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According to Knowles (1984) there are four principles that are applied to adult learning: Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.

Educators teaching adult learners need to know the concepts of the adult learning theory and be able to incorporate them into their teaching style. Educators need to become facilitators of adult education, helping the adult learner to set and achieve goals and guide them in choosing the subjects and courses needed to fulfill these goals. They need to keep in mind that the adult learner needs to know why the course is important to their learning and life situation. The adult learner brings into the continuing educational arena a rich array of experiences that will affect the learning styles and assimilation of knowledge. Adult learners need to be able to apply the knowledge into their life situations.

Adult learners prefer to be self-directed learning. The researchers found that there is convincing evidence that people who take the initiative in learning, learn more things and learn better than people who sit at the feet of teachers passively waiting to be taught. Self-directed learning is more in tune with our natural processes of psychological development; an essential aspect of maturing is developing the ability to take increasing responsibility of our own lives to become increasingly self-directed. learning to learn' is a crucial skill. SDL starts with learners becoming aware of some need for learning. Through self-directed learning you can control what you want to learn, how you want to learn and when you want to learn.

For me as a facilitator, I have to Create an environment in which learners can learn effectively and efficiently is the core managerial role of teachers, so I tend to prefer applying Garrison’s model in my organization. According to Garrison's (1997), SDL is accomplished through the three main dimensions of : self-management, self-monitoring, and motivation. These dimensions interact with each other. In educational setup , self-management involves learner’s ability to use available learning resources in the most appropriate was as they carry out their studies. Garrison’s model focuses on resource management, learning strategies use and self-motivation as they are employed by the learners.

The teacher can provide effective feedback to help the learner self-monitoring the quality (meaning and validity) of the learning outcome because internal feedback alone may lack accuracy and explicitness . The degree of self-monitoring will depend upon the learner’s proficiency.

The motivational aspect of Garrison’s Model encourages learners to foster an effective learning process. Motivation helps initiate and maintain effort towards learning and the achievement of cognitive goals. Motivation includes entering motivation and task motivation. Entering motivation establishes commitment to a particular goal and the intent to act. It can be perceived as “commitment--the coming together of attitudes, feelings, and goals” Task motivation is the tendency to focus on and persist in learning activities and goals.