Analysis of Ways of Knowing in Adult Education - Assignment Example

?Running Head: ANALYSIS OF WAYS OF KNOWING IN ADULT EDUCATION Topic: Analysis of Ways of Knowing In Adult Education Date: For almost the entire 20th Century, adult learning was believed to be a cognitive process, whereby the mind absorbed information and facts and then converted them into knowledge, which could thereafter been observed in the ensuing behavior change. The success of any learning or development effort depends to a larger extent not only on its quality design but also on its delivery as well. Once the learning need has been identified, it is incumbent upon the educators to re-examine the learning theory that favors the targeted learner. Henschke (2005), an international Human Development Consultants, notes that irrespective of the global location, adults in all corners of the world learn in a similar fashion (p. 23). Adult learning usually takes a more multidimensional nature, which can be construed to mean that it takes a more holistic approach just as would been seen in the ensuing narrative. Embodied or Somatic Learning in Adult Education: According to Mathew (1998) somatic learning occurs in experiential learning, which in part involves “knowing through the senses, body action and reaction, and precepts (Mathew, p. 4)”. The knowing that experiential learning describes is one where the leaner participate actively in the process of knowledge acquisition through taking part in discussion, role playing or similar activities that might characterize the learning process. Clark’s (2001, p. 3) definition of somatic learning is more generalized when compared to Mathew. According to him, somatic learning is basically “the way we know from our bodily or physical experience” (Clark, p. 3). Almost all other definitions of somatic learning from prominent scholars have placed the body at the heart of the somatic learning concept. A common feature of these definitions is that they position somatic learning through or within the body instead of knowledge without or about the body (Brockman, 2001). Spiritual in Adult Education: Spirituality is and as always been an important component of adult learning. Many people might think that spirituality is one and the same with religion, which is fundamentally wrong. There is however no doubt that the two are related, but, spirituality per see is all about a person’s consciousness and honoring of completeness and the connection of all thing with what can only be referred to as a higher power (Elias, & Merriam, 2005). Just as there has been acceptance among the health care worker on the role of spirituality in healthcare, there has been a similar acceptance among educators on the role of spirituality in adult education. The role of spirituality in adult education has particularly been found in the way people construct knowledge. A good example can be found in the Howard Gardner’s ground breaking research on multiple intelligences. Emancipatory spirituality, one of the spiritualities, whips people into small social and political groupings, while filling such groupings with strong spiritual practices like meditation (Jarvis, 2006). Just as the spirituality of each one of us is unique there is the communal dimension of spirituality. This community dimension of spirituality can be found in the fact that people spirituality can connect to what they collectively value and think is best for them as a group. A case in point of this connecting for the common good can be found in the Moken sea gypsies who are said to have fled the December 2004 Tsunami to high ground after “feeling” it advancing. This spirituality is at the center of adult education. Narrative learning in Adult Education: The good thing with storytelling and sensemaking as a mean of transferring knowledge to an adult learner is that they can relate to these stories being narrated and thereby retaining the knowledge in those stories. This is because just as Merriam (2008, pp. 96) notes, the learning experience has to stem from something that is not only relevant to the learning experience but also accessible to the learner, otherwise the learning experience will fail to resonate with the learner, thereby amounting to nothing more than a passing encounter with the fresh information (Jarvis, 2006). In fact, adult learning requires the acknowledgement of both the context from which the learners come from and that which they will remember the learned behavior. If anything, just as Clark (2001) notes, we always “story” our lives in order to give our experiences meaning (p. 21). Narrative learning particularly helps adult learners to deal with the impostor syndrome. When one is grounded in narrative and especially in indigenous learning system, one is likely to feel out of place when in the midst of learners who are grounded on traditional narratives making up that community’s knowledge resource. It is even made worse by the fact adult learners are mature and therefore supposed to be familiar with majority of the lessons contained in traditional narratives of their respective certain communities. Non-western learning In Adult Education: Education to majority of us is synonymous with the western culture. However, indigenous knowledge system also exist alongside western knowledge system only that they have not been given much prominence as has been the case with western knowledge systems. Western knowledge system are also thought to be fundamentally different from indigenous and vice-versa. This therefore translate to differences on the way they both construct knowledge, the way they learn, and how they allow people to learn what they require knowing. There are a number of themes that cut across all learning experience in the indigenous community. In an Africa context and majority of other indigenous cultures, what is considered as knowledge is deeply entrenched in the community and also a product of both experience and age (Brockman, 2001). This is totally different with the Western context were knowledge is a product of healthy debate that neither respect age nor experience. This set it in a collision course with the African context which considers healthy intellectual arguments, and especially with the aged in the community, as a sign of disrespect. However, what learning in the African context has failed to appreciate is that a truth does not need to be argued on, if anything there is nothing to argue about, unless of course there is somebody in such an argument who is not in possession of the truth (Knowles, et al 2005). There is an African proverb that says that “without you, there is no me (Brockman, 2001),” which can be used to look at the themes of learning as communal. The meaning of this proverb reverberates across almost all indigenous communities of the world including their learning system. This is because almost all communities of the world recognize that it is only in learning that they can develop and be empowered as a community, which therefore places learning in the hands of a community. This notion of learning as a community effort plays out best in a Buddhist worldview of learning. According to Buddhism, nothing and nobody can subsist in isolation, everything and everybody is a product of the interaction among and between people and their surroundings (Brookfield, 1995). The Hindu worldview on the other hand expands this idea of community even further. In teaching about the Hindu experience in workplace learning, Ashok & and Thimmappa (2006) describes how people, organizations, community, cosmos, and the universe are interconnected and integrated. Any development of human resources is therefore informed by the need to understand the relationship between him/herself and the organization, and the organization role in the community, community role in the universe, and lastly, universe role in the cosmos (p.39). This therefore shows that an individual does not learn for his or her own development and empowerment but for the entire community. So strong is the bond between an individual and the community that in some societies it is considered worse than death. There are even some cultures that consider the western idea of personal development and empowerment has selfish, immature and detrimental to the community (MacKeracher, 2004). This communal aspect of learning is one of the things that differentiate the western knowledge system from the indigenous knowledge system. Another theme that cut across all indigenous learning systems is the belief that the acquisition of knowledge is a lifelong process. It is important to note that this belief in lifelong learning is not confined to indigenous communities only, but even to western communities as well. Whereas the western notion of lifelong long is informed by the need to equip the employee with skills that will enable his or her employer to compete effectively in the global economy, the indigenous idea if lifelong learning is nested in the need to tap into the infinitely vast knowledge that surrounds us and that can be used to develop and empower ourselves and the communities (Taylor, 2006). Lastly, learning is holistic. If there is one thing that the indigenous systems of learning agree on, it is the notion that leaning involves the mind, body, emotion and the spirit. There is absolutely no barrier separating the mind from the rest of the body when it comes to learning. A demonstration of the holistic perspective of learning can be found in what the Maoris calls the meeting house (Knowles, et al 2005). The four walls of this meeting house are basically a metaphor of the several dimension of a person. In this meeting house there are four components of wellbeing (hauora) namely; social, physical, emotional and spiritual. Similarly, the Native Americans look at life as an interconnected circle where each and everything is connected (Taylor, 2006). One of the things that have continued to draw a line between western education leaning and indigenous learning system is the cultural suicide that has characterized indigenous learning. In this case, adult learners have found themselves alienated by their families for obtaining ‘western education’ sometimes at the expense of what is recommended by the indigenous education. Cultural suicide is also at the root of the problem of the lack of a husband in their community on the part of adult female learners once they have acquired ‘excessive’ western knowledge (Taylor, 2006). Transformation learning in Adult Education: A recent adult learning theory, transformational learning can best be looked on as a learning process whereby the learner has actually underwent the experience and is therefore conscious of the topic’s tacit assumption (MacKeracher, 2004). Transformative learning goes on to suggest that this kind of learning is reinforced by not only the emotive experience but also the kinesthetic and sensory experience as well. I recently read Taylor’s (2006), a brain specialist at Harvard University, transforming experience of going through a stroke. What makes Taylor experience a perfect transformation learning experience is the fact that she experienced what she has always recreated in her mind as a neuroscientist of repute. Getting a real feel of what she has always believed to know courtesy of her medical knowledge, Taylor became better equipped to understand and empathize with her patient. Transformative learning has particularly been hailed for addressing the problem of lost innocence among adult learners (Johnson, 2006). This is because adult learner just like other students will always been frustrated when they fail to get the transformation that they thought they would get when they embarked in their learning. However, if a leaner can get a feel of a real transformative experience in his/her learning, then he or she is cushioned against feeling like he/she has not experienced the actual learning experience that he/she anticipated when he/she embarked on the learning effort. References: Taylor, B., J. (2006). My stroke of Insight: a Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey. New York: Lulu.com Brockman, J. (2001). A Somatic Epistemology for Education. The Education Forum, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 328-334 Brookfield, S., D. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in Adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Clark, C. (2001). Off the Beaten Path. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Vol. 89, pp. 83-91 Elias, L., J. & Merriam, B., S. (2005). Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education. Malabar: Krieger Publishing Henschke, J. (2005). Reaching Beyond the United States: Adventures in the International Adult Education and Human Resource Development. Adult Learning, vol. 16, Iss. ?, pp. 23-24 Jarvis, P. (2006). Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human Learning. London: Routledge Johnson, D., R. (2006). Teachable Moments: Essays on Experiential Education. New York: University of America Knowles, S., M., Holton, F., E., & Swanson, A., R. (2005). The Adult Learner, 6th Edition. Houston: Gulf Publishing Company MacKeracher, D. (2004). Making Sense of Adult Learning, 2nd Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Mathews, J., C. (1998). Somatic Knowing and Education. The Education Forum, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 236-242 Read More