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| Learning Tips for Effective Instructors | Tutors must consider that learning occurs within each individual as a continual process throughout life.  People become skilled at different speeds, so it is natural for them to be anxious or nervous when faced with a learning situation. Positive support by the instructor can enhance learning in adults, as can proper timing of the instruction.
Learning goes from stimulation of the senses. For some adults one sense is used more than others to learn or recall information. Instructors must provide materials that stimulate as many senses as possible in order to increase their chances of teaching success.
Check these four critical elements of learning that must be addressed to ensure that adult learners study:
1. motivation
2. reinforcement
3. retention
4. transference
1. Motivation
If the adult participant doesn’t recognize the need for the information, or has been offended or intimidated, all of the instructor's effort to assist the participant to learn will be without success. Instructors must set up rapport with adult participants and prepare them for learning; this provides motivation. They should motivate adult students via several means:
• Set a feeling or tone for the lesson. Instructors must make an effort to establish a friendly, open atmosphere that shows the participants they will help them learn.
• Set an appropriate level of concern. To meet the level of importance of the objective must be adjusted the level of tension. If the objects have a high level of importance, a higher level of tension/stress should be established in the class. Nevertheless, people typically learn best under low to moderate stress; if the stress is too high, it becomes a barrier to learning.
• Set an appropriate level of difficulty. The level of difficulty should be set high enough to challenge adult participants but not so high that they become frustrated by information overload. The education should predict and reward participation, culminating in success.
Additionally, adult learners require specific knowledge of their learning results, feedback. Feedback must not be general, but specific. Learners must also see a reward for learning. The reward not always has to be monetary; it can be simply a demonstration of benefits to be realized from learning the material. Lastly, participants must be interested in the subject, as interest is directly related to reward. In order to motivate themselves to learn the subject, adults must see the benefit of learning.
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