There are numerous best practices to apply towards meeting the learning needs of adult learners, to name a few:
• Take an inventory of your students’ prior knowledge and experiences. When instructing students, make efforts to acknowledge students’ experiences and build on what they already know.
• Determine why students are motivated to be adult learners. Work with students to meet their personal goals.
• Identify your students’ learning styles. Use a variety of teaching techniques that will work with a variety of learning styles.
Along with those practices mentioned, we may also sometimes ask the learners who seem to be struggling, exactly what they need in order to do better. Recently I asked a learner aged 33 who was constantly nervous and apprehensive, exactly what she needed. Her answer was simply to know that someone was there to understand her and support her in her learning. As a result of gaining that understanding of her particular need, I simply made supportive comments before and after class, and wrote a few more words of encouragement on the assignments she turned in. Those little bits of extra effort paid off, and the student now is now brimming with confidence and doing earning higher scores! Sometimes just asking the learner what he/she needs, can provide the information you as the instructor require in order to meet that need.
-CAJE-
