‘’Teachers, new generation will be your masterpiece.’’ M. Kemal Atatürk .
When I only hear, I forget. When I hear and see, I remember a little bit. When I hear, see, can ask question and discuss the matter with someone, I begin to understand. When I hear, see, discuss and do, I develop knowledge and skill. When I teach a subject, I become master. It is adapted from Confucius.
Adult training is not a passive communication from trainer to learner. Dominant and authoritarian trainer has no place in adult training. The relation is based on mutual respect. Trainer has no role of teacher but of instructor or facilitator. Adults can learn better when they actively engage in learning. Having lessons passively sitting behind desk or tables is not for suitable adults’ nature.
In adult training, responsibility belongs to both trainer and learner. In Andragogy, the role of trainer is defined as a guide person rather than an instructor or a magician. For that reason, in adult training, the role of trainer is to help the person who is the position of student. Therefore, some adult trainers prefer to use “facilitator” instead of “trainer” for the term meaning a person who trains and teaches adults.
Purpose:
In traditional pedagogic applications, the function of teacher is generally defined as “teaching.” All responsibilities for anything happening in the training/teaching processes are given to the teacher. The role of learner is to take in passively the information that the teacher transfers.
- Ensure engagement
- Ensure vocational competence by increasing performance related to work
- Increase quality of work and service
In the adult training, trainers having these 4 main characteristics are trained.
1. Training should be carried out, basing on experiences of adults. Because, adults have rich experiences that have developed during their life.
2. They should be given the opportunity of seeing the relation between the application they learn and their life.
3. Personal engagement should be stressed on. For this, different engagement training methods should be employed.
4. They should actively engage in whole learning process until the evaluation.
In adult training, trainings can be organized to meet these following expectations.
- They want the training to relate to their matters and jobs,
- If the training is about their matters, they get motivated,
- They want to actively engage in the training,
- They want diversity on training method and transferring style,
- They want their personal needs to be considered.