In the course of MALAT, and leading toward 691, I’ve become very interested in two learning theories, and they both factor into my final paper:
- Self-efficacy (SE)
- Adult Learning Theory (ALT)
SE popped onto the radar during residency in a few of the projects and assignments we worked on. In training pilots, I have always been aware that the students who believed they could succeed outperformed those with strong doubts, but it wasn’t until MALAT that I understood the amount of research that has gone into this phenomenon, with Bandura being a great starting point to my reading. In my time as a student, I’ve always valued the instructors who helped me culture a belief that I could succeed, and in my case, this almost always involved showing me the required elements of success and then showing me that each of those elements was attainable in its own right. This led me to believe that perceived SE can be taught, and I’ve attempted to do that in my instructional capacity. My ongoing curiosity involves the degree to which SE can be taught or otherwise transferred to a learner. Are there limits to how much SE can be obtained in an individual imposed by outside factors, or can anyone be taught to believe they can learn anything? Are there methods that are generally effective for improving a learner’s SE, or are there strategies that are more suited to a situation or individual depending on the context, and have these strategies been indexed? Lot’s to learn!
ALT, on the other hand, has been a recent arrival! It came as a result of collecting some reference resources to bolster the strength of a paper. After reading through Malcom Knowles’ seminal “The Adult Leaner: A Neglected Species” (1973) I was impressed at being able to see what may be the genesis point of the field of Adult Learning research, as well as Self-Directed Learning (SDL) which I find fascinating. But I will confess that I had a vague sense that there were issues with his writing. I don’t think I have the academic chops to put my finger on exactly why that feeling exists, but I suspect it has to do with the narrowness of his references (although this could possibly be attributed to the scant data for him to draw from 45 years ago). Mostly, however, I think my issue was that I didn’t think he understood why adults learn. I came to realize, though, that four and a half decades ago, the landscape of adult learners was very different. Career stability meant that most adults were learning for recreational reasons, as Knowles states: “Pleasure and Self-esteem”. Today however, Rohit Talwar works for Fast Future, which is a professional foresight organization devoted to analysis and prediction of trends for large corporations and governments. Talwar predicts that children today can expect to have up to 40 different jobs in up to 10 different career paths! I’m nearly 50, so technically catch the tail end of Knowles expected demographic yet have had 5 distinctly different definable ‘careers’, and when this MALAT is over, there may be more on the way! My point is, the motivations of the typical adult learner in the early 70’s seems VERY different from today: adult learning, which was once recreation, has now evolved to necessity. I really like what Knowles had to say, and his passion for addressing the adult as a specific subset in education, but I believe his ideas need significant updating. Luckily this is occurring; in 1999 Geoffrey Norman published “The Adult Learner: a Mythical Species”, which begins to unravel some of the assumptions that existed in Knowles’ work, and hold them up to academic, as well as contextual scrutiny. Two papers, and I’m already neck deep…. Where are we now? How much horsepower is being devoted to this study, who’s doing it, and why? (Is it marketing departments trying to earn a buck off adult learners, or are the motivations more socially noble?)
Many more questions are emerging, and as a friend and colleague says “…looks like we got ourselves a good knowledge quest!”
References:
Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational psychologist, 28(2), 117-148. (among other works of his)
Knowles, M. (1973). The adult learner: a neglected species.
Norman, G. R. (1999). The adult learner: a mythical species. Academic Medicine.
December 1, 2018 at 10:22 pm
Hi Todd, great discussion!
Your self-efficacy ponderings would make compelling research questions. When I teach children music, I try and encourage an ‘I can do it’ attitude by praising their ‘focus’ and ‘perseverance’ as they practice something challenging. I draw directly from Carol Dweck’s ‘Growth Mindset’ and Linda Kavelin-Popov, Dr. Dan Popov and John Kavelin’s ‘Virtues Project’. Remember the MOOC we participated in called Learning How to Learn? The premise was that there are multiple ways to learn subjects that are difficult and/or don’t come natural to us.
My impressions of Knowles’s Adult Learning stance was that adults require choice and the ability to draw their own experiences into their education because they have more life experience than children (early constructivism). The Adult Learning branch I’ve been more interested in has been related more to adults’ lives outside of education and how that affects it. Children in our culture are allotted time to go to school, whereas adult learners tend to have more family and job responsibilities and their time is more valuable and scarce. That is one reason why our mission is to design the most user-friendly digital learning environments that are respectful of time!
December 3, 2018 at 5:17 pm
Hello Todd!
Reading your blog, the part about SE made me recall the Self-fulfillment Prophecy (Kaufman, 2012, October 11). There are two ways of looking at it: Positively, and negatively. Other than as a warning, I find it hard to consider applying the prophecy from the negative standpoint, especially with pilots! There might be some relationship between SE and the prophecy thus you might explore if there is some useful content that could be of help to your goals.
And the part about ALT rang a bell within loud and strong! Undoubtedly things have changed during the last 45 years, and nowadays adults are studying for much more than just enjoyment. Most if not all are driven by the SDL built-in batteries, so to speak. My case in point is a good example since I will be turning 65 years young just five days after our Convocation! And we agree on the fact that there is still a lot to do out there, so who is thinking on sitting back, relax, and doing nothing? Knowles’ theory requires an update urgently. To avoid the excess baggage fee I am including just one reference to your well of bibliography, and I will keep an eye on the evolution of your work. Best of luck.
Cheers!
Alfonso
Reference
Kaufman, C., (2012, October 11). Using self-fulfilling prophecies to your advantage: Why “fake it ‘til you make it” is good advice. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/psychology-writers/201210/using-self-fulfilling-prophecies-your-advantage