Motivational+Factors

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Motivational Factors
I decided to include the YouTube video to begin this section on Motivational Factors to demonstrate that the ways of motivating the adult learner have change dramatically over recent years. The video is a good contrast to how to effectively motivate students seeking the instruction of a content matter expert. Instructors have come to understand the make up of their students and what they bring to the adult oriented classroom more and that has changed the style in which they teach them and motivate them to learn. Unfortunately, the video, as humorous a parody as it is, is not too far off the mark with regard to how a chef’s apprenticeship was about two decades ago. As a young apprentice, I went through similar forms of “motivation”, but now as an adult learner, such a style would make me shut down completely. The times have changed and so have the styles instructors use to motivate the adult student.

For many in today’s society learning has become a life long process. There are a multitude of reasons that an adult may choose to return to school or seek professional instruction. These factors can be as far ranging from general interest and self improvement to seeking certification and career advancement. For an instructor of adult learners to effectively motivate their students they first must have a good understanding of the characteristics of the adult learner they plan to teach, as they are quite different from those of a younger age group. Only by understanding and appealing to the characteristics of an adult learner will an instructor be able to motivate them to learn and keep their attention. Below is a list of some of the most common attributes of the adult learner.

Characteristics of the Adult Learner

 * Autonomy - The adult learner is just that, an adult. They bring to the classroom years of independence and look to have a sense of control and some self-direction in their learning environment.


 * Goal Oriented - Many adult learners are talking instruction to meet some sort of goal they have set for themselves. Whether these goals are personal or professional is immaterial, they will still matter to the student.


 * Practical - Adults are going to desire to learn something that they can put into practice. Many adult learners take courses to learn something that is applicable to the goals they have.


 * Competence and Mastery - Adult students are seeking a level of competency and mastery in what they seek to learn. This factor helps to improve their self-esteem and confidence.


 * Learning by Experience - Many adult learners prefer to learn by doing rather than learning through lectures. This factor ties into both the Application Domain of learning as well as the Psychomotor.


 * Wealth of Knowledge - Adults have a lot of life experience that they can bring to a classroom.


 * Purposeful - When adults are learning something new they want to know the purpose of the knowledge and how it will be relevant to them.


 * Results Oriented - Adults are in general results oriented by nature. To keep an adult interested in what they are learning it must meet the expectations the learner brings to the class.


 * Outside Responsibilities - Adults have a lot of responsibilities in addition to taking instruction. These include families, employment, community and friends.


 * Potential Physical Limitations - The sad part of life is that we all age and with that comes some limitations to what an adult learner can do. The instructor may have to realize that older learners may not have the dexterity of a youth in doing some psychomotor tasks and require certain accommodations such as larger font sizes to meet learning objectives.


 * Big Picture - Adult learners like to know the big picture of what they are learning and how a smaller unit will fit into that big picture.


 * Responsible for Self - The Adult learner will take a lot more responsibility for their successes and for their failures in a learning environment than a younger student


 * Need for Community - Most adult learners prefer to learn in an environment that develops a learning community where interaction, discussion and questions are welcomed.



Five Factors Affecting Motivation
Once the instructor has a firm understanding of the characteristics of adult learners they will be teaching they will be more apt to develop a [|plan] for keeping their students motivated, focussed and attentive to the class content. In our course material, five important factors affecting motivation were outlined. The instructor of adult learners by addressing these five factors in their teaching will able to directly appeal to the characteristics of the adult learner that were listed above. The five factors affecting motivation are as follows:


 * Relevance - For the instructor to be successful in motivating the adult learner the material being taught needs to be relevant. This could be as simple as the instructor keeping the course material up to date with current practices and trends or by demonstrating useful applications of the content being taught. As noted above in the common characteristics of the adult learner, some of the similar factors were a desire for course material to be practical, purposeful, goal-oriented, and result-oriented. The successful instructor of adult learners can address these factors by paying attention to the relevance of their content in relation to the expectations of their students.
 * Competence - Another characteristic in the adult learner was the desire to become competent and to master what they are learning. The instructor can meet these expectations by using teaching techniques that begin with the simple and move towards the complex. Such a progression of instruction would have the effect of building confidence, self-esteem while increasing the level of competence.
 * Success - Most adult learners make an active choice to take instruction and few if any take instruction with the mind to fail. It is important for the instructor to foster a culture of success in their classes by teaching in manageable increments so that progress in a level of competence can be gauged and measured by the adult learner in small successes. This will appeal to the goal-oriented and result-oriented characteristics of the adult learner as well as to the reinforcing practical application and relevance.
 * Utility - The adult learner approaches instruction with more pragmatism and “what is in it for me” than other age groups. They will be looking to apply what they learn. The instructor has a powerful tool of motivating the student if they can show just how applicable and practical the instruction will be to the learner.
 * Environment - One of the characteristics already mentioned above was a learning community. The teaching environment is one element of motivation that the instructor has at their disposal right at the beginning. By creating a dynamic, stimulating and fun classroom experience the instructor can develop a community of peers collectively learning. The classroom environment is the instructors chance to make a first impression on the adult learner and by developing a friendly, open forum for learning the environment can almost take on a life of its own that will keep both the student and the teacher motivated.

[|Raymond Wlodkowski] outlines another framework of considerations that compliment the five factors included in the course material for PID 3106. The conditions Wlodkowski feels are inherent to developing successful motivation in an adult learner environment are as follows:

> feel respected by and connected to one another > through personal relevance and choice > learners’ perspectives and values > learning something they value
 * // Establishing inclusion // : Creating a learning atmosphere in which learners and instructors
 * // Developing attitude: // Creating a favourable disposition toward the learning experience
 * // Enhancing meaning: // Creating challenging, thoughtful learning experiences that include
 * // Engendering competence: // Creating an understanding that learners are effective in