by Kim Russell

Created on: November 22, 2009   Last Updated: November 24, 2009

You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Unfortunately, that old adage applies not only to dogs but to adults as well. An innocent and naive child of four or five years can be told that 758/2=379, and they will most likely accept that information as true. Not so with most adults. They will consider it, figure it in their heads, maybe even jot it down and work through the equation; but they are unlikely to take anyone's else's word for it.

When preparing a curriculum for adults, the approach can be similar in some ways to preparing a curriculum for children. For instance, the different learning styles should all be addressed: visual, auditory, tactile, and combination (a person who learns from not just one particular learning style but rather from some unique and personal combination). Developing a curriculum making use of all learning styles is essential to insure that all who need to internalize the information are given the correct tools to do so. When developing a curriculum for adults, however, the developer must take into consideration that, even though adults may share learning styles with children, adults are not the blank slates that children are, and, therefore, the information must be presented in a way that does not insult their intelligence, but rather respects their intelligence, commends them for it, and then asks them to show off that intelligence.

The difference in adult and child learners can be summed up with one word: experience. Adults have it. Children are getting it. If an educator attempts to "tell" an adult learner new information, and this information seems to be in direct contradiction of that adult's particular experiences, the information will be tossed aside, labeled as nonsense, and any hope of internalization of that particular information goes out the proverbial window.

For instance, I have developed curriculum and facilitated co-parenting classes for over ten years. Initially, my approach was to just "tell" parents how to be good parents to their children during and after the divorce. Needless to say, this failed miserably. Over the years, the curriculum has evolved into more of a real-life, problem-solving approach presented by offering examples, or using the real examples offered by the attending divorcing parents, keeping my mouth shut (difficult, at best, for me), and asking the group as a whole, or in small group workshops, to develop valid solutions to the issue.

This approach allows an adult to take in an issue, mull it

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