Karl,
We often assume younger students are masters of technology or that older students are not. It is best to plan time to teach information literacy for each class.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I believe that the instruction must be multidimensional, and use as many tools that will capture the audiences attention, so that they will remember and utilize the information that is being presented. In my classes I ask the students to actually run the class and teach me the subject mater. The feed back from the students is very positive.
Some of the most important characteristics of an effective instructor include : a)leveraging learners' experiences, b)providing choices to adult learners, c)clearly identifying rationale's for lessons, and d)setting clear expectations.
All of the above characteristics all specifically address learner motivation and engagement which are key components of successful adult education.
Thanks for this post, Jason. How do you determine if a candidate has these most important characteristic during the hiring process.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Quality instruction comes inherently from a quality instructor, who exudes confidence and has strong inter-personal skills. Characteristics of such instructor are : charm, wit and a certain style of story-telling. Someone that can admit when they are wrong, teach one subject several ways and seek answers when something is unknown.
Jason,
Being able to plan and deliver lessons with multiple activities is a key part of good instruction. Personaluty paired with methodolgy creates willing teachers.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I am in total agreement with Keith Schieffer. Keeping the students actively engaged is key.
Helena,
What are one or two of the things you do that reap the highest levels of engagememt?
Jeffrey Schillinger
I believe one of the most effective characterists of an effective instructor of adult learners is passion for the topic. The educator must be knowledgable about the topic which often times follows passion for the topic. Adult learners are less forgiving in an enviroment where the educator is either no longer interested in the subject or fails to take the initiative to educated themselves thoroughly on the topic.
Rebecca,
Passion for the subject goes a long way in inspiring adult students. When paired with good teaching methodology and a caring attitude, passion leads to learning, retention and graduation.
Jeffrey Schillinger
For me an effective instructor must first assess the learning styles of the students and from there develop a plan on how to implement and support the students learning needs. In addition caring attitude for the student is also a best quality of a instructor must possess.
Adult learners have different ways of learning. Regardless, educators should activate adult learners, support their learning, enhance and maintain their learning. We have to assess their previous learning and knowledge to determine where to start enhancing their skills. Creating a balance is also a key to be able to assist every adult leaner in the classroom.
Grace,
Thanks for this post. What are you referencing by "creating balance? "
Jeffrey Schillinger
An effective instructor is one who can engage the adult learners so that they capture the attention of all so boredom does not set in. They can do this with small group discussions and projects like story boards. Effective instructors need to make the class fun by adding lots humor to the topic
Karen,
Appropriate humor is a great teaching tool. It is important to also design lessons that appeal to a variety of intelligences and learning styles.
Jeffrey Schillinger
As an instructor, I am excited to provide students with a wider context for the information that is being taught. Currently, I am teaching anatomy and physiology to vocational health students and I try to relate what the students are learning back to specific diseases they will see, or clinical experiences that they will have. In order to provide greater context (past basic anatomic facts), I try to incorporate a variety of activities into my lectures: multiple pictures/ diagrams (for visual learner), videos (for visual/ auditory learners), and palpation/ experiments/ hands-on demonstrations (for my kinetic learners). I think having a diverse range of activities/ teaching aids helps students engage with the material in complementary ways, despite different learning styles and life experiences. Having different modalities in the lecture also helps to stimulate different regions of the student’s brain, facilitating increased retention of the material.
Thomas,
Thanks for sharing this. It sounds like the type of instruction I would want to experience.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I think quality instructors not only are content-experts on the material, but know how to adapt to meet the needs of the students and varied learning styles. Being quick to assess the classroom, then adjust lesson plans is a key skill. The incorporation of effective active learning strategies can assist an instructor at meeting this need.....
Creating ways to include adult learners in discussions to share their relevant life experiences, which interests and stimulates their classmates, and helps the student to feel heard and acknowledged for their valuable and uniques contributions.
Samuel,
Nice post. Thanks. This is good advice.
Jeffrey Schillinger
