"Motivating Adult Learners to Persist" online course

In late summer 2015, we are excited to offer a new online course, Motivating Adult Learners to Persist, developed through the Improving Teacher Effectiveness project.  Once the course is live, we will let everyone know and provide additional information about how to access it through the LINCS Learning Portal.

 

Comments

Several instructors in our program work together in order to help learners persist. We try to intrinsically and extrinsically motivate our students. The first way to do this is to learn your students--see what motivates them. After that, we try to work together to always be encouraging and uplifting, while also critiquing and helping where needed. 

One of the things that I struggle with is keeping tabs on students through email and phone calls. I try to encourage my students to act and think like college students since we are in a community college setting. However, I understand that they have many competing obligations. Some may need that, but some may need to build their self-motivation. It's a tricky balance.

My ESL students talk to and encourage each other. They help each other out without question. I also enjoy watching when my GED students help each other by commenting on their work, or talking about topics in an open manner.

 

Thank you, Lauren and Elizabeth for sharing your comments and experiences on motivating students. I have had the same experience with ESL students who rallied around their peers to mentor, encourage, and hold each other accountable. Opportunities to encourage peer learning communities/cohorts have been thought to foster a feeling of belonging, help engage students to persist, and mutually benefit higher and lower functioning level students by providing a vehicle in which mentoring and/or peer tutoring may occur.

Peer comments in the classroom can help develop ideas and strengthen communication.  Often the students are more at ease with discussion among peers than solely teacher-student.  When a peer offers incorrect information it allows others to think aloud and come to an appropriate conclusion as a group.

One Concrete Observation for Alicia  on her editing activity:  I enjoyed how the students were able to chose which station they wanted to go to (choice + autonomy) provide editing corrections to fellow students (buillding community and collaboration).  I admire her dedication in her willingness to invest in this labor intensive activity.

 

This is useful. We need to find value in our students' lives when teaching them. Empathy is important. 

I was impressed with the amount of preparation the instructor had obviously done so that her students were able to move smoothly through the activity, They knew exactly what to do.  Peer critique is a powerful tool in both learning and teaching, a great way to have students take responsibility for their learning and their peers' as well. Collaboration works well, and these students show their appreciation for it.

I have to believe that many students would be more receptive to critique from a peer than from a teacher. It is easier to accept, in that you are also critiquing their essay, equals.  Partners.  It now becomes a mutually helpful exercise, and it is recognized as a positive, constructive activity. Who doesn't want to participate in something like that?

One major note stands out in both of these stories: the instructors really care about their students.  I understand the frustration of poor attendance.  Establishing a solid routine is very beneficial to both instructor and students so that the "regulars" can continue in individual or small group work.  An early understanding of the course goals, content, and value to them helps the students plan class times into their daily schedules

I enjoyed how the students were able to chose which station they wanted to go to (choice + autonomy) provide editing corrections to fellow students (buillding community and collaboration).  I admire her dedication in her willingness to invest in this labor intensive activity.

They have families, job requirements, and limited time.  The staff at the school understand those requirements and we have online time for the students, some flexible hours and a LOT of encouragement from the staff.  They are adults and they understand the requirements and the limitations, but they are prepared to move forward under overwhelming odds.

I like the emphasis on having adult learners use their own life experiences to use as a basis for learning, creating a safe and fun environment and encouraging students to rely on each other for problem-solving, overcoming barriers, etc.

I'm getting very frustrated with this course.  I think I have completed all the segments but it won't let me get the certificate.  It indicates that I haven't completed the knowledge activities so I keep clicking on the knowledge activities and looking for what it is I haven't completed, but I have done everything.  I just keep going through knowledge activities over and over again and it keeps indicating that they are not complete.  :(

The teacher featured was Amy.  She concluded that her students were not putting in enough effort.  However, I think the problem was that they did not understand her well enough to be able to be successful.  She was teaching above their ability to understand.  It sounds like she forgot that she had mostly ESL learners in her class.  She needs to meet the students where they are at.

One observation I made was in the instructor's method of giving directions, which is a critical piece of effective teaching.  She read through each item on the instruction poster and stopped to explain each one.  The poster remained on the same air wall as the 'essay stations' for easy reference by the learners throughout the activity.  She also gave them examples of what not to do, for example, not initialing something for their peer if they didn't agree with it.  She explained this wouldn't be helpful.  This was important to help the learners reach the overall goal of the activity. 

The students embraced collaboration by sitting together and viewing each other's papers, identifying the components of the essay which were present, and those which were not.  For example, "There are no verbs," or, "You are missing a topic sentence."  The students felt comfortable enough to provide one another with feedback, but also to accept the feedback from their peers. This can be observed throughout the activity, whether the students were together at the stations, or at the tables making edits.

In a previous program, instructors and staff made efforts to foster community and collaboration among students.  This was not only practiced through various in-class activities, but by being intentional to build community outside of the classroom as well.  For example, social activities and environments were often created for students, whether it was conversation hour, going to lunch, cultural festivals, etc. Promoting this type of community not only helped students get to know each other and feel more comfortable collaborating in class, but also helped diminish any stereotypes which may have existed before getting to know a new peer. 

1. One technique I use to help students to deal with errors without hampering motivation is focusing my feedback only on particular areas.  In writing, for example, I might only provide feedback on a particular construct in a draft of a paragraph or essay, rather than noting all errors. I also like to balance feedback by noting strengths in a student's work as well.

2. I've used peer feedback activities.  The challenges come when students don't understand the value in the process and feel that only the teacher can provide substantive feedback.  Once students understand the many ways in which peer feedback is helpful, they often buy in and even enjoy it!

As a military instructor we are always encouraging our students to participate and share their ideas to improve our course.  The instructors share their personal experiences, ask poling questions to check for their level of knowledge, and we provide feedback via our student, end of course critiques.  Our students always state that this was their best class out of xx amount of years in the service and they don't want to leave.  Additionally they provide us ideas to motivate future students by making more hands on exercises and to have more group activities.  Maybe we are doing something right :)

Pre-video questions

1. Do you have techniques that you use to help students deal with their errors so they do not undercut their motivation? What are they?

First, I allow myself to make mistakes in front of the students at times and then explain that even though English is my first language, I am still learning certain things as well and how it's a complex language made up with rules from dozens of other languages intertwined; so there are still some words I have to double check to make sure I'm spelling them correctly, etc. 

I often have my students correct their own work, when we go over something together as a class, so they can see their own progress/errors without having to necessarily share their mistakes with others; however, they usually tell me/everyone anyway when they had an error with their body language, writing/erasing, or asking clarifying questions. I like leaving this on their own terms, however. 

2. Have you used peer feedback activities in your teaching? What are the strengths and challenges of using that approach?

Sometimes when my class is working on a writing project, I'll place them in groups of 4 so that they can sit together while writing and share their progress with one another after a set amount of time. Some of my students will take more time and keep writing more than others, but it keeps everyone engaged and gives me a chance to make rounds and give feedback as well. The challenge is getting back around to the people who are writing more than others and giving equal time to everyone while everyone is sharing with one another.

Post-video questions

1. What is the level of engagement demonstrated by the students as they conduct the activity?

The students looked very engaged with one another and the project, and everyone who made it into the final cut of the video seemed to really appreciate the process and learned from the experience. Based on my experience with my last class, I found my students to take activities like this seriously and often spent more time discussing things than I expected them to, so her results are not surprising to me as it appears she has a great relationship with her class. However, I did notice other comments by other instructors in this thread who reported that they would expect some of their students to hold back and not participate, and that is also not surprising as this kind of activity would be intimidating to a new student or or one who is introverted/shy or at a lower level than peers in the classroom. It would be interesting to know whether or not there were some students who were holding back off camera or if this particular set of students had opted into being recorded and was actually more motivated by the presence of the video team.

2. What are some of the benefits that the students describe in their individual reports?

There was a theme with several students who said they went back and made edits based on what they were noticing in the essays of others, usually something weak or missing in their own essay when they compared their own writing to what they saw in someone else's writing. The stronger writers were also able to identify when someone was missing an element such as a topic sentence.