Adult Learning
Adults will commit to learning when the goals and objectives are considered realistic and important to them. Application in the 'real world' is important and relevant to the adult learner's personal and professional needs. Adults need to receive feedback on how they are doing and the results of their efforts. Opportunities must be built into professional development activities that allow the learner to practice the learning and receive structured, helpful feedback. Adults need to participate in small-group activities during the learning to move them beyond understanding to application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Small-group activities provide an opportunity to share, reflect, and generalize their learning experiences.
Yes, your points are well put, Kimberly! I also think that adults need to be actively shown the relevance and application of some of the more abstract concepts that we present (example: varios psychological principles in perception). It helps to use the Kolb and Bloom to develop approaches in doing this teaching.
Rebekah,
Agreed!! Group projects are great and I believe that online students do tent to be committed to their education.
Shelly Crider
Group Projects are beneficial in that they replicate the real world environment. Most comapines use teams whether actual teams or virtual teams and it is essential to develop the necesary interpersonal communication and cconflict management skills to complete assigned proejcts in both the academic and workplace setting. Now, with that being said in the online environment there are varrying degress of commitment. Typically adults are very committed to their education, yet there are those that are not and the team or group projects can be a source of frustration for the former. It is incumbant upon the facilitator to monitor progress and to lead, guide and encourage where needed to ensure the projects are completed as outlined. A strong part of the learning process is in the group experience, group members must learn to identify issues, resolve conflicts and complete tasks in the virtual envirornment just as they would in the workplace.
Jenny,
I think I get your point(s), which is a good one. It may be that children benefit from group activities as well, but with different sets of objectives, agree?
Great discussion!
Doug
Valerie,
Malcolm Knowles is a very respected therorist. Thanks for the resource!
Shelly Crider
Malcolm Knowles said these are the five characteristics to consider when developing content for and teaching adult learners:
1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being
2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.
4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.
5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal
Retrieved from:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm
Hell Kimberly
I am sure that adults have very different approach to online courses. They want to take most benefits as possible then use all skills during their career.
Dr. Karina
Group projects are good in a sense that it creates a positive competition among the students.
It becomes real good when members start evaluating each other’s work.
I most agree with this statement:
Application in the 'real world' is important and relevant to the adult learner's personal and professional needs. I find that adult learners will tune out if the course is not relevant to their intended career. This can be difficult but when placed in a group situation, they can see the importance of interaction and the topic becomes secondary.
I would agree simply because adult learning is not the same as children learning. They face barriers and environmental factors that make their learning that much more challenging. So while small group activities may compell them to participate, it would make their participation that much more rewarding and retainable.
