1. What do you now see as the identity issues that relate to your learning dimension?
Identity is a complex, changing narrative shaped by our past experiences, professional knowledge, the setting and the wider socio-cultural context (Watson,2006), as well as the various relationships we engage in (Chappell, et al ,2000).
Learning is an ongoing process where the educator is both teacher and student. We teach to change the world, (Brooksfield,1995), the belief that our efforts to help students learn, in that doing this, will help them act towards each and to their environment, with compassion, understanding and fairness.
My own identity is fraught with disparities, the way I consider my individual learning dimensions, therefore becomes a closed relationship to the way we view ourselves and how others view us in the working arena. This focus plays a major role in the way we interact and process different types of information and reverence depending on what is being taught to us as individuals. My identity is also shaped by my professional knowledge. The experiences I gained from my own life learning and institutionalised learning. However, Chappell et al. (2003) propose a relational view of identity – identity as a fluctuating, ongoing narrative formed by the various relationships in our lives.
I tie my identity issues that relate to my learning dimensions with experiential learning and the student being the focus of the outcome, student-centred learning. In dealing with this topic I became aware of how I had to construct and reconstruct my identity in keeping with the discursive environment, as in any situation, education is centred in a context of rapid and profound change and in order to be in the element of continuous awareness it is paramount to shape our identities, ( Chappell et al).
Workplace education and training play a critical part, reflecting the prominence that learning and knowledge has gained in work place over the past decade, (Chappell et al) however it must also be stated that peer education is also present in institutions of education as well. Teachers in a school or university are not ring-fenced in a vacuum; they also are part of a learning space. With globalisation and reforms there is massive transformation in education, with all this happening around us, there is still the opportunity for us to learn little things that have or can have great impact in our professional practices. This is inclusive of what I dealt with in my first assignment regarding my ‘hot issue’.
Cameron (2001) stated, ‘we do not necessarily behave the way we do because of what we are, rather we may also become who we are because of what we do’. Being the confident person I am I was challenged by the short comings I experienced with a particular activity in my class. Did my challenges stem from cultural differences or professional weakness? I fell into the McCarthyism syndrome whereby I had the assumption that previous teachers of my students did not cover the basic rules of English.
I see that my identity as a building block of events, ‘self’ and ‘other’. The integration of existing discourses in education and actualisation of events, as they unfold it begins to interact, thus shaping my identity for that particular situation. More often than not I have to adjust and re-align my own perspectives to accommodate the paradoxical workplace environment. As I have mentioned in my assignment, there is a prevalent lack of transferable cohesion from the student’s norm of learning to the complexities associated with university expectation. I was guilty along with my colleagues of assuming that students know the technicalities associated with English grammar.
This shortfall on both the student’s part and my own expectations prompted me to investigate the source of the problem. My discussions with my colleagues and the introduction of the ‘hot issue’, invoked consideration and critical evaluation of what I was doing and what needed to be addressed.
In order to highlight the issues facing my students, I was also mindful not to upset the proverbial apple cart. Tackling the challenge I noted that it was more a case of being a technical point rather than an academic issue. Raising awareness could highlight anxiety with students and teachers alike. I had to set the tone to balance the understanding against the knowing.
Against the backdrop of identity in its relationship to learning, I begin to see myself as connector within a society that is complex and demanding. A society which has its own influences and trends, a society that is fighting to maintain a balance against its own cultural and social pressures. The educator’s role, according to Greeno (1997), is not to develop individuals, but to help them participate meaningfully in the practices they choose to enter,(Fenwick,2001pg 36{43}). I found myself improving by becoming more attuned to constrains and affordances of different situations. I used the opportunity to arrange authentic conditions and activities in which the learners interact. Their interacting enabled me to notice the challenges we both faced and the negotiated solutions that we found as both my students and I learned from our experiences.
My reflection in identity and learning dimensions is not capped solely to my ‘hot issue’, I have taken the liberty to deal with this point holistically. The learning curve for me as an educator sits on two tiers.
1st Tier – Local level;
· using the student centred method, I encourage debate and active participation
· post preparation of the learning context and continuous adaption
· provision of a learning environment that is free and fair, respectful, honest and transparent
2nd Tier – Holistic/Global level;
· sensitise students to current world issues
· promote awareness and cultural sensitiveness
· respect for cultural embeddedness and traditions.
· Acknowledge the complexities of the modern Arab region in context to globalisation.
· Eradicate assumptions and perceptions.
Using the student centred method, I encourage the discourse to engage in problem solving activities to broaden students knowledge, making them aware of the level of responsibility vested in them both as students and active members of their communities of practice. Students are made aware of the level of responsibility required for their educational path. I strive to meet two important factors that Dewey advocated; for learning to happen, an experience must include two key dimensions. The first is continuity; the learner needs to be able to connect aspects of the new experience to what he or she already knows, in ways that modify knowledge. The second is interaction; the learner needs to be actively interacting with his or her environment, testing out lessons developed in that environment (module 4 assign 1), Dewey thus believed that the educator should help link the disparate experiences into a coherent whole, Fenwick,2001.
I see my role as facilitator to stimulate change for reformation and liberating minds to think critically of addressing inequality and parochial thinking. My presence is merely a pensive warm figure drawing from the depth of the cognitive reflection and experience. Reflection is the appreceptive process by which we change our minds, literally and figuratively. My role is expanded as an advocate of transformative learning, in the social, cultural and academic dynamics of interdependence. Mezirow (1991), describes this process of transformative learning as the ‘bringing of one’s assumptions, premises, criteria and schema into consciousness and vigorously critiquing them’, (Fenwick,p29). One has to be mindful of the student mindset in the Middle East, a radical approach ( Saddington,T. 1998), could trigger challenging cultural discourses that cuts across the expect norm, assumptions and bigotry has the potential to fester its ugly head. For the most parts especially in Oman students have an open and pleasant disposition to learning of cultural humanistic psychology.
2. How do conceptual understanding of adult learning relate to your hot issue and it learning dimension?
Learning in a particular cultural space is shaped by the discourses and their semiotics that are most visible and accorded most authority by different groups, (Fenwick, 2001). Understanding this principal is the gateway to approach cultural sensitivity and the ramifications of development in a globalised world. Adult education is an important tier of education that it has earned the growing support of governments worldwide. It allows people to create an alternative path to personal and professional development. A ‘learned’ individual has greater opportunities that would otherwise limit him/her in the context of the globalised world. Although adult education is not always focused on rigid academic discourse, it helps bridge the gap between older learners and tertiary trained graduates.
In review of my hot issue, I see the focus on 4 main key points;
Self directed Learning
Critical reflection
Experiential learning
Learning to Learn
In developing countries where illiteracy is a major problem, the meaning of the term 'adult education' is widely misconceived only as adult literacy i. e. something to do with imparting of only literacy to adults. Thus, it is not surprising that, in practice too; adult education is more often referred to as 'adult literacy' in developing countries. Literacy generally refers to reading, writing and arithmetic skills of a person with understanding, in the language (s)he normally speaks or uses. In fact, adult education is literacy plus many other things – holistic development. It includes the development of functionality and awareness in relation to various different aspects of life. Another misconception is whether adult education comes under formal education system (school, college, university, etc) or under non-formal education system (workplace) that is outside the formal education system or under both. In South Africa, concentrated efforts are made by government, business sector and non-governmental organisations to address this situation by expanding the network of adult education and ensuring the responsiveness of the programme for the diverse needs of adult learners (http://www.southafricaweb.co.za). Surely, the scope of adult education is very wide and includes both the systems and more. Its activities range from leisure time spent in reading to attending classes as remedial learning, from learning to achieving or acquiring a formal certificate, a diploma or a university degree; from learning on the job to free-lance learning, etc. So, different people in different Adult Learning environments in countries have called adult education by different names such as liberal education,
basic education, remedial education, vocational education, literacy education, continuing education, lifelong education, and so on. But, the term "adult learning / education" has, in fact, become a generic or more common term to mean and include a wide range of things for adults. Nevertheless, adult education has currently came into wide use throughout the world; yet, the concept is among the most problematic ones in the field. Therefore, Sharan and Phyllis (1989) are right when they say "It is rare to come upon a single sentence that will do justice to the full range of this phenomenon of adult education, or that will satisfy the many different kinds of practitioners who call themselves adult educators." This is so because all these practitioners feel that this need not be considered a problem at all.
Adult education is an absolutely necessary for survival of adults of all age groups in modem society. Illiteracy, poverty, ignorance, population growth, advancements in science and technology, ever growing knowledge, developmental pursuits of individuals, communities, societies and nations have been creating an increasing demand for adult education. It is very essential to address the diverse issues and problems in different spheres of life - social, economic, cultural, political, environmental, health, developmental, etc . Learn or perish has become the order of the day and adult and lifelong learning is the only solution to survival, growth, development and welfare of individuals, families, societies and nations at large.
Adult education is very dynamic in its nature. Its role, purposes and functions and objectives will change with changing situations and conditions of adults. Accordingly its nature and character also undergo changes.
David Kolb acknowledges that knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. He states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience. Certain abilities are required; I revisited the ‘hot issue’ discussion I had with my co workers (although newer ‘hot issues’ were raised), we debated the issue/s at length, I brought to the fore the learning dimensions, I was involved with, in this course. Debate was robust and brainstorming was fluid and at time very focused with other educators getting into the fray. I was amazed when stimulated, what responses, one could get. I documented the responses as I saw it in relation to my conceptual understanding of adult learning relative to learning dimensions.
1) Adult education is purposive: Adult education has a definite purpose specific to the given context. Without purpose it does not have any existence.
2) It is community-specific: Adult education is community-based and assumes great significance in particular context(s), and it need not be equally relevant to other communities in similar contexts.
3) It is culture-specific: The nature, objectives and types of adult education required for adults would vary from culture to culture.
4) It is need-based and problem-solving: Adult education takes into account the dominant needs and prevalent problems of the communities and aims at addressing them in effective ways. (Piaget 1966; Von Glaserfeld 1984; Vygotsky 1978; Wells 1995)
5) It is participatory: It involves adults at different levels and stages of planning, implementation and evaluation of adult education activities meant for their progress, development and welfare. (Boud and Walker 1991: Boud, Cohen and Walker 1993)
6) It is flexible and relevant: In many respects adult education incorporates the element of flexibility so that the adults would feel at home and comfortable to acquire education that has relevance to their living, working and development. (Boud and Schon, - Fenwick 2001)
7) It is action - oriented: Adult education is not simply education for the sake of education. Education for action is the motto, if adults have to act for transforming their own situations or conditions.
8) It is dynamic, change-oriented and transformative: Adult education is very dynamic and, change-oriented, primarily aimed at bringing in social, economic, political and cultural transformation of the adults, their society and nation.
9) It is an awareness building and cognitive process: It helps to enhance the level of adults’ awareness and cognisant and prompts them to action for change. It helps in emancipating or liberating adults from their current problems and situation. Fenwick p 2, 2001,( John Dewey, Experience and Education)
10) It is experiential: It basically conceived and offered taking into account the experiences of adults. Malcolm Knowles,1970.
11) It is welfare and development oriented: It promotes rational and informed decision with a view to promote the welfare and development - social, economic, political and cultural - of individuals, groups, society and nation.
12) It is goal-directed: It is directed by the goals set by adults for themselves, or by others for them or by the nation for them and helps in achieving them.
13) It is learner-centred, systematic and flexible: It is a systematically organised process, using diverse methods and techniques of teaching and learning with an in-built element or component of flexibility for promotion of more learner-centred educational activities. (Knowles M, The Adult Learner, 1984)
14) It is a network building activity: It is very effective in building the network of adults, their groups, activities and associations in the particular context and situation in which the adults live, earn and learn.
15) It is quality-of-life or standard-of-living oriented: It aims at enabling the adults to use all their networks - personal, social, professional, political, etc - for raising their quality of life and standard of living.
16) It is an education for empowerment: Adult education is an effective tool for empowerment of adults.
David Kolb, The Theory of Experiential Learning
Reinforcing Kolb theory of learning being continuously gained, I saw my ‘hot issue’ being a process where the learner;
· Must be willing to actively be involved in the experience
· Must be able to reflect on the experience
· Must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualise the experience
· Must process decision making and problem solving skills in order to use new ideals gained from experience.
In summary, education needs the input from the learner, be it educator or student to develop society, through this process we need to encourage and aid learners to expand themselves through personal enrichment, self esteem along with progressive, humanist phenomenological traditions.
3. What are the implications of your proposed learning strategy to address your hot issue?
We often have the assumption that all learners will learn in a similar manner. Different people have different consistent approaches to organising and processing information during thinking. Conventional training methodologies, while acknowledging the notion of learning styles, appear to lack the theoretical and empirical bases to accommodate the important role played by cognitive style in determining learning performance, (Training and Development Lead Body-UK). Learning is the interaction between what students know, the new information they encounter and the activities they engage in as they learn. Students encounter their own understanding through experience, interaction with content and others and critical reflection.
But just why is critical reflection important? Critical reflection entails all kinds of risks and complexities. Stephen Brookfield, 1995, (“Becoming a critically reflective teacher”), enlightens us by listing six important reasons:
It helps us to take informed actions
It helps us to develop a rationale for practice
It helps us avoid self laceration
It grounds us emotionally
It enlivens our classrooms
It increases democratic trust
In designing learning strategies we need to be mindful that we accommodate the different styles of learning and encourage strategy development in order to improve the effectiveness of training, there is no sure individual fit. Educators in their learning spaces need to find ways to adapt material and or methods of presentation to enable learners to deal with learning as effectively as possible. While learning styles seem to be a fixed trait of learners it is possible for learners to develop learning strategies to enable them to make the most efficient use of their strengths and limitations of their particular challenges.
The process of learning involves cognitive theories of function in memory. The three types of memory namely, Long term memory, which is used to store information derived from personal experience and education, short term memory which is used to remember information that is relatively unimportant, and working memory is memory in which information is manipulated,( Sarah Maccarelli, www.voices.yahoo.com , the three types human memory). The working memory is where most thinking is believed to take place. Working memory is where new information temporarily stays while it is being processed. Working memory has limited capacity so it cannot hold much information at a time. Attention is a vital part of working memory; obviously, one cannot remember something that is not paid attention to. This detail has lead me to an important aspect of the human development and how I address the short comings in my ‘hot issue’. Strategies for learning require conscious mental activity. The importance of post preparation is of paramount importance. Keeping the learner’s mind focused on the activities involves that the information disseminated be relevant, current and contextual. Working with students of different cultures requires an educator to being sensitive to their cultural norms and beliefs. Understanding their assumptions and social backgrounds, especially students within the Middle East there is a very fine line between culture and religion.
Every practitioner, in whatever domain they work, wants to be awake to possibilities, to be sensitive to the situation and to respond appropriately, (Mason, Researching your own Practice - The Discipline of Noticing). Learning styles are collective of personal characteristics, strengths and preferences, describing how individuals acquire, store and process information. Teachers often teach in the manner they were taught, with some breaking away from the orthodox, even if it does not support the learning style preferred by most learners, remembering Dan as narrated by Watson. Dan’s sense of himself as a teacher is defined by a simultaneous inclusion within the system and exclusion from the organisation he perceives of that system, ( Watson,2006). Being aware of my own teaching style I am able to make better choices of instructional strategies that do not impede on learning. Students must be able to interpret questions, comments and responses in the context of learning style variations as no two students have the same learning capacity.
By means of learning partnerships students will be able to know their learning style, strengths and weaknesses and to develop a set of learning plans to use their strengths to compensate for weaknesses. The brighter students take on a peer role, modelling and nurturing the weaker students to realise their full potential. This peer modelling aids students to become more efficient and effective in their studying and more likely to attribute success or failure to their choice of learning patterns rather than to their innate competencies.
By close ‘noticing’ and monitoring of my students, in a student centred method of teaching, I am able to influence the pace of their learning, my identity changes from educator to counsellor to facilitator to friend and confidant. Students that are bored or inattentive are easily discouraged by a teacher that is critical or robust. Again the student centred method is a fantastic method to use group activity to stimulate discussion and role play, making the student or students the main attraction. Students do not come into my class as a blank slate, they have preconceived ideas and notions and they use my message to interpret new information with what they already know. A danger I witnessed in my ‘hot issue’ was the fact that what they could not relate to what they already know, they tend to memorise, I wanted my students to develop real understanding of the subject matter not memorising.
Teachers have many expectations and assumptions of their students. I developed a culture to engage with my student and to fully immerse in their learning; I wanted to know of their experiences, preconceptions and their assumptions to name a few. I probed their inner minds with questions and activities to reveal their thinking and investigate their challenges to find suitable solutions. Importantly I subscribe to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning domains i.e. http://www.nwlink.com
I strive to assist my students to become more metacognitively aware by modelling a learning path as we solve problems, help to develop an argument and analyse reading, speaking and writing tasks in front of the class to dispel ambiguity and favouritism and to check for consistency. Get them to understand and accept responsibilities in regard to time keeping, meeting deadlines, student and class rules. For assessment we work on guided portfolio building and class participation.
Research “clearly establishes that teacher expectations do play a significant role in determining how well and how much students learn” (Jerry Bamburg 1994). Depending on the role the teacher play in the learning environment, students rise or fall to the level of expectation of their teachers. When teachers believe in students, students believe in themselves. When those you respect think you can, you think you can, (James Raffini, 1993).
Reference:
Bamburg, Jerry.
Brooksfield S.
Chappell et al.
Fenwick, Tara J.
David Kolb.
Mason J.
Raffini James.
Sharan and Phyllis.
Watson C.
http://www.nwlink.com
http://www.southafricaweb.co.za
http://www.voices.yahoo.com
Word count : 3951/4029
Identity is a complex, changing narrative shaped by our past experiences, professional knowledge, the setting and the wider socio-cultural context (Watson,2006), as well as the various relationships we engage in (Chappell, et al ,2000).
Learning is an ongoing process where the educator is both teacher and student. We teach to change the world, (Brooksfield,1995), the belief that our efforts to help students learn, in that doing this, will help them act towards each and to their environment, with compassion, understanding and fairness.
My own identity is fraught with disparities, the way I consider my individual learning dimensions, therefore becomes a closed relationship to the way we view ourselves and how others view us in the working arena. This focus plays a major role in the way we interact and process different types of information and reverence depending on what is being taught to us as individuals. My identity is also shaped by my professional knowledge. The experiences I gained from my own life learning and institutionalised learning. However, Chappell et al. (2003) propose a relational view of identity – identity as a fluctuating, ongoing narrative formed by the various relationships in our lives.
I tie my identity issues that relate to my learning dimensions with experiential learning and the student being the focus of the outcome, student-centred learning. In dealing with this topic I became aware of how I had to construct and reconstruct my identity in keeping with the discursive environment, as in any situation, education is centred in a context of rapid and profound change and in order to be in the element of continuous awareness it is paramount to shape our identities, ( Chappell et al).
Workplace education and training play a critical part, reflecting the prominence that learning and knowledge has gained in work place over the past decade, (Chappell et al) however it must also be stated that peer education is also present in institutions of education as well. Teachers in a school or university are not ring-fenced in a vacuum; they also are part of a learning space. With globalisation and reforms there is massive transformation in education, with all this happening around us, there is still the opportunity for us to learn little things that have or can have great impact in our professional practices. This is inclusive of what I dealt with in my first assignment regarding my ‘hot issue’.
Cameron (2001) stated, ‘we do not necessarily behave the way we do because of what we are, rather we may also become who we are because of what we do’. Being the confident person I am I was challenged by the short comings I experienced with a particular activity in my class. Did my challenges stem from cultural differences or professional weakness? I fell into the McCarthyism syndrome whereby I had the assumption that previous teachers of my students did not cover the basic rules of English.
I see that my identity as a building block of events, ‘self’ and ‘other’. The integration of existing discourses in education and actualisation of events, as they unfold it begins to interact, thus shaping my identity for that particular situation. More often than not I have to adjust and re-align my own perspectives to accommodate the paradoxical workplace environment. As I have mentioned in my assignment, there is a prevalent lack of transferable cohesion from the student’s norm of learning to the complexities associated with university expectation. I was guilty along with my colleagues of assuming that students know the technicalities associated with English grammar.
This shortfall on both the student’s part and my own expectations prompted me to investigate the source of the problem. My discussions with my colleagues and the introduction of the ‘hot issue’, invoked consideration and critical evaluation of what I was doing and what needed to be addressed.
In order to highlight the issues facing my students, I was also mindful not to upset the proverbial apple cart. Tackling the challenge I noted that it was more a case of being a technical point rather than an academic issue. Raising awareness could highlight anxiety with students and teachers alike. I had to set the tone to balance the understanding against the knowing.
Against the backdrop of identity in its relationship to learning, I begin to see myself as connector within a society that is complex and demanding. A society which has its own influences and trends, a society that is fighting to maintain a balance against its own cultural and social pressures. The educator’s role, according to Greeno (1997), is not to develop individuals, but to help them participate meaningfully in the practices they choose to enter,(Fenwick,2001pg 36{43}). I found myself improving by becoming more attuned to constrains and affordances of different situations. I used the opportunity to arrange authentic conditions and activities in which the learners interact. Their interacting enabled me to notice the challenges we both faced and the negotiated solutions that we found as both my students and I learned from our experiences.
My reflection in identity and learning dimensions is not capped solely to my ‘hot issue’, I have taken the liberty to deal with this point holistically. The learning curve for me as an educator sits on two tiers.
1st Tier – Local level;
· using the student centred method, I encourage debate and active participation
· post preparation of the learning context and continuous adaption
· provision of a learning environment that is free and fair, respectful, honest and transparent
2nd Tier – Holistic/Global level;
· sensitise students to current world issues
· promote awareness and cultural sensitiveness
· respect for cultural embeddedness and traditions.
· Acknowledge the complexities of the modern Arab region in context to globalisation.
· Eradicate assumptions and perceptions.
Using the student centred method, I encourage the discourse to engage in problem solving activities to broaden students knowledge, making them aware of the level of responsibility vested in them both as students and active members of their communities of practice. Students are made aware of the level of responsibility required for their educational path. I strive to meet two important factors that Dewey advocated; for learning to happen, an experience must include two key dimensions. The first is continuity; the learner needs to be able to connect aspects of the new experience to what he or she already knows, in ways that modify knowledge. The second is interaction; the learner needs to be actively interacting with his or her environment, testing out lessons developed in that environment (module 4 assign 1), Dewey thus believed that the educator should help link the disparate experiences into a coherent whole, Fenwick,2001.
I see my role as facilitator to stimulate change for reformation and liberating minds to think critically of addressing inequality and parochial thinking. My presence is merely a pensive warm figure drawing from the depth of the cognitive reflection and experience. Reflection is the appreceptive process by which we change our minds, literally and figuratively. My role is expanded as an advocate of transformative learning, in the social, cultural and academic dynamics of interdependence. Mezirow (1991), describes this process of transformative learning as the ‘bringing of one’s assumptions, premises, criteria and schema into consciousness and vigorously critiquing them’, (Fenwick,p29). One has to be mindful of the student mindset in the Middle East, a radical approach ( Saddington,T. 1998), could trigger challenging cultural discourses that cuts across the expect norm, assumptions and bigotry has the potential to fester its ugly head. For the most parts especially in Oman students have an open and pleasant disposition to learning of cultural humanistic psychology.
2. How do conceptual understanding of adult learning relate to your hot issue and it learning dimension?
Learning in a particular cultural space is shaped by the discourses and their semiotics that are most visible and accorded most authority by different groups, (Fenwick, 2001). Understanding this principal is the gateway to approach cultural sensitivity and the ramifications of development in a globalised world. Adult education is an important tier of education that it has earned the growing support of governments worldwide. It allows people to create an alternative path to personal and professional development. A ‘learned’ individual has greater opportunities that would otherwise limit him/her in the context of the globalised world. Although adult education is not always focused on rigid academic discourse, it helps bridge the gap between older learners and tertiary trained graduates.
In review of my hot issue, I see the focus on 4 main key points;
Self directed Learning
Critical reflection
Experiential learning
Learning to Learn
In developing countries where illiteracy is a major problem, the meaning of the term 'adult education' is widely misconceived only as adult literacy i. e. something to do with imparting of only literacy to adults. Thus, it is not surprising that, in practice too; adult education is more often referred to as 'adult literacy' in developing countries. Literacy generally refers to reading, writing and arithmetic skills of a person with understanding, in the language (s)he normally speaks or uses. In fact, adult education is literacy plus many other things – holistic development. It includes the development of functionality and awareness in relation to various different aspects of life. Another misconception is whether adult education comes under formal education system (school, college, university, etc) or under non-formal education system (workplace) that is outside the formal education system or under both. In South Africa, concentrated efforts are made by government, business sector and non-governmental organisations to address this situation by expanding the network of adult education and ensuring the responsiveness of the programme for the diverse needs of adult learners (http://www.southafricaweb.co.za). Surely, the scope of adult education is very wide and includes both the systems and more. Its activities range from leisure time spent in reading to attending classes as remedial learning, from learning to achieving or acquiring a formal certificate, a diploma or a university degree; from learning on the job to free-lance learning, etc. So, different people in different Adult Learning environments in countries have called adult education by different names such as liberal education,
basic education, remedial education, vocational education, literacy education, continuing education, lifelong education, and so on. But, the term "adult learning / education" has, in fact, become a generic or more common term to mean and include a wide range of things for adults. Nevertheless, adult education has currently came into wide use throughout the world; yet, the concept is among the most problematic ones in the field. Therefore, Sharan and Phyllis (1989) are right when they say "It is rare to come upon a single sentence that will do justice to the full range of this phenomenon of adult education, or that will satisfy the many different kinds of practitioners who call themselves adult educators." This is so because all these practitioners feel that this need not be considered a problem at all.
Adult education is an absolutely necessary for survival of adults of all age groups in modem society. Illiteracy, poverty, ignorance, population growth, advancements in science and technology, ever growing knowledge, developmental pursuits of individuals, communities, societies and nations have been creating an increasing demand for adult education. It is very essential to address the diverse issues and problems in different spheres of life - social, economic, cultural, political, environmental, health, developmental, etc . Learn or perish has become the order of the day and adult and lifelong learning is the only solution to survival, growth, development and welfare of individuals, families, societies and nations at large.
Adult education is very dynamic in its nature. Its role, purposes and functions and objectives will change with changing situations and conditions of adults. Accordingly its nature and character also undergo changes.
David Kolb acknowledges that knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. He states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience. Certain abilities are required; I revisited the ‘hot issue’ discussion I had with my co workers (although newer ‘hot issues’ were raised), we debated the issue/s at length, I brought to the fore the learning dimensions, I was involved with, in this course. Debate was robust and brainstorming was fluid and at time very focused with other educators getting into the fray. I was amazed when stimulated, what responses, one could get. I documented the responses as I saw it in relation to my conceptual understanding of adult learning relative to learning dimensions.
1) Adult education is purposive: Adult education has a definite purpose specific to the given context. Without purpose it does not have any existence.
2) It is community-specific: Adult education is community-based and assumes great significance in particular context(s), and it need not be equally relevant to other communities in similar contexts.
3) It is culture-specific: The nature, objectives and types of adult education required for adults would vary from culture to culture.
4) It is need-based and problem-solving: Adult education takes into account the dominant needs and prevalent problems of the communities and aims at addressing them in effective ways. (Piaget 1966; Von Glaserfeld 1984; Vygotsky 1978; Wells 1995)
5) It is participatory: It involves adults at different levels and stages of planning, implementation and evaluation of adult education activities meant for their progress, development and welfare. (Boud and Walker 1991: Boud, Cohen and Walker 1993)
6) It is flexible and relevant: In many respects adult education incorporates the element of flexibility so that the adults would feel at home and comfortable to acquire education that has relevance to their living, working and development. (Boud and Schon, - Fenwick 2001)
7) It is action - oriented: Adult education is not simply education for the sake of education. Education for action is the motto, if adults have to act for transforming their own situations or conditions.
8) It is dynamic, change-oriented and transformative: Adult education is very dynamic and, change-oriented, primarily aimed at bringing in social, economic, political and cultural transformation of the adults, their society and nation.
9) It is an awareness building and cognitive process: It helps to enhance the level of adults’ awareness and cognisant and prompts them to action for change. It helps in emancipating or liberating adults from their current problems and situation. Fenwick p 2, 2001,( John Dewey, Experience and Education)
10) It is experiential: It basically conceived and offered taking into account the experiences of adults. Malcolm Knowles,1970.
11) It is welfare and development oriented: It promotes rational and informed decision with a view to promote the welfare and development - social, economic, political and cultural - of individuals, groups, society and nation.
12) It is goal-directed: It is directed by the goals set by adults for themselves, or by others for them or by the nation for them and helps in achieving them.
13) It is learner-centred, systematic and flexible: It is a systematically organised process, using diverse methods and techniques of teaching and learning with an in-built element or component of flexibility for promotion of more learner-centred educational activities. (Knowles M, The Adult Learner, 1984)
14) It is a network building activity: It is very effective in building the network of adults, their groups, activities and associations in the particular context and situation in which the adults live, earn and learn.
15) It is quality-of-life or standard-of-living oriented: It aims at enabling the adults to use all their networks - personal, social, professional, political, etc - for raising their quality of life and standard of living.
16) It is an education for empowerment: Adult education is an effective tool for empowerment of adults.
David Kolb, The Theory of Experiential Learning
Reinforcing Kolb theory of learning being continuously gained, I saw my ‘hot issue’ being a process where the learner;
· Must be willing to actively be involved in the experience
· Must be able to reflect on the experience
· Must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualise the experience
· Must process decision making and problem solving skills in order to use new ideals gained from experience.
In summary, education needs the input from the learner, be it educator or student to develop society, through this process we need to encourage and aid learners to expand themselves through personal enrichment, self esteem along with progressive, humanist phenomenological traditions.
3. What are the implications of your proposed learning strategy to address your hot issue?
We often have the assumption that all learners will learn in a similar manner. Different people have different consistent approaches to organising and processing information during thinking. Conventional training methodologies, while acknowledging the notion of learning styles, appear to lack the theoretical and empirical bases to accommodate the important role played by cognitive style in determining learning performance, (Training and Development Lead Body-UK). Learning is the interaction between what students know, the new information they encounter and the activities they engage in as they learn. Students encounter their own understanding through experience, interaction with content and others and critical reflection.
But just why is critical reflection important? Critical reflection entails all kinds of risks and complexities. Stephen Brookfield, 1995, (“Becoming a critically reflective teacher”), enlightens us by listing six important reasons:
It helps us to take informed actions
It helps us to develop a rationale for practice
It helps us avoid self laceration
It grounds us emotionally
It enlivens our classrooms
It increases democratic trust
In designing learning strategies we need to be mindful that we accommodate the different styles of learning and encourage strategy development in order to improve the effectiveness of training, there is no sure individual fit. Educators in their learning spaces need to find ways to adapt material and or methods of presentation to enable learners to deal with learning as effectively as possible. While learning styles seem to be a fixed trait of learners it is possible for learners to develop learning strategies to enable them to make the most efficient use of their strengths and limitations of their particular challenges.
The process of learning involves cognitive theories of function in memory. The three types of memory namely, Long term memory, which is used to store information derived from personal experience and education, short term memory which is used to remember information that is relatively unimportant, and working memory is memory in which information is manipulated,( Sarah Maccarelli, www.voices.yahoo.com , the three types human memory). The working memory is where most thinking is believed to take place. Working memory is where new information temporarily stays while it is being processed. Working memory has limited capacity so it cannot hold much information at a time. Attention is a vital part of working memory; obviously, one cannot remember something that is not paid attention to. This detail has lead me to an important aspect of the human development and how I address the short comings in my ‘hot issue’. Strategies for learning require conscious mental activity. The importance of post preparation is of paramount importance. Keeping the learner’s mind focused on the activities involves that the information disseminated be relevant, current and contextual. Working with students of different cultures requires an educator to being sensitive to their cultural norms and beliefs. Understanding their assumptions and social backgrounds, especially students within the Middle East there is a very fine line between culture and religion.
Every practitioner, in whatever domain they work, wants to be awake to possibilities, to be sensitive to the situation and to respond appropriately, (Mason, Researching your own Practice - The Discipline of Noticing). Learning styles are collective of personal characteristics, strengths and preferences, describing how individuals acquire, store and process information. Teachers often teach in the manner they were taught, with some breaking away from the orthodox, even if it does not support the learning style preferred by most learners, remembering Dan as narrated by Watson. Dan’s sense of himself as a teacher is defined by a simultaneous inclusion within the system and exclusion from the organisation he perceives of that system, ( Watson,2006). Being aware of my own teaching style I am able to make better choices of instructional strategies that do not impede on learning. Students must be able to interpret questions, comments and responses in the context of learning style variations as no two students have the same learning capacity.
By means of learning partnerships students will be able to know their learning style, strengths and weaknesses and to develop a set of learning plans to use their strengths to compensate for weaknesses. The brighter students take on a peer role, modelling and nurturing the weaker students to realise their full potential. This peer modelling aids students to become more efficient and effective in their studying and more likely to attribute success or failure to their choice of learning patterns rather than to their innate competencies.
By close ‘noticing’ and monitoring of my students, in a student centred method of teaching, I am able to influence the pace of their learning, my identity changes from educator to counsellor to facilitator to friend and confidant. Students that are bored or inattentive are easily discouraged by a teacher that is critical or robust. Again the student centred method is a fantastic method to use group activity to stimulate discussion and role play, making the student or students the main attraction. Students do not come into my class as a blank slate, they have preconceived ideas and notions and they use my message to interpret new information with what they already know. A danger I witnessed in my ‘hot issue’ was the fact that what they could not relate to what they already know, they tend to memorise, I wanted my students to develop real understanding of the subject matter not memorising.
Teachers have many expectations and assumptions of their students. I developed a culture to engage with my student and to fully immerse in their learning; I wanted to know of their experiences, preconceptions and their assumptions to name a few. I probed their inner minds with questions and activities to reveal their thinking and investigate their challenges to find suitable solutions. Importantly I subscribe to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning domains i.e. http://www.nwlink.com
- Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
- Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
- Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)
I strive to assist my students to become more metacognitively aware by modelling a learning path as we solve problems, help to develop an argument and analyse reading, speaking and writing tasks in front of the class to dispel ambiguity and favouritism and to check for consistency. Get them to understand and accept responsibilities in regard to time keeping, meeting deadlines, student and class rules. For assessment we work on guided portfolio building and class participation.
Research “clearly establishes that teacher expectations do play a significant role in determining how well and how much students learn” (Jerry Bamburg 1994). Depending on the role the teacher play in the learning environment, students rise or fall to the level of expectation of their teachers. When teachers believe in students, students believe in themselves. When those you respect think you can, you think you can, (James Raffini, 1993).
Reference:
Bamburg, Jerry.
Brooksfield S.
Chappell et al.
Fenwick, Tara J.
David Kolb.
Mason J.
Raffini James.
Sharan and Phyllis.
Watson C.
http://www.nwlink.com
http://www.southafricaweb.co.za
http://www.voices.yahoo.com
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