Assess Students Needs

New teachers will also be less frustrated if they remember that facilitating learning is basically a process that begins with identifying what students need. Identifying what students need involves assessing students’ interests, skills, and goals in relation to those needs. Every student has different strengths and weaknesses. They come from different educational backgrounds and learn at different paces. The teacher’s ability to assess these differences will determine what, how, and when students will learn.

Assessment often begins with a standardized test, such as NYS Place for ESOL students or the Tests for Adult Basic Education (TABE). The TABE show grade levels which provide a general idea of a student’s competency in a certain area (such as mathematics), as well as a breakdown of skills (such as computing fractions). Although helpful, there is some danger in relying too heavily on standardized testing. Test results may be skewed if students fear testing in general due to negative experiences in earlier schooling. To compensate for this, instructors should postpone making their assessment until they can converse with the student directly. For more information on assessment, see the instructional planning section.

Talking with and observing students over a period of time will also reveal possible learning disabilities, which often don’t show up on standardized tests. Identifying typical characteristics that may signal a learning disability is the focus of a videotape package developed by the New York State Education Department. Teaching Adults with Learning Disabilities helps teachers meet the special instructional needs of adults with learning disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of Workforce Preparation and Continuing Education, (518) 474-8700.

Knowing what incarcerated youth need in general terms and, by assessment, their interests, skills, and goals are all helpful to facilitate learning. However, several questions, if left unanswered by students, will make planning less than effective. These questions are:

• Why should I do this (whatever it is)?
• What’s in it for me?

Those with marketing savvy know these questions as the “WIIFM Principle,” which is the second aspect of the process of facilitating learning. This principle is the primary influence on whether or not a student or potential student will buy your wares. No one “buys” or engages or attends or changes behavior unless they see something in it for them. For example, you buy toothpaste because it promises clean, white teeth and fresh breath, because you will be attractive and you will be swept away by the partner of your dreams. You don’t consciously consider this when you pick up that brand from the supermarket shelf. Here’s another illustration: You smoke because you like the clean, fresh taste of the cigarettes, because you like to feel strong and powerful, riding your horse off into the sunset. Again, you don’t consciously think such things, but when you remember well–known cigarette advertisements, it makes some sense. Madison Avenue is successful because it knows who you are and what you want. Why should I do this? What’s in it for me? Madison Avenue knows your answers to these questions!

The WIIFM Principle also applies to social marketing. Many of the principles which apply to commercial marketing also apply to social marketing. Social marketing is an exchange process whereby products of value are exchanged. In your education programs, you start with an exchange. You, the seller, offer something to the buyer. In turn, the buyer offers something to you, the seller. Think of the incarcerated youth or adult who comes to your education program. What are you offering: an education, a new life, a career, reading pleasure, a GED? You can probably come up with a long list of what you’re offering. What is the incarcerated youth offering? time? commitment? vulnerability? trust? Often, this latter half is the harder part of the exchange to identify. Nonetheless, both of you—the buyer and the seller—have things to exchange. Are you offering what the buyers want? What’s in it for them?

To know what to sell, i.e., how to design your education program, you need to know what’s important to the buyer: values, likes, dislikes. Once you know what the student “buys,” then you can promote your education program and recruit students into it. Marketing principles are critical to creating a learning community in which students will feel comfortable and achieve.