Most adults that do come back to college seem to me to be the most passionate students about their newest attempt at college. Those that are given this second chance often have all of the readings done, are very engaged in class and often have questions they are ready to ask and discuss with the class. That being said, I think these are the traditional idea of adults but 99% of the students that we will teach in college are actually adults, even if we may not think of them as such.
These students don't always understand that they are adults because our society does often view them as such until they complete college. But, in the eyes of the law, they are considered adults. Coming to college is often their first opportunity to live alone and away from their parents which gives them more freedom than ever to decide upon what is important for them to do.
A quick search for andragogy online brought me to a website dealing with instructional methods for teaching adults and I think they will be very helpful though I will take my own stance on each. The website is http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy.html .
The first step is to make sure they feel like they are included in the design of the class. The way I would incorporate this would be to allow my students to pick between doing a quiz every week for grading or posting a blog post on the reading over blackboard or something along those lines. You could also incorporate this in to class every day, allowing the students to choose between group work and working together or in just partners.
Adults also like to learn from what they've done wrong. The easiest way to work on this is to pick out work and issues that I've noticed that I can show to the class. Students will notice when the mistakes shown are the same ones that they have made in their own work. This is a great place to start any lecture as it will get them interested in the day's work.
Arguably the hardest part of andragogy is how to show our students that this is relevant. I think the only real way to show them would be either show them papers in their fields or just prove to them that writing correct through mass media will show them that appearances anywhere and everywhere are important. If they can understand how they are judged based on their writing, I think we will see them be more interested in learning how to write properly in these freshman classes.
Adults also want to look at the world and see how what we are doing can affect the world around us. I think offering them readings and studying the writing in class of major political figures of today talking about these subjects. These can be good examples of ways to write with authority and purpose. I have noticed that many of our students struggle with writing that makes them appear unsure if they are right or not. What should be more important for them is the understanding that trusting you are right will help you to write more efficiently.
Good post, Connor. I do like working with students who recognize that they're in school for a purpose, and those who value their education go after it a lot more. The only thing more expensive than getting an education is not getting one, ultimately. Interesting website, instructionaldesign.org. Clearly the ideas here, and those in your blog post, are helpful in terms of setting up a syllabus (your next assignment). Yes, relevance is so important--be in genre, topic, readings, media you show during class, popular culture, etc., we must think about motivation.
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