It's very important to create conditions according to each of the adult students, because they have previous experiences, knowledge, motivation and a good instructor should be supporting and activating the learning requirements of each student
Adults have different learning styles, usually shaped by their past educational experiences. Learning your students best methods will help you as an instructor reach/teach them best.
You need to employ a variety of teaching methods in order to teach all adults.
Robert Gagne provides a guide as how to apply learning in the classroom with activators, supporters enhancers, and maintainers.
Apply those best practice methods in the classroom and make sure I'm the best instructor I can be.
I learned the importance of seeking to understand the different learning styles of my adult learning students. I'm hoping to use these principles and develop some formative exercises to gauge knowledge and student learning styles. Also, I intend to add more exercises to incent understanding.
I have been teaching adult learners for over 20 years, and I have grown to appreciate that every student brings different things to the classroom. They may come from different cultures, they have different past learning experiences, they may have real-world work experience, and they all have different learning styles and capabilities. The best thing a teacher can do is to ask questions of their students. Find out what they bring to the classroom and what their experiences are, then provide learning options and a supportive environment. Students are more successful if they feel like they are in a supportive environment that supplies clear guidance.
It is a challenge with adults coming from a variety of backgrounds to understand experiences and build on them as some have lots of experiences and others may not have as many experiences. Hopefully those more experiences individuals can have time to share with those less experienced.
Discovering the ways to best teach your students is the job of the educator. Providing quality education helps the adult student learn better and retain the information.
Take an inventory of students prior life and educational experiences to customize your educational delivery. taking an interest in a students personal life makes you better at teaching them.
Creating a safe and supportive environment is an overarching theme.
When we say that quality instructors ensure that all students learn regardless of their learning style we need to know that no matter what we need to design the instructional model according to their learning style in we want good academic results.
By understanding the adult learners previous comprehension of material it best allows the educator to facilitate an active learning process for the student. The educator must allow for a comfortable active learning environment to be successful within their program or course.
By learning from students past you can help focus on their future.
I intent to incorporate why the adult learner is in school and build on their past experiences in lecture.
It is important to know where your students stand in the beginning and to put them in the right level course.
If a student needs remediation, it is not ethical for them to be placed in a more advanced class.
Solutions to each class learning problem must be unique as every class and its students are.
The essential task of the educator is to arrange conditions of the learner’s environment so that processes of learning will be activated, supported, enhanced, and maintained!
It is important to teach the class as a whole rather than cater to individual students in regard to their learning styles. Have a multi-faceted/multi-sensory class while helping all students. I believe that where it's very difficult. You want all your students to learn well and do well on exams, however, you have to think about HOW to do it. We have to find what's the best way to teach our class. It isn't a cookie-cutter solution because every class is different.
The challenge to the teacher is to find a balance in the delivery of information that will engage and challenge all adult learners.
