Teaching adults differs significantly from teaching younger students, yet many educators may be unaware that there are strategies available for effective instruction for adult learners.
Alison, a returning adult student, describes how experiential and informal learning can complement and supplement theory-based academic coursework.
Real-World Experience
Adults tend to prioritize learning when it is relevant to their lives, so educators must capitalize on this by connecting course content to real-life challenges, situations and goals.
Adult learners tend to enjoy being self-directed learners, which makes project-based learning environments ideal for them. This allows them to set their own educational or career goals while selecting content that will assist in reaching those objectives.
Adults often prefer absorbing information through sensory channels, making them better suited to an approach that combines audio-visual, reading/writing and kinesthetic learning approaches. Such methods of instruction allow adults to consolidate new knowledge more readily for long-term retention.
Internships
Internships give learners an invaluable introduction to their desired career paths and professional networks, helping them decide whether a field is a good match while adding weight to resumes by showing the value of academic work done during an internship experience.
Though degree programs provide classroom learning that imparts real-world experience, nothing beats hands-on experience for its effectiveness in developing skillsets and organizational structures. Class projects and case studies may illustrate these aspects as effectively; students cannot gain as much information from textbooks or lecturers' teaching styles alone.
Note that while internships may be unpaid, those working for an employer to fulfill responsibilities similar to paid employees are legally entitled to minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This distinction ensures that an internship provides true educational experiences rather than mere volunteering experiences. Chi and Gursoy (2009) further noted how collecting feedback from both interns and employers could identify any differences in expectations and perceptions regarding internship processes.
Work Experience
Work experience is an integral component of adult education. It allows students to see how classroom skills translate to real world applications and provides them with a sense of accomplishment and motivation.
Adults typically consider all costs and benefits carefully before making decisions about learning programs, especially with family obligations and work to care for. Adults need to carefully consider what learning will cost them and how it will fit into their lives.
As such, self-directed learning is a central element of adult education. Adults must understand how their new knowledge will benefit them directly and have a clear plan that guides their learning process. Adult education differs from other learning fields by its emphasis on practical relevance, relative expertise in experience and knowledge that new learning can draw upon and adult levels of responsibility and self-direction.
Career Development
With all the advantages that come from hands-on practical learning, perhaps now is the time to place more importance on trade classes. Unfortunately, trade classes often carry with them a stigma; being seen as the domain of students who failed academically.
Educators must be open to discussing this issue and work to remove its stigma, while creating an atmosphere of mutual respect among their colleagues in which teachers can differentiate instruction according to student needs.
State adult education leaders can encourage local providers to communicate about career pathways activities by holding a peer feedback session in which they review and rate marketing materials for their program. The information obtained can help providers to assess current activity levels as well as any gaps or deficiencies in services; an effective tool for this is the customizable Adult Education Provider Survey Summary Worksheet (Appendix 3), which also enables state leadership to view which programmatic components of career pathways are implemented by different adult education service providers most widely or less so.
