Six ways teaching adults differs from teaching children

Executive overview

Most training programs — even those aimed at adults — default to pedagogy (child-teaching methods). The result: low retention, low motivation, disengaged learners. Andragogy, the adult-learning framework popularised by Malcolm Knowles, offers six corrective assumptions that apply directly to coaching and leadership.

Adults learn when they understand why it matters, own their path, and can apply the skill immediately.

The need to know

• Adults must understand why something is important before engaging with it.
• Without a clear personal reason, learners comply but don't retain.
• Coaches should invest time upfront connecting the skill to the learner's context.
• If the connection isn't obvious, surface it explicitly — don't assume it.

The learner's self-concept

• Adults expect ownership over the direction of their careers and development.
• Imposing a predetermined path — even a thoughtful one — reduces motivation.
• Learners without agency tend to disengage and eventually leave.
• Coaching should open space for the person to shape their own path.

The role of experience

• Adults bring accumulated experience that can anchor new learning.
• Effective coaches identify relevant experiences and build analogies from them.
• An optometrist using a running analogy to explain lens prescription change is the model: listen first, then tie new concepts to what the learner already knows.
• Skipping this step forces learners to learn in a vacuum.

Readiness to learn

• Adults learn most effectively when the timing aligns with an immediate need.
• A tool taught too early gets shelved; the same tool at the right moment gets mastered.
• Focus coaching on skills the learner can practice right away.
• The eulogy-tool example: a participant only truly learned the outline framework when he needed it for a real speech days away.

Orientation to learning

• Adults invest in skills they believe will help them with real-life tasks.
• Knowing the names of Columbus's three ships is the archetype of content with no practical value to adult learners.
• Before teaching any skill, answer: what real-world problem does this solve for this person?
• If that question is hard to answer, reconsider whether to teach it at all.

Motivation

• Adult learners are driven by job satisfaction, self-esteem, and quality of life — not grades or awards.
• Money motivates rote, repetitive tasks but can harm performance on creative, higher-order work.
• Daniel Pink's framework from Drive aligns: give people autonomy, the chance to achieve mastery, and a clear sense of purpose.
• These map directly to the coaching conversation: connect each session to the learner's own purpose.