How adults tend to learn
Andragogy
Adults tend to learn best when they know why it matters, can use what they already know, and work on real problems
What it says, in plain language
The idea in one sentence: adults tend to learn best when they know why something matters, can use what they already know, and can work on a real problem from their own life or job. These are useful working assumptions, not proven rules.
You’ve seen this already
Think about getting a new phone. Nobody reads the manual cover to cover. You learn the bits you need, when you need them: how to send a photo when a friend asks, or how to set an alarm before an early shift. You lean on what you knew from your old phone. And if someone tries to talk you through settings you’ll never use, you switch off.
That’s the idea in a nutshell. Adults bring experience, want to know why, and learn around the problem in front of them.
Why it matters for your teaching
Most people you teach in healthcare already know a lot. A healthcare assistant may have ten years on the ward. A pharmacist joining your team may know medicines better than you do. A receptionist knows every quirk of the booking system. Treat them as empty and they’ll switch off, or push back.
Here’s how the main assumptions might shape a short session on a new discharge checklist:
| Adults tend to… | So you might… |
|---|---|
| Want to know why before they put in effort | Open with the reason the checklist changed |
| Bring experience that helps, and habits that resist | Ask what goes wrong with discharges now |
| Like some say in their own learning | Let each team choose which part to try first |
| Be ready to learn what fits their role right now | Teach it just before it goes live, not months before |
| Learn around problems, not subjects | Work through a real discharge, with details removed |
Experience cuts both ways. A challenge to a long-held habit can feel like a challenge to the person. That may be one reason it’s hard to change what people do at work: they have a lot invested in what they already do.
Teaching That Lands uses this from the first minute. Session 1 opens with “What makes a good teacher?”, drawing on people’s own experience before any theory. Everyone works on one session they teach, or would like to teach, across all three weeks, so each idea lands on their own material. It’s the central message again: start from what these people need to do differently in their own work.
Try this
- Find out what’s in the room. Before you teach, ask what people already know, have tried, or are stuck on. Let the answers change how you run the session.
- Say why, plainly. “This matters because…” with a real reason from their work. “It’s mandatory” isn’t a reason anyone learns from.
- Start from a real problem. “Your handovers keep running over: what would you change?” beats “Today we’ll cover handover.”
- Give people some choice. Which case to work on, which part to try first, what to take away.
How sure are we?
Not very sure, as a theory. Knowles offered andragogy as a set of working assumptions about adults, and they have little direct research behind them. A later review (Merriam, 2001) concluded it is better seen as a description of adult learners and a guide to planning than as a theory of how adults learn. Some researchers argue the way people learn doesn’t really change in adulthood. What changes is experience, motivation and context.
The sharp split between adults and children is a common misreading. Knowles himself later softened it. His book The Modern Practice of Adult Education was first subtitled Andragogy Versus Pedagogy (1970); by 1980 it was From Pedagogy to Andragogy (pedagogy here means teaching children): either approach can suit a learner of any age, depending on the situation. A nurse who is new to a topic may need more structure, not less. So treat these as sensible working principles, not tested findings.
Where it comes from
The word “andragogy” was first used in Germany in 1833. Malcolm Knowles, an American adult educator, made it popular in the 1960s and 70s. He set out a handful of assumptions about adult learners, adding to the list over the years until there were six. His books, including The Adult Learner and Andragogy in Action, shaped adult and workplace education for decades.
The evidence