I have found that adult learners learn best when then can relate information to life eeperiances

Dr. Meers, Once you have pretested, what happens if a majority or a portion of the class is lacking some of the pre-requisite knowledge? I mean, we cannot just go changing the syllabus to cover information from a previous class, right? Evan

Dr. Meers, with so many students, and so many from varying backgrounds, how does an instructor find out our students learning intelligences. I mean, we canot just ask them, right?

pretesting has been fairly succesful for me to evaluate the students and see what the weaknesses are and concentrate on them with certain students

by observing the type of diffrent learners you have in the class you can figure out what kind of strategies to use while teaching, whether its kinesthetic or visual and so on.

memory retention is very critical when it comes to the learning process, understanding the function of semantic and episodic memory and how to combine the two is importand for a teacher to combine in the facilitating process

Make sure the students have something to do upon entering class. Making the topic interesting that the student will fall in love with it and upon doing that the students will look forward to attend class the next class session.

I like this more than most will think. Graphic organization works very well for me and some of my students. When I take notes I do so in picture form. People say a picture is worth a 1000 words, they are correct. I encourage my students who like to doodle to draw what I lecture about. It is “AMAZING” what the students come up with for notes. I encourage an open mind too.

Every student has a trait when they enter a classroom. My job is to get them to understand something new and sometimes I will have to a relative fact between their past and what they are learning. It is like putting together a puzzle.

With past experiences that the students bring in the class room, either from a prior employment or even past schooling the students apply what they can to be successful.

The students that I work with are either visual or hands on. Luckily I can fulfill both styles at the same time. Being in a tech school my student are rarely analytical and they want to be shown everything! Because of their learning styles I really enjoy my job!

One Challenge that I am not sure was addressed in the class was how to teach something to someone when they are convinced they already know it and or what they know to be correct is actually incorrect. For instance, one of the biggest challenges I have seems quite simple, the colours of light can be broken down into 3 colours, Red Green and Blue. However when it comes to pigment we have been taught since kindergarten the 3 primaries are Red Blue and Yellow. I use a mnemonic device that I created specifically for the issue that works for 80% of the students right away, 18% of the students eventually understand the relationship of the colours, yet 2% just cannot make the switch. This is a relatively benign issue for a graphic artist or photographer, yet it could be a matter of life and death when it comes to medical training and the like.

Gary, Do different personality types need to be taken into consideration when teaching/adapting a leson plan for adult learners? For instance. my wife prefers abstract and emotional ways to learn things and I prefer more logical step-by-step methods.

Student needs have always been the same. There have been times in history where progressive educators tried a more holistic approach to education, but for the most part educators have conducted courses that were instructor centered rather than student centered. We can be grateful that institutions have relinquished their ideology regarding the strict, severe, and aggressive methods in which courses are developed. Educational psychologists recognize the different learning variables student’s bring to a classroom. Student’s are predisposed to learn in particular ways and have varying levels of familiarity with any given subject due to the vast amount of information that is now available through technology. Although, familiarity does not equate sympathetic engagement unless an instructor is able to assist a student in finding personal relevance in the course materials and learning events.

As instructors we should know that there are different learning preferences, so as we prepare our classes we should make sure to try and incorporate all of these different preferences into our lesson so as to reach all of our students.

how often do you have a student use thier past expeirences to relate to the current subject being taught/

how important do you feel previous education is to your current student?

how often do you find that it is easier to work with a student who is older rather than younger. I feel it is mcuh esier, becasue they seem to care more and are generally more dedicated.

remembering information is one of the hardest things for students to be successful with. There are ways that I try to encourage students to do this. I suggest re writing notes, studying with a friend and organizing the information so it makes more sense.

The beauty of learning is that is occurs on a daily basis. What is most difficult is managing all of the styles of learning in a class setting. I find that the older students while mature have a disadvantage in that they are set in their ways and take a little longer to adapt at times.