Behaviorism

After this week's class, I thought about the discussion and presentation on behaviorism some more, and came to realize just how much of an impact behaviorism has in my work life. I attended a management training that was presented to management staff who supervise one or more employees and the goal was to inform managers of different types of conflicts that could arise in the workplace, along with solutions to those problems. The room of managers broke up in to teams of "employees" and "supervisors" and we conducted a role playing scenario of what-if scenarios. We presented in teams in front of the entire group and were evaluated by the human resources personnel conducting the training and at every step of the simulation, we were informed of good vs. bad behavior. We were also "rewarded" with a free pen or other types of incentives, when we handled a situation well. The second half of the training had us break in to teams and we were tested on what we learned that day, and the team with the highest score won gift cards. Looking at this training now from my newly gained knowledge on behaviorism, it is interesting to see just how much of an influence it still has on our lives as adult learners in the workplace.

Andragogy

This week's reading included a chapter on Andragogy and Malcolm Knowles (1980) proposal of 4 assumptions regarding adult learners:₁

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directed human being.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
3.  The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his or her social role.
4.  There is a change in time perspective as people mature - from future application of knowledge to immediacy o application. Thus, an adult is more problem centered than subject centered in learning.

Looking at all of these characteristics of what Knowles' proposed as assumptions of adult learners, I find all of these assumptions to be true of myself as an individual adult learner. At 31 years old, I am an independent being that works full-time to sustain my state of living and that self-sustaining characteristic lead me to resume my studies in this graduate program. My previous work experience
is what lead me down this current career path and my current career and learning are all tied together. The knowledge I gain from this program also has an immediate affect on my professional work and is not knowledge I am storing for future use.

One of the things I find interesting about Knowles discussion of andragogy is how experience is an important factor that shapes the way adults learn. Knowles' himself is an example of his own theory. In 1970 he published the first edition of The Modern Practice of Adult Education: Andragogy vs. Pedagogy. Knowles later went on to publish The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy which means with experience, he recognized that both concepts were important to the way in which adults learn.

Change (or Lack of Change)

The Kegan and Lahey article, The Real Reason People Won't Change, was quite interesting and managed to open my eyes to my own inability to adapt to change at times. Before reading the article, I would have considered myself as someone quite adaptable to change, considering I work in online education which is constantly evolving these days. But when I took a deeper look at my work style, I realized I can identify somewhat with the work ethic of "Mary." She doesn't delegate tasks enough for fear of losing some control over how tasks get done and also because she does not think others will do as good of a job as she. In my previous job I even saw the repercussions of not delegating tasks enough because when I was out of the office on vacation, some of my tasks could not be completed by anyone else, which lead to even more work when I returned to work.

I do think I have become better at information sharing in my current position, but the article certainly pointed out to me that I could consider evaluating my adaptability to change some more, because it is an important part of the learning process.

What Motivates Adults to Learn

This week, we read about and discussed what motivates adults to learn. What motivates me to learn and be enrolled in this program is my career focus. I had worked in the student services arena of online education for a little more than six years, before I transitioned in to an instructional design position within higher education. I hope to be able to enhance my skills as an instructional designer by obtaining my degree through this program. My fellow group mates also had similar goal-oriented motivations for enrolling in this masters program: career growth, better pay, etc.

After class, I thought about this topic some more in relation to how it tied in with last week's class discussion on different age stages. Looking back on my undergraduate degree experience, I would say I was a goal-oriented learner at that time as well; going to school with the aspiration of a good paying job after graduation. However, looking back, I know I certainly wasn't as motivated as I am now, or at least had different motivations for learning and that's because I was in a different age stage in my life. Now, as an adult, I have had more life experiences and am motivated to do well in school because I truly want to learn and better myself and this in turn will better my career. This motivation helps combat the obstacles I sometimes encounter in trying to balance life and school. My next obstacle to combat is better time management. Time to get off this blog and back to reading!