Trends in Adult Education

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/game-based-learning-adults-amir-hamza

Game based learning is an excellent way to help motivate and engage the adult learner. It helps generate opportunities for experiential learning, adding joy to the classroom, and improved student-teacher relationships.  

This style of interactive learning can help ease the stress and pressure a lot of adults’ experience in a return to school scenario. I know from my own experience of being a student in a trade and of being a relief instructor in the same trade, that people who choose trades often do so because academics were not for them.  Personally, it is just never fun enough! With that in mind, I think back to a game I created last year to help the students prepare for their Level One Provincial Exam. It put me into a facilitator/game show host role instead of an authority role so we could explore content and apply their knowledge while developing skills to help them “think on their feet.” We laughed our way through some very dry and boring review material and in the end all the students passed the dreaded provincial exam. 

Moving forward, I think it will be important for me to stay in touch with what is relevant to younger generations; so, I can always create games and use humor to allow for joy in learning, which will help with the overall academic achievements of the students.