Mind, Motivation, and Meaningful Learning: Strategies for Teaching Adult Learners

In this relevant and helpful work, Miller (Marshall Sch. of Business, Univ. of Southern California) discusses strategies for teaching adult students, primarily in a higher education context and in online environments. In the introduction, Miller explains that she is laying “the foundation for a semester-long seven-unit scaffolded course” aimed at helping adults to become more efficient students; units cover everything from how to understand a textbook to how to memorize knowledge. In the first section of the book, Miller unpacks psychological concepts such as self-efficacy, social cognitive theory, and motivational system, then discusses how a grounding in these ideas could be used to help adult students. Citing scholarly work, she notes, for instance, that when students are more self-regulated, they take more responsibility for their learning and thus are more likely to be academically successful. The rest of the book consists of useful extensive lesson plans and materials. The planned course consists of seven units involving everything from identifying required elements in a learning task to interpreting textbooks and other academic reading materials.