Aside from learning styles and preferences, what else should we take into account regarding learners or our audience in designing instruction?

My answer would have to be everything. As an instructor we need to take into account the age, level, attitude, and social status of the students your teaching. Not to mention your own demeanor and style.

For instance, you wouldn’t want to go into a classroom of inner-city kids who struggle daily to stay out of gangs and do good to have meals on the table and complain because the navigation system went out in your new Lexus. They wouldn’t care, probably wouldn’t show much respect for you and you might not have a car left when class ended. In our paper we had to offer suggestions and look at things that are important such as classroom control and teacher/student barriers.

I think that if you’re a tenured professor that’s been doing the job forever you can get away with coming to class in your shorts and flip-flops. I in fact had a professor last semester that did this and for him it worked. He had a level of knowledge and experience which allowed for his personal style to be very casual and still work. On the other hand if I started teaching tomorrow I would have to work and learn exactly how to keep that barrier in tact while still effectively teaching and helping students. In my case I’m lucky. I’m an older student who has worked for years in the real world and I’ve worked in a higher education environment. Before that I was a junior high secretary so I’ve been in the classroom and I understand already how to maintain a good sense of balance on this issue which because of those years working in the school I know and understand why so many of our new teachers had problems in this area. Most new teachers wanted the students to like them. Eventually, the ones who stayed in the field figured out that having the students respect them was much more important. Once the students appreciated what was being taught and had an appropriate level of respect for the teacher, those teachers were automatically catapulted to a level of teacher the students LIKED.