Being a teacher for about sixteen years, I am somewhat puzzled how I never came across the term andragogy though pedagogy is a term that I often come across as a high school teacher. I have never given much thought to how adults learn, though I have been learning as an adult, formally by signing up for classes and informally throughout my adult life. I never had given much thought to the adult learning theories.
The reading and discussion we had in the past two weeks gave me opportunity to reflect my own learning style and how it changed over time. I could relate to every thing that I read in chapter 1 (social context of adult learning) and chapter 2(learning environment and learning concepts) in Merriam and Caferella. It was more like my experiences got validated by reading those chapters. I always found myself a more serious learner as an adult than when I was in school. In school, time was something that was readily available and I had taken it for granted. Learning was my primary goal. However, when I started learning as an Adult, trying to complete my graduate degree with my three year old son at my side, Time was something very precious and I needed to plan in advance to make the time to learn. And when I did make up time, I found myself utilizing it effectively.
The social aspect of learning that is discussed in Merriam and Caferella, reflecting back I can see some of the things I learned like being tech savvy, came out of necessity of learning to live in United States. People participate in learning for various reasons, to advance their career, to learn a skill to survive in the present career or to learn something to bring excitement to life. I can see how this is different objective from a child learning in school. Hence a whole set of new theories to manage the adult learning make sense to me.
Another concept that I read this week how each generation is shaped by the common experiences they have in their life at the time of growing up. It is very important and relevant right now as we have a work force that is multi generational. In my department, I work with four other recent graduates who are starting their first year of teaching. They bring in a a lot of different experiences to the classroom that I am eagerly willing to learn and implement. However, they also need my expertise in teaching that comes from experience. It is a give and take from both sides. I became very aware of this generational interactions in the workplace through this week's reading.
I am looking forward to see what else this course has to offer. As I mentioned, time is not in my advantage, between teaching full time, running a household and becoming a student. But I am an adult learner, who is very motivated and willing to self direct their learning.
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