The Philosophy Of Adult Learning And Methods Of Delivery

Adult learners have been deemed different than their younger counterparts and extensive research has studied and complied different theories on how adults learn. The following paper will identify and describe several adult learning theories and give examples on how they associate with supervisors.

Introduced during the 1990’s, accountability is a newer term inside the education world. By definition, accountability holds, not only teachers, but districts, educators, and also students accountable for any results ("Accountability", 2004). Accountability hasn’t always been prominent inside our education. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1990’s when lawmakers began to flirt with the idea. Though accountability became increasingly popular during the end of the previous century, it does possess several roots which began in the 1950’s.

Knowles posits that adult learners are self directed and autonomous. They are goal oriented, practical and must see and understand the relevance of any training. Adults bring an abundance of experience and knowledge, experiential learning, with them. Most importantly, “…adults need to be shown respect.” (Lieb)

In society, today education plays a vital role for many individuals and teachers play an even more influential role for a student’s future. The 21st century is bringing many new and innovated ways for teachers to communicate and educate in more effective ways than ever before. Despite the multitude advancements, there has been an issue still in the spotlight: teacher accountability. In recent years the United States has significantly fallen behind many of its superpower competitors in education bringing the government quick to impend a change by ranking teachers to improve their accountability however ranking teachers will not improve their accountability because teaching is a craft that cannot be summed up into a rank or grade letter with

When did adult learning begin to take a stance in the field of Education? Adult Learning started to be considered a professional career in the early 1920 's. The basis of the adult Learning method cannot be summed into only one Theory of how Adults Learn . We can however, note the similarities and differences of adult learning based on relevant information that compares and contrasts how individuals act and react to different theories . Many different theories exist in the Adult learning world although there are two theories that will be compared. These theorists are, Malcolm Knowles and David Kolb. Although differing in theory Knowles and Kolb bring uniquely different insight to the Adult Education world. Exactly what is the Adult learning theory ?

Because of the demand for accountability in public education, schools are seeking avenues to improve instruction and student learning. One such path is professional learning. Schools invest large amounts of time, energy, and money in their teaching staffs for the purpose of impacting student achievement through improved classroom instruction. Large studies have been performed in recent years to determine those principles that most affect teacher practice and impact student achievement (Desimone, Porter, Garet, Yoon, & Birman , 2002; Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, and Shapley, 2007). Unfortunately, much of the professional development that teachers experience does not result in a change in teacher

ADULT LEARNING THEORY 2 Adult Learning Theory Malcolm Knowles Malcolm Knowles (1913-1997) was a key figure in America’s adult education in the second half of the twentieth century (Smith, 2002). Early Life “Born in 1913 and initially raised in Montana,” Knowles seems to have had “a reasonably happy childhood. His father was a veterinarian and from around the age of four Knowles often accompanied him on his visits to farms and ranches” (Smith, 2002, para. 2). His mother also played a critical role in his character building. During his campaign for the scouting prize, he developed a technique that would help him compete successfully (Smith, 2002), which he always thanked his mother for. In 1930, He entered Harvard University with

Students would not be as responsible if they are not held accountable to make it to

Adult learning is the acquisition of knowledge by adults. Theories on adult learning have been discoursed and analyzed thoroughly by different people, with the aim of trying to define it and optimize it. The two articles I have read describe adult learning, discuss its characteristics and explain various approaches and means of optimization of this subject.

My training had largely been in psychology, and my implicit and explicit theories of pedagogy had been deeply affected by recent experience and professional development in adult literacy teaching, and this fact led to my research taking a different turn from that of the other researchers in the team. In particular, I was influenced by humanistic theories of learning (e.g., Rogers, 1969), as well as androgogy theory (Knowles, 1980, cited in Boud, 1987) and critical pedagogy (Freire,

Studies conducted indicated that adults up to their 70’s did just as good as young people when not placed on a time limit. Several more studies through the years contributed to the adult learning arena then in 1968, Dr. Malcolm Knowles coined the term Andragogy- adult learning theory. Dr. Knowles believed that adults were independent learners; had life experiences that enhance learning, had learning needs related to social needs, were interested in immediate application of knowledge, and is internally motivated (Merriam, S., 2001). There are several other theories on adult learning that are along the same lines as Dr. Knowles and others not parallel in thought.

Engaging adult students effectively is important to their learning. Since most adults are self-directed in their learning and come in with prior experience and knowledge, any new knowledge provided should be relevant to their current need. It is therefore important to use andragogical principles to their learning and keep their motivation strong so they can learn to achieve their goals. According to Zorn-Arnold and Conaway (2016), adult students struggle with balancing work, home, and family, and therefore it is important to keep their spirits and motivation strong so that they can embrace self-directed learning and achieve their goals. During the Summer Resident Teacher Program for Prince George’s County Public Schools, I as the instructor for the Science, Math, Technology, and Health Cohort was tasked with creating the syllabus for the program and lessons for my cohort. I used andragogical principles and an understanding of how adults learn while creating the lesson below. This lesson is about enhancing rigor in the classroom. From past experience with Resident Teachers, motivating students has been of great concern. According to Marzano and Toth (2014), Teachers need models and training to help them step back to the role of skilled facilitators, to guide students to take ownership of their own learning. The teacher’s role here is to equip students with tools to work collaboratively in groups, or to individually apply and solve complex real-world problems. It is normally

For each family, education has a different level of importance. Sometimes education is not seen as an important use of time, so they go straight into work. Adult education is necessary though because people should be given the chance to change their decision about education at any given time. In 1968, Henry McNeil had just turned sixteen and thought that he was prepared for the workforce, so he quit high school. After he dropped out, a job was easily achieved even without a high school diploma because of his hardworking attitude. The ability to adapt to his job gave him employment until he was fifty-eight. However, when the economy took a downward turn, the companies that had once overlooked the education of the applicant in place of a good mentality, now were not able to take the risk. Insurance that the potential employee was educated weighed in more than the experience gained from prior jobs. Henry McNeil needed a new path for his life and decided to go back to school to achieve it. Every person does not go through the same intellectual stages of life at the same time. Every person is different, so diverse options for education are necessary. Therefore, adult education systems in Caldwell County and the United States of America deserve as much attention as youth education systems.

We do teach in a challenging world and teaching is constantly changing. I believe it is important for teachers to continue to receive education and professional

The field of adult education has a longstanding tradition of student-centered learning. More recently, there has been an increased emphasis in K-12 education on using student-centered instructional practices in ESL/EFL context. In the traditional classroom, students are the passive participants who spend their class time listening and taking notes or recording what they have heard; on the other hand, teachers are the solely original resource of knowledge or information and practice the “show and tell” model. This is the way how I learned English in my country, China, which is the EFL classroom. Nevertheless, under the circumstance of society which highly advocates choice and democracy, the student-centered approach which