Becca Dawson
CAE 213 Penland
TAL Questions pgs. 165-182, 231-238
03.20.12
PO Box 585
Pgs. 165-182
8.1. Discuss how both disciplines of adult education and human resource
development connect to adult learning.
They both view the process of adult learning as being central to their theory
and practice. HRD can defined as “the process of developing and/or
unleashing human expertise through organizational development and
personal training and development for the purpose of improving performance
at the organization, work process, and individual levels.” So the desired
outcome is performance improvement, not learning itself, though learning is
an integral part of the process. HRD is broader than adult learning – that’s
part of it, but it’s not the goal – the goal is that adult learning happens so that
the worker can offer more to the organization.
Both Adult Education and HRD are deeply committed to adult learning. When
the adult learning outcomes and learning process rules and requirements are
located in the individual, it is adult education. When these learning outcomes
and process rules and requirements are determined by the organization, it is
human resource development.
8.2. From your experience, how does learning connect with performance?
Speak for performance at various levels (individual, work process, and
organization).
From my perspective, learning has everything to do with improved
performance. Back home (in Savannah), I’m a certified city tour guide. To
become certified, I had to develop a comprehensive knowledge of the history
of Savannah from 1733-present day, and I had to have a cursory knowledge of
the culture of the Yamacraw and Creek, who lived in what is now southeast
Georgia prior to colonization, as well as how the history of Savannah is
relevant to people today. For me the process of acquiring the basic facts
necessary to pass my certification test took about six months of intense study
– just to become a baseline, spout-out-facts sort of tour guide.
In the four years since then, my dedication to increasing my knowledge base
has developed me into a much-sought-after tour guide. Now I give walking
tours, carriage tours, and Segway tours and I have trained over 20 new city
tour guides. Last year, I was approached by a tour company and asked to
design 3 new tours that previously had not existed: the Dark History of
Savannah (nestled comfortably between regular history and “ghost” – the
murders and accidents and such minus the “ghostly” aspect), Morbid
Medicines (the medicinal practices often used in the city’s history), and the
Pirate History of Savannah (self explanatory – a nautical history of the
privateering, smuggling, and blockade running that happened in the history of
the city) . In each of these cases, I have had to increase my knowledge base
through research and creativity.
To use the grid on page 168:
On the individual level, I have had to gain expertise, and this goal of gaining
expertise has been motivating – the more I learn, the more motivated I
become to learn more. I have realized that as I continue to learn, I have
increased my capacity to perform on the job, and there are decreased
obstacles to my job performance. As I continue to strive to be an excellent tour
guide, my goals tend to align with those of my employers – to offer a relevant,
interesting, appropriate, accurate, and enjoyable interaction with history, and
to do so in a polite, professional, warm, and lively way.
I have also seen that process goals become more streamlined – as often, I’m
developing my own process. HRD is nonexistent in the tour-guiding world, in
my experience. However this is good because then the process becomes
exactly what I need it to be – as I seek to learn that which an organization has
told me I need to learn for success. Thus as I gain expertise, my process can
adapt and change to meet needs, and I can develop a process with the quality
and timelessness to continue to perform. I can create a system to use to help
future tour guides, and my process goals are designed to meet the goals of the
organization.
The organizations for which I have worked benefit from increasingly skilled
guides, and I have seen that as their guides have striven for excellence,
organizational goals grow with the employees in realistic ways. The rewards,
policies, and culture increasingly support this desired performance, because it
brings in more money. And attempts at more formal HRD are made by
leadership so that further improvement can be made.
8.3. What is your general position related to the idea of adult learners
controlling their own learning?
I’m a huge proponent of the learner completely controlling their own learning.
I have seen in my experience that even in matters of HRD, as the learner is
motivated, and self directed, the learner will have great success. The most
important thing is that the learner has a knowledge of how to access
resources for learning, and that the learner has a supportive community in
which to share/discuss acquired knowledge.
However, if learners are not highly motivated and self-directed individuals,
they will not necessarily take control of their own learning. As it relates to
HRD, in our world, everyone should be working somewhere they like. They
should be interested in what they are doing and seek to learn more always.
However, many people are trapped at jobs they dislike, and I believe this is
why they oftentimes do not want to take control of their own learning.
However this can be convenient for HRD in cases where individual goals do
not line up with organizational goals.
8.4. Discuss the relative ease and difficulty of adults controlling the various
learning phases (need, create, implement, and evaluate).
The phase of need can be difficult for adult learners to control, as often, they
are not entirely aware of unfulfilled need. They may have certain desires for
learning that are not associated closely with their needs for learning, and so
their opinions are not entirely accurate.
The “create” and “implement” phases are the phases in which a strategy is
created to achieve the goal, and this strategy is implemented. When individual
and organization goals are similar, it can be easy for the learner to control the
creation and implementation of adult learners. At the same time, it can be
difficult when individual and organizational goals do not coincide with one
another. However, it can be difficult for learners to completely create and
implement their strategies if they are unaware of their needs or were not
involved in the process of identifying their needs. A mediated approach is
often used.
The difficulty in the “evaluation” phase is that adult learners who rely solely
on self assessment will often make false conclusions. Thus seeking evaluation
from peers or instructors/managers is very important to a proper, accurate
evaluation.
Pgs. 231-238
11.1. What are the relative strengths of the U.S. and European views of andragogy?
The U.S. defines andragogy as one perspective on how adults learn – implying
there are many other perspectives. This can be a strength because it is open
to the idea of other perspectives being used in the adult learning process.
However, Europe sees “andragogy” as synonymous with adult learning. The
principles of andragogy are thus in these cases assumed and it follows that
the principles of andragogy will be followed. This is a strength because
andragogy has proven to be an extremely successful approach to adult
learning, as it fulfills the needs to adult learners.
11.2. Propose a study focused on andragogy that you think is important and
explain why.
This question is rather ambiguous – I can’t figure out if I’m supposed to
propose a new study or discuss an old one. I’m leaning toward the
proposition of a new theory, because if it wanted me to discuss an old one, I
don’t think it would have used the word “propose”.
The text stated on page 234 that in the future, research must extend to form a
more precise idea of what constitutes andragogical practice – and this is very
important if we ever want to have an empirical, scientifically quantifiable
study of andragogy. However this will have to include voluntary
participation, adult status, collaboratively determined objectives, measuring
satisfaction, appropriate learning environment, and random assignment of
participants. In other words, it will have to mix andragogy with the scientific
method. I think this is an important step because it will help to better define
andragogy – and may lead to its wider adoption.
11.3. Discuss a specific strategy you would propose to advance andragogical
concepts in context of adults using the Internet for learning purposes.
The book stated that in the context of adults using the Internet for learning
purposes, self-directed learning and andragogy are not optional. To be
successful, adults must be fully acclimated to andragogy. They must be selfdirected, self-motivated, and fully able to control their own learning process.
If they are not highly motivated, then use of the Internet as a learning tool is
pointless or minimally effective.
Thus I would use a strategy of extrinsically and intrinsically motivating
learners to be self-directed; I would seek to help them see their need to learn,
and I would attempt to induce their readiness to learn in order to ensure the
best chance that they would be successful.