Positive and Negative Adult Learning Environments

Positive and Negative Adult Learning Environments

It was Malcolm Knowles (1978 , 1990 ) and his theory andragogy who emphasized the model of adult learning . The premise is based on his hypothesis that the maturation of an individual into adulthood is manifest when people conduct themselves in adult behavior and consider themselves to be adults . Then they should be dealt with as adults . By adulthood people are self-directing . Knowles taught that adult education was special in a several ways . This will mean that the presence or absence of some significant details will improve or

pull down adult learning experience . This implies that knowledgeable background on adults and the developmental characteristics of that particular stage will spell effective or disastrous results . This attempts to show the various positive and negative learning environments specifically for adults . Positive Learning Environment include : 1 . Adult learners carry with them a vast amount of experience to the learning environment . This means that tuning in to their particular psyche creates a conducive atmosphere for learning 2 . Adults expect on the kind of training they are exposed to and how they are to be educated . Example : Unlike the younger learners where most take on passive role , adults have goals in mind and the learning they receive must fall within those predetermined personal goals 3 . the active involvement of students should be encouraged in planning and implementing educational programs 4 . Adults need to be able to see applications for new learning 5 . Adult learners expect to have a high degree of influence on how learning will be evaluated 6 . Adults expect their responses to be acted upon when asked for feedback on the progress of the program . Andragogy is therefore student-centered , experience-based , problem-oriented and collaborative (Brooks , J 1995 . On the other hand , the following can influence adults specifically in the learning experience in a unhelpful way . The Negative Learning Environment includes the fact that : 1 . some adults can move toward prescribed educational settings with anxiety and feelings of high or low self-efficacy . Their method to new learning milieus can be prejudiced by how they assess or evaluate the new experience . A case in point : given two adults in a classroom where an exercise is about to begin , one individual may interpret the assignment in such a way that leads to a feeling of 'excitement , while another individual interprets the task in such a way that leads to the feeling of 'embarrassment . It is a fact that the way the individual interprets the situation and the consequent emotion that arises , will affect the kind of action the individual is to take (Burns , 1995 ,

.16 . Burns considers that such assessments , together with the labels such as 'fear ' or 'anxiety ' can direct some learners to psychologically disengage from the source of distress that is the learning experience . Conversely , when coupled with labels such as 'excitement ' or 'challenge ' the learner is conducted to take measures that focus on the undertaking

References

Brooks , J 1995 Training and Development Competence : a practical guide Kogan Page...