How to Be an Adult Education Instructor

Adult educators work in a variety of settings, including businesses, colleges, technical schools and hospitals. If you enjoy working with adults, teaching new things and helping people, you may want to look into becoming an adult education instructor.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Know your audience. Teaching adults with a high school education will be different from teaching people with PhDs. You will teach different age groups and different ethnic groups. Learn how much people know about the subject you're teaching. Find out if this class is a follow-up to information your students already have, or if you're teaching from square one.
2. Do not talk down to your students. They are not first graders and will not respond well if you talk to them as if they are children.
3. Use a little humor and don't be shy to use your own personal life stories or your own mistakes to prove points. This helps you bond with your class and helps them learn as well.
4. Think of new ways to teach the same material. If your students ask questions about information you've already covered, rephrase it and don't act like you've already covered it. Repetition is the key to learning, but it's still very important to work off of your curriculum.
5. Explore different learning styles. Every adult learns differently and has different learning styles. Some people learn best from lectures, others need visual stimulation. Other students need games, physical exercises and art. Work different learning styles into your classes so everyone gets the most out of your classes.
6. Be flexible as an instructor. Students learn from question and answer periods, so don't worry about going off on tangents or covering information earlier than you wanted to cover it.
7. Change your class occasionally. Try a new project or a new way to teach to prevent your class from becoming dry and boring. In addition, this will prevent you from becoming burnt out.

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