Teaching Intensive and Accelerated Courses

Part-time teachers who work in accelerated degree programs are an enormous—and grossly underserved—group of adult education faculty. In this indispensable text, Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, two teachers with extensive firsthand experience of accelerated learning formats, provide an accessible, practical, and highly readable guide to engaging learners in these programs. Warm, wise, and down-to-earth, this will be an invaluable resource for teachers in these programs and for faculty developers everywhere.

Whether you are an experienced teacher of accelerated courses or about to become a new one, I can’t think of a better guide and standard-setter than this book. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg have created an instructional theory with practices that mirror the very principles and processes they advocate. Central to their thesis is the need to create conditions that will allow adults’ natural desire to learn to emerge; in my view, this perspective is often lost in adult learning courses in the name of efficiency or productivity. That is one of the many reasons this book is refreshing in both its approach and the values it espouses.

What a helpful resource for faculty professional development! The information is strategic without being formulaic. New faculty can use this book as a resource to design their materials and to use their existing skills to help adults learn. The parts of this book that focus on graduate students are extremely insightful.