Hi there,
In response to your inquiry regarding adult education principles
for people new to adult education, it's important to remember that
adults bring a lot of life experience to the classroom. Give them
an opportunity to share or use their experiences in their
learning, because it allows them to relate to what is being
taught. Small group or large group discussion will allow for this.
Adults like to know what will be taking place during the class,
session and/or course. Many of them have busy lives and want to
ensure that the course is time well spent. Provide them with a
syllabus for the course, an agenda for the course, and also an
agenda for a particular session. This will let them know what
will be expected of them and provide them the choice as to whether
the course will meet their needs.
Adults like choice. Don't make it a free for all. However,
sometimes you can give them options as to what assignments or
activity they want to do. This will help to address the different
learning styles in the classroom.
Consider using a number of instructional strategies to address the
different learning styles and to make the course more interesting.
This is just a highlight of some adult education principles. The
internet is filled with short articles regarding how to teach
adults. Here is a link to an article that I find helpful in
summarizing adult education principles.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/te
achtip/adults-2.htm
I hope this was helpful!
Marlyn
On 5/30/07, m wags wrote:
> Hi everyone! I'm looking for some advice on teaching
> adults. I'm currently pursuing my Master's Degree in
> Childhood Ed 1-6 and TESOL (teaching english to speakers
> of other langauge). I have no experience teaching adults,
> however, in September I will be teaching ESL to a
> classroom of adults. Can anyone give me some classroom
> management techniques I could use? I doubt "zip your lips"
> would work for adults. I'm a young/inexperienced teacher
> and I want to be respected by my students/ make sure I am
> in control of the class. Also, are there some general
> guidlines for teaching adults that could help? I've heard
> relating to real-life situations is important but does
> anyone have any other ideas? Thanks in advance!
> M Wags