Adult Learning Preferences

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Surface, compare, and synthesize individual priorities for effective learning environments into shared working agreements.

Use it when: Use at the start of a training workshop, facilitator clinic, or adult education course to discover how participants learn best and agree on group norms.

Skip it when: Skip when the agenda has no room for card trading and drawing, or when participants must adhere strictly to an inflexible, mandated training format.

Group arrangement: Individual drafting, silent table swaps, open one-on-one negotiations, and self-formed teams of 3 to 5.

Timing: Matches the 40-minute duration specified by Ida Shessel in Play for Performance.

Materials and tools

• 4 blank index cards per participant
• Pens or fine markers (1 per participant)
• At least 2 facilitator-prepared preference cards per expected participant (for example, 48 cards for 24 participants)
• 1 sheet of flip chart paper per team of 3 to 5
• Colored markers (1 pack of 4 per team)
• Roll of masking tape
• 1 large central table for the open card pool

Before participants arrive

1. Prepare index cards with distinct adult learning preferences in advance (at least two per expected participant).
2. Clear a central table to serve as the card exchange pool.
3. Distribute four blank index cards and a pen to each seat.
4. Stack flip chart paper and marker packs on a side table.

Say this to open

We want to discover what each of us needs and likes in a learning environment to make it effective. Take four blank cards and a pen. I will give you our core question, and your task is to write one realistic response per card.

How to run it

1. Write response cards 5 minutes

   Distribute four blank cards to each participant. Prompt: 'What do you need, want, or like in a learning situation in order for it to be effective for you?' Participants write one response per card. Responses do not need to match personal views. Collect all cards after 3 minutes. Secretly add prewritten facilitator cards. Deal three random cards back to each participant. Place remaining cards faceup across the central table.

2. Table pool exchange 4 minutes

   Explain the rules: participants silently rank their three cards from most to least preferred. Participants may walk to the central table, discard unwanted cards, and pick up replacements to improve their hand. This step must be completely silent. Check that every participant ends with exactly three cards.

3. Pair card swapping 5 minutes

   Release the silence rule. Instruct participants to walk around the room, talk to peers, and negotiate trades to better reflect personal preferences. Every participant must make at least one 1-for-1 trade. If someone cannot find a trading partner, they may make a swap with the table pool. Stop the round when trades slow down. Confirm everyone holds exactly three cards.

4. Form teams and agree on cards 6 minutes

   Direct participants to find peers with similar or complementary preferences and form self-selected teams of 3 to 5 people. Each team pools all member cards, debates priorities, and discards cards until exactly three cards remain that represent whole-team consensus.

5. Draw wordless poster 9 minutes

   Give each team one sheet of flip chart paper and markers. Teams create a graphic poster that illustrates their three final cards. The poster must not contain any words, letters, or numbers. Everyone on the team contributes ideas or visual elements.

6. Present posters and debrief 11 minutes

   Give each team up to 45 seconds to display its poster, read its three cards aloud, and explain the visual symbols (up to 6 minutes total for up to 8 teams). Use the remaining 5 minutes to lead a whole-room debrief on patterns across the cards and immediate workshop adjustments.

Debrief questions

• Which preference cards sparked the most debate inside your teams?
• How did seeing other people's cards shift your view of what learners in this room need?
• What concrete adjustments should we make to our agenda today based on these posters?

Finished output: Team-created wordless posters illustrating agreed top three learning preferences, displayed in the room as shared norms.

Remote

Run entirely on a digital whiteboard. Setup: prepare a shared board with numbered participant stations and a central pool frame populated with pre-made sticky notes. Step 1: Participants type four response stickies on private scratch frames. Facilitator copies them to the central pool and triggers a board script or manually drags three randomized stickies to each participant station. Step 2: In silence, participants drag unwanted stickies to the pool and claim replacements so they hold three. Self-monitor sticky count. Step 3: Send pairs to 2-minute randomized breakout rooms to negotiate sticky swaps; report swaps in chat upon return. Step 4: Participants enter self-selected breakout rooms of 3 to 5 to agree on three common stickies. Step 5: Teams use digital shape and pen tools to draw a wordless poster. Step 6: Bring all back to the main room to present and debrief.

Hybrid

Because physical card trades and digital sticky notes operate on different media, run the trading phases in two parallel streams: in-person participants swap physical cards in the room, while remote participants swap digital stickies on a shared board in a breakout session. For poster creation, form separate in-person and remote teams of 3 to 5. During presentations, broadcast the room camera to remote participants while projecting the remote whiteboard on the room screen so both cohorts review each other's outputs equally during the shared debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Offer oral dictation or typing on a personal device for participants who find handwritten index cards difficult.
• Drawing ability is not judged; allow abstract shapes, stick figures, and geometric layouts. Participants who prefer not to draw can serve as concept spokespersons.
• Participants may decline trades or join a team as an observer without being forced to debate.

If the session gets stuck

A participant cannot find a peer willing to trade during the open swap phase.

Remind participants they can trade generously to help a peer, or allow the participant to make their mandatory swap with the central table pool.

A team writes words or explanatory labels on their poster.

Gently remind them of the wordless constraint and offer sticky notes or dark markers to convert letters into symbols or icons before presenting.

Terms used here

• Group Grope: A structured experiential activity template developed by Sivasailam Thiagarajan where participants write, trade, and synthesize thematic response cards to reach consensus.