What do we do with the information?

The real question that needs to be asked here is "So What?" Just because we know our audience (or our environment) it does not follow that our teaching automatically changes. We have to know what to do with the information we have gathered. This is the purpose of the "Implications" column in the table you are to complete for this assignment.

Sometimes the implications of the our knowledge of learners and context is clear. If we have an audience that does not read well (or at all), then we probably have to find ways of conveying essential information that do not rely on text. Populations with high math anxiety need instructional and motivational strategies that help alleviate and bypass those fears. If your population already has certain key entry behaviors, then the implication is likely to be that you can skip teaching them.

Other implications are not so clear. What do we do with different learning styles, for example? The research is very ambiguous on how to make good use of such information. Overall, it has been very difficult to find consistent "aptitude-treatment interactions" that clearly lead to teaching different populations in different ways.

One conclusion, however, is clear: There is no point in spending a lot of time "knowing the audience" if that knowledge has no practical consequences for how we design and deliver the instruction.