Knowing How to Teach Adults: Program Objectives and Instructional Plans
From Adult Education
Created by Katie Mcaskill Fall 2007
Edited by Tricia Clapp Fall 2009
Contents |
Introduction
Learning does not end with a person walking across the stage to collect a high school diploma. Many adults go on to college, technical schools and military service, jobs or to college (Kendle 2007).
Teaching adults is a lot different then being an adult learner. According to Kelly (2007), adult learners have specific preferences when it comes to the classroom environment:
- Adult learners prefer a physical environment which is comfortable and conductive to learning, with features such as comfortable chairs, good lighting and good use of technology.
- Adults prefer a classroom climate which is supportive and non-threatening.
When it comes to lectures, Kelly (2007) points out adult learners prefer lectures that are:
- Content experts
- Provide relevance
- Are well organized
- Don’t waste time
- State clear learning goals for the class
- Are willing to modify or add to the learning
- Use active learning or problem-solving techniques
- Encourage self-directed learning, while recognizing individual learning development
The 3 R’s to Remember
According to Kelly, the 3 R’s to remember when working with adult learners are:
- Respect
- respect for life experiences of adults by providing opportunities for incorporating them into class discussions.
- respect for the variety of learning styles in the class by providing a variety of teaching methods to meet the learning styles, providing a variety of graded assignments and exams, and being responsive to individual learning needs.
- respect students as individuals by recognizing the importance of their own goals and motivations and by incorporating them into the class whenever possible.
- respect the time of busy adults by starting on time, ending on time, and having a well-organized class with clear goals and a well-though-out plan for the session.
- Relevance
- provide relevance by explaining why this material is important, and how they can apply it in their professional or personal lives. Encourage adults to think of ways in which they can put their knowledge or skills to practical use.
- provide relevance by actually using the information to solve problems or by applying the information through simulations or proactive exercises in class.
- Responsibility
- recognize the developmental state of adults: they are responsible people who have responsible jobs are usually responsible for maintaining a household and family.
- recognize that adults go through developmental stages in learning: they start as dependent learners, and should be encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning as they gain experience and “maturity” in the subject.
Preparing Lesson Plans
Teaching is more than just telling your students what you want them to know. There has to be careful lesson planning that will include method of instruction, instructional strategies, oral presentation and student involvement. Lectures need to be supplemented with written handouts, transparencies, chalkboard or whiteboard illustrations, student questions, student activities, instructor activities or other means of interacting with the subject matter.
Lesson plans are a very important tool for instructors to have. Lesson Plans help the teachers set the stage and provide directions for the class to go into. According to lesson plans procedure at Honolulu.hawaii.edu, the three stages of a lesson plan should include:
Stage One: Pre-Lesson Plan should include:
- goals
- content
- student entry level
Stage Two: Lesson Planning and Implementation:
- unit title
- instructional goals
- objectives
- rationale
- content
- instructional procedures
- evaluation procedures
- materials
Stage 3 Three: Post-lesson activity
- lesson evaluation and revision
According to the author (unknown) the elements of a lesson plan should be thought of as guiding principles to be applied as aids, but not blueprints to systematic instruction. Precise preparation must allow for flexible delivery. During actual classroom interaction, the instructor needs to make adaptations and to add artistry to each lesson plan and classroom delivery.
Oral Presentation
- Planning Presentations
Lecture is often times overused due to the following: involves too much lecturing, forces the learner into a passive role, and wastes time because students could gain the information through reading material (Miller 2002). The lecture is effective when the skill and care of the instructor prepares and delivers the lecture to be the most valuable for the learning process. The presentation is the key element of a lesson plan. Although there are many additional components to this presentation relays the information to the student in a meaningful way. There has to be great preparation for the presentation. We are looking for these key factors when planning a presentation: focus the attention on the objectives, create the framework and stimulate student interest.
Outline and Presentation Preparation
- Outline Preparation
The presentation or lecture begins with an outline. The detail of the outline depends on the depth of the subject to be presented. This is where the ability of the student’s is important. You don’t want to overstep or demean the intelligence of the students. Veteran instructors may produce less detailed outlines than beginning instructors. There also might be some emphasis stress on certain ideas that the instructor wants to make.
- Presentation Preparation
The next step will be preparing for the presentation. This is includes ensuring that the instructional effectiveness will be achieved. In this plan you should include some questions that might be asked. This is part of the interaction that is needed to ensure that the lecture or presentation is effective. Here are some examples of types of questions that should be included:
- Use declarative statements that reflect the instructor’s thinking or rephrase student remarks. The instructor might begin with “So you think that…” or “I think you are saying that…”
- Make declarative restatements that reflect students’ thinking.
- Pose indirect questions, for example, “I wonder why you think…”
- Use imperatives, for example, “Show me the reason for that…” or “Tell us more about that…”
- Use students to pose questions to fellow students.
- Provide deliberate silence. When a student finishes speaking, the teacher maintains silence. It has been determined that when the teacher waits, the student will often resume speaking, or another student will speak up (Miller 2002).
These are mere suggestion of questions to include in your lesson plan. Remember that questioning does not always get the students involved.
Making Presentations
- Audience Attention
Instructors should not get so wrapped up in the subject matter but in motivating students to learn. An effective way to begin a presentation is to capture the audiences’ attention. This can be done in many ways including: telling a story, asking a question, mentioning a paradoxical set of facts about the set or any other way to set the stage and get their attention. Instructors have to be enthusiastic about the subject and show knowledge, interest and motivate the students to engage in the learning process. This can also be done by knowing something about the student’s; draw from their interest and use them in a story. With adult learners it is important to being them into the subject matter. If real life experiences can be used that is a definite plus because keeping their attention throughout the whole presentation is a must.
Physical Behavior
- Movement
Movement is essential to an effective lecture. This will also help keep the audience’s attention, however too much motion is distracting to the students. You want to remain with natural body movements don’t use forced movement, jerky or rapid motions.
- Attending
An instructor should exhibit attending behavior when communicating with students in a manner that reveals interest, concern and respect (Miller 2002). This will allow for the student to feel they are receiving personal attention from the instructor. Smiling and moving toward the student that asks the question can help improve the learning environment and bring the feeling of security to the classroom.
- Focusing
Focusing is the type of behavior use by a teacher to intentionally control the direction of student attention. (Miller 2002) Use gestures to reinforce ideas to students. This can be done with oral statements and physical movements. Examples of gestures stated by Miller include: using the hands expressively, motioning with the arms, pointing, clapping the hands, raising the eyebrows, smiling, or frowning can be used to direct the learner’s attention to a particular thought, word or concept.
- Pacing and Pausing
Pacing is the rate of speech pattern and movements demonstrated by the instructor. Keeping the pace moving is essential to the students remaining involved in the class and avoids getting bored or loosing attention within the lecture. However if the subject matter is low level content the pace may be faster than if the subject matter is more complex and needs to be approached at a slower pace.
Pausing is related to the pace, a moment of silence during a lecture maybe necessary for students to make clear judgments about the lecture and the information being presented to them. Pausing may be a sign of emphasis, suspense, signal that the teacher is moving on to another point or showing disapproval of undesired behavior.
- Mannerism
Behavior that is meaningless can be distracting to the learner. We want to keep their attention and show interest in the subject of the lesson. Don’t show that you are bored with the subject or that you are using repetitive words or actions that have become habitual within the job.
Oral Questioning Strategies
An effective instructor is and an effective questioner. Ask questions to check the student’s understanding of the subject, check for mastery of basic concepts, encourage critical thinking and stimulate interaction between instructor and student’s and student’s and other student’s. Words such as what, why, how, summarize, describe, or define encourage student involvement in the questioning process.
Types of Questions
- Knowledge
Ask these questions based on the level of the students. Encourage them to think outside of their comfort zone.
- Comprehension
Encourages students to interpret what they have been presented.
- Application
Problem Solving Skills
- Analysis
Identifies motives, draws conclusions, generalizations
- Synthesis
Higher thinking skills such as making predictions
- Evaluation
Require students to judge the merit of the idea presented
Characteristics of Good Questions
Key Words include:
- Explain - Requires clear evidence about the meaning of or reason for a subject
- Outline – Requires the listing of main or key points in a logical order
- Define – Requires an accurate description of the limits of a subject
- Compare – Requires the identification of similarities and differences
- Illustrate – Requires examples of principles or facts
(Miller 2002)
Value Of Questions
- Stimulation of students to be interested
- Establish communication
- Enforce point presented to the students
- Provides motivation about the subject
- Helps students to speak effectively and organize their thinking skills
Course Design
Course design plays an integral part of teaching the adult learner. A good course needs to meet certain criteria. Fink (1999) outlines five criteria that a good course will meet:
- Challenges students to higher level learning: All courses require some “lower level” learning such as comprehending and remembering basic information and concepts, but many courses ever get beyond this. Examples of “higher level “learning includes problem solving, decision making, critical thinking and creative thinking.
- Uses Active Forms of Learning: Some learning will be “passive” such as reading and listening, but “higher level learning” almost by definition, requires active learning. One learns to solve problems by solving problems: one learns to think critically by thinking critically.
- Give Frequent and Immediate Feedback to students on the quality of their learning: Higher level learning and active learning require frequent and immediate feedback for students to know whether they are “doing it “correctly.
- Uses a Structured Sequence of Different Learning Activities: Any course needs a variety of forms of learning (lectures, discussions small groups writing) both to support different kinds of learning goals and different learning styles. But these various learning activities also need to be structured in a sequence such that earlier classes lay the foundation for complex and higher level learning tasks in later classes.
- Have a Fair System for Assessing and Grading Students: Even when students feel they are learning something significant, they are unhappy if their grade doesn’t not reflect his. The grading system should be objective, reliable, based on learning, flexible and communicated in writing.
Links
Here are some links that are helpful in planning lessons for adult learners and other general information that might be helpful:
Lesson Plan Resources [[1]]
Free Lesson Plans [[2]]
Non-traditional Student Resources [[3]]
Continuing Education [[4]]
Visual [[5]]
Guides[[6]]
Teaching Tips[[7]]
Teaching Tips [[8]]
Adult Beginners [9]
Preparing a Presentation [10]
Killer Presentation Skills [11]
How Not To Begin A Presentation [[12]]
Kenya Mission 2007 [13]
Don't Let This Happen To You [14]
References
Kendle, A. (2007) How to Teach Adults- Three Principles for Successful (and fun) Classes, Retrieved on September 11, 2007 from: http://www.googobits.com/print/printer.php?article=628
Kelly, D. (2007) Teaching Strategies for Adult Learners, Retrieved on September 11, 2007 from http://www.dit.ie/DIT/lifelong/adult/adlearn_strategies.pdf
Author Unknown, (2007) Lesson Planning Procedures, and Retrieved on September 11, 2007 from http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtips/lesspln1.htm
Chickering, A & Gamson Z, (2007), Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, Retrieved on September 11, 2007 from: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/teachtip/7princip.htm
Fink, L (1999), Finks Five Principles of Good Course Design, Retrieved on September 11, 2007 from: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/finks5.htm
Miller W. R., Miller M. F.(2002) Instructors and Their Jobs Third Edition, American Technical Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8269-4165-6
