This site is the home of the Interactive Website for Adult Education Practitioners. Primarily a literacy site and reading skills assessment site.
Learning Theory and the Adult Learner By Vicky Lara, El Paso Community College
This module provides a series of annotated websites giving definitions, key concepts, teaching tips and lesson plans, sources of on-line books and magazine articles, and bibliographies for the readers use. Because the sheer number of learning theories can be overwhelming, this module presents cursory introductions to a wide variety of those theories first. Because the process of learning itself must be understood, many of these sites elaborate to some extent on the psychology of learning--based on the teachings of Jung, Piaget, Erickson, Maslow, and Skinner.
Cooperative Learning
The California Department of Education site presents an in-depth exploration of cooperative learning including the following topics: Interdependence, Interaction, Achievement, Professional Development, References, and Resources.
Experiential Learningtheories of adult learning Learning Theory
Professional Development Module:
This on-line publication includes the chapter, Experience-Based Learning. Foley states that the experience of the learner occupies a central place in all considerations of teaching and learning. He also sees analysis, reflection and evaluations, as essential.
Experiential learning is primarily significant in its emphasis on personal involvement and personal acquisition of knowledge and skills through relevant experiences. C. R. Rogers differentiates between cognitive (meaningless) and experiential (significant) learning. This concise discussion presents the main characteristics of experiential learning, an approach Rogers sees as particularly applicable to adults. It includes references and links to relevant sites.
Section 1: Principal Theories and Approaches
Behaviorism
Jacksons article on Adult vs. Child Learning compares pedagogy and andragogy. It would interest educators working with both groups or changing from one group to the other.
Greg Kearsleys website Theory into Practice is wonderful for both beginners and general investigators of learning theory for adults. It offers multiple, explanations of many of the theories under the heading The Theories. Each entry consists of the following subsections: Overview, Scope/Application, Example, Principles, References, and Relevant Web Sites.
Learning is the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skills. It is physiological as it requires the formation of cell assemblies and phase sequences. Children learn by building these assemblies and sequences. Adults spend more time new arrangements than forming new sequences.
This site is a very good, though at times quirky, source of basic concepts. This Essential Guide includes topics such as Brain and Intelligence, Adult Learning Theory, Adult Learning Theorists, Resistance to Learning, Lesson Plans (sidebar), and Study Tips. Each section includes links for each of the topics discussed.
Key Concepts:
Humanism
Andragogy
Foley, Free insurance info G. Experience-Based Learning. Understanding Adult Education and Training. 2nd ed. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 225-239.
Section 3: Teaching Tips
This site consists of an extensive series of s by William H. Jackson. Not only are the various theories included, but also information regarding the different stages of development in children and adults, practical suggestions for preparing lectures, and even study tips.
Section 4: Additional Resources
Adult Learning
Linear Functions and Their Applications in Developmental Mathematics
Purpose:
Constructivism acknowledges outside influences and stimuli while stressing individual formation and interpretation. Perhaps Piaget said it best when he said that humans are in a process of continuous self-constructionwe create knowledge in our heads and that created knowledge may be interpreted differently by each of us. From William Jacksons 1996 article, Survey of an Adult Learner
Humanism is more an approach than a theory. It stresses mutual respect and trust with learning firmly anchored in interpersonal relationships.
This is the home of the journal Focus on Basics. It offers a wealth of practical and helpful information for applications of theoretical information.
This site offers twelve links to highly relevant sites for anyone interested in adult learning theory. The site itself is interesting in that it was developed for police officers. Its selections contain clearly written, practical information.
Cooperative learning is an approach that requires interaction among learners for learning to occur.
Apart from the informative series of articles it includes, this site is a treasure trove of lesson plans, learning activities and teaching tips, at times,Insurance knowledge. categorized by discipline. An entire series of links is designed to assist tutors.
New Modules, 2007-08
This site offers a scholarly presentation of key components of cooperative learning which must be included in activities through careful planning, i.e., heterogeneous groups and individual accountability.
Meyers and Jones, Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Visual Rhetoric: Using Advertisement Analysis in Reading and Writing Courses
This site offers both links to other sites and a bibliography. The authors of the materials are recognized experts in the field, i. e., Knowles.
Apart from basic information about cooperative learning, this site offers explanations and examples of various strategies and techniques, including:
Adult learning differs from childrens learning in that it is self-directed, problem-centered, experience based, and more often relevant to life.
Learning
Active learning is a dynamic process involving continuous adjustment and re-structuring of basic elements(talking and listening, writing, reading, and reflecting)learning strategies (small groups, case studies, and so on) and teacher resources (outside speakers, homework assignments, and so on).
In the article, Active Learning by Gachuhi and. Matiru , the authors discuss ways to use this technique in distance learning.
Behaviorism is a school of psychology that focuses on the observable, measurable aspects of experience and that, legal advice online educationally, is stimulus-response based.
Social learning sees learning as a mixture of behavior and cognition including the learners contribution to the process. It values modeling.
Transformative learning, according to Mezirow, is a theory that is partly a developmental process, but morethe process of using a priori interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of ones experience in order to guide future action. See The Theory and Practice of Transformative Learning: A Critical Review
Cognitivism
Active Learning
Current Issues in Constitutional Law and National Security
Fiscal Agent: Del Mar College. Website maintained by CORD.
Developmental Mathematics: Order of Operations
Although this site was primarily designed to promote cooperative learning strategies in teaching children and adolescents, many of its examples and strategies have a much wider application and are still useful for young adults.
Transformative Learning
Andragogy is learning theory specifically for adults. It emphasizes process more than content and makes the following assumptions about the design of learning: (1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something (2) Adults need to learn experientially, (3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. This site offers a clear, no nonsense explanation of andragogy and includes links to other relevant sites and references.
Social Learning
L. Dee Fink at the University of Oklahomas Instructional Development Program offers a model of active learning designed to present a way of conceptualizing the learning process in a way that may assist teachers in identifying meaningful forms of active learning.
This project was funded by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Constructivism
Cognitivism stresses cognition and sees learning as occurring within the learner. It focuses on processing rather than behavior.
