Adult Education as a Profession - Essay Example

Number: Lecturer: Adult education Part one: Adult education as a profession Adult education has been around for several decades now. Its role has been to seek transformation of the old who might no longer fit into the system of formal education, but rather as a way to pass the needs knowledge. Countries around the world adopted the system and leveraged, for its sake and the needs for its population. This led to the adult education system to have diversity in philosophy, history and institutional basis. The diversity is brought about by the roles the system is intended to achieve at the end of the exercise; after passing the required knowledge. Adult education curriculum and content varies from country to country, community to another and between contents, this is because the need for the education varies. Specifically, adult education varies in content like educating adults who have no high school diploma by imparting that level skills to earn a diploma. Some adults are illiterate in language (reading and writing) and basic math. It takes the initiative of the government and civil society to deliver education to those who are illiterate. During times of unemployment, employees can go through education sessions to keep them busy, when they are hired back, they have the skills to continue. There are those who need skills n a trade like welding, masonry, art, carpentry, technicians and community development. There could be adults with jobs and would wish to improve skills specific to the job to earn promotion or retention in case of downsizing. Historically, original forms of adult were aimed at enabling the adults to read and write while doing bible studies after it was widely accepted to be read. During agrarian and industrial revolution, adult education was meant to equip the population with skills to work in farms, stores and factories. There are five philosophies in adult education; liberal, progressive, behavioral, humanistic and radical. The role of adult education in every situation will determine the category under which the philosophy will be characterized. For example, liberal is meant to impart principles and absolutes aimed at well-rounded perspective of the world lasting a lifetime. In progressive, learners gain problem-solving skills relating to their lives to provide practical skills out of the experience of the learner (Jarvis 111). Behavioral philosophy, as the name suggests, is to promote behavioral change and skill development with the education environment being structured. The learners have no input in the setting of the objectives, their role being to master every skill before moving to the next. Humanistic philosophy is meant to foster personal growth and development by involving the learner in knowledge construction and self development. The learner is motivated and directs the learning process. The last philosophy is radical where education is used as a means to bring about fundamental changes socially, economically, politically and culturally. It is meant to empower individuals to fight for change and raise awareness on issues of social justice to bring about a revolution. The learner here is a voluntary participant in the process with teachers holding equal status as them as they are merely facilitating support for the status quo challenge. In all these diversities, adult education has to remain as they are as they serve different roles for different individuals. It might be expensive for sponsors of the system, but the objective is far greater than the costs of not educating the adults. Religion would not have reached many as it is today and agrarian and industrial revolution would not have succeeded. Social change cannot be realized, and political autocracy will continue. Currently, there are dynamic changes in the global stage in information, economic shifts, technology, and politics. It is happening at farfetched locations, far from the control of any power referred to as globalization. The ambivalent impact it brings along poses a great challenge to curriculum developers to keep updating. This is not a unique problem to adult education as the entire system is affected as course content keeps on changing to address the new changes. The extent of alignment can be only be maintained at the course content to ensure that the entire society is at par, but due to different learning needs for adults the system and venues have to be different (Jarvis 155). Adult education is not meant to pass exams strictly to proceed, but more or less gaining a skill practically which one will be certified as gained the skill when he/she can perform the skill practically. This objective will mean that the primary focus will not be an individual but a group of people who are to gain a skill for the benefit of the entire society. The objective of the process expected to bring tangible immediate results as the learners apply it in real life situations. Adult development and learning To a teacher, adult education development and learning process is much different from the formal system, as the dynamics are quite different. The work of a teacher is quite simple as the learners are a good source of the learning experience in class. Adults have the desire to learn are, therefore, utilizing their self-directedness to their advantage. They have the desire to learn, meaning that the teacher will just facilitate the process of adults learning. Adults are grownups who have long experiences, which form part of the rich source of learning. The experience they have from outside adds value to the learning process as experiential techniques of doing are already in their fingertips, besides discussion and problem-solving skills. The work of the teacher will not extent to intervening at every situation but can monitor to evaluate if the process is proceeding on very well. Adults are competency-based learners who would wish to apply what they have learned in the real life circumstances from which the teacher is detached from. This is because learners are aware of their personal learning needs which they have identified form real situations that they have been facing, hence the need to gain the extra skill (Jarvis 175). Part Two: Research and evaluation in education HIV AIDS is a menace that threatens to reduce productivity of workers, whether affected or not. Those who are affected fear stigmatization form colleagues and employers while those who do not have fear contact with the affected. As those who have might not be willing to share their status for far of stigmatization, those that their status is public knowledge fear that they are being victimized. This will affect the institution’s bottom line by reducing productivity and potential turnover of employees. It is incumbent upon an institution to institute policies to deal with the scourge and its effects alongside helping the affected to cope. Out of lack of information, victims may suffer a lot in the hands of the ignorant colleagues. From interviews collected, a good number of respondents have little knowledge of chances of transmissions, and this causes them to reduce contact with the affected. They do not want to shake hands, share meals, personal effects, hugs, office equipments, facilities, or even spending time together. Some were observed to see how they conduct themselves working with victims. It was observed that others still work with some level of fear and apprehension. They are not free to do things mentioned above as freely as they could with those who do not have or at least to the extent that they do not know or care about the status of an individual. Generally there is a lot to be done to bridge the gap in knowledge with reality. The fear should be removed from the workers in order not only increase their productivity, but to improve their relationship with the victims in order to make the feel at loved (Jarvis 98). Organization and administration of adult education classes For an adult education system to be successful, its objectives must be able to be evaluated to confirm the success rate in attaining the intended objectives. There are three learning objectives that have to be tested to proof this point; skills, knowledge and attitudes and professional conduct. For an individual to be said to have gained the skill, he must demonstrate that he is able to have a logical thought process imparted by the course. If he/she is able to synthesize complex information than before with a high degree of accuracy, a quantity or proportion of correct responses. This will be the criterion under which the student will be expected to perform the behavior after process. Knowledge is another yardstick to measure the success of a process. A student must be able to demonstrate the use of research methodologies, understand social issues affecting adult education and all relevant literature acting as learning resources. If the student can be able to use all the tools and learning aids with proper conceptualization of the process, is said to have gained the knowledge. The last learning outcome is the attitudes and professional conduct improvement through and after the learning process. They should be able to recognize and address both moral and ethical responsibilities within the profession and be able to practice professional ethics. This is observable behavior to an examiner/evaluator as a core competency to be learned in performance terms (Jarvis 125). Program development process in adult education After identifying the individuals to be trained, the work of the teacher should then, be to assess the learners to identify the needs of the students. The learners are given an opportunity identify what they want and need to learn. They are supposed to plan and carry out their own learning activities and put in place a framework to evaluate their process towards the self-selected goals. The teacher has to plan all training activities around the participants’ issues and concerns as there is no formal way that the course can be delivered other than satisfying the recipients of the information. The content and the mode of training that the teacher must develop must be able to measure successfully learning in framework of accuracy and reliability, rather than speed and volume in order to realize its objectives (Jarvis 152). During the course of the training process, the teacher should be able to maximize the learning by doing. Job aids to assist unwinding the current knowledge system that individuals have been accustomed to as this might affect the new learning. Learners might have been used to a certain set of principles, for example if they have been workers. Therefore, the work of the teacher is to align or chart a new path with fresh principles which will question the ones held by the learners. After putting in focus the learners’ needs, the work of the teacher then moves to matching the instructions methods with the participant’s preferences. Learners’ experience is employed to introduce and discuss the new concepts. At the evaluation stage, the teacher is supposed to make conclusions as to whether the learning process has been successful or not. This is the stage when the skill, knowledge and attitudes and professional conduct are tested and evaluated to measure success and/or failure of the learning process, to inform future decisions. Homeland security United States has been founded on a strong commitment to fundamental freedoms and liberties after the Revolutionary War. The freedoms that have been exercised for long with some level of uncertainty as it was limitless. In the wake of 9/11, the United States has been and continue facing a new form of the enemy who has devised ways to cause mayhem and destruction. This enemy in the form of terrorism has demanded that new ways of dealing with it be used. The war on terrorism cannot be won by without intruding on the suspect’s privacy, thereby breaking his/her freedom and privacy. New technology has been employed to intrude with an improved capacity for specificity. The American people, institutions and government in security have to find a reasonable balance between security measures and individual liberties. This is because individual liberties can be dramatically curtailed if the agencies pursue security and forget freedoms. A blend of pro-active approach of intelligence and the commitment of the agencies to safeguarding the rights of private citizens (Dickler). After the experience of the 9/11, congress had to enact Patriot Act to be used by the American law agencies and intelligence community to prevent acts of violence. It is meant to streamline communication and information sharing amongst the entire network than before where each agency used to have its own systems. Before the incidences of the acts of terrorism on American homeland, the federal government and indeed the entire intelligence community used to focus on foreign targets, to offensively prevent threats. Federal Bureau Investigations was left as the sole agency focusing on internal threats. The Central intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and military intelligence services have been focusing its work outside the country. With the new threats, these agencies are supposed to collaborate to deal with all forms of terrorism in the homeland and outside as most plans are laid within the country. There has been freedom to free speech, but with the reality of terrorism and war against terrorism, free speech has to be practiced with responsibility. For example, politician is no longer allowed to make utterances than discourage and portray hopelessness in order to win psychological war on terrorists. Priests are discouraged from making utterances that try to convey the message that war is about Islam. This means that whereas, one is allowed to exercise freedom of speech, the words spoken carry some responsibility on the side of the person uttering. Before 9/11, free speech was the hallmark of the American people, but after free speech must be exercised with much restrain and responsibility (Dickler). Works Cited Dickler, Jessica. “Post 9/11 travel: What airport security costs us.” CNNMoney. 8 September 2011. Web. 15 April 2011. http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/08/pf/911_travel/index.htm Jarvis, Peter. Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice (3 ed). Oxon: Routledge, 2010. Read More