The 5 Principles of Adult Learning Pioneered by Malcolm Knowles

Teaching adults often looks very different from teaching children. Adult educators can make assumptions of their adult students that they would not make of children because adults have had vastly different life experiences and come with their own unique sets of background knowledge. Andragogy, or the practice of teaching adults, studies the best methods and approaches for effective adult education. Malcolm Knowles Five Principles of Andragogy Those teaching adults should understand and practice the five principles of andragogy espoused by Malcolm Knowles, a pioneer in the study of adult learning. Knowles posited that adults learn best under the following circumstances: The learning is self-directed.The learning is experiential and utilizes background knowledge.The learning is relevant to current roles.The instruction is problem-centered.The students are motivated to learn. By incorporating these five principles of andragogy into instruction, adult educators and learners alike will experience greater success in the classroom. Self-Directed Learning One of the most important differences between teaching children and teaching adults is the self-concept of adult learners. While young students tend to be dependent on their teachers to guide their learning and provide opportunities for application, adult learners are the opposite. Adult learners are usually mature and self-confident enough to know how they learn best, what their areas of strength and weakness are, and how to go about learning. They dont require much help acquiring resources or developing goals for learning because, in most cases, they have done this before and already have reasons for being in school again. Adult educators need to grant their students plenty of space and be there to support rather than guide. Another benefit of self-directed learning is that students can design their studies around their preferred learning style—visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. Visual learners rely on pictures. They benefit from the use of graphs, diagrams, and illustrations. They learn best when they are shown what to do or what something looks like. Auditory learners listen carefully when they are learning and draw the majority of new knowledge through their ears. Things make the most sense to them when they are told how something should be. Tactile or kinesthetic learners need to physically do something to understand it. By performing something for themselves through a degree of trial and error, these learners will experience the most success. Using Experiences as a Resource Adult educators need to utilize each set of background knowledge in their classroom as a resource. No matter how old your adult learners are or what type of life they have led thus far, every one of your students will have acquired an extensive cache of experiences that you can draw on to make the most of what everyone brings to the table. Rather than behaving as if the classroom should be a level playing field and ignoring irregular stores of background knowledge, use them to enrich instruction. Your students could be coming from vastly different walks of life. Some will be experts in an area that your whole class could benefit from learning about or will have experienced something very unfamiliar to the rest of your students. The moments of authenticity and spontaneity that come from sharing with each other will prove to be some of the most powerful. Tap into the wealth of wisdom of your class as much as possible. Relevance of Material Adult students are most likely to want to learn about subjects that will have immediate pay-offs in their life, especially as it pertains to their social roles. As adults start to navigate marriage, parenthood, career positions, and other complex roles, they begin to orient themselves exclusively to them. Adults have little use for material that is not relevant to the roles they already occupy and this is another reason for allowing students to play a part in designing their own curriculum. For example, some of your learners will want to learn about career advancement, but some, perhaps retirees or stay-at-home parents, will not need this information. The job of adult educators is to get to know students well enough to be able to teach to their roles. Always keep in mind that your older students are there to accomplish something and probably have busy lives. The goal of adult education is to fit the needs of your students, who are more often than not opting to be there because they identified an area of need for themselves—ask and listen to them about what they want from this experience. Problem-Centered Instruction Adult learners do not desire to learn about material that doesnt fit into their lives and they do not usually want their learning to be abstract either. Adults are practiced, knowledgeable, and flexible learners that have a lot of problems to solve. Unlike young students, they do not usually need long to think about unfamiliar subjects before trying a skill out for themselves because they exercise their problem-solving skills every day and learn more each time. Adult educators need to tailor their instruction to specific problems that their students face rather than approaching their teaching one subject at a time. Andragogy is about spending more time doing than learning and the quality of instruction is much more important than topic coverage. Motivation to Learn â€Å"When the student is ready, the teacher appears† is a Buddhist proverb that applies well to all areas of education. No matter how hard a teacher tries, learning only begins once a student is ready. For most adults, returning to school after several years can be intimidating and a certain degree of apprehension should be expected in adult learners. Getting past the initial uneasiness of adult learners can be a challenge. However, many adult educators find that their students are eager to grow their knowledge. Adults that have chosen to go back to school are probably already motivated to learn or would not have made the choice to continue their education. The teachers role in these cases is simply to encourage this motivation and help your students maintain positivity toward learning so they can move past any discomfort they may feel about their situation. Listen carefully for teaching moments and take advantage of them. When a student says or does something that cues a new topic, be flexible and discuss it, even briefly, to show your students that their interests are important.

The Term Organizational Culture Essay - 2100 Words

Introduction A look at simply a couple of works that utilization the term organizational culture will uncover huge variety in the meaning of this term and much all the more in the utilization of the term society has no altered or extensively importance even in human sciences, however variety in its utilization is particularly discernible in the writing on hierarchical society. This is mostly identified with solid contrast in the reason and profundity of books and articles. Be that as it may, likewise the wide variety of logical teaches and exploration introduction included in organizational culture studies makes the field extremely heterogeneous. 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Three Keys to a Happy Life free essay sample

Three Keys to a happy life Everyone wants to live a happy life. We will write a custom essay sample on Three Keys to a Happy Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But where does happiness come from? Buddha said  Life is a creation of the mind. Shakespeare put it this way when he said  There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Therefore, the first key or the most important key to a happy life I would say is Positive Thinking. Maybe all of us have heard of this famous question: is the glass half-full or half-empty? An optimist observes what is in the glass – the full half, because he focuses on what he has. On the other hand, a pessimist observes what is not in the glass – the half empty because he focuses on what he doesn’t have. When we always think of what we don’t have and what we are losing, we never feel happy. Furthermore, negative thinking can take a lot of time and too much emotional energy, which absolutely does not lead to a happy life. In addition, positive thinking makes us have a feeling of excitement about something pleasant or exciting that we know is going to happen. Such a feeling is anticipation.No matter what our circumstances are, if we have something to look forward to, we bring happiness into our life well before the event actually takes place. In fact, sometimes the happiness of anticipation is greater than the happiness of the actual experience itself. With this in mind, we may say if the future holds no pleasant promise its very hard to be happy. However, sometimes unrealistic anticipation may get us lost. So we need to simplify in order to stay positive. This is my second key to a happy life – simplification. Every day we often rush through things, trying to get them done, trying to finish as much as we can.We pass quickly through one destination and then move into the next. At the end of each day, we’re probably too exhausted and too stressed out to even notice the simple things that can make us happy. For example, maybe some of us have such experience. When we travel to the other cites or countries with tour group, we are always fully scheduled. Each day we have to see a lot of places and we are only allowed to stay at each place for 30 minutes or at most one hour just for taking some pictures. We have to hurry from one spot to the next.At the end of the tour, we only feel tired and remember which places we have looked around but have no idea how beautiful they are. However, if we put away the tour group and cut the schedule in half, stay longer at each place, enjoy every moment at ease. That would be another story. So, when we simplify our life, we have time for what’s important to us, for what we really want to be doing, for spending time with loved ones, for doing things we’re passionate about. That’s a happy life. Finally, people can’t live alone and isolated. We must have our social life. Social life includes friends and family.Ancient philosophers and modern scientists agree that strong relationships with other people are critical to a happy life. We need close, long-lasting relationships; we need a place to belong to; we need to give and receive support perhaps surprisingly, giving support is just as important to happiness as getting support. These 3 keys of happiness are beliefs that I hold and they have worked for me in the past and they work for me now. I sincerely hope these 3 simple and easy to apply keys can also work for all of you. My wish is for all of us to have a happy life and enjoy it!