I was not surprised to discover that all of the strategies for creating a positive learning environment for learners were also directly related to the motivation of adult learners. It made sense that in order to motivate learners you would need to take care of their needs first (remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), and this in turn creates a positive learning environment. This can be even more important in situations where you are trying to motivate students to learn about something that they have created a particular bias to (such as blogs J) or worse, have endured a bad experience with the subject matter. We’ve talked about instructors taking care not to ‘do harm’ through their instructional practice and therein also lies an opportunity for an instructor to ‘undo harm’. In his 1998 book, Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education, Daniel D. Pratt tells of a time when he had taken a stats course where he stated, “Jackson {math instructor} had guided us toward a belief that we could learn stats, if we were given a context that would not prove humiliating or harmful to us. However, unlike many teachers before him, Jackson had not only done no harm, he had helped to undo harm: he had helped us heal” (p. 158). Finally, the article I read with respect to creating a positive learning environment mentioned four factors that would motivate adult learners to include inclusion, meaning, attitude and competence. These factors close the final loop from creating a positive learning environment back to adult learner characteristics, whereby adult learners must feel accepted as peers, relate what they are learning back to their life experience and goals (meaning), feel that they are respected and seen by me and other participants as “knowers” as well as “learners” through open attitudes (according to Daniel D. Pratt), and competent to see value and be successful in their learning. I am reminded by this article to walk the talk, practice what I preach etc., whereby I must model the self-awareness I ask others to have and be mindful always of the ‘double-edged sword’ I wield as a facilitator.
|
AuthorVCC Professional Instructors Diploma Student Categories |