CAE 213 Introduction to Adult EducationDue: February 21, 2012

TEST #1

1. Explain each of the six characteristics of the adult learner as outlined on pages 64-68. In your explanation, provide personal illustrations on three of these six characteristics from your own experience as a learner. (20 pts)

The first characteristic of adult learners is the learner’s need to know. Basically, this says that before an adult learns something, they need to know why it’s relevant in their lives and therefore why they should learn it. The more an adult sees why he/she needs to know something, the more energy the adult will pour into learning.

In my own life this semester this has proven to be true. I am completely in charge of the English lessons on Wednesday nights at Mision San Pablo, and I could not have fathomed how much I did not realize about adult learners or about effectively teaching English. It’s fair to say I am clinging to and critically evaluating all of the information I’m learning in this class and in Methods and Marerials of TESOL, because I know just how important and relevant it is in my life to be an effective TESOL instructor now and an effective adult educator in the future.

The second characteristic is the learner’s self-concept. Adults have a deep need to control their own lives and decisions and they have a self-concept of being responsible to do just that. They also strongly desire to be perceived as capable of self-direction. As a result they will resent situations where they feel others impose their wills upon them. Often as soon as an adult hears “education”, they fall into a pedagogical way of thinking, which undermines their need to be self-directing.

The third characteristic is the role of the learner’s experiences. The absolute greatest tool in adult learning is the prior experience of the learner, because this is the lens through which they view everything. Moreover, they have more experience and more quality experience than children and adolescents. Thus facilitators are wise to tap into these experiences of the learners through group discussions, case methods, problem solving activities, etc.

As I reflect on my college experience up to this point, I realize that the classes that have had the biggest impact on me (Gifts Guidance and Goals, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, Hermeneutics, and Intro to Adult Education) have all, to varying extents, relied heavily upon my own personal experiences. Gifts, Guidance and Goals helped me to examine my personality, spiritual gifts, strengths, and weaknesses and how I could use them to glorify God. Foundations of Spiritual Formation was basically a semester of me

figuring out all of my insecurities in my relationship with God, and God beginning the process of moving me past them. In Hermeneutics, I had to write a paper on a hard passage of the Bible, and I chose to write on Luke 9:59-60, where Jesus tells the young man to let the dead bury their dead. I wrote the majority of that paper back home in a hospital waiting room while my mother, who has multiple sclerosis, was in ICU with pneumonia that had complications because of her chronic nerve disease. During that time, I was struggling with why God would provide all the money I needed to go to Toccoa with no debt while my single mother was struggling with an unsure future and chronic illness. That paper was transformational – God has very clearly called me here, and no matter what, I must follow Him. And Intro to Adult Education? Even answering this part of the test is demonstrating how instrumental my past experiences are in my present learning.

The fourth characteristic is readiness to learn. This is tied to the first characteristic, in that adults will be ready to learn that which they perceive they need to know to be able to cope effectively with actual situations in life.

The fifth characteristic is the learner’s orientation to learning. Adults are life-centered, task-centered, and problem-centered in their approach to learning. They are motivated to learn inasmuch as they perceive such learning will help them to achieve a given task. Thus, they will learn new knowledge, skills, values, etc. more effectively when they are presented to the learners within the context of real-life situations.

The sixth and final characteristic is motivation. Adults need have external and internal motivations to learn. External motivators could be better jobs, higher salaries, etc. – rewards they will receive outwardly as a result of their time invested in learning. However internal motivators, such as increased job satisfaction or better self-esteem, tend to be the most potent motivators.

I see this reflected in my college experience so far. I am not motivated to continue college so that I can get a degree and have a comfortable living. I’m certainly not pursuing Cross-Cultural Adult Ed for a high-paying job. Rather, I am intrinsically motivated by a deep conviction that God has given me a mind geared for knowledge, and that He has given me a unique set of gifts that can be used for His glorification in Adult Education of some form overseas. I have seen that God has provided for me to be here, and I could not let this educational opportunity go to waste even if I didn’t receive a degree. I am driven by the satisfaction I feel when I apply what I’ve learned to further God’s Kingdom. And I couldn’t think of a better motivation than that.

2. Explain the meaning of theory, education, and learning? What is the difference between education and learning? Which educational theory makes the most sense to you? What learning theory makes the most sense to you? (20 pts)

The word “theory” refers to a system of ideas about a set of phenomenon. This system of ideas is coherent and internally consistent. “Education” is a planned activity which is undertaken by one or more agents. Its purpose is to effect changes in knowledge, skills, or attitudes of the learner(s), and the educator is emphasized. “Learning” refers to the process of being educated – the process by which the earlier stated knowledge, skills, and attitudes are acquired. However in learning, the person in whom the change occurs is being emphasized as opposed to the educator – this is the difference between education and learning.

As I survey learning theories, there are two that make the most sense to me – cognitivist and social learning. My mind is naturally oriented to think that learning occurs as I interpret data in a manner that is accurate to me and then I respond appropriately... but perhaps slightly more I agree with social learning. After all, how do we learn about other cultures? We observe them. This extends insofar, in my mind, as I learn about nature and animals and God by observing and interacting with these.

In educational theory, I believe wholeheartedly in a eclectic approach. Too many factors go into education (just as a large number of factors go into learning). Educational theory, in my mind, can only be contextually determined. Anything else is not broad enough for me, because at different times some educational theories may be contextually more appropriate than at other times.

3. What is the difference between being a propounder and an interpreter of educational theory? Name a propounder that you read about and describe what he or she propounded. Why is the task of an interpreter a difficult task? How do you see yourself (As a propounder, an interpreter, or something else)? (20 pts)

Propounders of educational theory are single minded. Their goal is to create a comprehensive, coherent, and internally consistent system of ideas about learning. In other words, their goal is to create a theory consistent with what they believe about learning. Interpreters, on the other hand, take what the propounders have created and bring order to learning theory by attempting to identify categories or domains within theory. They reconcile the chaos that the propounders cause. Another way to put it may be to say that propounders are the visionary leaders – they determine where we head – while interpreters are the pragmatic leaders – they determine how we will get there.

One propounder that I read about was Edward L. Thorndike. He basically thought that learners were empty and responded randomly and automatically to stimuli. He propounded an idea that all a teacher would have to do is produce response to a particular stimulus is to reward the learner when the response is given. He called this connectionism, or bond psychology

– other stimulus-response theories would follow. He also developed three laws that he believed governed animals and humans – the law of readiness (the circumstances under which a learner will accept or reject), the law of exercise (the strengthening of these stimulus-response connections with increased practice) , and the law of effect (the strengthening/weakening of a connection as a result of consequences).

Interpreters have such a difficult job because frankly, there’s a lot of different theories out there, and many of them are only slightly different while some are completely different – there’s a large variety! More often than not, interpreters lean toward trying to reconcile theories.

In reflection, I’m much more of a propounder than an interpreter; I am the visionary leader moreso than the pragmatic leader in other aspects of life, so I imagine I’ll be much the same where educational theories are concerned. It’s much easier for me to determine where I’d like to go than bother with all the little questions of how I’ll actually get there.

4. In the 1950s, the Ford foundation set up a meeting to determine the ultimate unifying goal of adult education. What was accomplished through this meeting? What unifying goal for all of adult education was selected? What are the implications of your last answer to the field of adult education? (20 pts)

While it is true that the Ford Foundation set up a meeting in the 1950s to determine the ultimate unifying goal of adult education, there was not much accomplished during this meeting. The practitioners were divided between two goals – was the goal the improvement of individuals or the improvement of society in general? Ultimately, no unified goal was established – adult education is simply too broad a field to have one unifying goal. The implication follows that even today, there is no unifying goal. In fact, divergent themes continue to influence different areas of adult education. The closest we have to unification is a unifying central theory, which we call “Andragogy”, though Andragogy itself is not concretely defined and there I not full agreement on calling it “Andragogy”.

5. Provide a one page summary overview of what you have learned in the first half of this course. (20 pts)

On the following page I will endeavor to give you a sweeping view of what I’ve learned so far.

Interestingly, the beginnings of adult education really began in the 1600s-1700s, when there arose out of the Thirteen Colonies a desire for a skilled male workforce with high literacy rates, and when Puritans in the New World had a desire for schooling and literacy. After the American Revolution, the government worked with missionary groups to educate and assimilate Native Americans into American Society. In the early 1800s, women began to receive educational opportunities, and the Lyceum movement began. The late 1800s brought the beginnings of agricultural education for farmers, and Chautauqua movement began. The 1900s brought us Cooperative Extension, the YMCA, and increased university education, as education became a way of “learning our way out of traditional American thinking”. The GI Bill after WWI subsidized higher education and vocational training for millions of veterans, and community colleges sprang up, making education much more accessible. It was seen as a way to retrain American workers. Eventually the idea came about that all workers should be educated, because this would make American workers more competitive in the global workplace and because it would strengthen American dominance in the global economy. Other forms of adult education sprang up – TESOL, EFL, TEE, too many to be named.

In such a diverse movement, several theories of learning and theories of education cropped up. Many of these were based in older, pedagogical teaching methods, but soon enough educators began to see the differences between adults and children and their learning styles, and new theories cropped up accordingly. There were propounders creating new theories and interpreters trying to make sense of all these theories, but chaos was still characteristic of adult education goals and theories. In the 1950s, the Ford Foundation called a conference to try to develop a unifying goal – and no goal for adult education was reached. Since that time, most educators have settled on a unifying theory – we call it Andragogy. This term was introduced in 1833, but not reintroduced until 1967. Andragogy, inasmuch as we can define it, is only made clear in contrast to pedagogy. It has 6 key characteristics (the learner’s need to know, the learner’s self-concept, the learner’s experiences, readiness to learn, orientation to learn, and motivation, all discussed at length in question 1), which differentiate it from pedagogy.

Andragogy can be successfully done when these six characteristics are considered in light of the eight elements in the process of andragogy – preparing the learner, developing a conducive climate for learning, creating mechanisms that will allow for mutual planning, diagnosing the needs for learning, formulating program objectives, designing a pattern of learning experiences, conducting these learning experiences, and evaluating the learning outcomes.

Andragogy concerns itself with a focus on the learning process itself as opposed to goals and content. This makes it accessible to individual, institutional, and societal learning scenarios because it transcends goals. When practicing andragogy, one should take goals and purposes for learning into consideration, however. Next it may be helpful to consider individual and situational differences (as well as subject matter differences). Finally one should consider the six core adult learning principles/characteristics (as denoted in question 1). Utilizing the Andragogy in Practice Model will help you to have a more successful experience applying andragogy to the broader field of adult education.