The Way to Explain, Analyze, Describe and Predict Learning

Running head: LEARNING THEORIES
Learning Theories
Name of the Student:
Name of the Universities:
Author note:

LEARNING THEORIES1
Learning designs are dependent on the learning theories. They give a strong
foundation for understanding the way people learn and the way to explain, analyse, describe
and predict learning. This paper shall elaborate on analysing two learning theories and the
way they can be applied in an organisational context. The chosen theories for this purpose are
Andragogy and Experimental learning theory.
It is to mention that Andragogy theory was developed by Malcolm Knowles during
the 1970s. It is focused on the understanding of science and practice in the adult learning. It
comprises of five important elements (Merriam 2001). Firstly, it claims that the adult learners
need to have an independent self-concept for taking initiatives to choose their learning needs.
Secondly, with the increasing age of adults, they gain more experience and in this way, they
become more intuitive. Thirdly, with the changing in roles, learning of an individual also gets
changed and this why, individuals need to orient themselves towards the skills they require to
play the role. Fourthly, it assumes that adults are problem centred and they apply their
knowledge for solving the issues. Lastly, adults are self-motivating and they always have an
internal desire for developing, unlike children who are forced to learn and develop. Over the
passage of years, this theory has been added to and adopted. It is highly applicable for
businesses because it works well for the common training courses such as the soft skills
courses. Adults are likely to desire for getting involved in the planning, delivery and
execution of their training. They want to control what, how and when they learn. With the
same, they gain more when they can pull out the past experiences into the process of learning.
They could easily draw on what they have previously known for adding greater context to
their learning. These help in increasing employee performance and adding value to the
business.
On the other hand, the experimental learning theory claims that the essence of adult
learning is making a good sense of the experiences. It was developed by David A. Kolb and