Knowing What to Teach Adults: Program Ideas and Priorities
From Adult Education
By RJ Gray, Edited by Kendra Baehler in the Fall of 2009
Contents |
Introduction
How does a program planner know what to teach adults? How does the planner justify what the content of the adult educational program is? These are the questions that will be answered in this article. Adult education can be more complex than secondary education, as students from K-12 grade learn basic or general information. However in adult education, several factors must be consider such as age, race, gender, social demographics when considering adult learners.
With time and budget constraints, program planners must identify and then prioritize the program plan ideas. To do this they must use a variety of techniques and work with groups of individuals to develop a framework of ideas to work with and then sort through to determine which idea will meet the needs of their organization.
Program Ideas
As Caffarella points out, "the program content is the most important concept in planning an educational program"(Caffarella, 2002). You have to look at the organizational mission or goals that you are trying to reach through a program, then think of ideas related to those goals. There are a variety of sources that you can utilize to identify the ideas such as current or potential program participants, community leaders, etc. Caffarella suggests the following informal and formal techniques to to generate ideas, " questionnaires, surveys, interviews, ovservations, group sessions, job analyses, review of print or computer-based materials, tests, and conversations with colleagues, friends, family, and acquaintances"(Caffarella, 2002).
It is sometimes beneficial, to use a group of informed and interested individuals or a committee to help you plan your program ideas. Let the committee be involved with the planning process, to help prioritize the educational needs of your organization or the learning that needs to take place.
Prioritizing Ideas
After ideas have been established it is important to sort and prioritize ideas. Webster's Dictionary defines priority as "something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives." [1] To ensure the highest quality of learning, the program planning process has captured the most important ideas to allow your learners to get the most out of their educational experience. The next step is to put those ideas in order of priority in terms of need and relevance thinking about both importance and feasibility.
You may or may not utilize the same group of individuals or committee that helped brainstorm and generate the ideas, but it is important to have help from others in this step of the program planning process.
As Caffarella points out, you can use a qualitative or quantitative approach to prioritizing your ideas. A quantitative approach uses numerical data and charts to rank and help determine what the best ideas are to use in the program. In a qualitative approach, small group discussion and dialogue is used to evaluate which ideas to use (Caffarella, 2002). It is also important to know that you could use both methods in prioritizing ideas, as it is not limited to one or the other.
Dr. Darin Eich, helps organizations generate ideas through a facilitation process. He suggests using the following criteria when brainstorming ideas for a possible program:
- Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
- Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
- Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
- Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
- Longevity: How long will the idea’s impact last? (BrainReactions, 2008).
Once the program ideas have been sorted and prioritized, program planners are on their way to developing their program to meet the needs of adult learners.
Example
The following is an example, of an average educational planning meeting, that a director of a not-for-profit organization would go through. First, the director sets up an ad hoc committee. Generally, committee members consist of peers or individuals involved in the industry, such as a professor from a state university specializing in this field, financial supports or industry leaders of the organization. The director calls teh committee together to plan an educational program. The director asks the committee for input about an upcoming conference. The director is looking to find out what the committee would like to learn or gain as a result of putting on this conference and so starts the brainstorming process by posing questions to the committee. The committee suggests several ideas. For a conference that lasts a day, the director's goal is to try to line out at least four speakers. The meeting normally lasts from 9:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. The director tries to get at least seven topics. The committee goes through the prioritization process. The director asks the committee questions to generate ideas: what program goals they want to accomplish, what the most important thing is to them on the list, and then to rank them. The director asks the committee what value this topic is to the meeting, and then finally are there any financial or political barriers that will keep this from being a good topic for discussion. With the program ideas listed and prioritized, the committee is ready to set their goals. So their next step is planning the rest of the conference to meet the needs of their learners.
Helpful Links
[[2]] Add Continuing Education Programs That Make Sense- Part 1 [[3]] Add Continuing Education Programs That Make Sense- Part 2 [[4]] Add Continuing Education Programs That Make Sense- Part 3 [[5]] Add Continuing Education Programs That Make Sense- Part 4 [[6]] Eight Tips for Better Brainstorming
References
Casey, M.A. & Krueger, R.A. (1991). Critical factors for succesful programs. Journal of Extension.29(3). Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/1991fall/a2.php
Caffarella, R. S. (2002). Planning programs for adult learners: a practical guide for educators, trainers, and staff developers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Dickeson, R.C. (1999). Prioritizing academic programs and services: Rellocating resources to achieve strategic balance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Eich, D. (2008, October) How to innovate and brainstorm a better idea to change the world for a share of $10 million from project 10^100. BrainReactions. Retrieved on October 24, 2009 from http://www.brainreactions.com/how-to-innovate-and-brainstorm-a-better-idea-to-change-the-world-for-a-share-of-10-million-from-project-10100.html.
