Toward constructivism for adult learners in online learning environments

TLDR

Online learning differs from traditional classrooms, requiring educators to adopt special techniques, and adult learners have unique needs that demand tailored approaches, prompting scholars to advocate for constructivist methods in distance education. The study investigates how constructivist principles affect online learning outcomes for adult learners. The authors link constructivism to adult learning theory and propose instructional guidelines that apply constructivist principles in online adult education.

Abstract

Since online learning has a different setting from the conventional classroom, online educators need to use some special techniques and perceptions to lead to success. Moreover, adults have special needs and requirements as learners compared with children and adolescents, thus online educators should know how adults can learn best because of their special characteristics. Philosophical and methodological shifts also affect instruction. Many researchers have suggested that constructivism should be applied in distance education. Thus, this paper attempts to examine the impact of constructivism in online learning environments when focusing on adult learners. The author develops the connection between constructivism and adult learning theory. In addition, the paper proposes instructional guidelines using the constructivist approach in online learning for adults.