Anyone who has ever had to give a presentation, teach or lead a workshop… knows how difficult it can be to deliver your message AND have it received by the most hardened species of all, adult learners. Here are the five things you must know about adult learning:
Jiggle the mouse
Adults can only pay attention to one stimulus for about 20 minutes at a time before they start to tuning out. Just like your computer falls asleep after disuse, so do our brains and we need to jiggle the mouse to wake it up. Try switching your presentation style: move from delivering a lecture to asking questions about the content, insert a video or get the participants up and moving in an activity. Even something as simple as moving around the room as you are talking will encourage participants to follow you with their eyes, ears and bodies, unwittingly “jiggling their mouse”.