Adult learning Essay

Every person has a reason for what motivates him/her to learn. These four reasons are called contexts that motivate learning. They are based on the research of Malcolm Knowles (1984) and they are called Practical Context, Personal Context, Experiential Context, and Idealistic Context. Practical Context is when a person wants to learn in order to obtain a new skill set or ability. Without this tangible end result, a person will not have the motivation to learn. Personal Context refers to a person who is motivated to learn because they want to reach a personal goal. That goal may be work related (like a promotion), or a personal goal (learning to play the piano), but it will be a goal that only he/she can say they accomplished. When a person is apt to Experimental Context learning, he/she relies on their â€Å"inner self† to learn. It is when a person can take new ideas and compare them with their past, that this person will thrive in a learning environment. They are motivated by being able to take examples from the past to shape the present and the future. On the other hand, an Idealistic Context learner is motivated by the  opportunity to gain knowledge. Not motivated to learn by the past nor the future, they are instead driven to learn by the pursuit of knowledge itself. What motivates a person to learn is unique to that person. However, thanks to the four learning contexts, we can guide our learning to ensure we get the most of our education. My motivation to learn is to reach my future goals and it falls under the Personal Context category. The reason why I have decided to obtain my BA in Human Resource Management is  simply to start a new career once I retire from the US Postal Service. I have had the opportunity to lead many talented men and women. However, my experience does not translate well into a resume. Though I now I have extensive management experience, I am missing the final peace, the education. By reaching my goal of obtaining my degree, I will be able to demonstrate that I have the education and experience needed in today’s job market. Every business needs organized management. A great manager sets goals, motivates people, and exceeds expectations. I have the people skills to lead men and women from the â€Å"deck plate level†, that is to say lead by example. But I understand that I must study the subject of management. I must become intimate with the theories and history behind it. Doing so will make me a better manager and person. And that is why I am a Personal Context Learner. I have a clear goal and path that I shall take to obtain my degree and earn a wonderful career after the government. References: Alexander, M. , Clugston, W, & Tice, E. (2009). Learning online and achieving lifelong goals. San Diego, Bridgepoint, Inc. Adult Learning Essay DISCUSSION BOARD Do you believe they have any benefit for teaching adults? Why or Why not? Share a personal example of each that supports your view. Based on your own experiences, do you believe that children and adults learn differently? Give examples to support your thoughts. Metaphors, rehearsal, imagery and mnemonics are concepts used for teaching children. These tools benefit teaching creating venues that will effectively and efficiently nurture learning. For teachers, the more tools and bag of tricks the teacher has, the deeper and wider student learning styles he can reach, whether his students are adults or children. Studies show that children are fast learners as seen in their growth rates compared to adults. However, due to the innate nature children in as much as it could benefit teaching adults. Teaching adults as a general practice involves introduction of new concepts, facilitating learning processes and of human beings to learn using their mind, heart and hands, it is safely assumed that man’s learning is continuous and does not end with being adults. From experience, adult learning takes into consideration integrative tools to get the concepts across. In a way, if the teacher is able to create an atmosphere where adults can become children again, learning can become faster and insightful. Metaphors and the ability to use them denote higher literacy levels due to the cultural shades the metaphors require. For adults, the use of metaphors for learning is effective in evocative process of teaching. The adult learner by its manipulation of thought, experience and words, can further deepen their insights on the subject being learned. For example, in teaching a second language to adults involves using learning tools that can help the learners claim a new vocabulary. It usually takes six kinds of experiences or activities before non-native speaker acquires new vocabulary. Using metaphors will help the adult learner visualize, analogize and understand the new concept via exploration of likeness. The word blue can be analogized as â€Å"cool†, â€Å"sky†, or â€Å"water†. Another reason why metaphors are effective is that in adult learning, high level of inhibitions needs to be broken up before the learners start to let go and trust the teacher and their co-learners. Metaphors are good tools to slowly break the barriers of communication especially when the topic that is being discussed is sensitive. For teachers, when adult students use their own metaphors, the teacher can get a new perspective on how the student was able to digest the concepts being imparted. Rehearsals are exercises that instill mastery skills. Adult learning includes mastery of skills especially when the concepts that need to be learned involve tactile efforts. Rehearsals can range from mental rehearsal of knowledge as well as physical rehearsal of skills. An example of rehearsal in adult learning is the teaching of artistic craftsmanship, selling and management techniques, or any hands on skill. Computing is mastered through repeatability of the ability. Repeating something like cooking is a kind of rehearsal. The use of imagery is effective in adult learner where collaboration is imperative. With adult learning, the teacher’s imposition as all knowledgeable is less. The teacher’s role lies more on bringing tools such as images that can stimulate knowledge, skills and attitudes. Just like in children where the visuals can stimulate sensory skills, adults can develop the power of their own senses to stimulate their mind, relax their bodies and imbibe more learning in a healthier way. Malcolm Knowles takes this collaboration in adult learning into the organizational level. â€Å"When applied to the organization of adult education, a democratic philosophy means that the learning activities will be based on the real needs and interests of the participants; that the policies will be determined by a group that is representative of all participants; and that there will be a maximum of participation by all members of the organization in sharing responsibility for making and carrying out decisions.† (Knowles, 1980) An example of using imagery in adult education is using film as take off point for classroom discussions. Visual stimulus can be a painting just like in children’s education but in adult discourse, the insights are more mature and evoked from varied experience. Mnemonics helps teachers increase confidence of adult students in recalling vocabulary and concepts. Teaching through mnemonics is as much fun and rewarding to adults as it is on children. The memory enhancing strategy is usually used to teach information that’s already known but need to be easily recalled. The use of this technique accommodates students from a wide age range. In adults, it is easier because with rich and diverse experience, the class can create more associations to a word, making it easier and more fun. â€Å"Most people believe that their memory gets worse as they get older. This is true only for people who do not use their memory properly: memory is like a muscle – the more it is used, the better it gets. The more it is neglected, the worse it gets. While in education most people have to use their memory intensively – simply to remember facts and pass exams. When people leave full time education, they tend to cease to use their memory as actively, and so it starts to get flaccid.† (Chennai Interactive, 2002) Adult education that uses mnemonics will be able to help adults that have ceased to use their memory after leaving formal learning venues. The memory muscle just like any adult muscle will be able to recall its ability to remember vocabularies, theories and concepts with the mnemonic type of learning. People who learn how to bike, never forgets to how to bike. Even the concepts of mathematics will easily be recalled if mnemonics is used to recall mathematical jargons or concepts of other subjects. Adult learning is very much parallel children’s way of learning. There is no better challenge for adult educators to prime their students into the level of child like learning where the student is more open to new ideas, prepared to embrace new experience and able to digest their new knowledge into the levels of reflection and insight. REFERENCES Chennai Interactive Business Services (P) Ltd., 2002. Memory Techniques. Retrieved October 27, 2006, from www.chennaionline.com/education/2002/mete.asp Knowles, Malcolm S., 1980. The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall/Cambridge. Adult Learning Essay Adult learning is a complex subject that in recent years has become more of a necessity than a personal pursuit. There are three factors present in the American society today that necessitate the need for adult learning. These factors are: Dramatic changes in demographics, the global economy, and technology. (5) Demographics are concerned with growth and development of adult learners and emerging groups of learners with special needs. There are more adults in our society than ever before and the population will continue to age and increase in the number of older adults. This fact along with the growing cultural and ethnic diversity existing in America today, although, provides many benefits for the society by mixing talents from many lands, but it also, requires a certain amount of familiarization and education to minimize the risks involved by diversification. The second factor influencing the need for adult learning is the global economy. The birth of global interdependent economy has led to changing work practices, which require different kinds of preparation and training. The emphasis has been shifted to improved product and service quality, having more educated workers with more responsibility and stronger team work. This has resulted in control of education shifting more to business. More and more companies opt to provide work place literacy programs, training and development packages, and encouraging their employees to learn how to learn, to keep up with a constantly changing global service based economy. Ethnic make up and increased number of women in the work force are also contributing factors for adult learning. (5) The third factor that should be considered is the explosion in the information technology sector. With the development and advancement of computers within the last decade or two, an environment has been created in which the settings for a formal training session, has been outdated. The society is experiencing an increase in mental ability which is growing drastically with the availability of horizontal networks and the advancement of telecommunications. Information is rapidly distributed and easily available and accessible. This causes for efficient use of information. This allows the learner to have better access with those who teach information access skills, it helps the development of higher levels of thinking skills while at the same time, it creates a comfortable environment for the educators. Although consideration must be given to the ethical implication of the information access creates. (1) The three factors above have become intertwined forces. Demographics, the global economy, and technology have come together in adult education in the blurring of the field’s content and delivery mechanisms, dividing up the setting for adult education into formal, non-formal and informal activities. Blurring is also occurring in higher education sector where older students are now making up for about 50 percent of the college attendees, and finally, a blurring of content and delivery is found in such popular slogans as â€Å"workplace literacy† and â€Å"critical thinking. † which focuses on development of skills needed to be productive and informed members of a highly technical society. There are three types of opportunities in which learning occurs for adult: Formal institutional setting, non-formal setting and informal setting. For most adult, learning in adulthood brings to mind a classroom setting. Yet when we ask these same adult about what they have learned informally over the last year, they typically respond with descriptions of learning activities outside these formal settings. However, the use of technology has increase the delivery of learning programs, expanding our picture of learning in an informal setting. Informal learning occurs most often in ones natural setting in which we learn things from our daily experiences. On the other hand, non-formal settings have been used most often to describe learning opportunities outside the formal educational setting that complement the needs of underserved adults such as churches. Knowing why some adults participate in adult education does not tell us why many don’t . The two often cited reasons for non participation are lack of time and money. There is no single theory or model that can explain or predict participation in adults education . The main reasons most commonly used are cite job-related motives, achieving some other personal goal, sake of the activity itself, social relationship (making a new friend), external expectation (complying with the wishes) and cognitive interest engaged for sake of learning itself. Nonparticipation has been from the perspective of the individual’s motivation, attitudes, beliefs, and so on .However they may be social factors that influence the decision . This can also be family-related. (2) Whatever the stated or actual purposes of a learning activity, adult education is usually a form of social intervention that often begins with a problem that needs to be solved . What is seen as problematic depends on one’s values, social position, and perspective. The purpose of adult education today for which there is public support, clusters around the ability of the United States to sustain a competitive edge in the global economy. Purpose of adult education is to improve the self and to improve society. In America all individuals have access and the opportunity to benefit through education. (4) In total the answer to the question of who benefits is clear: It is those who have benefited in the past, and those who have the â€Å"cultural capital†. Those most likely to be the recipients of the dominant cultures are those who, as a result of birth and upbringing, have already acquired the cultural capital to receive it and to take advantage of opportunities. Everyone can improve his/her life situation through learning, every adult can choose to participate in any adult learning activity . There are other reason that certain adults have more access to learning opportunities than other adult . Where one happens to live, what color, age, or sex one happens to be, what one does for a living, all contribute to the participation pattern in adult education (framework) by way of illustrating how these framework conditions can determine who is more likely to benefit from adult learning opportunities. Where and how one lives makes a difference. (3) Individual educators and individual learners are likely to be fairly explicit about why they are engaged in a particular learning activity. Such easily identified objectives are usually aligned with the content of the activity. Underlying many of the state purposes of adult education in America is the assumption that the idea of a society must be maintained, and that education is one way to do this. Individualism, Independence, and a protestant-capitalist work ethic frame the actual provision of adult education in America. (1) Several things are known about self-directed learning: (a) Individual learners can become empowered to take increasingly more responsibility for various decisions associated with the learning endeavor; (b) Self-direction is best viewed as a continuum or characteristic that  exists to some degree in every person and learning situation; (c) Self-direction does not necessarily mean all learning will take place in isolation from others; (d) Self-directed learners appear able to transfer learning, in terms of both knowledge and study skill, from one situation to another; (e) self-directed study can involve various activities and resources, such as self-guided reading, participation in study groups, internships, electronic dialogues, and reflective writing activities; (f) Effective roles for teachers in self-directed learning are possible, such as dialogue with learners, securing resources, evaluating outcomes, and promoting critical thinking. (g) Some educational institutions are finding ways to support self-directed study through open-learning programs, individualized study options, non-traditional course offerings, and other innovative programs. ( 1) self –directed learning as a process of learning , in which people take the primary initiative for planning, carrying out, and evaluating their own learning experiences, has received a great deal of attention in the literature. This form of learning can take place in both inside and outside institutionally based learning programs. (2) Staff development that improves the learning of all students applies knowledge about human learning and change. No matter the age at which it occurs, human learning is based on a common set of principles. While adults have more life experience to draw on than younger learners and are often clearer about what they want to learn and why it is important, the means by which the learning occurs is remarkably similar. Consequently, it is important that the learning methods used in professional development mirror as closely as possible the methods teachers are expected to use with their students. It is essential that staff development assist educators in moving beyond comprehension of the surface features of a new idea or innovation to a fuller and more complete understanding of its purposes, critical attributes, meaning, and connection to other approaches. To improve student achievement, adult learning under most circumstances must promote deep understanding of a topic and provide many opportunities for teachers and administrators to practice new skills with feedback on their performance until those skills become automatic and habitual. Such deeper understanding typically requires a number of opportunities to interact with the idea or procedure through active learning processes that promote reflection such as discussion and dialogue, writing, demonstrations, practice with feedback, and group problem solving. Because people have different learning styles and strengths, professional development must include opportunities to see, hear, and do various actions in relation to the content. It is also important those educators are able to learn alone and with others and, whenever possible, have choices among learning activities. Another important dimension of adult engagement in change processes is the feelings that such change often evokes in individuals. Even under the best of circumstances, pressure for change, no matter what its source, may produce feelings of anxiety, fear, and anger. Such feelings are most effectively addressed through skillful listening and problem solving within a respectful and trusting school culture. It is helpful for educational leaders to appreciate that, to some degree, such feelings are natural and an inevitable part of the change process. Such appreciation is aided when leaders have a deep understanding of the change literature, particularly the Concerns- Based Adoption Model, and are able to apply its insights when planning and implementing new practices in schools. A third dimension of change is the life stage of individuals engaged in the change process. While recognition of life stage differences would not alter expectations for performance, it may affect an individual’s availability and interest in additional work responsibilities during different phases of his or her life. Recognition of life stage differences may also help staff development leaders in tapping educators’ strengths and talents, such as asking skillful veteran teachers to serve as mentors or coaches for their peers. Electronic forms of learning may prove particularly helpful in providing alternatives that respond to differences in learning styles and availability due to life stage issues. Staff development content may be accessed via the Internet or other forms of distance technology that will enable learning throughout the day in various settings using media that appeals to different learning preferences. (6) References: 1-What is self directed learning? Http://home. twcny. rr. com/hiemstra/sdlhdbk. html 2-Read write plus, DFES, Quality and Training Http://www. dfes. gov. uk/readwriteplus/quality 3-Finding from a national survey of States Directors of Adult Http://www. ncsall. net/fileadmin/resources/reasearch/rep9. pdf 4-Acve-Race and Gender in Adult Education Http://www. calpro-online. org/ERIC/docgen. asp? tbl=tia&ID=92 5-How adults learn: Ageless learner Http://www. agelesslearner. com/intros/adultlearning. html 6-NSDC-Standards: About the Standards-Learning Http://www. nsdc. org/standards/learning. cfm.