Becoming an Effective Teacher: Applied Principles of Adult Learning

Many new instructors are drawn to education directly from their professional and post-graduate training or return to academia after a period in veterinary practice. These instructors have a very good idea of what their students “should know” but often find themselves struggling with how to communicate this information to their adult learners. This is partly because, over the last decade, many changes have occurred in adult education, or, at least, in our understanding of it. Integrated teaching, problem-based learning, and community learning, all of which have become a part of most health professional education, place increasing emphasis on student autonomy and the learner. This increased attention to the learner’s needs may create feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy in new and even seasoned instructors who struggle with how to integrate this paradigm shift into their classroom teaching. Since most of us do not have the benefit of formal educational instruction, we tend to rely on what we know—what was modeled for us.