Creating positive learning environments

Adult learners come with a set of characteristics which include their experiences and pre formed mindsets. They are ‘harder to please and win’ as they are experienced and skeptic. Engaging them is a challenge and therefore mandates the presence of a positive and safe learning environment.

It is very important for adults to feel safe and positive about their learning environment. The world is set up in a fashion that we are always feeling that we are being judged at or questioned. There are a very few places where a person feels at home or not being judged upon. When we have the trust and confidence that we are accepted and not being judged we respond very differently. That is the only time we are able to leave our inhibitions and defenses and be ourselves. Learning requires a ‘open mode’- by this I mean a mindset that is free of biases against new concepts and ideas and a mindset that is able to absorb, reflect and think objectively. Any thought or idea that stays in our mind for some time and that makes our mind spin for reliability and validity has a higher tendency of sticking with us. This just mean that ideas need acceptance and analysis and for that to happen we need to first of all take our learners in the acceptance and analysis mode.

When I think of this mode, as an adult learner and educator the first thing that clicks me is trust. When we trust our group, our environment, our instructors we get relaxed that we are in safe hands. This is probably just similar to being with a doctor. Imagine a scenario where we give our body to the doctor and let him decide what is best for it. And now imagine a scenario where we do not trust the doctor.

In a classroom we give our mind to the instructor and the power to induce new/different ideas in it. If we can’t trust our instructors, our learning programs, we can never feel safe about what we are learning.

We are also skeptic people, winning our trust is not easy and therefore for winning our trust we need transparency. In case of learning probably the transparency comes from the idea that what we are learning is relevant and has a meaning/importance in our lives.

Learning also requires acceptance and that comes when we are able to leave away our defenses. I think we are able to leave away our defences when we do not have the fear of being offended. That is I guess a by-product of trust and the confidence that we are not being judged upon.

Engaging our critical thinking and higher-order learning skills is very important to true learning. This I guess comes from engagement in the process which I guess is a by-product of feeling motivated and enthusiastic about learning.

Positive learning environments are the core essentials of learning. In case of adults, they are equally important as they are in case of children. Creating a positive learning environment for adult learners’ calls for acknowledging the fact that they are different from young learners and children. It requires identifying and accounting for the specific characteristics of adult learners and striving to create an environment that can account for all the needs of adult learners. We need to give them a safe, non-judgmental, trusting and motivating learning environment where they can get the ‘at home’ feel.

As adult educators we need to make sure that we are updated and creative- we are accepting and non-judgemental, we are true to ourselves and our learners, we are ourselves convinced and clear about the value of what we are teaching and we convey the same with complete transparency to our learners.

As instructors we are accountable to our students. They are the people who come to us and trust us with their biggest asset their mind and their thinking. We have a lot of responsibility as we handle and manipulate their mind. We need to take care that our learners feel comfortable and confident about their learning.