Hello! I am Dr. Malone and I have spent the past 15 years teaching adult learners about reading and writing in the content area. I also work with striving learners in high school and college level. My presentation is based on my personal experiences teaching adult learners, teaching professors how to teach adult learners, and my work on literacy and adult learners combined with research ( as minimal as it is) which included Reading first, Reading Next, Writing Next and Writing to Read all reports concerning visions of action and research in Literacy for k-12 students © 2004-2010 by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Also the 2012 text of Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Developing Reading and Writing by the National Research Council of the National Academies and the 2012 Just Write! Guide from TEAL : Teaching excellence in Adult Literacy and finally two of the most recent articles concerning engagement and support of Adult Learners.

Non-traditional adult learners (NALs) represent 38% of post secondary population (NCES,2009). NALs are defines as aged 25 and over, but also include students under 25 who have adult responsibilities. They can be first time degree seekers or graduate degree seekers, or even students who worked traditional or military jobs and are now returning to finish or take on a degree to connect to their current job. These students are often overlooked at colleges in favor of the youth-centric institution.

73% of the NALs are:

In 1980, Knowles made 4 assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners (andragogy) that are different from the assumptions about child learners (pedagogy). In 1984, Knowles added the 5th assumption.

Self-concept
As a person matures his/her self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being

Adult Learner Experience
As a person matures he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.

Readiness to Learn
As a person matures his/her readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his/her social roles.

Orientation to Learning
As a person matures his/her time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his/her orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject- centeredness to one of problem centeredness.

Motivation to Learn
As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).

Adult Learners' Traits

Self-direction
Adults feel the need to take responsibility for their lives and decisions and this is why it’s important for them to have control over their learning. Therefore, self-assessment, a peer relationship with the instructor, multiple options and initial, yet subtle support are all imperative.

Practical and results-oriented
Adult learners are usually practical, resent theory, need information that can be immediately applicable to their professional needs, and generally prefer practical knowledge that will improve their skills, facilitate their work and boost their confidence. This is why it’s important to create a course that will cover their individual needs and have a more utilitarian content.

Less open-minded And therefore more resistant to change.

Maturity and profound life experiences usually lead to rigidity, which is the enemy of learning. Thus, instructional designers need to provide the “why” behind the change, new concepts that can be linked to already established ones, and promote the need to explore.

Slower learning, yet more integrative knowledge
Aging does affect learning. Adults tend to learn less rapidly with age. However, the depth of learning tends to increase over time, navigating knowledge and skills to unprecedented personal levels.

Use personal experience as a resource
Adults have lived longer, seen and done more, have the tendency to link their past experiences to anything new and validate new concepts based on prior learning. This is why it’s crucial to form a class with adults that have similar life experience levels, encourage discussion and sharing, and generally create a learning community consisting of people who can profoundly interact.

Motivation
Learning in adulthood is usually voluntary. Thus, it’s a personal choice to attend school, in order to improve job skills and achieve professional growth. This motivation is the driving force behind learning and this is why it’s crucial to tap into a learner’s intrinsic impetus with the right thought-provoking material that will question conventional wisdom and stimulate his mind.

Multi-level responsibilities
Adult learners have a lot to juggle; family, friends, work, and the need for personal quality time. This is why it’s more difficult for an adult to make room for learning, while it’s absolutely crucial to prioritize. If his life is already demanding, then the learning outcome will be compromised. Taking that under consideration, an instructional designer needs to create a flexible program, accommodate busy schedules, and accept the fact that personal obligations might obstruct the learning process.

High expectations
Adult learners have high expectations. They want to be taught about things that will be useful to their work, expect to have immediate results, seek for a course that will worth their while and not be a waste of their time or money. This is why it’s important to create a course that will maximize their advantages, meet their individual needs and address all the learning challenges.

*In today’s world, proficiency
requires developing skills in both traditional forms of writing and newer electronic and digital modes.

* Most research in writing is from K-12 research. This can be applied to Adult learners, but must be re-tooled to follow the andragogy of the Adult Learner.

Explicitly and systematically teach the strategies, skills, and knowledge needed
to be a proficient writer.

Combine explicit and systematic writing instruction with extended experience
writing for a purpose.
Explicitly teach foundational writing skills to the point that they become automatic.

Structure the instructional environment and interactions to motivate writing
practice and persistence in learning new forms of writing.

Structure the instructional environment and interactions to motivate writing
practice and persistence in learning new forms of writing.

Principles for effectively supporting struggling readers and writers include:
• directly targeting specific literacy difficulties while giving explicit instruction in
reading and writing;
• providing more intense instruction, more explicit instruction, and even more opportunities
to practice than for other learners;
• offering enhanced support to help learners generalize and transfer their new literacy
skills;
• addressing struggling learners’ attributions, beliefs, and motivational profiles—in
other words, whether they explain their successes and failures to themselves in
ways that foster motivation and continued engagement or decrease motivation and
engagement; and
• providing instruction that is individualized, with materials that are at the right level
of challenge and with appropriate feedback provided while learning.

Offer instruction in strategies for planning, revising, and editing compositions.
• Teach learners to summarize in writing the passages they have read.
• Enable the assistance of peers in planning, drafting, and revising compositions.
• Set clear goals for writing that are specific to the purpose and type of writing task.
• Have students regularly use computers (word processing) for writing instead of
only pencil and paper.
• Offer instruction in combining short sentences into more complex ones. This practice
usually includes exercises and application to real-world writing tasks.
• For intermediate writers, use process approaches to writing instruction that stress
extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized
instruction, and cycles of writing. It is possible that process approaches could
also be effective for beginning and weaker writers if augmented with explicit and
systematic instruction to develop the essential writing knowledge, strategies, and
skills these developing writers usually lack. As with other approaches, process
approaches are more effective when instructors have been professionally trained
in their use.
• Employ inquiry approaches to instruction that involve establishing clear goals,
gathering and analyzing relevant information, using that information to structure
and plan the writing task, and using writing strategies suited to the task.
• Teach prewriting activities, such as making lists or diagrams prior to writing, which
help students generate relevant content and complete texts.
• Analyze models of good writing, such as discussing the features of good essays
and learning to imitate those features.

Research shows that instruction that fosters motivation and engagement:
• develops self-efficacy and perceptions of competency;
• helps learners set appropriate and valuable learning goals;
• sets expectations about the amount of effort and practice required to develop literacy
skills;
• helps learners develop feelings of control and autonomy;
• fosters interest and develops beliefs about the value of literacy tasks;
• helps learners monitor their progress and regulate their behavior toward attaining
their goals;
• teaches students to attribute successes and failures to their own effort rather than unchangeable
aptitudes;
• provides learners with opportunities for success while providing optimal challenges to
develop proficiencies;
• fosters social relationships and interactions known to affect learning;
• uses classroom structures and selects texts that can counter any past negative experiences
with schooling;
• removes barriers to participation and practice so that learners have the motivating experience
of making progress; and
• gives learners access to knowledgeable and skilled teachers and appropriately designed
materials.

Strategy instruction, especially self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), and summarization described below, are the most effective approaches identified in these reports.

Summarization: Explicit teaching of the elements of a summary of a text leads to improved ability and
increased confidence in writing summaries
Collaborative writing: Making arrangements for students to work together through the entire process of writing— planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing— results in higher quality writing products.
Use technology to support and share writing, especially for classes that do not meet daily, or assign writing as an out-of-class activity.
Setting specific product goals: Understanding the nature of goals for a written product, setting the goal in advance during planning, and then monitoring and editing one’s work for adherence to the goal all result in higher quality final products. Specific goals (e.g., “to persuade a voter”) are more effective than general goals (e.g., “write a 200-word essay”).
Discuss writing quality with learners and identify areas for improvement. Help learners set explicit goals to guide their writing, and work with them to track progress.
For example, learners may want to write more words during a Quick or Free Write exercise; others may identify that their sentences are all of a similar type and want to focus on adding variety and using combined sentences. Tracking goals works!

Word processing and other technology tools are especially supportive for struggling writers, providing the means to move more easily from idea to composition, supporting spelling, revising, and proof reading. Technology-assisted writing also makes collaborative writing (see above) more feasible and productive.

Sentence combining, that is, practicing how to combine two simple sentences into a compound or complex sentence, has a positive impact on overall writing quality and can boost learners’ reading comprehension skills as well.


Prewriting activities, or brainstorming before beginning to draft a composition, has a positive impact on the final written product.



Inquiry, in which learners engage in a focused investigation with “immediate and concrete data” (Graham & Perin, 2007a, p. 19) that they gather and analyze, is a springboard to higher quality writing. Assign authentic activities and materials as inquiry writing, either inquiry in the community (i.e., is there consensus for the public library to expand?) and/or online as a web quest.



Process writing approach includes many related activities, including a greatly increased quantity of writing (only some of which is completed to publication) and a focus on writing throughout the course, along with mini-lessons on embedded skills.



Study of written models with direct, guided practice was found to be an effective instructional strategy, especially for students with low skills. Many adult education students are not familiar with different types of written genres; the explicit study of formats, styles, tones, vocabularies, sentence structures, etc.

TEAL Just Write! Guide. (2012, February). Retrieved April 25, 2017, from https://lincs.ed.gov/programs/teal/guide/toc

Faculty development must be consistent and continuous. As research is released, faculty must be updated on new scaffolding strategies and ideas to help NALs. Content area professors must all be trained on ways to help improve writing and literacy in the classroom. Although most programs have gateway classes in the program to help NALs develop their writing skills, content area professors must offer opportunities for students to write in order to hone their skills in different writing styles.

Inherent in these assumptions are implications for practice. Knowles (1984) suggests that adult educators:
Set a cooperative climate for learning in the classroom.

Assess the learner’s specific needs and interests.

Develop learning objectives based on the learner’s needs, interests, and skill levels.

Design sequential activities to achieve the objectives.

Work collaboratively with the learner to select methods, materials, and resources for instruction.

Evaluate the quality of the learning experience and make adjustments, as needed, while assessing needs for further learning.

More research is needed to help and understand the whole concept of adult learners, but specific research on Adult Literacy must be attempted to understand the strategies that will specifically help adult learners improve skills in reading and in writing. With the growing population of NAL institutions need to continually stay up to date on the research. Overall as the traditional population of higher education students shift, the research on the NALs must increase to meet the needs of the majority population.

The stereotypical full-time student who lives on campus is actually a small percentage of the entire postsecondary
population.
(Chen, 1)

Recommendation 1: Federal and state policy makers should move
quickly to build on and expand the existing infrastructure of adult
literacy education to support the use of instructional approaches,
curricula, materials, tools, and assessments of learners consistent
with (a) research on reading, writing, learning, language, and adult
development; (b) research on the effectiveness of instructional approaches;
and (c) knowledge of sound assessment practices.
Recommendation 2: Federal and state policy makers should ensure
that professional development and technical assistance for instructors
are widely accessible and consistent with the best research on
reading, writing, learning, language, and adult development.

Recommendation 3: Policy makers, providers of literacy programs,
and researchers should collaborate to systematically implement and
evaluate options (instructional components, technology components,
social service components, incentives) aimed at maximizing
persistence with literacy learning.

Recommendation 4: To inform local, state, and federal decisions
aimed at optimizing the progress of adult learners, the committee
strongly recommends strategic and sustained investments in
a coordinated and systemic approach to program improvement,
evaluation, and research about adult literacy learners.