Adult Learning
Personal Learning Style:
Strengths, Weaknesses, Improvement
Every student has a personal learning style. Although this is true for students of all ages, this notion is particularly pronounced in adult learners. Perhaps this is the case simply because adult learners have had ample time to become "set in their ways" with regard to what they feel comfortable with in the classroom. However, mere comfort can be deceiving, and many of the "ways" of learning adult students have become accustomed to utilize do more harm than good in their learning processes. In my case, I have found that my particular learning style can help, as well as hinder my academic progress -- this is particularly true considering issues of time management, research, and analysis skills.
There is little question that in my case, I seem to value autonomy in my learning style much more than I did as a younger student. This means that I do not seem to feel comfortable with detail-orientated in class "busy work." For instance, when it comes to writing a research paper or even an essay, I find it unbearable to develop in class outlines, sit in peer-review circles over multiple drafts, or any of the other "hand holding" exercises designed to teach the writing process or keep the students "on task." However, this is not to say that I don't require a set "schedule" of specific deadlines and class expectations, for without those, I can quickly sink into the mire of procrastination or even "over-saturation" from working on a particular project for too long.
Of course, at first, I imagined that this deep desire for autonomy and self-paced learning was unique to me. However, after reading some of the literature on adult education and the characteristics of the average adult learner, I found that many (if not most) older students also place a high regard on autonomous learning. In fact, after reading the landmark The Inquiring Mind (Houle, 1961), I began to understand just how prevalent it is for adult learners to undertake their continuing education with an independent nature.
In Houle's work, he states, "...behind any decision to learn something new lies a complex network of motives, interests, and values, and behind them, yet another layer of complex inter-linked factors; "a cataract of consequences"...
For countries such as the U.S. And France, these needs can be reasonably expected to relate to the respective national cultures involved. For instance, in their book, Education in France, Corbett and Moon (1996) report, "An education system needs to justify itself constantly by reference to the values which underpin a nation's culture. In a democracy it is expected to transmit a range of intellectual, aesthetic and moral values
Community Colleges in America In 1983 and 1984, a dozen major reports on the United States' schools were published. All stressed the need for "excellence" in education. These reports are the subject of: Excellence in Education: Perspectives on Policy and Practice. The reports pertaining to higher education were published by The BusinessHigher Education Forum, and saw higher education as "unable to train skilled managers and technicians that they believed industry needed."
Learning Style Inventory My results: learning style inventory When I learned that my predominant learning styles were those of a visual learner and a social learner, I was not surprised. The theory of multiple learning styles of Howard Gardner resonates what I have known intuitively for a long time: different people are innately talented at different things. "Unlike the established understanding of intelligence -- people are born with a uniform cognitive capacity
growing recognition of the changing educational needs of college students, particularly those attending community colleges. In response to this awareness, reform efforts have been implemented in order to meet the needs of students. As reform efforts have been considered, increasing attention has been directed toward assessing the influence of learning styles on academic performance. The term 'learning styles' has been used to refer to the ways in which individuals
Individual Learning Style This report is a self-assessment and reflection of my personal learning style. The report assesses my strengths and opportunities for growth as well as creating an improvement strategy which is solely based on the results of my learning style assessment. Through a free internet learning style web site, I discovered that my learning style is called Interpersonal Intelligence. The report will also provide some background on the various
Transformational Learning More than twenty-five years ago, Jack Mezirow initiated a profound movement in the field of adult education, that of transformative learning theory. Since this time, the concept of transformative learning has been a topic of much research and theory building in the field of adult education as described in more detail in this research paper. Although Mezirow is considered to be the major developer of transformative learning theory, other
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