Removing the Barriers!!!!

According to Stephen Lieb, the best way to motivate adult learners is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers. Remove the barriers…As parents, friends and spouses don’t we spend a good part of our lives trying to remove barriers or help our loved ones around them in order for them to have fulfilling lives???

I thought it complimented Knowles’s theory that as we get older the motivation to learn is internal.  Stephen Lieb states that factors influence adult’s motivation to learn.  As I read his article I thought he was describing my elements of motivation perfectly. 

For me the factors that have motivated me over the last 30 years are: friends, expectations, social relationships, achievement and boredom.  After some reflection of the class last week I realized that one very very important factor that was missing from his list.  FAMILY is the biggest motivator in my life.  It wasn’t always the most important as I went through maturity but today it absolutely is.

Knowles’s theory that motivation to learn is internal is reinforced in my mind as I reflect on what motivates me.  If you ask yourself what motivates you how many of them are internal and how many of them are external?  When you ask yourself what motivates you the most, does one stand out for you?

Orientation

Orientation is used in many different contexts.  Orientation can be used to describe: a function of the mind, choice of religion, choice of one’s sexuality, direction/location or event a program for introducing a new person to a program or school.  It is no wonder that many of my classmates; myself included, struggled this week in creating a concept map that clearly depicted our interpretation of the AL orientation concept.

Truth be told, I was 95% complete with my orientation concept map and I was unable to find the connecting that brought the concept map together.  According to Knowles’s theory adults are life, task or problem-centered in their orientation to learning.  We want to see how what we learn will apply to our life.  After revisiting Knowles’s theory it became clear that orientation was deeply intertwined with his other AL theories, self-concept, experience and motivation.  Once I embraced the idea of allowing several theories to be included creating the concept map became much easier.

This process was one that provided the opportunity for me to deeply reflect on my own learning orientation.  I created an orientation concept map based off of my Dad’s experience with lung cancer.  I discovered that yes, part of my orientation to learning is indeed problem centered.   More importantly I discovered that I am attracted to learning opportunities merely based of the fact that they relate to one of my own personal experiences.  It doesn't matter if the knowledge will allow me to deal with a problem or task in life.  I wonder if anyone else has discovered the same thing about themselves??

Looking forward to Motivation!

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Carl W. Buechner

Thus far I have tackled three of Knowles andragogy attributes, need to know, self-concept and experience.  I think as an adult learner and as an educator all three attributes are important for AL.   I have to admit though, the  experience attribute really resonated with me.  It is the attribute I see myself immediately applying in my personal life and professional life.

I liked the quote that I titled my blog by Carl W. Buechner because I thought it depicted "experience" very well.  The process of exploring Knowles experience attribute this week was an excellent opportunity for me to have an in depth personal reflection. As a result, I came away from the process with a personal appreciation for my experiences, what they have taught me and how they have molded me into the person I am today. Although, I touched on this briefly in our class reflection discussion I wanted to go more in depth in my blog.  


We often get wrapped up in our own busy lives and become self-absorbed.  One could make the argument that it is imperative that educators possess the ability to acknowledge and identify with individuals that come from different personal experiences then what they do.  I feel that you could make the argument that in any sort of educational, personal or professional situation it is important for EVERYONE to try to acknowledge and identify with individuals that come from different personal experiences then what they might.


Does this happen often, of course not but think about if it did.  Divorce rate would go down, employee morale would skyrocket and test scores would increase.  I think you get my point... possessing the ability to identify and be compassionate with other individual's background  will not only help you in training or teaching new material but you might actually learn something too!


I thoroughly enjoyed the personal insight into my classmate's background and lives this week.  Thank you for sharing!

Week Number 2, Adult Learning... WOW

At the end of week number of Adult Learning I find myself very excited.  As I previously admitted I was a little nervous with all the new "newbie" stuff that I needed to tackle. No more nerves about it!  I am thrilled with the distance learning experience, my classmates and the journey we will take over the next four weeks.  Technology never ceases to amaze me!  The tools, access and availability that we have at our finger tips is amazing.  Then to incorporate the tools of technology into training and teaching methods is makes learning limitless!

As we dive into this class head first it is becoming apparent that adult learning is also limitless, evolving and applicable to everyone.  We live in a "need to know" society.  Look around you... when is the last time you went 24 hours with out hearing, seeing or reading the latest headlines?  Our everyday life is saturated with things that allow us to be "in the know".  It only makes sense that adult learning theories also encompass the "need to know" rage that our society so closes embraces. 

It seems to me that the combination of AL and the tools of technology creates a future of learning that is absolutely limitless!

First Class

I must say I was quite anxious for the first hour of my adult learning class. Being a "newbie" to wimba/BlackBoard was a little intimidating, not to mention this is my first distance learning hybrid class. I actually found myself quite and I am not a quite person.

After the first hour the anxiety left and I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable I was beginning to feel with the new software. I have a new found appreciation for distance learning and am eager to be involved with the discussion and group work that lies ahead in this class.

Even though I have only had one class it is already very clear that there are a few essentials to keeping a distance learning class sucessful.  One, having a good professor that is able to rein the class back in when they get off topic and keep the class on track is very very important.  The other, having an active group of students willing to participate and teach one another is very very helpful!

More to come... I hope you are as excited as I am :).