Being a teacher of adult education is a very demanding job. It requires an absolute commitment towards embedding real-life tasks into the curriculum to make learning more meaningful and purposeful for adults (Early & DeCosta, 2007, p.1). At the heart of it, teaching adults really is about being flexible enough to address the needs of an individual student; being creative enough to challenge adult students’ ways of thinking; and finally being sensitive enough to understand that some students’ paths towards higher education can be more challenging than ours (Early & DeCosta, 2007, p.2). In other words, a good teacher of adult education is a teacher who is able to inspire and motivate students to think differently, read and write meaningfully, and communicate purposefully. In this paper, I will present a critique of an adult education program that I designed and taught to a group of twenty-five adults for the Toronto District School Board. I will begin this paper by providing a brief overview of this program and the thought processes that helped me to design this program. In the second section of this paper, I will explore my biases and underlying assumptions about adult education, and how it impacted my teaching process. In this section, I will also explore theoretical perspectives through which I can approach adult education. Lastly, I will present two lesson plans that I have created through which I can engage my adult students in the learning process in an engaging, thoughtful, meaningful and constructive manner. Overview of the Program In the fall of 2010, part of my teaching assignment was to teach a grade 12 English course to a group of twenty-five adults, between the ages of ...
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...engaging, thoughtful, and useful tasks. The point of all learning assignments should be student development – there is no point in teaching how to write compare/contrast essays if they are not going to be useful to students in their future academic careers.
• Provide books and materials that reflect students’ cultural, linguistic and social backgrounds. Adult students need to be able to see themselves reflected in the curriculum in order to be able to connect literacy learning to their life experiences.
• Provide opportunities for “learning beyond the classroom” to make learning hands-on and enjoyable (“Cooperative education,” 2000, p.8). Create assignments that utilize field trips, guest lectures, and work experience as sources of information through which students can create their own understandings of the larger world by building upon their existing knowledge.
...e level.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, v. 39, no. 6 (March 1996): 436-445. [E Journal]
How to attract and retain adult students is an enduring question for providers of adult education. Adult students must juggle competing demands on their time from study, family, work, and other commitments; their learning goals are often different from those of educational institutions and providers; and their needs and aspirations may change during the education process, sometimes as a result of it. This Brief reviews recent research related to adult student recruitment and retention and provides guidelines for recruiting and retaining adult learners.
Adults are self-motivated. They learn best by building on what they already know and when they are actively engaged (Lindeman, 2010). The approach of adult education revolves around non-vocational ideals and is based on experience rather than subjects (Lindeman, 2010). It helps adults gain knowledge about their powers, capacities, and limitations (Funnell et al, 2012).
Tchudi, Susan J, and Stephen Tchudi. The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999. Print.
The target audience is two sections of the Advanced Placement English Class. There are approximately 24 students in each class. These students are in their final year of high school at St. Pius X Catholic High School. The classes are coed, ranging in ages between 17-18 years old. The...
The Alexander Report understood that adult education should help those at a disadvantage whether they are unemployed, lone parents, early school leavers, older people or ethnic minority communities (Tett, 2010). Participation in CLD was expected to enable these groups and individuals to build their capacities as well as promotion of lifelong learning and social inclusion. The Alexander Report believed that ‘adult education should be regarded as an aspect of community education and should, with youth and community services, be incorporated into a community education service’. The Alexander Report wanted to escape from the more traditional school-based classes that had very low involvement and instead create a new service which will have a curriculum within the local community, allowing it to be more relevant and therefore more appealing, resulting in participation. The Report argues for change and qualitative improvement and redirection, rather than an expansion that was more of the same (McConnell, 1999).
The learning process for adults is never ending and can be very challenging. As an adult educator, teaching adult learners you will face many challenges in the learning process. It is our responsibility to keep the learners engaged, and to help them to realize their full learning potential.
Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.
Hiemstra, R., & Sisco, B. (1990). Moving from pedagogy to andragogy. Foundations of Adult Education: Critical and Contemporary Issues, Retrieved from http://www-distance.syr.edu/literature.html
On writing assignment two, we had to compare and contrast two items and write an essay about them. In this paper I chose FM radio and Satellite radio; because I want to get in the radio field after graduation and I thought it would be good to know the difference. I already knew the basics of radio but I wanted to dig deep and find out how it’s ran and why people pay for satellite radio. Although this was the second writing assignment in class it was the most challenging for me because I had to take my personal feelings out of it and give the reader facts so they can choice what’s best for them. I believe when you do compare and contrast essays it’s important that you come to the table with a clear mind and blank sheet of paper.
Analysis: having been through the adult learning experience I have realised the roll of learner and teacher in this approach. An effective teacher can facilitate the development of independence, self confidence, learning satisfaction and help students (the learner) to critical think. This experience has taught me that there are different styles of learning and teaching that I can adopt in my future.
Teaching the adult student is a great and unique responsibility; Andragogy preaches that teaching the adult learner takes a certain skill set and approach in order to be highly effective. The adult teaching theory and approach is based off the characteristics of the adult student. Andragogy views the adult learner as a very highly motivated student, a student ready and prepared to learn, and a student that comes to class with expectations of learning (Knowles 1984, pg12). With such a capable learner in the classroom the teacher must make the necessary adjustments. When teaching the adult learner, the teacher will have respect for their students and respect the fact that each student will have their own individual learning style. The teacher will also allow the adult student to experie...
At one point or another in most everyone’s life, they have encountered positive and negative educational experiences. Most everyone I know can recall a favorite teacher that inspired them, as well as a teacher that they didn’t like so much, or maybe it wasn’t the teacher but the environment or delivery that makes educational experiences meaningful and memorable. I too have had these experiences, experiences where the teacher was sweet and kind, ones where the delivery was boring or energetic and ones where the environment created the mood for learning. All of these play into the educational experiences we have. It is the goal of this paper to reflect on an educational experience in which it was not conducive to the adult learner and compare that experience with Knowles’ Assumptions of Adult Learning. I hope to shed light on how adult education can move from the Traditional Learning Context, into the Andragogical context, meeting the needs of adult learners in today’s society.
Within the andragogical model described by Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (2015), adults need learning experiences that are different than those found in the pedagogical model. Instead of waiting for experiences that are directed and controlled by a teacher, adults need to have a clear rationale and understanding for the learning, feel past experiences are valuable, and have a developed internal system for motivation in order to help a learning experience be successful. The connection and orientation to the learning task, the readiness to learn, and self-concept are other important ideas to adult learning.
In summary, I guess I disagree with the theory that adults learn differently than children. I think we all learn the same. I think it is the strategy that is different. I believe that the role of any good educator is to guide the learner into connecting what they are learning in the classroom to their world.