Adult learning

Reading the last chapter in learning in adulthood made me reflect on where I am myself in my own learning. Bateson, on page 430, laments the fact that learning for adults is often studied as this compartmentalized activity that does not seemed to be recognized as an integrated facet of adult life. I would have to agree. It seems another way of erroneously intermingling childhood learning , which certainly is compartmentalized in formal education systems, with adult learning. Bateson makes the point that learning occurs every day within common tasks that adults perform.

I would have to agree. I was recently asked to participate in a focus group at work in which the purpose was to gain a better understanding of the development needs of HR personal. While some in the group saw that as gaining certifications in various areas, my interests were less in formal programs and more in experiences where I can learn more about the business I support. As an instructional designer, I have to focus not only on my core craft, but learn as much about the industry that I’m working in to be as effective as I can at my job. For the past 5 years, every day was almost a mini-medical school for me as I worked with individuals running clinical trials. In my new position, I am learning manufacturing from all facets – engineering, operating and planning. Not a day passes where I do not learn something new and it doesn’t require any kind of formal program to do so. In fact, a formal program would probably hinder, not help, my learning, since I would not be able to direct my own learning and it would not be experience based.

After reading this chapter, I also began to think that one of the key differences between children and adults learning is reflection. Merriam emphasized experience as a key difference, but it seems to me that the increase of experience is just a trigger for the increased reflection that occurs. I also find myself nearing my mid-thirties and after dealing with my own health issues, losing a parent, supporting a sibling through 2 divorces and almost losing my best friend in child birth this year, doing far more critical reflection than I would have just a couple of years ago. I personally think I’m a bit ahead in the time table than my peers and feel like I’m at a point that most people don’t reach until their 40’s, according to Kegan, in terms of dialectal thinking (Merriam, 433).

Horizontal violence

Rather than dealing with a boss for a bully, what about a co-worker who is a bully? That is pretty much the concept of horizontal violence. It seems fairly ironic that it is rampant in nurses. Nurses? Aren’t they supposed to be rather caring and nurturing people? Huh?

In one tale I read, an inexperienced nurse was having a difficult time separating her emotions from her patients. Other nurses belittled her, instead of trying to give her tips on how to handle. In my last job, I think about a quarter to half of the people I worked with had been health care professionals of some sort – nurses, technicians, pharmacists. And I do have agree that it was the nurses I heard the most tell their war stories and talk about all the idiots they worked with. One former nurse was so awful to me, I had to call in 4 other co-workers just to help me deal with her at a meeting. I remember someone saying to me after the meeting “Just because she got dumped on by doctors doesn’t mean she should do it to you…”

Although you never know the full story. It made me think of times where there have been co-workers struggling and I have been not so helpful myself. I don’t think I have ever called someone names or used very critically aggressive tactics that the aforementioned nurse used on me, but I know one person I lost all patience with. Why? They never followed through on any of their commitments, would be very passive aggressive to you when you confronted them, could not have been depended on for anything and caused extra work for everyone in the department. This person drove everyone nuts and it was pretty clear that he didn't enjoy his job and wasn't a good fit. We really all wanted him to quit and maybe that nurse struggling with her emotions was cut out for the job int he first place. The funny thing he was a nice guy – just completely inept at his job. Is that horizontal violence? I have rarely encountered situations where someone who was doing their job well was gossiped about or belittled. I should not use this as a justification, but if someone is getting treated poorly by their peers, there’s usually a reason, other than people being mean…

Slings and arrows

When I choose to blog about something, it is usually because I respond strongly to the subject, either positively or negatively. I look to my emotions about the subject matter to guide me, rather than my intellect. Perhaps mine is more of a spiritual approach, as defined in Learning in Adulthood. I do know that reading the chapter on spirituality was incredibly painful and almost embarrassing for the authors as I read the stilted language trying to define it. The authors also at least acknowledged the awkwardness of writing about spirituality as an academic exercise.

So it seems that some discussions of adult education lends itself better to poetry over prose. I was heartened to see Shakespeare passages (and even quotes from his work put in a flow chart to explain an idea!), Thoreau and the Bible quoted from in Keith Main’s paper. It seemed appropriate in his theory of adult development that a sense of play and the use of leisure time with some artistic expression are included. What also struck me was his 6th facet of adult development, one that has the adult always in some cycle of growth and regression. It was heartening to see that it is something everyone goes through and that some kind of regression leads to increased growth. Rather than fight the regression phases, it seems like its best to use the opportunity to reflect. You could also see this as a struggle between the internal and external and that according to Main, adult development is at its highest when that individual has a strong internal locus of control.

Spirit and Place

After reading chapters 8 & 9 in Learning in Adulthood, which examined the role of spirituality and multi-cultural perspectives in adult education, it struck me that spirituality (as defined by the authors) and multi-culturalism have some similarities. They have a strong emphasis on community, meaning making and connection that are often lacking in Western cultures. It is almost as if the authors are saying that Western cultures are not spiritual ones. In my opinion, tt may be more that spiritualism is often considered a deeply private and individual practice and that due to the ever growing heterogeneous nature of these cultures, spiritual tolerance is often executed as spiritual silence. The more homogenous a culture is, it may make the societal expression of spiritual beliefs more acceptable.

I found it interesting, though, that there was little, if any, discussion around formal education settings when examinging multi-culturalism. While there may be more narrative learning, in for example, African cultures or more apprenticeship type learning in Hindu or Asian cultures, it left me wondering how different or similar educational philosophies are across cultures. How does each culture’s pedagogical styles influence their adult education approaches? I would have liked to see these aspects discussed more in depth by the authors. And other than the example of the teacher witnessing a Turkish brother beating his sister because it was acceptable behavior in their culture, much of the culture discussions seemed sanitized and idealized. The chapter focused mainly on the role of the educators and the overall purposes of some form of education. The authors made very little distinctions between formal and informal learning.

Things that left me thinking more about, in a broader since of oppression and culture were: How does India’s caste system impact learning? In Muslim countries, what about the lack of educational opportunities for women (and in other countries as well)? What about the Confucian approach to education, with the belief that it is how much a student is willing to work to learn, rather than innate ability? It seemed like these chapters were focused mainly on respecting fairly surface level differences, such as Asian cultures’ deference to the teacher. Much more could have been learned from examining in depth learning practices or approaches, from childhood through adult learning, not only to gain a deeper understanding of educating adults from different cultures, but also to gather best practices for designing programs based on strategies used by these cultures.

Transformation as grief?

As I was reading Brookfield’s model of transformative learning in Learning and Adulthood (p 146), it struck me that there are similarities to this model and other transformative learning models and the 5 stages of grief, as defined by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. While hopefully the transformative process is one of gain and enrichment, any time a person under goes a major shift in perspective, they do lose parts of their former self.

All transformative learning tends to begin with an event of some sort that the individual is having difficulty handling. Likely there is some element of denial as the individual tries to process the experience. Anger is Ross’s second stage. I’m not sure where that fits in to all transformational learning models, but I could see that be an aspect of some social emancipatory philosophy as the learner becomes more aware of the forces that work against them. In the stages where the learner is talking to their peers, doing research and gathering information, I imagine some of the research may be driven by a bargaining need (“maybe there are other options to this problem…”; “maybe this really isn’t happening”) that could also be accompanied by depression, as the learner finds their perspective shifting in a new and different way. Finally as they learn to integrate their new knowledge, there comes an acceptance in their new found perspective.

Serendipity in learning...

Merriam and Caffarella, in Learning in Adulthood, cite a paper by G.E. Spear in which he presents a model of self directed learning that has opportunities, knowledge and chance all play roles in self directed learning (112).

It gave me pause to think about how chance encounters have furthered my own learning. At first, I was hard pressed to think of much, other than a series of rather random, sometimes unfortunate events (including a layoff) that led me to the job and career that I have now. And I would say that the chance event of getting my job led me to meet someone who was to become a mentor. From that, I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up. So, I guess in the end, my whole career as I know it now and my decision to work on my masters in instructional design were all very much based on a couple of chance events. Who knows what I would be doing today instead.

Another chance event that I think about is an English professor I had in college. I enjoyed his Shakespeare class so much (a huge undergrad affair – I think a couple hundred…) that I signed up for his next class. How, I don’t know, but he remembered my name from my tests and papers (I had never bothered to talk to him in the lecture series). From taking the smaller class, we became friends and he encouraged me to apply for a grant to study overseas in a program he was working with. I actually got the grant that paid for my plane ticket to London, where I took classes and worked on a paper on the British theater. By another chance, a friend of my sister’s husband who was living in England helped arrange interviews for me with the financial directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company and that National Theatre. Not bad for chance.

I would say that I think I have had more planned learning experiences than ones by that happen by accident, but it does seem to reinforce the theory that the more random events have had the most impact than anything else.

The multiplicity of learning

I’m wary of consultants and sales people and such who claim they have a single solution to all my problems. I would be just as wary if a teacher or researcher was to tell me there was only one way to learn. It seems like there are multiple learning theories, because, well, there are different ways to learn. After reading chapter 11 in Learning in Adulthood, I would posit that the way you learn depends on where you are at in the learning continuum from novice to expert in that particular task or knowledge base.

As fashionable as it is to downplay the importance and relevance of behaviorism in learning circles these days, it strikes me as a darn good method to use to build basic skills and knowledge. I think back to my days of when I first was learning music. There was lots of repletion and feedback, with the instructor setting the agenda and my learning goals. It made sense because when you don’t know anything about a subject, how could you know where to begin? I can’t imagine taking a constructivist approach. Although, today, I need to pick my own repertoire and identify my own learning needs as I now have 20+ years of expertise.

In contrast, I’m learning ball room dancing, and I pretty much need that same behaviorist, teacher centered approach with lots of reinforcement. When I think of my work on the job, though, I get pretty bored quickly sitting in classes and excel when I get to make my own learning choices, explore my own path and especially if I have a mentor to nudge me here and there. The humanist and cognitive approaches speak to me most in this regard. Finally, as I strive to enhance my business partnering skills, the social cognition approach would work best for me, where I get to observe someone very experienced work through conversations and difficult issues.