WARNING! If you think adults learn like children, please read on.

Children are natural learners and their readiness to learn is rooted in biological development. Adult learners need to take a break from “doing things” before they can get into the “learning mode”. Adult learners view learning as a solution to cope with something that is impacting their immediate circumstances. For adults, learning is often sought out as a way to solve a problem or to deal better with something new. As such adult learners are “problem-centered” and want to immediately apply new information or skills to current problems or situations.

Children have a limited experience base. Adult learners have a powerful resource for the learning process: their rich life experience; and they use it actively as they continuously relate new knowledge and information to previously learned information and experiences. Unfortuately adult learners are more set in their ways, and are much more likely to reject or explain away new information that contradicts their values, beliefs and opinions. Children in turn, are open to new information and will readily adjust their views.

Unlike adult learners – children do not deal with the anxiety of the “un-learning” process and the confusion before reconstructing new knowledge. Adult learners have pride and in a classroom environment not perceived as safe or supportive major issues of self-esteem and ego tend to degenerate into conflict. Adults perceive any lack of skills or knowledge as a gap to fill as quickly as possible to defend their acquired sense of professionalism and competence.

Children do not question the learning content importance. Adults have different ideas about what is important to learn and why.

Children can be easily segmented by age when they come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. Adults are very different from each other and are much harder to teach in a group as an individual entity.