Helping Adult Learners Learn – Part 1

Are your TCE courses suffering from Boredom Syndrome? How can you tell? It’s easy! Just look for the following signs:

1) Your students arrive five minutes before the coffee break—and leave shortly thereafter!

2) You show up late for class one evening and no one realizes you weren’t there!

3) Your teachers start giving strange excuses for not coming to class like, “I had to rotate the tires on my vacuum cleaner” or “I had to take my child to the doctor for his annual Yellow Fever vaccination.”

4) The silk ficus tree in your classroom has been wilting ever since your TCE course began!

5) You look up the word “boring” in the dictionary—and find the date and time of your TCE course listed there!

If you’ve been seeing these or other signs of Boredom Syndrome, it may be that you are not meeting the real needs of your adult learners.

We don’t lose our learning styles as we grow older. We don’t lose the ability to learn through our senses. Adult learners can quickly grow bored with an overuse of the same, tired methods. Most adults enjoy interactive methods as much as kids do, as long as those methods are appropriate to their age and experience level.

Take a few moments some time and look through your lesson plans, making note of the methods used. If you’re like most IOTs, you’ll probably find that you tend to use a certain few methods in most of your classes. We often fall back on those tried and true techniques we’re comfortable with like lecture, buzz groups and neighbor nudges. All of these are perfectly good methods. But even a great method can become boring if it is overused.

Hopefully, you realize that teaching adults is a little different from teaching children. Childhood learning is largely teacher-directed. Children listen and learn what the teacher says they must learn.

Adult learners are self-directed. They don’t want someone talking at them or down to them. They are generally motivated by a need they want to fulfill and they enjoy discovering for themselves.

Adult learners have a wealth of personal experience they bring to their learning. They don’t necessarily take what is said at face value, but tend to test what they hear against their own experiences.

Adult learners need to understand the rationale behind what you are teaching them. In other words, they want to know more than just what to do or how to do it. They need to know why. Your TCE instruction should be filled with answers to the why questions: Not just that we need to teach children that they are born with a sin nature, but why that teaching is crucial; not just that they should teach children to pray for missionaries, but why they need to do so. Answering the why questions takes you beyone the written notes and gives depth to your teaching.

Adult learners need to see the relevance of what you are teaching them. How can they use this material in their current role or task? What they do in class needs to be more than just an academic exercise. They don’t want to store up knowledge they will use “someday” – they want information and skills they can use now.

So, what are some effective, interactive methods you can use to spice up your TCE courses, reduce boredom and make sure your adult learners are truly learning? You’ll have to come back to the Café next week for part two!

Frog-Eating 101!

What is the hardest task facing you today? This week? Is it a phone call you need to make? A lesson plan you need to write? A pastor or principal you need to visit? If you’re like most people, your tendency will be to put that task off as long as possible.

We have a way of rationalizing why we can’t do the task just yet: "I need to wait until I have more uninterrupted time" "I need to do more research first" "I’ll do it when I’m more..." (fill in the blank—awake, rested, energized, calm, etc.) We know deep inside that, in the time it takes to rationalize the dreaded task away, we probably could have completed it!

Brian Tracy wrote an interesting little book with the provocative title, Eat That Frog! He based his book on one of historical American humorist Mark Twain’s witty observations about life: “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it’s the worst thing that/s going to happen to you all day long.”

Tracy points out that our “frogs” are those biggest, most important tasks that we tend to put off. Yet they’re often the ones that can have the most positive impact on our lives or work. He suggests seeing those difficult tasks as a personal challenge. If we can make ourselves “eat that frog” first, it will give us energy and momentum for the rest of our day. Tracy says that completing a difficult task triggers endorphins in the brain, flooding our system with energy and well-being, similar to the effects of physical exercise.

Tracy recommends three “D” steps in eating that frog: decision, discipline and determination. First, make a decision to develop the habit of task completion. Habits are developed through practice and repetition. Once a habit is formed, it becomes automatic and easier to do.

Second, discipline yourself to do the hard thing first. Make that call, write that lesson plan, make that visit—whatever the difficult task, do it now! Fight every inclination and rationalization to procrastinate.

Third, determine to see it through. Sometimes we get a good start, but then we run out of gas partway through and the task remains unfinished. If you lose momentum halfway through, it may be even harder to start again. Determine to keep going and not give up until it is done.

May we add a fourth “D” word to this list? That would be dependence. No matter how disciplined and determined we are, we will surely fail without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Doing difficult tasks is hard. Doing them in the flesh is impossible! (Study John 15:1-8, especially verse 5.) Ask God to give you the “want to” to get the job done. Ask Him to help you stay focused and to see it through to the end. Then, get to work!

So…what frogs are awaiting you today? With God’s help, you can do it. And when it’s done, you'll be toadally glad you did!

Has God given you some wisdom in frog-eating? Click the COMMENT link below and share with us what you have learned.