Adult Education Topics

The trainings listed in this section have been developed specifically for adult educators and those who are teaching college level students with learning problems.  Many schools and literacy programs invite their adult students to attend these trainings because they have found that the students benefit greatly from hearing Dr. Cooper, who himself has a learning problem, explain both the positive and negative aspects of learning differently.

CA-305 Accommodating Adults Who Have Learning Disabilities: This training session provides participants with information about when and how to accommodate adults who have documented learning disabilities.  The presenter incorporates his experience working with students and the information from the recent research project on accommodating adults in adult education programs.

CA-362 Techniques for Teaching Adults Who Learn Differently:  This training provides 25 teaching principles that Dr. Cooper has found effective when working with individuals with learning problems.  Some examples of these techniques are breaking a task in to smaller tasks, spaced repetition and reducing avoidance patterns.

CA-365 Techniques for Working With Adults Who Present Significant Learning Challenges: This training session will provide participants with various techniques for working with adult learners who present significant learning challenges such as below average intellectual ability, mental illness, and severe learning disabilities as well as those individuals who have very poor educational preparation.  The presenter will discuss how to develop and use an individual education plan for these students.  Instruction planning and delivery for various subjects will also be covered.  Part of the training will focus on how to motivate reluctant students and those who do not want to work on all subject areas.  The final section of the training will cover techniques for evaluating student progress.

CA-370 Helping Adults with Learning Differences to Develop Social and Life Skills: The same learning problems that impede the acquisition of basic academic skills often result in difficulties in social interaction, employment and other life skills.  This workshop will explore some of these difficulties, especially those that directly impact adult education programs and job readiness skills.  Through an explanation of the causes of social and life skill deficiencies, the participants will better understand how to help their students reduce the impact of the social problems and develop strategies for coping with employment and life in general.

CA-385 Counseling Adults with Learning Problems: This training session is designed for counselors and others who are interested in issues of self-esteem in individuals with learning differences.  The presenter discusses the counseling techniques he has found useful working with adults with varying degrees of learning problems and disabilities.  The trainer discusses the critical issue of communicating with individuals who have weak vocabulary, non-sequential thought patterns and unrealistic expectations.

 
CA-387 Working with Difficult Students:  This training provides adult educators with techniques for dealing with people who are difficult to deal with because of a number of reasons such as poor communication skills, unreasonable demands, poor social skills, or emotional reactions to ordinary situations.  The problems that are discussed are grouped by categories: students, co-workers, supervisors, and the general public; and by categories of interaction: phone conversations, office interaction, classroom situations and casual encounters.

CA-417 Learning Problems and English as a Second Language: This training session for teachers of English as a Second Language explains how learning problems can limit second language acquisition and how to recognize if a student may need to be referred for further testing.  Techniques for helping students with minor learning problems to learn English are also discussed.

CA-449 Weak Academic Skills: Not all students with weak academic skills have learning problems; many reasons for weak academic skills are detailed and put into perspective in this training.  Designed for college faculties, this training provides the participants with concrete suggestions for helping students with weak academic skills improve their skills and increase their chance of completing college.

CA-460 Study and Organizational Techniques for Adults who Learn Differently: This training will provide the participants with practical and inexpensive study and organizational tools and techniques that the presenter has found effective for teaching adults who think and learn differently.  Some of the study tools can enable students to take notes more effectively; others provide students with systematic steps to organize concepts and objects.

CA-461 Organization and Planning Tips for You and Your Students: This training session provides tips and techniques for becoming more efficient and effective especially in academic settings.  The presenter will provide participants with a number of self-assessment tools to determine how well one is focusing on important tasks, whether one is avoiding important tasks, and how one is using time.

CA-462 Note Taking Techniques:  This training session provides the participants with an understanding why note taking is so difficult for students who learn differently.  The presenter will demonstrate note taking tools and techniques that he has found useful for students who have various learning problems.

CA-464 Designing Adult Education Programs to Meet the Needs of Adults with Learning Differences, Problems and Disabilities: This presentation will provide adult educators (administrators and teachers) with ideas and techniques for the establishment and operation of programs that meet the specific needs of individuals who have learning problems of varying degrees.  The presentation will include information about recruitment, retention, motivation, evaluation, equipment and curriculum for students who have minimal learning problems and accommodations for those with severe problems.

CA-465 Helping Students with Learning Differences Prepare for the GED Examination: The presentation will provide participants with an assessment of how the GED test will affect individuals with learning differences.  The presenter will discuss how the changes in design of the GED test will present challenges for adults who have learning differences.  The participants will learn how to look for the red flags commonly associated with learning differences that can make it difficult for an individual to pass the GED exam.  He will discuss instructional techniques and approaches that can assist these students to prepare for the test.

CA-466 Multi-level Classroom Techniques: This training session uses the techniques taught in the other training sessions and applies them to the multi-level classroom where adults with a wide range of basic skills are grouped together.  Participants learn how to plan activities for students who range, in the same classroom, from non-readers to those with post-secondary skills.

CA-520 Teaching Reading to Adults with Learning Problems: Literacy teachers and tutors report that this training provides them with many practical ideas for teaching individuals with reading problems from the non-reader to the reader with errors.

CA-523 Helping Adults to Improve Reading Comprehension: This training describes the reasons why many adults who possess basic literacy skills continue to have difficulty with reading comprehension.  Techniques for improving reading comprehension will be explained and demonstrated.

CA-525 Vocabulary Development for Adults with Learning Problems: Vocabulary development is critical for academic success.  This training presents techniques for vocabulary development to aid oral communication, reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.  The presenter explains techniques to assist adults engage in systematic and regular self-study of vocabulary.

CA-530 Instructional Techniques for Adults with Weak Writing Skills: This presentation will provide the participants with techniques that the presenter has found helpful in teaching writing skills to adults who have poor written language skills.  The focus of this presentation is techniques for helping adult learners understand the structure of language, expressing ideas, and techniques for motivating writing activities.  Participants will experiment with the various techniques in an interactive workshop that helps learners to develop their ideas and organize their thoughts.  Strategies for motivating reluctant writers to write more will also be discussed.

CA-532 Teaching Spelling and Writing to Adults with Learning Problems: This training session provides alternative techniques for teaching spelling and writing to individuals with language based learning problems.  Participants take part in an exercise that demonstrates the frustration individuals who have learning problems experience when trying to write.

CA-642 Teaching Adults with Low Level Literacy and Numeracy Skills: This training session is designed for adult educators and literacy tutors who are working with adults who have very low level reading and math ability.  The techniques described in this training are similar to those described in other training sessions.  The difference is how to adapt them to the low level students.  The training will include discussion of setting realistic goals for student progress and helping students set their own realistic goals.

CA-645 Teaching Reading, Writing and Math to Adults with Learning Problems: This training session provides an overview of alternative techniques for teaching reading, writing and math to individuals with learning problems.  Participants learn how to assist students who have problems with language development because of auditory perception and processing problems.  The section on math outlines ways to help students improve their computation and problem solving skills.

CA-740 Teaching Math To Adults with Learning Problems: This training session provides information about why individuals with learning differences have a difficult time learning math and often suffer from math anxiety.  Alternative techniques for teaching quantitative concepts, arithmetic operations and problem solving skills are explained.  The presenter will explain the Number Fact Hierarchy, which he has developed to describe how students remember or compute number facts and how the differences in the hierarchy affect math performance.  A demonstration of Tic Tac Toe Math is also included

New Training also available

Structured Learning for the Unstructured

Using Newspaper and Magazines for Helping Low Level Adults Improve Reading and Numeracy Skills

Using the Internet with Low Level Readers.

 

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