Why Will My Audience Care and How Can I Help?10 Tips on Presenting to Adults

Successful presentation to adult audiences can benefit from insight about how and why adults learn. What motivates them? How do adults typically learn? How do you accommodate a variety of learning styles? Here are a few points for your consideration that are based on Thorndike’s Laws of Learning (see separate hand out).

  1. For most adults, learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Adults seek to learn something they need to accomplish a goal or do their work. For example, teachers may feel motivated to learn more about their computers because their students seem to easily learn how to use them. The teacher does not want to fall behind. Learning experiences should be related to these changes and pressures. Think “how to.”
  2. Increasing or maintaining one's sense of self-esteem and pleasure are strong secondary motivators for engaging in learning experiences. Make sure you can identify how your presentation will meet this need.
  3. Adults have expectations, and it is critical to take time early on to clarify and articulate all expectations before getting into content. The instructor can assume responsibility only for his or her own expectations, not for those of students. Make sure you ask them THEIR expectations.
  4. Adult learners appreciate focus on one thing at a time and a direct connection to the application of the idea or concept. This tendency increases with age. Focus your presentation on key issues and show the applicability to the audiences’ work. Make sure each point of theory has an example or point of practice.
  5. Adult learners have existing beliefs. If you are telling them something that conflicts with these older beliefs, they will be slower to integrate your information. Know about existing beliefs and address them. Know when you will meet with different or challenging beliefs and have a plan.
  6. Brand new information with little existing context or experience on the part of the learner is absorbed slower. Set expectations accordingly.
  7. Adults don’t like to look stupid. They may take errors personally and stick to their tried-and-true solutions rather than accept new ideas. Find ways to make risk taking safer in the learning environment. Keep trust high and don’t embarrass learners.
  8. Comfort matters. Consider both the physical and psychological learning environment. Break longer presentations up and mix lecture with practice opportunities. For F2F trainings, consider food, coffee, etc.
  9. Adult learners have a lot to contribute – use them. Include opportunities for peer discussion, sharing of cases and recognize existing expertise in the room. Presenters who have a tendency to hold forth rather than facilitate can hold that tendency in check--or compensate for it--by concentrating on the use of open-ended questions to draw out relevant student knowledge and experience.
  10. “The key to the presenter role is control. The presenter must balance the presentation of new material, debate and discussion, sharing of relevant student experiences, and the clock. Ironically, it seems that instructors are best able to establish control when they risk giving it up. When they shelve egos and stifle the tendency to be threatened by challenge to plans and methods, they gain the kind of facilitative control needed to effect adult learning.” (Zemke and Zemke, 1984) Side note: balance control with flexibility.

Adapted from: Zemke, R., Zemke, S. 30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING Innovation Abstracts Vol VI, No 8, March 9, 1984 Accessed February 2003.

Full Circle Associates - 2004