EDU 528, WEEK 3, PART 1: Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor

Slide # Topic Narration

Slide 1 Introduction Welcome to Methods of Teaching in Adult Education. In
this lesson, we will discuss Characteristics and Skills of a
Motivating Instructor.

Next slide.
Slide 2 Topics The following topics will be covered in this lesson:

Expertise: the power of knowledge and preparation;

Empathy: the power of understanding and compassion;

Enthusiasm: the power of commitment and
expressiveness;

Clarity: the power of organization and language; and

Cultural responsiveness: the power of respect and social
responsibility.

Next slide.
Slide 3 Expertise: the power
of knowledge and
preparation
There is one thing that is quite refreshing about the skills
of motivating instructors; that is their characteristics can
be learned, and planned for everyone who instructs adults.
There are five core characteristics of the skills of the
motivating instructors. Here we will begin with expertise.

Expertise refers to the power of knowledge and
preparation. Expertise is also known as substance,
knowledge, or competence. To the instructor of adults
expertise falls into three categories:

Knowing something is beneficial for adults;
Knowing it well; and
Being prepared to convey or construct it with adults
through an instructional process.

Teaching adults is challenging because as learners, adults
are demanding. More adults have had more experiences
than their instructor, therefore the instructor cannot
influence them by using age, or experience or, even a title.
Most of the adults know exactly what they want to learn.
For example they want learning that will help them build
new skills. Their main question when they come to the
instructor is can you really help me? To address this
question, instructors must be able to connect their
knowledge with the daily needs and lives of their students.
Also taking into consideration of the learners perspectives
and their prior knowledge.

There are a number of questions that instructors should
ask themselves in order to determine whether they know
their subject well, before they can instruct adults. An
instructor should determine whether she or he can explain
the material she is going to teach in her or his own words.
Knowing the subject well also implies being able to
generate a number of different examples. In a situation
where the instructor is teaching a skill, then the instructor
must be able to demonstrate that skill or use other
resources that can do that. It is also important for the
instructor to be aware of the limits and consequences of
what she or he is teaching, and take into consideration the
learners prior knowledge. Also important is the need for
the instructor to be aware of the staff she or he doesnt
know.

Intensive preparation is vital before any instruction is
delivered. Thorough preparation ensures that as instructors
we are completely familiar with the material we are
presenting and we are not tied to our notes. Teaching
becomes more of a conversation with students. The
instruction flows well, and enables the instructor to read
the learners cues, and the learners participate actively.

Next slide.
Slide 4 Empathy: The power
of Understanding and
compassion
The second characteristic is empathy. Because most
adults learn mainly in response to their own goals and
perceptions and not those of their instructors, instructors
need empathy to be able to motivate these students. There
are three parts of empathy for the instructors of adult
learners. We will discuss each one of them separately.

First, as instructors, we must have a realistic
understanding of the learners goals, perspectives, and
expectations of what is being learned. An instructor must
be familiar with ways of gathering information about the
learners goals, perspectives, and expectations. Some of
these methods include, experience or observation, written
surveys, interviews, group sessions and forums, and
conversations with colleagues, friends or family.
Regardless of the method used to gather information about
students, instructors should always let students know the
information they have gathered about them.

Second, as instructors, we must adapt our instruction to
the level learners levels of experience and skill
development. It is the responsibility of the instructor to
give students the things that are within their reach-
meaning not too easy or too difficult. There are always
ways of finding out about our learners capabilities, such
as interviews and paper-and-pencil tests.

The third thing to do as an instructor is to continuously
consider the learners perspectives and feelings. Adult
learners always want to know that their instructors care
about them, and also understand them as human beings.
Learners want us to listen to them. The way we listen to
the learners tells them how much consideration we are
giving them. Our body language and tone of voice can
also send a message of our responses to students as to
whether we understand their feelings or not. This is
referred to as attunement. Empathy can also be conveyed
through validation.

Next slide.
Slide 5 Enthusiasm: The
power of
commitment and
expressiveness
The third characteristic is enthusiasm. This is the power of
commitment and expressiveness. Enthusiastic
instructors are people who value and care deeply about
their subject matter. These instructors teach by expressing
those feelings so as to encourage similar feelings in the
learner. Enthusiasm has two basic criteria.

The first criteria is that as instructors, we value what we
teach for ourselves and as well as for the learner. The fact
that we have interest in our subject means that we value it.
However, there are a number of ways in which we can
demonstrate that that we value what we teach. Examples
include:

Devoting time to understand the subject better;
Becoming active members of organizations specialized in
our subject; and
Reading magazines, journals, and articles in our subject
area.

We can turn ourselves into enthusiastic instructors by
contributing in our fields through specialization.

The second criterion is that we must display our
commitment with appropriate degrees of emotion and
expressiveness. As instructors we must allow ourselves to
have feelings about what we teach and be able to express
them. For example, we can let students know how we are
moved with their discoveries. We can also use
dramatization and real-world examples to express our
enthusiasm.

There is no universal instrument that can be used to
measure teachers enthusiasm, but there are some
indicators that are found in most of the instruments that
measure teachers enthusiasm. Some of those indicators
include displaying energy and vitality, and gesturing with
both arms and hands.

As instructors, it is also important to be aware of some of
the things that can destroy enthusiasm. Some of those
things include:

Doing the same thing over in and again; Lack of success;
Loss of purpose;
Living in the; and
Plateauing.

Next slide.
Slide 6 Clarity: The power of
organization and
language
Instructional clarity means teaching something in such a
way that it is not difficult for learners to understand and is
also organized so that the learners can follow smoothly
and participate in the lesson. A number of studies have
shown that instructional clarity is positively associated
with learning. However, it is not easy to prescribe what an
instructor can do to be certain of instructional clarity.
Though this is the case there are two standards that can be
considered as guidelines.

As instructors, we must plan and conduct instruction so
that all learners can follow and understand. Here, there are
a number of things that an instructor can do. Some of
those things include- : Envision problems that learners
will have learning the material- find ways of making ideas
easier to understand, such as the use of graphics or
analogies use checkpoints in the form of questions- have
a good introduction to the lesson, and- rehearsing
directions for learning activities such as simulations.

During instruction clarity can be achieved by doing a
number of things such as signaling transitions from one
major topic to another by using phrases such as now we
turn to. Explanatory links such as then, because, should
be used to put ideas together. It is also important to use
words that are familiar to the learners.

We can also achieve clarity by providing a way for
learners to comprehend what has been taught if it is not
initially clear. There are a number of ways in which this
can be done. For example, the instructor may review the
difficult material. Sometimes instructor may ask students
to complete the Instructional Checklist. The checklist
helps the instructor to get feedback from the students to
find out whether the learners understand the instructor.
This information can help the instructor to come up with a
way of helping the students.

Next slide.
Slide 7 Cultural
Responsiveness
The fifth and the last characteristic of a motivating
instructor is cultural responsiveness. There are two
qualities of cultural responsiveness- respect for diversity
and social responsibility. There are three guidelines for
cultural responsiveness that we will discuss here.

Firstly, as instructors we need to create a safe, inclusive,
and respectful environment. Among other things, a safe
learning environment provides students we the security
they need to express themselves freely-give personal
opinion, they are not afraid to show their lack of
knowledge.

One way of ensuring that the students feel secure is to
ensure that students have a non-blameful view of other
people. Whenever problems and disagreements arise,
instructors should use them as opportunities for further
learning instead of assigning blame. However, avoiding
blame should not be used a scapegoat for failure to engage
in critical reasoning. In a safe, inclusive, and respectful
environment, everyone is responsible for the construction
of knowledge. This approach takes into consideration of
the learners ideas, feelings and concerns and allows the
learners to expose their thinking.

Secondly, we need to engage the motivation of all
learners. It is always a challenge to deal with the learners
lack of motivation to learn. Instead of working only with
those students who seem to be motivated to learn,
instructors should understand that all learners become
intrinsically motivated when what they are learning
makes sense and is also important to them.

Thirdly, we need to relate course content and learning
to the social concerns of learners and the broader concerns
of society. There is an undeniable connection between
school and the society. School directly contributes to the
construction of the individual and society. As instructors
we have a social responsibility to promote equity and
justice. The model of cultural competence can help
instructors to be more equitable and effective with
students coming from diverse cultural grounds. Culture
competence has three critical elements; one of them is the
self-understanding and awareness of ones own cultural
values and biases.

Next slide.
Slide 8 Check Your
Understanding

Slide 9 Summary We have now have reached the end of this lesson. Lets
take a look at what we have covered.

We started our discussion by examining Expertise: The
power of knowledge and preparation. Here we learned
that, to the instructor of adults expertise falls into three
categories:

Knowing something is beneficial for adults;
Knowing it well; and
Being prepared to convey or construct it with adults
through an instructional process.

We then examined, Empathy: The power of
understanding and compassion. Here we learned that
because most adults learn mainly in response to their own
goals and perceptions and not those of their instructors,
instructors need empathy to be able to motivate these
students. We also learned that there are three parts of
empathy for the instructors of adult learners. Namely
instructors must have a realistic understanding of the
learners goals, perspectives, and expectations of what is
being learner. Instructors must also adapt our instruction
to the level learners levels of experience and skill
development, and instructors must continuously consider
the learners, perspectives and feelings.

Next, we discussed Enthusiasm: The power of
commitment and expressiveness. Here we learned that
Enthusiastic instructors are people who value and care
deeply about their subject matter. Enthusiasm has two
basic criteria: As instructors, we value what we teach for
ourselves and as well as for the learner and secondly, we
must display our commitment with appropriate degrees of
emotion and expressiveness. We also learned that though
there is no universal instrument that can be used to
measure teachers enthusiasm, there are some indicators
that are found in most of the instruments that measure
teachers enthusiasm such as displaying energy and
vitality and gesturing with both arms and hands.
Instructors also need to be aware of things that destroy
enthusiasm.

We then discussed clarity: The power of organization and
language. Here we learned that studies have shown that
instructional clarity is positively associated with learning.
Though it is not easy to prescribe what an instructor can
do to guarantee instructional clarity, there are two
standards that can be considered as guidelines:

Instructors must plan and conduct instruction so that all
learners can follow and understand; and
Instructors must provide a way for learners to comprehend
what has been taught if it is not initially clear.

Finally, we examined cultural responsiveness: The power
of respect and social responsibility. Here we learned that
there are three guidelines for cultural responsiveness:

Instructors need to create a safe, inclusive, and respectful
environment;
Instructors need to engage the motivation of all learners;
and
Instructors need to relate course content and learning to
the social concerns of learners and the broader concerns of
society.

The model of cultural competence can help instructors to
be more equitable and effective with students coming
from diverse cultural grounds.

This completes this lesson.