Saturday, November 13, 2010

Adult Learning Styles (Open Session 28)

by Kelly L. McCoy

Chances are that if you are a medical writer, educating adults is something you do, or try to do, fairly regularly. Think about it: Whether you are writing a CME program for a physician audience or a sales training module for a pharmaceutical company, your writing serves as an educational tool for the audience you are targeting.

Speaking about this topic—adult learning—at the national conference were two Northwestern Mutual employees, Paula Brzezinski, MEd and Peter Dickert, who were led by an AMWA-member moderator and former colleague of theirs, Lisa Wytrykus Kleppek.  The speakers admitted that it is not always possible to incorporate every learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, and tactile) in every type of training. What you can do is make the best use of the style that you are using. In doing so, they suggest that you take 7 important principles into consideration when developing educational content:
Relevance: Why are you educating the adult about this topic?
• Responsibility: The adult learners should be responsible for their own learning decisions.
• Life experiences: Build on what learners know and give them credit for what they know.
• Timeliness: Provide training at a time that is relevant to the learner.
• Engaging/applicability: Make learning relevant and allow for learner participation.
• Respectful environment: Encouragement, positivity, and being patient may go a long way in gaining an adult learner’s interest.
• Motivation: Understand what will motivate a learner to learn.
With these principles in mind, you will come to understand the rationale behind the training pieces you write, the goals of the program, and importantly, your audience, which will provide context for your content, which may be an important component of adult learning.

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