Knowledge construction and assimilation: A cheat sheet for when learning is more likely to occur with adult learners?

In order for  learning to occur knowledge must be constructed and then assimilated:

-With hands on experience.

-With repetition: not to be mistaken with rote memorization.

-With familiarity: making use of familiar settings experiences and integrating prior knowledge.

-Generalizing of materials is more likely to occur when taught with the expectation of application to other context. 

-When more concrete and less abstract: there is research that indicates only 1/3 of people progress to abstract level thinking, stage 4 of cognitive development according to Paiget.

-Adult learners need compelling reasons to continue pursuing personal, professional, and academic goals.

-Enable thoughtful participation in activities that generalize to workforce and future possible selves/ situations; enable transference of knowledge through activities, discussions, projects, milestones,…

• Connect to prior knowledge.                      
• Construct knowledge through activities, exploring, discussion, inventing and discovering.           
• Application of course material to real world context through activities, discussions, projects, field trips, internships, and mentoring.
• Cooperative learning. sharing, responding and communicating to others through activities, small group and large group discussions, and in class projects.
• Generalizing, transfer learning by using prior knowledge from familiar contexts, previous coursework information or bridge program to current course and build on what the student knows, life experiences, story telling (vicarious experience), project current situations to future context to encourage transfer of material to appropriate future settings.