Abstract:

The adult learning process is characterized by a set of particularities, which specialists involved in training must take into account in order to ensure the effectiveness of the procedures carried out. The learning results for adults can be obtained if there is an active involvement of the mediator, the trainer, who knows very well the characteristics of the participants in the training but also the tasks of the activities in which they will be involved.

The problem of the ways and forms in which the adult learns is a particularly important one for the specialists involved in the education and training of adults. In adults, learning means application, deepening, restructuring and creation. Starting from these aspects, this paper presents a study carried out in an adult training course where two models considered to be effective in the learning activity were applied: one is the experiential learning model elaborated by D. Kolb and the other is the normative decision-making model.

According to the two models of adult learning, the results obtained must be viewed under a double aspect: an informative one, which consists in the extraction and storage of useful informational content, the acquisition of procedures, norms and methods of thinking fixed in knowledge: rules, theorems, definitions, laws, principles, and another formative one, which consists in the formation and continuous transformation of the cognitive (operational-action) apparatus of the adult.

The adaptive value of the behavioral changes - the performance changes resulting from the exercise - counts under the functional ratio. Regarding the learning process for adults, this paper proposes some aspects, which specialists involved in training must take into account to ensure the efficiency of information assimilation.

Keywords:

Adult learning, training, model.