APP 4

Interview #2 With a Professional Adult Educator Theme: Effective Learning Experiences and Instruction

Use the guidelines and questions that follow as you conduct your second of three interviews with a professional adult educator. The focus of this interview is planning learning experiences and effective instructional approaches, with an emphasis on lecture and discussion. However, be sure to use the interview to learn as much as possible about the setting(s) in which the educator works with adults. This interview informs your Application Assignment for Week 4 and Part 1 of the Course Project in Week 7.

Adult Educator’s Name: ________________________________________________________

Setting or Settings in Which the Adult Educator Is Currently Working With Adult Learners: ________________________________________________________

Adult Educator’s Role: ___________________________________________________________

Conducting Your Interview

· Take notes on this sheet and/or additional pages and/or record the interview with the adult educator’s permission

· Use these questions as a guide

Interview Questions

· Please tell me about your professional background and how long you have been working with adult learners.

· Tell me about the professional life of an adult educator in the setting or settings in which you work with adult learners.

· From your experience, what are advantages of working in this setting? The disadvantages?

· How has your work changed during the time in which you have been involved? How do you see the field of working with adults in the early childhood field changing in the future—such as trends that may impact it?

· My coursework has focused on planning effective learning experiences for adult learners. Please describe the process that you follow in planning the curriculum and/or content of your program. What practices or strategies would you recommend?

· Do you emphasize critical thinking, creative thinking, and/or problem solving? If so, how?

· From your perspective, what are the greatest challenges in planning curriculum/content for the adult learners with whom you work and how do you meet those challenges?

· My coursework has also examined effective use of lecture to present content. Do you use lecture as an instructional approach? If so, what practices or strategies do you recommend for lectures that engage adult learners? If not, do you have other reasons for not using lecture to present content?

· What instructional approaches do you prefer, and why?

· A third topic of my coursework I would like to discuss is guiding whole-group and small-group discussion. Do you encourage or require discussion among your adult learners? From your experience, what are the biggest challenges in guiding discussion? What practices or strategies would you recommend? Are there approaches you prefer to group discussion?

· What has helped you grow the most as an adult educator in your field? What practices would you recommend to help me do the same?

· From your experience, how can I best prepare to work effectively with adult learners?

Additional Questions:

NOTE: Do not submit this interview sheet with your completed assignment. Save your interview notes and/or recording. You will need them as reference for completing the Course Project.