1. Adult learning

Adult learning (or andragogy as it is sometimes formally called) refers to an educational approach that takes into account the mature learner’s view of life and learning.

In brief, education programs directed at adults need to take into account:

• The breadth of life experience they bring to the learning environment
• Their expectations of having a direct say in the way they are to be educated and the relevance of the content to their own goals
• The need for learning activities that actively involve them and have clear application to their work or other learning needs
• The opportunity to give and receive realistic feedback on the worth of the program and their progress in it
• Respect for their capacity as self-directed learners.

'By adulthood people are self-directing. This is the concept that lies at the heart of andragogy...andragogy is therefore student-centred, experience-based, problem-oriented and collaborative very much in the spirit of the humanist approach to learning and education...the whole educational activity turns on the student'.

Burns, R. The adult learner at work. Sydney: Business and Professional Publishing, 1995:233.

2. Practice-based learning

Practice-based learning is a general term for learning that takes place as far as possible in the context of the learner’s current work environment. Learning activities, including assessments, need to be as authentic as possible and based on the requirements of the work role.

Practice-based learning can be associated with improving performance and quality in the workplace and may involve learning based on demonstrating competency.

Practice-based learning often needs a flexible approach to the delivery and management of learning so that it can include learning activities that are completed ‘on the job’. It can be used very successfully to suit the needs of adult learners.

The classic domains of learning distribute learning tasks across the three areas of:

• cognitive (knowledge)
• psychomotor (motor skills)
• affective (attitudes).

Using these overarching categories allowed early behaviourist and cognitive theorists to classify what was required to be learnt in terms of ‘learning objectives’. Perhaps the most famous of these was Benjamin Bloom whose Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) is still widely used to support the analysis and writing of learning objectives, particularly where competency based learning needs to be assessed.

The classic learning domains are always a useful starting point for finding the answer to the very important question of ‘what is it exactly that needs to be learnt?’

A useful set of resources about Bloom’s work can be found at:

Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom 1956)

4. A curriculum matrix

Curriculum matrices have long been used to describe the areas of learning in a program and their relationship to each other. Usually conforming to a column and row format, a typical matrix lists learning objectives against their contributing discipline and may be subdivided into modules or units to show how curriculum content develops over the duration of the program.

For an introduction to the curriculum matrix used by this project please go to the draft framework and see the development document at the end of the each of the 22 learning topics.

Required knowledge and performance elements describe what learners are expected to know and be able to do—usually in the workplace. They can combine learning objectives from the different learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, affective) but they must accurately describe the outcome that is required for assessment of competence.

The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) has developed a large number of competency based training packages, including many for workers in the health industry. You can search for these through the National Training Information Service, http://www.ntis.gov.au to get a first hand idea of how competencies are used in education and training.

Performance outcomes are closely related to the required knowledge and performance elements as well as workplace training.

To assess whether someone is competent in a task they are usually required to perform that task against a set of criteria. These often include a detailed description of the conditions under which the ‘performance’ should be attempted and how it should be measured.

A good idea of how this works in practice can be obtained from looking up a relevant training package on the National Training Information Service website ,http://www.ntis.gov.au.

Most modern curricula include the notion of integrated learning. It means simply that one part of the curriculum is not taught in isolation from other related or relevant pieces of learning.

Although integrated learning seems a logical and intuitive approach it can be quite difficult to manage as it often requires discipline experts from a number of different fields to combine their teaching in a cooperative effort. It can also require some innovation to be introduced as part of workplace learning where existing work practices don’t currently support a team approach.

Positive reinforcement is a well known and empirically tested way of consolidating learning.

Giving a learner, including an adult, timely positive feedback on their performance is extremely motivating. It is a technique used by successful educators regularly in the classroom; however it can require considerably more commitment to find regular opportunities to apply it as part of workplace learning.

Back to the FAQ's