Adult learners

Adult learners are people

who have a good deal of first hand experience
who have set habits and strong tastes
who have some amount of pride
who have tangible things to lose
who have developed a reflex towards authority
who have decisions to make and problems to solve
who have a great many preoccupations outside a particular learning situation
who are bewildered often by their options
who have developed group behaviours consistent with their needs
who have established emotional frameworks consisting of values, attitudes, and tendencies
who are supposed to appear in control and who therefore display restricted emotional response (unless they feel very safe) who have strong feelings about learning situations
who are secretly afraid of falling behind and being replaced
who skip certain basics
who perhaps more than once have found the foundations of their lives stripped away
who can change
who have a past
who have ideas to contribute

Source: Davis, L.N. & McCallon, E: Planning, conducting & evaluating workshops - A practitioner's guide to adult education learning concepts, Austin, Texas, 1974.