Promoting effective teaching and learning in adult education: a model-based approach

Abstract

This paper presents a model for promoting effective teaching and learning in adult education. The model, a combination of both teacher-centered and learner-centered approaches to teaching, is premised on the belief that adult learners are different in many respects from young learners. As such, the approaches, methods, and techniques employed in the teaching and learning encounter should differ significantly from those that have traditionally been used for young learners. The model gives a prescription of how the various aspects of the teaching and learning encounter should be undertaken. The thesis of this paper is that effective teaching and learning in adult education is a dialogic process where both the teacher and learners are equally involved in a series of decision-making and activities geared towards helping the latter to construct meaning for themselves.