Facilitating Responsibility for Learning in Adult Community College Students. ERIC Digest.

This digest discusses adult students in community colleges, focusing on their learning expectations and needs. In 1997, nearly a third of community college students were age 30 or older. Adult students often have realistic, practical goals for their education and bring valuable life experience to the community college classroom. However, adults attending community colleges for the first time are sometimes inadequately prepared both academically and psychologically for what college-level learning will entail. According to one of the most widely known models of instruction for adult learners, Knowles' (1984) Model of Andragogy, five factors are significant in helping adults learn: (1) movement from dependent to independent, self-directed learning; (2) a growing reservoir of experience as a resource for learning; (3) a readiness to learn related to social roles; (4) immediacy of application replacing future application; and (5) internal rather than external motivation. This article also discusses Beane's (1997) conditioned learning styles--avoidance, dependent, and competitive--as barriers to traditional methods of teaching. Also in relation to instruction, Lawler's (1991) nine principles of facilitating learner-centered education are presented, including: (1) creating a physical and social climate of respect; (2) encouraging collaborative modes of learning; and (3) generating a participative learning environment. Contains 11 references. (JA)