I apologize for my very late post. I have been on work travel for the past week and as a result, my day was spent in discussion and workshops while my evening was spent doing my real job. Now that I have returned from sunny Bloomington, IN, I can rejoin the land of the living. As an aside, the workshop I was participating in was an excellent example of heutagogy with a focus on “student”-directed learning, reflection and re-application of learning, and a focus on developing learning skills (in this case around leadership and strategy).
As I’ve mentioned, I recently took a course on andragogy, and many of the principals I learned aligned well with my target student audience. I was not familiar with heutagogical learning (Blaschke, 2012)., but having read about it, I see a lot of potential in using it as an approach for some of the assignments I am developing. In particular, the drive towards double-loop learning (Argyris, 2005), is one which demonstrates the higher levels of learning taxonomies. Since my goal is to enable students to apply the classroom learning in multiple context, this self-driven, self-reflective approach appears to offer a lot of potential.
For adult learners, I see three principals of self-directed learning which I would want to highlight in the assignments I developed. First, I think that adult students are often best equipped to understand how the lessons and theories in the class can be applied in their own context. Assignments need to be such that students are able to focus on specific areas, rather than the whole. This can make rubric development extremely difficult, but I see a lot of potential in increasing the quality and value of the final products. For instance, while there may be several leadership theories students are supposed to learn, assessing their knowledge of all of them may not be as practically useful as allowing them to focus on one which can be applied in their workplace. In addition, this offers opportunities for students to teach one another the ones which they have become experts.
Second, adult-learns they often have richer scenarios for analysis than generic ones which the instructor can provide. In my experience, adult-learner students were able to create much more dynamic and interesting case studies and discussions than the instructor alone could have provided. In addition, they bring a lot more passion to the subject. Having assignments which set the framework, but allow students to determine the specifics may allow for higher engagement as well as more valuable knowledge generation. For instance, instead of offering a stock case-student for assessment, allowing the students to submit their own case study from their experience. I may be bias to this approach as such an assignment led to the genesis of my dissertation J
Finally, since the purpose of learning is more towards application than strict assessment, these two aspects of self-directed learning allows the students to best apply it in areas which provide the most value as well as bring their own motivation and drive to the class.
The next step of the process where I think this can be applied is in the collaboration focus of online classes. Since the students become, in essence, the subject matter expert of the assignments, the discussion can become real-world problem solving efforts with each student taking the role of a scholar as well as practitioner. I’ve seen examples where students have worked on classroom assignments and then gone on to apply the solutions other students have offered in their organizations. Designing papers and projects where students can operate in this manner allows for effective assessment of learning, better student engagement, and reflection back to the instructor to help further develop the course.
In these cases, the instructor’s role becomes that of a facilitator, gently guiding the students. There is still a need to ensure that students are staying focused on the assignment, applying the theories and principals of the class, and not going too far off the rails. This can be very challenging for the instructor to allow the right amount of room for students to explore in a self-directed manner, while still maintaining the integrity and learning objectives of the class.
Joseph Drasin
Argyris, C. (2005). Double-loop learning in organizations: A theory of action. In K. G. Smith & M. A. Hitt (Eds.), Great Minds in Management: The Process of Theory Development (pp. 261-279). New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Blaschke, L. M. (2012). Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 13(1), 56-71.
Joseph,
I appreciate your delineation of three principles of self-directed learning for adults. I also have had most of my teaching experience in a seminary setting, where we typically get more advanced students who have had more life experiences. Your comments ring true with that demographic. Students come in with a clearer expectation of where they would like their learning to be applied, and empowering students to take a particular aspect of a theory and actually use it in their respective setting is more effective than a recall of the “10 top leadership theories” or the like.
I also found your comment about having the students contribute their own case studies very intriguing. Again, students coming from ministry settings have sometimes “seen it all,” and having them contribute scenarios from their own experience both increases the relevance of the content they will learn and also proves instructive to other students who might have less “real-world” experience.
Very helpful observations!
Aubrey
Aubrey,
I had not thought of it in the context of a seminary (I’m quite ignorant of such things), but from you describe it is a very good parallel. Most of my ‘students’ are adults who are professionals and often have more expertise than I do in their domain. So my job becomes to facilitate conversation and providing them with more/new tools and theories to reinterpret what they already know. I’m not teaching them facts so much as tools to interpret the facts they already have.
Thank you for your comments,
Joseph Drasin
I really like the idea of having students focus in on one topic as well. I have read a lot of leadership books and many of them recommend focused skill, talents, energies as a way to become successful. I think that helping students become “experts” in one area will benefit them more in the long run that simply exposing them to lots of different concepts that they never really master. Great point!
Adrianne, I also find that letting students become ‘the expert’ gives them a point of pride in their work. They like being the person others come to to learn. Again, it fits in well with the triangle we discussed at the beginning of this course (and again this week).
Joseph Drasin
Very interesting information and i really glad to getting this information.
Great post, beautiful weblog with great informational content. This is a really interesting and informative content.
Very informative blog, This blog is very easy to understand when compared to other blogs.
Can’t thank you enough! Keep up the amazing work
merhaba!, yazınızı çok seviyorum! AOL’deki yayınınız hakkında daha fazla iletişim halinde olalım mı?
Sorunumu çözmek için bu alanda bir uzmana ihtiyacım var.
Belki bu sensin! Sana bakmak için ileriye bakmak.
https://www.bacarasite.com/
Sono davvero lieta della progettazione e della struttura del suo sito web. E’ molto facile per gli occhi e mi fa molto più piacevole venire qui e visitare più spesso.
https://www.texasholdemsite.info/
Quando alguém escreve um artigo, ele / ela mantém o pensamento
de um usuário em sua mente é como um usuário pode entendê-lo.
É por isso que este artigo é ótimo. Obrigado!
https://www.texasholdemsite.info/
I am in fact pleased to read this web site posts which contains plenty of helpful information, thanks for providing these
information.
https://majorsite.one
Hi, ho letto il suo blog di tanto in tanto e ne sono proprietario e mi chiedo se riceverà molti commenti per spam. In caso affermativo, come fermarlo, qualsiasi plugin o qualsiasi altra cosa che si possa suggerire? I recenti tempi mi hanno fatto prendere la pazza, e quindi qualsiasi sostegno è molto apprezzato.
https://www.texasholdemsite.info/
Vau, nevjerojatna struktura webloga! Koliko dugo već blogujete? olakšali ste pokretanje pogleda na blog.
https://www.bacarasite.com/
However, I think it will be more wonderful if your post includes additional topics that I am thinking of. I have a lot of posts on my site similar to your topic. Would you like to visit once?카지노사이트
My colleagues and I had a business trip to Philadelphia. We wanted to make our trip as comfortable as possible, so we rented a small van for the duration of the trip. In fact, renting a car for a large company is very profitable, because the cheapest rental options start at $24 per day, and since there were a lot of us, the rental cost us very cheap on this website Rental24h.com
Thanks for the info.
http://www.fooddoz.com/
صباغ في الكويت هو فني متخصص في تلوين وتجميل الأسطح والجدران والأثاث والمباني. يعتبر الصباغون في الكويت ذوي خبرة ومهارة عالية في استخدام أدوات الصباغة وتطبيق التقنيات المناسبة لتحقيق نتائج مثالية.يقوم الصباغون بتنفيذ عمليات التحضير المناسبة للأسطح، بما في ذلك تنظيفها وتمهيدها وإزالة أي عيوب أو تشققات قبل البدء في عملية الصباغة. يستخدمون أنواعًا مختلفة من الدهانات والأصباغ المناسبة لكل نوع من الأسطح والمتطلبات الديكورية.تشمل خدمات صباغ في الكويت تلوين الجدران الداخلية والخارجية للمنازل والمكاتب والمحلات التجارية. كما يمكنهم تلوين الأثاث وإعادة تجديده لمظهر جديد ومحسن. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، يمكن أن يقدم الصباغون خدمات خاصة مثل تطبيق الطلاء الديكوري وتقنيات الرسم الجداري وتصميم الأنماط والنقوش الفنية.تعتبر جودة العمل والتفاني في تحقيق رضا العملاء من أهم مبادئ صباغين في الكويت. يهدفون إلى تحقيق الدقة والاتقان في عملهم وتلبية توقعات العملاء من حيث الجودة والمظهر النهائي للتشطيبات.باستخدام خدمات صباغ في الكويت، يمكن للعملاء تحقيق تحسينات ملحوظة في جمالية المساحات وتحويلها إلى بيئة مريحة وجذابة. ينصح بالتعاون مع صباغين محترفين وموثوق بهم لضمان تنفيذ العمل بجودة عالية وفقًا للمعايير اللازمة.
ارخص صباغ بالكويت
I’m completely smitten with this post
ارخص صباغ بالكويت
Je suis heureux que vous ayez partagé ces informations utiles avec nous. Merci de nous tenir informés ainsi.
https://www.texasholdemsite.info/
Merci pour le partage.
A post that is helpful not only for me but also for other people who are searching for this. Via this post, individuals will have an easier time purchasing items online. Play redactle for free!
Này, địa điểm tuyệt vời!! Người đàn ông… đẹp… Thật tuyệt vời. Tôi sẽ đánh dấu blog của bạn và nhận thêm các thông tin…Tôi rất vui khi tìm được rất nhiều thông tin hữu ích trong bài viết này,
https://www.texasholdemsite.info/
chúng ta cần tìm hiểu thêm về vấn đề này, cảm ơn đã chia sẻ.
The foundations of online teaching are crucial for modern education, providing flexible and accessible learning opportunities. Special essays https://specialessays.com/ on this topic can help with research by offering in-depth analysis, practical strategies, and insights from experienced educators, enhancing the understanding and effectiveness of online teaching methods.