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Rosemarie J. Park Adult Education and Human Resources Development

Unique Needs and Classroom Strategies: Working with Returning Adult Learners . Rosemarie J. Park Adult Education and Human Resources Development. Focus on the learner. Know your audience. You are all pretty experienced teachers) There is a huge diversity of experience

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Rosemarie J. Park Adult Education and Human Resources Development

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  1. Unique Needs and Classroom Strategies: Working with Returning Adult Learners Rosemarie J. Park Adult Education and Human Resources Development

  2. Focus on the learner

  3. Know your audience • You are all pretty experienced teachers) • There is a huge diversity of experience • You work with a wide range of clients • Whose skills/access to technology vary

  4. The experience bank Work with: • Elected officials • Government programs • Rural, white communities • Small business owners • Non-profits/for profits • Nursing homes

  5. Experience bank (cont.) • Migrant women • Hispanic communities • Islamic populations • Youth/adults in organ donation • Sales & marketing • Community education • Grant writing • Conflict resolution

  6. Top picks for learning • Techniques & strategies (65%) • Motivations and barriers (63%) • Using technology (59%) • Communicating specialized information to lay audiences (50%) • Moderating or facilitating (44%)

  7. Knowing your audience • What do they see as useful? • Preferred mode of learning • Demographics - important or not? Age, ethnicity • Institutional, situational, attitudinal barriers?

  8. Kolb’s (1984) Learning Style Inventory • Accommodator • Converger • Diverger • Assimilator

  9. Keys to content delivery What the pyramid tells us about strategy- • The more active the strategy the more effective • Group learning is not wasted time • Teacher as facilitator model works

  10. What we know about motivation • Learners often prefer to be passive (entertain me!) • Brookfield identifies learner resistance - this can be the product of experience! • Don’t put your reputation on the line each time you meet resistance • Focus on the entire group to meet their needs • Time is the most precious commodity adults have so don’t waste it

  11. Resisting learning • Necessity is often the mother of invention -real need = real learning • Learning may involve taking risks best taken in private • For low skilled groups fear of failure is a strong disincentive • Comfortable certainties, old skill sets and attitudes interfere

  12. Hallmarks of good teaching • Credible & authentic instruction (Extension has a reputation for this) • Clarity of instruction • Buy-in built into instruction • Demonstrable results • Learning is incremental & reflective and hardly anyone will do everything you say

  13. Mediums of instruction - technology • What constitutes good use? • How do you evaluate what is on offer? • How do we accommodate the low end user? • Issues of infrastructure • Issues of culture

  14. Communicating specialized information • How well does the general public read? • What about my service area? • How difficult is this to read? • How comprehensible (understandable) is it? • How easy to use is it?

  15. Do I need to redo this? • Writing in plain language • This includes the NET! • How about those forms? • Is there help available? • There also is a law…

  16. Focus on you the instructor • You are the subject matter expert

  17. What influences how you teach? • Your level of experience • Your vision of learning • How you yourself were taught • Your knowledge of the teaching process • Your own personal style (be yourself)

  18. Instructor roles • Facilitator • Guide • Co-investigator

  19. Stuck? • Go back to the pyramid!

  20. Keys to success • The more active the strategy the more learning occurs • Authentic, context based learning motivates the learner • Learning occurs both top-down and bottom-up

  21. Thank you • Never do more than 15 overheads per presentation!

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