Problems in Teaching adults

1. Problems in Teaching Adults
Abdubannaev Khusniddin
Menglibekob Reipnazar

2. Overview
• Adult Learners
• Adult Teaching Principles
• Disruptive Behaviour
• Controlling and Addressing Disruptive Behaviour
• Structuring the Physical Environment

3.  Ecology – What are the characteristics of an adult
classroom?
 Advantages - How and why can adult learners be a delight?
 Challenges – Why is teaching adult learners challenging?

4. Ecology of Adult Learners
• Multidimensional: Adults come with more relevant experience
and information.
• Egoistic: Adults have a need to be involved in the decisions
about their own learning.
• Simultaneous: Adults have many simultaneous engagements
and struggle with balancing each.
• Immediate: Adults learn best when they see a direct and
immediate relevance of the learning.
• Unpredictable: Adult learners are unpredicatble.
• Histories: Adult learners have a past that drives their present
and future endeavors

5. Advantages Of Teaching Adults
• Autonomous learners
• Motivated individuals
• Wealth of prior knowledge
• Clarity on direction and purpose

6. Challenges Of Teaching Adults
• Earlier experience leading to rigidity
• Time-pressure
• Motivational issues
• Technological issues
• Back to studies-mindset?
• Difficulty in accepting external authority
• Defensive and argumentative
• Must be told “Why”

7.  When do adults best learn?
 Are there any underlying principles of teaching adults?
 What are the dimensions of adult teaching?

8. Adults learn best when…
• They understand ’why’ something is important to
know or do….The WHY?
• They see the direct usage of their learning on
immediate environment ….The WHY?
• They are more involved in the decisions about their
own learning….The HOW?
• Learning is experiential….The WHAT?
• They learn by choice not by force….The WHEN?
• The environment is positive and encouraging...The
WHERE?

9. Principles of Adult Teaching (1/2)
 Make sure they understand “Why”
– Adults have a “need to know”…and must have a rationale for
why they need to learn a body of content.
 Respect different learning styles
– Visual: Rely on pictures, graphs, diagrams, and illustrations
o Give handouts, show diagrams and charts etc
– Auditory: Learn best through “hearing”
o Give short examples, ask questions, short descriptions etc
– Kinesthetic: Learn through active experimentation and
experience
o Role play, solving case studies, Simulation etc
Conducting a short learning style assessment at the beginning of
a class will help the teacher know the primary learning styles of
the class.
“It is the teacher’s responsibility to value each and every one of the students in their class, so that each student feels special and
important.”
(Groundwater-Smith et al, 1998, p. 95)

10. Principles of Adult Teaching (2/2)
 Encourage them to experience and experiment
– Adult learners get easily bored as monotony sets in.
– They are not accommodative for the needs of fellow learners.
– Include individual/group activity, small group discussions,
experiments, role playing etc.
 “When the student is ready, the teacher appears” –
Buddhist proverb
– Look carefully for teaching moments and take advantage of
them.
– When a student says or does something that triggers a topic on
your agenda, be flexible and teach/talk about it right then.
– If that would disturb your schedule, then teach a bit about it rather than saying
it bluntly that they’ll have to wait until later in the program. By then, you may
have lost their interest.

11. Dimensions of Adult Teaching

12. Identifying
 What are the common disruptive behaviours faced
by teachers?
Acknowledging
 What are the functions/drivers of disruptive
behaviour?
 Functional categorization of disruptive behaviour
Let’s see Video 1 and Video 2

13. Common disruptive behaviours
Behavioural and Attitudinal Motivational
• Late comers • The low-profiler (who is non-
participative observer)
• Disengagement
• Rule breakers • The attention seekers • Poor attendance
• Question banks • Aggressive/Defensive (who get
aggressive when their points are
challenged/not accepted)
• Increased dependency
• The know-all’s (who
frequently cut in between
when the teacher is talking)
• Dependent learners (who wants help
all the time)
• Unpreparedness
• Disengaged learners (not
same as inattentive)
• Distractible learners (who can’t
concentrate)
• Etc…
• Hostile learners (who oppose
everything that the teacher
says)
• Resistant learners (who just refuse to
work)

14. Functions of disruptive behaviour
• Every behavior has a function, viz
– Power
– Revenge
– Attention
– Engagement
– Learning
• Understanding the function of a behavior will help
in knowing how to deal with that behavior.
• Understanding why a person exhibits a behavior is
no reason to tolerate it

15. Functional categories of disruptive behaviour
Functional
category
Symptom Possible handling techniques
•Attention
seeking
behaviours
•Attention-seeking students prefer being praised,
punished, admonished, or criticized to being
ignored
•E.g: Questioning, Interrupting, Late coming etc
•Give attention to this student ONLY when he or
she is on-task and cooperating
•“Catch them being good!” – and appreciate them
for it
•Power seeking
behaviours
•Power-seeking students attempt to provoke
teachers into a battle of words.
•E.g: Argumentative, Defensive etc
•In most cases, the teacher should direct
attention to other members of the class
•Engagement
related
behaviours
•They are not engaged at all with the teacher
•E.g: Using the mobile phone, playing paper
games, Yawning etc
•Reminder of rules set earlier ( like no use of
mobiles in class)
•Task-related punishment (implement)
•Resume class only when the disruptive behaviour
is controlled
•Learning related •Learners have difficulty in understanding the
topic and hence stop making an effort
•E.g: Blank look, non-participation, incomplete
assignments etc
•Ask learners to summarize
•Assure them that you are always ready to help,
provided they ask for it.
•Encourage participation

16. Dealing with off-task behaviours
Do… Don’t…
 Remain focused and calm; organize thoughts
 Either respond decisively or ignore it all together
 Distinguish between off-task behaviour and off-task
behaviour patterns
 Control the time and place for dealing with off-task behavior
 Provide students with dignified ways to terminate off-task
behaviors
 Utilize alternative lesson plans
 Utilize the help of colleagues
 Set clear rules and reiterate them
 Explain why and how the behavior impacts the class
schedule
 Use negative reinforcement
 Stern reprimand (collective)
 Play detective
 Use punishment
 Negative remarks/comments
 Use exclusion
 Use discriminative behaviour
 Suggestive remarks/comments
 Criticism and aggression

17. Addressing
 Modifying disruptive behaviour
 Appropriate teaching techniques
 Basic rules to minimize disruptive behaviour

18. Modifying disruptive behaviour pattern
• Principle of “Fading”
• Gradual elimination of cues, triggers, prompts and reminders
• If the cues are removed too quickly, the student’s response will deteriorate.
• Principle of “Extinction”
• Identify positive reinforcers for the behavior
• Gradually remove the positive reinforcers till the behavior is modified
• Establish a realistic time schedule
• Evaluate the effectiveness by observing behavior
• Principle of “Shaping”
• Reinforce behaviors that are similar to the behavior to be learned
• Subsequent actions that are more like the behavior to be learned than previous
actions are reinforced
• Subsequent actions that are less like the behavior to be learned than previous
actions are not positively reinforced

19. Appropriate teaching techniques (1/3)
Challenging
behaviour
Possible reason Possible teaching technique
•Unpreparedness •Time-pressed
•Low interest topic
•Low priority topic
•Empathize but set expectations (I understand that…..however……)
•Ask someone who is prepared to debrief
•Allow 10-15 minutes for preparation
•Periodic quizzes
•Ask student to assist in teaching a select section
•Inattentive •Small group/individual activities
•Ask the inattentive student to clear another students doubt.
•Move closer to the student
•Re-arrange students sitting
•Have a private discussion to understand the problem.
•Reluctant to
participate
•Low confidence
•Unprepared
•Observer
•Role play
•Small group activities
•Ask for personal opinion
•Encourage questioning (insist on questions)
•Hostile •Over-confidence
•Nature
•Need to be
accepted as the
expert
•Underlying fear
•Acknowledge comments with empathy. Listen patiently.
•Discuss privately
•Allow opinion and inputs on assignments.

20. Appropriate teaching techniques (2/3)
Challenging
behaviour
Possible reason Possible teaching technique
•Argumentative/
Question banks
•Use constructive controversy/Structured debate
•Initiate discussion though others’ views
•Use board to list points for and against the topic of argument
•Use rotating chair technique (ask learner to summarize previous
comments
•Use circular discussion technique (every learner has to give his comment)
•Dependent
learners (who
wants help all
the time)
•Slow learners
•Learned helplessness
•Easy case studies
•Pre-solved cases
•Guided approach
•Experiment based learning
•Distractible
learners (who
can’t
concentrate)
•Short attention span
•Familiarity with the
topic
•Completely new topic
•Short discussions and lectures
•Multiple activities
•Energizers
•Opportunity to lead/moderate an activity
•Resistant
learners (who
just refuse to
work)
•Familiarity with the
topic
•Completely new topic
•Ask learner to share his point of view
•Ask learner to summarize
•Periodic checks on assignments
•Counseling and empathy

21. Appropriate teaching techniques (3/3)
Challenging
behaviour
Possible
reason
Possible teaching technique
•Non-
participation
•Shyness
•Low confidence
•Unpreparednes
s
•Change teaching strategies from group discussion to individual written exercises
or a videotape
•Give strong positive reinforcement for any contribution.
•Involve by directly asking him/her a question.
•Make eye contact.
•Appoint to be small group leader
•Talkativeness –
(Know all’s/Al-T,
Question banks,
Long necks,
chronic whining
etc)
•Constant need
for attention
•Over-
confidence
•Acknowledge comments made.
•Give limited time to express viewpoint or feelings, and then move on.
•Make eye contact with another participant and move toward that person.
•Give the person individual attention during breaks.
•Say: "That's an interesting point. Now let's see what other other people think."
•Sharpshooting •Over-
confidence
•Need for power
•Admit that you do not know the answer and redirect the question the group or
the individual who asked it.
•Acknowledge that this is a joint learning experience.
•Ignore the behavior.
•Grandstanding •Say: "You are entitled to your opinion, belief or feelings, but now it's time we
moved on to the next subject," or
•"Can you restate that as a question?" or
•"We'd like to hear more about that if there is time after the presentation."

22. Basic rules to minimize disruptive behaviour
• Focus on the whole class
• Set simple rules and get the consensus of students (e.g. no cell
phones, no late coming etc). Remind them when rules are
broken.
• Be clear on what you will do/will not do for them.
• Keep lectures short.
• Use appropriate activities and props.
• Stop and ask for questions. If no/few questions come then hint
at possible questions.
• Ask students to summarize.
• Provide supporting documents/reading material.
• Give students non-verbal cues
Let’s see Video 3 and Video 4

23. Behavioral Interventions
• Corrective feedback/Positive reinforcement
• Differential reinforcement- reinforcement of the behaviour
that was correct and preferred in that situation
• Environmental Engineering- arranging the physical
environment of the class to have involvement and give
attention to all students and to enhance student learning and
behaviour
• Gestural prompting- prompting to aid a desired behaviour or
learning outcome with body language
• Modelling
• Peer involvement and influence- the use of same age and/or
cross-age peers for structural social engagements
• Effective use of transition time

24.  Structuring the Physical Environment
 Student placement and classroom decor
 Planning spaces for learning

25. Structuring the Physical Environment
• Desk arrangements
• Student placement
• Work areas
• Classroom decoration

26. Desk Arrangement
Desks in workstations for students who have
developed self management skills
Desk arrangement in u-shapes
Desks in single or double rows are good for
demonstrations and independent work
Desks in groups, with students facing each other,
can help stimulate small group discussion

27. Student placement and classroom decor
• All seating arrangements should accommodate an
inclusive learning environment
• An inclusive classroom should place students in areas of
the class best suited to their specific needs
• Students like to see their own work displayed
• Class-made posters help students develop a sense of
belonging to the classroom
• Educational interventions and reinforcements aid
learning

28. Planning spaces for learning
• Interest areas
• Personal territories
• Action zone
• Seating arrangements
Copyright 2001 by Allyn and Bacon