Help adult learners stay motivated

Help adult learners stay motivated to learn new information

People’s attention spans have dwindled while the number of things to learn has increased. Nevertheless, adult learners’ brains are fatigued which impacts the ability to stay motivated. Since employees and clients struggle to stay motivated during all types of trainings, it’s time to answer the pressing question: How do you help adult learners stay motivated to learn new information?

First, an explanation of how motivation works, then a few ways you can nurture audience motivation.

Understanding Motivation

Your feelings influence your motivation, while motivation causes you to act or resist taking action. People are both externally motivated and internally motivated. Someone who is externally motivated is driven to act because they will be provided a reward. Others are internally motivated to act because of an inner desire.

External motivation is recognized when rewards are provided for attending or learning. This form of motivation passes quickly. Whereas, internal motivation is only known by others when shared by the individual. When you are helping your adult learners stay motivated to learn new information, the key is to tap into their internal motivation. When you understand a learner’s internal motivation, you know what they are thinking and can align their internal motivation with learning new information.

Nurturing Internal Motivation

When your audience doesn’t have any prior knowledge and is learning new information:

• Ask learners to share:
  • Why the new information should be important to them.
  • What barriers are limiting their motivation.
• Action: Learner responses to both prompts will provide a starting point for you to nurture their motivation to learn. It’s important that you remain open to their responses and acknowledge what they share.

When your audience is familiar with the topic but is being presented new related concepts:

• Consider opening your presentation with a flexible informal conversation about:
  • What’s your past experience with the topic?
  • What do you think are the strengths?
  • How does this topic support your current work?
• Action: Similar to the previous prompts, you should take time to prioritize the learner's current level of internal motivation and ask them to explain their current motivation. Keep in mind that being externally motivated also requires flexibility.

When your audience has extensive experience with the topic and is being presented a new related topic:

• Ask learners:
  • What new information will expand your current experience and knowledge?
• Action: The reason this question is effective is that it reveals what they are motivated to learn. If you are able to weave what they want into your existing presentation, it will maintain their motivation.

Summary

1. Ask about the learner’s current motivation state.
2. Use their motivation to guide how you present new information.
3. Be flexible.

‍