ADULT LEARNING — INVOLVEMENT OVER INSTRUCTION By John Marare Musumba

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ADULT LEARNING — INVOLVEMENT OVER INSTRUCTION By John Marare Musumba

It was a Thursday afternoon in Masinga, Machakos County. Easter weekend was around the corner. Our numbers were questionable and the mood in the room was flat.

We were one week into the Nyota OJT program — a vocational preparation initiative designed to equip youth for five-month apprenticeships under master craftspeople. But here was the problem: say “Nyota” to young people across Kenya and they think one thing — free government money. The program was different. It was about preparation, discipline, and On the Job Experience. Not a grant. Not a handout.

Most of our learners had shown up expecting one thing and found another. The future, though evident, still shouted uncertainty. Engagement was low. Energy was lower. And a long Easter weekend was pulling everyone’s attention away from anything that looked like a classroom.

We made a decision. Put the materials down. Go outside. Play a game.

I stepped forward and called it — John Says.

If you know Simon Says, you know John Says. Simple instructions. Physical movement. You follow only when the leader says “John Says” first. Get it wrong and you’re out. Simple, competitive, physical.

The reaction was immediate — and predictable.

“This is a children’s game.”

The harder ones in the group said it first. Arms folded. Eyes skeptical. Adults don’t play children’s games.

Ten minutes later those same people were laughing the loudest.

Something had shifted. The guard had come down. The weekend longing had been replaced by something present and immediate. Competition. Laughter. The simple human joy of playing.

But here is what made that Thursday afternoon more than just a fun break — we didn’t stop at the game.

The topic of the day was Mindset and Entrepreneurship Thinking. Fixed versus growth mindset. Behaviors change. Personal mindset planning. Entrepreneurial resilience. Heavy content for a slow Thursday afternoon.

We used the game to carry the message. John Says became a living demonstration of fixed versus growth mindset — how quickly people give up when they make a mistake, how others persist, how the rules of the game mirror the rules of life in business. What started as play became one of the most engaged learning sessions of the week.

We wrapped the class outside. Everyone went home for Easter.

The uncertainty didn’t leave with them — it stayed with us. Would they come back? Had we lost the momentum before we’d even built it?

Come Tuesday — every single learner who had been present on Thursday returned.

Not only that. New learners arrived. Numbers had grown enough that we had to birth a second training center to accommodate the distance some trainees were travelling.

One Thursday afternoon. One decision to play a game. A room that came back fuller.

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Why did it work?

To answer that we need to understand something fundamental about how adults learn — and how it differs from how children learn.

In Early Childhood Development Education — ECDE — children learn through repetition, play, authority, and structured routine. Their concentration spans are short but their capacity to absorb is high. They trust the teacher. They follow instruction. They don’t yet carry the weight of expectation, financial pressure, or lived experience into the classroom.

Adults are different.

Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning theory, called this difference Andragogy — the science of teaching adults — as distinct from Pedagogy, the science of teaching children. His framework identifies six core principles of adult learning:

Adults need to know WHY they are learning something before they engage with WHAT.

Adults bring existing experience that must be honored, not ignored.

Adults take responsibility for their own learning when given ownership.

Adults are ready to learn things directly relevant to their real lives.

Adults are problem-centered, not subject-centered — they want to solve something, not just absorb content.

Adults respond to internal motivation far more than external pressure.

Look at what happened in Masinga through that lens.

Our learners had come expecting a government grant — an external motivation that wasn’t there. When the real program revealed itself, engagement dropped. Why? Because nobody had connected the content to their internal motivation — their actual desire to build a skill, earn respect, establish themselves.

The game changed that. Not because it was fun — though it was. But because it did something a lecture never could: it made every person in that room an active participant. Nobody could sit at the back and disengage. The game required presence. Physical presence. Mental presence. Emotional presence.

Involvement.

That is the word.

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The energizer as a learning tool

After that Thursday, games became core to our training design. Not as rewards or time fillers — as deliberate facilitation tools.

Simple energizers like Balance the Ball replaced pointing fingers for selecting the next contributor. Instead of a trainer calling on someone — which triggers anxiety and self-consciousness in adults — the ball determined who spoke next. Random. Fair. Physical. It removed the intimidation of being singled out and replaced it with playful participation.

Learners began requesting games every afternoon. Sometimes we honored it. Sometimes the weight of the day’s content required us to push through without it. But the principle had been established — this was a program where you were expected to participate, not just sit and receive.

Different trainers had different preferences. Not everyone was comfortable leading games. But for those of us who embraced it, the results were visible and measurable — in attendance, in energy, in the quality of conversations that followed.

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The space where pedagogy meets andragogy

Kenya’s TVET system has invested significantly in Competency Based Education and Training — CBET. The framework is sound. The intention is right. Skills over certificates. Practical application over passive reception of information.

TVET sits at the intersection of pedagogy and andragogy — its learners are adults or transitioning adults, but its structures were largely inherited from formal schooling. The question is not which approach is right, but how we blend both to serve learners who come with experience, motivation, and real-world pressures that a child in a classroom does not carry.

Most trainers in Kenya’s TVET institutions are skilled and dedicated. But facilitation methodology — how you engage adults specifically, how you honor their experience, how you design participation rather than just delivery — is a craft that needs deliberate development. The Postgraduate Diploma in Technical Education that I am completing at KStvet addresses this directly. But not every trainer goes through it. And even those who do sometimes default to what feels safe — stand at the front, deliver the content, hope something lands.

Games are not the solution to that gap. But they are a symptom of the right instinct — that adult learners need to be met where they are, engaged as whole people, and given reason to participate before they are given content to absorb.

CBET is already pointing in this direction. The framework calls for learner-centered, practical, competency-driven delivery. Andragogical principles don’t compete with that vision — they strengthen it.

What I learned in Masinga

A simple lecture cannot unlock an adult’s concentration.

Involvement does.

Adults need to feel involved to learn something. They need to see themselves in the content, feel the relevance in their bones, and experience learning as something happening with them — not to them.

Kilonzo found his voice in that room not because I lectured him into confidence. He found it because the room was designed for participation. Games were part of that design.

The Thursday that almost lost us our learners became the Thursday that saved the program.

One decision. Go outside. Play a game.

Sometimes that is all facilitation is — the courage to put the materials down and meet people where they actually are.

*John Marare Musumba is a Youth Skills Trainer and TVET Facilitator based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently delivering technical training at PC Kinyanjui Technical Training Institute and building toward skills development policy work in East Africa.*