adlt 101 introduction to adult education · dr. isaac kofi biney, scde slide 4 . introduction john...

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017

ADLT 101

Introduction to Adult

Education

Session 13 – Progressive and Behavioural Philosophies of Adult Education

Lecturer: Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney Contact Information: [email protected]/[email protected]

Session Overview

Goals and Objectives

At the end of the session, the students will

• Describe progressive and behavioural adult education

• Explain the purposes of progressive and behavioural adult education

• Give the historical background of progressive and behavioural philosophies

• Identify the components of progressive and behavioural philosophies of adult education

• Describe the practices of progressive and behavioural philosophies of adult education

Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE Slide 2

Session Outline

• Introduction

• Progressive Adult Education

Key Authorities

Components

Practice

• Behavioural Adult Education

Key Authorities

Components

Practice

• Conclusion

• References


Reading List

Activities and Assignments

• This week, complete the following tasks:

• Log onto the UG Sakai LMS course site:

http://sakai.ug.edu.gh/XXXXXXXXX

• Watch the Videos for Session 13 – Philosophies of Adult Education

• Review Lecture Slides: Session 13 – Philosophies of Adult Education

• Read Chapter 8 of Recommended Text- Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. &

Otunga, R. (2005). African Perspective Of Adult Learning - Foundations

Of Adult Education In Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education.

Pages 2 – 9 Introduction to Adult Education - Kwapong & Aggor (2012).

Pages 149-183.

• Visit the Chat Room and discuss the Forum question for Session 13

• Complete the Individual Assignment for Session 13


Introduction

John Dewey & Progressive Educ.

Philosophy

• Progressive adult education is developed out of the ideas of John Dewey - an American educator and a philosopher.

• It is a teaching-learning movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present.

• The rationale behind this is ‘No Child Left Behind’.

• It stresses an experiential and problem-solving approach to learning.

• It emphasises experience of a learner in determining problem areas and solutions to be considered.

Introduction

• John Dewey, a best-known spokesperson of progressive

philosophy, became dissatisfied with philosophy as pure

speculation.

• He, therefore, sought ways to make philosophy directly

relevant to practical issues.

• Dewey rejected all forms of dualism and dichotomy in

favour of a philosophy of experience as a series of unified

wholes in which everything can be ultimately related.

• In 1896, John Dewey opened a laboratory school to test

his theories, and their sociological implications.


John Dewey & Progressive

Philosophy

• His school, the University of Chicago Laboratory, was dedicated to discover in administration, selection of subject-matter, methods of learning, teaching and discipline.

• How a school could become a cooperative community while developing in individuals their own capacities to satisfy their needs was his goal.

• Dewey found that the two key goals of developing a cooperative community and developing individuals own capacities were not at odds but were necessary to each other.


Progressive Philosophy of Adult

Education

• Francis Parker, a famous early practitioner of

progressive education, became superintendent of

schools in 1875.

• He was opposed to rote learning and believed that

there was no value in knowledge without

understanding.

• He argued that schools should encourage and respect

the student’s creativity which is student-centred and

experience-based learning.


Progressive Philosophy of Adult

Education (Contd.) • He replaced the traditional curriculum, traditional readers,

spellers and grammar books with student’s own writing and literature.

• Teacher prepared materials that integrate learning units based on core themes that related knowledge of different disciplines received attention.

• Whereas Parker started with practice and then moved to theory, Dewey began with hypotheses and then devised methods and curricula to test them.

• From 1919 to 1955, a Progressive Education Association was founded by Dewey in the United States, to promote a more student-centred approach to education.


Progressive Education

• Progressive education believes that humans are social animals who learn best in real-life activities with other people.

• Most progressive educators believe that people learn following a process similar to John Dewey's model of learning such as:

Becoming aware of the problem;

Defining the problem;

Proposing hypotheses to solve it;

Evaluating the consequences of the hypotheses from one's past experience; and

Testing the likeliest solution.


Progressive Education (Contd.)

• Given this view of human nature, a progressive adult

educator desires to provide not just reading and drill,

but also, real-world experiences.

• Activities that centre on the real life of the students

are given much attention.

• The slogan is: learn by doing and learn by discovery.

• Progressive adult education is, thus, rooted in present

experience.


Practices of Progressive Adult

Education

Common practices of progressive adult education intimate that:

• The curriculum is made more flexible and is influenced by student interest.

• Teachers or facilitators of learning should encourage students to use a wide variety of activities to learn.

• Progressive teachers use a wider variety of materials allowing for individual and group research that leads to discovery.

• Progressive education programmes include the use of community resources and encourage service-learning projects (Wikipedia 2011 cited in Kwapong & Aggor, 2012).


Progressive Adult Learning

Environment General Qualities of Progressive Adult Education Programmes include: • Emphasis on learning by doing –

hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, and experiential learning.

• Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units.

• Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking.

• Group work and development of social skills.

• Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge.

• The picture on the right hand side depicts adult learners showing their skills and mastery in auto-mechanics.

Progressive Adult Education

Examples of Progressive adult education include:

• Collaborative and cooperative learning projects for social responsibility and democracy.

• Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum.

• Selection of subject content by looking forward to asking what skills will be needed in future society.

• De-emphasis on textbooks in favour of varied learning resources, life-long learning and social skills.

• Assessment by evaluation of student’s projects and productions (Wikipedia 2011, cited in Kwapong & Aggor, 2012).


Components of Progressive Adult

Education Key Components of Progressive Adult Education include the following:

• The Purpose is to transmit culture and societal structure to promote social change; to give learner practical knowledge and problem-solving skills, to reform society.

• The Learner needs, interests, and experiences are key elements in learning; people have unlimited potential to be developed through education.

• The Teacher is organizer; guides learning through experiences that are educative; stimulates, instigates, evaluates learning process.

• Source of Authority is the situations learner finds him/herself in; culture

• Key Words/Concepts include Problem-solving; experience-based education; democracy; lifelong learning; pragmatic knowledge; needs assessment; social responsibility.

• Methods include problem-solving; scientific method; activity method; experimental method; project method; inductive method.


Components of Progressive

Education (Contd.)

• People & Practices: Spencer, Pestalozzi, Dewey,

Parker, Bergevin, Sheats, Lindeman, Benne, Blakely,

ABE, citizenship education; community schools;

cooperative extension schools; schools without walls,

participation training.

• Time Frame: Origins can be traced to 16th century

Europe. It began as a serious movement in U.S. in

early 1900s with Dewey.


Behavioural Philosophy of Adult

Education Behavioural Adult Education • Behavioural adult education has

inspired current practices in e-learning, design of courses using model to advanced practices as learning objects linked to behavioural objectives, personalisation of content based on gap analysis, and competency modeling.

• Behaviourist education is simply training that teaches learners rote behaviours through drill and practice.

• Corporate training exemplified in psychological principles that produce overt, observable, and measurable outcomes.

• John B. Watson is the founder of the behaviourist School of thought.

Ivan P. Pavlov & Other Behavioural

Psychologists What is Behavioural Philosophy of Adult Education?

• Behaviourism borrows from philosophical systems like logical positivism, and works of psychologists such as Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and Skinner.

• From the 1930s to the 1970s, psychologist B. F. Skinner, elaborated behaviourist education as a process to promote desired behaviours which could be promoted through rewards (positive reinforcement) and undesired behaviours extinguished through punishments (negative reinforcement).

• To behaviourists, human actions, are the result of past conditioning.

• The environment, thus, considers human emotions, feelings, and intellect as the means by which human beings rationalise their responses to environmental stimuli.

Practices of Behavioural Philosophy

of Adult Education • The aim of behaviourist philosophy is to promote behavioural

modifications, through adult education, with the strong environmental influence.

• Methodology used in learning includes drilling, repetition and memorisation.

• This kind of learning is competency-based and applied in skill training and practice.

• Behavioural adult education has contributed to the development of systematic instructional design models and emphasises accountability.

• Behavioural adult education is used in human resource development, programme planning, vocational education, and military training.

• It includes the development of behavioural objectives, competency standards, a programmed curriculum, the giving of grades, and an emphasis on accountability.


Practices of Behavioural Philosophy

of Adult Education

• Behavioural adult education campaigns against environmental pollution.

• Since the 1970s, there has been behavioural orientation to public adult environmental education with the provision of regulatory environmental legislation, introduction of recycling initiatives and promotion of anti-littering campaigns.

• There has also been the establishment of Environmental Protection Agency to administer, monitor, and enforce environmental statutes to reward desired corporate behaviours in relation to green marketing and sustainability and punish organizations and individuals who cause pollution.


Behavioural Adult Learning Setting

Key Components of progressive Adult Education include; • Purpose is to bring about behaviour

that will ensure survival of human species, societies, and individuals; to promote behavioural change.

• Learner takes an active role in learning, practicing new behaviour, and receiving feedback; strong environmental influence.

• Teacher is manager, controller; predicts and directs learning outcomes, designs learning environment that elicits desired behaviour.

• The photo on your right-hand side illustrates a woman actively engaged in weaving as a means of acquiring income-generating skill.

Components of Behavioural Adult

Education

• Source of authority is the environment - Stimulus-response; behaviour modification; competency-based; mastery learning; behavioural objectives; trial and error; skill training; feedback; and reinforcement.

• Methods include programmed instruction; contract learning; teaching machines; computer-assisted instruction; practice and reinforcement.

• People/Practices are Skinner, Thorndike, Watson, Tyler, APL (Adult Performance Level); competency-based teacher education; behaviour modification programmes.

• Time Frame - founded by John B. Watson in 1920s.


Conclusion

• Progressive and behavioural philosophies of adult education are important and must be practiced in our educational settings.

• This is because, a good grasp of them will go a long way to develop in adult learners the ‘can-do’ spirit, be it at classroom, community or workplace settings.

• They will not only learn to discover and create new products and services for themselves, but also, learn to avoid or eschew corruption.

• Issues of insanitary or filthy environmental conditions and low skill sets at workplaces will also be addressed.


References

Fasokun, T., Katahoire, A. & Oduaran, A.

(2005). The psychology of adult learning in

Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute For

Education

Kwapong, O. A. T. F. & Aggor, R. A. (2012).

Introduction to adult education. Accra:

ICDE.

Omolewa, M., Karani, F. & Nikiema, N. (2014).

The history of adult education. Hamburg:

UNESCO Institute of Education.


adlt 101 introduction to adult education · dr. isaac kofi biney, scde slide 4 . introduction john...

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