End of Course Reflection

Honestly, as I began this course, I did not I believe that I could find out more about learning than I had already learned in my teacher licensing program.  I was wrong.  My previous training and experiences were primarily focused on K-12 Youth learners, not adult learners.  I did find that some of my past knowledge was applicable to adult learners but I had to first understand the differences between adult learners and youth learners.  The top three differences between adult learners and youth learners that I found are:

1. Content Needs 
2.  Technology Usage
3.  Motivational Strategies

“Content Needs”

Adult learners and youth learners are similar in the identification of learning styles and multiple intelligences.  For both groups an instructor needs to understand their student population and design curriculum that supports the range of learning styles/intelligences in the classroom. My thinking is similar to that of Gardner‘s reminders of multiple intelligences (p.15 – 16):

o   “Each person posses all eight intelligences.”

o   “Most people can adapt each intelligence to an adequate level of competency.”

o   “Intelligences usually work together in complex ways.”

o   “There are many ways to be intelligent in each category.”

This also coincides with Gilbert and Swanier’s research on how students/learners learning style can change and fluctuate within a unit and or lesson.  So I have learned that I strongly believe in creating a classroom environment that supports different learning styles/intelligences even though I am primarily a visual learner and teacher.   I also believe solutions in a balance of extremes have become more of a norm than an anomaly.   Proof of this is found in the newest efforts to promote optimal learning with differentiation, RTI (Response to Instruction), Bloom’s Taxonomy, and all the strategies they come with for teachers to follow.  The entire list of theories and principles see that different learners learn in different ways and not any one tactic will reach all students.

So both adult learners and youth learners have a range of learning styles/intelligences in one classroom setting but will require differing content.  A large difference in content would be in the technology training required for either adult learners or youth learners.

“Technology Usage”

I have learned that there are more adult learners who shy away from technology than youth learners and this difference will require that I add technology training into my curriculum, especially for online learning environments.  As with youth learners, I believe that all types of learning experiences can be created for adults in an online environment, with some creativity from the instructor.  As Fenwick and Tennant expressed, “The answer of course is that there is no one best way to understand learning, just as learners and educators are each very different and constantly changing.”

Yet technology adds so much richness and options for learning that it is critical to have all learners on board with its use in the online classroom.  From my experiences, I believe that adult learners would work on the extremes of either being for or against online learning experiences; the emphasis of these extremes could be detrimental to any type of learning experience created by the instructor.  The adult learners who are against online learning will be very adamant about their disapproval and hard to win over.  These hard to reach adult learners would require user friendly training on the online learning platform and additional support in the use of the platform.  On the other extreme the adult learners who are for online learning may expect more than what they will be offered by the instructor.  In this case the instructor should offer opportunities for these adult learners to contribute to the online content as well as be open to suggestions for changes to the platform.  Yet all of these adult learners will be “highly motivated by intrinsic factors, such as the need for knowledge and the drive to succeed” as Knowles suggested, thus bringing all of these student types together with the willingness to learn.

“Motivational Strategies”

I believe that both adult learners and youth learners would benefit motivationally by some Social Constructivism techniques.  Social Constructivism allows students to be active participants in their learning (Kim 2010) and “transform their experiences based on their knowledge and characteristics.” (Ormrod 2009)  I strongly agree with the theory that social interactions effect and enhance the learning process.  As said in Learning Theories and Instruction (p.184), “Constructivist accounts of learning and development highlight the contributions of individuals to what is learned.”

Yet since adult learners will have different as well as more experiences than youth learners this contribution to their own education may be much more critical, especially in an online classroom.  With an online classroom of adult learners, I believe that the motivational strategies that will need to be implemented will be more intrinsic than extrinsic and will relate more to the applications and relevance of the information.  In addition to finding the personal value in the course students must also have the ability to see the end of requirements and communicate regularly with the instructor and other students.

In conclusion, I feel empowered by the information I learned throughout this course about learning styles, multiple intelligences, technology usage in adult classrooms and motivational strategies.  I still feel more knowledgeable and confident in working with youth learners but in understanding the differences of adult learners I feel ready to add to my experiences with adult learners in an online environment.