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Setting the Scene for Success in Adult Education

Education is a joint project between 1) a student and 2) a teacher. One working without the co-operation of the other will find it is an uphill struggle to achieve a worthwhile outcome, but together great things can be achieved.

The teacher will have the support of her own educational experiences, a wide knowledge of resources and techniques and, usually, the college that employs her. The student, if he is lucky, will have the support of friends, family, colleagues and fellow students. Such a support network will undoubtedly assist the educational process and, most probably, make it a more enriching and enjoyable experience for both the student and teacher. However, on the educational stage, the student and the teacher are the lead players; it is around these individuals that the scene revolves.

The key to success in adult education is, therefore, the relationship between the teacher and the student, and it is the teacher whose role it is to encourage and nurture this relationship from the outset. A good relationship between student and teacher will ensure communication and trust between the two. The teacher communicates knowledge and trusts the student to apply his own thoughts and ideas to that knowledge. The student communicates his questions and misunderstandings and trusts the teacher to provide sound and relevant advice in a non-judgemental way. The teacher communicates ideas and paths of research, trusting the student to feedback any problems or successes, while the student communicates his interests and goals, trusting the teacher to provide the materials and skills to enable him to reach those goals. Within this balanced, professional relationship, a student will be engaged and inspired in his lessons and the teacher will be encouraged to 'go the extra mile' for her students.

But, how can a teacher foster such a relationship with every individual student in a class of maybe ten or twenty students, each with a different background, varying skills and a diversity of expectations and goals?

A first step, and perhaps the most important, is for the teacher to make herself approachable so that communication can be nurtured. Little things like welcoming individual students by name as they arrive at the class each week can make a huge difference to how comfortable students feel in approaching the teacher. Of course, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out in front of a class full of other adults,

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