Course
Descriptions
Adult Multiple Intelligences
Adult Multiple
Intelligences Theory: Howard Gardner's research has shown that
adults can possess many different kinds of "intelligences"
beyond the linguistic and logical abilities that teachers usually
expect. Through this course you will learn to recognize the eight
intelligences of MI Theory among your students and plan instruction to
exploit their unique strengths.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Adult Multiple
Intelligences in Practice: Investigate how practitioner
researchers used Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory in their ABE, GED,
and ESOL classrooms and in counseling. Discover their experiences and
consider how MI theory might apply in your situation. You’ll
finish the self-study by naming ways you can use MI in working with your
own learners.
Completion time: 3 hours
Recommended pre-requisite course: Adult Multiple Intelligences
Theory
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Fee: None
Adult Student Persistence
Helping Students Stay: Exploring Program and Classroom Persistence Strategies: When you focus on helping students stay in programs, you address all the ingredients of program quality and effective instruction. Student persistence is, in fact, an indicator of program strength. In this six-week course, you will use the six core “drivers” of persistence, identified in the New England Learner Persistence Project, to organize and review a wide range of successful persistence strategies, and to prioritize the ones that might have the most impact in your own programs.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
Helping Adults
Persist: The researchers featured in this course interviewed
Pre-GED students to find out what supported or hindered their persistence
in adult basic education programs. They identified four supports to
persistence—management of positive and negative forces,
establishment of a goal by students, progress toward reaching a goal,
and building self-efficacy. You'll want to learn more about these four
critical supports to persistence.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Supports and Barriers to
Persistence: Find out what students interviewed for the
research study listed as the negative and positive forces that affect
their ability to persist. This course will help you and your
students devise strategies for increasing the positive forces and
reducing the negative forces that hinder them.
Completion time: 3 hours
Recommended pre-requisite course: Helping Adults Persist
Access this course
Fee: None
Goals and Self-efficacy in
Persistence: Building self-efficacy, establishment of a goal by
the student, and progress toward reaching a goal are three supports
suggested by the researchers for increasing student persistence. This
course will help you promote mastery and vicarious experiences and
explore other ways to build self-efficacy. You’ll be challenged to
try out a new idea for supporting student persistence.
Completion time: 3 hours
Recommended pre-requisite course: Helping Adults Persist
Access this course
Fee: None
*Adult Student
Persistence: An Overview: Gain a better understanding of how
adult students participate and what helps them to persist in learning.
Learn how to apply instructional and programmatic strategies for
improving student persistence in this course.
Access this course
Fee: $24.95
*Student Retention
Through Student Success: Explore the relationship between
students' retention and their own sense of self-efficacy. You'll
learn new and more meaningful processes for tracking students' progress
toward meeting educational goals.
Access this course
Fee: $24.95
Authentic Contexts
Overview of
Critical Literacy Practices: If you've been waiting for a
user-friendly way to dip into critical pedagogy, this is it. This
self-study is a starting point to developing a theoretical background on
critical pedagogy. Learn to what extent education programs reflect
critical pedagogy in their structure and practices and analyze your own
practices for the degrees of critical pedagogy across six elements of an
adult education program.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Philosophy of
Using Authentic Curriculum: A curriculum is a guide for
learning. Everyone who chooses or creates curriculum (or textbooks)
needs to develop a personal philosophy of teaching and learning, examine
the values and beliefs behind that philosophy, and design or select a
curriculum that reflects those beliefs and values. Compare three
approaches to curriculum—traditional, learner-driven, and
critical—and begin to articulate your own philosophy of teaching
and curriculum development.
Completion time: 3 hours
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Fee: None
Using Authentic
Curriculum and Materials: The team of researchers led by
Victoria Purcell-Gates found that adult literacy instruction is more
effective if teachers use materials and activities that adults actually
encounter in their daily lives. This course will encourage you to
work collaboratively with your students to identify a topic for a lesson
that uses authentic materials and activities. You will be using the
handbook, Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult
Literacy Classroom, as a guide in moving toward contextualized
literacy instruction.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Building
Teacher/Learner Collaborations: In coding the data for the
Literacy Practices of Adult Learners study, the researchers found that
the learners themselves were attributing changes in literacy practice to
life changes, such as changes in employment, living situations, family
situations/children, and health. Explore the social nature of your
learners' literacy practices and how those practices may change from the
beginning of instruction. Develop a strategy for collaborating with
learners to identify a topic on which to build instructional activities.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
College and Career Readiness
College Readiness for Adults: Beyond Academic Preparation! The overall objective of this course is to assist educators, counselors, administrators and postsecondary partners to better prepare their students for postsecondary education. You will identify, organize, and reflect on the broad array of readiness skills and abilities that adults need to be successful in postsecondary education and training. Then you will consider how to change our practice to incorporate what we have learned.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL Classroom The purpose of this course is to prepare you - instructors and counselors - to implement the Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE & ESOL Classroom (ICA) Curriculum Guide within the context of your situation. The hands-on activities will increase your level of comfort and familiarity with the curriculum guide and the related topics.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
Introduction to College Transition Math: Reflect on your own and your students' math backgrounds, examine and experience the college placement test your students take, try out math activities and exercises you can use in your classrooms, and explore the math knowledge and skills you will want to present to your own college transition students.
Required text: Safford-Ramus, K. (2008). Unlatching the Gate: Helping Adult Students Learn Mathematics. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation. (Copies can be ordered from Xlibris Corporation at 1-888-795-4274 or Orders@Xlibris.com. The cost is $19.99 per copy. Allow minimum of two weeks for delivery.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
General Educational Development
(GED)
GED Research and
Policy: In this self-study, you’ll focus first on general
GED information and the research on the economic benefits of attaining a
GED credential. Then you’ll think about the policy and program
issues related to preparing students for the GED examination and
supporting them for the transition to postsecondary education and
training.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Going Beyond the GED:
Learn why the adult education system should focus on enabling
students to develop the academic skills necessary to not only complete
the GED, but also to enter postsecondary education and training.
Identify strategies for supporting adult education-to-postsecondary
transitions for adult education students in your own program or
classroom.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Activity-based
Instruction: Why and How: Activity-based instructional
approaches emphasize cognitive development, a critically important
ability for GED students who plan to enter postsecondary education and
training. Examine the implications of the research reported in
Cognitive Skills Matter in the Labor Market, Even for School
Dropouts. Outline the pros and cons of two activity-based
instructional methods—collaborative learning and project-based
learning.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Using Beyond
the GED: Beyond the GED: Making Conscious Choices About the
GED and Your Future, offers lesson plans and helps teachers create
activities that will give adult learners an opportunity to practice
writing, use graphs, read charts, and analyze research findings on the
economic impact of the GED. Learn why it is important for students to
understand the economic impact of the GED, preview the lessons, and
think about how your students might benefit from the lessons.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Life, Health, and Work
Promoting Mental Health in the ABE/ESOL Classroom: Addressing the Impact of Chronic Stress on Learning: This course will explore the ways in which chronic stress, trauma, and adverse life experiences affect learning. It will also introduce some teaching approaches and strategies that promote emotional and psychological well-being to help students learn more efficiently. We will look at our roles as educators in helping learners practice healthy coping skills, develop supports, and connect to community resources. In addition, we will explore the value of expressive arts as a way to build community, encourage creative imagination, and enhance mental health for adult learners.
Schedule: June 16 - July 29, 2013
Course Overview and Schedule
Register online or download a printable form.
Fee: $269.00
Managing the Learning Environment
Differentiated Instruction: Adult educators almost always face many different levels of learners in their classrooms, with all the attendant difficulties in teaching. In this facilitated, interactive course, you will learn how differentiated instruction can help produce effective teaching in your classes. You will learn to make the strong learning objectives required to keep multilevel instruction on target. Both research and specific strategies will be addressed. By the course end, you will produce your own lesson plan with effective learning objectives and differentiation suited to your own environment.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
*Strategies for Building
Learning Communities: Research has shown that creating learning
communities or "cohorts" within the classroom helps students to
persist in achieving their goals. In this course you will
examine how learners differ developmentally and learn strategies for
creating community among students.
Access this course
Fee: $24.95
Numeracy
**Foundations of
Teaching Adult Numeracy: In this foundational course you'll learn how to keep students at the center of numeracy instruction. You'll explore the context, content, and cognitive and affective components of numeracy, how to address the needs of students with learning gaps, how students' styles of learning math and levels of math knowledge affect their math skills, and ways to build student's success in learning math. You'll plan classroom activities, test them with your students, and share your experiences with fellow teachers.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
**Teaching
Reasoning and Problem-Solving Strategies: Numerate adults do more than calculate figures. They think about the relationships between mathematical concepts and real-life situations. They look for patterns, make predictions, and evaluate their conclusions. They can form problems, represent them, and solve them. They apply critical thinking skills. This course examines mathematical reasoning and problem solving strategies and provides numerous teaching strategies and activities that you can apply to your teaching right away.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
**Number
Sense: Teaching About Parts and Wholes: Teaching students how to use estimation, mental math, benchmarking, and calculators will enhance their conceptual understanding of numbers and what numbers represent. This course focuses on helping adult students develop number sense by addressing two key questions: When is it necessary to have an exact answer, and when is an estimate sufficient? When calculation is necessary, which tool is appropriate to use? You'll design math activities that are permeated with estimation, mental math, and reasonableness strategies.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
**Geometry: Teaching About Shapes and Measures: Adult basic education students need foundational geometry and measurement skills not only to succeed in GED math, but also in the workplace. In this course, you will explore key topics in geometry, such as area, perimeter, and volume, and their importance in everyday life. You'll look at numerous instructional activities for teaching about angles, spatial relationships, symmetry, similarity, and figure transformations on a coordinate graph system.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
**Data: Helping Students Interpret Numeric Information:
Data, or numerical information, can be described, represented, analyzed, and interpreted in various ways for various purposes. This course looks at some common uses (and misuses) of data. Learn about the measures of central tendency statistics, graphs, and probability. Through the course readings, activities, and discussions, you'll review basic concepts and explore strategies for introducing and teaching these concepts to your adult students.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
**Algebra: Introducing Algebraic Reasoning: Research suggests that math topics, including algebra, should be taught at all levels, not just when a student is ready for GED preparation. In this course, you'll learn how to introduce algebraic reasoning to your students, and you'll experiment with strategies for teaching numeric patterns, relationships, and functions based on real-life situations. You'll also explore strategies to help students model quantitative relationships using graphs, tables, words, and equations.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $189.00
Reading
Principles of Diagnostic Assessment and Teaching in Adult Reading Instruction: This six-week course has three parts. The first part consists of readings, discussion boards, and self-quizzes on the components of reading and diagnostic assessment. The second and third parts use the case study approach to give participants the opportunity to practice scoring and interpreting adult learners' assessments in reading.
Schedule: Next session coming soon!
Add yourself to the course interest list to be notified once new session dates are available.
Fee: $269.00
Reading Profiles:
The Adult Reading Components Study, conducted by the National Center for
the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), found that adult
readers at the same comprehension level have varying skills in fluency,
decoding, and vocabulary. The researchers identified 11 reading
profiles. Learn why developing reading profiles for students will help
you, as a teacher or tutor, to plan better, more focused reading
instruction. Learn how to prepare instructional plans for students using
the tools and reading profiles on the Assessment Strategies and Reading
Profiles website.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Teaching
Learners What Reading Is All About: Understanding What
Reading Is All About: Teaching Materials and Lessons for Adult Basic
Education Learners, is based on findings from reading research
conducted by NCSALL and others. This guide offers 13 lessons designed to
help learners understand the components of reading that are part of
becoming a more fluent reader. Review Understanding What Reading Is
All About, consider why it is important for learners to know about
the components of reading, and determine how and when you could use this
guide with learners.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Reading Difficulties:
In “Lessons from Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young
Children for Adult Learning and Literacy” the authors outline risk
factors identified in children with reading difficulties and compare
these to those of adult literacy students. Instruction should address
the social risk factors with which adult learners contend as well as the
component reading skills. Reflect on your assumptions and beliefs about
teaching reading and consider how the personal and social risk factors
may impact learning how to read.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
Ideas for Teaching
Reading: Explore some of the research on
reading and its implications for the development of curriculum and
instructional techniques. Read articles that relate to your role in the
program—ABE instructor, ESOL instructor, or program
administrator/counselor. Consider how the findings or practices might
apply to your situation and develop plans for trying out some of the
ideas.
Completion time: 3 hours
Access this course
Fee: None
*Course developed for ProLiteracy
**Course produced and offered by ProfessionalStudiesAE.org,
a partnership between ProLiteracy and World Education/U.S.
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