9 Various Audiences – Teaching Strategies and Methods
Neil Kotch
- Ways to meet the needs of a diverse audience of learners by offering flexibility and options to your course design.
- Ideas for choosing the right fit for teaching at a distance and identify methods that work for your learners.
- Strategic considerations for deciding the best experience for learners when teaching synchronous, virtual or hybrid.
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Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Audience of Learners
Identify your instructional mode; is it in-person, remote synchronous, or asynchronous, or a combination? Are your personas accurate? For example: are your learners who you had assumed, do you need to rethink your deliverables and assessments? Have you offered the flexibility that your learners expect? Keep in mind that learning experience design focuses on the learner-centric experience. Ask yourself how you can move learners from knowing, to doing while offering the greatest possible experiences in your course.
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Tips for Teaching Generation Z Learners
Generation Z Learners
- Short online quizzes: Generation Z students prefer to answer short, online exams.
- Teams/small groups: According to Rothman (2018), Generation Z prefers to work in small groups. When they work in small groups, they can foster more creativity.
- Active learning activities: Research has identified that Generation Z has a short attention span. One approach to use is writing a short summary in teams or individually. A “One Minute Paper” activity can be very effective for this purpose.
- Games: Games are very effective to review material and allow students to share knowledge. Students can become very active and put forth a lot of concentration on the game. Generation Z students are virtual gamers, and they love game challenges.
- Caring and feedback: This is the most important strategy. When we care about what is happening to our students and their needs, students become more engaged in the classroom. Caring about their progress gives them constant and positive feedback. Although we may correct their papers, we give them feedback on how they can improve, and we motivate them by giving them encouragement. Positive words change people, and we need to do this with our students.
Source: Faculty Focus – Teaching and Learning – Generation Z Re-thinking Teaching and Learning Strategies
Tips for Teaching Adult Learners
Adult Learners
- Provide a Flexible Learning Experience: Adult learners come from a variety of life stages and have different viewpoints and values. For example, workers with years of experience in Canada will be more knowledgeable about financial and workplace literacy versus newcomers to the country. As a result, program leaders must be able to adapt their teaching methods to be as inclusive as possible. Provide learners with options regarding the course’s pace, method, content or assessment. Offering learning opportunities via small groups and individual assignments is a great opportunity to address different learner needs. The same goes for offering course material in different formats, including self-directed study.
- Ask for Feedback: Allow learners to contribute to their learning experience to help keep them motivated and engaged. Have them make meaningful choices regarding their course material and delivery method, such as asking for feedback on a reading selection. Regularly check in with participants to see what can be done to improve their learning experiences.
- Create a Safe, Welcoming Environment: Create a learning space where learners feel comfortable to share and respond to questions. Even when incorrect answers are given, use the moment as a teaching opportunity that allows the learner to learn from mistakes rather than take errors personally. Learners should always feel safe, respected and encouraged during their learning.
- Keep Learning Practical: Use a how-to approach that covers only one topic at a time and links to concrete examples and situational practices. For each learning point, provide adult learners with a chance to demonstrate their knowledge with a simulation, worksheet or discussion. Use a learner’s personal experiences (such as financial mistakes they’ve made) as a valuable learning resource in your program. Getting a clear understanding of the learner’s expectations at the beginning can ensure the learner is matched to an appropriate program. This helps minimize any feelings of frustration, distraction and possible disinterest that may be experienced if the adult doesn’t view the course content as being valuable.
- Make It Fun: Adult learners who are engaged in fun learning environments are more motivated to learn. Keep your course content fresh and interesting, yet incorporate some mystery, too. Encourage learners to want to find out more by revealing only a little bit of a topic at first. Build an inclusive learning space where learners are comfortable to contribute to discussion, actively participate and join in discussion. If learners need to learn from mistakes they need to feel safe to engage and share. Demonstrate equity by providing students with equal access to all resources and be sure to give clear explanations about course material, tasks, and expectations.
Source: ABC Life Literacy – 5 Great Teaching Strategies for Adults
Learning Styles and Preferences
Admittedly there has been some debate recently about learning styles and the importance and validity of their consideration when creating pedagogically sound learning. There are a number of models surrounding the theory of learning styles (Felder-Silverman, Kolb, VARK). Whether or not you subscribe to a specific model, modality or belief is less important than appreciating that everyone’s approach to learning is based on a complex mix of strengths and preferences. Learning preferences have been identified as an important consideration for delivering effective teaching (SOTL Journal, 2019). Just as you might have a preferred way of delivering information, for example, a slideshow supported with video, your learners have a preferred way of ingesting information, processing the learning, and expressing their understanding. Respecting that we each demonstrate our own unique preferences and strengths reinforces the importance of offering variety and flexibility in your course design and assessment.
Level Up, Go Further:
Read More on the Importance Learning Preferences Over Learning Styles
- SOTL (2019) – Learning Preferences Instead of Learning Styles (PDF)
Explore More About Learning Styles
- Kolb Learning Styles & Experiential Learning Cycle (opens in a new tab)
- Felder-Silverman Learning Styles and Strategies (opens in a new tab)
- Felder-Silverman Index of Learning Styles Model (opens in a new tab)
- Try an online Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (opens in a new tab)
Teaching at a Distance: Methods that Work
The learning benefit of a chosen method depends on when, where, why, and how you use it. It is important to find a “best-fit” method that aligns with your goals, and provides you support as an instructor. Be open to feedback, to select and integrate solutions effectively into your teaching.
Download the document here: Teaching at a distance – Methods that work [Opens in Microsoft Word]
Deciding the Best Experience for Learners: When Synchronous, Virtual, Hybrid
A key part of your decision-making will be whether your online components should be synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination. Students can complete asynchronous online content, such as videos, readings, discussions, or simulations according to their own schedule and preferred pacing. Allowing students to make these decisions can increase their independence and ability to self-regulate their learning. However, as instructors move to a blended learning environment, there is often the temptation to simply replicate the previous classroom environment by making online discussions synchronous, which may negate the flexibility and cognitive capacity benefits of blended learning.
Below is a suggested use of synchronous and asynchronous methods in teaching. For a deeper dive, you can view the full PDF resource.
In the case of synchronous webinars or demonstrations, students will not need to travel to campus, which increases the accessibility of the course. Consider whether you need the entire class discussing something at the same time, small groups discussing something at the same time, or individuals contributing to class or group discussions at their own pace within a given time period. Higher-level discussions can take place online through video blogging, written comments, or podcasts. There are many ways that students can interact with the content, with their peers, and with you, which makes blended learning an exciting and ever-changing instructional format.
Your Turn
Consider a course that you are currently working on, or will be developing:
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