An "orientation" checklist is proposed to aid the adult basic education (ABE) teacher in preparing for instruction. The list reflects a number of issues teachers should consider carefully before meeting with students. The issues concern (1) information about the learners and their characteristics and needs that can be taken into account in…

Tips are offered for using the needs/interest survey process to provide continuing and community education programmers with information for setting goals and establishing program objectives. Some of the 50 tips include using only those questions essential to programming, restricting the length, targeting the survey, getting input on topics…

Six suggestions are offered to help adult basic education teachers to develop adults' critical thinking skills. The suggestions recommend that teachers (1) seek reasons for an answer, (2) look for alternative answers, (3) take a passive role in discussion, (4) do not give an opinion unless asked, (5) ask students to back up their opinions, and (6)…

As vital tools for adult education practitioners, reviews of books about practice should contain an appropriate balance between description and analysis. The following nine tips may be helpful when writing such a book review: (1) read the book carefully; (2) examine other reviews that have appeared in various publications to gauge the structure…

Over a 5-week period 43 typical trainers in a nationwide corporation were observed to determine uses and abuses of training techniques. The adult educators who were observed were technically expert, but otherwise untrained. Factors that enhance or detract from training effectiveness were identified, specifically as regards organizing and…

The authors advocate a holistic approach to program development that transcends the boundaries of the sponsoring agency and provides a link between needs assessment, instructional design and development, learning activities, and societal impact. This frame of reference views the efforts of adult educators and their organizations as means to…

Based on experiences with geriatric services workers, these strategies have been developed to respond to the ongoing educational needs of human service workers. The strategies are designed to help workshop leaders heighten human service providers' awareness of their clients' worlds. The three strategies outlined in this paper are the following:…

The task of adult educators is to provide students with information as well as opportunities to explore alternatives to the arms race. As a starting point to raising nuclear issues in the classroom and incorporating them into the curriculum, the adult educator can administer a survey or questionnaire to students about nuclear weapons and the…

Because reading is first and foremost a language comprehension process focusing on the visual form of spoken language, such teaching strategies as language experience and assisted reading have much to offer beginning readers. These techniques have been slow to become accepted by many adult literacy instructors; however, the two strategies,…

English as a second language (ESL) teachers find the newspaper a terrific source for easy-to-prepare reusable materials. Travel ads with coupons from the travel section can be cut out for beginning level students to complete and mail in envelopes they address. Students can find places on maps. In addition, intermediate and advanced students can…

When adult learners come to the learning program, they bring the individual "baggage" that they carry around--such as home problems, time constraints, employment problems, and positive or negative feelings about self. The baggage of an adult's life contains all that adults are, have been, and hope to be, as well as all that life means to them.…