Learning Theories and Unions

I was having a conversation with one of my mentors last week.  Dr. Stow is a Stockton Professor Emerita, she has over 35 years of higher education teaching experience, and is one of the most well integrated community member I know.  I respect her and her opinion.

We often discuss my class.  She finds 21^st century learning fascinating particularly the elements of technology such as Wimba.  She is convinced that she would be unable to teach in today’s classroom, I disagree.  Even in her late 80’s she is in tune with how education is evolving along with society’s impact.

In our recent discussion about my class, I was explaining how I was attempting to apply several different learning theories to developing a training program for my office.  She posed a very interesting question.  She said to me, “what impact do unions have on learning theories?”  It got me thinking…

Unions influence the hours that staff works, the environment they work in, when they are allowed to eat, when they take breaks and what they are allowed to have fallen within their job responsibilities.  Do they affect learning theories, absolutely.  When developing my training programs I have to take into consideration all of the following: when and where I am conducting the training program, how long the training session will last and what I am teaching them.  If I am asking them to learn something new that doesn’t fall within their job description I could get in trouble.

I want to be clear I am not discussing rather or not I support unions just merely the fact that certainly effect learning theories when you are developing a training program.