Adult educator comes from all walks of life with different views about learning and their learners. Adult educator can improve their methods by examining and reflecting on this belief. This paper will look into my philosophical position on adult education including my beliefs over the last nine years. My beliefs as an adult educator fall within the category of progressive and humanistic adult education which contributes to the values examined.
I will be discussing Learning to learn; how a teacher belief and behaviour can influence the classroom; collaborative learning and opportunities for learning. I will be providing examples of how my own beliefs and assumptions have shaped my practice and why it’s important to recognise that everyone is cable of developing learning to learn regardless of age and background.
As an adult educator my philosophical position is between progressive and humanistic (refer Appendix 1). Over the years my position has shifted due to changing job role. Five years ago my classroom practices were to control my environment with the aim to achieving the learning outcomes. Every lesson involved a typical demonstrate of the skill followed by the students attempt the task through a process of trial and error and finally feedback and reinforcement of the desired behaviour was provided this is what a philosophy outlined in behavioural adult education provide as outlined by Elias & Merriam (1995) in Zinn (1998, p. 70).
Over the last nine years have developed on a professional and personal level and that my stance on adult education is more in line with guiding and facilitating learning; implementing past experience; problem solving and helping adult learners unlock their potential.
Learning to learn is as i...
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Smith, P. & Dalton, J. (2005b). Getting to grips with learning styles: relevance and good practice in VET. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
Tovey, M. & Lawlor, D. (2008). Training in Australia (3rd Ed.). Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education Australia.
Training Packages@Work. (2008). Back 2 Basics (3rd ed.). Training Packages@Work.
Tusting, K. & Barton, D. (2006). Models of adult learning: a literature review: Institute of Education University of London: National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy.
Zinn, L.(1998). Identifying your philosophical orientation, and Philosphy of adult education inventory. In M. Galbraith (Ed.), Adult learning methods: A guide for effective instruction (2nd ed., pp. 37-72). Malabar, F.L: R. E. Kreiger.
Horton was interested in education for social change, he advocated that education be grounded in the learner’s experiences and included the use of questions to stimulate self-examination as well as examination of social systems. Horton’s approach to adult education has several key features. The key features in Horton’s approach are leadership development, social analysis, experience, learning and social meaning. (Pyles, 2013) Myles Horton’s organizing framework is a transformative approach anchored in the belief that societal change necessarily entrails a change in consciousness. (Pyles, 2013) Horton and his cohorts believed that people themselves are the authorities on their experiences and thus on their own learning needs and educational agendas. (Pyles, 2013)
“Principles in Practice: Assessing Adult Learning Focused Institutions.” CAEL: The Council of Adult and Experiential Learning. CAEL. (2005) Wed. 20 October, 2012.
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.
What is andragogy? Andragogy consists of a theoretical model of six assumptions that was developed by Malcolm Knowles in order to “distinguish adult learning and adult education from other areas of education” (Mirriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 83). And so, andragogy might also be defined in terms of the efforts of “multiple researchers and scholars” (Henschke, 2011, p. 35) searching for a way to “establish andragogy as a proven theory and strong method for teaching adults” (Henschke, 2011, p. 35). But why is the topic of andragogy important for both adult learners and teachers? It is important because in order to effectively teach adult learners we must first “be cognizant of the differences which adult students bring to the classroom” (Schultz, 2012, p. 1) and to also understand that among adult learners, there exist “varying expectations and reasons for learning” (Schultz, 2012, p. 1). Andragogy is more¬over important to adult learners and teachers because both “learners and educators alike can use [it] to strengthen the learning transaction” (Mirriam et al., 2007, p. 84). With this brief definition of andragogy, along with the corresponding reason for its importance in mind, what now follows is what this paper is going to be about. The topic of this paper is an evaluation of whether or not the traditional learning environment is conducive to learning for adult learners as opposed to the andragogical environment. And the dual purpose hereof is to first briefly relate my own personal experience in a traditional learning context (under the heading of a ‘Traditional Learning Environment’), and then to reflect upon whether or not that traditional context (this time under the heading of ‘Andragogy Reflection’) i...
This essay is to consider and discuss how I might apply the theories of Malcolm Knowles, in my own current or future training work. The essay will include a brief biography on Malcolm Knowles, and his theory on adult education / learning andragogy, to include definitions of andragogy and pedagogy, which has been the mainstay of all education theory for hundreds of years.
One theorist that is relevant to this study is Malcolm Knowles’s theory of adult learning. Though Malcom Knowles may not be the first one to introduce adult learning, he was the one that introduced andragogy in North America. (McEwen and Wills 2014). Andragogy means adult learning. The core concept of Knowles’s Adult learning theory is to create a learning environment or awareness for adults to understand why they learn .Knowles developed six main assumptions of adult learners. Those assumptions are the need to know, self- concept, experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning and motivation. (McEwen and Wills, 2014)
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
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.
Preparing myself with the knowledge of best practices for teaching adult learners will be contributing to the learners’ learning styles. There are many workshops and trainings available that will help me to accomplish this career goal, such as the Effective Teaching Training Workshop. The Effective Teaching Training Workshop addresses the diversity of learning styles that are suitable for the adult learner, how to motivate the adult learner, and being able to recognize when the adult learner is approaching a pitfall. Radovan & Makovec (2015) suggested there is no doubt that one of the most important influences on learning is motivation, so a significant amount of research has investigated how to create learning experiences that are as motivational as possible in order that participants’ needs be met and satisfaction with learning be
Brookfield discusses the popularity of the concept of self-directed learning, and how Tough’s learning projects (1971), Gugliemino’s Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (as cited in Brookfield, 1985), and Knowles’ depiction of andragogy (1985). Particularly, he states that self-directed learning has precisely put the adult learners on the center stage and this research should be put the adult learner on the center stage and this research should be given credit for solidifying learning outside of formal education (Brookfield, 1985). The rapid acceptance of the term in the adult education field is another concern of Brookfield; probably, this promotion of the term reflects our need for acceptance in the critical world of the social sciences. Also, he reports self-directed learning is actually an inappropriate name; there is always the influence of other people through the resources of the self-directed
Embedded in this argument is another debate over whether adult education actually did set out with a social purpose that has been lost. A strong practice of adult education for social change is apparent in the work of Paulo Freire in Latin America and Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School. Their influence continues, although "well on the margins of the adult education mainstream" (Heaney 1996, p.
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.
Andragogy is focusing on creating good learning experiences for adults(2013). Here, we should understand some assumptions about the boundary of adult and pre-adult. First , Adult learner can do self-direct learning (chapter 4), and can study independent than the pre-adult or children who are totally learning rely on teachers---learner’s self-concept, also this part is the most engaged part with learning. The second assumption is the most impressive and helpful. Adult learner have more experience than other learner, that means, adult’s prior experience have a big difference feeling or motivation with other adults. Take myself for example, when I was in high school, my orientation for study was went into a good University; whereas, right now, my orientation for study is to make my life different than before. It’s a internal motivation, because I experienced many things which I didn’t experienced in high school. The part “the need to know” makes me feel distanced from
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...
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.