Page 233 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Adults are ready to learn when they have a need for learning.
Source: US Department of Agriculture.

Readiness to Learn

Readiness to learn differs for children and adults. Children are assumed to be ready to learn because there are
subjects they ought to know about and there are academic pressures from teachers and parents to perform.
Adults have no such pressures and are assumed to be ready to learn things required to perform their social
roles in life—as spouses, employees, parents, and the like—or to cope more effectively in some aspect of their
lives.

Education of adults should be appropriate to the individual’s readiness or need to know something, and the
timing of learning experiences needs to coincide with readiness. People seek information and are ready to
learn when they are confronted by problems that they must solve. For example, new employees may be ready
to learn about their job responsibilities, but not necessarily about the history of the company. Clients may not
be ready to learn about dietary changes until they have accepted the fact that their medical conditions and
future health require it.

Problem-Centered Learning

A child’s learning is oriented toward subjects, whereas an adult’s learning is oriented toward performing tasks
and solving problems. These different approaches involve different time perspectives. Because children learn
about things that they will use some time in the future, the subject matter approach may be appropriate.
Adults approach learning when they have an immediate need to learn because they have a problem to solve or
a task to perform. The implication is that learning should be applied to problems or projects that the person is
currently dealing with. Adults learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it, regardless of what
others want them to learn.

Motivation

Children are motivated primarily by external pressures from parents and teachers, by competition for grades,
and the like. The more potent motivators for adults are internal ones, such as recognition, promotion at work,
self-esteem, and the desire for a better quality of health and life.

From an examination of various educational theories, Knowles describes the appropriate conditions for
learning to take place.13 He suggests that learners should feel the need to learn something and should perceive
the goals of any learning experience as their own personal goals. Before undertaking new learning, adults need
to know why they need to learn it. Adults should participate actively in planning, implementing, and
evaluating learning experiences to increase their commitment to learning, and the process should make use of
the person’s life experiences. The physical and psychological environment needs to be comfortable, as
discussed in Chapter 11. The relationship between the professional and the learner should be characterized by
mutual trust, respect, and helpfulness, and the environment should encourage freedom of expression and the
acceptance of differences.13

The professional who accepts the assumptions of andragogy becomes a facilitator of learning or a change
agent rather than a teacher. The practitioner involves the learner in the process of learning and provides
resources for assisting learners to acquire knowledge, information, and skills, while maintaining a supportive

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