Adult Learners
If you treat students with respect they will also have a sense of respect with added trust that is needed in a relationship built for a classroom
Great point Leslie. Treating students the way you would want to be treated is always a good policy and demonstrates your respect towards them so they will show respect back to you.
The purpose of these discussions is to share insights and experiences as well as provide commentary on the subject matter. Can you share some information as to your experiences with building professional relationships with students in your classrooms?
Regards,
James
Respect and trust are important to built up a learning environment for students; when the class room is free of drama, students have more energy to be used in their learning effort
Diego, interesting word choice, "drama". Can you provide some examples of when students create the drama and the impact this has on the teaching and learning in the classroom? For some classrooms, the drama is needed in order to generate the necessary learning to take place while in other types of classroom settings, the same level of drama could distract from achieving the desired learning outcomes.
Regards,
James Jackson
It is also important for instructors to model the behavior they wish to foster in their classroom in their daily encounters with other staff, faculty and students.
Great point Sheila. Leadership by example comes to mind when I read your statement. Members of the faculty are leaders of their institution regardless of their power to implement their ideas or strategies upon the administration. In the perception of the student body, members of the faculty represent the leadership and their actions and behaviors have a large impact on student behavior and overall retention.
Regards,
James Jackson
Ive been involved with adult students for over 6 years. I truly believe that the methods offered here fit exactly into adult learning. I have also had the pleasure of 18 and 19 year old students as well and feel the same methods work just as well.
James, you bring forward a very critical point. Students are either ready to take on adult tendencies or they are not. As an instructor who has experienced over 5000 students over the years, I have seen 18 year old adults as well as 50 year old adolescents. Maturity is a mental maturity and not always related to chronological age.
Thanks for sharing and bringing forward this critical topic.
Regards,
James Jackson
ye you areright , also you ahve to have empathy in order for you to get theur attention
yes i agree a drama free invorement has students more focused on what needs to be done as to what others are up to.
Jose, how do you define empathy and how do you explain it to your students? I am very interested in this exchange of knowledge between you and your students.
Thanks for anything you would be willing to share.
Regards,
James Jackson
Hello,
I also think that there are some students who will continue to demonstrate disrespectful behaviors despite your attempts to maintain an inviting and professional classroom. These students actually offer us (as instructors) a means of assessing our own abilities to deal with difficult students. The challenge is to create a balance where our authority is not jeopardized, but our compassion for the student is evident. What does anyone else think on that delicate balance?
Merle Point-Johnson
Outstanding post Merle and great followup question. I am interested in what others have to say about your question. Here is my two cents since you have provided an opportunity for me to share my thoughts. In my experience most students want to learn and improve their situation. However, there can be root cause situations that prevent them from fully taking advantage of what we as instructors have to offer. A successful instructor will take the time to get to know the student and build a professional relationship and find out why they are a disruption in the classroom. I have even had situations where I have the student and my supervisor in the same room and ask the student what I can do better to get them involved in the lesson plans and not be a disruption to other students. In many of these situations the student did not even think of their actions as disruptive and was just looking for attention. The result of such a high level conversation typically resulted in the student being much more engaged and at the very least, no longer a disruption. There was one instance in over 15 years of instruction I had to have a student removed from the class but I think that is a very rare situation.
Regards,
James Jackson
its always do unto others respect is somethingthat is earned
Marilyn, can you provide some additional information with respect to how you have worked to earn the respect of your students? The intent of these discussions is to get you to reflect on your own experiences and to be able to share your ideas with others and gain knowledge from the ideas shared by our community. Greatly appreciate any additional information you can provide.
Regards,
James Jackson
By this being my first time in the classroom teaching, I thought it would be much easier to teach adults than it would be teaching children. I have found that yes you have some adults are very focused and want to increase their knowledge base to change careers but you have some that are still not focused on what the goals of their continued education is. I thought with trying to set the environment in the classroom that we all are adults and we all should be able to follow and adhere to the rules, that is not always the case. You still have to reinforce the rules in order to have a manageable learning environment. Overall I am enjoying and learning alot and I know by taking this course their are somethings I need to improve in the classroom to make the learning environment a little more better for the adult learner.
I agree that mutual respect is necessary for the classroom. I find that students usually do not disrespect me when I run the classroom in a respectful manner.
Rachell, welcome to the club. :-)
The greatest lesson I ever learned about adult education is the word adult is relative. You will experience mature students in their early 20's as likely as you will experience adolescent students in their later 40's and beyond. Adult education is really not a great term we use but it is here to stay and we as instructors need to understand that the word adult does not always imply maturity. I have experienced well over 5000 students over the years and still am learning to this day how best to work with "Adult Learners". The best advice I can give is never take anything personally and remember they all want what you have but have different ways of showing it. Build relationships with your students so you understand their needs and then do what you can to meet those needs. Along the way, they will learn what you have to offer as their mental state develops and they are ready to receive the knowledge you have to offer.
Regards,
James Jackson
I agree with Leslie. We have all age groups from 18 to 64 in our school. In my observation, adult learners bring a great deal of life experience into the classroom, an invaluable asset to be acknowledged, tapped and used. In modern technological aspects they might me weak, but share a lot of real life examples for the whole class, sometimes it is a motivation for the youngsters
I have found that if the instructor gives respect from the very first day, it makes it much easier to teach and to give instruction. The students will give the respect back as long as you show them respect.
