Based on research with experienced adult educators, this framework for practice proposes a model of “developmental intentions” designed to encourage epistemological development in adult learners. This interactive session will also explore how developmental intentions can inform classroom strategies for teachers and trainers of adults

Taylor, Kathleen

English

Kansas State University

Kansas State University Libraries New Prairie Press Adult Education Research Conference 2002 Conference Proceedings (Raleigh, NC) Developing Adult Learners: A Model Kathleen Taylor Saint Mary's College of California, USA Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/aerc  Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Taylor, Kathleen (2002). "Developing Adult Learners: A Model," Adult Education Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2002/papers/64 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Adult Education Research Conference by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k-state.edu. Developing Adult Learners: A ModelKathleen TaylorSaint Mary’s College of California, USACatherine MarienauDePaul University, USAAbstract:  Based on research with experienced adult educators, this frameworkfor practice proposes a model of “developmental intentions” designed toencourage epistemological development in adult learners.  This interactive sessionwill also explore how developmental intentions can inform classroom strategiesfor teachers and trainers of adults.Constructive-Development Theory and Adult LearningThe literature suggests, and adult educators increasingly realize, that there can be a chasmbetween what adults learn and, to use William Perry’s phrase, really learn.  As a result, adultscan appear to “take in” new information but in fact may be unable to apply it in any meaningfulway to their lives and beliefs.  Furthermore, many adults who seek out higher learning seem tobe at a threshold of change, ready to think about what they know and how they know it in new,more complex, ways.  This is markedly different from their earlier tendency to focus on learningas a process of getting knowledge; they are, instead, increasingly willing to construct knowledge,even when it means they must surface and challenge their existing perceptions and assumptions.Adult development theories, particularly constructive-developmental theories, describe such newcapacities in terms of an epistemological shift (Kegan, 1994; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, andTarule, 1986; Perry, 1970).  According to such theories, the “rules” or frameworks that guide usas we construct meaning change throughout our lives.  “Real” learning then, leads an adult notjust to know more, but to know differently.  The implications of such knowing extend far beyondthe bounds of a classroom or training session.  Ultimately, how we know is who we are (Kegan,1982).In light of the “teachable moment” that exists when adults seek further education, manyadult educators, rather than focus on information acquisition or behavior modification, haveinstinctively expanded their efforts to affect not only what their adult students know, but howthey go about making meaning of what they know.   In our own educational practice, we hadintuitively moved in this direction even before we were fully aware of the developmentalliterature that supported it.  We also noted, however, that many colleagues whose practiceseemed to evidence similar goals nevertheless maintained an explicit focus on their field,discipline, or subject-matter.  How then, we wondered, did experienced adult educators framedevelopmental objectives, and how did those objectives guide their practice?Research and ResultsTo answer these questions, we sought out adult educators, some of whom haveinternational reputations, as well as less renowned colleagues whose work we knew to bedevelopmental focused.  These included educators in the U.S., Australia, and the UnitedKingdom.  We asked: What do you want your adult learners to walk away with, developmentallyspeaking, at the end of your time together?   We intentionally did not define developmentallyspeaking.The results, compiled in a table of “Developmental Intentions,” are comprised of thirty-six discrete items in five over-arching categories or dimensions.  These categories are explainedfrom the perspective of a learner, as follows.(1) Toward knowing as a dialogic process:  I want to become more aware of how I constructknowledge, to recognize the sources of the ideas I currently hold, and to engage with othersin order to more effectively reconstruct knowledge as new experiences and reflectionwarrant.(2) Toward a dialogic relationship to oneself:  I want to be able to recognize myself; to see whoand how I am not only through the prism of my experience, but through reflection on thatexperience; to take responsibility for how I may choose to be in the future. The self Idiscover is not the essence of who I am, it is my construction, and as such, subject toreconstructing.(3) Toward becoming a continuous learner: I want to focus on learning as what I do when I aminterested in ideas or activities.  Though I may call on others for advice, input, expertise, ordirections, I will decide my learning goals, seek appropriate resources, and actively engagewith the process. I also recognize that learning is likely to lead to new ways of constructingmyself, and I accept that challenge.(4) Toward self-agency and self-authorship:  I want to acknowledge that I construct the choicesI make and the values I hold, and that I’m responsible to act on behalf of those values to thebest of my abilities.(5)  Toward connection with others:  In discovering the self-constructed, individual nature ofmyself, I nevertheless want to recognize and act on the essential connectedness of the humanenterprise: Though we may be existentially alone, we find our most human expressions incommunity.  I wish to engage in a form of connectedness in which I can, without loss of myselfhood, bring myself into relationship and community.Since development is a process of becoming rather than a destination, in order tounderscore the sense of movement, we chose to express the five dimensions and the thirty-sixcharacteristics as actions (for example, reflecting) rather than as conditions (for example,reflection).  We also discovered, in the process of analyzing the data, that our fellow adulteducators did not frame these characteristics as developmental outcomes; no one can “develop”anyone else.  Instead, our informants told us, they saw these as goals but also as methods.  Inorder to encourage in adults the capacity to, for example, surface and question assumptions,associate truth not with static fact but with contexts and relationship, or accept responsibility forchoices one has made and will make, the most effective strategy was to create situations in whichadults were required to engage in precisely these activities.  Having a conscious awareness of thepotential for developmental outcomes helped faculty to support learners in gaining the associatedcapacities and skills.The Developmental IntentionsThe developmental intentions (see chart) describe the dynamic nature of an adult’sprocess of change.  Whereas most theories describe development in terms of movement along acontinuum of growth, any individual’s process defies linear organization.  We found that thethirty-six discrete items interacted across the five dimensions.  As a result, assigningcharacteristics to a particular dimension became, at times, a somewhat arbitrary exercise: someoverlapped, some were sequential, and some seemed to enhance the potential for others toemerge.As people engage in these actions, they also develop the capacity to recognize theinterplay of differentiation and integration in their own lives.  They see themselves as made up ofparts and yet a coherent whole, always in process, never competely arriving.  Taken together, thefive dimensions represent aspects of a self that is capable of sophisticated, ongoing engagementwith the world of ideas and with learning from experience—a self that can examine its ownbiases and assumptions, make and carry out thoughtful commitments, and reach out to others formutual enhancement.  In short, a self that responds effectively and with increasing ease to bothinternal and external changes.Teaching and Training StrategiesA common theme among the intentions is their focus on experience—attending toexperience, interpreting experience, relying on experience, using experience as a point ofreference, and creating experiences.  They also underscore the necessity that learners engage inreflection and construct meaning.  In the more than seventy exercises and activities based on theintentions, additional themes emerged that informed practice.  These included concerns aboutpower, control and authority in the classroom; awareness of the tension between adults’ needs tobe self-directed and yet do “what the teacher wants”; recognition of the relationship betweenassessment and learning; balancing coverage of the material with time for reflection onexperience; and acknowledgement of potential limitations of adults’ experiences as the basis forlearning.The crucial nature of the mentor as guide—one who prepares the learner for a journey,blazes the trail, provides both a map and a lifeline, and allows the learner to set the pace—alsoemerged as a defining factor in successful implementation of the developmental intentions.ReferencesBelenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, M.R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways ofknowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books.Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.Kegan, R. (1994).  In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press.Perry, W. G. (1970). Forms of intellectual and moral development in the college years:  Ascheme.  Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Taylor, K., Marienau, C., & Fiddler, M. (2000).  Developing adult learners:  Strategies forteachers and trainers.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Developing Adult Learners: A Model

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Developing Adult Learners: A Model

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