Adult Education

1. Adult Education

2. EvolutionU.S. Public Service/Adult Education PeriodActivities 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

3. EvolutionU.S. Public Service/Adult Education Evolution (continued) PeriodActivities 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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)

9. Goals of Adult Education (Paul Bergevin) To help the learner (individual/organization/society) 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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 society’s program.) toward individual- lity. The promotion of self toward interdependence.

15. Conventional vs. Adult Education (continued) Conventional Education Adult Education Basic Components: ...directive teaching-prescribed ...collaborative learning teaching- collaborative learning.(All parties considered capable and responsible.)

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

17. 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 one’s behavior and life. of self- responsibility.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Andragogy vs. Pedagogy Difference 3 Time Perspective: A Youth’s 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.

23. 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.

24. 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 doesn’t exist. Only learning exists and, more often than not, exists in spite of teaching.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.”

28. 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.

29. 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 client’s world when it poses little threat, and when people they trusts embrace the idea.

30. 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?

31. 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.

32. 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 individual’s or group’s system of thinking.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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 isn’t 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.

36. 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.

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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.

40. Current Trends inContinuing Education Just-In-Time Training (JITT) Centralization vs. Decentralization Any Time, Any Where, Any Language Faculty as Facilitators Work and Learning

41. Current Trends inContinuing Education Current Trends (continued) Private vs. Public Certification Funding Regional vs. National vs. Local Programming