Before Malcolm Knowles coined the word "andragogy" to describe the principles of helping adults learn, some popular wisdom on the matter had already accumulated. Learning gets "harder" as you get older; adults learn languages differently than children do. Whatever the truth in these matters, learning does present different risks and benefits to adults than to children. And it is certainly true that adults' increased understanding and greater store of acquired knowledge make them far more critical judges of the material being presented and of the instructor. To be effective, any training program or lesson plan must be designed with the needs of an adult audience in mind, and this requires thinking about the reasons why adults approach learning.

Adults often seek new learning experiences as a way to cope with specific life changes (marriage, promotion, new job, change of career). Because of the way work dominates our lives, 80% of any change is perceived as work-related even if it is not. Training programs should include strategies to help ease any tension. Adults also seek new knowledge because they have a specific use for the knowledge or skills; secondarily, it helps increase or maintain their self-esteem and provides pleasure. Therefore, education content should be tangible and measurable, focusing heavily on application, with the underlying theory structured into the application.