Interview with a Professional Teacher of Adult Learners

1. Interview with Professor X
Unit 3 Blog
Thea Leonard
HE521: Teaching Adult Learners
Prof. Margaret Heater
December 30, 2013

2. Educational setting
• Large, on-line university
• Small, on-ground liberal arts college

3. Program description
On-line university:
• Asynchronous classroom
• Psychology associate’s
degree program
On-ground college:
• Night courses
• Accelerated adult degree
completion
• Human development
bachelor’s degree program

4. Why did you become an instructor?
• Intended to go into teaching, but followed path of
counseling into private practice instead
• Obtained Master’s degree, opening doors into
teaching as well
• Teaching lets Professor X keep up to date on latest
theories and research
• Counseling practice provides good application
examples to use in classes

5. Teaching adults (andragogy)
• Both programs Professor X teaches are primarily
older adult learners returning to school after many
years
• Occasionally students are right out of high school
• Once taught a “regular semester class” but did not
enjoy the classroom full of younger students

6. Best parts of your job?
• Hearing student’s thoughts
• Watching students have insightful moments
• Being asked questions Professor X has to look up
new answers for
• Sharing knowledge of humans’ amazing capabilities
• Hearing how learning is helping students in real life

7. Worst parts of your job?
Pay doesn’t match the hours and personal investment

8. Biggest challenges?
• Grading: tedious and time consuming
• Student excuses: takes the fun out of teaching
• Student entitlement: E.g., “I paid for this class so
you can’t give me a failing grade”
• Program requirements: Restrictive or limiting
syllabus or course requirements

9. Learning moments?
• “I learn every time I teach”
• From research
• From students

10. Describe effective teaching of adults
• Set firm and reasonable boundaries and clear
expectations
• Personal responsibility to meet or not meet
expectations
• Adults have many priorities
• Keep learning tangible and applicable to real-life
• No busy work

11. Advice for new teachers of adults?
The instructor is a person of authority, not a peer.
Ask a lot of questions:
• Why do you want to teach?
• Why is teaching important to you?
• What feels meaningful about teaching?
• What do you think will be most fun?
• What do you think will be most challenging?

12. Summary
Professor X is clearly passionate about teaching.
However, many of her responses about being “in
charge” seemed very teacher-centered or pedagogical
in nature. That written, Professor X clearly noted adult
learners bring valuable life experiences to class and
have many roles and responsibilities (andragogy) as
compared to younger students. Professor X made no
mention of the concepts of heutagogy (self-directed
learning).