Foundations of Adult Education in

Vocational EducationInstructor:

Dr. David M. Agnew

Associate Professor

Arkansas State University

Topic/Objectives for this Session

• Class Orientation, schedule, assignments, icebreaker• Define terms associated with Adult Education• Summarize the demographics associated with the

adult student. • Explain why adults are seeking to continue their

education• List factors affecting or limiting adults

seeking to continue their education • Describe the duties of an adult instructor.

My Background inAdult Education

• I had No Clue as to how it could make a positive difference in the teaching experience.

• I had some mention of adult ed in my undergrad program.

• During my first year at my first teaching job I visited the nearby teacher during his adult class one night.

• Early in my career and at a different school I was ask if I wanted to teach adults?

My Background inAdult Education, ….Continued

• Grad school With Glen Shinn, my advisor-had taught in MO, I went with him to speak to several adult groups in Mississippi. I also had more info about adult education in my grad classes.

• Montana – Project • Nebraska – Several AE projects, wrote a

handbook for adult teachers.• Arkansas – About the 12th time I have taught this

course. Taught several adult education courses

Enough About Me…..

• What about you????????

You and Your Expectations

• 10-15 Minute “Get to know you” Activity• Objective:

– 1. To identify the background of the students and how adult education fits in their career plans.

– 2. To identify goals of the students for this course.

– 3. To build a framework on which to refine the course objectives that will best meet the needs of everyone.

Questions for you

1. Who are you and what is your discipline, and how does adult education relate to your discipline?

2. How do you think that you might work with adult students in the future?

3. What do you want from this course? What goals do you think appropriate for you to have for this course?

4. What suggestions do you have for achieving your goal for this course?

Overview of the Semester

• Foundations– What is a foundations course?– Historical roots of the subject– Philosophical rationale for existence– Principles of beliefs and operation– Overview of the Scope of the Discipline

• Survey course

– Issues and Trends– Nuts and Bolts

What do we do in this course?

• 35% of semester with me teaching– Traditional Lecture/Discussion– Abstracts– Quizzes / Exams

• 40% with guest speakers, fieldtrips, etc. – Worksheets– Reports

• 25% with application of principles learned or Learning by Doing – Adult Education Project

Personal Philosophy

• Need balance between Theory and Practice

• Learning by doing is preferred

• Vocational education is practical

• Knowledge not much good if not usable

• Only exposure some of you will ever have to adult ed “up close and personal” is this course .

The questions I ask myself upon completion of this course are:

• Is your opinion about Ad Ed positive or negative?• Do you see where Ad Ed fits in the total

educational system?• Do you see how Ad Ed might be related to you

career choices?• Would you be competent to plan, implement and

evaluate an Ad Ed program?• Do you have a grasp of the structure, major

issues, and principles associated with Ad Ed. • Are you open to the concept of life long learning?

Review of Course Requirements

• Attendance – Weekly assignments, Usually 25pts. • Abstracts – 4 required, not that hard but useful and will

help you explore the literature. – Example

• The Project– Group activity– Learning by doing– 200 pts.– Examples

General Topics for Session 1

• Definitions • Overview Of Adult Education as a Field of Study• Adult vs other forms of education• Need for Adult Education• Providers of Adult Educations• Responsibilities of an Adult Educator• Sources of info for Adult Educators

Definitions

• Title of this course--- Foundations of Adult Education in Vocational Education– Adult --- Someone beyond the age of compulsory

Attendance in Public Schools– Education --- relating or transferring knowledge

from one person to others.

Definition of Adult Education

• Bryson -- All activities with an Educational purpose carried on by people in the ordinary business of life who use only part of their time and energy to acquire intellectual equipment. – In book; Adult Education

Definition of Adult Education

• Reeves, Fansler and Houle --- Any purposeful effort toward self-development carried on by an individual without direct legal compulsion and without such effort becoming his major field of activity.

Definition of Adult Education

• Russell G. Mawby of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation--- We are a learning society, and learn throughout our entire lifetime. Learning is for life and is a part of life. It is essential for occupational efficiency, civic competence, satisfaction of a vocational interests, and self-fulfillments of goals.

Definition of Adult Education

• Malcolm S. Knowles -- Adult education is… continuous development of individuals toward full and unique potential through their lifespan, and the continuous renewal of the larger social systems of which they are part through constructive interaction with them. – 1974 speech at Univ. of New York at Buffalo,

before the Division of Continuing Education

Define Vocational Education

• Vocational Education – – Other than a BS / BA degree– Educational preparation for purpose of

employment, or getting a job

Terms Related to Work/Careers

• Career - work done over a period of years in one area of interest.

• Job - being employed by a person or company to perform certain tasks and being paid for the work.

• Occupation - the type of job in which a person is employed.

• Work - productive activity resulting in something useful.

Other Definitions…..

• Adult vocational education --- Organized instruction for persons beyond the age of compulsory school attendance to prepare them for employment or to increase knowledge and skills required in their occupations.

Adult Education

• Adult Education – Broad inclusive term

• Adult Teaching – Teacher, Instructor

• Adult Learning -- Learner, Student

Other Terms Associated with Adult Education

• These are terms not modes of delivery– In other words they are not methods of getting

the information out to students/adults.

• These are other terms that describe the same population or,

• They are closely related to the concept of adult education.

Other Definitions…..1

• Continuing Education --- Any extension of opportunities for learning following completion of, or withdrawal from, regular school or college programs. Continuing education usually emphasizes nontraditional forms of study, and embraces a variety of instruction ranging from avocational to vocational. May refer to specifically approved additional formal study or individual experiences required for continued licensure, certification, or registration in a particular occupation.

Other Definitions…..2

• Life Long Learning – cradle to grave concept, learning is not just for one phase of one’s life. It should and will take place throughout one’s life.

• Life Long Learner – The person who seeks to learn throughout life.

K. Patricia Cross: “Lifelong learning is not a privilege or a

right; it is simply the necessity for anyone , young or old, who must live with the escalating pace of

change- in the family, on the job, in the community, and in the

world-wide society.”

Other Definitions…..3

• Extension Education –

Other Definitions…..4

• Distance Education– Distance Education is instructional delivery that

does not constrain the student to be physically present in the same location as the instructor. Historically, Distance Education meant correspondence study. Today, audio, video, and computer technologies are more common delivery modes.

• defined by Virginia Steiner. The Distance Learning Resource Network (DLRN)

Another Definition

• Distance Education: The process of providing instruction when students and instructors are separated by physical distance and technology, often in tandem with face-to-face communication, is used to bridge the gap.

Sub-Category of Distance Education

• Distant Learner– The student at the

distance site

• Distant Teacher– The one who prepares

delivers instruction at a distance and evaluates the distance learner

Asynchronous vs.

Synchronous

• Asynchronous: Communication in which interaction between parties does not take place simultaneously.

• Synchronous: Communication in which interaction between participants is simultaneous

Vocational Education vs

General Education

• Vocational Education • General Education

Liberal Education vs

General Education

• Liberal Education • General Education

Vocational Education vs

College Education

• Vocational Education • College Education

Secondary Education vs

Post Secondary Education

• Secondary Education • Post Secondary Education

Andragogy vs.

Pedagogy

• Andragogy • Pedagogy

Ways to compare two different educational settings…

• Climate

• Setting of objectives

• Testing/evaluation

• Curriculum

• Control center

The premise is for the two major classifications are the differences in:• Physiological Development• Psychological Development• Social Development• Emotional Needs• Motivational Needs• Stages of Moral Development• BOTTOM LINE IS THAT there are Different

Stages of Human Development

Therefore we approach the teaching of people differently

based on their stage of development.

• For simplicity sake we offer two major classifications of people. – Youth

• Youth can broken down into many stages and approaches to teaching vary greatly because of the stage of development. .

– Adult• Little difference in approaches to teaching based on variations in

the adult category.

Two major duties of a teacher are to:

• Decide what to teacher

• Decide how to teach

Another Major Premise:• In education to be an effective teacher and to

meet the challenge of “how to teach” you need to understand those that you plan to teach.

• Understanding the differences in?– Physiological Development– Psychological Development– Social Development– Emotional Needs– Motivational Needs– Stages of Moral Development

Evident that we seek to understand students

• Aptitude testing• Ability testing• Learning styles• Personality typing• Age appropriate expectations (16 to drive)• Survey them• Focus groups• Talk to them

The fact that there are differences matters to:

• The planning the instruction.• Methods used• Motivation• Marketing

Formal vs. Informal Education

• Formal– 2 x 4 (Classroom)

– highly structured

– testing

– teacher directed

– institutionalized

– rigid start stop times

– individual conforms

– credit bearing

– Used cost

• Informal– anywhere

– any time

– credit or non-credit

– student centered

– self paced

– self directed

– may or may not cost $

Which is Adult Education?

• Formal or informal?

• Answer --- Both

Major Premise:

• Learning takes place, is needed and is wanted beyond the formal required education which stops after high school.

• For some people that is a surprise.– Old farmer was ask if he was going to

attend night school. His reply, “ No I already know how to farm better than I am doing now”

What??? More Schooling?

– But why would anyone want to go to school if they did not have to?

– Most youth would like to get a day off from school.

– Going back to school? Well you just graduated 10 years ago!!!!!

– Sometimes I wonder why we waste so much education on those who don’t want it.

– Education is one of the few items we want to receive less than what we deserve. UNTIL….

UNTIL…They/We Have a Reason to

Learn• Reasons vary as to why people want to

continue their formal or Informal education.

• Can you think of some?

Reasons Adults Need or Want to Continue Their

Education• Career advancement open up opportunities• Change careers (due to changing technology, illness,

etc.)• Pay increase• Supplement current knowledge and do a better job• Required (by employer, courts)• Maintain certification• Expand service or work opportunities.• Personal interest• They live longer now….therefore work or play longer.

So What Stops Them From Continuing Their Education?

Factors Affecting or Limiting Adults Seeking to Continue

Their Education• Location• Family responsibilities (time)

Family responsibilities ($)• Cost $$$$• Psychological• Distance• Health

Describe the Duties of an Adult Instructor/teacher

• Adult Education is very diverse

• Main commonality is population, ADULTS

• See OOH handout for overview of adult educator job description

Thomas Jefferson: “If a nation expects to

be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it

expects what never was and never will be.”

Benjamin Franklin: “Education is essential to supply succeeding ages with men qualified to serve

the public.”

Abraham Lincoln: “ I view it [education] as the most important subject which we as a people can

be engaged in.”

Daniel Webster: “On the diffusion of education among the people rest the preservation and

perpetuation of our free institutions.”

Ruth Kotinsky: “ The role of adult education is at the very center of social planning on a

wide scale. The affairs of adults are the affairs of the world: as they

plan, do, and live, so does the world run.

Cicero: “ A zeal for learning which, in the case of wise and

well-trained men, advances with even pace with age.”

Epictetus: “ Education, in the deepest sense, is continuous and

lifelong. In essence it is unfinishable. What we think we

already know is often less helpful than the desire to learn.”

Dr. Mortimer J. Adler: “It has been said that you cannot teach an

old dog new tricks. But human beings are not dogs and liberal learning is not a bag of tricks.”

Howard Whitman: “In later years you have the experience and maturity to learn more effectively than you ever learned before- and the golden opportunity to learn.”

William Lyon Phelps: “The belief that youth is the happiest

time of life is founded on a fallacy. The happiest person is the

person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow

happier as we grow older.”

H. G. Wells: “ It is not education of children that can save the

world from destruction, it is the education of adults.”

Dr. Robert M. Hutchins: “ I do not want to waste my time

teaching the younger generation ; the world may not last long

enough.”

Calvin Coolridge: “We cannot abandon our education at the

schoolhouse door. We have to keep it up through life.”

James E. Russell: “ The aim of adult education is to inspire

grownups to be something more than they are now and to do their work better than they now do it,”

Dr J. B. Rice: “It is a curious fact that the healthy male mind

continues to improve until 60, and thereafter declines in power

very slowly. The years from 40 to 70 should be far more productive and far less energy cost than the

years 20 to 40.”

James Byrant Conant: “The world has become so complicated that if a man stops his education when he leaves school, college,

or even a professional school, he is doomed to education

mediocrity.”

William Allan Neilson; “ What we learn in school and college beyond a few elementary

facts and the controls of a few tools merely serves to start us on a process which should end only with life itself. Effectiveness in work , in citizenship, and the enjoyment of life depends

on the persistence of the effort to grow in breadth and depth, and to bring more of the universe within the scope of our individual

organized thinking.”

The favorite maxim of Michelangelo:

“ I am still learning”

Never too late

• Lacydes, when asked, in extreme age why studying geometry: “ If I should not be learning now. When should I be?”

Dr. Mortimer J. Alder: “Children can be trained in preparation for life and

learning, but only adults are in a position to carry on the serious pursuits of life

itself, among which learning is paramount.” “This recognition of the

advantages of being an adult should be as general as our recognition that adults can think better - more soundly and deeply- than children. Since that is so, they can also learn more soundly and deeply.”

Dr. Mortimer J. Alder: “We do not expect our bodies to stay alive and healthy without the daily sustenance of food and the continual invigoration of exercise. Why should we expect our minds to

stay alive and vigorous without regular sustenance and exercise? “ Last year’s or even yesterday’s

feeding will not suffice the body. Past reading and thinking will not suffice the mind either. Without exercise, the mind no less readily than a muscle, atrophies. Without the sustenance it draws for

ideas, the mind shrinks and withers.

The End

T. R. Adam: “ Adult education is something more than an intellectual opiate for the

governed masses. It represents a definite method of social control,

an essential framework for political democracy.”

Objectives/Topics for This Session, Continued

• Differentiate between Andragogy and Pedagogy• Describe the historical development of adult education

as a field of study• Describe the relationship in a mode of delivery and a

method• Describe the life cycle development of adults according

to Havinghurst and Erickson.• Quotes on Adult education