The goal of this website is to support new adjunct faculty at MATC. There is an overwhelming amount of material but we understand TIME is the key issue! We have laid out the following with the panic of a new course experience in mind. We would appreciate any ideas you might add about omissions/oversights or neat ideas you think should be added.
Issues/Points to Ponder as soon as you are hired because students will need these questions answered the first session.
- If the course you will be teaching is also taught by a full-time instructor, obtain the course outline from your dean or campus administrator. The contractual agreement with full-time teachers spells out the expectation that a current outline of instruction is on file with the appropriate administrator at the beginning of the semester. This should be a most useful resource.
- Check with your supervisor to see who else is teaching the same course this semester.
- Get the name, phone number and e-mail address of the lead teacher for the area in which your course exists. This person may be a useful resource to you.
- What are the goals of the course? Each of your classroom sessions should have a minimum of three achievable goals or objectives.
- How many tests will be given? When? What weight do they carry on the final grade?
- How will you handle make up tests? How many make ups can one student take? How are you going to schedule all these so that you still have preparation time? One way to handle this messy issue is allowing students to drop the lowest test score or missing one test.
- Is there any of the final grade weighted with participation or even attendance? As all students do – they will question whether you will make their attendance worth their time.
- How can students contact you? Where? When? Are all hours of the day and night acceptable? Do you prefer calls at your work place or at home? Do you prefer to be contacted via e-mail?
- How will you handle late assignments? Will they drop in value?
- If students miss a class, how will they learn of procedural changes? (I suggest getting a list of students home and work phones at the first meeting and distributing copies at the next meeting in order that they can contact a buddy.)
- If you are unable to attend a class, will the students be notified before they “show up.” Could you set up a telephone tree with the above list of names?
- Are there scheduled breaks in your class? Would the students prefer to go straight through and leave early?
- Pay attention to WISC-TV Channel 3 regarding campus closings. To access information on the closing of all Madison locations, you may contact the MATC Weather Open/Close Hotline (608) 246-6606. the following radio stations also provide information regarding closings: WIBA 101.5FM, 1310AM; WWGM 1480AM or 98.1FM; WOLX 94.9FM; WTSO 1070AM; WZEE104.1FM.
The Importance of Textbook Orders and Teacher’s Guide
- As soon as you are hired, obtain the teacher’s guide to your edition (or as a last resort, the previous edition) of the text that is assigned for your class.
- If not available, call or write at once for it or beg your division’s administrative
assistant to retrieve one from faculty on staff or the company and make a photocopy.
- Once you have your hands on the Teacher’s Guide, read all activities related to each chapter. Circle the ones you feel have the most merit, then photocopy, cut them out, and have them readily available for your hectic preparation time. (Even if time does not permit you to utilize each one, you’ll feel more comfortable knowing you have combined creativity and don’t have to think up all the activities.)
- These books often have test banks which you may or may not wish to use.
ALSO – MAKE SURE THE TEXTBOOK FOR YOUR SECTION HAS BEEN ORDERED THROUGH THE MATC BOOKSTORE ... IT IS AWFUL TO START A CLASS when your students DO NOT HAVE THE TEXT. (You will probably have to photocopy the chapters for all. It has happened that some then believe you should continue giving them the chapters throughout the semester.) Check with the department administrative assistant or the MATC Bookstore at your assigned campus. The Truax Bookstore phone number is 246-6016. The Bookstore at the Downtown Education Center is 258-2417.
Your Students and MATC
By now you are probably aware that approximately 50,000 residents of District 4 attend MATC annually. The number of students who enroll in credit/post-secondary courses is about 20,000. Of these students about 54% are women. The average age is 29.
Within the MATC Information Section of this booklet, see some of the detailed demographic information regarding our student population.
Many have been working since their teens and are first generation college attendees. I believe you’ll be impressed with their motivation, achievement and respect for your efforts in their learning endeavors.
Most adults will come to your class eager to learn. They have a reason for learning, which makes them very different from many of the recent high school graduates. Many adults don’t want this experience to be a repeat of high school or grade school which they may recall as being quite negative and humiliating.
A person’s feelings are important in the learning process and the adult learner must feel comfortable in school. Emotional comfort is feeling at ease with the people around you. For the adult learner, this means being at ease with the students in the course and being at ease with the instructor.
Most adults come into the instructional setting with apprehension. It is important that you accept this as a normal emotional state of the adult in a new setting. The adult does not like to look “bad” in front of strangers. Many adults are very concerned about their self-image. After all, they gained this image over many years, and it represents “who” they are.
Types of Adult Learners / What This Type of Adult Learner Expects in the ClassroomWant courses that help:
- To improve work efficiency
- To advance in work
- In occupational training
- Develop leisure time activities
- Use questionnaires to determine why students are in class
- Relate instruction to stated needs
- Include real-life problems, sample materials to work on, actual experience or real objects
- Want to be treated as adults
- Let adults help plan instruction, content and methods
- Treat them as equals with respect and a sense of humor
- Call on adult experiences relating to lesson taught
- Are rapid “no-nonsense” learners – do not comprise a captive audience
- Avoid “busy work”
- Teach practical, usable knowledge in a simple, direct manner
- Include definite work for a definite purpose
- Relate facts to each other and provide continuity from lesson to lesson
- Use a variety of methods, audiovisual aids and a change of pace
- Learn best in an informal environment
- Treat student as friend
- Allow interruptions and questions
- Give breaks for standing, stretching, eating
Physical Characteristics of Adults
Adults come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and physical abilities. Try to make your classroom as comfortable as possible. Some factors you may be unable to control, but others you can.
Social Characteristics of Adults
Many adults feel uncomfortable in a school setting because of previous experiences with school when they were younger. If high school was unpleasant, being back in class as an adult may trigger fearful emotions.
Be sensitive to perceptions, and be aware of past feelings about school that affect your students.
Other Factors
It can be rewarding working with the varying experiences of adults. Discover from them their different backgrounds. You may learn from them, and it may help you adjust to their concerns.
Honor the Student
- Accept that the relationship of instruction to an individual’s background is important to learning rate.
- Incorporate the student’s background in the learning process to gain increased interest.
- Use students’ experiences to provide concreteness and relevance to the instruction.
ABILITY TO INSTANTLY ADAPT TO SITUATIONS and to be openly challenged without being intimidated are extremely desirable in the post-secondary teacher.
Incorporating Principles of Learning for Adults
Some basic steps may help you consider the adult learner when you plan and deliver your instruction. These include:
1.Make learners feel that they have a need for what you are presenting – that it is useful to them for immediate or almost immediate use.
2.Present instruction in easily understandable terms.
3.Connect or relate new instruction to what the learner already knows.
4.Present instruction in a simple-to-complex sequence, making sure that students have the basics before going further into complex information.
5.Show a definite relationship between each instructional activity and a specific outcome for learning.
6.Give information and opinions in a positive, believable manner.
7.Give learners a chance to practice and apply knowledge and skills in a comfortable setting.
8.Give them time to think through problems, cases, etc., before requesting a response.
9.Use a variety of presentation methods and materials.
Techniques for Assessing Academic Skills and Intellectual Development
Overview
All teachers are interested in what their students learn. Recent research emphasizes that teachers should be interested in how their students learn as well.
Traditional classroom tests are limited in what they can tell you. Frequently, they are used as “final” exams or other summative measures to grade students. They are not often used to provide feedback to both students and teachers on whether learning goals are being met.
Research also shows that students concentrate on learning whatever they think will be on the test; consequently, no matter how clearly you define your goals, students will not work toward those goals unless they feel tests accurately measure goal attainment. To offset this tendency, you must assess progress toward goal attainment at regular intervals. If the assessment is done often enough, both you and your students have time to make changes.
Sample Assessment for Beginning of Class
A good assessment that has been found to help students assess their own readiness to learn has been developed by Chip Downing. A number of our more seasoned faculty members have found this to be a good tool for assessing skills at the beginning of a class to get a baseline of information for both you and the students. It can be found at On the page click on exercises; on next page, click on assessments; and on this page click on "take this assessment before course." This assessment can be taken on line and can provide you and your students and your students a good base line assessment of their readiness to perform in your class.
Developing learning skills/Core Abilities
Current research encourages teachers to develop students’ critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and independent thought – the capacity to analyze the ideas of others and to generate original ideas. These have been addressed by MATC through the development of our eight Core Abilities. Detailed information related to the Core Abilities can be found by going to the MATC homepage at Next click on Employee Resources, then click on Assessment Implementation Team Core Abilities at MATC.
Measuring these higher-order thinking skills, however, is much more difficult than measuring lower-level intellectual skills. You must understand how thinking skills are classified if you are to design assessment instruments that accurately measure your students’ thinking skills. The following is a commonly used hierarchy of thinking skills, known as Bloom’s Taxonomy.
KNOWLEDGE: which requires memory only.
COMPREHENSION: which calls for rephrasing, rewording, and comparing information.
APPLICATION: which requires the student to apply knowledge in order to determine a single correct answer.
ANALYSIS: which is the identification of causes, drawing of conclusions, or determination of evidence.
SYNTHESIS: which requires making predictions, producing original communications, and solving problems.
EVALUATION: which is the making of judgments and offering of opinions.
The levels are arranged from lowest levels of thinking to the highest. The aim of vocational/technical education is to help students achieve at the application level, as a minimum.***
Balance of Knowledge, Attitude, and Skill Content
The struggle for teachers is to decide what students really need to know. You may have the desire to teach them everything you know, which includes all of your experiences and education. Your task is to balance all you know with the knowledge attitude and skills your students will need on the job. You must provide enough information, yet not overwhelm them with details.
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Student Focus
When you write objectives and plan instruction, you must make the needs of your students central to your plan. Ask yourself, What does the student need to know and be able to do? Then state your objectives in terms of what you want the students to achieve, not what you will teach.
The focus on students and what they will learn is a major shift from the past practice of teachers giving information. Students are not passive learners. When you focus on your students and what they will learn, the students take responsibility for their own learning. The goal is to create active, independent learners.
Implications for the Instructor
Although you may have learned from teachers who primarily provided information, teaching and learning have changed. Today’s instructor acts as a coach or facilitator of learning. See Facilitator section p. 30.
This atmosphere encourages independence in learners. Independent learners take responsibility for their own learning, thus removing that burden from you. When you focus on the student, your job becomes one of providing learning activities, resources, and the environment for good learning to take place.
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Learning to Teach – Teaching to LearnDeveloping Good Course Timelines
A good timeline will show each meeting time and the learning activity you want to take place. You must plot all activities that will affect the time you have for your course. You must include all activities inside and outside of the classroom. Consider such items as course introduction, lab clean-up, tests, reviews, lectures, lab activities, conferences, field trips, major project due dates, homework, outside reading, and guest speakers.
A.Assemble Documents
So, you are ready to develop a timeline for one of your courses! First, you need some support documents before you can proceed.
Gather the following:
1.A timeline format that meets your needs. Some format samples are at the end of this module.
2.College calendar.
3.Course planning guide (syllabus).
4.Sample course timeline, if available.
5.Date of any other events and activities that will happen during the course.
B.Plot the Timeline
Fill in the “givens” – starting and ending dates of your course, days off, conferences that prevent the class from meeting, holidays (remember what it was like before and after the holidays when you were in school), in-service dates, and any other activities that interfere with your course.
Divide your course into units of instruction and the units into lessons. You might also sort the course content into categories based on the importance to your students. These could be: (1) essentials, (2) important, (3) nice to know.
C.Reasons for Timelines
A timeline will help you keep your course on schedule. It will keep you from running out of time or having too much time left.
True, as you start the process, you will only be guessing as to how much time you need to each and evaluate a competency. However, only by “best guessing” will you become good at timeline development. Your timeline is a dynamic document and you must refine it and update it as you teach the course, and each time that you teach the course.
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Another benefit is in the mind’s eye of the student. If you develop a timeline, your students can see what is coming up and when it must be done, and they can budget their valuable time wisely. They will also view you as being “organized” and “in charge.”
So you see, establishing and using a course timeline is very useful to you and your students.
A word of caution – no course should be so driven by the timeline that you become too rigid to change. Any number of events may cause you to change your timeline: (1) guest speaker is sick; (2) you are sick; (3) snow days; (4) students have a difficult time learning a concept and need more time; (5) unexpected interruptions; (6) etc.