Environmental Education with Adults : Some Snippets

Some snippets, concerning adults, from an interesting book - 

Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques

Susan K Jacbson, Mallory D Mc Duff and Martha C Monroe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Print ISBN-13: 9780198567714

Learning and teaching with adults (and youths)

Maturity generally brings in a different set of priorities for learning, especially a greater sense of self-direction, more experiences from which to draw upon, and a desire to learn things that can immediately be useful in work or social situations.

In the likely event of a diverse group of adult learners, it is important to use a variety of learning strategies to appeal to the wildest possible set of learners, allow adults to choose their subgroups or task, and permit a variety of responses and outcomes. As a result, most adult training workshops include icebreakers to introduce people, large group information-delivery, small group discussions, engaging activities,  and opportunities for participants to share experiences and ideas.

As long as adults believe the learning experience will meet their needs, respect their differences, and provide useful information, they often are willing to engage in a variety of learning strategies. If there is a risk of embarrassment, however, or the slightest indication that the activity is a waste of time, an adult audience may rebel.

The assumption that adults have more relevant experience to build on as they learn new information may be true in some circumstances and not in others. As the world becomes more complex it is common for adults to need totally new information and skills for which they may not have relevant experience.

At any age, new information should be relevant and interesting to the learner. A presenter should acknowledge what the learner already knows, and engage him or her in expanding that knowledge base.

The reality of interconnection between political, economic, social, cultural and environmental strands in any issue makes adult education politically powerful. As a result the distance between education and advocacy grows quite small, leading some to believe that eventually all good adult education efforts evolve to social action.

In contrast to youth-based education, adults have fewer organized, institutional educational programs. The programs that do exist are usually attended by choice, as opposed to required school attendance for youth.

Precisely because environmental adult learning is directly grounded in immediate problems and the expressed needs of individuals living within a socio-cultural-economic context, educators must participate in real-world activities and work with local people to create concrete, constructive action.