A Closing Comment

It needs to be said in closing this section that teaching is not as segmented as the “little boxes” in the flow-chart might suggest. Nor are the individual teaching methods and learning approaches presented in this Guide somehow “stand-alone” for purposes of teaching and tutoring. To the contrary, like any engaged dialogue, teaching is creative, not formulaic. Every learner is different, every teacher-learner experience is different, every day is different. We need to be creative and we need to be innovative (see again Section Three: What is Teaching Excellence?).

As Raymond Wlodkowski put it in a quote I love:

How much of teaching is science, or art, or intuition, I’m still not completely sure. But when it flows, when learning between instructor and learner is reciprocal and respectful, it an inspired dimension of being: not something one practices or performs, but something one enters and lives. (1999, p. 337)

Finally, there remains a larger issue which is yet to be discussed. After all the hard work and caring and sacrifices teachers and tutors have made through time, and are making today, if we want our field of adult literacy to have a better future, I believe our profession needs a new conversation.

Read on in Section Seven…

Brookfield, S.D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Knowles, M.S. (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pratt, D. (1998). Five perspectives on teaching in adult and higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing.

Quigley, A. (2006). Building professional pride in literacy: A dialogical guide to professional development. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing.

Wlodkowski, R. (1999). Enhancing adult motivation to learn: A comprehensive guide for teaching all adults (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.