This question gets at the heart of "practice what you preach" in adult 
education (at least in my opinion):  the art of facilitating multi-level 
classrooms, integrating the strategy of peer tutoring, review and reinforce 
of learning, building on learners' prior knowledge.  These ideas that we 
suggest be a fundamental part of the learning environment for our adult 
learners in basic skills programs should be the same ideas that we build 
our PD around:   build on participants' prior knowledge, network and share 
ideas, engage more experienced participants to extend dialogue, or 
challenge the more experienced participants to extend or reinforce what 
they know (or think they know).  I think it's important to know your 
audience ALWAYS - and never plan an event so tightly that it isn't flexible 
enough to adjust to the varied experience of your audience.

Jeff Fantine
Director, Literacy Center
College of Education
Ohio University
338 McCracken Hall
Athens, OH  45701
800-753-1519
fax:  740-593-2834