Effective professional development events, such as webinars, should follow adult learning principles to engage learners.
Adult learning theory began almost 200 years ago. However, it wasn't until recently that the concepts were fully incorporated into mainstream adult education practices.
Adult learning theory asks the question, "What factors impact adult learning and why?" To answer that, let's explore the three domains of learning and how they relate to adult learning theory. These are:
The cognitive learning domain involves intellect—the understanding of information and how that develops through application on a scale that increases from basic recall to complex evaluation and creation.
The affective learning domain involves our emotions toward learning and how that develops as we progress from a low order process, such as listening, to a higher order process, like resolving an issue.
The psychomotor learning domain involves our physicality and how that develops from basic motor skills to intricate performance.
How do the Domains of Learning impact professional development? Each domain represents a continuum of processes that begins with the most simple and ends with the most complex process.
When designing and developing professional development events, keep in mind that the audience will be comprised of adults. Most adults have mastered lower order processes in each of the domains, such as recall of information in the cognitive domain; listening and paying attention in the affective domain; and demonstrating mechanical skill, such as using a computer, in the psychomotor domain.
To successfully engage the audience, events must be designed to reach participants on their level, which means going beyond the basic process and challenging them on higher order processes such as troubleshooting, prioritization, and adaptation.
The three domains are often attributed to Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist who edited the text Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. This is often referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy.
Now that we understand the application of learning domains in our professional development design, let’s review other adult learning theories that can be applied to help effective professional development events.