Teaching Adult Learners Pathway
Overview of the Teaching Adult Learners Pathway
The Teaching Adult Learners Pathway in the Pathways to Instructional Excellence program provides faculty with a foundation in principles, research, and theories that explain how adults learn. Participants explore key concepts such as self-directed learning, experiential learning, motivation, reflection, and transformative learning to better understand the unique characteristics and needs of adult learners. Building on these theoretical foundations, faculty examine how to translate adult learning principles into effective course design, instructional practices, and meaningful learning experiences that prepare students for success in their professions, communities, and lifelong learning journeys.
Essential Question for Teaching Adult Learners
How do I design learning experiences that prepare students for success in their profession, in their communities, and throughout their lives?
Wilmington University's Academic Values
- Equip our students with the tools necessary to be successful in the world and in their profession.
- Encourage student-instructor contact through a variety of methods.
Faculty explore how adult learning principles can be applied to create engaging, relevant, and career-connected learning experiences that empower students to achieve their goals. Through intentional course design, meaningful interaction, and authentic learning opportunities, faculty help students develop the knowledge, skills, and habits necessary for lifelong success.
Courses in the Teaching Adult Learners Pathway
| PIE Progression Level | PIE Course |
|---|---|
| Proficient, Required | Learner-Centered Design |
| Proficient, Elective | Teaching Strategies and the Adult Learner |
| Proficient, Elective | Promoting Academic Integrity |
| Mastery, Required | Instructional Design Best Practices |
| Mastery, Elective | Co-Creating the Learning Experience |
| Mastery, Elective | Durable Pathways to Mastery |
| Mastery, Elective | Collaborative Learning |
Through the Teaching Adult Learners Pathway, faculty progress from understanding how adults learn to designing learning environments that are learner-centered, collaborative, and professionally relevant. The workshops collectively prepare faculty to promote autonomous learners, build meaningful student-instructor connections, align learning with industry expectations, and continuously evaluate curricular relevance, ultimately supporting the pathway's essential question of preparing students for success in their professions, communities, and lifelong learning journeys.
Skills
- Promote learner-centered design
- Collaborative learning experiences
- Promote autonomous learners
- Align course content with current industry practices
- Appraise curricular/content relevance
Values
- Understanding diverse learner needs
- Respect for learner experience
- Opportunity through meaningful learning
- Responsiveness to changing learner needs
- Application of learning in real-world contexts
- Caring through supportive learning relationships
Continue designing learning experiences for lifelong success.
The WilmU Learning Center provides access to pathway workshops and professional development opportunities that help faculty prepare students for success in their professions, communities, and lifelong learning journeys.