A discussion of adult learners and a description of instructional reading strategies--based on thinking--for adult learners are presented in this paper. A definition of adulthood and the nontraditional learner in the paper highlights adults' cognitive skills, interests, and literacy levels, while the metacognitive awareness of disabled and good adult readers is discussed in terms of motivation and text structure. The paper then deals briefly with various learning theories, pointing out the importance of cognitive structure to learning, and focuses on six instructional strategies: (1) provide for assessments of learners' strengths and needs, (2) encourage learners to predict as they read, (3) encourage learners to organize their own material, (4) respect individual differences, (5) encourage self-evaluation, and (6) encourage learners to be responsible for their own learning. (JK)