Posts
New Ways of Learning in the Workplace. This is a great essay on how action learning and other techniques can be used to teach skills at work. I realize as librarians we usually see students from an educational setting. But what we teach is directly applicable to the work place.
Maybe we can suggest some of these ideas to the bosses we know? And if we are bosses, maybe we can use it to teach library staff?
From the site:
In today's "high performance organizations," workers must be prepared for continuous on-the-job growth and development. Given the increased age, variety of experiences, and diverse lifestyles and cultures of the working population, it is understandable that adult education practices must move beyond the traditional model of teachers as purveyors of knowledge and learners as passive recipients. Methods and techniques that draw upon workers' previous experiences, link concepts and practices, and encourage reflection and the transfer of knowledge from one situation to another are vital to the learning process. This Digest addresses some of the new ways to learn at work, such as action learning, situated learning, and incidental learning.
ACTION LEARNING
Action learning is a systematic process through which individuals learn by doing. It is based on the premise that learning requires action and action requires learning. It engages individuals in just-in-time learning by "providing opportunities for them to develop knowledge and understanding at the appropriate time based on immediate felt needs" (Lewis and Williams 1994, p. 11). Learning itself is the desired outcome of action learning, not problem solving. It is the learning that occurs in the process of finding solutions to problems that constitutes action learning. It is a type of learning that helps individuals respond more effectively to change.
Showing posts with label Adult Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adult Education. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Teaching Adults: Is It Different?
Teaching Adults: Is It Different? I have worked primarily with 18-19 year old students when it comes to library instruction. However, I have many experiences with older students including graduate students and adult learners from the community. There is a big difference in how these students respond. The 18 year old student is still very much in a pre-adult learning mode while the older students have advanced into a more mature learning style. This article looks at this issue from the point of view of teaching adults.
From the site:
The adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children and adolescents, groups sometimes referred to as preadults. The assumption that teachers of adults should use a style of teaching different from that used with preadults is based on "informed professional opinion; philosophical assumptions associated with humanistic psychology and progressive education; and a growing body of research and theory on adult learning, development, and socialization" (Beder and Darkenwald 1982, p. 143). Following a discussion of the major model underlying this assumption, this ERIC Digest examines research that investigates differences in these teaching styles and suggests considerations for practice.
THE ANDRAGOGICAL MODEL
Malcolm Knowles (1980, 1984) is attributed with developing the most cogent model underlying the assumption that teaching adults should differ from teaching children and adolescents (Beder and Darkenwald 1982). By contrasting "andragogical" or learner-centered methods with "pedagogical" or teacher-centered methods, Knowles argues that adults differ from preadults in a number of important ways that affect learning and, consequently, how they approach learning. Therefore, according to Knowles, the more traditional pedagogical model is inappropriate for use with adults.
The following assumptions underlie Knowles' (1984) andragogical model:
- Adults tend to be self-directing.
- Adults have a rich reservoir of experience that can serve as a resource for learning.
- Since adults' readiness to learn is frequently affected by their need to know or do something, they tend to have a life-, task-, or problem-centered orientation to learning as contrasted to a subject-matter orientation.
- Adults are generally motivated to learn due to internal or intrinsic factors as opposed to external or extrinsic forces.
From the site:
The adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children and adolescents, groups sometimes referred to as preadults. The assumption that teachers of adults should use a style of teaching different from that used with preadults is based on "informed professional opinion; philosophical assumptions associated with humanistic psychology and progressive education; and a growing body of research and theory on adult learning, development, and socialization" (Beder and Darkenwald 1982, p. 143). Following a discussion of the major model underlying this assumption, this ERIC Digest examines research that investigates differences in these teaching styles and suggests considerations for practice.
THE ANDRAGOGICAL MODEL
Malcolm Knowles (1980, 1984) is attributed with developing the most cogent model underlying the assumption that teaching adults should differ from teaching children and adolescents (Beder and Darkenwald 1982). By contrasting "andragogical" or learner-centered methods with "pedagogical" or teacher-centered methods, Knowles argues that adults differ from preadults in a number of important ways that affect learning and, consequently, how they approach learning. Therefore, according to Knowles, the more traditional pedagogical model is inappropriate for use with adults.
The following assumptions underlie Knowles' (1984) andragogical model:
- Adults tend to be self-directing.
- Adults have a rich reservoir of experience that can serve as a resource for learning.
- Since adults' readiness to learn is frequently affected by their need to know or do something, they tend to have a life-, task-, or problem-centered orientation to learning as contrasted to a subject-matter orientation.
- Adults are generally motivated to learn due to internal or intrinsic factors as opposed to external or extrinsic forces.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Newspapers as a Teaching Resource for Adult Learners
Newspapers as a Teaching Resource for Adult Learners. Here are some ideas for teaching adult students using newspapers. I think with a little effort, this approach could be used to teach information literacy and library skills. One example could be to compare a recent report on a news story from the National Enquirer and your local paper. Which is more credible? And why? I think student would learn from such a lesson.
From the site:
Despite the existence of the "Newspaper in Education" (NIE) program in many elementary and secondary schools, the newspaper remains an often overlooked resource which can be incorporated into almost any teaching curriculum, and which is particularly useful for teaching older remedial students and adults. This Digest discusses some ways in which newspapers can be used in teaching language skills and basic literacy to adults and learning disabled students, as well as to students of English as a Second Language.
ADULT LEARNERS
Newspapers can be a valuable tool for teachers who work with adult education students. Fenholt (1985) outlines a series of activities that employ the newspaper as a learning resource to develop both reading and life skills. Her contention is that regular elementary level reading materials fail to motivate readers at the adult level and might be embarrassing for some adults to use. She sees the newspaper as a more comfortable instructional fit for adult learners. Fenholt's activities booklet is aimed at adults who want to read on an intermediate level and pass the graduate equivalency diploma (GED) test.
Fenholt's observation that adults might be more comfortable learning with a newspaper than with instructional materials aimed at children is borne out in the case studies in a United Nations publication, "Newspapers in Adult Education: A Sourcebook" (1998). According to the sourcebook, many countries (including Argentina, Cameroon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and South Africa) promote newspaper-education partnerships to improve the education of their adult citizens. The 10 cases presented in the sourcebook offer examples of how partnerships between educators and newspapers can play an active role in making adult education more attractive and effective and in preparing informed citizens. Mohanty's "Adult Education: Some Reflections" (1989), a compilation of articles about adult education in India, also highlights this type of "non-formal education in the learning society," as he calls it. One article specifically considers rural newspapers and their role in lifelong learning and post literacy (Schmetzer, 2000).
From the site:
Despite the existence of the "Newspaper in Education" (NIE) program in many elementary and secondary schools, the newspaper remains an often overlooked resource which can be incorporated into almost any teaching curriculum, and which is particularly useful for teaching older remedial students and adults. This Digest discusses some ways in which newspapers can be used in teaching language skills and basic literacy to adults and learning disabled students, as well as to students of English as a Second Language.
ADULT LEARNERS
Newspapers can be a valuable tool for teachers who work with adult education students. Fenholt (1985) outlines a series of activities that employ the newspaper as a learning resource to develop both reading and life skills. Her contention is that regular elementary level reading materials fail to motivate readers at the adult level and might be embarrassing for some adults to use. She sees the newspaper as a more comfortable instructional fit for adult learners. Fenholt's activities booklet is aimed at adults who want to read on an intermediate level and pass the graduate equivalency diploma (GED) test.
Fenholt's observation that adults might be more comfortable learning with a newspaper than with instructional materials aimed at children is borne out in the case studies in a United Nations publication, "Newspapers in Adult Education: A Sourcebook" (1998). According to the sourcebook, many countries (including Argentina, Cameroon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and South Africa) promote newspaper-education partnerships to improve the education of their adult citizens. The 10 cases presented in the sourcebook offer examples of how partnerships between educators and newspapers can play an active role in making adult education more attractive and effective and in preparing informed citizens. Mohanty's "Adult Education: Some Reflections" (1989), a compilation of articles about adult education in India, also highlights this type of "non-formal education in the learning society," as he calls it. One article specifically considers rural newspapers and their role in lifelong learning and post literacy (Schmetzer, 2000).
Monday, January 03, 2005
Narrative and Stories in Adult Teaching and Learning
Narrative and Stories in Adult Teaching and Learning. Do you tell stories in class? Perhaps you should. There are many techniques for teaching adult learners that use story telling. It would be easy to adapt many of this ideas for library instruction and information literacy lessons.
From the site:
Narrative and stories in education have been the focus of increasing attention in recent years. The idea of narrative is fertile ground for adult educators who know intuitively the value of stories in teaching and learning. Narrative is deeply appealing and richly satisfying to the human soul, with an allure that transcends cultures, centuries, ideologies, and academic disciplines. In connection with adult education, narrative can be understood as an orientation that carries with it implications for both method and content. This Digest presents a brief overview of a narrative orientation to teaching and learning and then explores how stories and autobiographical writing promote learning.
THE NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE
A beginning point for a discussion of narrative and story in adult education is an understanding of narrative as a broad orientation grounded in the premise that narrative is a fundamental structure of human meaning making (Bruner 1986, 2002; Polkinghorne 1988, 1996). The events and actions of one's life are understood and experienced as fitting into narrative episodes or stories. Accordingly, identity formation and development can be understood in terms of narrative structure and process. In this view, "the self is given content, is delineated and embodied, primarily in narrative constructions or stories" (Kerby 1991,p. 1). The narrative metaphor as applied to adult development (e.g., Cohler 1982; Hermans 1997; Rossiter 1999) sees developmental change as experienced through the ongoing construction and reconstruction of the life narrative. As Kenyon and Randall (1997) comment, "To be a person is to have a story. More than that, it is to be a story" (p. 1).
Given the centrality of narrative in the human experience, we can begin to appreciate the power of stories in teaching and learning. We can also see that the application of a narrative perspective to education involves much more than storytelling in the classroom. Such an application necessarily leads to an experience-based, constructivist pedagogy. The basic "narrative proposal" for education holds that the "frames of meaning within which learning occurs are constructions that grow out of our impulse to emplot or thematize our lives" (Hopkins 1994, p.10). Therefore, the most effective way to reach learners with educational messages is in and through these narrative constructions. Learners connect new knowledge with lived experience and weave it into existing narratives of meaning.
From the site:
Narrative and stories in education have been the focus of increasing attention in recent years. The idea of narrative is fertile ground for adult educators who know intuitively the value of stories in teaching and learning. Narrative is deeply appealing and richly satisfying to the human soul, with an allure that transcends cultures, centuries, ideologies, and academic disciplines. In connection with adult education, narrative can be understood as an orientation that carries with it implications for both method and content. This Digest presents a brief overview of a narrative orientation to teaching and learning and then explores how stories and autobiographical writing promote learning.
THE NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE
A beginning point for a discussion of narrative and story in adult education is an understanding of narrative as a broad orientation grounded in the premise that narrative is a fundamental structure of human meaning making (Bruner 1986, 2002; Polkinghorne 1988, 1996). The events and actions of one's life are understood and experienced as fitting into narrative episodes or stories. Accordingly, identity formation and development can be understood in terms of narrative structure and process. In this view, "the self is given content, is delineated and embodied, primarily in narrative constructions or stories" (Kerby 1991,p. 1). The narrative metaphor as applied to adult development (e.g., Cohler 1982; Hermans 1997; Rossiter 1999) sees developmental change as experienced through the ongoing construction and reconstruction of the life narrative. As Kenyon and Randall (1997) comment, "To be a person is to have a story. More than that, it is to be a story" (p. 1).
Given the centrality of narrative in the human experience, we can begin to appreciate the power of stories in teaching and learning. We can also see that the application of a narrative perspective to education involves much more than storytelling in the classroom. Such an application necessarily leads to an experience-based, constructivist pedagogy. The basic "narrative proposal" for education holds that the "frames of meaning within which learning occurs are constructions that grow out of our impulse to emplot or thematize our lives" (Hopkins 1994, p.10). Therefore, the most effective way to reach learners with educational messages is in and through these narrative constructions. Learners connect new knowledge with lived experience and weave it into existing narratives of meaning.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Journal Writing and Adult Learning. Thia is not directly related to information literacy but I found it to be a good read. I hope you do too.
From the site:
"The value of journal writing to a course with adult students cannot be overemphasized." (Sommer 1989, p. 115)
Journals and diaries have a long history as a means of self-expression. Several themes prevalent in adult learning--coming to voice, developing the capacity for critical reflection, and making meaning--are reflected in the way journals can be used in adult education. Journals are useful learning tools in a variety of adult education settings. Dialog journals, for example, have become popular in adult literacy and English as a second language classrooms. This digest focuses on several types of journals, exploring their value in assisting adults through their learning journey and summarizing advice from the literature on effective ways to use journals.
TYPES OF JOURNALS
One type is the reader response journal or literature log, in which learners record their responses to readings. Used on all levels from adult basic education through graduate study, such logs enable readers to enter the literature in their own voice (Perham 1992), placing themselves in relation to the text and discovering what they think about it. Over time, the log itself becomes another primary text to which they can respond (Perl 1994). Usually, entries are shared with the class, stimulating discussion. In one variation described by Perham, a looseleaf notebook accessible to the whole class becomes a collaborative journal in which learners and teacher make ongoing comments. Both Perham and Perl feel that these response journals have the power to build a community of learners though the process of critical co-reading and co-writing.
The learning journal is a systematic way of documenting learning and collecting information for self-analysis and reflection. When used in an adult education class, they can be more or less structured depending on the objectives and degree of self-direction of the learners. Examples from Schatzberg-Smith (1989), Oaks (1995), and Clark (1994) illustrate the wide range of learner levels and applications. Adult students in community colleges who are academically underprepared (Schatzberg-Smith 1989) use them to record their study habits and attitudes; through journal dialog with a more academically skilled adult, they receive support, insight, and feedback; learn to connect the abstract and the concrete; and develop metacognitive strategies they will need for higher education.
Distance learners lack the physical presence of co-learners for dialog and collaboration. At Empire State College (Oaks 1995), a structured learning journal replicates for distance learners many of the functions of a collaborative writing group. The learners are given specific questions that stimulate their journal entries and reinforce their movement through the writing process. In a sense, the journal substitutes self-dialog for communal discourse.
From the site:
"The value of journal writing to a course with adult students cannot be overemphasized." (Sommer 1989, p. 115)
Journals and diaries have a long history as a means of self-expression. Several themes prevalent in adult learning--coming to voice, developing the capacity for critical reflection, and making meaning--are reflected in the way journals can be used in adult education. Journals are useful learning tools in a variety of adult education settings. Dialog journals, for example, have become popular in adult literacy and English as a second language classrooms. This digest focuses on several types of journals, exploring their value in assisting adults through their learning journey and summarizing advice from the literature on effective ways to use journals.
TYPES OF JOURNALS
One type is the reader response journal or literature log, in which learners record their responses to readings. Used on all levels from adult basic education through graduate study, such logs enable readers to enter the literature in their own voice (Perham 1992), placing themselves in relation to the text and discovering what they think about it. Over time, the log itself becomes another primary text to which they can respond (Perl 1994). Usually, entries are shared with the class, stimulating discussion. In one variation described by Perham, a looseleaf notebook accessible to the whole class becomes a collaborative journal in which learners and teacher make ongoing comments. Both Perham and Perl feel that these response journals have the power to build a community of learners though the process of critical co-reading and co-writing.
The learning journal is a systematic way of documenting learning and collecting information for self-analysis and reflection. When used in an adult education class, they can be more or less structured depending on the objectives and degree of self-direction of the learners. Examples from Schatzberg-Smith (1989), Oaks (1995), and Clark (1994) illustrate the wide range of learner levels and applications. Adult students in community colleges who are academically underprepared (Schatzberg-Smith 1989) use them to record their study habits and attitudes; through journal dialog with a more academically skilled adult, they receive support, insight, and feedback; learn to connect the abstract and the concrete; and develop metacognitive strategies they will need for higher education.
Distance learners lack the physical presence of co-learners for dialog and collaboration. At Empire State College (Oaks 1995), a structured learning journal replicates for distance learners many of the functions of a collaborative writing group. The learners are given specific questions that stimulate their journal entries and reinforce their movement through the writing process. In a sense, the journal substitutes self-dialog for communal discourse.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Teaching Internet Library Instruction Sessions in the Electronic Classroom: The Adult Learner, the Internet, and Training Skills & Teaching Styles This is a new lesson plan aimed at librarians at LibraryInstruction.Com.
Introduction from Lesson:
Description: This workshop is designed to address the needs of all professional librarians who will be expected to conduct library instructions in an electronic environment, whether or not they now regularly conduct library instruction sessions. By the end of this training, participants will have gained knowledge and skills leading to more productive library instruction dedicated to better serving the students’ needs.
Goals:
Learn about the concept of training adult students.
Learn about the Internet and the challenges of teaching it to adult students.
Learn about some specific training skills and teaching styles used for delivering a successful Internet library instruction session to adult students in an electronic environment.
Introduction from Lesson:
Description: This workshop is designed to address the needs of all professional librarians who will be expected to conduct library instructions in an electronic environment, whether or not they now regularly conduct library instruction sessions. By the end of this training, participants will have gained knowledge and skills leading to more productive library instruction dedicated to better serving the students’ needs.
Goals:
Learn about the concept of training adult students.
Learn about the Internet and the challenges of teaching it to adult students.
Learn about some specific training skills and teaching styles used for delivering a successful Internet library instruction session to adult students in an electronic environment.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Working with Adult Learners in the Library Classroom: A Personal Reflection
Working with Adult Learners in the Library Classroom: A Personal Reflection. I know I have focused on school librarianship and teaching children lately in this blog. Today, I will turn this around 180 degrees and talk about teaching adults. This link is to a paper I wrote and placed at LibraryInstruction.Com. It is based on my experiences teaching a non-credit library course for the community at Michigan State University.
I write, "I have had the opportunity over the last six years to teach non-traditional students about doing research in libraries. This experience has allowed my to think a great deal about adult learners in contrast to the traditionally aged college students I normally teach. In this paper, I will address my personal observations of adult learning as I understand it from my experience and from the education and library literature. I will also examine my personal pedagogy which I believe is appropriate to these learners. Further, I will look at how pedagogy can depend on the nature of the learner, the nature of the content, and the technology that delivers it." Full article at: http://www.libraryinstruction.com/adult.html.
I write, "I have had the opportunity over the last six years to teach non-traditional students about doing research in libraries. This experience has allowed my to think a great deal about adult learners in contrast to the traditionally aged college students I normally teach. In this paper, I will address my personal observations of adult learning as I understand it from my experience and from the education and library literature. I will also examine my personal pedagogy which I believe is appropriate to these learners. Further, I will look at how pedagogy can depend on the nature of the learner, the nature of the content, and the technology that delivers it." Full article at: http://www.libraryinstruction.com/adult.html.
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