Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks
Published on Feb 03, 2016
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Untitled Slide
Confront Your Inner Bias
Before we start discussing how to reach and then teach the adult learner, we need to take the time to look inside and confront our own inner bias.
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I Am The CS Guardian
You Do Not Fit In, You May Not Enter
I'm Not here to talk about the need for inclusivity based on ethicity or gender im here to talk about how the red headed step child of isms,ageism has or will permeate the bootcamp learning space.
Every person over the age of 35 that i interviewed all recounted tge same type of phenomenon. That of feeling as if theyd been targeted and their work more critically scrutinized then that of the younger students. The women felt even more.
Two women from the same school recounted how they would ask for assistance from the instructor only to be ignoored. Thetmy discussed how theyhad scorefd higher on their level exams than most of the others but were overlooked in the post school internship program and were publicly embarrassed by beingthe last onee to find out that an algorithm lecture they were to give was beingvrun in a different room than where she was told to set up in.
This isntthe sexy cause of the hiur but it is a prevalant mindset amongst the young tech group and unfortunately that means that those views are uin the classroom.
As an instructor that is unacceptable. One characteristic of an awesome instructor is being able to leave their personal views and bias at the door. Once you can do that the next job is learning how to reach and engage the adult lea
Every person over the age of 35 that i interviewed all recounted tge same type of phenomenon. That of feeling as if theyd been targeted and their work more critically scrutinized then that of the younger students. The women felt even more.
Two women from the same school recounted how they would ask for assistance from the instructor only to be ignoored. Thetmy discussed how theyhad scorefd higher on their level exams than most of the others but were overlooked in the post school internship program and were publicly embarrassed by beingthe last onee to find out that an algorithm lecture they were to give was beingvrun in a different room than where she was told to set up in.
This isntthe sexy cause of the hiur but it is a prevalant mindset amongst the young tech group and unfortunately that means that those views are uin the classroom.
As an instructor that is unacceptable. One characteristic of an awesome instructor is being able to leave their personal views and bias at the door. Once you can do that the next job is learning how to reach and engage the adult lea
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+35 view of their experience
- 35+ all felt targeted
- women felt it at a greater degree
- overlooked for opportunities
- held to a different standard
role of an instructor
- To provide information needed by the learner to achieve their goals
- To be able to check their personal bias at the door
- Once you are able to view what bias you have, you can work to make sure that you are not letting that cloud your treatment
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Give Autonomy in Adult learning
Adults are in charge of their own learning. We can not learn for them we are only able to provide them with the knowledge they need to know to achieve success in the subject.
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Leverage the Power of Experience
there are two forms of this.
The first is that adults by default come to the learning session with a rich background of knowledge and experiences . valuable resource for themselves as well as for others . Effective adult education implements a range of experiential learning techniques like peer to peer discussion, problem based learning , to tap into this knowledge resource.
So as an instructor , take into account learners experience/knowledge and connect it to the new ideas and skills expanding and enriching their knowledge.
The second part is Experience via participation.
studies have shown that adults typically already possess 85% of the base knowledge needed for a concept. Your job as an instructor is to teach the last 15% but allow for peer to peer collaboration and teaching.
Bottom line is that an effective instructor is able to tap into the learners experience and connect it to new knowledge the he or she tries to deliver. The instructor is capable of crating experience via immersive learning activities.
5 MINUTES
The first is that adults by default come to the learning session with a rich background of knowledge and experiences . valuable resource for themselves as well as for others . Effective adult education implements a range of experiential learning techniques like peer to peer discussion, problem based learning , to tap into this knowledge resource.
So as an instructor , take into account learners experience/knowledge and connect it to the new ideas and skills expanding and enriching their knowledge.
The second part is Experience via participation.
studies have shown that adults typically already possess 85% of the base knowledge needed for a concept. Your job as an instructor is to teach the last 15% but allow for peer to peer collaboration and teaching.
Bottom line is that an effective instructor is able to tap into the learners experience and connect it to new knowledge the he or she tries to deliver. The instructor is capable of crating experience via immersive learning activities.
5 MINUTES
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Help Them Solve Their Big Problems
Adult learners are goal oriented
They are eager to earn when they have a need to know
What Why How and How
what will this learning give me
why do i need this info
how can i apply it in my job
how will it improve my professional skils
The instructor can effectively channel their motivation and eagerness through
clearly stating the goals,
experiential learning activities to tap into the participants knowledge
incorporate individual learning needs
lays out the benifts of learning it and the cons NOT learning it
They are eager to earn when they have a need to know
What Why How and How
what will this learning give me
why do i need this info
how can i apply it in my job
how will it improve my professional skils
The instructor can effectively channel their motivation and eagerness through
clearly stating the goals,
experiential learning activities to tap into the participants knowledge
incorporate individual learning needs
lays out the benifts of learning it and the cons NOT learning it
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show respect
And finally Knowles pointed out that adult learners like to be respected. They bring their experience and knowledge to the learning environment, and they would like to be acknowledged for that. If participants feel that they are being talked down to, preached to or patronized, their mind is occupied with dealing with these negative feelings instead of being focused on the learning process.
Facilitators should treat participants as equals, allowing them to voice their own opinions. However, despite their self-management and independence, adult learners crave for reinforcement and positive feedback during their learning process.
In order to create a learning environment of mutual respect, the scholar McLagan advises instructors to:
Show respect for the learner’s individuality and experience.
Be sensitive to the language used so that learners are not inadvertently offended.
Be open to different perspectives.
Treat the learners as individuals rather than as a group of people who are all alike.
Support all learner comments by acknowledging the “rightness” that is in each comment and each person.
After applying the principles, the final learning environment could be characterized by:
Mutual respect
Collaboration rather than competition
Support rather than judgment
Mutual trust
Fun
Facilitators should treat participants as equals, allowing them to voice their own opinions. However, despite their self-management and independence, adult learners crave for reinforcement and positive feedback during their learning process.
In order to create a learning environment of mutual respect, the scholar McLagan advises instructors to:
Show respect for the learner’s individuality and experience.
Be sensitive to the language used so that learners are not inadvertently offended.
Be open to different perspectives.
Treat the learners as individuals rather than as a group of people who are all alike.
Support all learner comments by acknowledging the “rightness” that is in each comment and each person.
After applying the principles, the final learning environment could be characterized by:
Mutual respect
Collaboration rather than competition
Support rather than judgment
Mutual trust
Fun
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Broad Overview of Application in Computer Learning
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MYTHBUSTER
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There are no true separate learning styles
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Show the learner the high level picture
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let them walk through a development cycle to gain a deeper holistic knowledge
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Have them work in groups to facilitate peer to peer knowledge transfer
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Untitled Slide
The way to go about teaching to the adult learner can be seen in the light of a user experience design project.
Here's a quick highlevel overview of how to approach it.
You need to get into the user/students head and figure out their needs and find a way to for those needs and your schools needs to gel. Find the empathy .
You then have to , define the needs explicitly from whats required to be included to exactly what content has to be used to achieve those goals . if you don't have one of those pieces , things go offrail and you've lost your learner.
How you structure your content , if it sounds like information architecture, thats exactly what it is. You need to be able to figure out which is the bet way to introduce something to get the learner from point a to b. that requires going back to your needs assessment and determine any skills gaps that need to be filled.
Interaction
How is the learner going to eat sleep smell touch the content? Do you plan on making it interactive? Are there going to be talks, si there going to be peer programming, how are they going to be accessed.
Sensory
All this has to be presented in an appealing user interface that projects the image of the institution. It can be professional, funny, quirky, but it has to be polished, put together well and cohesive. if one of those three things is not done, you've lost your learner's opinion that you're someone that has the knowledge to educate them.
Here's a quick highlevel overview of how to approach it.
You need to get into the user/students head and figure out their needs and find a way to for those needs and your schools needs to gel. Find the empathy .
You then have to , define the needs explicitly from whats required to be included to exactly what content has to be used to achieve those goals . if you don't have one of those pieces , things go offrail and you've lost your learner.
How you structure your content , if it sounds like information architecture, thats exactly what it is. You need to be able to figure out which is the bet way to introduce something to get the learner from point a to b. that requires going back to your needs assessment and determine any skills gaps that need to be filled.
Interaction
How is the learner going to eat sleep smell touch the content? Do you plan on making it interactive? Are there going to be talks, si there going to be peer programming, how are they going to be accessed.
Sensory
All this has to be presented in an appealing user interface that projects the image of the institution. It can be professional, funny, quirky, but it has to be polished, put together well and cohesive. if one of those three things is not done, you've lost your learner's opinion that you're someone that has the knowledge to educate them.
Untitled Slide
- Give support instead of judgement
- Treat learners as individuals
- Use collaboration rather than competition
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Untitled Slide
- Show Respect!
- Be open To different perspectives
- Establish a learning climate of mutual respect
- Use collaboration rather than competition
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Needs of The AL
- Clear Articulation of Value
- responsibility of Learner
- Tying new information to past experiences
- Goal-Oriented instruction
- Presentation of practical application(yes no lulzcats)
- RESPECT from teachers, instructors
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Zinn, Lorraine M.,Spirituality in Adult Education. Adult Learning: Vol. 8, #5 & 6, P.26.Several excellent tips for facilitating adult learning are included in this article.
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Tennant, Mark, and ? Pogson,Learning and Change in the Adult Years. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1995.
Vella, Jane.Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Franscisco, 1994. This small handbook on instructional design has many examples of applications to teaching women and teaching internationally.
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Cranton, Patricia, Professional Development as Transformative Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1996.
Galbraith, Michael W., Nine Principles of Good Facilitation. Adult Learning: April 1992, P10-.
Several excellent tips for facilitating adult learning are included in this article.
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Brookfield, Stephen D., The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1990.
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