Essays on Adult Learner

Writing on a complex problem like adult learning can itself be a complex process. An adult student’s cultural literacy is formed over a lifetime of experiences with the written word and encompasses their expectations, their goals, and their understanding of their relationship to the broader world. It is no surprise, then, that I faced several challenges as I began to explore this issue and its impact on the educational experience. Being able to explain a complex concept to others requires you to first reach a complete understanding of the topic—no small task in itself, when faced with ...

For the traditional student, college is the next step after high school. He takes only a few months off between high school and college as he did between the previous 12 years of his scholastic life, a whirlwind transition that leaves little time for maturation or new life experiences between being a senior in one place and a freshman in the next. Adult learners, however, bring a fully-formed identity as an adult with them into the college classroom. Educationally, they may have finished high school several years prior, not have finished high school at all, or be completing a ...

For the traditional student, college is the next step after high school. He takes only a few months off between high school and college as he did between the previous 12 years of his scholastic life, a whirlwind transition that leaves little time for maturation or new life experiences between being a senior in one place and a freshman in the next. Adult learners, however, bring a fully-formed identity as an adult with them into the college classroom. Educationally, they may have finished high school several years prior, not have finished high school at all, or be completing a ...

For the traditional student, college is the next step after high school. He takes only a few months off between high school and college as he did between the previous 12 years of his scholastic life, a whirlwind transition that leaves little time for maturation or new life experiences between being a senior in one place and a freshman in the next. Adult learners, however, bring a fully-formed identity as an adult with them into the college classroom. They may have families at home and full-time jobs to work when they’re not in class. Educationally, they may have ...

Abstract

Successful andragogy-based outcomes can be realized by the creation of comfortable professional development opportunities that focus on training applicability to address the concerns, interests, needs and issues pertaining to middle adult workers. Participation in practical activities and role playing enable middle adult learners to relate to novel teaching instructions and, by extension, keep them interested and engaged in their work place activities. The reason to keep middle adult staff engaged is to ensure that they have a positive attitude towards their job and that they are able to sustain their productivity for a considerable period. As such, there is ...

 Recently, Adult Learning (AL) has become a very popular and effective mode of learning. Globally, an increasing number of adults opt for further study and self-development. Adult learners learn for different reasons and have many valuable assets for continuing education. There are, however, challenges adult learners face in pursuing further education. Adult learners are differentiated based on age or cognitive maturity and can be classified as non-conventional learners. The paper engages the subject of adult learning from a critical viewpoint to explicate the problems that characterize it with the aim of problematizing the idea of adult learning beyond conventional ...

Problem Overview

A primary concern surrounding diversity at the workplace is the lack of inclusion which leaves employees feeling left out. In human resource management creating an environment that everyone receives respect and dignity and where the skills and talents of different groups of people receive equal value. Through these measures, workforce productivity greatly increases while the service or product customers become happier. Further the workforce is more contented, has high motivation and aware of the benefits that accrue through inclusion. Equality and inclusion issues in any organization usually arise from the protected characteristics as outlined in the Equality Act of ...

The nontraditional learner has confronted educational leaders, professionals, and administrators with the emerging phenomenon of unique pedagogical methods and revelations. Research has explored the successes and failures of nontraditional learners both online, and live classroom settings. Flexibility in nontraditional learner characteristics seem to support the scholarly findings of Thompson et al. (2013) who posit that generally, “online learning has been found to be comparable” to the in-person format (p.234). That aside, adult learners should be assessed with particular considerations.

First of all, in terms of institutionally established learning ...

The Role of Functional Radicals – A Report

ABSTRACT Research is limited on the benefits of explicit teaching of Chinese second language (CSL) adult learners about the functions of radical components of Chinese characters. The following research, analysis, and discourse provides how CSL adult learners indeed benefit from the explicit instruction of all components of the radicals of Chinese characters at the onset of their learning. This connects to providing them a better understanding of the Chinese language as a non-alphabetical based framework especially for those students with English as their primary language. The following findings researched how a better understanding of such aspects of radicals including phonetic and ...

One of the benefits of the information technology revolution has been its disruption of education. Whereas in the past, if you had not started college by you mid-late twenties the chances are that you would not ever go to college. Nowadays, however, taking a college class or even getting a college degree is as accessible as the nearest computer with an Internet connection. Adult learners have been at the forefront of the digital education revolution. However, despite the growing interest of adult learners in online and other Internet based learning platforms, some of the technology that allows learning to take place, ...

Abstract

Adult learning and education is an extremely complex and challenging branch of education, as the restraints of time management, study skills and anxiety, among other factors, can hamper the possibility of adult learners to receive the education they need. Given these constraints, a humanistic approach to learning is recommended, as it focuses on the individual needs of the adult learner and grants them greater autonomy in the learning process. This is best exemplified in self-directed learning, a process that offers adult learners the ability to cultivate their own skills, and work at their own pace and under their own direction. While ...

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Please type your Institution name here Adult learning principles vary dramatically from pedagogic principles. The motivation for an adult to learn differs dramatically from that of a child. These differences were first highlighted by Malcolm Knowles who is also known as the father of adult learning. Adults’ learning motivation comes from an immediacy need directly linked to their everyday roles. An adult learner primarily looks at relevance in learning to improve on-job performance and behavior. The classic paradigm of pedagogic learning – learning by rote is not applicable in the case of adults. The predominant difference between and adult and a ...

Theories Of Teaching and Learning: Holistic and Elemental Models

Theories of Teaching: Holistic and Elemental Models 2 1. Explain the difference between holistic and elemental models. How do these compare with the two streams of inquiry (artistic and scientific) described in chapter 4? Which model and stream of inquiry would a proposer use? Holistic models of education are based on the psychology of functionalism, a theory that explains human behavior is determined by perceived usefulness to the organism in adapting to the environment. Holistic education methods are more “progressive” and focus on the learners links to community and nature. (Knowles, Holton III & Swanson, 2011) The goal of the ...

In the contemporary society, adult learning has mainly on its efficacy in transforming individuals. This transformation focuses on changing their psychological perceptions, enabling them review their beliefs and subsequently offering them a platform upon which they can use the acquired knowledge to make decisions (Merriam, 2008). Thus, transformation learning, from a descriptive point of view focuses on enabling the adult learner to shift from the dependency stage and adopt a mode of making decisions whereby they do not rely on the beliefs, purposes or feelings of others but their own interpretation of events and ideas.

Learning experience

A learning strategy is always an effective ...

Personal Development Profile Analysis

Introduction Reflecting on my own personal development is sometimes a difficult thing to do; it can be hard to accurately determine how you have improved, what aspects of your work still need improving, etc. However, over the course of my work, I believe I have come a long way from where I have started, and I look forward to continually improving my own abilities. In the beginning, I found myself having difficulty with some aspects of learning, but I have made substantial progress toward increasing the speed of my presentations, being more inclined to think critically while learning, and having a ...

Introduction

In the contemporary world, adult learners comprise of a significant number of academic students. Several methods have been initiated to enable adults continue in their pursuit of academic and scholarly excellence. Unlike young boys and girls, adults face a daunting task balancing between the demands of their normal daily lives and the pursuit of education. Many educational institutions have realized that a significant number of adults who are able and willing to learn miss out on academic excellence opportunities. Most of the adults are often held back by personal and family obligations that make it difficult for them to attend regular classes. ...

Abstract

Adults are human being with the natural drive to expand their learning experiences, to broaden their accomplishments and to improve their ability towards self competence and learning autonomy. The process of learning is a natural occurrence to an adult learner. Part of the desire towards learning are the influences of self-esteem, the need for satisfying individual wants and needs and the need for self development. Self directed learning complements the psychological aspect of an adult learner by increasing the momentum of the learning experiences of an adult learner and to nurture and deepen the learning experiences acquired on the process. ...

Section:

Adult learning theory holds assumptions on how adults learn and also puts emphasis on the value of the learning process. Notably, the theory applies approaches that are collaborative and problem –based as opposed to didactic. It also emphasizes on equality between the learner and the teacher. The first article focuses on understanding and promoting learning theories. The adult learning theory, andragogy is perceived as self-directed and emphasizes the teachers’ roles as being facilitators. Rogers contributed to the adult and higher education movement on learner self-evaluation in development of andragogy. This focuses on the significance of personal involvement in ...

Literature Review

This literature review will explore the different factors that can affect teaching English as a secondary language to adult learners. The need for learning English has met an increased demand when it became a universal language. Compared to other major languages like Spanish and Mandarin, there are significantly more people from different parts of the world who use English as their main medium of instruction. Hence, we will supplement this research with a literature review of published researches and studies related to English as second language learning for adults. All related literatures mentioned in this chapter are published journals that have a publication ...

Literature Review

This literature review will explore the different factors that can affect teaching English as a secondary language to adult learners. The need for learning English has met an increased demand when it became a universal language. Compared to other major languages like Spanish and Mandarin, there are significantly more people from different parts of the world who use English as their main medium of instruction. Hence, we will supplement this research with a literature review of published researches and studies related to English as second language learning for adults. All related literatures mentioned in this chapter are published journals that have a publication ...

It is often said that knowledge is power. This could be the explanation behind the fact that many people continue pursuing their careers to higher levels. This happens even when people have hit an older age but are still pursuing their studies. Adult learners have quite a lot of responsibilities, which means that they have to have a good balance between work, family, and their school work. The essay below looks at how adult learners can address these factors in their lives.

Managing School as an Adult Learner

It is pure logic that if possible, one should pursue his career to the furthest point before settling down ...

There are perhaps more adult learners now than ever before. This, in turn, means that many people are also busier than ever before. Effective time management is crucial for adult learners if they are to achieve well in their studies and continue to run their existing daily lives. Returning to study after a long period can be daunting. Study skills are like a muscle that needs to be exercised and, similarly, they can become rusty if they have not been used for a while. However, more and more adults are taking up new courses in order to gain qualifications or to ...

I am a forty-five year old adult learner, currently serving in the military. As a result of that situation, the opportunities and time windows with which I have to study are extremely limited. I have to juggle having a family with military service already; adding higher education into the mix simply adds a greater level of time commitment. Because the adult education component is somewhat more voluntary and optional in my life right now, that is what is often placed on the back burner while I take care of more pressing matters. However, I would like to improve my study skills and my ...