The fastest growing segment of enrollments in recent years has been adult and part-time students. These trends suggest that more and more students are bringing extensive life experiences that filter higher learning. While the concept of student as an empty vessel to be filled by the instructor may never have been totally appropriate, it is absolutely obsolete for those who by virtue of their age, work, or family and community responsibilities have gained a great deal of knowledge. These students have a head start on many of the goals of higher education. They tend to be highly focused on their educational objectives, have a personal framework that enables a broad range of insights, and can have much to contribute to class discussions.
Effective teaching builds on the backgrounds of learners no matter their age or experience.
We have come to understand that students learn best when they can make material their own by integrating it into existing frameworks of understanding. The broad spectrum of previous knowledge and understanding represented among college students today challenges faculty to get to know the members of their classes and diversify approaches to content accordingly. Students, for their part, are challenged to assume responsibility for more active involvement in learning. Greater racial and ethnic diversity can be anticipated for the future as a result of the growth rates for minority populations in the United States. Retention is a special concern for students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education.