Adult Learning Theory Portfolio

Adult Learning TheoryPortfolioSpring 2011Beth Martin

A synopsis of my readings for the semester.

1

Stephen Brookfield - The Power of Critical Theory: Liberating Adult Learning and

Teaching 4

Ellinger - Contextual Factors Influencing Informal Learning in a Workplace Setting:

The Case of “Reinventing Itself Company” 9

A Culture of Fear: Education and the Disconnected Life 12

Peter Jarvis - The Social Context of Adult Learning 15

John R. Rachel - The Social Context of Adult and Continuing Education 18

Boshier, et al - Market Socialism Meets the Lost Generation: Motivational

Orientations of Adult Learners in Shanghai 21

Cyril Houle - Two Educations 24

Establishing Inclusion Among Adult Learners 26

Boshier and Collins - The Houle Typology after Twenty-two years: a large scale

empirical test 30

What Motivates Adults to Learn 32

Jennifer Sandlin - Andragogy and Its Discontents: An Analysis of Andragogy from

Three Critical Perspecties 35

Daniel D. Pratt - Andragogy After Twenty Five Years 38

Patricia Cross - Facilitating Learning 40

Malcolm Knowles - Andragogy: An Emerging Technology for Adult Learning 44

Kasworm, et al - Adult Learners in Higher Education 48

Timothy G. Hatcher - The Ins and Outs of Self-Directed Learning 51

2

Andrea D. Ellinger - The Concept of Self-Directed Learning and Its Implications for

Human Resource Development 53

Sharan B. Merriam - Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning

Theory 58

Gerald A. Straka - Conditions promoting self-directed learning at the workplace 60

Gerald Grow - Teaching Learners to be Self Directed 62

Kiely, Sandmann, Truluck - Adult Learning Theory and the Pursuit of Adult Degrees 64

3

Stephen Brookfield - The Power of Critical Theory: Liberating Adult Learning and Teaching

Terms:

Criticality

Hegemony

Lifeworld

commodificationd

People to Explore Further:

bell hooks

Frankfurt school

Gramsci

HOrkheimer

ARonowitz

Habermas

Cornel West

Adorno

Marcuse

Foucault

Althusser

4

The Big Ideas

Theory is important to practice and the domain of the academy

Theory is useful to the extent that it provides us with understandings that illuminate

what we observe and experience (5)

Allows us to see how many of our private troubles are produces by systematic

constraints and contradictions (5)

Bringing relevant practice to the reflexive nature of critical theory (7)

Theory can help us change (7)

Theory offers radical hope (8)

4 traditions of criticality (12)

Ideology critique – systemic critical reflection and allows for reflection on a

variety of ideologies: capitalism, communism, facism, etc…

Psychoanalytically and psychotherapeutically tradition – emphasizes criticality in

adulthood as the indentification and reappraisal of inhibitions acquired in

childhood as a result of various traumas

Analytical philosophy and logic – the process by which we become more skillful

in argument analysis

Pragmatist constructivism – the way people learn to construct and deconstruct

their own experiences and meanings

Brookfield follows ideology critique as the key critique

Updating Marxist analysis in light of critical theory (18)

5 characteristics of critical theory

5

Firmly grounded in political analysis (23)

Concern to provide people with knowledge and understandings intended to free

them from oppression (25)

Breaks down the separation of subject and object (26)

Normatively grounded (27) – situated somewhere between social science and

practical philosophy

There is no way to verify the theory until it comes to fruition (29) (couldn’t you

say the same about a lot of things…there is no way to know adults learn until

they learn?)

Centrality of learning (33)

Investigate how dominate ideologies educate people to believe certain ways

of organizing society are in their own best interests when the opposite is true

Illuminate how the spirit of capitalism, and of technical and bureaucratic

rationality, enters into and distorts everyday relationships

Understand how people identify and then oppose the ideological forces and

social processes that oppress them

Critial posture – adult learning should display a self-critical stance toward its own

propositions (32) (guard against its own entombment as a “grand theory” meant to

explain all social interaction, for all people and for all time)

We must be self-critical and turn a self-referential and skeptical eye on our own

conclusions

Changes over the years (37)

6

Class is no longer the only unit of analysis

o Race, gender, etc

Power analysis (Foucault) subject power has been displaced by disciplinary

power (Foucault’s octagon – prison) (adult learning circle….)

Called into question the modernist underpinnings (unproblematic possibility

of individual and collective liberation, emancipation, and transformation)

The legacy of critical pragmatism has encouraged a skepticism regarding any

attempt to plunder methods and approaches that move from one context to

another

Central Theories

Critical theory

Criticality

Connections to Readings

Baudrillard ideas of consumption and commodification

Foucault’s ideas of power (particularly the octagon and adult ed)

Connections to area of study

Commidification of adult learning

7

Reflexive practice in adult learning

Power in adult learning

What is unclear

Application or Relevance to Diss

Everything since I plan to take a critical perspective

8

Ellinger - Contextual Factors Influencing Informal Learning in a Workplace Setting: The Case of “Reinventing Itself Company”

Terms:

Informal learning – learning resulting from the natural opportunities that occur

in a person’s working life when the person controls his or her own learning (395)

Organizational contextual factors – include any aspect of the organizational

environment that influenced the process of informal learning

Constructivist


The Big Ideas

Study the organizational context and factors that influence employee’s informal learning

(391)

Case Study method

Used the Critial Incident Technique (CIT) and semistructured in-depth interviews (397-

398). Though historically used to classify behaviors they collected learning incidents by

incorporating a constructivist approach in forming questions to look at attributions and

filters that shape the learning as well as those elements in the context that affect what

is paid attention to and what is salient, to the learner.

Four themes emerged in Positive Organizational Factors (400)

9

Learning-committed leadership and management

An internal culture committed to learning

Work tools and resources

People who form webs of relationship for learning

Eight themes for Negative Organizational Factors (404)

Leadership and Management not committed to learning

An internal culture of entitlement that is slowly changing

Work tools and resources

People who disrupt webs of relationships for learning

Structural inhibitors

Lack of time because of job pressures and responsibilities

Too much change too fast

Nor learning from learning

The internal culture that is committed to learning is key (409) leaders and managers

must facilitate (so is the group we should be addressing…not our peer reviewed

journals?)

HRD professionals can educate managers and leaders about the conditions that trigger

informal learning as well as the process of informal learning so that creation of learning

opportunities can be enhanced for employees and the process of informal learning can

be supported (412)

10

Central Theories

Theoretical framework came from Marsick and Watson, Watkins and MArsick models of

informal and incidental learning. The framework was informed by Argyris and Schon

who were informed by Dewey (394)

The model is a problem solving approach – informal and incidental learning are

influenced by how people frame a situation as a problem that is typically nonroutine

(394).

Constructivist approach

Used content analysis (399)



The method – content analysis – is useful for my interest area

What is unclear

Not so much unclear as some of the graphs were poor representations and hard to read

(401)


The method

11

A Culture of Fear: Education and the Disconnected Life

Terms:

alterity


CAmus

The Big Ideas

Educational institutions divide us through fear as it shuts down “experiments with truth”

which also shuts down our capacity to teach (36). (perhaps see with unions, fear of

Michelle Ree, TFA – are we necessary, can we change?)

We are tied to work – our self is our work (36)

When students and teachers fear than education is paralyzed (37)

Fear of power – institutional power (have to view this through a critical lens) (37) Fear

of the other – (alterity). We hide behind our supposed objectivity to alleviate the fear

(38).

Essentially a call to remove the binaries between us and them – accepting the other and

bringing the other into the conversation (38) We cannot transform with embracing the

other

3 areas we shut down

The lives of our students

Self-protective hearts

12

Our dominant way of knowing

Student aren’t as clueless as we think (41) We can’t just say they are “not good

enough” (41) we stereotype instead of exploring (41).

Consumers/consumption ideas (42)

How do we know (50) how is fear grounded in the “way we know” – the dominant mode

of knowing (which marginalizes the other) (50)

Object/subject binaries (51)

Objectivism both enlightens and minimizes can bring about advances and dictators (52)

– it killed the “self” in order to find truth. “facts unbiased by personal feeling is

characteristic of what may be termed the scientific frame of mind” (54) (Science is

influenced – not completely objective)

We can push into new ways of being by being honest about our fear instead of hiding

Central Theories

Critical theory

Social Construct/Context theories

The Other – Alterity

Marxist

Objectivism


Good example of theories – the other – relating to practice

13


Interested in the adult “other” and how we approach that in our practice. The student

from hell – online and in person – the ones in the middle are the “other” in a sense the

marginalized students

What is unclear

Objectivism vs positivism


I hope to explore the “other” in technology

14

Peter Jarvis - The Social Context of Adult Learning

Terms:


The Big Ideas

What is learning? Product vs process (2-3) Historically thought that behavior mod

(process) produced learning – instead of saying that learning is both process and

product (2-3) Learners don’t always act on what they have learned, but the failure to

act doesn’t mean that learning didn’t occur (3) Learning was the result of observations

(the positivist/objectivist view).

Behaviorists more concerned with the technology of learning than understanding the

process (creating knowledge) (5)

Knowledge is created in the transformation of experience (6) experiential and reflective

Marlon and Saljo report on 5 qualitatively different approaches to learning

A quantitative increase in knowledge

Memorizing

Acquitision of facts, methods, etc, which can be retined and used when

necessary

Abstraction of meaning

An interpretative process aimed at understanding reality

15

Multiple processes (7)

Adult Ed and Adult Learning are confused because learning was synonomous with

enrolling in a course (8) education is an adjunct to learning (9)

Questioned Knowles research – is experience a better description than age (10)

(Knowles assumes that all adults are in a similar development phase – there may be

children who are more “adult” – how do we educate and do we need to divide “adult

and child” or should remove this binary as well)

Social conditions in which learning occurs are paramount – the external processes that

accompany the teaching and learning process (11)

Adult is a social status rather than a biological age (11)

We are born into a culture that shapes our learning and our teaching (12) because we

are socialized into a culture it appears to be objective but we objective culture (we give

it this appearance of normality by reinforcing the cultural norms) (12) Language is social

(language creates the social – it describes and determines what is right and wrong –

even language is right and wrong – ebonics/standard English) Language constrains by

pushing the norm culture and language outside is essentially the language “other”.

Language creates the “other” (12) People accept the culture and retransmit the culture,

but in turn the culture can change upon retransmission – over time culture can change

(14)

Sociologists have as much to do with understanding learning as psychologists (where are

the educators?) (14)

Learning is social (14)

16

Central Theories

Behaviorist

Objectivist/positivist

Humanist

Social Construction


Knowles work as a humanist – explores the holes in his work

Many of our readings explore the social construction of culture and knowledge. In

addition there are connections with Searle,


The language of adult learners and the cultural process again emphasizes the “other”.

Are we perceiving the adult as the “other” should adult (andragogy) be emphasized any

more than other forms of learning? How do we define adult

What is unclear


Language, the other, and technology

17

John R. Rachel - The Social Context of Adult and Continuing Education

Terms:


The Big Ideas

Adult Education has a symbiotic relationship with the environment in which it occurs (3)

Responds to and informs change (4)

Promotes tolerance, acceptance and change and reacts to it – how is workplace learning

pushing us to a more vocational ed and is that important

Adult education should improve society (4)

Examines demographic changes that affect adult learning (5)

Age

Ethinicity

o Which takes us back to the other

Income

Rural to urban

Adult Ed is often work related and the importance is indicated by demand from the

private sector (7) (Really we need the private sector to tell us it is important – I believe

that change occurred through adults that led the private sector to finally recognize its

importance).

How do you make a non-voluntary and mandated experience worthwhile (8)

18

Shifting roles of women and women in the workplace change adult ed (9) Adult Ed has

helped change attitudes toward gender roles (9)

The individual – pull yourself up - mentality affects adult ed because it assumes equal

opportunity which is a myth (10). You cannot advance via merit if there is no equal

opportunity (10)

Often those who may benefit the most (less formally educated) may access adult ed the

least (11) Often due to societal issues

Adult ed should be proactive (12)

Be careful of knowledge whose sole purpose is to promote conformity (the Pledge of

Allegiance for small children – how can they understand what they are pledging?) Also

promotes one particular world view that may be handed down by the elite (13)

Central Theories

Marxist

Social Construction


Knowledge is socially constructed

19


What is unclear


20

Boshier, et al - Market Socialism Meets the Lost Generation: Motivational Orientations of Adult Learners in Shanghai

Terms:

EPS – derived from Houle – Education Participation Scale

All sorts of stat stuff that I’m getting this semester (coefficient alphas)

Social contact vs Social stimulation


The Big Ideas

Adult education in China was wedded to production (work) 202. Not the learners needs

and desires

Individuals were subordinate to the work unit (203)

Chinese professors stated that learner needs should be addressed to keep up with the

modernization203)

Learners should enjoy educational democracy

Study examined motivation of Shanghai adult learners (204)

(Interesting that the EPS was translated – translation is change)

Participants in three age groups

Youngest

Middle-Aged

Oldest

21

Respondents were most influenced by (in order) (212)

Cognitive interest

Social contact

Educational preparation

Family togetherness

Commumication improvement

Social stimulation

Professional advancement

Gender and age are still good predictors in Shanghai (213)

Younger adult motivations is impelled by pragmatic considerations pertaining to

learning English, getting a job, securing admission to further education, and competing

with the market economy (214) (anecdotally this sounds similar to many young adults

today)

Women were more influenced by social stimulation as a factor (216)

Women were influenced by family togetherness (217)

Cognitive interest is minimal – “learning for learnings sake” (218-219)

Those motivated by social contact are less neurotic than those motivated by social

stimulation (219)

Gender and age differences were larger than those found in Western countries (220)

Adult Ed is variously considered : (221)

Individual

Program

22

Institutional

Policy matter

The west focuses on the first two and the East the latter

Central Theories

Radical functionalist (Marxist)


I would like to read more in this area to find more connections with the different

readings. Perhaps a qualitative study that could expand more for me

In terms of the “other” which Chinese may be an other in the West it would be

interesting to study the other in China


As educators it is important to see the “other” in their context

What is unclear


23

Cyril Houle - Two Educations

Terms:

Auto-didactics

Self-education


The Big Ideas

Some people have a desire to learn (3-4) The article focuses on those who are active in

educational activities (4)

Education programs are designed to limit clientele ( focusing on particular areas and

such) (6)

Essentially, age, background, culture, socio-economic status, gender and education level

play a factor in the pursuit of more ed (7)

Studies do not often address what people “think about what they do or why they do it”

(8)

Studies should look at the participant – the individual (9)

Study examined the lives of those actively involved in education (13)

Group very similar (15)

Deeply engaged in learning and both outsiders and themselves are perceived this

way

Viewed cont ed as important

24

Three subgroups (15-16)

Goal-oriented – those who view education as a means of accomplishing clear cut

objectives

Activity-oriented – Those who like the circumstance of learning

Learning-oriented – knowledge for knowledge sake

If the three subgroups are valid than adult education will benefit from study in this area

(30)

Central Theories

Individual vs. Society

Behaviorism


Appears to recognize some cultural differences (7) without a real cultural exploration.

Similar to some of our critiques – critical theory


What is unclear


25

Establishing Inclusion Among Adult Learners

Terms:

Immediacy

Expressiveness

Contact culture

Individualism

Collectivism

Power distance

Uncertainty

High context

Low context

Positionality

Positive interdependence

Comfort zones

Learning edge


The Big Ideas

Motivation is constantly influenced by our acute awareness of the degree of our

inclusion in a learning environment (90)

Instructor Challenges (900

26

Respect different cultures

Maintain a common learning culture

Culture differs in (92)

Use of Personal space

Distances maintained

Regard for territory

Along with genetics culture is a powerful shaper of our communication behavior (92)

Cultures often vary between individualism and collectivism (93) – this can be seen in the

same country among different ethnic groups (94) This affects communication and

nonverbal behavior (94)

Gender (95) – affect on communication behavior

Power Distance (95) – affect in intercultural communication

Uncertainty (96) – affects communication

High and Low Context – affect communication (97)

We must explore our positionality in the group our identity in the group and the effect it

may hae on the group (99)

Strategies (100-

Allow for introductions

Provide an opportunity for multidimensional sharing

Concretely indicate your cooperative intentions to help adults learn

Share something of value with your adult learners

Use collaborative and cooperative learning

27

o Positive interdependence

o Individual accountability – (watch for hitchhiking)

o Promote interaction

o Social skills

o Group processing

Clearly identify the learning objectives and goals for instruction

Emphasize the human purpose of what is being learned and its relationship to

the learners’ personal lives and contemporary situations

Assess learners current expectations and needs and their previous experience as

it relates to your course or training

Explicity introduce important norms and participation guidelines

When issuing mandatory assignments or training requirments, give your

rationale for these stipulations

To the degree authentically possible, reflect the language, perspective, and

attitudes of adult learners

Introduce the concepts of comfort zones and learning edges to help learners

accommodate more intense emotions during episodes of new learning

Acknowledge different ways of knowing, different languages, and different levels

of knowledge or skill to engender a safe learning environment

Central Theories

cRitical theory

28

Social construction



Great tools for exploring adult learning classrooms from a cultural inclusive environment

– create a learning culture -

What is unclear


Create an online learning culture

29

Boshier and Collins - The Houle Typology after Twenty-two years: a large scale empirical test

Terms:

Cluster analysis

Factor analysis

6 factor scoring key


The Big Ideas

Houle created a typology to describe adult learner orientations (114) – Boshier created

the EPS (116). Reluctance among the academy to discount Houles typology despite

flaws (118).

This study tested the veracity of Houle since Houle only used 22 respondents (119) and

cluster analysis was performed (122)

A solution of three clusters similar to Houles was discernable from the analysis (125) but

Hould did not anticipate the complexity of learners reason for participation (125)

EPS should use a 6 factor scoring key (127).

Adult Ed needs to sort, classify, and label its phenomena of interest (129)

30

Central Theories


Better description of Houle’s work and easier to see why it may be dismissed now


What is unclear


31

What Motivates Adults to Learn

Terms:

Connectedness

Attitude

Least Effort Principle

Change events

Relevance and choice

Deep Meaning

Pedagogical alignment


Mezirow

The Big Ideas

Both individual and socio-constructivist can inform ed practice (removing the binaries)

(68) What an individual finds relevant is often directly related to individual values,

which are social constructions (68)

Instructor and student are respected by each other (69)

Connectedness is essential (70)

Learning atmospheres should include their own social and cultural consciousness (71)

Exclusion is anthetic to learning (71)

32

Attitudes help us deal with recurrent events (72) Attitudes are learned so they can be

modified and changed (73) (better living through chemistry – the science of changing

attitudes)

Alter learning situations to better accommodate us if we had the choice (74)

Adults need to be seen personally endorsing their own learning (75)

Adult development takes place in a sociocultural context (75)

Meaning is the ordering of information that gives identity and clarity (76)

Motivation occurs when adult learners asses their competence as authentic to their lives

(78) competence allows them to become more confident (79)

Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsible Teaching is a model that respects

the inseparability of motivation and culture (79)

4 Essential conditions (81)

Establishing inclusion

Developing attitude

Enhancing meaning

Engendering competence

The MFCRT – is the foundation for a pedagogy that crosses disciplines and cultures to

respectfully engage all learners (88)

Central Theories

Socio-constructivism

Competence Theory

33

Situated Cognition



The “other” in adult ed – how to teach

What is unclear


The other and teaching again use this to examine technology

34

Jennifer Sandlin - Andragogy and Its Discontents: An Analysis of Andragogy from Three Critical Perspecties

Terms:

Africentrism


Habermas

Friere

The Big Ideas

Critiques andragogy from a critical theory perspective through a literature review.

Sandlin found 5 issues with andragogy that cut across most critical paradigms (27)

Assumes wrongly that education is value neutral and apolitical

Promotes a generic adult learner as universal with white middle-class values

Ignores other ways of knowing and silences other voices

Ignores the relationship between self and society

Is reproductive of inequalities; it supports the status quo

Examines these alternative practices of adult ed that situates the practice as well as

understands the power that is inherent in the practice (35). (Sandlin makes a convincing

argument about the deficiencies of andragogy and its roots in hegemonic practice)

(Biological and social differences must be addressed for true adult ed to occur otherwise

35

we are not helping those that the need it the – those that rarely seek education because

it is firmly grounded in white middle-class practices)

Sandlin asks that educators include these perspectives along with the traditional one of

andragogy

Central Theories

Liberal humanism

Critical Pedagogy

Feminist Critique

Africentric Critique


The debate of andragogy and theory seems clear when contrasted with the pedagogies

used for critique. The social context that permeates some of our reading is really

defined in this article and displays a hard look at the issue (That being said I am a huge

Sandlin fan from other articles) The other must be recognized as called for in previous

readings


As we look at the demographic changes we cannot ignore the other in terms of adult ed

and the perspectives that their culture/critique brings/.

36

What is unclear


37

Daniel D. Pratt - Andragogy After Twenty Five Years

Terms:


The Big Ideas

What is the contribution of andragogy to the profession (15) Four questions that

framed the debate (15-16)

What is learning

What are the antecedents to adult learning

How can we facilitate adult learning

What are the aims of adult learning

First since Lindeman to move beyond behaviorism (16)

Knowles examined the relationship between facilitator and learner (19)

Believes that the “widespread and uncritical adoption of a particular view of adults as

learners should not be the only measure by which we assess andragogy’s contribution”

(21)

There is a tension between freedom and authority (22) with andragogy leaning toward

learner freedom (22)

There is no value neutral position with regards to adult learning and facilitation (22)

38

Central Theories


Connection to to Sandlin – particulary English speaking American (17) Seems to be a

response to critics who question the hegemony and cultural situatedness of Knowles

work


What is unclear


39

Patricia Cross - Facilitating Learning

Terms:

Humanist

Phase theory

Disengagement theory

Activity theory

Theory of margin

Theory of continuity


The Big Ideas

Trying to build a theory of adult learning 3 ways (221-222)

Conceptualize a framework broad enough to cover almost any situation in ad ed

and then depend on a subsequent army of theorists and researchers to develop

the specifics appropriate for the various classes of situations

Start with a classroom of situations and attempt to develop some useful

interactions of teachers and students in such situations

Try to figure out what is unique and distinctive about adults as learners an then

to build a theory of adult learning by contrasting adult learners with children as

learners

40

Andragogy theory or not (223) Not sure if Knowles is advocating for a separate theory

or as a theory that should supplant pedagogy

There have been spirited debates about andragogy and whether it is a theory (225)

Much of the debate surrounds the lack of empirical research surrounding andragogy

(226) Many adult educators don’t like the idea of instruction because it is too controlled

and manipulated (227)

Still not sure if it is a foundation for a unifying theory of adult ed it does identify some

characteristics of adult learners that deserve attention (227)

Andragogy leads us to the questions (228)

Is it useful to distinguish the learning needs of adults from those of children? If

so are we talking about dichotomous differences or continuous differences?

What are we really seeking? Theory of learning? Theory of teaching? Both?

Do we have or an we develop, an initial framework on which successive

generations of scholars can build?

Most existing learning theories examine what is learned rather than to who is doing the

learning (233)

Offers the CAL model (Characteristics of Adult Learners) (234) which seeks to elucidate

differences between adult and child learners through personal and situational

characteristics.

CAL can also help account for the low level of self-direction on the part of some adults

(238) Educators role on the sociocultural continuum on CAL is adaptive and adjustive

(239)

41

CAL incorporates andragogy, developmental stage and phase theory into a common

framework (243)

CAL provides a framework for thinking about what and how adults learn (248)

The role of educators in the learning society is to develop gourmet learners an to e

responsive to their interests by providing a wide range of high-quality educational

options (251)

Central Theories

Humanist (228)

Developmental (229)

Behaviorism (232)

Phase theory

Disengagement theory (244)

Activity theory (245)

Theory of margin (245)

Theory of continuity (246)

42



What is unclear


43

Malcolm Knowles - Andragogy: An Emerging Technology for Adult Learning

Terms:

Self-concept


Havighurst

The Big Ideas

Takes issues with pedagogy being known as the art and science of teaching when its

roots come from paid meaning child (37) Pedagogy is based on the archaic notion that

education is about the transmittal of knowledge (37)

Andragogy assumptions (39)

His self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one

of being a self-directing human being

He accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes and increasing

resource for learning

His readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks

of his social roles

His time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to

immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts

44

from one of subject centeredness to one of problem centeredness (lots of he,

him, no other gender in this world)

Subject Centered Technological Implications (40)

The learning climate

Diagnosis of needs

The planning process

Conducting learning experiences

Evaluation of learning

Experience Tech Implications (44)

Emphasis on experiential techniques

Emphasis on practical application

Unfreezing and learning to learn from experience

Readiness to Learn (45) – adults have phases of growth like children (46)

Changes in developmental tasks

o Early adulthood 18-30

o Middle age 30-55

o Later maturity 55 and over

Technological implications (47)

o The timing of learnings

o The grouping of learners

Orientation to Learning Tech Inplications (48)

The orientation of adult eduators

45

The organization of curriculum

The design of learning experiences

Some assumptions about learning and teaching (49)

Adults can learn

Learning is an internal process

There are superior conditions of learning and principles of teaching

Implications for youth education – needs a new set of assumptions about the purpose of

youth education (54)

The process of program development (54)

The establishment of a climate conducive to adult learning

Creation of an organizational structure for participative planning

Diagnosis of needs for learning

Formulation of directions of learning (objectives)

Development of a design of activities

Operation of the activities

Rediagnosis of needs for learning (evaluation)

46

Central Theories



What is unclear


47

Kasworm, et al - Adult Learners in Higher Education

Terms:


The Big Ideas

Higher education has not benefitted from recent developments in learning

theory, which is inhibiting adult education and policies toward adult education. 449

The business community finds higher ed often irrelevant anecdotally I

have seen that the business community is interested in my degree, but not the actual

knowledge from my degree. Is this common...a credentialing tool that means little to

the "real world"?

More and more adult learners, but little economic or policy interest around their

contributions to the schools 450 I need to check the stats referenced in this section.

I am interested in the updated numbers.

anecdotally I've found that smaller schools - often private - focus

on adult learner, but as stated later in the article they are "cash cows"

National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education 452 look for this

and more recent position papers

Higher education has little in the way of policy research

One quote "an understanding of higher education that emphasizes the joyful,

spiritual, or social side of intellectual endeavor is moved to the periphery of our

48

vision...since these are not seen as contributing directly to economic productivity453

Are adult students coming up in the corporate era of higher ed is a credential,

therefore they just want an economic justification?

The link between FTE and money inhibits adult learners and subsequent

programs because they are not counted for funding.

Three paradoxes

1. Based in a new grounded understanding of access through the adult life span

455 context dependent

2. The issue of relationship and connectedness between the varied realities of

adult learners and the diverse knowledge structures and outcomes across credits, non-

credit, and community outreach. 456 facilitative model...not sage on the stage

3. Defining and reframing support for adults 457 money, services in

the evenings and weekends would be nice...so much support is still needed!!!!

Missions need to reflect the changing world of higher ed and the changing

student body. Not just the traditional 4-year student. 460 What is traditional

anymore...as the article states many "traditional" students work.

"The fortuitous result can be knowledge and learner-centered universities and

colleges that are accountable and responsive to changing needs in today's society.

461

Central Theories

cognitive theory, distributed cognition, post-modernism...

49



What is unclear


50

Timothy G. Hatcher - The Ins and Outs of Self-Directed Learning

Terms:


The Big Ideas

One definition of SDL is that “it’s a process in which trainees take responsibility for their

own learning, including diagnosing needs, developing objectives, designing learning

experiences, finding resources and evaluating learning outcomes” (36). Article is geared

toward HRD; however, the principles can carry over to other adult learning

environments

Learning process moves from trainer controlled to learner controlled (36)

Facilitators need to be prepared to teach in an SDL environment, understand the

culture, and understand that people must adapt. IN particular a trainer must

understand when their trainees are ready for SDL.

Offers a list of facilitator compentencies (38), orientations and brainstorming sessions as

ways to facilitate SDL.

Companies had to understand its readiness for SDL ( this is necessary before a true

project can begin)

Learning Contracts are another artifact that is useful for SDL (39)

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Central Theories

Andragogy – if it is a theory

Practice around SDL


Knowles work as well as Grow, STratka, Ellinger – this gives a practice view of SDL


A practice view of ways to teach “adults”

What is unclear


52

Andrea D. Ellinger - The Concept of Self-Directed Learning and Its Implications for Human Resource Development

Terms:

Self Managed Learning (SML) – combines the notions of learners working together in

small groups or action sets on real life problems with the practice of learners setting

their own learning agendas and assuming responsibility for their own learning (160)


The Big Ideas:

SDL is a foundational multi-faceted adult learning concept that has been a prominent

area of research for more than three decades (159).

Goals of SDL

Learners engage in SDL due to the desire to learn specific content or acquire

knowledge or skills

Enhance the learners ability to become a SDL

o Instructors become facilitator

o Criticisms include the focus on instrumental learning without attention to

collective action or questioning the conditions that surround learning

Foster transformation learning

SDL can be focused on emancipatory and social action perspectives

Knowles description of learning has six steps (163)

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Climate setting

Diagnosing learning needs

Formulating learning goals

Identifying human and material resources for learning

Choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies

Evaluating learning outcomes

Some nonlinear options to learning include an “organizing circumstance” as an impetus

to learning (163) – the learning desire is dictated by circumstances in a non linear

fashion

Cavaliere’s 4 stages of learning

Inquiring

Modeling

Experimenting and practicing

Theorizing and perfecting

Actualizing

Within the 5 stages there are 4 repetitive cognitive processes

Goal setting

Focusing

Persevering

Reformulation

Personal Responsibility Orientation (PRO) – focuses as a way to move beyond the

conceptual confusion of SDL as an instructional process. The model focuses on the

54

notion of learner SD as a personality characteristic to reflect a learner’s desire to assume

responsibility for their learning. Considers the social context in which the learning

occurs as important

Garrison views SDL from a collaborative constructivist position that integrates concepts

of self-management, self-monitoring, and motivation but does not appear to have been

tested. (164)

Hammonds and Collins have a 7 step critical SDL model (165)

Building a cooperative learning climate

Analyzing and critically reflecting on themselves and the social, economic, and

political contexts in which they are situated

Generating competency profiles for themselves

Diagnosing their learning needs within the framework of both the personal and

social context

Formulating socially relevant learning goals that result in learning agreements

Implementing and managing their learning

Reflecting on and evaluating their learning

SDL learners are a personality construct (165) who accept responsibility for themselves

as learners

Self Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) – Guglielmino’s scale – an instrument

designed to assess the degree which individuals perceive themselves to possess

attitudes and skills often associated with the notion of readiness, an internal state of

psychological readiness for self-directed learning (165)

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Oddi Continuing Learning Inventory (OCLI) (165-166)

Ultimately, a commitment to self-learning and development benefits both learners and

the organizations that employ them (166)

Learners who are self-directed are more likely to share others’ knowledge and build

networks with others (167)

SDL will incorporate into HRD practice with things such as assessing needs, setting goals,

learning contracts…etc (167)

There is some research that shows some vocational learners are yet ready of well-

prepared for SDL (168)

Assessment tools are helpful for HRD managers to assess those who have lower SDL

readiness (169). Are HRD managers doing this?

SDL lit has been stagnant for a while despite the need for more research and perhaps

partnerships with academics and business will help further research (171)

Central Theories

Humanism

Critical Theory


Literature review of SDL

56


What is unclear


57

Sharan B. Merriam - Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning Theory

Terms:


The Big Ideas:

Andragogy and SDL as foundational theories of the field (3)

History of adult learning – whether or not adults can learn – learners were compared

with younger students who perhaps had more education.

Malcolm Knowles created “a new technology” for adult learning (4) (describes perhaps

an instrumental or positivist leaning in the early stages of the technology) Knowles

eventually stated that his ideas were more a learning or conceptual framework instead

of a theory (5). Eventually he moved away from the binary of andra/pedagogy to a

continuum of learning that recognizes difference (6)

Pastuovic finds that andragogy is learning toward positivism which may not be beneficial

toward learners (6)

Critical theorists examined the humanist underpinnings of Knowles work and its focus

on the individual (7)

58

Central Theories

Humanism


Knowles


What is unclear


59

Gerald A. Straka - Conditions promoting self-directed learning at the workplace

Terms:


The Big Ideas:

SDL is a central theme in adult ed but validated concepts of general learning and

instructional theory are scarcely considered (242)

SDL takes place with the following (242):

Interest – the interaction between learner and subject

Strategies – the way to acquaint themselves with content

Controls – manage the application of strategies

Evaluation – subjects learning to assessment

Must examine the socio-historical context

The Two-Shell model of motivated self-directed learning – differentiates socio-historical

environmental conditions, internal conditions (for example, the developed declarative

knowledge, values, etc., already present at the time of learning) and activities which

belong with the concepts interest, learning, strategies, control and evaluation (243)

These three experienced workplace conditions are not only related to an interest in self-

directed learning, but also to strategies of learning and control. (246)

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The experiencing of autonomy, competence and social relatedness, summarized as

‘experience work conditions’, has an influence on interests. Interests have an effect on

the strategies and control of learning. (248)

Only the person doing the learning can determine if learning occurs (248).

Self-directed learning may be viewed as an idiosyncratic interplay between interest,

strategy and control. (249).

Central Theories



What is unclear


61

Gerald Grow - Teaching Learners to be Self Directed

Terms:

Staged Self Directed Learning Model that suggests how teachers can actively equip

students to become more self directed in their learning (126).


The Big Ideas:

Staged Self Directed Learning Model (SSDL) that suggests how teachers can actively

equip students to become more self directed in their learning (126).

4 Stages of Learning/learners

Stage 1 – directed – need an authority figure to give them explicit directions on

what to do, how to do it, and when. Learning is teacher-centered. Teachers

should function as coaching

Stage 2 – interested – learners are available, interested or interestable, respond

to motivational techniques. Teachers are Motivating

Stage 3 – involved – learners has skill and knowledge and they see themselves as

participants in their own education. The teachers are facilitators

Stage 4 – self-directed – set their own goals and standards with or without help

from experts. Learners are willing and able to take responsibility for their

learning, direction and productivity. Teachers delegate – cultivate the learners

ability to learn.

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Some implications include the mismatch between teacher and learning styles (137)

Good teaching is difficult and includes two things – matches the students stage of self-

direction, and it empowers the student to progress toward greater self-direction. Good

teaching is situational, yet it promotes the long-term development of the student (140)

Figure 3 provides a model for tying SSDL to curriculum and courses (143)

While SSDL describes a progression – learning is rarely linear (144)

SSDL doesn’t ask what learners think, teacher expectation may play a greater role than

they think and dynamics are inherent in assignments, etc. (146).

Central Theories

Humanism

Critical theory



How this may apply in online environments

What is unclear


63

Kiely, Sandmann, Truluck - Adult Learning Theory and the Pursuit of Adult Degrees

Terms:

Andragogy – “the art and science of teaching adults” (20)

Self-directed learning – (18)

Transformative learning – (18)

Situated cognition – “adults no longer learn from experience, they learn in it, as they act

in situations and are acted upon by ‘situations’” – (24)


Merriam – (18)

Mackeracher – (18)

Mezirow – 22

Jarvis – 24

Wilson – 24

The Big Ideas

The four lens model of adult learning (p. 19)

Learner – focusing on a learner facilitator model of education, meets their

individual needs

Process – focuses on how adults learn (Mezirow transformational learning model

the most prevalent) (22)

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Context – Adult learning through the context lens is fundamentally a social

process that begins with adults as individuals and also as persons in society (24)

Educator – Reflect on the philosophical assumptions that shape and influence

the we approach our practice (26 – 27)

Central Theories

Andragogy – if it is a theory

transformational learning model

Philosophical traditions

Behaviorist

Liberal

Humanist

Progressive

Radical traditions


Summary of earlier theory readings


Provides a theoretical background and a lead in to the study of online learning with

adults

65

What is unclear


66

Documents

Adult Learning Theory Portfolio