Adult Education

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Adult Education
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EvolutionU.S. Public Service/Adult Education

• Period Activities
• 17th 18th Centuries Reading for Salvation/
  Charity
• Religious
• Revolutionary to Civil War Citizenship
• General Knowledge
• Nation Building
• Civil to World War I Occupational
• Industrialization Social Service
• Immigration Citizenship/Americanization
• Public Affairs

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EvolutionU.S. Public Service/Adult Education

• Evolution (continued)
• Period Activities
• Modern Era Occupational
• Idealism Social Reform
• Improved Work Practices Social Reconstruction
• Social Progress
• Post Modern Era Professionalism
• Self-Help Quality of Life (all areas)
• Rapid Change Change Management

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Public Service Agencies/Adult Education

• Type Role
• Type I Established to Serve Adults
• Propriety Schools
• Independent Centers
• Type II Established to Serve Youth
• Public Schools
• Colleges Universities

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Public Service Agencies/Adult Education

• Public Service (continued)
• Type Role
• Type III Established to Serve Educational
• Libraries and Non-educational Needs
• Museums
• Health and Welfare
• Type IV Established to Serve
• Business Non-Educational Needs
• Unions
• Government
• Churches
• Associations

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Public Service Program Terminology

• Public Service Program Terminology
• (Multiple Meanings)
• 1. All educational activities for adults in the
  community
• 2. The total adult education activities of a
  given agency
• 3. Activities for a single market segment
• 4. Social role oriented activities (citizenship,
  home, etc.)
• 5. A specific activity (course)

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Four Components of a Good Program Plan

• 1. NEED - The situation that has to be changed or
  improved.
• 2. OBJECTIVE - The educational needs of the
  target population translated into learning
  objectives.
• 3. LEARNING EXPERIENCES - The learning
  experiences and plans for their implementation to
  achieve the desired objectives.
• 4. EVALUATION - The design for determining the
  accomplishments of the program and assessing its
  strengths and weaknesses.

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Examine Your PersonalPublic Service Philosophy

• What segment of the population should learn? Why?
• Who should be responsible for adult learning?
  Why?
• What should adults learn? Why?
• How should adults learn? Why?
• (Group Discussion)

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Goals of Adult Education

• (Paul Bergevin)
• To help the learner (individual/organization/socie
  ty) achieve a degree of success, fulfillment,
  meaning.
• To help the learner understand their
  capabilities, limitations, and relationships.
• To help the learner recognize and understand the
  need for lifelong learning.

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Goals of Adult Education

• Bergevin (continued)
• To provide conditions and opportunities for
• advancement in the maturation process
  spiritually,
• culturally, physically, politically, and
  vocationally.
• To provide education for survival in literacy,
  vocational
• skills, and health measures.

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Adult Education Defined

• Key Words From Definitions
• Literacy
• Set Men Free
• Essential Knowledge
• Skills
• Disseminate Information
• Understanding Mutual Problems of Generations
• Maturing
• Organized Learning/Activities
• Social System
• Quality of Life

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Adult Education Defined

• Adult Education (continued)
• Lifelong Learning--continuing or adult
  education--is
• a continuous learning process designed to
  maximize
• the quality of life for individuals,
  organizations, and
• societies faced with an ever increasing rate of
• change.

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Conventional vs. Adult Education

• Conventional Education Adult Education
• Purpose
• ...to prepare persons to function ...to enable
• effectively within the prevailing persons to
  direct
• socio-cultural system. the modification
• and development
• of their own
• uniquely
• constituted self
• system

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Conventional vs. Adult Education

• (continued)
• Conventional Education Adult Education
• Function
• ...a socialization process with the ...a
• emphasis upon the development of
  re-socialization
• behavioral conformity. (The denial with the
  emphasis
• of self for the asserting of the upon growing
• curriculum and societys program.) toward
  individual-
• lity. The
• promotion
• of self toward
• interdependence.

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Conventional vs. Adult Education

• (continued)
• Conventional Education Adult Education
• Basic Components
• ...directive teaching-prescribed ...collaborativ
  e
• learning teaching- collaborative
• learning.(All
• parties considered
• capable and
• responsible.)

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Conventional vs. Adult Education

• (continued)
• Conventional Education Adult Education
• Relationships
• ...unequal with authority in the ...equality of
• important positions worth and
• importance

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Conventional vs. Adult Education

• (continued)
• Conventional Education Adult Education
• Consequences
• ...reinforcement of dependent ...growing toward
• reliance upon authority figures
  and inter-dependence
• personal irresponsibility in and acceptance
• shaping ones behavior and life. of self-
• responsibility.

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Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

• People who take the initiative in learning
  (proactive learners) learn more
• things, and learn better, than do people who sit
  at the feet of teachers passively
• waiting to be taught (reactive learners).
• We are entering into a new world in which rapid
  change will be the only
• stable characteristic. This implies that it is no
  longer realistic to define the
• purpose of education as transmitting what is
  known.When a person leaves
• schooling he or she must not only have a
  foundation of knowledge acquired in
• the course of learning to inquire, but more
  importantly, also have the ability to
• go on acquiring new knowledge easily and
  skillfully the rest of his or her life.
• Typically, we think of learning as what takes
  place in school-it is being
• taught. To be adequate for our new world we
  must come to think of learning
• as being the same as living and working. We must
  learn from everything we
• do.

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Pedagogy and Andragogy

• Pedagogy is defined as the art and science of
  teaching children. Andragogy is the art and
  science of helping adults to learn.
• Knowles based Andragogy upon certain crucial
  assumptions concerning the differences between
  children and adults as learners.

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Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

• Difference 1
• Self concept The child sees himself as a
  dependent
• personality the adult wants to be treated as a
  self-directing
• person and with respect.
• Implications (1) A climate of adultness is a
  necessity in
• all adult program. (2) Engage the adult in
  diagnosing his
• own needs for learning. (3) Involve the adults
  in the
• planning of their own learning. (4) Allow the
  adults to
• carry out their own learning. (5) Evaluation
  should be a re
• self-diagnosis.

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Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

• Difference 2
• Experience By virtue of a longer life, adults
  have had
• more experiences, thus are richer resources for
  learning.
• Implication Allow the adult to express their
• experiences. Action-learning and participative
• learning techniques are good to use.

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Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

• Difference 3
• Time Perspective A Youths learning orientation
  is
• one of postponed application, therefore learning
  is
• subject centered. An adults time perspective
  concerning
• learning is one of immediate application
  resulting in a
• problem centered orientation.

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Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

• Implications
• 1. Curriculum organization of adult education is
  based upon problem areas rather than subject
  categories
• 2. The learning process begins with the problems
  that the learners bring with them.

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Learning vs. Teaching

• Learning is a conscious, self-directed process
  which
• occurs within us, at our directions, resulting in
  a
• modification of one or more facets of our
  behavior.
• Teaching is something you do to somebody.
  Learning is
• something that happens within a self. In one
  sense
• teaching doesnt exist. Only learning exists and,
  more
• often than not, exists in spite of teaching.

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Learning

• Learning engages us emotionally as well as
  intellectually as
• we move through a cycle.
• 1. Frustration 4. Exploration
• 2. Concern 5. Discovery
• 3. Confusion 6. Integration
• Unfortunately, in designing educational
  activities, we have
• ignored this cycle.

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Involving Adults in the Process

• C. Houle found in his study, The Inquiring
  Mind, that adults
• may attend for several reasons
• For the love of learning - some persons will
  take a wide variety of courses simply because
  they love to be in a learning environment. These
  persons learn for the sake of learning.
• To accomplish a specific goal - to get a better
  job, to attain a
• certificate, to gain entry to a higher level
  of study.

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Involving Adults in the Process

• C. Houle found in his study, The Inquiring
  Mind, that adults
• may attend for several reasons
• For social purposes - some people join
  learning groups in order
• to enjoy the social benefits of being in the
  group. A particular
• learning group may be the primary support group a
  person has
• and thus he may even forego graduation and its
  benefits in order
• to remain with his peers.

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Steps Toward Participation

• Adults seem to go through a series of steps in
  deciding to participate in an
• educational group.
• Awareness This state is one of somehow getting
  initial information from one
• or more sources. This information may be the
  result of the activities of the
• mass media, i.e., newspapers, television, radio
  and billboards. The
• effectiveness of mass-media in motivating adults
  to enter educational
• programs depends on the nature of the program and
  the population being
• recruited. The most successful motivator for
  recruitment is word of mouth,
• i.e. people telling people. This form of
  recruitment is dependent on satisfied
• students who feel that the program is meeting
  their needs.

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Steps Toward Participation

• Interest There is a strong dependence upon
  personal communications in developing an interest
  in a program. At this point adults usually turn
  to a trusted friend or individual for information
  and support.
• Thus, interest in a program is most likely to
  occur when it is perceived to be important to the
  clients world when it poses little threat, and
  when people they trusts embrace the idea.

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Steps Toward Participation

• Evaluation Stage
• This is the first stage of the actual
  action-decision
• phase. To enroll or not to enroll, that is the
  question. Do
• people I respect and trust endorse the program?
  Is there
• any risk? How much does it cost Am I
  capable...will I
• fail?

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Steps Toward Participation

• Trial Stage
• The initial trial is a time of tentative
  testing. The client
• may visit the program or attend with
  reservations,
• knowing that if he does not like it he can
  usually back
• out. The importance of first impressions is vital
  at this
• step. The physical setting and the climate of
  human
• relationships are being tested.

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Steps Toward Participation

• Adoption Stage
• After the initial testing and trial individuals
  or groups
• arrive at the final decision whether to adopt
  the new
• program or whether to withdraw and reject... the
  first
• day may be the most important. If the decision is
  to
• stay, an increasing commitment will be made and
  the
• change or new knowledge will be accepted into the
• individuals or groups system of thinking.

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Effective Adult Learning

• 1. A learning experience must be personally
  meaningful if individuals are to become actively
  involved in it.
• a. This calls for content which evolves from the
  genuine concerns of learners and for learners to
  actively share in shaping the context in which
  they learn.
• b. It is our individualized concerns which give
  rise to educational needs and from which
  motivation to learn stems.
• c. Matters foreign to our personal worlds of
  reality seem to generate little spontaneous
  action in us.

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Effective Adult Learning

• 2. We require an understanding and supportive
  social climate in order to learn and grow.
• a. This calls for the active affirmation of
  differences among individuals and to actively
  uphold the uniquely personal way an individual
  feels and thinks.
• b. None of us are inclined to let others know
  what really is on our minds if we sense that it
  will lead to being ignored, rejected,
  misunderstood, belittled or attacked.
• c. All of us need to feel that our individual
  concerns will be accorded due respect and dignity
  before we are apt to make them known.
• d. Likewise, the more free we feel to make known
  our individual concerns, the more involved we
  tend to become in the situation.

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Effective Adult Learning

• 3. We need to feel free to communicate honestly
  with our own self and with our fellow human
  beings.
• a. The prevalent practice of communication to
  our own self and to others what isnt so,
  simply directs us to a blank wall where so often
  we sit spinning our wheels.
• b. The conditioned fear of being honest with
  ourselves and our fellow learners has tended to
  restrict educational content to abstract,
  impersonal and/or irrelevant matters.
• c. If it is understanding that we seek, it
  should be borne in mind that a simple, honest
  statement is the shortest line of communication
  between people.

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Effective Adult Learning

• 4. We require understanding of the nature of
  learning and of our behavior as learners in order
  to make effective use of the learning process.
• a. We are products of a socio-cultural
  environment whose spokesman have been generous in
  telling us what to learn, but for the most part,
  have overlooked our need for discovering how to
  learn.
• b. We cannot learn or do anything else very well
  unless we are consciously aware of what it
  involves and what is going on. In this way, we
  can free ourselves from the misconceptions and
  conditioned fears which have kept many of our
  positive qualities submerged.
• c. We normally do best those things which we know
  how to do. Learning is no exception.

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Group Roles

• Much of adult learning occurs in a group
  environment and
• involves the following functions
• Task Functions
• 1. Initiating
• 2. Information or opinion seeking
• 3. Information or opinion giving
• 4. Clarifying or elaborating
• 5. Summarizing
• 6. Consensus testing

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Group Roles

• Much of adult learning occurs in a group
  environment and
• involves the following functions
• Maintenance Functions
• 1, Encouraging
• 2. Expressing group feelings
• 3. Harmonizing
• 4. Compromising
• 5. Gate-keeping
• 6. Standard setting

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Creating Learning Conditions

• The following seven areas are some of those which
  must be
• examined in developing an effective
  teaching-learning
• environment.
• 1. What the learner brings to the transaction (in
  addition to ignorance and abilities)
• 2. What the teacher (helper) brings
• 3. The setting in which learning and change take
  place
• 4. The interaction process
• 5. The conditions necessary for learning and
  change
• 6. The maintenance of change and utilization of
  learning in the life of the learner
• 7. The establishment of the process on continued
  learning.

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Current Trends inContinuing Education

• Just-In-Time Training (JITT)
• Centralization vs. Decentralization
• Any Time, Any Where, Any Language
• Faculty as Facilitators
• Work and Learning

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Current Trends inContinuing Education

• Current Trends (continued)
• Private vs. Public
• Certification
• Funding
• Regional vs. National vs. Local Programming