Abstracts for Adult Learners Articles
Jason's:
Nishihara, L. Between dread and assurance: Autobiography and academic conventions in the writing of adult learners. Adult Student 2000: (2).
This article is written by a professor at a branch campus of Indiana University about teaching introductory college composition to adult learners. Dr. Nishihara through her teaching experience has found that adult learners are typically very nervous about writing papers because they have been out of school so long that they have not been able to have consistent practice at writing for an academic audience. As a result, Dr. Nishihara decided to try different methods that would make writing easier for adult learners. The method that resulted in the best results was having students to make all of their course papers autobiographical. As a result, her conclusion is that by having adult learners to talk about themselves and their own experiences, they are able to write better with less anxiety. Dr. Nishihara ends the article by stressing to her peers that it is important to be more flexible in courses with adult learners to help them succeed to their highest ability level.
Jill's:
Cahoon, B. "Teaching and Learning Internet Skills" New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 78, 5-13, Summer 1998.
This article focuses on the teaching of internet skills to adults. Cahoon cites several methods adult use to acquire skill knowledge: computer books, on-line web sites, informal knowledge sharing with coworkers, one-on-one problem-solving or tutoring sessions. He discusses methods employed by an instructor for an internet course.
Darrell, a graphic designer who works for the University of Georgia’s Center for Computing teaches a 10-hour non-credit evening class entitled "Exploring the Internet". It is taught in a Windows computer lab where students have their own computers and they are able to view a display of the teacher’s computer as well. The program planners discovered that instructors who have degrees in computer science or engineering have not been as successful in teaching the course as people like the graphic designer. People with less expert knowledge have shown better skill at explaining hardware or software problems with less technical language.
In this class, Darrell sometimes makes up phony email or web site addresses and assigns the students tasks using these addresses. He is well aware that they assignments will not work and he uses the students’ "mistakes" as learning opportunities. It was reported on the evaluations that the adult learners are less anxious about making mistakes since he used the mistakes as teachable moments and allowed the students to understand exactly what had gone wrong.
Joan's
Reference: Boulton-Lewis, G. M., Wilss, L., & Mutch, S. (1996). Teachers as adult learners: Their knowledge of their learning and implications for teaching. Higher Education, 32, 89-106.
Just by reading the title, one would assume that teachers or even imply that teachers would be better informed about their learning compared to the non-teaching adult student. That is not necessarily the case. This article begins by describing six main differences between teaching children and teaching adults. They include: 1) Need to know, 2) Self-concept, 3) Role of experience, 4) Readiness to learn, 5) Orientation and learning, and 6) Motivation. These differences are described by K. G. Knowles. The goal of the research conducted in this article were to Adetermine the conceptions, knowledge and level of structural organization of learning possessed by a group of teachers who were adult learners in education. The research was also designed to compare and discuss the results with statements and assumptions that have been made about adult learning@ (p. 93-94).
Forty adult students were enrolled in a course on adult learning. All students had a minimum of three years of teaching experience. The students were asked to write a statement on what their beliefs were about learning. The responses were then analyzed according to SOLO taxonomy levels. All statements were categorized as prestructural (incompetence, nothing is known about the area), unistructural (one relevant aspect is known), multistructural (several relevant independent aspects are known), relational (aspects of knowledge are integrated into a structure), or extended abstract (knowledge is generalized into a new domain). The results to the statement showed that the majority of the response were at the multistructural level (32), followed by relational level (5), then the unistructural level (3).
From the statements the students wrote, they were also asked to describe their beliefs about learning, factors that influenced learning, their approaches to learning and learning outcomes, or how they know learning occurred. The beliefs about learning included: Athat depended on acquisition of knowledge and learning was an experience or an activity that results in understanding@ (p.103). The main factors that influenced learning were intrinsic motivation, attitudes and life experiences. The most common approaches (process) to learning included the use of Arehearsal and elaborative strategies, such as repeating, rewriting, linking and building, followed by visual means@ (p. 103). The indicators of the outcomes of learning included skills acquired and facts retained. These were followed by Athe ability to explain, feelings of satisfaction and understanding@ (p. 103). Interestingly, none of the students stated that they should be responsible for their own learning. The students also felt they were not as ready to learn as we would expect.
The implications for this study include the fact that the Astudents did not enter the course as the independent self-motivated learners that the literature on adult learning would lead one to expect, despite the fact that all were qualified, experienced teachers.