Adult Education Philosophy: My Philosophy
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.
In the NAVY, initially our technical rate training utilized more of the Behaviorist learning theory. As learners our teachers were focused on changing our behaviors and modifying them from the civilian way of thinking to building a solid military foundation from which to build upon. It was John B. Watson an American psychologist who codified and publicized behaviorism that said, "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I 'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and the race of his ancestors” (Mcleod, S. 2008). This is exactly what was taking in place in boot camp, we were those infants. After mastering those basic skills and learning from all the trial and errors we transitioned into the progressive learning philosophy. The Progressive philosophy enabled us to pass on the knowledge learned from all our trial and errors to others. We started solving problems, as our equipment broke down we started trouble shooting and repairing the equipment ensuring our submarine was able to stay underway and complete the mission. With the downsizing of our military our leaders were constantly looking for new ways to do our jobs with fewer personnel more ...
... middle of paper ...
...st part we have learned to accept our differences as individuals and have moved on. Although we may accept diversity others may have huge personal hang ups, which will prevent positive learning from taking place. As a teacher we need to identify and knock down these learning barriers to create a positive learning environment.
As I researched and studied the 5 teaching and learning philosophies. I believe the humanistic philosophy is the most appropriate for adult learners. However, dependent upon our adult learners, in order to be an effective adult educator we must remain flexible and be willing to adjust our teaching style and delivery method. In doing so we must utilize basic fundamentals from each of the five learning philosophies to reach our adult learners allowing opportunity for positive learning to taking place for both the learner as well as the teacher.
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).
What is the purpose of education? A question that has been asked for centuries and defined in many ways; each theorist will argue their views on education is unsurpassed, yet it remains a question, that the future of our children depends upon. My personal philosophy of education is to create an environment that allows every child the freedom and ability to discover, create and pursue their interests; ultimately becoming the best they can, for an evolving and unpredictable future. Within this framework, the purpose being to encourage learning through children’s interests, by personalising education for the individual and interlacing subjects to engage and entice learning. While discussing my personal philosophy of education, I will explain the aim of education, consider the role of the teacher and the learner and present effective teaching methods and practices for within the classroom. This essay will demonstrate that Dewey, Friedman, Neill, Noddings, Robinson, and Zhao, support my personal philosophy and prove in contrast with the theories of Skinner and Rousseau.
Diversity in the classrooms will give students access to experience other cultures and learn about one another. The different races effect how varied their backgrounds might be, and it will help the teacher engage a variety of ways to manage course material (Packard, 2017). According to Packard, it is up to the teacher to help spread the learning of diversity and use it to their advantage in their classroom. Throughout the years, diversity have grown in the classrooms, but the struggle of segregation continues.
As a teacher, I will have to keep this in mind for all my students. Fostering an environment that cultivates and promotes the pluralistic society that we live in will be beneficial. It can help to combat the deficit approaches in education that stifle or suppress minority culture and language while promoting acceptance of a multicultural and equitable society. I hope to be able to work towards this type of classroom. With self evaluation and acceptance of student ideas, I believe that I can create this environment.
My Educational philosophy is defined in becoming a teacher as a set of ideas and beliefs about education that guide the professional behavior of educators. Also included in educational philosophy are one’s beliefs about teaching and learning, students, knowledge and what is worth knowing. My five general purposes for philosophy of education are: to set goals of plan, to teach useful and relevant information, be aware of students learning styles, modeling positive cooperative behavior, to look for solutions and to make sure those solutions are working.
The importance of working with adult learners is to instruct in a fashion that best fits their learning ability and personal needs. Adult learners are individual that in some case have been out of school for an extended period of time, or are building onto their current knowledge or career. Adult learners are in charge of their own learning unlike with younger students and how their required to attend school until the set age limit of 17 years old. For educators there are four aspects to instructing adult learners efficiently and effectively, which consist of motivating, informing, monitoring, and engaging (Pappas, 2013). By educating students utilizing these four aspects, the probability of success highly increases this encouraging more
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.
Adults have had a lifetime of experiences. These make adult learners more heterogenous than younger learners and also provide an additional base of knowledge that can be used in the classroom or technology-based learning experience. Adults want to use what they know and want to be acknowledged for having that knowledge. Adults are independent and have the ability to self direct their own learning. The adults keen to learn if it is directly linked to needs related to fulfilling their roles and coping to life changes (Merriam&Mohamad, 2000).
middle of paper ... ... Several teachers do not know how to receive the support they need. Diversity in classrooms is both positive and negative. However, if teachers are provided with the right resources and keep an open mind, their students can become successful civil human beings.
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.
Popular education is a form of adult education that encourages learners to examine their lives critically and take action to change social conditions. It is "popular" in the sense of being "of the people." Popular education emerged in Latin America in the 1960s-1970s; Paulo Freire is its best known exponent. However, its roots may be found in the French Revolution, in workers' education of the 1920s-1930s, and in such movements as the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee (Beder 1996; Jeria 1990). The goal of popular education is to develop "people's capacity for social change through a collective problem-solving approach emphasizing participation, reflection, and critical analysis of social problems" (Bates 1996. pp. 225-226). Key characteristics of popular education are as follows: everyone teaches and learns, so leadership is shared; starting with learners' experiences and concerns; high participation; creation of new knowledge; critical reflection; connecting the local to the global; and collective action for change (Arnold et al. 1985; Mackenzie 1993). This digest describes popular education methods, addresses challenges, and offers some insights for adult educators.
Adult learning does not occur in a vacuum. What one needs or wants to learn, what opportunities are available, the manner in which one learns-all are to a large extent determined by the society in which one lives. Whenever adults are asked about their learning, they most often mention education and training programs sponsored by the workplace, colleges and universities, public schools, and other formal organizations. They first picture classrooms with “students” learning and “teachers” teaching in a highly structured format. Yet when we ask these same adults about what they have learned informally over the last year, they typically respond with descriptions of learning activities outside these formal settings. They discuss, for example, remodeling a house, which has involved everything form reading and talking...