2.The Role of Past Experiences in Adult Learning

Our brain compares every new experience and each new bit of information to knowledge it already possesses. These dialectical relationships between prior and new knowledge shape how our brain is wired and how we read and understand the world around us. Adult learners have a wellspring of experience from which to draw knowledge and references, whether academic or social. Professionals must acknowledge and leverage the adult learner’s expertise and knowledge in the training context, so as to integrate the learner’s experience as an active part of the learning process.

But understand that if new knowledge is presented clashes with the learner’s existing knowledge base, some resistance can be expected, at least until a new meaning is imparted to an earlier experience or an old meaning is reinterpreted in a new light.