Wes Akers

Lecture Outline

Providing adult learners with an outline of the lecture is a strategy used for effective lecturing.  This strategy is rooted in adult learning theory because it makes the teacher’s intended student learning outcomes transparent.  I think adult learners want a clear direction of the learning they will be engaged in.  When students are provided with skeletal notes of the lecture, they are shown a thoughtful plan and become more willing to buy into being active listeners and participants.  Without a lecture outline, learners are left in the dark about the lecturer’s direction and can become disconnected from the lecturer’s train of thought and flow of ideas.  I feel most adult learners want to know their time is being respected and a lecture outline allows adult learners to break down the lecture’s components to gauge its’ value.  I believe most adult learners like to know what to expect before walking into a classroom in order to feel prepared.

Personally, the lecture outlines for our class have allowed me to prepare myself by thinking about questions prior to the lecture and for note taking during the lecture.  I was able to feel more confident asking questions because I felt they were more thought out.  Additionally, the lecture outline and my annotations have helped me summarize and make meaning of our thinking after class as well.  They have also helped me make connections from our texts to the class lecture.

Whole Class and Small Group Discussion

Discussion is a strategy used to recognize and investigate our ideas through active listening and thoughtful talking.  This strategy is rooted in adult learning theory because it allows learners to share their experiences and how they have developed as a result of those experiences.  Sharing experience allows us to establish a foundation for building relationships with our classmates and teachers.  Discussion allows adult learners to think out their ideas and receive responses from diverse perspectives.  Discussion teaches adult learners how to deal with diverse opinions and realize how they connect to their own ideas.  It requires us to take responsibility for the development of our judgments and affirm our opinions.

I consider discussion to be the way I was able to connect most with my classmates intellectually and socially this semester.  I especially felt this way about the small group discussion with both texts.  I found my group for the classic text to be more beneficial because it was smaller.  By being in a triad, I was able to listen more intently to my partners’ ideas because we were able to focus on explaining and developing our understanding of the text without being overwhelmed with many participants.  Terry and Huo were helpful, thoughtful partners because they asked insightful questions and viewed the text through different lens.  We were able to compare our notes and think out some of Brookfield’s major themes together.  This strategy was effective for me because I feel like I was able to share my experiences and be vulnerable with my partners whereas I would not feel the same in a larger group.  When sharing personal experiences with a larger group, it is more difficult to respond thoroughly to feedback and responses.  When there are fewer people in a group, we are able to spend more time explaining our feedback and responses to each other.

Students’ Interest and Choice

Using students’ interest to guide instruction is a strategy used to engage students in content by teaching what they are interested to learn about.   Giving choice is a strategy used to allow students to have more control over their education in hopes they will take on more responsibility for their learning.  Combining these strategies naturally fits well to aim for both student engagement and ownership.  These strategies are rooted in adult learning and development theory because adult learners want to know their experiences, opinions, and interests are being considered.  By allowing us to select both texts, we were allowed to explore the topics we were interested in, use our experiences to make meaning, and develop opinions about the content.  Additionally, these strategies are rooted in adult learning and development theory because they allow students to explore content they find useful and applicable.  I feel adult learners want to know their learning will be useful to them in the near future.  We were also able to develop our own final classic text project, which required us to think creatively and critically about what we want to share with our group and how to best communicate our message.  This is rooted in adult learning and development because it requires us to engage in metacognition in order to meet the sparse, but appreciated guidelines provided.  Adult learners make meaning by thinking critically about the content and how it connects to them.

I benefited from the use of these strategies because I was able to select a classic text I thought would be useful, engaging, and worthwhile.  I was right.  Before reading The Skillful Teacher by Stephen Brookfield, the idea of teaching adults was intimidating because I do not experience designing curriculum for adults.  Learning teaching methods for adult learners was one of my goals in taking this course and I feel that was achieved.  By reading The Skillful Teacher, I was introduced to research-based practices I can use immediately.  It also proved to me many strategies I use for adolescent students’ discussions will work with adult learners’ discussions.  If I had not been able to choose this text, I may have read a book without Brookfield’s balance of theory and methodology.  If that were the case, I would have been less engaged in the classic text and probably would not have found it as meaningful.

Each of the above strategies was not only successful for the reasons I mention above, but they also allowed us to think critically about you, Wayne, and your practice.  As a classroom teacher, I analyzed the strategies employed in order to know how best to teach my future adult learners.  Now, I feel a little more prepared to teach a classroom of adults.  To learn teaching practices from a master teacher is one of the greatest gifts a young teacher can receive.  Without sounding like a kiss ass, thanks for giving our class great models of best teaching practices.

Core Assumption 2: Skillful Teachers Adopt a Critically Reflective Stance Towards Their Practice

• Make informed pedagogic actions
  • Actions based on assumptions that have been carefully and critically investigated
  • An informed teaching action can be explained and justified to ourselves and others
  • An informed teaching action is researched
  • An informed teaching action has a good chance of meeting student learning targets
• Lenses – students, colleagues, educational literature, personal biographies
• Why is a critically reflective stance central to skillful teaching?
  • Using the four lenses increases chances our actions are based on assumptions that are accurate and valid.
  • Model critical thinking for students
  • Reenergize our teaching