CHILD, ADOLESCENT,
AND ADULT
LEARNING:
SIMILARITIES AND
DIFFERENCES
FACI 213 Lesson 16,17,18,19
DIFFERENCES OF YOUNG, ADOLESCENT AND ADULT
LEARNERS
The age of students is a large factor for teachers consider in
making decisions about how and what to teach. Teachers must take
into account students’ learning needs, expectations, cognitive
abilities, and skills. For instance, when teaching language,
teachers respect children's need to learn languages through play
which is different from adolescents who are in need of activities to
trigger their cognitive abilities to understand abstract notions.
The comparison between children versus adult learning sprang
from Knowles' theory that an adult’s learning ability is
different. While the term andragogy was first used in Europe
during the 1800s, Knowles made it more popular in the
English-speaking world.
His book from 1970, The Modern Practice of Adult
Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy, was the catalyst of
this decades-long discussion that learning by children is not
the same as adults. Pedagogy is teacher-focused learning
while andragogy is learner focused.
THE LEARNER
Knowles based his theories on five issues; the first is
the concept of self where the learner grows up to
recognize that he is an individual who can think for
himself and differentiate good from bad.
Thus, adults are independent and tend to evaluate
themselves or the things around them. Children are
still dependent on rules and instructions under their
teacher’s guidance and as such, the one giving
instructions has full command of the child’s learning.
EXPERIENCE
The role of experience is another point of comparison
between children versus adult learning. Kids bring little
experience when they are faced with a learning activity. This
makes them listen more and be influenced by their teachers.
In this stage, kids are likely to have role models like their
parents or older siblings.
On the other hand, adults have a wealth of resources owing to
their experiences, which form a large part of their identity.
READINESS
Kids follow levels of instruction in order to progress to a
higher level of learning. Again, they rely on their teacher
who decides for them if they are ready to take on more
challenging tasks or not.
Adults are guided by their own need to learn. As they
recognize their worth and obligations, they can assess and
see if there’s something lacking in their lives.
If there are gaps that need to be filled, they look for ways to
develop their inner selves.
ORIENTATION TO LEARNING
Adults have a perspective of seeing learning as a means to
solve an existing problem or concern in their lives.
For instance, self-help books are popular because people
read them with the hope of fixing a problem or
situation in their lives.
For kids, their way of learning is by subject matter,
without having a sense of immediacy. They are not yet
conscious if the lessons they face bear deeper meaning in
their lives.
MOTIVATION
Lastly, the question of what motivates one to learn
presents another interesting insight into children vs.
adult learning. Grown-ups are driven mostly by
emotions and an aspiration to be better versions of
themselves; from self-esteem to self-actualization,
adults act upon internal motivators.
For children, it is often by external factors like
competition, peer pressure or
consequences of failure
YOUNG CHILDREN
BIOLOGICAL
DISPOSITION LEARNING
PRIVILEGED DOMAIN
FACI 213 Lesson 17
WHAT IS CHILD
DEVELOPMENT?
Child development is a process every child goes
through. This process involves learning and
mastering skills like sitting, walking, talking,
skipping, and tying shoes. Children learn these skills,
called developmental milestones, during
predictable time periods.
FIVE MAIN AREAS
OF DEVELOPMENT
1. COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
This is the child's ability to learn and solve problems.
For example, this includes a two-month-old baby
learning to explore the environment with hands or
eyes or a five-year-old learning how to do simple
math
problems.
2. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
This is the child's ability to interact with others,
including helping themselves and self-control.
Examples of this type of development would
include: a six-week-old baby smiling, a ten-month-old
baby waving byebye, or a five-year-old boy knowing
how to take turns in games at school.
3. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
This is the child's ability to both understand and use
language.
For example, this includes a 12-month-old baby saying
his first words, two year-old naming parts of her body,
or a five-year-old learning to say "feet“ instead of
"foots".
4. FINE MOTOR SKILL
DEVELOPMENT
This is the child's ability to use small
muscles, specifically their hands
and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a
spoon, turn pages in a book,
or use a crayon to draw.
5. GROSS MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
This is the child's ability to use large muscles.
For example, a six-monthold baby learns how to
sit up with some support, a 12-month-old baby
learns to pull up to a stand holding onto furniture,
and a five-year-old
learns to skip
WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE?
A developmental milestone is a skill that a child acquires
within a specific
time frame.
For instance, one developmental milestone is learning to
walk.
Most children learn this skill or developmental milestone
between the ages of 9
and 15 months.
Milestones develop in a sequential fashion. This
means that a child will need
to develop some skills before he or she can
develop new skills.
For example,
children must first learn to crawl and to pull up
to a standing position before they are able to
walk. Each milestone that a child acquires builds
on the last milestone developed.
WHAT ARE TYPICAL
MILESTONES, OR SKILLS,
CHILDREN LEARN AT
DIFFERENT AGES?
We now know that our brains are not fully developed at birth.
In fact, a baby's brain weighs about one quarter (1/4) of what
an adult's brain weighs.
The brain grows very rapidly during the first several years of
life. During this time, your child is learning all sorts of new
skills.
Because children usually acquire developmental milestones or
skills during a specific time frame or "window", we can
predict when most children will learn different skills.
THE SEVEN
DOMAINS OF
EARLY
CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT
GROSS MOTOR
This is one of the most basic of the domains that your child
is already learning. In the simplest terms, this is when
your child learns how to use the big muscle groups in
their body. While your kiddo is already past crawling and
have moved on to walking, there are always more gross
motor skills to be learned. Participating in active games and
playing sports are just a couple of ways these skills can be
obtained while your little one is attending preschool.
FINE MOTOR
While hand-eye coordination comes far more naturally to
some, this is not true of all. Children have to learn how to
control their muscle movement in their hands in order to
obtain hand-eye coordination and more.
There are specific ways we do this in the classroom such as
having your child use scissors, color, play with Legos, draw
pictures and more. These skills can turn
into more advanced ones later on like when your child
decides he/she wants to knit or play the guitar.
LANGUAGE
While we are sure you have been working with
your child so that he/she knows how to recognize
the letters of the alphabet or even read shorter
words, this is one domain that takes a while to
perfect as even into adulthood, this
domain can be improved. We like to read to the
children and also speak to them as often as
possible so that they can learn to communicate
their wants,needs, opinions and more.
COGNITIVE
The cognitive domain is the one that children
develop in order to understand cause and effect.
This sort of skill will also aid in early math skills
such as counting and recognizing patterns. We
will work to help your child to understand what
sort of things occurs because of their actions in
order to more fully develop this domain.
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
In order to be successful in the long run,
children have to socialize. Not only does
spending time with other children teach
them important skills like how to share, but
it also gives them the chances to develop
good manners and overall behaviour.
SELF HELP/ ADAPTIVE
One of the best things about enrolling your child in a
preschool is that they can begin to rely on themselves a bit.
While they have been relying on you, the parent, since the
moment they were born, they are now spending an
extended amount of time away from you, meaning they
have to rely on themselves and only themselves.
One of the most important ways children learn to help
themselves is when they begin to go through potty-training,
something we advocate for largely at our preschool.
MORALS/VALUES
While we truly believe that self-respect and love is
behaviour that is learned from the parents, children tend to
learn a lot about them by being exposed to the personalities
and habits of others, like those in their class.
Additionally, positive influences like the instructors at our
preschool can help your little one to get a better grasp on
the difference between what is right and wrong, as well as
learning to accept those who are different from them.
