This time-saving guideline invites adult-ed teachers—those who want, of course—to be remarkable, do art and make change happen by allowing adult learners to bring out their genius and passion. In other words, this tool is designed to help instructors get learners closer to their dreams, one lesson and one semester at a time.
There are lots of learning facilitation guidelines out there, but here’s what makes these real-world-oriented learning facilitation guidelines different:
If you are still interested, let’s go over the rationale behind these learning facilitation guidelines, shall we?
You and I are responsible adult-ed professionals, and we care deeply for learners. We want them to succeed. We plan and teach good lessons, hoping learners will do well on standardized testing, get a high school diploma or learn English, make it to college or vocational training, get a job—and live happily ever after! In other words, we promote education as the future.
This sounds fantastic, but there is one big problem. What is it? It’s that all education is not created equal. What do I mean? I mean we can no longer promise learners that a degree or compliance-based education alone will guarantee them a job, much less a successful career in this economy.
The job market today is like trying out for a high school sports team that almost every kid in the school is trying out for. The competition is extremely tough. Do you think I’m kidding? I’m not.
Not convinced yet? Then let’s go over some brutal truths, shall we?
My point is, the real world or the job market is rough, challenging, and even cruel. In fact, the real-world job market is awaiting your adult students like a hungry lion positioning itself to take advantage of innocent prey. To escape or survive the wrath of this cutthroat economy, our learners must be be able to compete.
Now, the key question is, “How do we prepare our adult students for that world?” Keep reading...
As adult-ed teachers, we are in the driver’s seat, so we must tell students the truth and show them the way to true learning rather than just teaching for compliance testing. Don’t avoid giving them the truth because you think—as the movie line goes in “A Few Good Men”—you think they “can’t handle the truth.” Instead, realize that you are able to prepare them for the future like few others can, then rise to the challenge of giving your students the honesty they need.
Let's ponder on this:
Now, you maybe wondering, “How do we make this transformation happen?” This is a smart question! And this where earning facilitation guidelines come in handy. These guidelines serve as a detailed roadmap to guide classroom instruction and connect it to new places—in our case, to the outside world.
The best way to teach in a transformational way is to not let your expectations of your learners (your bias about them) get in the way. Instead, set the bar high for all your learners. That is, promote a race to the top that enables students to become proficient in reading, speaking, math, science, English, teamwork, problem solving and critical thinking (depending on the topic you teach).
Setting the bar high also means pushing students to perform beyond what the test expects or requires of them. And the more we teach for mastery and focus on deep-structure learning, the easier the test will look. In other words, the test will take care of itself.
The good thing is that our work will speak for itself because our learners will show higher order skills all across subject areas.
For example, they will
I could go on and on…but you get the point, right?
Now, I know what you are thinking: “This sounds hard!” Yes, it’s challenging to prep learners for the real world. We can’t just plan out our lessons on the back of napkin after dinner and walk into class the next day expecting to make a difference. It takes a LOT of planning.
In fact, transforming our students into lifelong learners with strong 21st-century skills is like climbing Mount Everest! But what other option do we have? This is the emotional labor you and I signed up for, so we ought to do it and keep our promise to learners, helping them to become better, one classroom session at a time.
But since it’s hard, maybe a real-world-oriented learning facilitation guidelines is a good place to start. They might help you prioritize cognitive tasks, metacognitive skills, and real-world examples and experiences. And coupled with the right tools and strategies, maybe these learning facilitation guidelines can help students transform shallow learning into flexible knowledge.
The guidelines are divided into 7 sections: 1) Real-Word Teaching Goals, 2) Learner-Centered Facilitation, 3)Decision-Making, 4)Effective Classroom Practice, 5)Learning Reinforcement, 6) Assessment & Evaluation and 7) Learning or Knowledge Transfer. You shouldn’t expect to address all the principles and all 30 questions in these guidelines in every lesson you teach. But using some of them to plan a chapter or unit is a step in the right direction.
Now, let’s review the principles and the questions in the real-world-oriented learning facilitation guidelines.
When you plan your module or lesson unit, keep these principles in mind. They can help you drive instruction and create learning tasks that mimic the real world.
Section 1- Real-World Teaching Goals:
Answer here
Section 2- Learner-Centered Facilitation:
Answer here
Section 3- Decision-Making:
Answer here
Section 4- Effective Classroom Practice:
Answer here
Section 5- Learning Reinforcement:
Answer here
Section 6- Assessment & Evaluation:
Answer here
Section 7- Learning or Knowledge Transfer:
Answer here
| Section 1- Real-World Teaching Goals: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Promote deep-structure learning, mastery and learner autonomy | |
| 2. Transfer classroom learning to real-world situations | |
| 3. Promote growth mindset, protect students against learning stereotypes and address self-esteem issues (past learning experiences may prevent learners from doing their best) | |
| 4. Develop speaking or communication skills (regardless of the subject you teach) | |
| 5. Increase reading comprehension skills (summarizing, analyzing evidence) Develop writing skills | |
| 6. Develop writing skills | |
| 7. Promote students’critical thinking skills | |
| 8. Increase technology literacy skills | |
| 9. Develop emotional intelligence, self-regulation and leadership skills | |
| | |
| Section 2- Learning-Centered Facilitation: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Start with real world-driving questions and encourage students to pose additional questions | |
| 2. Pique learners’ curiosity (it might force them to think about and engage with the content in a deeper way—which leads to better information retention) | |
| 3. Use inquiry-based approach to develop thinking skills and use experiential learning to promote learning by doing and reflecting | |
| 4. Make the learning process rigorous (challenge assumptions and make learners think on their feet) | |
| 5. Avoid giving answers out for free (leave it up to learners to search, discover, explore and support their thoughts and ideas) | |
| 6. Leverage learners’ passion and interest (afford them space to personalize and individualize their assignments or projects) | |
| 7. Utilize content's best modality (the best way to teach a subject) and expose learners to materials in a variety of ways (videos, demonstration, texts, realia, authentic materials and real life examples) | |
| 8. Create a risk free-environment but help learners to acknowledge and deal with their fear | |
| 9. Bring experts or other professionals into the class and encourage learners to have their questions answered | |
| | |
| Section 3- Decision-Making: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Create space for learners to participate in decision-making and share their opinions, thoughts and feelings | |
| 2. Give learners time and space to contemplate how they best think, work, and learn—that is, to reflect on identifying key issues, make adjustments and request appropriate help | |
| 3. Encourage students to create learning products that match their level of readiness, and their personal and career goals | |
| 4. Use learning activities that involve students analyzing and discussing content, negotiating meaning, making joint decisions, and creating products to showcase their comprehension and skills | |
| |
| Section 4- Effective Classroom Practice: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Teach how to learn or the best ways to access and practice your content (act like a mentor or a coach) | |
| 2. Build learners' background knowledge in your content area (analyzing, synthesizing, and critiquing skills depend on it) | |
| 3. Promote effective and consistent practice(with intent and free of distraction) | |
| 4. Teach effective study skills (discuss study skills and best ways to learn and master target content) | |
| 5. Use activities that make learners think deeply about new content and skills | |
| 6. Welcome mistakes and celebrate efforts and hard work | |
| 7. Distribute practice sessions over several weeks (avoid massed practices or cramming) | |
| 8. Promote collaboration, peer-learning, and value social interactions (teamwork, group discussions) | |
| 9. Avoid idle time but promote healthy breaks | |
| | |
| Section 5- Learning Reinforcement: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Use well designed extension activities or projects to reinforce classroom learning and new skills | |
| 2. Use the case-based Learning approach to create opportunities for learners to use critical thinking and analytical skills to work in groups or in pairs on real world challenges | |
| 3. Implement project-based learning activities that mimic the real world (student should solve meaningful and complex problems for a real audience) | |
| 4. Use problem-based learning model to foster classroom collaboration, allowing learners to show critical thinking skills and creativity | |
| |
| Section 6- Assessment & Evaluation: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Assess and evaluate students’ learning with authentic assessment tools and activities that simulate real-life contexts | |
| 2. Collect and use learners’ performance data to make adjustment as necessary | |
| 3. Keep learners informed on how they are doing as it relates to specific standards, goal, or rubric they are supposed to meet | |
| 4. Hold groups and individual learners accountable (use participation rubrics and guidelines)
Provide effective feedback (timely, corrective, criterion-based, student-facilitated feedback) | |
| 5. Use rubrics and guidelines to set clear learning and evaluation expectations | |
| 6. Implement learning/assessment portfolio for all adult students | |
| 7. Promote self-reflection on learning (provide learners with quiet time for that purpose) | |
| 8. Never ask "Do you understand?" to assess learning; instead observe performance on concrete tasks | |
| Section 7- Learning or Knowledge Transfer: | ✔ |
|---|---|
| 1. Create tasks that allow learners to transfer knowledge learned in class to real-world situations | |
| 2. Motivate learners to work on open-ended problems that require the utilization of real world-skills | |
| 3. Expose learners to experiences outside the classroom setting (create opportunities for learners to manipulate content, to engage in meaningful discussions, and to complete meaningful projects) | |
| 4. Raise learners’ awareness on the importance of irreplaceable skills (by that I mean artistic and soft skills—skills that lead to jobs robots cannot do well or at all) | |
| |
When you plan your module or lesson unit, keep these questions in mind. They can help you think deeper about how to drive instruction that reflects the real world.
| 1. What are your real-world learning objectives? | 16. How will you differentiate instruction? |
| 2. What are your real-world driving questions for your students? | 17. What learning activities will mimic real world situations? |
| 3. How and when will students discuss standards? | 18. How will learners reinforce their learning and skills? |
| 4. What are the main skills students will practice and master? | 19. What opportunity for independent practice will students have? |
| 5. What real-world stories or examples will you share? | 20. What opportunity for team-work practice will students have? |
| 6. How will you trigger your learners’ interest? | 21. How much time will be dedicated to discussion? |
| 7. How will you activate prior knowledge? | 22. How much time will be dedicated to collaboration or project? |
| 8. How will learners develop or access new factual knowledge? | 23. What authentic materials will students use? |
| 9. What are the key terms or concepts that learners should know? | 24. What opportunity for authentic assessment will learners have? |
| 10. What and how will learners contribute to the lessons? | 25. How will learners demonstrate critical thinking skills? |
| 11. What authentic products will learners create? | 26. What speaking or presentation opportunity will students have? |
| 12. What rubrics will you use for evaluation? | 27. How often will learners reflect on the learning process? |
| 13. How will you make learners think deeply about content? | 28. How will the key skills and content be presented on the test? |
| 14. How will you facilitate or promote independent study time? | 29. How will the lessons meet WIOA expectations? |
| 15. How will learners use technology to foster learning? | 30 How will you measure deeper learning and mastery? |
Now, let me to ask you: What are you going to do with this information?
I urge you to use it to go change your adult students for the best!
Here's the link to the guidelines: https://s3.amazonaws.com/beacon.cnd/35874fc3bc4405f0.pdf?t=1621268128. Click any button below to share it in your network.
Our goal is to ensure adult ed teachers have the tools and insights to continue to be successful change-makers. When you receive our insights, you can share what you’ve learned and put the knowledge into action in your local adult ed classroom.
To impact students’ lives, CBL relies on you and your commitment to transforming adult students into lifelong learners equipped for the real world.
And we’re proud to develop and produce rigorous content that challenges you and, we hope, inspires you to keep meeting your adult students’ needs by taking them a little closer to their dreams— one lesson at a time.
Thank you for sharing these insights with other adult ed professionals who might need them.
Teddy Edouard (Learning Coach & Consultant )
Website: https://adulteducationhub.com/
