Good Teaching is Good Teaching

A significant portion of the instructional design I do and much of my previous teaching experience has been with vulnerable adult populations. By vulnerable, I mean adults who have involvement with various authorities and social service agencies because of life challenges they've experienced and/or choices they've made.


As I continue working now as an instructional coach for college faculty who teach academically underprepared students, I'm enjoying having the practices I've used for years with my vulnerable adult learners validated by the research on teaching academically underprepared students.

Most recently I've been reading an article by Engstrom and Tinto, Learning Better Together: The Impact of Learning Communities on the Persistence of Low-Income Students. While this article is written about academically underprepared community college learners I find their research based recommendations  resonate with my experience of what works when teaching in prison, out in the community with various court-ordered folks, and with reluctant learners of various ages spanning the adult years.

The research shows that adult learners who are academically underprepared engage better and persist longer with college studies when four conditions are met:

1) When those who teach them work together to integrate two or more disciplines while providing a consistent, coherent approach that is focused upon and designed around what they need to be able to DO out in the rest of life.

2) When teachers use active and collaborative learning strategies

3) When other support services are integrated into the curriculum

4) When teachers hold high expectations for student success while providing high levels of support

While I've used these strategies for many years in my work with vulnerable populations I've also taught graduate students and offered professional development to highly educated professionals with advanced degrees. Quite honestly, these strategies work with them as well. No matter who I'm teaching or training, the best results come when I stay focused on the learner and what he came to learn and how he will use that learning outside of my classroom, when I engage him in active and collaborative learning, when I link him with additional outside resources, and last but certainly not least, when I hold high expectations for his success and serve as a guide on the side for the journey that is of his own making.