When developing a course which you
will be teaching, you should always consider who you will be teaching. There is a difference in how different groups
of people learn. Many older learners will have to unlearn what they think they
know and that involves challenging assumptions and beliefs. This is difficult
to do so instructors must plan to take longer in the beginning of the class and
develop the lessons so that older learners have a chance to break down those
assumptions and begin to develop new thinking patterns. Younger students have
been in formal education for a long time and are accustomed to following the
lead of the instructors. 
Since I teach primarily first year
students in one of the history survey courses, I have to tailor the class for
students who may or may not be older, as well as students who are not history
majors. In fact, I have to prepare to teach students who for the most part have
had little positive interaction with history. They tend to look warily at the
survey class with a lack of enthusiasm because they expect to sit through long
lectures each class period. Right there I can feel the existence of barriers
which must be overcome to transfer knowledge to the students. 
Barriers are major obstacles which
exist in many different ways in teaching. For the purpose of this post, let us
look at the barriers presented by the students themselves. Age, learning
styles, attitudes, and previous learning experiences figure prominently as
major barriers on the very first day of class. Setting up a class that
addresses these barriers is not easy, but the interactive model or active
constructionist model serves as good examples of how to overcome these
barriers. To do that one has to anticipate the students as belonging to both
groups. Allowing for more time in the first few weeks allows for them to make
the transformation process which I think all college students experience in
their first year of school.
One of the key things I find
important is to create the course within the Transformative Learning Theory. I
will go into this more in depth in another post as I want to concentrate on
students in this one. Another key thing that is important is approach the
development of the survey courses as the only history course a student will
ever take. Consider that less than half the colleges in the United States
require a history course in order to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree and you
begin to understand some of the problems with civics people in this country
seem to have lately. I am grateful to work for a school that does require a
history course for graduation and I want to make sure we as an institution of
higher learning maintain that requirement.
To do that, I have to step up to
the plate as a history teacher and deliver a course with the idea that it is
the single most important history course a student will ever take because it
may very well be the only history course these students ever take in their
college education. I have one shot at delivering a meaningful course that
transforms their perceptions of history. Whatever I do, it has to count for
something. The key is not about their grades, but to change their perceptions
of history. It is not about ideology, but about the way they view history. We
as instructors need to instill in the students the ability to appreciate
history and to look for facts when encountering history. 
Will students remember what we
teach them in one course five years later? The odds do not favor that unless
the student is majoring in that field or using the information multiple times.
Instead, they will forget many of the details, but remember some of the general
ideas or themes from the course. That is where we need to focus the student
learning. Not detail oriented, but theme oriented. Teach them to understand the
themes and how to look up information when they encounter something they need
to learn about. Get them to appreciate history and you may very well see them
in another class because they appreciate you as an instructor. To get a
non-history major to take two or three history classes is a major achievement.
To do that, you have to begin by considering the types of students who will be
in your classes and developing classes that challenge them, interest them, and
educate them.
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