EPALE - Piattaforma elettronica per l'Apprendimento permanente in Europa

Introduction

Whether it’s to upskill for a new career or to fit their learning around their family lives we do understand that education can be a fantastic tool for today’s adults. My journey with Lifelong learning and Adult education started ten years ago as an adult educator of Spanish within the Directorate for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability in Malta. Since then, I have had the chance to teach Spanish to more than 500 students. First face to face lessons and in the last three years (since COVID 19) online courses.

During my lessons, I have always tried to include different adult learning styles and techniques. Through this blog, I am going to provide practical ideas that you can implement in your work as an adult educator so you can provide a more meaningful learning experience to your students. This year, I managed to organize four face to face lessons as part of the online course. This experience gave me the possibility to rethink my role as an adult educator and to reformulate and create some activities that can be implemented in a lesson of #languages.

Adult learning principles

Whilst all teaching methods may have similar traits, teaching adults will be a different experience from teaching younger people. These conditions might help adult learners to reach their potential as adult learners:

• When their education can be self-directed, they need to be somewhat involved in the planning of their education.
• When the lesson plans incorporate background knowledge and experiences.
• When the learning is offered in an active manner rather than passive. 
• When the learning is relevant to their current circumstances and can be applied to some aspect of their lives. 

Characteristics of adult learners

Once we know the basic principles of teaching adult learners, we should look at what characteristics we can expect to see. Keep these characteristics in mind when constructing your lesson plans and content. We can more easily create effective educational resources when we know exactly who we’ll be teaching. Adult learners will bring with them a wealth of life experiences. Adult learners may have pursued a career before studying again, travelled the world, or even raised a family. This is great as it means that adult learners will have a lot of varied knowledge to share. Also, adult learners are driven to achieve their goals: they have made an active decision to pursue education. When teaching adult learners, you may find that they are more driven to get the most out of their learning. 

Since adult learners come from all walks of life, you’ll find that they are far more independent than younger learners. This means that they often like making their own decisions regarding their learning. 

Adult learning styles, techniques, and approaches to a more significant learning

Addressing goals

It is very important to ask for feedback from adult learners and offer more freedom with lesson plans and activities. One tool that I have used during my lessons is Mentimeter. You can write a quick question and students will write the answer. You can use this tool at the beginning and the end of the course making an easy question as: “Why do you want to study Spanish?”, “Mention two things that you have learned during the course”.

This effective tool will provide you anonymous and immediate feedback that you can use to improve your teaching or customize it according to the needs of the adult learners. For example, if ten students mention “I want to learn #languages because I want to live in the country where this language is spoken” you can add valuable contents to your course as “how to order in a restaurant” or “how to go to the doctor”.

Involving students in their own education

Task-oriented educational tools will be more effective than standard passive teaching methods when teaching adult learners. Try to involve things like quizzes, interactive activities, and discussions to involve the learners. You can create a Kahoot for revision at the end of each topic/unit and assign it for homework or play during the last ten-fifteen minutes of the lesson.

Life experience

We can utilize the life experience to amplify the learning potential for adults. You could use real scenarios as examples during lessons and utilize the knowledge of your learners where possible. Students can talk about their life and/or travel experiences in small groups ( you can create rooms on online lessons so students can talk in small groups), they can create a dialogue in which they discuss a topic of their interest, they can share some pictures of their last trip to Madrid and mention in the target language the typical breakfast in Bulgaria if he/she is from this country, for example. I suggest making groups of different learners every time, so they can work with students from different abilities and backgrounds. This will enrich the knowledge and experiences and it will provide #cultural diversity in case you have learners from different countries.

Taking a varied approach

Those teaching adult learners should be willing to use a variety of teaching approaches. Since every adult is different, you should use a range of learning approaches suited to the needs of your learners. On the topic of accommodating the needs of all learners, it’s important to consider any additional help that learners may need. You’ll need to consider this when creating lesson plans and the content of the course. It is important to ask students if they have any special needs (dyslexia, autism, Tic …) so you can take into consideration and adapt any resources, i.e., use the Arial, Helvetica and Verdana fonts, use visuals as support or focus on the sound of the letters.

Motivating adult learners

One of the differences you may notice when educating adults as opposed to children is the difference in attention span.  By tailoring lessons to your learners and trying to motivate them, you should be able to engage your learners. It is very important to ask learners at the beginning of the course why they joined this course as the motivation of all the students might not be the same. You will need to balance the different needs and find significant teaching and resources tailored for adults. We need to keep in mind that even if we are a primary teacher of the same subject, we need to use appropriate materials made for adults with topics that interest our adult learners.

Flexibility

It’s important to be as flexible as possible when teaching adults. Adult learners will have additional responsibilities and may already know teaching methods that work for them. A useful way is to send a short summary of the last lesson and to provide important notes of the lesson or links/videos used and mention the homework to be done for next lesson so students can catch up in case they miss the lesson for any reason. Another useful method is to record the lesson in case of an online course so students can have access to it and review any content after the lesson has finished.

Encouraging involvement and independence

Adult learners may have a preferred learning style or are aware of a teaching method that suits them best. Be flexible and allow them to implement methods that align with these preferences and let them make decisions about their learning. Some students prefer to watch a video, some learners prefer to fill gaps in grammar exercises as this gives them some kind of structure when learning a subject. Ideally, you can include different type of exercises and activities which will cater for all types of learning styles. Keep learners involved in the teaching process and do as much as you can to keep them engaged.

Analyzing your teaching strategies

You should also be ready to review your teaching strategies to make sure you’re having as much impact as you can. Reviewing your methods and lesson content is a great way to see where you could improve. By asking your adult learners what could be improved and what they’d like to see in lessons, you can also involve them whilst also reviewing your teaching. One tool you can use is Office Forms or a similar program which gives you the option to make open and close questions. Examples of questions could be:” Which activities you like more?”, “Did you achieve your goals?”, “What can be improved?”. This will provide you a clear picture of the strengths and weakness and some useful tips or ideas so you can improve your teaching.

Making learners comfortable

In an online environment, learners may find it difficult to integrate with other learners and speak up when they’re struggling. Be sure to make learners comfortable and to cultivate a welcoming environment where all learners feel comfortable speaking up. One activity that I do every year is to create a roulette with the names of the students. I spin the roulette and every student, when their name is chosen, he/she will have the chance to say his/her name, nationality, their favorite word in Spanish and/or any other information that they might consider relevant. With big groups it is time consuming, but it is a very useful ice-breaking activity that creates a sense of community. You can use Wordwall to create the roulette.

Experiential Learning

The last but not less important: provide opportunities of Experiential Learning to your learners. The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority held a session about the Experiential Teaching and Learning following the David A. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory.

David A. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory is a powerful foundational approach to all forms of learning, development, and change. Experiential learning describes the ideal process of learning, invites you to understand yourself as a learner, and empowers you to take charge of your own learning and development.

The Experiential Learning Theory provides “a holistic model of the learning process and a multi-linear model of adult development” (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb, 2002 as cited in Zhou and Brown 2015, p. 49). The theory is not linear as in traditional primary education and has many levels of learning that fits better for adult learners.  Experience plays a significant role in the learning process of adults.

The experiential teaching and learning could support and enhance student engagement with course material, provide diverse opportunities for collaboration, and develop the self-confidence and soft skills of teachers and students alike.

Learning by doing. This is the basis for the experiential learning theory. Experiential learning focuses on the idea that the best ways to learn things is by having experiences. Those experiences then stick out in your mind and help you retain information and remember concepts, vocabulary, structures…

When learning #languages, Spanish in this case, it is very important to offer variety of activities that goes beyond the classroom, the normal structure of a normal lesson and keep students motivated, eager to learn and willing to acquire new skills, not only from the theoretical part but also developing skills as team building, collaboration, time management…

This year, my students of Level 1 and Level 2 had the opportunity to participate in a "Tapas Competition" as part of their course of Spanish. They checked the ingredients and prepared different recipes in small groups. Students had the chance to try different food as meatballs, chicken in mushroom sauce, paella, cake, etc. The activity was held in Mosta on 17th May 2023.A certificate of attendance was given to all the participants at the end of the activity. Through active experimentation they had the opportunity to connect theory and practice in a relevant way. This type of non-formal learning empowers learners to take charge of their own learning and development.

 

As Benjamin Franklin said, “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”.

 

I wish to thank Directorate for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability for their help organizing this activity.

 

About the author

Diana Gómez Cantoral studied a BA Hons in Communication Studies from the University of Basque Country. I also studied a Master in Compulsory education, vocational training and language teaching in Spanish Language and Literature. I work as a secondary teacher of Spanish in a school in Malta and as an adult educator in the courses of Spanish offered by the Directorate for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability. I have participated as a Spanish support expert in the Design of Learning outcomes Framework, Associated learning and Assessment Programmes; CT3025/2014 ESF Project 1.228, as a curriculum developer for Spanish for the Directorate for Learning & Assessment Programmes, Department for the Curriculum, Lifelong Learning and as a Practicum visitor of Spanish for the Institute of Education and for the University of Malta. I have also collaborated as an External verifier for ITS Malta.

References

-       The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority

-       https://mfhea.mt/experiential-learning-and-teaching/

-       David A. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory

-       https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/how-to-teach-adult-learners

-       Fenwick, T. (2003). Learning Through Experience: Troubling Assumptions and Expanding Questions. Malabar, Florida: Krieger.