A study investigated instructors' responses to learners' needs from the perspective of Feuerstein's Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) theory. Participants were 53 adult educators enrolled in an adult education course at Auburn University. Four scenarios were constructed, each based on one of the five MLE criteria (intentionality, meaning, transcendence, competence, and task regulation). In each situation that depicted adults experiencing learning difficulties, participants were asked to select from five choices the solution they would normally offer students. The choices represented a range of teacher behaviors from noninteractive to highly mediating. A general question was included with each scenario that was aimed at investigating the fifth MLE criterion, feelings of competence. Instructors indicated how they would promote feelings of competence, with choices ranging from nonmediating to highly mediating. Two patterns of responses were found: instructors were either mediating or directing in terms of their intent to facilitate learning and of helping students transfer their learning beyond the particular setting and task at hand, and they were mediating in their approaches to influencing how the meaning and importance of information is perceived and in supporting the use and regulation of strategies in learning tasks. (Appendixes contain 4 tables, 19 references, and instrument.) (YLB)