts, reason, and data adults tend to embrace change better. They need to see that their learning is relevant and connected to their day-to-day practice. I needed to be aware of the different learning styles adults hold, and I have to be extremely flexible in my professional development planning. No one wants learning to be boring. It is possible to breathe life into adult learning.

In order to develop teams, build consensus, and grow the relationships in our program we focused on activators at the beginning of each training or meeting. It took time to move from “me-ness” to “we-ness”. We intentionally plan how each meeting will begin and end. We want our teachers and adult learners to walk out of each training feeling awesome about their learning experience. Here is a list of our teacher leaders' favorite adult learning strategies.