The Differences of An Adolescent and Adult Learner

Introduction

An adolescent and an adult are different age levels. Adolescent is a time of

change between childhood and adulthood, usually they are 13 to 21 years old.
Meanwhile adult has reached full physical and mental maturity. Maturity is usually
considered to begin at the age of 20 or 21. Then middle age, starting around 40 years,
and old stage starts around 60 years. Based on observation that I did before to
adolescent and adult, they have many differences, like how they do and think. So
that I will discuss about differences between adolescent and adult in this essay.

Method

While I join Principle and Teaching of Learning class during this semester, I
have made three observations to children, adolescent, and adult. Each observation to
each level, I did twice. First observation of adolescent, I did while I and the
participant have a class in campus on 1st December 2022, and the second is when she
has groceries at 6th of December 2022, in Devia Minimarket. In this observation, I
observed one adolescent, she is my friend. Her name is Luthfiana Mujahidatul
Athifa (20 years old) from Berau, East Kalimantan. But she is currently pursuing her
second year of education at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. She is major in
English education, because her goal is to become an English teacher in the future.
The reason why I choose her is because she is my close friend. While I was observing
her, I just brought my phone to take note what she did and talk, and I asked some
question to get more information about him.

The second observation is observation of an adult. The participant of

observation is my father, his name is Syaeful Bakhri. He is 47 years old, and work as
an entrepreneur. I chose him as my participant of observation is because he is my
father, and he came to Yogyakarta to visit me on new year, so I observed him. First
observation of him I did on 31 st of December 2022, and the second I did on 1 st of
January 2023. The same thing as the previous observation I made with adolescent,
during the observation I only brought my handphone to take note what he did.

Finding and Discussion

There are four qualities that I picked up from my interactions with teenagers
in Luthfiana, which I did there on two separate occasions. My experiences in that
location served as the basis for these observations. In the first place, the qualities that
jumped out to me were having the ability to think abstractly, having a melancholic
disposition, and having an interest in constructing arguments. During the duration
of the lesson, she paid attention to the lecturer's explanation; yet, she had the
tendency to become easily distracted by her surroundings, such as when her friend
talked. She also inquires as to whether or not he has grasped the concept yet, and she
responds with an explanation to her friend's question regarding whether or not she
has grasped it. She would not be asking the question if she had understood what
was being said. The second occasion in which I'm going to point the finger at myself
is when we went to the supermarket. I've only picked up one trait from her, and
that's having an interest in learning something new. She definitely passed that on to
me. When she goes shopping, she occasionally researches new brands of the things
that she buys, notably perfume because she takes pleasure in smelling nice. She does
this because she likes to wear scents. As can be seen from a few of the insights that I
gained from the observations that I carried out on two separate occasions, there are a
variety of potential obstacles that can stand in the way of a student's education.
These insights have provided me with evidence that these obstacles exist. Problems
with peers, social anxiety, the stress of tests, difficulties concentrating, a lack of self-
confidence, and addiction are all factors. And each of those things will, in some way,
impede her from gaining knowledge.
Because I am supposed to be shadowing an adult for this exercise, I have
decided that my dad will be the one I watch closely while he participates. I was able
to identify two traits that were inherited from my father by making two different
observations of him, and I came to the conclusion that these traits were inherited
from my father. When I think about the ways in which my father has shaped my
personality, the first thing that comes to mind is the way he views himself. While my
family and I were eating breakfast, my dad filled us in on all the details of his plans
for the future. Even down to the strategy for paying me a visit in Yogyakarta, he
meticulously planned and practiced everything in before. Because there was a man
nearby who was smoking while we were dining, I inquired with my father as to the
reason he did not smoke. In his response, he stated that he did not enjoy smoking
and that he was worried about the long-term impact that smoking would have on
both his own health and the health of his family. Because of this, I believe that my
father has the characteristics of a self-concept that are consistent with that of an adult
learner. This belief is based on the fact that he has continued to educate himself
throughout his life. My discovery that my father had experience, which I learned
about on the second day of the observation, led me to the subject of the second
attribute. In addition to talking about the things that are going to happen in the
future, my father enjoys thinking back on the things that have already occurred in
his life. When we went out to eat ice cream together, there were a lot of people
strolling by, and while we were there, my father would talk about whatever he
noticed and find connections between it and things that had happened in his life. My
conclusion is that my father also has the second characteristic, which is experience,
and this is why I have come to that conclusion. According to some of the
characteristics that I found based on the observations that I carried out on two
different times, there are two potential obstacles that can get in the way of student
learning with my father. These observations were carried out on two different
occasions. There are mental impediments as well as peculiarities associated with the
individual's personality that stand in the way. The characteristics that my father
possesses, in particular his self-concept, are the primary contributors to the existence
of this intellectual barrier in our family. And because he has experiencing qualities
that are related to his sentiments, which makes it somewhat tough for him to
prepare for the future, the problem of dispositional impediments develops as a
result of the fact that he possesses these qualities.
My two observations of adults and adolescents led me to the conclusion that
there must have been a significant amount of differences between the two groups,
which is not surprising given that the two age groups are different from one another.
My findings led me to conclude that there must have been a significant amount of
differences between the two groups. Such as what qualities they possess, any
potential challenges they might have in the future, and the most effective method for
teaching them. Teenagers and adults require different qualities to exist in their
personalities. It is impossible for such characteristics to be the same. As a result of
my interactions with both adolescents and adults, I've come to the realization that
the thinking processes of teenagers are typically more abstract and less structured
than those of adults. As a direct consequence of this, adolescents have difficulty
focusing their attention on a single subject and are prone to becoming easily
distracted. They have the potential to develop qualities such as a self-concept, which
enables them to feel that their lives are more structured and conceptualized, which is
one of the characteristics of an adult. Additionally, they have the potential to
develop a sense of agency and responsibility, which are also characteristics of an
adult. One more characteristic that sets adolescents apart from adults is the fact that
the vast majority of adolescents have the impression that they have not yet
discovered who they are; as a result, they are insatiably curious and eager to try out
new things. Adults, on the other hand, have already found out who they are. Adults,
on the other hand, have a tendency to believe that they have reached a point when
they are content with who they are. On the other side, adults have a greater
likelihood of being of a more advanced age and of having lived for a longer period
of time than children do. Adults are less likely to be quickly engaged in new
experiences than young people are since adults have already gathered a large
quantity of life experience compared to young people. On the other hand, because
individuals in today's society have acquired traits connected to experience, they
commonly identify things with the experiences they have had. In the article that I
just read, it was mentioned that the qualities of an adult and an adolescent are very
different from one another. I found this to be really interesting. For instance, they
possess intellectual, social, emotional, and cognitive capacities. Additionally, they
have these capabilities.
Given the myriad of ways in which adolescents and adults differ from one
another, it stands to reason that the obstacles that each age group will confront will
also be distinct from one another. Based on the observations that I made with my
previous acquaintance, notably that he had qualities such as being interested in
starting an argument, being moody, being able to abstract, and being interested in
something new, the characteristics that I identified in a teenager are as follows:
There is a risk that problems will emerge in a teenager because of the characteristics
that are present in a teenager, such as conflict with peers, worry over tests,
difficulties concentrating, and addiction. In the meantime, an adult problem that
surfaced as a consequence of the observations I made with my father, more notably
academic limits and dispositional hurdles. The characteristics that my father
possesses, in particular his self-concept, are the primary contributors to the existence
of this intellectual barrier in our family. And because he has experience qualities that
are related to his sentiments, which makes it somewhat tough for him to plan for the
future, the problem of dispositional barriers develops as a result of the fact that he
possesses these qualities. The article that I recently finished reading has a connection
to the differences in approach to problem-solving that I discussed before, namely
those that exist between teenagers and adults. The article investigates the factors that
may contribute to the widespread perception that young people and adults can
never effectively work together. Because they display a broad range of features and
are prone to a variety of difficulties, including serious ones, it is difficult to
generalize about them. Although adults have experience and adolescents desire
experience, adults do not want adolescents to get the same amount of experience
that they do. This is one of the arguments that is stated in the article.
As I've indicated in the previous section, there are undoubtedly a great deal of
differences between the characteristics of teenagers and adults, as well as the
difficulties they confront. It should come as no surprise that this is the same thing as
determining how to instruct and educate each of them separately. Because adults are
much older than teens, the methods of instruction that are used with the two
different age groups—teenagers and adults—are very different from one another.
Due to the fact that young people still have the propensity to be unstable and easily
distracted, the process of training young people is often more complex than
instructing adults. As a result, a teacher must put in more effort and have more
patience while instructing teenagers. In addition, teenagers have a higher degree of
curiosity, and as a consequence, educators need to have a broader knowledge base in
order to educate and interact with students who are still teenagers. In the articles
that I have read that are related to this subject, it is written that teachers not only
need to be knowledgeable in the subject matter that they wish to bring to the
attention of teenagers, but teachers also need to have the ability to excite pupils
about the subject matter that they teach. I have read these articles because they are
related to this subject. Despite the notion that teaching adults is often easier than
teaching teenagers, there are times when teaching adults might be more challenging
than educating adolescents. Adult students frequently believe that they are superior
to other people due to the fact that they have more years of experience, which results
in adult students being normally more arrogant than adolescents. As a direct
consequence of this, instructors of adult students require a significant amount of
patience from their pupils.

Conclusion
To summarize, there are significant distinctions between adolescents and
adults, including their characteristics, potential issues, and the ways in which they
instruct. Problems can arise from both adolescents and adults for a variety of
reasons, including differences in the ways in which they think and communicate.
Adolescents cannot be instructed in the same manner as adults, and the process of
instructing adolescents is more difficult than instructing adults.
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