Adult Learners

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Fielding Shaanxi Project Specifications

This page is for discussion purposes only and does not represent a definitive profile of adult learners.


I'm putting this page together to collect material about our understandings of Adult learners in the context of vocational and technical education and referencing the Agreement document that specifies that we develop courses that include these topics:
  • Strategies for adult education in vocational technical programs in the United States (Teaching Philosophy/Ideology, curriculum development, overview of teaching/learning strategies/determining that learning has occurred, etc).
  • Philosophy, methods and approaches in vocational education.
  • Teaching Methods (Lectures, On-line, hands-on, repetitive learning exercises, on-the-job-training strategies, developing Communities of Learners, Coaching Strategies, etc)
  • Developing teacher education programs for use in Shaanxi Province – Assuring Educational Effectiveness [1]

Theories of Adult Learning
Assumptions about adult learners taken from Cafferella( 2002)[2] . Adults:
  • have a rich background of knowledge and experience and learn best when this experience is acknowledged and new information builds on their past knowledge and skill.
  • are motivated to learn based on a combination of complex internal and external forces
  • have preferred and different ways or processing information
  • are not likely to engage in learning unless the learning is meaningful to them.
  • are pragmatic in their learning; they want to apply their learning to present situations
  • come to a learning situation with their own personal goals and objectives which may not be the same as those that underlie the learning situation
  • prefer to be actively involved in the learning process rather than passive recipients of knowledge.
  • learn in an interdependant, connected, and collaborative ways as well as independent, self-reliant modes.
  • are more receptive to the learning process in situations that are both physically and psychologically comfortable
  • learning is affected by the many roles they play as adults (worker, parent, partner, friend, spouse) and their own personal contexts as learners ( gender, race, ethnicity, social class, disabilities, and cultural background.

Androgogy

Many in the field of adult learning cite Malcolm Knowles as the first to comprehensively articulate the core principles of Androgogy. [3]

With respect to the design of learning, Knowles refers to the following principles:
  • Adults need to know why they need to learn something

  • Adults need to learn experientially,

  • Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and

  • Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.

These principles have been fitted into various models for practice.

Androgogy_in_Practice.jpg

Addressing Cultural Differences

There have been useful challenges to the concept of adrogogy and the objections are helpful in forming a more rounded understanding of learning in adulthood. Sandlin lists a number of problematic assumptions from a critical analytic point of view:
  • Andragogy assumes wrongly that education is value neutral and apolitical.
  • Andragogy promotes a generic adult learner as universal with White middle-class values.
  • Andragogy ignores other ways of knowing and silences other voices.
  • Andragogy ignores the relationship between self and society.
  • Andragogy is reproductive of inequalities; it supports the status quo. [4]

Communities of Practice
LLP in COP
10 core concepts of Communities of Practice.
  • sharing goals,
  • trust and respect,
  • shared history,
  • identity,
  • shared spaces for idea negotiation,
  • influence,
  • autonomy,
  • team collaboration,
  • personal fulfillment, and
  • events embedded in real world practices, and
  • rewards, acknowledgments,
  • and fulfilling personal needs
  1. ^ http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATHRjA-MYy9ZZGZudnF3eDhfMjg2dm1tbWYzcg&hl=en
  2. ^ Caffarella, R. S. (2001). Planning Programs for Adult Learners: A Practical Guide for Educators, Trainers, and Staff Developers, 2nd Edition (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
  3. ^ Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2005). The adult learner: The definitve classic in adult education and human resource development. Butterworth-Heinemann.
  4. ^ Sandlin, J. (2005). Androgogy and its discontents: An analysis of andragogy from three critical perspectives. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, 14(2005), 25-42.