Five Strategies for Working with Adult Learners

The following strategies for working with adult learners are all recommended by teachers:

1. Establish positive expectations. Adults entering a beginning reading program often have negative memories of past schooling. Many learners have developed low self esteem from earlier experiences at school and sometimes believe that they will not succeed in learning to read. Adults learn best when they feel that the teacher is caring and that the teacher believes they will succeed.

2. Expect success. At the end of each lesson, the student should feel that he/she has succeeded at something new. For example, the student can learn his/her own name as a sight word at the very first lesson. Not only will this student "own" this learning, but the teacher can tell the learner that he/she is already a reader.

3. Create a Learner-Friendly Classroom. The classroom environment is extremely important. Adults do not want to be treated like children, and the teacher should keep in mind that the learner is an adult. The adult may not have learned to read, but is frequently successful in other areas of life and deserves respect.

4. A Collaborative Effort. The learner should be treated as a responsible, intelligent person who is in charge of his/her learning. Reading should be a collaborative effort, with the learner gradually assuming more and more responsibility for self-direction. The teacher is a co-partner in learning who helps the learner to develop strategies that will enable him/her to read. Reading is not taught, but learned. So the classroom should be learner-centered and self-paced to the greatest extent possible. Rather than following a strict, prescriptive routine, the teacher should make use of the information gathered during the initial assessment in planning for lessons and considering learners' needs on an individual basis.

5. Adult Learners. Many of the techniques used in teaching children are ineffective for adults because adults are not only developmentally different but bring a wealth of life experiences into the classroom. Many adults are impatient with letter recognition games that children might enjoy, for instance. They want to read meaningful texts. Adults also process information differently from children. They need adequate thinking time. Instruction should be presented in small increments with plenty of time for repetition and practice.