As an adult learner myself, I appreciate when instructors exhibit the follow traits:
1. Clarity in expectations- especially when there are portions of the curriculum where the students are expected to develop self-teaching skills. Adult learners generally don't appreciated their time being wasted.
2. Repeatedly connect course content with the reasons for the need to know the material. In nursing, having real case examples allows the students to hear, see and almost "smell" how it is applied. When the need to know becomes real, they will put in the time.
3. To the extent possible, create a positive emotional environment, especially in evaluation times. When students are able to trust your evaluation procedures, they can focus on understanding content and not worry about tricks or deceit.
4. Acknowledge and challenge students with prior negative educational experiences or "scars", and facilitate their way through those callenges. Sometimes, just helping the student believe in themselves makes a world of difference.
Thanks, Liz. Are there any topics you feel are off limits for discussion?
Jeffrey Schillinger
Get to know your students on a more personal level and you will understand more about them and their learning abilities. It will help build a better learning environment.
I would even borrow their experiences as well as build upon them. My students have a very wide array of experiences. Some have experiences that others have never even considered. Using some of the experiences of my students can give their classmates perspective and practical examples of how course material will be useful to them in a clinical setting, even though my course is not a clinical course.
Ann Marie,
Good points. Adult learners need to know why!
Jeffrey Schillinger
I think the most important element is to show students that what they are about to learn is going to be extremely helpful to them--either in their future jobs or in their daily lives. Adult learners need to see the POINT of what they are learning. Without that, their attention wanes. Before I begin talking about any subject in my classes, I always address this question: "How is this relevant for my students? Why do they need to know this?"
I find that an effective instructor is one who appreciates the diversity of their classroom and uses that diversity to create an environment to facilitate learning. By diversity I mean the generational mix, the variation in lived experiences, and the differences in previous educational preparation among other things. An awareness of what students bring to the table of learning has helped me create better team-based learning activities in the classroom. I find that a heterogeneous group has more to offer to each team member and allows students to learn from each other.
First and foremost an effective instructor of adult learners gets to know their students and their background. This can add a "comfort level" of adult students going back to school after many years away. Also, the instructor may be able to associate topics in the course that students could associate as relevant in learning.
Deborah,
Good point. Choice and control are significant motivators.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Sarah,
What is the most effective technique you use to stimulate your students to interest them?
Jeffrey Schillinger
If studetns are not stimualted and interested in content they will learn very little.
My take away from this content is that each individual student will have unique strengths and weaknesses that they bring to each class, each unit of material to be absorbed. Ideally the classroom should be like a cafeteria with all the "dishes" containing the right nutrients (information) and the student should be able to select their own meal. The difficulties arise when:
1. the volume of material that must be presented is crazy huge
2. the instructor is trying to convey it to 40 students each with their own best learning styles)
3. there is only one instructor
4. there are only 24 hours in a day.
Consequently, in order to reach all students, we are providing information in one or two formats for some of the content, and using other methods for another bunch of the material. My question is... are we perhaps trying too hard to meet too many needs or too many students and ending up losing ground in classrooms with no consistency?
Helping students to be successful - an effective strategy can be to create rubrics that allow students with different learning strengths/styles to excel in different areas.
One of the most helpful things is when a student makes a (non-harmful) error. I can pull the student aside and discuss what happened, how it could have been approached better, etc. Many times, the student appreciates that s/he didn't "get in trouble" but was encouraged to see how the error happened and how to think about things better for the next experience. These students often will share their error with others in post conference and discuss how they learned from it. The best experience I can recall is when two students were to apply TED hose (anti embolism sox) on a patient - they threw away the instructions, and had a heck of a time getting them on. By the time they were done, they were sweating, the patient was laughing, and all had quite a workout! We then discussed what they had learned, and they had learned a LOT!
I agree with Patti,that not all adult learners learn the sam way. We need to provide a variety of learning experiences so that we meet the needs of all learners.
Treating the adult learner with respect and building upon their experiences.
An effective instructor is one who is knowledgeable in a content area but delivers that content in a stimulating environment. An environment that encourages the students to be active participants in the teaching-learning process by allowing students to apply content in a way that is meaningful for them so that is remembered and accessible in the future.
One characteristic of an effective instructor of adult learners is flexibility! Lesson plans should be made that allow for extra time to elaborate on course material or to even switch gears midway through the lesson if the instructor realizes that the students are not actively involved in the learning process. This also allows for freedom of choice for the learners, as well as application of the materials being taught to their everyday lives.
I agree Mary, treating adult learners with respect/ dignity creates a positive learning environment for students and faculty.
An effective teacher is one who is able to create an appropriate learning environment for her/ his students. This person should be able to activate, support, enhance and maintain the process of learning. Suguna
