Kolk Learning Identity

Learning Never Ends
CAEL Forum and News 2009
Essays on Adult Learning Inspired by the Life and Work of David O. Justice
CAEL Forum and News, November 2009
Letter from the Editors
Dear Reader,
The 2009 printed issue of the CAEL Forum and News is one that honors a very special
friend, David O. Justice, who died September 10, 2008 after a long illness.
David’s professional contributions to the field of adult learning were immeasurable, from
his advocacy for new adult learning initiatives at FIPSE in the 1970s to his leadership in
lifelong learning at DePaul University.
We knew him well – he was a member of the CAEL Board of Trustees, a colleague who
worked with us to improve the postsecondary experience of adult learners, and a friend
whose passion for his life’s work was nothing less than an inspiration.
The authors who contributed articles and essays to this issue are David’s friends and
colleagues from CAEL and from DePaul University’s School for New Learning. The title of
this issue – Learning Never Ends – is taken from a poster seen in David’s office and recalled
with fondness by several of our contributors.
We hope you enjoy this tribute to David, which covers varied topics such as how the
brain works, how we learn, learning for social change, online learning, and adult learning
in Africa. Since this year marks the 35th anniversary of CAEL, we also have included a
conversation between Robert Deahl of Marquette University and Pamela Tate, CAEL’s
President and CEO, on the past and future of adult learning. As many of you know, Pam
enjoyed a special bond with David Justice. He was not only a colleague, friend, and
collaborator, but also her spouse.
Indeed, learning never ends. David, this one is for you.
The Forum and News Editorial Board
Diana Bamford-Rees
Beth Doyle
Becky Klein-Collins
Judith Wertheim
1
Table of Contents
Forward
By Virginia Smith, President Emeritus, Vassar College 3
Access to Learning – Research and Practice

On Becoming a Learner: The Concept of Learning Identity 5
By Alice Kolb and David Kolb, Case Western Reserve University
Learning from Experience

The Brain, Experience, and Adult Learning 14
By Barry G. Sheckley, Ray Neag Professor of Adult Learning, Neag School of Education,
University of Connecticut
Underserved Adults
Professional Learning to Promote Motivation and Academic Performance among Diverse Adults 23
By Margery B. Ginsberg, University of Washington-Seattle and Raymond J. Wlodkowski, Professor
Emeritus Regis University
Educating for Social Change 33

By R. Craig Sautter, DePaul University
Adult Learning in Africa

Africa Initiatives at the School for New Learning 35
By Derise E. Tolliver, PhD, Associate Professor, School for New Learning, DePaul University and
Deborah W. Holton, PhD, MFA, Associate Professor, School for New Learning, DePaul University

Innovation, Change and Progress in the Field of Adult Learning
Education-at-a-Distance: Bringing a New Manifesto Closer to Home 40
By Morris Fiddler, DePaul University. With Dennis Glenn, Carla R. Payne, James Moore,
and Beth Rubin
Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future 49

A Conversation between CAEL’s Pamela Tate and Marquette University’s Robert Deahl about the
Past Years in Adult Learning, edited by Rebecca Klein-Collins
Reflections on the Life and Work of David O. Justice

Remembering David Justice 56
By Marisa Alicea, PhD, DePaul University
Honoring David Justice 62

Remarks from Catherine Marienau, Faculty Mentor / Professor / Coordinator, Master of Arts in
Educating Adults, Memorial Service at Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois. September 21, 2008
2 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Forward
Virginia Smith, President Emeritus, Vassar College
This issue of the CAEL Forum and News is a special tribute to a special man. David Justice was my very
good friend and colleague. I first knew him in the 1970s when we both worked for FIPSE, identifying
and funding new initiatives in adult learning at colleges and universities. The scope of FIPSE was much
broader than the adult learner, and that phase of postsecondary education could easily have been
overlooked had it not been for the advocacy of David and some of his colleagues,
To understand David Justice, and his contribution to the field, you need to begin with his work at FIPSE.
Back in the 1970s, when new initiatives for adult learners were springing up across the country, there
were many institutional and policy leaders who saw the growing number of adult learners as “a new
market” for higher education. David never really adopted that perspective. What struck me – both
then and throughout his life – was that David saw adult learners not as a new market, or new source of
revenue, but rather as a distinct group of students. He saw that this new group had very different needs,
which higher education had an obligation to figure out new ways to address. Adults also had a very
different set of experiences however, upon which they could draw in their learning endeavors. This, too,
was something for which higher education institutions needed to account and from which higher educa-
tion itself could learn.
It was this perspective that made him the visionary leader that he was in advancing the importance of
experiential learning, opening access to underserved student populations both in the United States and
internationally, and developing the School for New Learning at DePaul University into a model to which
so many other institutions have looked in order to develop their own adult learner-friendly programs.
Throughout his life, David’s view and practice of adult education continued to evolve. In thinking about
his career, I found myself comparing him very favorably with Donald A. Schön’s description of The
Reflective Practitioner, a book David and many often discussed.
The articles in this issue speak to all of David’s interests. Alice and David Kolb discuss the “Learning
Identity” and strategies that help adults open themselves up to learning, even when they may have
experienced past failures in school. Barry Sheckley helps to answer a favorite question of David’s, “How
does experience enhance learning?”
As the leader of a ground-breaking school for adult learners in Chicago, David was particularly interested
in how to serve students from very diverse backgrounds, particularly those often underserved by our
mainstream educational systems. Margery B. Ginsberg and Raymond J. Wlodkowski explain their work
exploring how to motivate students from diverse backgrounds, and R. Craig Sautter explains how David’s
passion for social justice found its way into the School for New Learning’s competence framework.
A highlight in David’s career was the work that he did with CAEL to expand adult learning opportunities
in Africa. That work, which began in 1994 and whose legacy continues today in South Africa and Kenya,
is depicted in Derise E. Tolliver and Deborah Wood Holton’s article. Expanding access, and embracing
change and progress, are also what drove David to wonder what else computers might do “besides store
memos,” which Morry Fiddler and associates take as the starting point for exploring some provocative
propositions for distance education.
Forward 3
And finally, the Forum and News presents several reflective pieces in this issue. Recognizing the 35 years
of CAEL, Robert Deahl and Pamela Tate share a conversation that showcases the highlights of the past
and the promises for the future in adult learning. And, to commemorate David’s life and work, Marisa
Alicea and Catherine Marineau both share their thoughts on David’s leadership, vision and friendship.
David was a sweet, supportive and kind man who was fiercely committed to adult learners and the field
that supported them. He was a staunch advocate and never wavered in his support for new initiatives
and innovative ideas that would improve access to learning and ensure successful outcomes for adults,
particularly those adults with considerable needs and barriers.
David will be greatly missed.

On Becoming a Learner: The Concept of Learning Identity1
Alice Kolb and David Kolb, Case Western Reserve University
David Justice was dedicated to learning in both his professional and personal life. We are privileged
to have been his friend and to share the joy of living that his love of learning brought. He was for us a
model of someone for whom learning was “a way of being.” So it is fitting that we dedicate this essay
in his memory to the concept of learning identity. In our 40 years of research on experiential learning
theory (ELT), we have come to an approach to living that we call “the learning way” (Kolb 1984; Kolb and
Kolb 2009). The learning way is about approaching life experiences with a learning attitude. It involves a
deep trust in one’s own experience and a healthy skepticism about received knowledge. It requires the
perspective of quiet reflection and a passionate commitment to action in the face of uncertainty. The
learning way is not the easiest way to approach life, but in the long run it is the wisest. Other ways of
living tempt us with immediate gratification at our peril. The way of dogma, the way of denial, the way of
addiction, the way of submission, and the way of habit all offer relief
from uncertainty and pain at the cost of entrapment on a path that More people than we
winds out of our control. The learning way requires deliberate effort to
create new knowledge in the face of uncertainty and failure; but opens
imagined have a “fixed”
the way to new, broader, and deeper horizons of experience. Learning view of themselves,
is intrinsically rewarding and empowering, bringing new avenues of in varying degrees
experience and new realms of mastery. believing that they are
Learning Identity incapable of learning.
A learning identity lies at the heart of the learning way. People with a learning identity see themselves
as learners, seek and engage life experiences with a learning attitude, and believe in their ability to learn.
Having a learning identity is not an either-or proposition. A learning identity develops over time from
tentatively adopting a learning stance toward life experience, to a more confident learning orientation, to
a learning self that is specific to certain contexts, and ultimately to a learning self-identity that permeates
deeply into all aspects of the way one lives their life. This progression is sustained and nurtured through
growth-producing relationships in one’s life.
In ELT the concept of learning identity is based on the works of Carl Rogers and Paulo Freire. For both
of these foundational scholars of experiential learning, people who see themselves as learners are those
who trust their direct personal experiences and their ability to learn from them. Their primary focus is
not on immediate performance or goal achievement but on the ongoing process of learning from these
experiences. Instead of desiring some fixed goal, they prefer the excitement of being in the process of
potentialities being born (see sidebar, following page).
Fixed vs. Learning Identities

If there is a starting point for learning from experience, it must be in the belief that I can learn and
develop from my life experiences. In our many years of sharing results from the Kolb Learning Style
Inventory with thousands of people, we have discovered to our surprise that not only do most people
not understand their unique way of learning, but many have not thought about what learning is or about
themselves as learners. More people than we imagined have what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a
“fixed” view of themselves, in varying degrees believing that they are incapable of learning (Molden and
Dweck 2006). At the extreme, if people do not believe that they can learn, they won’t. Learning requires
1
We are grateful to Angela Passarelli and Garima Sharma for their thoughtful insights and contributions to this paper.
Access to Learning – Research and Practice 5

conscious attention, effort, and “time on task.” These activi-
ties are a waste of time for people who do not believe that
they have the ability to learn. More on Carl Rogers
A story from our recent work with an experiential learning
and Paulo Freire
focused high school provides an example. A colleague at
the school teaches remedial mathematics to freshmen and In his classic paper on how values
sophomore students. He was lamenting the fact that students are learned, Carl Rogers emphasizes
were failing repeatedly to grasp the most elementary of the central role of experiencing in
mathematical concepts and was frustrated that most never the learning process of the mature
did any homework. He had just given a quiz that was an exact person. In a mature person, the
copy of the homework he had given the week before with process of learning values is “fluid
the “heads-up” that the homework questions would be on and flexible…highly differentiated…
the upcoming quiz. Still, the majority of students failed. In the locus of evaluation is within the
desperation he asked the students what was going on. To his person…There is also involved in
surprise, he found that students didn’t believe they could this valuing process a letting oneself
learn by studying and that they thought the reason some down into the immediacy of what
students got good grades was because they were “smart.” one is experiencing, endeavoring to
sense and to clarify all its complex
Carol Dweck and her colleagues have studied the “lay meanings” (1964, 163–64).
theories” that people have about themselves and others.
They found that those individuals who believe that they Paulo Freire also recognized how
can learn and develop have a learning identity (Molden critical one’s own personal experience
and Dweck 2006). Learners embrace challenge, persist in is in forming a learning self-identity.
the face of obstacles, learn from criticism, and are inspired In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he
by and learn from the success of others. The fixed identity describes how Brazilian peasant
person avoids challenge, gives up easily, avoids criticism, and farmers’ self-identity was shaped by
feels threatened by the success of others. Not surprisingly, internalized oppression. Farmers
students with a learning identity, regardless of their tested accepted the prejudices imposed
intelligence, are more successful in school than those with a by the ruling class against them. “So
fixed identity. often do (the oppressed) hear that
they are good for nothing, know
Learning Relationships and Learning Identity nothing and are incapable of learning
Like other aspects of self-identity, learning identity is strongly anything—that they are sick, lazy
influenced by one’s important relationships. A key point—also and unproductive—that in the end
identified in the earlier work of Carl Rogers—is that evalua- they become convinced of their own
tions from others can influence learning identity, sometimes unfitness” (1970, 49). Freire’s method
in unexpected and subtle ways. Dweck (2000) has shown for achieving the personal and social
that teachers who reward students for successful learning transformations necessary to escape
by praising them for being “smart” actually promote a fixed this negative, fixed self-identity was
identity and less expenditure of study effort—“I don’t need to to facilitate the creation of critical
study because I am smart.” Peers also play a role in shaping consciousness in these farmers
learning identity. One of our colleagues shared this story through his version of the experiential
of one of her undergraduate students who was struggling learning cycle which he called praxis,
to preserve her learning identity in the face of stigmatizing “reflection and action on the world in
messages from her team members: order to transform it.”

This student was working on a team project in my class that
People with a learning
involved research and a team paper and presentation. She identity see themselves
expressed frustration that once the other students in the team as learners, seek and
found out that she was taking developmental English (the engage life experiences
course that students have to take if they score below a certain
with a learning attitude,
cut score on the SAT), the team members micro-managed
her writing. Prior to discovering this, each team member was and believe in their
“equal;” but after she brought it up, they spent more time ability to learn.
scrutinizing her writing than other team members. Her learning
identity was challenged in this team interaction. Her frustration was that she was trying to
change the stigma of being one of “those developmental English people.” “I want people to
think I am a good student, a good team member, a good writer.” Her conclusion was that she
would hide this fact from future classmates so that she could change.
With Angela Passarelli, our doctorate student, we are currently conducting interviews with adult
learners about their learning relationships and learning identity. At this point two interesting patterns
are emerging. First, learning relationships that create a hospitable space for learning seem to promote
learning identity. This learning space provides an optimal balance of support and challenge, reminding
us of Vygotsky’s concept of the proximal zone of development; where the learner is supported in incre-
mental learning by models that set challenging but achievable goals (1978).
Another intriguing discovery is that learning identity may be contagious in the sense that those who have
a learning identity tend to create relationships that stimulate it in others, and those with fixed identities
act in ways that pass on fixed views of others. For example, those with a fixed versus incremental view
of themselves tend to believe that others’ actions indicate the kind of person they are, and they under-
estimate the influence of situational factors on their behavior (Levy, Plaks, Hong, Chiu, and Dweck 2001).
One of our respondents describes how this contagion may be passed on through generations:
In the introduction I mentioned my father and the impact that his upbringing has had on my
learning style. I can recall stories of my father describing a childhood in which he was shown
very little love and was repeatedly told he was stupid. He was told that he wouldn’t understand
things. To this day, my grandmother still says to him that she will tell him [confidential things]
when he is old enough to understand. He is 63 years old. As a child, I remember my father’s
dislike for any kind of game. On the rare occasion when he would play, he got angry and
frustrated if he didn’t do well and often quit. I now know that my father developed a “fixed”
self-concept around learning. He was told he was stupid and wouldn’t understand; and there-
fore, in his mind, he was and didn’t. He also criticizes educated people, which I can now link
to the fixed self-identity. This fixed self-concept has implications beyond his attitude towards
games—it impacted my learning development. As a child, I often heard my father ask me “What
were you thinking?” when I did something wrong. I believe that contributed to the lack of
confidence I have with my decision-making.
Strategies for Developing a Learning Identity

It is possible to develop a learning identity. Research studies have shown that educational interventions
can influence the development of a learning identity. Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck found that eight
25-minute classes for 7th graders focused on the message that “learning changes the brain by forming
new connections and that students are in charge of this process,” led to increased classroom motivation

and reversed a decline in grades experienced by the control group (2007, 254). Similarly, Good, Aronson,
and Inzlicht (2003) found that an incremental learning intervention led to significant improvements in
adolescents’ achievement test scores, and Aronson, Fried, and Good (2002) found that such teaching led
to higher grades among college students.
Another example in higher education has focused on the difficult problem of mathematics anxiety and
the sense of inferiority many students feel when required to take remedial mathematics education. Hutt
(2007) implemented an experiential “learning to learn” course focused on transforming students’ math
learning identity from one of anxious inferiority (“I don’t do math”) to one of confident self-efficacy (“I
can totally do math”) as well as improving students’ math learning performance in developmental mathe-
matics courses. Results from this research showed that the experiential course content and the teachers’
conscious attention to unconscious processes in the learning space, combined with the students’ reflec-
tions on their learning experiences and self talk, had a positive impact on learning. Students’ mathematics
anxiety was reduced, with students in the course feeling safer, more confident, and efficacious about
themselves as learners. Students in the “learning to learn” course performed a letter grade better than
controls in their developmental math course. Students’ learning style preferences played an interesting
role in the findings. Typically in mathematics courses, students with an abstract “thinking” learning style
preference, which tends to match that of their instructor’s teaching style, perform better than students
with other learning styles. This learning style difference was erased for students in the experiential
course, where students of all learning style preferences earned better grades than controls. Hutt main-
tains that change from a fixed to a learning self-identity requires a safe learning space characterized by
unconditional positive regard from the teacher (Rogers 1951). This space reduces defensive behavior and
allows persons to experience themselves as learners in a new way.
Becoming a learner, someone who can say with confidence “I am a learner,” is not accomplished over-
night. One’s self-identity is deeply held and defended against experiences that contradict it. For the vast
majority of us, our self-identity is a mix of fixed and
learning beliefs. We may feel that we are good at Figure 1: Becoming a Learner
learning some things, like sports, and not good
at others, like mathematics. Dweck and her
colleagues argue that lay theories are domain
specific; for example, one can believe that intel-
ligence is fixed and morality is learned (Levy,
Plaks, Hong, Chiu, and Dweck 2001). Every
success or failure can trigger a reassessment of
one’s learning ability.
Learners embrace
challenge, persist in
the face of obstacles,
learn from criticism,
and are inspired by
and learn from the
success of others.

Figure 1 depicts self-identity as balancing characteristics that reinforce a fixed No one likes to
self—negative self-talk, avoidance of risk and failure, and being threatened by fail, but failure
the successes of others—and those that build a learning self—trusting one’s is an inevitable
ability to learn from experience, seeking new experiences and challenges,
part of doing
persistence, learning from mistakes, and using others’ success as a source of
learning. To develop one’s learning identity, we suggest below some ways to something new.
overcome common fixed self characteristics and improve one’s learning identity
characteristics, thus tipping the balance toward becoming a learner.
Trust the process of learning from experience. For both Paulo Freire and Carl Rogers it is embracing the
process of learning from experience that tips the balance from a fixed to a learning self-identity.
Trust your experience. Place experience at the center of your learning process, making it the focal point
of your choices and decisions. This does not mean that you shouldn’t learn from experts or the experience
of others since this advice is also part of your experience. The key is to own your choice of what you learn
and validate it in your experience. When you do this you take charge of your learning and your life.
Trust the learning process. Avoid an excessive focus on the outcomes of immediate performance and focus
instead on the longer term recursive process of learning by tracking your performance progress over time.
Rarely is a single performance test a matter of life and death, and to treat it as such only reinforces a fixed
identity. Every performance is an occasion for learning and improvement in future performances. Karla
Sahl, CAEL 2008 Learner of the Year Award recipient, exemplifies a learner who is deeply committed to
her learning process. She is described as the “kind of woman who does not take ‘No’ for an answer.” For
us, what makes her a remarkable learner is her courage to say “No” to short-term gains and achievements
and continue to create her own unique learning path toward achieving her long-term learning goals. Her
five-year journey from Waste Technician to Nuclear Plant operator is a clear testimony of her strong
self-identity as a learner.
Redefine your relationship to failure. No one likes to fail, but failure is an inevitable part of doing some-
thing new. Thomas Edison provided a role model for the learning response to failure when he said “Failure
is the most important ingredient for success.” James Dyson, the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner and
founder of Dyson, Inc., sees Edison as a role model, saying he “achieved great success through repeated
failure. His 10,000 failures pale in comparison to his 1093 U.S. patents. Each one of Edison’s inventions,
from the Dictaphone to the light bulb, came from his inability to give up” (Yang 2008:28). Failures can also
help focus your priorities and life path on your talents and strengths. In her commencement address to the
2008 graduates of Harvard University, J. K. Rowling described the low period in her life after graduation,
which was marked by failure on every front, and talked about its benefits:
…failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was
anything other than what I was, and began to direct my energy into finishing the only work that
mattered to me. Had I succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determina-
tion to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged. I was set free because my
greatest fear had been realized and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and
I had an old typewriter and a big idea (Rowling 2008:56).
Control emotional responses to learn from failure. Failures, losses, and mistakes provoke inevitable
emotional responses, yet it is important to learn to control emotional reactions that block learning and
feed into a fixed identity. Golfers who slam their club and curse themselves and the game after a bad shot
lose the opportunity to coolly analyze their mistake and plan for corrections on the next one. Another of
our respondents, Carol, was a high-level executive who attended our Master’s Program. She recounted

in her paper her visceral experience during a team building simulation exercise where she felt she
had contributed to her team’s disastrous performance. The Bushfire simulation required high stakes
decision making in a very limited time period, where failure to make right calls would result in death
of some or all team members. Because she felt that she let the team down, the experience provoked
much reflection; yet she was able to turn it into a learning opportunity and apply the acquired knowl-
edge into a real high stakes meeting a few days later at work:
As chance would have it, the days immediately following the residency involved a high-pres-
sure, rapidly developing situation at the office where organization leaders needed to consult
and reach conclusions quickly. With the Bushfire simulation fresh in mind, I consciously
waited and listened to the situations described and others’ recommendations for action.
In several instances my initial response was that we needed to gather more information
before reaching a conclusion—even if time was short. In other moments during this situation
I actually took the time to recognize my own emotional reactions (for example, to the need
for quick responses) and then tamp them down. My goal was to consider options from a
more analytical perspective. Because of the complexity of the variables and individuals
involved, we neither “burned” nor “escaped” this situation. But I felt my own contribution was
enhanced by virtue of the lessons of the Bushfire simulation.
Risk losing. Winning is not everything, and too great a focus on it can block learning. Joel Waitzkin
in The Art of Learning provides a handbook of his meta-cognitive learning based on his process of
becoming first a chess master and then a martial arts champion. He emphasizes the importance of
losing in order to learn how to win:
If a big strong guy comes into a martial arts studio and someone pushes him, he wants to
resist and push the guy back to prove that he is a big strong guy. The problem is that he isn’t
learning anything by doing this. In order to grow, he needs to give up his current mindset. He
needs to lose to win. The bruiser will need to get pushed around by little guys for a while,
until he learns to use more than brawn. William Chen calls this investment in loss. Investment
in loss is giving yourself to the learning process. (Waitzkin 2007, 107).
Reassess your beliefs about how you learn and what you are good at. It is important to consciously
reflect on and choose how you define yourself as a learner. Often people are unaware of the way in
which they characterize themselves and their abilities. Jim, one of our respondents, retells how he
successfully freed himself from a fixed perception of self and embraced his new identity as a learner.
Being primarily an active learner, he was hesitant about accepting a new position which required
competency in abstract skills:
This was a dream job for any true Assimilator, but not for a 40-year-old Accommodator who
started early in this new career with “negative self-talk.” Fortunately for me though, I am able
to positively embrace change and learned that I do have intellectual flexibility. So I was able
to take this opportunity, and instead of generating pain, I was able to generate a bounty of
knowledge for myself.
Monitor the messages you send yourself. Pay attention to your self-talk. Saying to yourself, “I am stupid”
or “I am no good at…” matters and reinforces a negative fixed identity; just as saying, “I can do this”
reinforces a positive learning identity. Beware of internalized oppression. Some of these messages are
introjections from others that you have swallowed without careful examination.

Balance your success/failure accounts. Most of us remember our failures more vividly than our
successes. For example, as teachers, both of us tend to focus on the one or two negative remarks in our
course ratings and ignore the praise and positive reactions. “Negative experiences have lasting negative
effects primarily when they affect an individual’s beliefs” (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck 2007,
259-260). Sometimes it is useful to make an inventory of learning strengths and successes to balance
your accounts.
Seek positive learning relationships. Develop relationships that support the development of a positive
learning identity and avoid those people and situations that make you feel bad about yourself and
incapable of learning. One of the adult students we interviewed, Jennifer, describes how doing so can
create positive learning identity contagion:
What is important to me at this point in my life is I really try to align myself with people who
will keep that dialogue going; expansive, limitless. If I start chatting with someone and every-
thing is the worst-case scenario, I choose not to incorporate that person into my life. I’m just
deliberate about that.
She gave the example of a recent job interview where she lost out to another candidate and chose
whom to share it with:
It’s funny because I was very careful about who I told I was going through this interview
process…But [Rebecca]was one of the people I did tell because I knew that she would always
keep it in a very positive frame of mind…When I called her and told her I didn’t get the
posting, there was no drama. It was like “I wonder what that was about?” And “I don’t know,
what do you think that was about?” So then we kind of dissected that. And it made sense.
It was cool because with Rebecca when we dissected it, it was just okay, this is prepping. This
is life. Is this what you really wanted? Helping you to get clear, versus some people would
have been like “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. You must be so depressed.” And it just takes you
down and stops your learning process and stops your forward advancement.
By sharing that with her and talking about it, keeping it in an optimistic frame of mind and
laughing, it’s like it started opening up all these other doors. Then two weeks later, this person
sits next to me on the plane and gives me information that that job wasn’t what it looked like
on paper. And then when I get off the plane she taps me on the shoulder and asks if I have a
business card. You know “I might know of people at WHO or at FOA in Rome” or whatever.
She said, “Keep in touch, you just never know.” And that would have never happened. The
conversation with Rebecca left it in a very positive frame. If I had gone the other route, then
when I sat down next to that woman, I might have had a very different conversation. And she
wouldn’t have asked me for my business card and then in turn given me hers. I mean, I didn’t
ask. So that’s for me the learning.
Summary
David Justice was, for us, an inspirational leader on the learning way, who believed in the power of
learning and that a learning identity could open many doors. On the wall above his desk at home was
a poster commemorating the founding of the U.S. Department of Education that said: “LEARNING
NEVER ENDS.” This was his creed in life and his gift to future generations of learners.

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About the Authors

Alice Kolb is Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management,
Case Western Reserve University. She is the President of Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. a
research and development organization devoted to research and application of experiential learning in
organizations worldwide. She received her PhD from Case Western Reserve University in Organizational
Behavior. Her current work is focused on promoting learning in higher education through institution
building. This work emphasizes approaching an educational institution’s development by integrating
development of curriculum, faculty, students and resources around a vision and mission that is focused
on learning. Her research focus on learning spaces led to her 2005 paper “Learning styles and learning
spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education” published in Academy of Management
Learning and Education. Her upcoming publication, “Learning to play, playing to learn: A case study of a
ludic learning space,” to be published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management, is part of her
ongoing passion for creating spaces conducive to deep learning.
David Kolb is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case
Western Reserve University. He received his BA in psychology, philosophy and religion at Knox College
and his PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University. He is best known for his research on experien-
tial learning and learning styles described in Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning
and Development. Other books include, Conversational Learning: An Experiential Approach to Knowledge
Creation, Innovation in Professional Education: Steps on a Journey from Teaching to Learning, and
Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach. In addition he has authored many journal articles and
book chapters on experiential learning. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of Academy
of Management Learning and Education, Human Relations, Simulation and Gaming, and the Journal of
Management Development. David’s current research activities include studies of team learning, research
on the cultural determinants of learning style and research on experiential learning in conversation. He
is involved in a number of learning focused institutional development projects in education. David has
received four honorary degrees recognizing his contributions to experiential learning in higher education.

The Brain, Experience, and Adult Learning
Barry G. Sheckley, Ray Neag Professor of Adult Learning
Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
During his life David Justice was a committed, oftentimes brilliant, inquirer into the question: How does
experience enhance learning? I will never forget him and his bubbling excitement as he shoved book
after book into my hands, each time exclaiming: “Barry, we have to talk about this!” In this article I will
summarize briefly our many discussions about systems within the brain, how they interact, and the
resulting implications for adult learning programs.1
As was his style, David would begin by considering a number of scenarios and questions.
Scenario 1. Rosella was sitting calmly in the meeting when the marketing strategist began
showing slides that chronicled the evolving New York City skyline. As the scenes focused on
the former World Trade Center, she felt increasingly nauseous. Why did she have this reaction?
Scenario 2. As he walked into the dean’s council meeting, Tom felt a knot form in his stomach.
Something was very wrong. Even before the dean walked into the room, intuitively he seemed
to anticipate her opening statement: “The Provost told me this morning that as a cost-cutting
measure the Board of Trustees decided to close our school and convert it into a department
within the School of Liberal Arts.” How did Tom know that something was gravely amiss?
Scenario 3. Dr. Lee casually read the note from the research council: “Because of your
research team’s outstanding record of reducing the indirect costs associated with your project,
the council is granting a $1000 bonus for you to distribute as you would like to your team.
Please let us know how to proceed.” Without hesitation she replied via e-mail: “Distribute the
bonus equally ($250 each) to the four of us.” Why is this a predictable decision?
Scenario 4. Ray knew that his presentation on the new product was going badly. Listening to
the silence and scanning the disinterested faces around the table, he had to do something
differently. But what? Seemingly out of nowhere, an image of Barack Obama conducting a town
hall meeting flashed into his mind. Ray quickly refocused the meeting: “Let’s talk about our
customers. If they were here with us now in a town meeting forum, what would they say about
our products?” How did Ray get this presentation-saving idea?
I will discuss each of these scenarios in terms of how a specific system within the brain seems to operate.
Describing these areas as if they were discrete, however, violates one of the key features of the brain, its
“connectivity.” According to the Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman (2000), everything in the brain works
together; no one part exists in isolation. Imagine the interactivity of 100 people deciding where to go for
a group dinner. Now expand this interaction to 100 billion people, the number of neurons in the brain.
1
In our discussions we had an understanding that the brain and body were intertwined such that “the toes are
actually a part of the brain.” Similarly we had an understanding that when we spoke of the “brain” we referred
to the physical structures and chemical processes that occurred within the brain. When we spoke of “mind” we
referred to the conscious awareness that resulted from physical/chemical interactions within the brain. Because
consciousness (the mind) arose from processes within the brain-body integration, we talked in terms of a mind-
body integration. Although we knew that the brain never really “acted” on its own accord (e.g., “the brain tells the
body…”), we could not avoid such overly-simplified characterizations when we tried to describe our understanding
of a particular process within the brain. I will try to honor these understandings throughout this paper.

Keep this interactive cacophony in mind as you view Figure 1, a sche- Everything in the brain
matic of the four systems within the brain—four systems that provide works together; no one
insights into the process of adult learning. part exists in isolation.
The Database System
In scenario #1, seven years melted away as Rosella sat watching the slides of the Twin Towers. She
recalled that morning in vivid detail—the exact stoplight where she first heard the news, the red polish
on her fingernails digging into the steering wheel, her struggle to control waves of nausea as she left a
panicked message on her younger brother’s phone in the World Trade Center: “Call me. Now!” Why were
her recollections of this day so detailed when memories of other September 11th’s were almost impos-
sible to recall?
The answer is best understood by considering the purpose of the brain: It exists solely to optimize the life
of the body. For this reason it pays great attention to events that are related to dramatic changes in body
state (COBS) because such changes have implications for preserving and optimizing the life of the body.
Imagine the massive swings in the state of her body that Rosella experienced between 9:00 AM when
she first heard the news, 10:05 AM as she watched
the South Tower collapse, and 1:30 PM when her
brother called, unharmed. Figure 1: Four key systems of the brain
A small mass of cells located in the posterior region of
the brain, the hippocampus, “records”3 the events asso- Error Detection
System
ciated with such massive COBS so that in the future
these events can either be anticipated or, better yet, Executive
avoided (Rudy, Barrientos, and O'Reilly 2002). It seems System Social Database
System System
to “record” this learning in the form of a “transcript” of
associations involved with the COBS experience. It
does so by triggering changes in the physical structure
of the neurons—and the neural synapses—that “fire”
during the episode. These changes in physical structure,
in turn, establish what researchers call the “long term potentiation” (LTP) of the neuron (Fedulov, Rex,
Simmons, Palmer, Gall, and Lynch 2007). As a result of such changes, neurons with greater LTP fire more
easily than those with less LTP. In Rosella’s case the neurons associated with the events of 9/11 appar-
ently had a very robust LTP. Even a rather benign stimulus—slides of the Twin Towers—was sufficient to
re-trigger the major bodily reactions associated with a day seven years past.
Damasio (1999) described how these changes of body state (COBS)—the feelings of what happened to
the body—recorded by the hippocampus-centered system are the raw materials, a veritable database,
that the brain draws upon during thinking, reasoning, and decision-making. In fact he notes that these
experiences—the story of what happened to the body—are the only data available to the brain. As it
uses its inexplicable powers to figure out ways to optimize the life of the body, the brain anchors these
thought processes in the database of COBS instances recorded by the hippocampus. Drawing on the
store of COBS recorded in the brain’s database, according to Damasio, the litmus test for conscious deci-
sions becomes, “how will I feel—what changes in body state will occur—if I pursue this course of action?”
The schematic depicts relative, not exact, positions of these four systems.
2
3
Because no one is really sure how the brain operates, I put words related to brain functions in “quotes” to convey
this uncertainty.
Learning from Experience 15

Changes of body state are
The Error Detection System the raw materials, a veritable
In scenario #2, when Tom returned to his office, still shaken database, that the brain draws
by the news from the meeting, he wondered how he knew
that bad news was on the way. He hadn’t even seen the
upon during thinking, reasoning,
dean prior to the meeting so she could not have cued and decision-making.
his reaction. Could it have been something else? Maybe
he picked up a difference in the level of activity outside of the dean’s office? Maybe it was the unusual
disorder of chairs in the conference room? Maybe something was missing from the room? Whatever it
was, Tom remained clueless about his intuition. He knew that something was wrong but had no under-
standing of how he knew this.
Over the course of evolution, the brain has developed the capacity to “learn” the complex patterns that
are implicit (tangled) within experiences. There is a paradox to this implicit learning: Because it is tacit, it
occurs without any conscious awareness of what was learned (Reber 1993). For this reason, at any point
in time, we actually know a great deal more than we think we know.4 In this scenario, prior to the start
of the meeting Tom knew that something was amiss but he did not know how he knew this or how he
learned it.
The brain accomplishes this feat of learning implicitly (literally learning the patterns “implicit” or tangled
within an experience) by virtue of an ingenious system of dopamine neurons. These neurons actually
reward the brain for recognizing patterns (Morris, Nevet, Dakadlr, Vaadla, and Bergman 2006).
This process may help to explain Tom’s prescience. From the “perspective” of his brain, the dean’s
meeting was an important event because it was associated with many past COBS events (e.g., conten-
tious debates over budget allocations, gut-wrenching personnel decisions, joyous news about faculty
awards). For this reason, as he walked from his office to these meetings each week, Tom’s brain possibly
“tuned” into events with a heightened “awareness” of the pattern of activities that unfolded— an aware-
ness that might help it “anticipate” or possibly avoid unwelcome COBS experiences. Over the years as
events leading up to the meeting fell into patterns—and Tom’s brain correctly anticipated these patterns
(e.g., if there was a light buzz of activity outside of the dean’s office, the meeting began without a hitch)—
his brain “rewarded” itself with doses of dopamine5 for anticipating the patterns.6
When Tom set out for the meeting each week, his brain used these experience-based patterns to create
a “remembered present”—literally a detailed script or mental model of the events that his brain antici-
pated unfolding as he traveled to, attended, and returned from the meeting (Edelman and Tononi 2000).
This “remembered present” provided a baseline for Tom’s complex “error detection system” (Niv, Daw,
and Dayan 2006).
As long as the pattern surrounding the meeting unfolded as anticipated (e.g., there was the usual buzz of
activity outside of the dean’s office), Tom’s brain continued to reward itself with shots of dopamine. If the
pattern deviated from expectations (e.g., the anticipated level of activity outside the dean’s office was
4
Researchers estimate that approximately 30% of the knowledge we use to when we think, reason, and make
decisions is “explicit” in that we can state this knowledge and write it down. The remaining 70% is “tacit” or “non-
conscious.” This is the knowledge that we don’t consciously know that we know. We often describe such knowledge
as “intuitive” (Clark and Elen 2006).
5
Dopamine is a substance that produces pleasurable feelings.
6
This self-reward process for pattern recognition also explains why we may enjoy watching our favorite movie
repeatedly. As it “anticipates” the turns in the plot, correctly our brain “rewards” itself with shots of dopamine.

An ingenious system of dopamine neurons
reward the brain for recognizing patterns.
not present), less dopamine was secreted in the brain. In this case, because the structures in the Error
Detection System (e.g., nucleus accumbus, anterior cingulated cortex) were highly sensitive to dopamine
and were well connected via spindle neurons to all other brain regions, the absence of dopamine
triggered an alarm signal throughout the brain: Something was amiss (Lehrer 2009). This error detection
process may explain the angst Tom felt as he entered the meeting.
The Social System

In scenario #3, Dr. Lee’s predictable response was perhaps guided by a unique system of “mirror
neurons” that are located in the fusiform face area of the brain (Rizzolatti and Craighero 2004). Through
the nurturance that humans receive as they grow from infants to adults they develop the ability to be
empathetic—to “mirror” the feelings of others (European Science Foundation 2008). Lehrer (2009)
suggested that the mirror neuron system provides a basis for moral reasoning and altruism because this
system allows us to almost “feel” the impact of our actions on others.
Dr. Lee may have arrived at her “decision” to share the bonus equally with all members of her team by
drawing on her COBS database of experiences that were anchored in her Social—or mirror neuron—
System. By accessing this system, Dr. Lee could have imagined how she would feel if she were a
member of the team and did not receive an even share of the bonus. She might have labeled this image
as “unjust.” Based on the COBS reactions that this feeling of being perceived as “unjust” by her team
members might have precipitated (via the mirror neuron system), Dr. Lee may have chosen to share the
bonus evenly. Because of the nature of the mirror neuron system she possibly arrived at this course of
action not by a process of conceptual reasoning but rather by mirroring—almost feeling—the impact her
decision would have on other members of her team.
This is a result that is repeated over and over again in experiments where individuals are given the
choice of sharing or not sharing a sum of money with another (Lehrer 2009). In each case a sense
of “fairness” prevailed as individuals responded in terms of the impact their responses might have on
others. “If I had $10 to share, kept $9, and gave only $1 to the other person, that person would likely be
repulsed by my selfishness.”7
The Executive System

In scenario #4, Ray benefited from the workings of the Executive System—a network that is at the same
time the most adaptive and the most limited system within the brain. It is the most adaptive because it
has the ability to manipulate symbols in a way that extends consciousness into future or “as if” scenarios
(e.g., recall how Dr. Lee used the symbol “unjust” to extend her consciousness into the future to imagine
colleagues’ responses). The Executive System also has great flexibility because it is networked into every
other area of the brain. It is limited, however, by its small “working” capacity—it can only work with five
to seven “bits” of information at any one time (e.g., You may more easily remember a five digit zip code
than a ten digit license plate number).
At times this system works in a top-down, command-and-control process (e.g., “issuing a command” to
resist a desert that overrides the rush of dopamine triggered in anticipation of how delicious the desert
would taste). In most cases, however, this system works not as a command-control center but as a
“servant leader.” From this perspective the Executive System “leads” by (a) “selecting” from among the
millions available, the pattern that at any particular moment has the greatest potential for optimizing the
7
Individuals whose mirror neuron system is defective (e.g., individuals with psychopathy) seem to lack this social
sense, this ability to mirror the minds of others (Lehrer 2009).

The Executive System life of the body, (b) “channeling” resources to actualize this pattern,
benefits most of all by and (c) “coordinating” the development of the pattern with comple-
mentary patterns that exist within other areas of the brain’s intricate
having access to a neural network.
rich experience base
as it “coordinates” the The Executive System is well-suited for this servant-leader role
because with its center in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
work of the brain and it has tendrils that reach into every area within the brain (Mansouri,
“strives” to optimize Buckley, and Tanaka 2007). With this high degree of interconnectivity
the life of the body. the Executive System can use information from a network of over 100
billion neurons to optimize the life of the body.
As Ray sat in the meeting the Executive System in his brain was deluged with information from
millions of neurons. The Social System was literally “feeling the pain” of those seated around the table.
The Error Detection System was triggering alarms to indicate that this was not the present (or the
presentation) it “remembered” as occurring. Simultaneously the Executive System furiously searched
the Database System for another, more adaptive solution. This chaotic search for alternate solutions is
often referred to as MAC/FAC or “many are called, few are chosen” (Gentner and Forbus 1991).
In most cases the brain does not “select” information or “determine” which information is most
adaptive in a particular situation by using a complex decision-making algorithm. Instead, it seems
to be guided by an elegantly straightforward procedure that Edelman (2004) referred to as “neural
Darwinism.” Simply stated, the neural pattern “selected” from the millions of possibilities within the
MAC/FAC array is the one that has the strongest COBS association—perhaps as calibrated by the LTP
established by the hippocampus—to the situation at hand.
As in Ray’s case the working of the servant-leader Executive System can appear quite random. How did
it come up with the Barack Obama town-meeting association? A delay feature built into the DLPFC
may have come into play (Heekeren et al. 2006). Think of the servant-leader Executive System as an
operation with a limited capacity—a capacity that is analogous to a small stage in a crowded auditorium
where everyone is jostling for time in the spotlight. As individuals push their way onto the stage and
then exit, they hang around for a short time backstage waiting for an opportunity to jump back into the
spotlight. To do so they may have to adapt. Metaphorically, instead of singing solo they may have to
join a group and provide background harmony.
This backstage metaphor illustrates the delay feature within the DLPFC. As an image such as Barack
Obama in a town meeting entered the Executive System—via interconnections with the Error
Detection, Social, and Data Base Systems—this image may not have made its way into conscious
attention—the spotlight. Even so, it may not have been rejected outright. Instead it possibly waited
for an instant “backstage.” When another image—Ray’s vision of the group conversation he would like
to see happening—entered the spotlight of consciousness, this vision could have overlapped with the
Barack Obama town-meeting image. Eureka! The two images combined with enough strength to be
“selected”—via a process of neural Darwinism—because the combination of images had the strongest
association with the desired COBS (feeling of success) that Ray wanted to achieve in the meeting.
Oftentimes at this point in our discussions David and I would tire of our musings about the wondrous
features of the human brain and turn to considering the implications these characteristics had for adult
learning programs. When we talked of implications, we typically focused on three broad principles.

Principle 1: Engage learners in a rich variety of experiences.
Each system of the brain requires a rich store of experience to operate effectively. The Database System
grows as its reservoir of COBS experiences increases. The Social System becomes more intricate as rela-
tional experiences with others expand. The Error Detection System becomes more elaborate by virtue of
involvement in a wider array of complex experience-based patterns. The Executive System benefits most
of all by having access to a rich experience base—a base that provides a more complex and diverse set of
information for the Executive System to draw upon as it “coordinates” the work of the brain and “strives”
to optimize the life of the body.
There is a broad research base that supports this first principle (Sheckley 2006). For example, from
1940 to around 1990, despite wide ranging reforms throughout the aviation industry, the percentage of
airplane crashes due to pilot error held constant at around sixty-five percent. Since 1990, however, this
percentage dropped to under thirty percent. Why the dramatic change? About this time the airline
industry shifted from a dependence on classroom-based training to greater use of realistic flight simula-
tors (Lehrer 2009). This decrease in accidents due to pilot error suggests that the realistic experience of
recovering from a stalled engine is more effective than listening to a lecture. Others have reached this
same conclusion. Edelman, from his extensive research on the brain, concluded that “[d]oing is prior to
understanding” (2000, 207). Likewise, in a meta-analysis of over 800 studies, Hattie (2009) reported that
having learners practice using information in a variety of different contexts—and receiving feedback on
their performance—was among the top five most effective strategies for enhancing learning.
At the University of Connecticut (UCONN) we use a number of different approaches to engage learners
in a wide variety of experiences. In our newly revised EdD program, for example, we pair each content
course with a practicum or “laboratory of practice.” During each of these course-laboratory sequences,
in order to build a rich body of experience as researchers, candidates use course content to guide their
inquiry about problems of practice. In our administrator preparation programs all candidates combine
their coursework with a ninety-hour internship that is closely aligned with course materials.
Principle 2: Build learners’ metacognitive reasoning skills.

As outlined in this article the Executive System has a two-level role when addressing a problem. First,
it “selects” from among millions of options the best set of ideas to address the problem. Second, it
“employs” a strategy for planning, monitoring, and evaluating the use of the ideas selected.
Of these two processes, research indicates that the second or “metacognitive” process has the stronger
relationship with performance. For example, Hattie (2009) reported that one of the top five approaches
to enhancing student achievement involves teaching students to self-regulate (plan, monitor, evaluate)
their own work. In a related line of research Feltovich and his associates (1997) report that novices
and experts “think” differently. In contrast to novices, experts are better able to reason at a meta-level
because they use ideas that are (a) more dynamic than static; (b) more systemic than linear; (c) more
principled than superficial; and (d) having multiple as opposed to single dimensions.
At UCONN, we are applying this second principle in our courses by focusing less on content as an end in
and of itself and more on content as a means to build reasoning skills. In our EdD program, for example,
we ask students to identify a problem of practice to use as the focus for their program of study. As they
progress through each course we work to expand the complexity of their thought about this problem
by improving their ability to weave together first-order factors related to the problem (e.g., lack of
resources) with second-order or meta-factors (e.g., cultural norms). We do so by having them diagram
their selected problem of practice in terms of interacting systems that include both first- and second-
order issues. Finally, we build their self-regulation skills by continually asking them to reflect on how they
are self-regulating (planning, monitoring, evaluating) their own learning.

Principle 3: Build learners’ understanding of how their thinking is limited.
Despite its many wondrous features, the brain also has characteristics that can limit and distort our
thinking. For example, sometimes we think too much. Hallinan (2009) described how June Siler, sitting on
the witness stand, reacted when asked by the prosecutor: “Is this the man who attacked you?” Try as she
might to “see the hate I saw in his eyes that night” she was disturbed that she could not. Even so, as she
looked at the accused, Robert Wilson, the rational pathways of her Executive System seemingly domi-
nated the tacit dimensions of the Error Control System as she testified, in error: “Yes, that is the man.”
Years later, when new DNA evidence surfaced, June returned to court to free the wronged Mr. Wilson. In
her second testimony she said that she knew in her gut that he was not the attacker but in the face of the
circumstantial evidence, ignored her feelings.
As outlined in separate analyses by Hallinan (2009) and Lehrer (2009), the brain “straps” our reasoning
and decision-making in many other ways. Sometimes, in our search for meaning we tend to combine
random events into meaningful patterns: A deli in New York that sold a winning lottery ticket was
deluged the next day with patrons who wanted to buy a ticket from the “lucky” store. We also distort our
memories to place ourselves in the best light: When asked to recall their High School GPA, most respon-
dents overestimate their performance. Our thinking suffers from a hindsight bias: Eyewitnesses changed
their accounts of Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River as more details of the event were broadcast. We
are easily distracted: Drivers talking on cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in an auto
accident than non-talkers. We are influenced by how we frame issues: In a fictional problem about a flu
epidemic in which 200 lived and 400 died, individuals in one group choose the option framed as “200
will be saved if you choose this plan” while individuals in another group rejected the same option when
it was framed as “400 will die if you choose this plan.” We tend to organize information by patterns, not
by discrete elements: We know what a penny looks like but oftentimes cannot recall a specific feature
such as the direction that Lincoln’s profile faces (to the right). Because we are usually more interested in
the impression we make than in the factual accuracy of our accounts, we often exaggerate certain details
and omit others in our explanations—and then we complicate the error by becoming enamored with our
own stretched versions of the truth. When something works well once, we continue doing it, repeatedly:
Consider the invariance in your morning breakfast routine. Finally, and perhaps most limiting, we are
overconfident. Because we overestimate ourselves, we mis-predict our future behavior: We buy annual
memberships to Fitness Clubs—predicting that we’ll go every day—but seldom use the membership as
planned. In turn, because we overestimate our abilities we have an illusion of control—a false sense that
feeds our preference to do things our own way: One firm indicated that over twenty percent of calls to
the service center could have been answered if the callers had read the owner’s manual.
At UCONN when learners grapple with solutions to their problems of practice we ask them to think
about their thinking. We ask questions like: How does this solution reflect the ideas covered in this
course? Could you have arrived at this strategy without taking this course? If this is an approach you’ve
used before, why are you using it again? In your past what worked –or did not work—in similar situa-
tions? Are you basing this recommendation on a gut feeling or on a reasoned strategy? Additionally we
ask them to view the problems of practice they bring to their studies from many different frames. For
example, in our EdD program we ask: What if you viewed this as a problem of leadership? Of policy?
Of social justice? Of professional learning? In this way our goal is to help them understand that their
thinking process shifts when the frame for their problem changes. We hope that from these experiences
they will develop a sense of humility about their own decisions—a humility that will make them pause and
think about how they decided upon a course of action and possible limitations of this decision—before
launching any strategy.

Final note
David Justice was fond of a quote from the Critique of Pure Reason, by Immanuel Kant (1897): “Concepts
without percepts are empty; percepts without concepts are blind.” As Kant suggested, any attempt
to teach concepts without founding these ideas in a wisdom derived from experiences found in the
Database System, the Social System, and the Error Detection System leaves the concept “empty.”
Similarly “storing” COBS experiences within the Data Base System without pairing them with symbols
and concepts leaves them “blind” to a wider array of possible connections with other COBS experiences.
In turn, this blindness limits the ability of the Executive System to weave the items within the Data Base
System into “as if” scenarios that can be used to optimize the life of the body. As applied to adult learning
programs, helping learners knit wisdom from both concepts and precepts into their thinking can help
them improve the quality of their problem solving and decision making.
In full tribute to his work, I encourage all readers to adopt David’s commitment to inquiry and, in so
doing, further the conversation on the question that occupied David throughout his rich life: How does
experience enhance learning?” As a start at a collective inquiry project, some might chose to explore how
the three principles outlined in this article could be translated into practice. Others might craft their own
principles on how experience enhances learning, distribute these ideas throughout the CAEL network,
and invite practitioners to test out the principle’s viability within specific programs. Through such a
united commitment to inquiry, we might collectively derive a rich body of information on how experience
enhances learning. In so doing we would add substantively to the legacy of David Justice’s life and work.
References
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Oxford Psychological Series. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Rudy, J. W., R. M. Barrientos, and R. C. O'Reilly. 2002. Hippocampal formation supports conditioning to
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Online Journal - A Year in Summary: 11-14.
About the Author

Dr. Barry G. Sheckley, the Ray Neag Professor of Adult Learning and Head of the Department of
Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of Connecticut, has devoted over
30 years to exploring through research and practice how experience enhances adult learning. His
research suggests that engaging professionals in on-going inquiry about problems of practice is the
most effective way to help adults learn effectively. He has received a number of professional awards
including the University of Connecticut Alumni Association’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the
Association of Continuing and Higher Education’s Marlowe Froke Award for Excellence in Professional
Writing, the American Society for Training and Development’s Excellence in Research to Practice Award,
a Doctor of Humane Letters, honorus causa, from the Board of Trustees University of New Hampshire,
and from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning a lifetime achievement award in recognition of
his insightful contributions to the field of adult and experiential learning. In his ongoing efforts to
become a “rookie” in a new area each year, he is currently working to master the art being a grandfather
to his three new grandchildren.

Professional Learning to Promote Motivation and
Academic Performance among Diverse Adults
Margery B. Ginsberg, University of Washington-Seattle and Raymond J.
Wlodkowski, Professor Emeritus Regis University
When we reach beyond policy and student support services, what do we know about instructional inno-
vations that enhance motivation and performance among underserved adult learners? In particular, how
can adult educators more consistently support student motivation across diverse student groups? Among
the reasons we embrace these questions is our firm belief that a primary purpose of adult learning is the
intellectual and moral empowerment of human beings to achieve personal goals that matter, not only for
oneself, but for a pluralistic and just future. The work of David Justice confirmed and inspired this convic-
tion. As a champion for educational reform, he supported innovations that extended access to a broader
population of adult learners, responding to the limiting conventions of higher education with transforma-
tive as well as pragmatic consequences.
Our response to the questions that guide this article are a theory and a set of practices that can help
adult educators develop a clear focus on intrinsically motivating instruction for a range of adult learners.
From literature and research that span academic disciplines, we offer a motivational framework for cultur-
ally responsive teaching. Described in detail in Diversity and Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching
in College (Ginsberg and Wlodkowski 2009), the framework is an instructional model that has been
generative for over a decade to develop new ideas and directions for lessons and courses. We apply it
in our own teaching to guide instructional interactions with greater fidelity in supporting the integrity of
learners as they attain relevant educational success and mobility.
The first part of the article explores the concept of “motivation” and asserts the significance of motiva-
tion within a culturally diverse educational context. This section is followed by an introduction to the
motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching with its application to three different formats:
a professional development workshop, a post-secondary course, and the Japanese lesson study process
applied to professional learning in higher education.
Motivation and Cultural Pluralism

When we define motivation as the natural human capacity to direct energy in the pursuit of a goal, an
undergirding assumption is that human beings are purposeful. We constantly learn, and when we do we
are usually motivated to learn. We are directing our energy through attention, concentration, and imagi-
nation to make sense of our world. Defining “learning” as an active and volitional process of constructing
meaning from experience and text, there is substantial evidence that motivation is consistently and
positively related to educational achievement (Wlodkowski 2008).
At the same time, the task of supporting adult motivation in diverse classrooms is a highly nuanced
endeavor. Who we are culturally and how we interact with the world is an intriguing intersection of
language, values, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences that pervades every aspect of a person’s life while
it continually changes and evolves. What culture is not is an isolated, mechanical aspect of life that can
be used to explain phenomena in the classroom or that can be learned as a series of facts, physical
elements, or exotic characteristics (Banks 2006; Gay 2000). The study of culture is not an experimental
science in search of a law. Rather, it is a highly interpretive one in search of meaning (Geertz 1973). Across
cultural groups, all students are motivated though some may not be motivated to learn what an instructor
has planned. In such instances, their motivation may be in another direction, aligned with a different
perspective, or part of another set of values; but in any circumstance, adults are not inert.
Underserved Adults 23
Colleges and universities have more students than ever before whose perceptions and ways of making
meaning vary from one another and from the instructor. Influenced by global forces and unprecedented
patterns of migration and immigration, skillful post-secondary teaching requires skill and humility. In
the United States alone, almost thirty million people were born in other countries. Forty-eight percent
of students in New York City’s public schools come from immigrant-headed households that represent
more than one hundred languages. In California, 1.5 million students are classified as English language
learners (Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 2002). The implications of this ethnic diversity for higher
education are significant.
The Challenge and Potential of Innovation in Adult Learning

Scholars offer a range of considerations to diversify teaching and assessment, including schema for
experiential, transformational, and contemplative learning (Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner 2007).
Given this array of perspectives on teaching and learning, the prospect of significant instructional
improvement ought to be hopeful. Yet, opportunities for innovation are often dismissed. Such is the
case with approaches to instructional change that present overly precise scripts, while neglecting the
significant variation among learners and the need for nuanced repertoires. It is not uncommon for faculty
to harshly critique externally imposed instructional ideas as naive about culture, incompatible with the
local context, politically motivated, and historically repetitive.
Although change can be a strenuous process, transformation among

The framework enables people is certainly possible and tends to be cumulative in its progres-
the construction of sion. Like the movement of the hour hand of a clock, pedagogical
a common culture innovation may be imperceptible and yet dramatic over time. People
do change. How we vote. How we confront injustice. How we relate to
within the learning
our environment. How we alter our own teaching practices.
environment that all
learners can accept However, asking faculty to change without a shared language to
discuss instructional practices and within the vacuum of their class-
rooms is likely to be ineffective. Innovative instruction benefits from the practicality of a shared language,
especially as it mediates and contextualizes the exchange of local knowledge. As an instructional
language, the motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching serves as an orienting tool for
planning and making sense of learning experiences.
Although there is research that suggests a relationship between the motivational framework and produc-
tive learning outcomes (Wlodkowski 2008; Wlodkowski, Mauldin, and Gahn 2001; NCREL 1999), we
offer this model as a heuristic for the number of possible influences on learning in any context. Our goal
is to provide a pedagogical compass that can guide instructional planning to strengthen motivation and
learning in culturally rich environments.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching

The essentials of the motivational framework are that it 1) respects diversity; 2) engages the motivation
of a broad range of students; 3) creates a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment; 4) derives
teaching practices from across disciplines and cultures; and 5) promotes equitable learning. While
respectful of different cultures, the framework enables the construction of a common culture within
the learning environment that all learners can accept. The framework systemically represents the four
motivational conditions of inclusion, attitude, meaning, and competence that act individually and in
concert to provide a pedagogical ecology that continuously enhances intrinsic motivation to learn.

Fig. 1.1 Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
How does the learning How does this learning

experience contribute to experience offer
developing as a community meaningful choices and
of learners who feel promote personal
respected and connected to relevance to contribute
one another? to a positive attitude?
Inclusion Attitude
Competence Meaning
How does this learning
experience create an How does this learning
understanding that experience engage
participants are becoming participants in challenging
more effective in learning learning?
they value and perceive as
authentic to real world
experience?
Copyright © 2000 by M.B. Ginsberg & R.J. Wlodkowski
We define each condition using the two criteria that indicate from the learners’ perspective that the
condition is present in the learning environment.
1. Establishing Inclusion: Creating a learning atmosphere in which learners and instructors feel
respected by and connected to one another.
2. Developing Attitude: Creating a favorable disposition toward learning through personal relevance
and learner volition.
3. Enhancing Meaning: Creating engaging and challenging learning experiences that include learners’
perspectives and values.
4. Engendering Competence: Creating an understanding that learners have effectively learned

something they value and perceive as authentic to their real world.
Each of these conditions is research-based from applied studies within a number of disciplines (Ginsberg
and Wlodkowski 2009). This model assumes that people, by nature, possess the motivation to learn and
that learning is multi-determined—resulting from neural activity, cognitions, emotions, and actions that are
inseparable from memory, social activity, instructional process, and the ingredients of the setting where
the learning takes place (Lave 1988; Zull 2002). The framework also functions as a means for designing
instruction from the beginning to the end of a learning unit. By continuously attending to the four moti-
vational conditions, the instructor can select strategies from a wide array of theories and literature to
enhance motivation in the learning setting.
A basic way for an instructor to use the motivational framework is to take the four motivational condi-
tions from the framework and to transpose each into questions to use as guidelines for selecting motiva-
tional strategies and learning activities for a lesson plan.
1. Establishing Inclusion: How do we create or affirm a learning atmosphere in which we feel

respected by and connected to one another?
2. Developing Attitude: How do we create or affirm a favorable disposition toward learning through
personal relevance and learner volition?
3. Enhancing Meaning: How do we create engaging and challenging learning experiences that include
learners’ perspectives and values?
4. Engendering Competence: How do we create an understanding that learners have effectively

learned something they value and perceive as authentic to their real world?
Workshop Mapping with the Motivational Framework

The context for our first example is a one-day’s workshop in which the Director of the Center for
Multicultural Education at the University of Washington introduced the motivational framework
to members of her faculty development staff, using the article “Cultural Diversity, Motivation, and
Differentiation” (Ginsberg 2003).
To begin, the director (Victoria) asked participants what issues are pending for them that they need
to set aside to focus on the day’s activity. Referring to this activity as “the parking lot,” she prompted
participants to write their thoughts on a piece of paper and share with a colleague next to them. Next,
she asked participants to put their piece of paper away and out of sight, assuring them time for retrieval
at the conclusion of the session (motivational condition: establishing inclusion through respect and
connectedness, in this case with a non-intrusive collaborative introductory exercise.)
Victoria continued by introducing the topic, purpose, and approach for the lesson she was about to
facilitate, followed by requesting participants to write down a personal goal they wanted to accomplish
as a result of the workshop (motivational condition: developing a positive attitude through volition and
relevance, in this case through the use of goal setting). After completing this task, she distributed copies
of “Cultural Diversity, Motivation, and Differentiation” along with a protocol known as “collaborative text
annotation” (Ginsberg and Wlodkowski 2009, 359–60). This protocol asks learners to work collabora-
tively in groups and provides scaffolding for inter-
With such self-generated acting with text (motivational condition: enhancing
knowledge learners were inclined meaning through challenge and engagement, in this
case using a text-based protocol to encourage mean-
to explore possibilities for change ingful connections to personal experiences and work).
and ways to take effective action.

Prior to concluding, Victoria asked participants to work with a partner to revisit the personal goals they
had set for themselves to ensure that she had helped to engender competence in ways that they value.
(motivational condition: engendering competence through authenticity and effectiveness, in this case
using learners’ personal goals to reflect on learning). An essential aspect of Victoria’s workshop and of all
motivating lessons for professional learning is designing it in ways that allow educators to experience the
motivational conditions they will apply to their own work with adults.
Course Mapping with the Motivational Framework

During the 1980s, in a course now considered iconic in its influence on social justice education, Beverly
Daniel Tatum (1992) taught the psychology of racism in a manner that reflected some of the most important
principles of adult learning and motivation. Her instructional approach influenced the transformation of
her students’ perspectives and behavior. We use this course as a context for exemplifying how the moti-
vational framework and its conditions could be used to map and construct a powerful learning experience
over time.
In the following description, we once again insert italics to identify the four conditions of the motivational
framework as they occur throughout Dr. Tatum’s course. You’ll also notice that the motivational conditions
are often mutually supportive. At times they overlap because boundaries of human experience are not
precise or singularly determined. Yet, when we map a course, we can usually associate different aspects of
the course with a primary motivational condition.
When Dr. Tatum taught this particular course, class size averaged twenty four students; most were
white European-Americans, and ranged in socioeconomic background from very poor to very wealthy.
The course was designed “to provide students with an understanding of the psychological causes and
emotional reality of racism as it appears in everyday life” (Tatum 1992, 2).
Beyond the reading material and media used in the course, Dr. Tatum created opportunities for learners
to experience situations where the realities of racism might exist and be witnessed firsthand (two motiva-
tional conditions: developing a positive attitude through relevance and volition, and enhancing meaning
through challenge and engagement). These experiences included visiting supermarkets in different racially
composed neighborhoods to compare costs and quality of goods and services and going apartment
hunting as mixed racial partners. Students kept journals for critical reflection of their experiences, using
their writing as an opportunity to examine their own underlying beliefs and assumptions and to generate
their own sense of these experiences (motivational condition: engendering competence through effec-
tively learning something of value and authentic to one’s world).
Furthermore, there was an opportunity following these activities to engage in reflective dialogue with
peers and to search for a clearer understanding and interpretation of their experience (motivational
condition: engendering competence). With such self-generated knowledge (constructed by the students,
not told to them by the professor), learners were inclined to explore possibilities for change and ways to
take effective action (motivational condition: developing a positive attitude through volition and relevance).
Students could work collaboratively in small groups to develop realistic action plans to interrupt racism
(motivational condition: establishing inclusion through respect and connectedness). They also had the
opportunity to privately tape an interview of themselves regarding their racial views and understanding
at the beginning of the course and at the end of the course. After reviewing these two tapes, they wrote
about their perceived changes in racial understanding (motivational condition: engendering competence).
The instructor, Dr. Tatum, accepted the validity of students’ experiences, thinking, and judgments, and,
with context and meaning-making as central components, guided learning in a way that was a transforming
process: At the conclusion of the course, students acted with new awareness and self-understanding.
If Dr. Tatum were to have mapped this course using the framework, she might have approached it as follows:
Course Mapping with the Motivational Framework for

Culturally Responsive Teaching
How can this learning experience…
...help students feel respected by and connected to other students and to the teacher?
Develop explicit norms for group discussion to ensure equitable opportunities for public discourse.
Use peer collaboration for community visits and journals.
Establishing Inclusion: Respect and Connectedness
…promote volition and greater personal relevance?
Provide choices, such as generating forms of action and knowledge through personal experience in
the community and
determining what to share in journals and class discussion.
Developing a Positive Attitude: Volition and Personal Relevance
…engage students in challenges that include their perspectives and values?
Use multiple modes of instruction and learning opportunities: reading, discussion, community engage-
ment in authentic settings, storytelling, critical questions, and allowing for emotion in order to render
deeper meaning.
Enhancing Meaning: Challenge and Engagement
…create an understanding that learners have effectively learned something they value and perceive as
authentic to their real world?
Create frequent opportunities for sensemaking through journals, discussion, ongoing additional forms
of personal group reflection.
Provide ongoing instructor and peer feedback.
Provide for pre- and post-taped interviews for documentation of changes in racial understanding.
Engendering Competence: Authenticity and Effectiveness

Collaboration that occurs
The purpose of the framework is to guide the likelihood that a within an authentic context,
course or an individual lesson will address all four motivational such as a classroom setting,
conditions in ways that are culturally relevant for adult has the greatest likelihood of
learners. Dr. Tatum’s example illustrates use of the framework
for constructing significant learning experiences throughout a
promoting positive change.
course from beginning to end. In the following section, we offer one more application of the framework—in
this instance a lesson to prepare a team of adult educators to engage in a form of professional learning
known as lesson study.
The Lesson Study Process

Change theorists remind us that if we are truly doing something different, we will—at least initially—expose
personal flaws and contradictions (Fullan 2004). When adults experience something that is relevant and
unsettling, and have the time and support to gain insight into the experience, they are at the portal of a
new perspective. Collaboration can ease the discomfort that new risks impose at the same time that it
encourages local imagination. However, collaboration that occurs within an authentic context, such as a
classroom setting, has the greatest likelihood of promoting positive change. In a classroom, adult learners
can witness interactions and derive firsthand insights into teaching and learning.
With this understanding in mind, we have actively experimented with a form of professional learning
known as “lesson study.” It is a way to develop professional learning that is intrinsically motivating because
it is collaborative, relevant, engaging, and allows participants to derive well-contextualized measures of
effectiveness. Lesson study, referred to in Japanese as jugyokenku, has been central to Japanese profes-
sional development for many years and has recently become the focus of considerable research from
elementary through postsecondary education in the United States (Lewis, Perry, and Murata 2006). There
are several different galleries of examples and insights about lesson study on the Web. The Web site of the
Lesson Study Group at Mills College (www.lessonresearch.net) is particularly informative.
Lesson Study Overview. The goal of lesson study is to improve instructional practice by collaboratively
planning, teaching, and debriefing a lesson. Faculty come together as an interdisciplinary or subject-
specific team to plan a specific lesson for a particular student group. The team then moves directly (or
within a reasonable period of time) into a classroom where one member of the team teaches the planned
lesson, while the other members observe. The process concludes with the group debriefing about
the observed lesson, including its influence on student attention, motivation, and learning. One of the
strengths of this approach is that it allows for observation of the lesson’s effect on individual students as
well as on particular student groups within the class. It provides one of the few opportunities for faculty to
constructively note and respond to inter-group differences that may fall along the lines of gender, income,
race, and ethnicity. All faculty set goals for themselves and for a continuous cycle of developing, observing,
and making sense of research lessons in each others’ classes.
As a strategy to systematically design, teach, observe, debrief, and build a professional community of
educators, lesson study stimulates a discussion of authentic issues from a teaching experience in ways that
allow clear examples from shared experience. Further, one of its strongest attributes is generating aware-
ness of the variety of shared instructional knowledge that resides among a group of educators.
The process is not an evaluation of teaching practices where the critique is personal or comparative.
Listening is as much a part of the process as sharing observations, wonders, and ideas.
Lesson Study Procedure. Ways to explore using this process based on the motivational framework include:
1. Gather a team of educators for a half-day, on-site professional development. A priority before
beginning this process is to create a collegial environment in which to plan and examine a real-time
lesson. This allows for more authentic and in-depth discussion of teaching practices (motivational
condition: establishing inclusion through respect and connectedness).
2. Identify an academic discipline within which the team seeks to design a lesson (motivational
condition: developing a positive attitude through volition and relevance).
3. Plan the lesson (possibly with the motivational framework as a template), keeping specific student
data in mind—when available—such as test scores, participation rates, and assignment performance.
Collaboratively plan a lesson that is of genuine concern to faculty (motivational condition: enhancing
meaning through challenge and engagement).
4. Teach the lesson in a designated class. The instructor or a combination of instructors may want to
teach in tandem or succession. Other team members observe the lesson, take field notes on the
learning experience as a whole, and make connections in how students, in particular or in general,
respond and learn (motivational condition: enhancing meaning through challenge and engagement).
5. Debrief the lesson as a team, discussing the strengths and areas of challenge with particular students
and student groups (motivational condition: enhancing meaning through challenge and engagement).
Although all team members record notes, one person publicly scribes for the group.
6. Discuss the lesson as a colloquium during which team members share notes and data collected while
observing the lesson. For this part of the process, which is tangent to debriefing the lesson, one
team member creates a chart to capture insights for later reference. Prior to concluding, the team
summarizes what was learned. They also select a new focus of study or refine and re-teach the lesson,
reflect on the lesson study process, and set individual goals based on collective insights (motivational
condition: engendering competence through effectively learning something of value and authentic to
one’s world).
Summary
Returning to this article’s focusing question, “What do we know about instructional innovation that
enhances motivation and performance among diverse adult learners?”, we have responded in the form
of a motivational framework with conditions we believe are essential to eliciting diverse adult learners’
intrinsic motivation to learn. We have applied this framework to three contexts: a professional development
workshop, a course on the psychology of racism, and the structure of a professional learning experience.
All three examples are based on the assumption that when adults endorse or determine learning they find
relevant, their motivation emerges. Because the authority of the teacher must be shared to some extent
and because knowledge must be constructed from multiple cultural perspectives, this is a complex and
subtle way to teach.
Although the topic of curricular reform is beyond the scope of this article, we consider content and
pedagogy in many ways to be inseparable. The kind of culturally responsive procedures available to
a research course may be quite different from those accessible to a language course. Further, even if
the same procedures were to be used in both disciplines, their form and texture might markedly vary.
Nonetheless, it is possible for educators to share significant pedagogical insights across disciplines when
there is a common language for discourse.

Change and adaptation to new ways of teaching is a multidimensional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal
negotiation. Our decisions are mediated by standards of quality and excellence that are defined by
individuals, institutions, communities, and cultural agreements. Nonetheless, we believe that the unique
spirit and meanings that motivate learners and teachers can be affirmed even amid the confusion of
competing expectations and policies.
As dean of the School for New Learning, this challenge was David Justice’s daily work. Recalling his
achievements reminds us that innovations such as culturally responsive instruction are essential yet
elusive goals requiring prolonged commitment. Not only is such teaching a constant learning process,
it requires self-scrutiny as well as empathy to integrate the multiple perspectives of adult learners on
a continual basis. Given this large landscape of pedagogical concerns, the motivational framework for
culturally responsive teaching offers a coherent approach to teaching diverse adults in ways that are
equitable, relevant, and stimulating.
References
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Routledge.
Fullan, M. 2004. Leadership and sustainability: System thinkers in action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Gay, G. 2000. Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Ginsberg, M. B. 2005. Motivation, cultural diversity, and differentiation. Theory into Practice. 44 (3):
218–25.
Ginsberg, M. B., and R. J. Wlodkowski. 2009. Diversity and motivation: Culturally responsive teaching in
college. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lave, J. 1988. Cognition in practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, C., R. Perry, and A. Murata. 2006. How should research contribute to instructional improvement?
Educational Researcher 35 (3): 3–14.
Merriam, S. B., R. S. Caffarella, and L. M. Baumgartner. 2007. Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive

guide. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
NCREL. 1999. Professional development: Learning from the best. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional
Educational Laboratory.
Suarez-Orozco, C., and M.M. Suarez-Orozco. 2002 Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Tatum, B. D. 1992. Talking about race, learning about racism: The application of racial identity development
theory in the classroom. Harvard Educational Review 62: 1–24.
Wlodkowski, R. J. 2008. Enhancing adult motivation to learn: A comprehensive guide for teaching all
adults. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wlodkowski, R J., J. E. Mauldin, and S. W. Gahn. 2001. Learning in the fast lane: Adult learners’
persistence and success in accelerated college programs. Indianapolis: Lumina Foundation for
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of learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
About the Authors

Margery B. Ginsberg, PhD, has a background as a teacher on two Indian reservations, university
professor, and Texas Title I technical assistance contact for the United States Department of Education.
Margery is an associate professor at University of Washington-Seattle, where she works with doctoral
students who are aspiring systems-level leaders. She also directs the Center for Action, Inquiry and
Motivation (AIM) in the College of Education. Her authored and co-authored books include Diversity &
Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching in College (2009), Creating Highly Motivating Classrooms:
A Schoolwide Approach to Powerful Teaching with Diverse Learners (2000) and Motivation Matters: A
Workbook for School Change (2004). Her primary interest is helping systems innovate instruction that is
increasingly responsive to diverse adult learners in a rapidly transforming world. She has a PhD from the
University of Colorado-Boulder in Bilingual/Multicultural/Social Foundations of Education.
Raymond J. Wlodkowski is Professor Emeritus at the College of Professional Studies, Regis University,
Denver. He is a psychologist who specializes in adult motivation and learning. He is the founding
Executive Director of the Commission for Accelerated Programs (CAP) and the former Director of the
Center for the Study of Accelerated Learning at Regis University. Among the books he has authored is
Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching All Adults (2008), now in its
third edition and the recipient of the Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature. He is also the co-author
with Margery B. Ginsberg of Diversity and Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching in College 2nd
edition (2009). Raymond has a PhD in Educational Psychology from Wayne State University.

Educating for Social Change As empowered
R. Craig Sautter individuals who
understand
The concept of educating adults to understand and participate in social change the potential of
has been a central concept at DePaul University’s School for New Learning (SNL)
their own social
since its inception in the early 1970s. It was certainly an idea dear to the heart of
SNL’s third dean, David Justice, and one which he helped shape throughout his actions, these SNL
leadership of the school. As an urban/suburban Catholic university dedicated to graduates are often
the Vincentian mission of aiding the common man, DePaul gave SNL great latitude eager to initiate
to explore the idea of education for social change. change in the world
The Role of Personal Empowerment around them.
First and foremost, SNL’s core mission of educating adult learners through a broad, Liberal Arts, competence-
based, interdisciplinary curriculum produced graduates whose very education was a kind of social change—
personal empowerment. Knowledge clears away ignorance and shines a clearer light on the possibilities that
emerge for these graduates. To succeed in this direction is, intrinsically, a form of social improvement for the
persons themselves and for those with whom they come into contact.
This broad education plays itself out variously in the individual experiences of our adult graduates who testify
that their SNL education transforms their lives, empowers them to actively participate in the society around
them, and frees them from self- and socially-imposed barriers and definitions. That may be true for all well-
educated graduates of any age. But many SNL graduates, particularly adult women and minority students,
have experienced forms of social oppression, or at least limited opportunities. An SNL college education
becomes their route to life-changing discoveries, intellectually and personally. As empowered individuals who
understand the potential of their own social actions, these SNL graduates are often eager to initiate change in
the world around them.
Creating Social Change Agents Through an Innovative Competency Framework

Some of the “Competences” or skills that SNL students need to “demonstrate” to graduate explicitly require
them to know how to participate in social change. For example, during David’s tenure, SNL’s Competence
Framework was altered to include a Human Community Competence that required students to “use theories
of human behavior to understand and solve problems.” Other competences required SNL students to:
• plan one method of change within a community and assess its likely effects;
• evaluate the contributions of social institutions to the welfare of the communities they serve; or,
• effectively employ the skills of negotiation, mediation, and interpersonal communications in theresolution
of a dispute or conflict.
Through this competence framework, SNL hoped to effectively turn graduates into conscious social
change agents.
Embedding Social Change in SNL Coursework

Several SNL courses have incorporated these social change competences, including one of my courses,
“Organizing in the ‘80s,” which eventually then became “Organizing in the ‘90s.” This class was designed to
make students aware of a wide variety of social problems, and further sought to give them the skills they
needed to initiate or participate in positive social change in their own communities.
In “Organizing in the 80s/90s,” for example, I asked each student to find out about a social problem of interest
to them by investigating the work of a community or social change organization engaged in solving that
problem. Students interviewed the organization’s executive director, collected news items about its social
change work, and even volunteered with the organization before making an oral presentation to the class
on their findings.
In addition to learning firsthand the nature and dimension of a particular social problem, students discov-
ered that many of these organizations were created by a single person dedicated to social change. For
example, one grieving mother created Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and helped toughen drunk
driving laws across the nation. This knowledge empowered these SNL students to understand that if/when
they cared about a social issue or problem, they could initiate social change themselves and their actions
could have far-reaching, ripple effects. They didn’t need to wait for someone else to do it. One person,
empowered with knowledge of how to make change, could be a successful catalyst.
One of my texts for this course was Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which often shook up the thinking of
students. I liked the book because so many of Chicago’s community-based organizations had Alinsky links
either in their origins or in their staff and because their current activities were rooted in the work of the
Chicagoan who invented “community organizing.” I assume many of the students who passed through my
“Organizing in the 80s/90s” classes smiled a bit during the recent presidential campaign when both Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama were denounced for having links to Alinsky and “Alinsky tactics.”
This was ironic, too, because when I taught this course at DePaul’s suburban campuses, many self-
described Republicans were excited by Alinsky’s confrontational tactics and wanted to use them to solve
problems in their communities; problems with schools or city hall and so forth. They learned, in Alinsky’s
words, “how to cut the issue.” Several city students who passed through these classes became active
urban community organizers.
A Focus on Solutions
Other SNL competences require SNL students to learn about social problems and to participate in finding
solutions. In addition, over the years SNL has become committed to introducing our students to Service
Learning. David applauded this innovation as an extension of earlier efforts to expose students to enduring
social problems and to get them involved in solutions. Not only do SNL service learning students discover
opportunities to find out more about social problems through real service to those in need, they also get
concrete experience in working on solutions.
Creating a Legacy for Social Change

In all of this, David Justice was not just an active advocate, but an educational visionary. He not only
helped to build a trailblazing college that put an agenda of social change at its educational core, he worked
with many other colleges and educators to help them create similar experiences for their students. He
promoted the idea not as a partisan ploy, but as an empowering idea for individual adults. And at the
School for New Learning, he recruited instructors who wanted to use education to reform and improve the
world. For a decade and a half as dean, David challenged his teachers and his college to help their students
explore their freedom and build a better world. His work certainly lives on in the SNL Competence
Framework and in the actions of SNL graduates whose eyes have been opened to their own powers by this
emphasis on social change and progress through education.
About the Author

For the past 28 years, R. Craig Sautter has taught courses in philosophy, politics, history, literature, and
creative writing at the School for New Learning. He is author/coauthor of 10 books, including Inside the
Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions 1860-1996 (with Alderman Edward M. Burke) www.presidential-
conventions.com. He was the 47th president of the Society of Midland Authors (www.midlandauthors.com).

Africa Initiatives at the School for New Learning
Derise E. Tolliver, PhD, Associate Professor, School for New Learning, DePaul
University and Deborah W. Holton, PhD, MFA, Associate Professor, School for
New Learning, DePaul University
David Justice was known by many as a visionary educator dedicated to making higher education more
accessible to adult learners. His fourteen years as dean of the School for New Learning (SNL) at DePaul
University, followed by his position as the university’s Vice President for Lifelong Learning and Suburban
Campuses, brought university and nationwide attention to the learning needs of working adults. Perhaps
less well known, but equally significant, is that his vision for and
commitment to educating adults crossed domestic borders to
David’s support brought the global world. His ideas are manifested in various program-
attention to this still matic efforts, the legacy of which continues to live at School
underrepresented travel for New Learning and DePaul University at large. We take
destination as an important delight in sharing how David’s support of internationalization
of the curriculum, specifically as it relates to Africa, anticipated
source and context for
the needs of adult learners in an increasingly interconnected
adult student learning. global world.
The Start of DePaul’s Relationship with Africa

Our story begins in 1991, when, as part of university-sponsored foreign study travel to Zimbabwe, then
Assistant Professor Deborah W. Holton, PhD, sought support from then SNL dean David Justice and
DePaul University’s Foreign Study Office to take two SNL students abroad. These two adult learners
used their foreign study to fulfill competence development in their individualized BA degree program.
While there had previously been study abroad opportunities for SNL students to England, the travel
to Africa represented the first connection with DePaul’s Foreign Study Office in conjunction with adult
student learning and the first time SNL students engaged in experiential learning in Africa. David’s
support brought attention to this still underrepresented travel destination as an important source and
context for adult student learning. His recognition at the administrative level not only highlighted the
importance of the connections between higher education and Africa, specifically, but also the value of
international experiential learning for students in pursuit of these individualized learning goals.
The two of us—Holton and another professor, Derise Tolliver—were members of the first team of DePaul
faculty who visited South Africa as part of a faculty development seminar (although at the time, Tolliver
was based in a different academic unit at the University). Tolliver subsequently joined the faculty at SNL
and returned to South Africa for a second faculty development seminar in 1996. She also co-developed
and co-facilitated DePaul's travel course to West Africa, which has now been operating for over twelve
years. Our interests in global issues in Africa, particularly in the Southern and Western regions, were
enhanced by these early international experiences.
Because of our collective experience and interests in African affairs and collaboration across the
University, David approached us to participate in SNL’s next major African collaboration: a consultancy at
University of Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Early Work in South Africa – a DePaul and CAEL Partnership

The relationship between DePaul and the UFS began in 1994, with David traveling as consultant to the
Ford Foundation, South Africa and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). He visited
Adult Learning in Africa 35

a number of universities and technikons in South Africa. Later in 1994, the Associate Vice Chancellor of
UFS visited SNL and became interested in the School’s programs serving working adults. Shortly after
three UFS academic staff visited SNL in 1995, a twelve member delegation from UFS, headed by then
Premier of Free State Patrick Lekota, visited DePaul, with an objective to explore the possibility of estab-
lishing a cooperative program between the two institutions. Ongoing discussions and planning efforts
ensued. In 1996, with assistance from CAEL, the Ford Foundation awarded the Joint Education Trust (JET
– a not-for-profit organization that addressed inequity issues related to South African apartheid) funding
to support the development of a BA degree program at UFS, based on the SNL model.
David returned to South Africa in 1996 to work on the pilot project, which led to the approval of the
degree program by UFS and the South African Qualifications Authority. David involved the two of us in
further establishing the linkage with UFS, which in turn led to our faculty development work at UFS in
April 1998.
What follows is one of our journal entries about this effort:
Fast forward to 1998, fours years after the first open, democratic elections. Nelson Mandela
released from Robben lsland is president, and there is the dawning of the New South Africa as
it is called, one [country] aspiring to a multicultural society where retribution and recrimination
is replaced with forgiveness and healing. The government has proactively sought to find out the
truth in the service of reconciliation between former enemies and combatants. A high spiritual
course to take indeed. Change is happening.
And so my colleague and I have another opportunity to be in S. Africa. Circumstances are

different this time. No question of honorary white status, sanctions. The government is
welcoming the infusion of dollars, the presence of travelers to feed the economy. And they want
help. How to transform previously racist, oppressive systems in order to include the previously
excluded.
We are called upon to work with the university system. But not just any university. We are
called to consult with University of Free State, formerly known as U of Orange Free State,
probably the bastion of Afrikaaner intellectualism and scholarship. Bloemfontein, with its
rolling fields of grains and farmland, was the location of the writing of many documents of
apartheid. Its major university still is predominantly white (Boer, Afrikaner), as are the students.
But more and more that is changing too. And as it does, the question is raised of how to help
the university prepare for the changes in order to most effectively facilitate successful learning.
At that time, in 1998, universities in South Africa found it necessary to shift paradigms from "business
as usual" in order to meet the needs of adult learners who had, in the past, been denied educational
opportunities. For university educators this referred to systems of higher education accommodating the
changes in government policy in the developing South African democracy. These educational institutions
were also looking for ways to become more learner-centered and more effective in preparing learners to
participate in the evolving society and workplace. This is in contrast to how systems previously worked,
which often saw the academy disregarding how learners' needs were related to their working lives,
marginalizing and excluding an entire group of people under apartheid. The factors of culture, gender,
language, and power relationships, and their operation both historically and contemporaneously, thus
were in consideration as educational reform was being fashioned in South Africa.
Out of these needs came the development of the Adult Degree and Management Program (ADMP).
This was a landmark program, the first of its kind in South Africa. It required a shift in perspectives and

The factors of culture, gender,
pedagogy among participating faculty who had been
trained in and worked with more discipline-based models, language, and power
and attracted corporate participants who were interested relationships, and their
in the assessment of prior and experiential learning for operation both historically
their managers and other workers. ADMP sought to foster and contemporaneously,
interdisciplinary collaboration between and among faculty
in partnership with corporate sponsors and participants
thus were in consideration as
in a competence based context. Lastly, ADMP recognized educational reform was being
the value and importance of stakeholders that included fashioned in South Africa.
students, corporate sponsors, UFS faculty and administra-
tors, community participants, organized labor, and government agencies.
With help from DePaul faculty and administrators, the University of the Free State—formerly an Afrikaans
language institution—created the Bachelor in Management Leadership (BML) program. This was a major
objective of the ADMP. Modeled after the individualized Bachelor of Arts degree at the School for New
Learning, the BML program become one of the only programs in South Africa at that time built "from
the bottom up" as an adult focused program. To accomplish this, the BML incorporated adult learning
theory and pedagogy throughout. Students used prior learning not only to attain access to the program
(the minimal demand placed upon higher education by the South African government), but they were
able to apply it to achieve credit within the program. Moreover, experiential learning was infused into the
fabric of the program itself, ensuring a vibrant connection between the working and professional lives of
the students and their work in the classroom. In addition to the BML program, the University of the Free
State also designed its MBA program based on DePaul's. Like the BML, their MBA program employed
many of the same best practices for adult learners.
Wrestling with Issues of Race, Social Justice and Apartheid

The importance of our work with adult learning in the South African context goes beyond the level of
faculty development collaboration with the UFS. Herein lies some of the wisdom of David Justice. While
he understood that many SNL faculty could “deliver” technical assistance around issues of adult learning,
best practices, etc., he understood the importance of sending the two of us as representatives of SNL
and DPU to UFS: African American female faculty who could address the issues of racism, sexism, ageism
and cultural oppression in a unique and intimate manner. David did not turn a “color-blind” eye to issues
that were so grounded in race and culture.
This project was not uniformly nor positively embraced. On the contrary, there were some at our own
university who felt that DePaul should not have a presence at UFS because of its ignominious history and
the legacy of apartheid. Yet, SNL’s commitment to ensuring social justice, empowering adults through
learning, and helping adults develop competence in a changing world demanded that we be a part of this
effort. David understood that our presence was important for the very reasons that some criticized our
activities. His decision to go forward with us as lead consultants on UFS faculty development also spoke
to a commitment to social justice and transformation, both key commitments in the educational persona
of SNL.
We taught, we presented, and we facilitated faculty learning about theories of adult learning, compe-
tence, assessment and curriculum development. We also raised the difficult questions about the oppres-
sive past and the hopes for the future. In order to facilitate students’ affective, behavioral, cognitive
and spiritual development and to support student success, it was important for those involved in the
ADMP program development to be willing and committed to acknowledging, confronting and challenging

SNL’s commitment to ensuring
social justice, empowering previous cultural notions of superiority and inferiority.
adults through learning, Given that these factors provided the context of knowledge
and helping adults develop acquisition, transmission of information and meaning making
for both students and faculty, we, as facilitators, pushed
competence in a changing
faculty to consider how apartheid had harmed all and how
world demanded that we be this collaborative effort had to address that ill.
a part of this effort.
David’s recognition that knowledge is grounded in historical,
cultural and social contexts was critical to the success of the our work there and the project overall. He
pushed with helping UFS determine how to make higher education more accessible to those who histori-
cally had been marginalized and denied educational opportunities.
South Africa Online

Consultation with UFS continued as David shifted into the position of Vice President of Lifelong Learning
and Suburban Campuses at DPU. Distance education and online learning became more of a focus of his
work – at both DePaul and in South Africa – as he continued to seek efficient and effective ways to open
access to higher education for adults who had previously been denied for political, social, economic and
personal reasons. In conjunction with CAEL and with David’s leadership, DePaul’s Division of Lifelong
Learning created the only entirely on-line certification at the time for prior learning assessment. This
course has been completed by personnel at numerous institutions of higher education in South Africa.
Expanding the African Connection: DePaul in Kenya

The impact of David’s thinking and visioning about access to higher education in Africa has continued
at DePaul University. Many relationships have been established between units at DePaul University and
institutions in East Africa, building on David Justice’s work and vision. For example, in 2005, a collabora-
tion began between School for New Learning and Tangaza College in Nairobi, Kenya. With funding from
the Conrad Hilton Foundation, African religious women, religious men and lay students have been given
the opportunity to pursue undergraduate studies with a focus area in leadership and management.
Students are awarded a DePaul University degree.
This program, also modeled after the SNL undergraduate curriculum, is taught by Kenyan-based faculty.
It has both a Kenyan-based Program Coordinator and Chicago-based Program Director, which honors
and respects the value of shared leadership and power between partners. Both of us are members of the
Chicago-based administrative team. At the time of the writing of this article, Tolliver was the Chicago-
based Program Director.
This program’s early success has been quite tangible. In December 2008, the first cohort of students
graduated, with over half of the class of fourteen receiving student excellence awards on their culmi-
nating Advanced Projects (comparable to senior theses).
Conclusion
At School for New Learning, international programming for adult learners in Africa has included travel
study for two US-based students, consulting with one African institution on development of their compe-
tence-based undergraduate program, and offering a DePaul University competence-based undergraduate
degree on the African continent. This evolution of efforts manifests the core values of adult learning,
competence, access to higher education, lifelong learning and social justice that David Justice embraced.
Because of David’s vision and the impact of his legacy, School for New Learning and DePaul University
have supported, promoted and participated in higher education initiatives for adult learners in Africa.

According to traditional African culture, a person who has made transition remains alive in the community
as long as there is someone who can recall them by name, remember their words, personality, character
and incidents in their life. We share our experiences with David Justice. We call his name and recount
his work with adult education in Africa, reminding all of the breadth of his legacy. The seeds he planted
around international adult learning programming and collaboration continue to take root. They ensure
that he remains alive.
About the Authors

Derise E. Tolliver is a tenured Associate Professor and has been a resident faculty member at the School
for New Learning since 1994. She is a licensed clinical psychologist by training. She earned her PhD
from Duke University in 1985. She is currently the Chicago Director of the DePaul University/Tangaza
College BA Degree Programme which is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her teaching, research and professional
interests are in the areas of Afrikan psychology, spirituality, culture and race in adult education and
international education.
Deborah Wood Holton is a tenured Associate Professor and has been a resident faculty member at
the School for New Learning since 1989. She earned her PhD in American theatre studies in 1985 from
the University of Wisconsin - Madison. A poet and fiction writer, she also earned, in 2009, her MFA
in Creative Writing from Solstice, Pine Manor College. A Black Earth Institute Distinguished Fellow,
Dr. Holton draws from oral, literary, and other cultural traditions evident especially within the African
Diaspora in her teaching, creative, and professional interests to illuminate the transformative potential of
experiential learning. Dr. Holton was the first member of the School for New Learning faculty to facilitate
adult student learning in and about Africa, and is currently a member of the group responsible for the
DePaul University/Tangaza College BA Degree Programme.

Education-at-a-Distance:
Bringing a New Manifesto Closer to Home
Morris Fiddler, DePaul University. With Dennis Glenn, Carla R. Payne, James
Moore, and Beth Rubin
It has been sixty years since Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared that:
1) Everyone has the right to education (free and compulsory at the elementary and fundamental stages
and generally available, equally accessible to all on the basis of merit at the higher education, technical,
and professional levels); 2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality
and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and, 3) Parents have
a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. With the distinction
that his attention was primarily on adults, David Justice’s tenets and visions for education echoed these
declarations and manifested themselves in the six tributaries that flow together in this collection of
articles in his memory.
Sometime in the early 1990s, David Justice wondered aloud

The first personal computers to his colleagues at a moment when I happened to be present,
“There’s got to be more we can do with these things than just
hit the markets right on store memos.” He was referring to computers, of course—not
time—a time in which file cabinets—and far-reaching discussions about the future of
knowledge was starting to providing education-at-a-distance ensued. But before following
emerge as one of the most that train of thought as it picked up over the past 15 years or
so, a little context setting…
important commodities in
the worldwide economic, Distance education has been a mode of teaching and learning
social, and political engines. for countless individuals spanning at least a hundred years
(Moore and Kearsley 1996). Initially mediated primarily by the
U.S Post Office, it later rode the wavelengths of other media that seem like a set of Russian dolls fitting
neatly inside of each other, in retrospect.
A Short History of Distance Learning

In 1921–22, educational radio licenses were issued first to the Latter Day Saints’ University of Salt Lake
City and then to the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota (Saettler 1990). Forty two years later, the
U.S. Corporation for Public Broadcasting started up and became a national outlet for public education
still in existence today.
In the middle of that evolution, Iowa State University received a license from the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in 1945 and broadcasted the first educational television programs
in 1950. From that date forward, nearly every state in the U.S. has had one or more community college or
university broadcasting television, providing educational programming at a distance and, with the inven-
tion of the VCR, asynchronously. In the midst of this progression through the invention and application
of radio and television, the Open University in Great Britain was established in 1971 in response to a
demand for alternative means of access to higher education. Course materials in print, audio, and even-
tually video tape and DVD, replaced the need for students—mostly adult—to travel to a central location or
campus; the campus came to them. This model was also adopted in countries where site-based educa-
tion itself had hardly yet developed, such as the People’s Republic of China and India.

Computer networks emerged in the 1980s, and it is to this time period where future historians may look
back when it is time for a retrospective. The National Science Foundation gave universities access to the
Internet, and the first personal computers hit the markets right on time—a time in which knowledge was
starting to emerge as one of the most important commodities in the worldwide economic, social, and
political engines.
The Development of Distance Education as an Emerging Human Story of Communications

As with any educational exchange, distance education is comprised of dynamic relationships among
teachers, learners, information, meaning making, and institutions, with each element affecting the other. If
distance education has a future that is not just a linear extension of its past, what will it take for education-
at-distance to fulfill the desires for: Access? Serving underserved adults? Educating for social change?
Accelerating learning? Mediating international relationships and efforts in lifelong learning?
We can start by answering these questions by asking, What, if anything, distinguishes contemporary distance
education from its predecessors? Is it just the advanced technology? Is it changing social relationships? The
probable answer is “yes” to both. Indeed, what may distinguish distance education today are the Internet
and the lives we are—and probably will be—leading with and because of it.
In April 1999, Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and Rick Levine, four participants/observers/
creators of the nascent digital economy, issued the following manifesto: “People of earth…A powerful global
conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share
relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter
faster than most companies” (Levine, Locke, Searls, and Weinberger 1999).
This statement—The Cluetrain Manifesto—was directed at businesses and corporations and was accompa-
nied by 95 theses tacked to a digital door to the future. With a good deal of humility and trepidation for a
glib translation to education, though not without being mindful that education is as large a corporate entity
as almost any, what follows are twenty propositions derived from those theses that challenge distance
education to its own future:
1. Disciplines and fields are conversations. All learning is a conversation of one sort or another.
2. Education consists of human beings learning, not just disciplines and subjects.
3. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments, or humorous asides, the
human voice is typically open, natural, and uncontrived. The Internet is enabling conversations among
people that are simply not possible in the context of institutionally driven education.
4. Hyperlinks destabilize hierarchies. When I can browse, move from connection to connection, to form
my own net of associations, I expand and own my capacity to turn information into meaningful learning,
not mimic or rely on someone else’s.
5. Networked conversations are enabling new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to
occur, and if knowledge is indeed socially constructed, education becomes increasingly a matter of
moving in and out of knowledge-constructing networks.
6. If educators do not provide good information and support, people will seek out, find, and use
knowledge-constructing networks as sources for instruction and encouragement in place of those set
forth by the educators.
7. Will the concept of a “class” (and even a “course?”) dissolve into an arcane construct?
Innovation, Change and Progress in the Field of Adult Learning 41

8. The voice of education will need to speak within the networked conversations.
9. Catalogs and brochures promoting the product lines of higher education will not necessarily be
effective advertising devices for the online world.
10. Higher education can now communicate with its “market” directly. If it flounders at this opportunity
to be an influence in people’s lives, there may not be another opportunity to reach such a large
audience so immediately for some time.
11. Perhaps education would do well to take itself less seriously—the world inside the Internet seems to
have added this facet to its character. This does not mean making jokes, but rather offering straight
talk, humility, an authentic point of view, and big values.
12. “Positioning”—and boasting about it (for example, to become “the preeminent provider of education”
or the pre-eminence of anything at all)—is not really a position.
13. Speaking in a language that is distant, uninviting, and/or arrogant builds walls.
14. Learning to speak with a human voice is not a trick learned from gurus or at conferences. To speak
with a human voice the enterprise of education must share the concerns of communities, and before
that, it must belong to them.
15. Where does the educational culture blend into the community culture, whatever that community
may be? If the educational culture ends before the other starts, there’s no connection between the
two.
16. Learning and education transpire as a community of discourse—if not a part of that community,
there is no “education” to be done.
17. Education can organize learners in their various roles as students, as parents, as citizens, as
investigators, as workers, and so on.
18. The organizational chart of educational services needs to be experienced as hyperlinked, not
hierarchical.
19. When people have questions, they turn to each other for answers. Will education and educators
have better answers than most—so they become someone to turn to—and be “there” when the
questions are asked?
20. We are waking up, we are moving among connections to each other, we are learning. And we are not
waiting.
Embedded in these propositions and questions are some shifts in the ranking of values held dear by
institutions (and I point out that education is what institutions do, learning is what individuals do). Indeed,
one of those shifts is a movement down the value ladder of the importance of hierarchies by position and
institutional imprimatur. Another is the elevation of the fluidity of in-group/out-group decisions and the
values associated with reciprocity.
An open question is the place that the value of diminishing suffering will hold. When education is
embedded into this community-world, the promises of education have a chance to be fulfilled by
versions of what we now call “at-a-distance.” Access will increasingly be realized by definition of whether
the communities we join and interact with are indeed communities of learning. In and of itself, these

propositions and their realization in education will be a part of Access will increasingly
social change. Will their realization accelerate learning? Perhaps, be realized by definition
but will they deepen it? That is harder to say. Will distance educa-
tion promote lifelong learning across cultures and nations? Quite
of whether the
likely. Will it be helping the underserved, and will the underserved, communities we join and
again by definition, be those who are not participating in the interact with are indeed
socio-educational networks? How will education fulfill promises communities of learning.
that it “shall be directed to the full development of the human
personality?” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948).
So if we accept these 20 propositions—or at least a significant proportion of them—as fundamentals of

the future, at least four big questions face distance education and those of us who will co-create it:
1. What are the roles and responsibilities of education- and educators-at-a-distance if delivering
courses is not where the meaningful conversations and learning are mostly going to be?
2. Can education tend to the emotional and moral development of people at all ages at a distance?
3. What of those pursuits that have built their traditions and quality on apprenticing, such as scientists,
musicians, artists?
4. What will be the business models to sustain the enterprise?
To give initial voice in response to these questions, I am joined by four thought-provoking commentators:
Beth Rubin, Carla R. Payne, Dennis Glenn, and James Moore.
What are the roles and responsibilities of education- and educators-at-a-distance if delivering
courses is not where the meaningful conversations and learning are mostly going to be? By
Beth Rubin
The world is wired, linked and connected. Friedman (2005) claims that the world is flat, and certainly
when information flows through billions of servers from one part of the globe to another, how can
knowledge and education be far behind? Learners no longer need universities to develop knowledge or
even skills; content is cheap, and knowledge networks such as user groups or blogs answer questions in
a matter of hours. More than two hundred billion e-mail messages are sent daily. People collaborate on
wikis. They text and they Twitter. So what becomes of the role of educators in this wired world?
The traditional faculty role of “Fount of Information” and “evaluator of answers” is certainly gone. It is easy
to say that educators—particularly those who provide online education—must facilitate learning in this
new environment. They can introduce people to resources—the databases, the blogs, the readings and
books, the videotaped lectures, the online study questions. Then they can structure questions and pose
tasks for students to explore the resources and apply concepts. Essentially, in this model educators are
tour guides, bringing students on the “bus” to virtual locations, providing some guidance and maps, and
then waiting while the students explore—getting out of the way as people learn and connect. Perhaps
educators add a suggestion, question, or comment from time to time, as the learners expand their
horizons and build mastery.
However, while this model is attractive, it simply isn’t realistic. First, learning—exploring new concepts,
developing new skills, asking and probing powerful and realistic questions—is hard work. In the majority
of Internet communications, people just aren’t doing this, at least not yet. People are having fun, playing,

sharing, and learning around the edges. But only a rare few are developing college-level mastery on their
own. For most people, self-exploration leads to surface knowledge across a range of issues but not deep,
contextualized, transformational knowledge. It’s no different than walking into a giant bookstore—all the
information is available, as are people to help explore it. But few take the time to develop mastery, even
with a guide to point out what information is in each section.
So how can educators mediate meaningful conversations and deep learning in this quick, zoom-in-and-out
world? This has never been easy; adding a culture of speed and the expectation of answering a question
in 30 words does not make it more likely. In this world, educators need to play several roles. One such
role is that of lead investigator, sharing knowledge and posing problems, and guiding the search for solu-
tions as well as the processes used. Instructors are, in essence, senior researchers sharing a learning lab,
responsible for ensuring that the tools are appropriate and that the learning processes provide valid and
reliable answers. That tension between independence and control allows educators a range of latitude
and ensures that students have a way to distinguish information in personal blogs written by neophytes
from grounded, research-based information.
A second role is that of Socratic questioner. This role, as old as formal education in the western world, is
ideally suited to the wired world of instant access to information. The iterative probing for root causes,
constraints, and distinctions serves to motivate and guide learning. It situates the learning in the learner
and helps to make meaning from the jumble of connections, resources, and facts.
The third role is that of architect of learning experiences. Effective online educators ask themselves,
“What do my students need to be able to do? What is the information good for?” It may be to make
effective decisions, to design plans, to explain and solve problems, to write arguments, or a million other
tasks. The educator creates a learning experience in which students need to do those things. This often
involves breaking tasks into smaller units, for iterative development of skills. Then the educator provides
guidance on how to find the resources and ensures that students have access to evaluation and feedback.
Feedback may come from fellow students, professionals in other parts of the world, or the educator.
Wherever it comes from, it is an essential part of the process. The learning goals and key tasks, as well as
the output, are designed by the educator, and the process is loosely (or tightly) guided.
In a wired world, the “sage on the stage” usually is not the most expert person in whatever he or she is
teaching. On the other hand, unguided wandering through the Internet does not make for an educated
adult. Through structuring learning experiences, Socratic questioning, and leading the research team,
educators can help learners to harness and make both meaning and an education out of the many
resources and people available across the Internet.
Can education tend to the emotional and moral development of people at all ages at a
distance? By Carla R. Payne
“Education,” “emotional and moral development,” and “people at all ages” are sufficiently inclusive terms
as to make any response to the question highly speculative. We do know that the physical proximity
of teacher and student is not always the critical element in significant learning. If it were, there would
be no long history of serious letter writing with its undeniable intellectual and moral influence. We also
know that the answer must be partially negative, because
Information technology can the psychosocial development of young children depends
serve our best interests if we largely on the proximity of nurturing adults.
are deliberate and thoughtful Information technology, of which distance education is just
in how we deploy it. one application, can serve our best interests and some

of our most significant developmental needs, if we are deliberate and thoughtful in how we deploy
it. Aristotle knew that we are essentially social animals, that we do not become human except in the
company of other humans; in a polis, and not in isolation. Emotional and moral development needs
a social context. Much later, John Dewey elaborated this same insight, declaring the school a social
institution and education a social process. In “My Pedagogic Creed,” he said explicitly that “the best and
deepest moral training is precisely that which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with
others in a unity of work and thought” (1897).
Can technologically-mediated education provide this social context and foster this unity? We know that
it has not commonly been fostered by the educational system which it is rapidly changing. Conversation,
which is quintessentially social, an exchange between communicating parties, is a principal theme in the
20 propositions above. However, the traditional didactic relationship between instructor and student-
receptor is asymmetrical, and there is typically no authentic exchange. Conversation in its truest sense
requires a democracy of ideas, with all parties collaboratively sharing control of its flow and direction.
The design of existing IT systems does not always accommodate such a democracy because some
consumers are not fully persuaded that learning can happen without coercion. More recent applications,
including immersive environments and social networks, present the possibility of working in truly social
settings, but the introduction of new technologies will not effect needed change unless we change
our perspective. After all, have we started yet to include emotional and moral development among our
objectives in teaching?
What of those pursuits that have built their traditions and quality on apprenticing, such as
scientists, musicians, artists? By Dennis Glenn
In the past 50 years the United States has moved from an economy based on manufacturing entities to
knowledge-based institutions. Peter Drucker in the late 1960s wrote: “Knowledge, during the last few
decades, has become the central capital, the cost center, and the crucial resource of the economy” (1992,
9). Additionally, Drucker stressed the importance of technology in the growth of world economies.
How does this emphasis on technology affect the traditional education methods used by artists, musi-
cians, and scientists since the middle ages to acquire the skills needed to perform in these domains?
Does this suggest that the apprenticeship model—one of the best methods used to transfer tacit
knowledge—cannot be adapted to today’s student environments?
The time-honored apprenticeship method, where young learners worked at low wages to a “master
craftsman,” insured that the learner received continuous performance feedback. This feedback loop, or
instruction that is embedded in the response of the world around us to what we do and say, is crucial to
our new understanding of adult learning.
Cognitive Apprenticeship is a method of teaching aimed primarily at teaching the processes

that experts use to handle complex tasks. The focus of this learning-through-guided-experi-
ence is on cognitive and metacognitive skills, rather than on the physical skills and processes of
traditional apprenticeships. (Collins, Brown and Newman 1989, 457)
Computer-based learning environments allow the student to apprentice anyone, anywhere, and at any
time. “Knowledge is created and enhanced socially as people build on each others’ contributions, and a
social or network infrastructure needs to be in place to facilitate social knowledge creation” (Nambisan
and Sawhney 2008, 37). Now there is no limit to the number of connections a student can create in
search of tacit knowledge; knowledge requiring skills and personal experiences that is difficult to acquire
without continuous mentoring.

Traditional apprenticeships in the arts, music, and science, where “hands-on” protocols are required,
have entered mainstream education channels through the use of advanced broadband networks. The
Internet2 (http://www.internet2.edu/) has been a leader in fostering these applications.
Master classes, performances, and workshops with the New World Symphony are just some of the
many examples of interactive networked apprenticeships. Virtual simulations in medical education are
enabling surgery with real time tactile feedback to the remote surgeon (see: http://www.nextmed.com/
mmvr_proceedings.html), and a virtual surgical patient is in the works that assesses cognitive skills of
surgeons for maintenance of certification.
In today’s multicultural society, social networks provide individuals with professional and personal
mentoring opportunities. Problem solving most likely will engage multiple experts, thus providing breath
to solutions not available before without great difficulty and expense. These communities of practice
center around people whose roles are based on their abilities and skills. “Where knowledge legitimately
exists in tacit bodies, knowledge-based strategies should not focus on collecting and disseminating
information, but rather on creating a mechanism for practitioners to easily identify and reach out to other
practitioners” (Frappaolo 2006, 88).
Computer-based apprenticeships are alive and well and growing. Technology will enable more people to
benefit from this educational paradigm. I need to leave you with my favorite quote from Peter Drucker:
The more productive the appointment, the more enjoyable it also is as a rule, and the more
satisfaction does it offer to the individual. This is particularly true today where employment of
the greatest productivity in the developed countries increasingly is not manual work but knowl-
edge work, which offers the individual greater opportunity to make his living by doing what he
enjoys and what he feels pride in. (1992, 9)
What will be the business models to sustain the enterprise? By James Moore
The only viable, long-term business model to sustain the enterprise is love. Students must love the online
university. Educators must love teaching through and with the enterprise. Both parties then enter into a
long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. There we go. Problem solved.
It is my belief that universities must provide two basic functions: an environment in which learning
takes place and a way to certify/assess that the learning has occurred. Since an online learner has the
option of studying anywhere, anytime, the traditional view is that online learners have fewer ties to a
particular institution and will flit from online provider to online provider—looking for the cheapest and
most convenient courses. Some think that to survive, universities will need to achieve efficiencies of
scale; building and publishing vast online courses developed by a host of professors and co-taught by an
array of graduate assistants. Ultimately this is a soul-destroying endeavor. It may be financially prudent in
the short term and appropriate for a fast food chain or a big box retailer, but chasing the lowest cost in
education— without attention given to other important components—can only lead to disaster.
Historically, universities have directed money into sport

Problem solving most likely will as a way of building brand loyalty (the love). Typically a
coach is paid a great deal of money to achieve national
engage multiple experts, thus ranking and competitive success for the university
providing breath to solutions not team. I think the concept of “coach” needs to be shifted
available before without great somewhat. Universities are dysfunctional monoliths
difficulty and expense. with a complex set of policies and procedures. Students

Chasing the lowest
rarely take advantage of all that a university (and life in general) has cost in education—
to offer because everything is too complex. They need the focus of without attention given
a lifelong learning coach to guide and push them to success. Whilst
students may fondly reminisce on a particular professor who made
to other important
a particular topic come alive, they become raving fans of an advisor components—can only
who guided their entire set of studies, an advisor who helped them lead to disaster.
navigate the byzantine paths of the university, an advisor who truly
knew who the student was and what the student wanted out of life. The advisor is the lifelong learning
coach. We should put our money there.
For the enterprise to succeed, it should recruit a phalanx of advisors. Universities need to invest in student
support services. These coaches become the face and the heart of the university, guiding students through
their online studies, reminding them of tasks to complete and courses to consider, ensuring they receive
the best financial advice, listening to the students, understanding the students, and then articulating what
the university has to offer.
This relationship does not end with the award of a degree, because learning never ends. Through the
advisor, the university becomes the place where a lifelong learner charts his or her progress through life.
Since the enterprise now fully understands the needs and aspirations of the student, the university can
develop personalized courses that accompany career and retirement. The student never “leaves” the
university, although they may graduate many times.
So how do you ensure that educators love teaching online? The short answer is by providing exemplary
training and support as well as creating an infrastructure in which communication is seamless and efficient.
The longer answer is a work in progress.
“Yes, David, there’s something more for computers than storing memos…”
References
Collins, A., Brown, J.S. and Newman, S.E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading,
writing and matematics. In L.B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning and instruction: Essays in honor of
Robert Glaser (pp. 481-482). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dewey, J. 1897. My pedagogic creed. The School Journal 54 (3): 77–80.
Drucker, P. F. 1992. The age of discontinuity. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Friedman, T. 2005. The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux.
Frappaolo, C. 2006. Knowledge management. West Sussex, England: Capstone Publishing.
Levine, F., C. Locke, D. Searls, and D. Weinberger. 1999. The Cluetrain manifesto: The end of business as
usual. New York: Cluetrain. http://www.cluetrain.com.
Moore, M., and G. Kearsley. 1996. Distance education: A systems view. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Nambisan, S., and M. S. Sawhney. 2008. The global brain. Upper Saddle, N.J: Wharton School Publishing.

Saettler, P. 1990. The evolution of American educational technology. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. December 10, 1948. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html.
About the Authors

Morris Fiddler is a Professor and Faculty Mentor to students at the School for New Learning, DePaul
University (Chicago)…and a friend and colleague of David Justice.
Beth Rubin is an Assistant Professor and the Director of SNL Online at DePaul University. She has an MA
and PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has spent the last 10 years in online learning, serving
as curriculum director, faculty manager, director of assessment, and dean of academic administration at
Cardean University and DeVry Online. She conducts research and writes about how to support effective
online learning.
Carla R. Payne holds a BA, MA, and PhD in Philosophy and has spent most of her working career in
interdisciplinary programs at progressive institutions—from Goddard to Vermont College as part of
Norwich University and then with Union Institute & University. Retired in 2006, she has continued to
teach philosophy and ethics online for the Community College of Vermont and to think and write about
the philosophy of education, recently editing Information Technology and Constructivism in Higher
Education: Progressive Learning Framework to be published by IGI Global in 2009.
Dennis Glenn holds an MFA, is a former Assistant dean for Distributed Education and Visual and
Curriculum Design Specialist at Northwestern University, and he has created a consulting company to
serve the healthcare industry. He is currently building an online virtual patient simulation to prepare
surgeons for recertification. As a consultant to many corporations and educational organizations, he has
designed learning systems, curriculum, business plans, and classrooms for synchronous and asynchro-
nous learning environments.
James Moore is the Director of Online Learning for DePaul University’s College of Commerce. David
Levin and David Justice gave him his first job in the United States, where he moved from his birthplace of
England, for which he is eternally grateful.

Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future
A Conversation between Pamela Tate and Robert Deahl about the
Past 35 Years in Adult Learning
Edited by Rebecca Klein-Collins
This special issue of the CAEL Forum and News is in part about remembrances. As we recognize CAEL’s
35th anniversary, we have also invited many of our authors to honor the memory and contributions of one
person to the field of adult learning with articles on their current work and the future of the field. David
Justice was a special person to our CAEL family for most of our 35 years. He served on the CAEL Board
of Trustees, worked with us on countless initiatives, and was a good friend and advisor.
Robert Deahl, dean of the College of Professional Studies at Marquette University, recently spoke with
David’s wife, CAEL President and CEO Pamela Tate, about the past, together identifying milestone or
watershed moments in adult learning that the two of them witnessed along with David over the past 35
years. Bob and Pam also discussed what is noteworthy about the current stage in our history, as well as
what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.
Bob: Pam, adult and lifelong learning have been an emerging

focus in higher education for several decades now. Who would Adults and how they
you say are some of the key figures – nationally and internationally are served by higher
– who have shaped and influenced this landscape? education became
Pam: I would have to start with Morris Keeton, the founder of CAEL. front and center in the
Morris really was the most influential person in linking adult learning 1970s largely because of
to experiential learning. I really believe that adults and how they are
Morris Keeton’s focus on
served by higher education became front and center in the 1970s largely
because of his focus on learning assessment and experiential learning. learning assessment and
He was a thought leader and a writer in the field who influenced a lot of experiential learning.
people and convinced major foundations to get behind this idea.
I would also hold up Jim Hall, who founded the National Center for Adult Learning. This Center and the
research that it funded, particularly in the 1970s, was very influential in shaping the field. Jim was able
to pull together many important voices through the Center and give attention to the subject of adult
learning. Bob, I remember that you and David were both charter fellows of the NCAL!
When I think about other individuals, I cannot help but think of some of the people that CAEL has
already honored with the Morris T. Keeton award. I cannot mention all of them, but people like Art
Chickering and David Kolb have both been important thought leaders. Kolb has put forth theories about
experiential learning and brought attention to it in the context of adult learning theory [see article in this
issue by David Kolb and Alice Kolb], and Chickering has been a leading force in innovative practices for
adult learners that are well grounded in theories of adult learning and development. I must also mention
Barry Sheckley, whose creative thinking and research on the human brain and learning has influenced
many of us in this field.
The Keeton award has also recognized important practitioners like Joel Reed of Alverno College in
Milwaukee, and Ben Massey at the University of Maryland, both of whom practiced the principles we
espoused on their campuses.

There are so many other people in early leadership
What’s interesting in looking positions at institutions who took the lead and laid new
back at these individuals groundwork. That’s where David [Justice] fits in. He worked
during these early years at the Fund for the Improvement of
is that their innovative work Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and in his role there, he
all seemed to blossom at funded adult learning and experiential learning experiments
the same time in the 1970s. at many institutions. Other early leaders at FIPSE – Virginia
We’ve been building on Smith, Chuck Bunting, Russ Edgerton, Rusty Garth, and
Alison Bernstein, to name just a few – were also an influence
their early work ever since.
on colleges by funding this very important experimental work
on campuses.
So, in my mind, there are the philanthropic funders, the policy makers who created FIPSE, the campuses,
and the researchers/writers. All of them have played a role in shaping the landscape.
Bob: I like the way you’ve organized your answers in this category. When I think back to my years at
Alverno, not only was Joel Reed influential, but so was Austin Doherty, who championed faculty develop-
ment and outcomes-based learning – and I believe served on the CAEL Board for some years, including
serving as Chair. I think of Marcia Mentkowski, whose longitudinal studies showed how adult learners are
affected five years out and beyond. I also recall David’s and my work with NCAL. The first time I met both
of you was at the NCAL, and since then you and CAEL have had so much influence on the field and our
work, giving insightful wisdom on how our work in adult learning should take shape.
I would also include those who helped convene people in the field. For example, Norman Longworth
from the University of Stirling in the UK has been instrumental in convening businesses and institu-
tions around the world, hosting several global conferences on adult learning. And I would also include
people like Parker Palmer, who had what I would call a “spiritual” influence on the field. He saw our role
as teachers as a vocation, and he talked about how our commitments can be engaged in a way that
helps shape students’ lives.. Also noteworthy was Lee Shulman at Carnegie, who helped move us from
pedagogy to practice and then back again. His call for reflective teaching practices has influenced many
of our faculty as they teach adult students. I’m sure we’re missing so many others, but these were really
key individuals.
Pam: What’s interesting in looking back at these individuals is that their innovative work all seemed to
blossom at the same time in the 1970s. Even the creation of entirely new institutions like Empire State
College, Thomas Edison, and Regents College (which is now Excelsior) occurred during those years.
Experimentation was everywhere during this stage. We’ve been building on their early work ever since.
Bob: When would you say that adult learning became a workforce development issue for
businesses and for state governments?
Pam: When I think back to CAEL’s early work with companies and labor unions starting in 1984, I have
to say that we were probably ahead of our time. Lifelong learning was not an economic development or
workforce issue for employers or policy makers back then. But probably the first time we saw companies,
labor and higher education coming together on the topic of adult learning was in the formation of the
Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners (CNLL). The idea for this Commission arose in 1994, with
the activities of the Commission taking place in 1996-1997. By that time, ten years after CAEL had started
working with companies, it was evident that we had to bring together all of these groups to create a
vision for lifelong learning in the U.S.

The CNLL was an exciting development. You might remember People like Thomas
that Vice President Al Gore spoke at the 1997 national CAEL Friedman put a spotlight
conference which was sponsored by CAEL and its partners in on the fact that the
the Commission work – the former Regents College, Empire
State College and the American Council on Education. That was
U.S. is falling behind
a big moment because it was the first time that someone in a other nations in degree
major position in government was paying attention to the issue production – an issue that
of lifelong learning. Had Gore advanced to the presidency in in the late 1990s was not
2000, we can imagine that the work and recommendations of the
even on anyone’s radar.
Commission might have really taken off, since he really under-
stood the link between economic competitiveness and learning.
When that did not happen, we experienced a bit of a hiatus until around 2004-2005 when a different
kind of alarm bell was rung in national research reports and by people like Thomas Friedman in his
book The World Is Flat. These reports and publications put a spotlight on the fact that the U.S. is
falling behind other nations in degree production – an issue that in the late 1990s was not even on
anyone’s radar. Suddenly, there was lots of action from government. States and their governors started
initiatives designed to “grow our own” college graduates, and they began campaigns to get more adults
into college. Just witness initiatives like Job Ready Pennsylvania, Education Pays and Go Higher in
Kentucky, and Oklahoma’s Reach Higher initiative. All of these states began to see the connection
between adult learning and economic success, and most of these initiatives have only come about in
the last five to six years.
I cannot help but think about how dramatic the shift in thinking has been, especially over the past
25 years. When CAEL started working with Ford and the United Auto Workers in 1984, many of our
members and our board were really puzzled by what we were doing. Many wondered what companies
and unions had to do with adult learning and CAEL’s mission to help adults access a college education.
What strikes me is that no one would ask those questions today. Everyone now knows that workforce
development and higher education are totally intertwined and that adult learning affects an individual’s
career opportunities in a big way. And of course, we need to engage with business because that is where
the adult learners are. I think that’s a sea change, I really do. I don’t think there’s any one single event
that caused it, but I do believe that CNLL was a watershed moment as it was one of the first multi-sector
events of its kind, with Morton Bahr, President of the Communications Workers of America, as its Chair
and with many influential individuals from business and higher education serving as commissioners.
Bob: Your reflection on the impact of the Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners is interesting
to me because, from my own institution’s perspective, the Commission did, in fact, have immediate and
long-lasting impact. For one of the Commission’s presentations in Washington D.C., I had reached out to
several of our other 27 Jesuit universities. Together, colleagues from Marquette, Georgetown, Creighton,
Fairfield, Regis and Loyola, New Orleans presented to CNLL about how Jesuit education was having an
impact worldwide in helping adults access an educational experience that can truly be life-transforming
Since then, our 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in North America have continued to network with
businesses in the U.S., with the 29 Jesuit colleges and universities in Central and South America, and with
Jesuit institutions throughout Asia and Europe. We are now talking about forming a virtual Jesuit college
together. CNLL was a seminal moment for us and it triggered so many great activities for our network.
Pam: It is encouraging to think that even though we did not have an impact at the federal level, we might
have influenced activities that we do not even know about. It would be interesting to learn what else may
have happened in institutions and at the state level.

I cannot help but think about
Bob: Do students see themselves differently now than
how dramatic the shift has they did, perhaps, 25 or 35 years ago? And if so, what
been. Everyone now knows are some of those differences?
that workforce development
Pam: Back then, adults were such a minority, and so they
and higher education are were a lot more willing to take whatever colleges offered.
totally intertwined and Today, though, adults are more savvy consumers of educa-
that adult learning affects tion. There are a lot more of them, so they naturally have
an individual’s career a larger voice. But they are also more assertive about
opportunities in a big way. their needs.
Another difference is that now colleges are reaching out

to more underserved and disadvantaged adult populations, especially community colleges. One result
is that we now serve younger adult learners. They are not just in their 30s or 40s; rather, they may just
as likely be in the 21-28 year old range. Although they are young, they have families and jobs and heavy
responsibilities. They often do not have much money, and they are holding down multiple low-wage jobs
to support their families. Back in the 1970s, the adults we were serving were primarily from the middle
class—those who could afford tuition or whose employers were paying. These are different times, and it
feels like a big change.
At last year’s CAEL conference, Linda Thor from Rio Salado College spoke about another change in the
student population. She differentiated between “digital immigrants” and “digital natives.” Digital natives
are the individuals – and I think by definition we are talking about younger populations – who are much
more comfortable with using technology for learning. The adult student population today spans everyone
from their 20s to their 70s, so colleges need to cope with people who have very different comfort levels
with technologies. Twenty years ago, colleges did not have to take that into account.
Bob: We are seeing all of that in Milwaukee as well. I would add, too, that another trend we are seeing is
that adult learners in their 30s and 40s are asking for service learning opportunities. Even though these
individuals are struggling to balance work, family and daily life, they also want the opportunity to reach
out in a civically engaged way. They want to know if they can make that a part of their educational experi-
ence. With the Obama Administration’s similar focus on service, we may be entering a brand new era of
civic engagement. At our Marquette University College of Professional Studies, we are exploring ways in
which we can more intentionally integrate civic engagement and social responsibility into our curriculum
and our programs.
Pam: I don’t know if you saw the recent study by Metlife that examined what baby boomers intended to
do after retirement. A huge percentage of them wanted to do something they would call public service
– teaching, healthcare and working in other fields that contribute to the public good. Maybe the trend
you are observing with this younger cohort is a combination of the call from the president and a group of
people born to the baby boomer generation for whom service was important.
Bob: We have seen some of the service focus in the older population as well. Marquette has assumed
delivery of a 30-year-old program called Future Milwaukee, which is an opportunity for working adults
from different professions to take part in an 8-month leadership program. People have been saying that
we need to develop a second tier— maybe something like Wisdom Milwaukee – for people in the older
age group who want to give back but don’t know how to get started.

Another trend we are
Bob: From your perspective, what are some of the key seeing is that adult
trends that are shaping how we view teaching and learners in their 30s and
learning today?
40s are asking for service
Pam: I think the first big one is the trend toward learning online learning opportunities.
and social networking. Online learning has represented a major Even though these
change in the way education is delivered, and I don’t think that
could have happened without the investment of the Alfred P.
individuals are struggling
Sloan Foundation. For a period of about 10-15 years, Sloan has to balance work, family
given millions of dollars to colleges to develop these delivery and daily life, they also
systems. That has made an enormous difference in making online want the opportunity to
learning opportunities more widely available. This, combined with
reach out in a civically-
the advent and spread of broadband access and the rapid rise in
the use of social networking tools for learning and research, has engaged way.
truly transformed traditional education.
Another trend is simply the growing number of adults that make up the student body. When you have
adults comprising almost half of all students on campus, it can’t help but drive change in systems and
services. For example, I see renewed interest in prior learning assessment. Sure, there were a lot of colleges
doing PLA in the 1970s, but now we are seeing a new group of institutions offering it because companies
who offer tuition benefits to their workers don’t want to pay for training that’s been done already.
Acceleration and shorter time-to-degree are also more important now and result from the drive to lower
costs and achieve greater efficiency. Companies care about these issues now. They didn’t ten and twenty
years ago.
As an aside, I want to share that CAEL has been noticing more and more how companies are really valuing
postsecondary education now. In this current recession, very few firms have eliminated training and tuition
assistance as they tended to do in past downturns. That didn’t happen this time, and it’s the worst recession
we’ve seen.
Bob: We’ve noticed the same thing here. As you know, Marquette has had a relationship with Harley
Davidson for the past 14 years, and even though Harley has had lots of layoffs, they aren’t cutting their
education budget either. There is a value there that wasn’t recognized 20 years ago, and that’s good to hear.
Back to the topic of online learning… what’s interesting to me about this trend is that it is allowing us to
reach a global student population. On the one hand, this means that adult learners in the U.S. are
exposed to people in different parts of the world. There is great potential from cross-pollination of
culture, and we are probably at the early stages of seeing what we can do with that. On the other hand,
universities are seeing that there may be social justice aspects to reaching learners in different corners of
the world. As one example of this, with the help of a philanthropic supporter and in partnership with five
of our North American Jesuit universities, the Australian Jesuit university is delivering online learning
programs to refugees on the border of Burma, extending opportunities to people who would never have
access to it otherwise.
Bob: How do you see the world of online learning – exploding as it is all over the globe – changing
the way we think about education, personal development and professional training?
Pam: Your Burma story is a great example of what the internet and online learning can do globally for
people who don’t have opportunities. In addition, we are seeing how professional associations and profes-
sional training programs are being transformed by having global online reach. For example, CAEL is working
with the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) – these are the people who manage

intellectual property that is produced by faculty research within the university; they help obtain patents
and translate those patents into commercial ventures. The AUTM has been interested in forming an
international curriculum for training university technology managers, and making it a certified profes-
sion. To do this, they are forming a federation of similar organizations worldwide which will develop an
online academy for people to be enrolled all over the world. They would never have been able to do this
without the reach of online learning. They’ve never had a chance to communicate common standards
until now. So the lesson from this example is that it is not only formal education that is changing, but also
professional development. Before now, a professional wanting this kind of training would attend a confer-
ence or take a workshop. That is not sustainable for a field that has become so global and so important.
Looking at it from a completely different angle, we need to acknowledge how online learning has changed
instruction more generally. We’ve learned that when instructors go through the process of converting
their material to an online format, it forces them to think about how to integrate different kinds of inter-
active approaches. You cannot see the students, you cannot call on people like you do in the classroom,
and so primitive ways to achieve interaction are no longer an option. This forces instructors to think
differently about engaging students, and this carries over into their classroom teaching as well.
Bob: Also, from the student’s perspective, online learning is giving millions of students a voice. For
students who might not normally be very vocal in the classroom – the online environment gives them a
more comfortable way to have a voice.
Pam: Exactly. But it must also be said that even in our programs where the entire degree is online,
students still want to have a way to meet. In the online degree programs we manage for the National
Coalition for Telecommunications Education and Learning (NACTEL), the telecommunications workers
come to graduation at Pace University because they want to meet each other, as well as the staff and
faculty at Pace, after all this learning on line.
Bob: …which goes to Parker Palmer’s point that education is a community experience. People want that
experience, even in an online program.
Bob: Finally, as we look to the future, what would you say is one key way in which education will
be different in the next 5-10 years?
Pam: I think that one profound change is that knowledge creation is increasingly happening outside the
academy – one of the best examples is information technology. The implications of this are that people
must figure out a way to recognize learning and knowledge created outside of education, coming from
many places. I don’t want to see colleges and universities merely as credentialing bodies; they should
still create knowledge. But they can’t be the only ones. This suggests the rebirth of prior learning assess-
ment, and perhaps also less arrogance about who can create knowledge. We should expect to see more
egalitarianism in terms of knowledge creation.
Additionally, I would point to the erratic and unpredictable behavior and life patterns of individuals in our
society. People’s lives don’t follow the normal patterns we expect people to follow. Work, learning, family,
interaction with community… they are all occurring in very unpredictable ways, even for younger students.
At the same time, the world is a much more difficult place to navigate. So it becomes hard to imagine
many people following the old pattern: graduate from high school, then four years of college paid for by
parents, then a full-time job and career in a single field. It just isn’t like that anymore for the vast majority
of people. That traditional vision will soon be seen as the nontraditional vision, perhaps reserved only for
the privileged among us. This will mean that colleges will need to reinvent not only their teaching delivery
systems, but their student services and outreach mechanisms.

Bob: I’ve also been thinking of the emergence of social networking as a key indicator/metaphor for where
things are going. These are vehicles in which people self-select and build a community. I see education
inching into that realm, where learning and degrees are defined from the bottom up. With the difficulties
of modern life, the linear model doesn’t work anymore. Now we have more organic, self-selecting opera-
tions, and this will push institutions to operate differently.
Pam: Social networking is definitely something that we will probably need to emphasize and learn from
now, but it’s certainly not the “silver bullet.” While people can twitter and text message, they may not
necessarily be able to read and write well. People still need to have the capacity for effective communi-
cation and complex thought – what colleges and universities teach better than anyone. Traditional institu-
tions’ ability to integrate the tools of and lessons from social networking – and other technologies – into
their own operations may be an important way to serve adult learners in the 21st Century.
Bob: While neither of us has a crystal ball, I suspect the changes we will witness in the next 5 to 10 years
will match and surpass the great sea of change that we have been a part of for the past 35 years. Exciting
times indeed!
About Robert Deahl

Bob Deahl has been involved with adult and experiential learning for the past 25 years including the past
15 years in his role as the dean of the College of Professional Studies at Marquette University. Bob is a
Charter Fellow of the National Center on Adult Learning, past and founding Chair of the Commission
on Accelerated Programs (CAP) Executive Committee, and past president of the Association of Jesuit
Colleges and Universities (AJCU) deans of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE). Bob has been an
active participant and presenter at both CAP and CAEL and was part of the faculty at Alverno College
in the late 1980’s. Bob earned his Doctoral Degree in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in
Rome, Italy and has studied and worked in Paris, France, Jerusalem, Israel, Cape Town, South Africa and
Calcutta, India.
About Pamela Tate

Pamela Tate is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in facilitating workforce education
and training programs among educational institutions, business, labor, government and economic
development agencies, and for her efforts in assisting colleges and universities to develop systems of
Prior Learning Assessment and quality assurance in adult learning programs. Tate has been directly
involved with the design and implementation of CAEL’s tuition assistance management and employee
learning programs since 1986, when CAEL launched its first education, training and career counseling
program for what was then U S WEST Communications and the Communications Workers of America.
As a presenter, she is regularly sought out for her vision and insights into adult learning and workforce
development and their vital relationship to the competitiveness of our workforce and the future of our
economy. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign with masters' degrees in both
English and Journalism. She completed her doctoral coursework at the Annenberg School of
Communications, University of Pennsylvania. In 1996, Tate was acknowledged for a career devoted to
expanding lifelong educational opportunities for adults with the Doctor of Humane Letters honoris
causa, conferred by SUNY Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, New York. In 2005, Tate was recog-
nized for her lifelong contributions to the field of adult learning and workforce development with the
Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa, conferred by the School for New Learning of DePaul
University. In 2007, Tate was awarded a third degree, Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa, by
Thomas A. Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey, in recognition of her success in building CAEL
and removing barriers to adult learners.
Reflections on the Life and Work of David O. Justice 55

Remembering David Justice
Marisa Alicea, PhD, DePaul University
David Justice was all about ideas. He was what we have now come to define popularly as a thought
leader. Eager to explore new ideas about learning, David asked how we could enhance students’ learning
and help them balance that with the demands of adult life. He hungered also to find ways to put ideas
about learning into action at the School for New Learning (SNL) and in higher education more broadly.
But more important, I say David was about ideas because he thought education and curricular programs
should be designed and shaped by students’ ideas and their curiosities. It was David’s strong conviction
that students should be agents of their own learning and education. David understood the difference
between education and learning.
I appreciated David’s visionary leadership and now, in his (large) shoes as the dean of the School for New
Learning, I welcomed the opportunity to write this article about his work at SNL and to think about the
ideas he held so dear: focusing on student learning, mining learning from experience, expanding access to
adults, and seeing the bigger picture. Indeed, the ideas that David championed and fought so hard for in
the 1970s are still viable and necessary today.
Addressing the Challenges Imposed by Institutions

David, like many leaders of non-traditional programs, worked to challenge both the larger University, and
more broadly, higher education. Adult learning programs like the School for New Learning, as well as
programs like Latino studies, African-American studies, women and gender studies, and queer studies
have all been engaged in the dual task of attempting to gain legitimacy within higher education, while
challenging these institutions and shifting the center of higher education outside itself. This dual strategy
has paid off as demonstrated by the success of these programs. The work of David Kolb, Art Chickering,
Elizabeth Tisdell, and other adult education scholars as well as Latino, African American, queer and
women’s studies scholars such as Gloria Anzaldua, Patricia Hill Collins and Gayatri Spivak have had
profound and far-reaching impact in shaping higher education.
Scholars who championed non-traditional curricular programs in the 1960s and 1970s have made
contributions that far extend beyond their own immediate educational and scholarly projects and have
had an impact not only nationally but internationally. We have advanced interdisciplinary, multi and
trans-disciplinary studies. We have succeeded in advancing scholarship concerning adult education, adult
learning, experiential learning and service learning. We have made great strides in developing and using
innovative teaching strategies and in expanding our understanding of adults, how they learn and what we
might do to enhance their learning. We have demanded that students’ experiences and their life realities
inform what was being taught and that they be used to help shape curricular programs.
David, like many non-traditional educators, advocated that students’ experiences be integrated into their
educational experience as a source of learning. He led us in engaging in what Mary Romero would call a
critique of higher education as the source of knowledge, research, and methodologies; and in uncovering
and questioning the traditional political agendas and power structures that produce knowledge and
learning (Romero 2000). David also championed processes and conceptual frameworks that were more
inclusive than in the past, that acknowledged and analyzed difference.

Addressing the Challenges Facing Institutions
The questions and challenges that face us today are no less urgent then they were in the 1960s and 70s.
Indeed the situation in our communities and the current economic times make the de-centering of our
universities from themselves to the communities in which they function unavoidable and necessary. How
do we place our students and the communities of which they are part at the center of what we do?
How do we enhance students’ ability to learn within the communities and context in which they live?
How do we enhance their ability to apply what they know to the problems and questions they and their
communities face?
Recently, at an institute for women in higher education administration, we spent a good bit of time
discussing how higher education will look and emerge as a different creature at the end of this current
economic crisis and that new opportunities for adult students are likely to emerge. For example, as Art
Levine (1997) has argued, government will no longer think of higher education as the growth industry
it was throughout most of the last century, but rather a mature industry that needs to become more
efficient. Government will demand that we demonstrate our effectiveness and will, as it does with other
industries such as health care, increasingly regulate higher education. As educators, we need to be at the
center of discussions concerning how effectiveness will be measured and against what criteria. While it
will be unlikely that we can avoid greater regulation, we will need to work to define policies that will be in
the best interest of our students and learning.
Furthermore, the United States continues to have a compelling need for high quality university education
for adults. Only 24% of the adult population has completed the baccalaureate degree. We once led the
world in educational attainment, but now rank lower than Australia (33%) and Great Britain (29%).
David, like other adult educators, would look at this as an opportunity and historical moment when we
must ensure that we are at the table advocating for adult students and eagerly exploring new progressive
ideas about learning and the demands of adult life so that we can shape institutions of higher education
for the future. Indeed, the ideas David championed within higher education and worked to put into
practice at SNL and within higher education in general can help inform higher education and adult
education programs going forward.
Focusing on Student Learning

Although David valued expert knowledge, what was important to him was less the content of knowledge,
but rather students’ learning. He came to understand the distinction between education and learning as
one of power. Who had the power and authority to define what and how students learned? For David it
was clear that it was students who should be in the driver’s seat.
I first met David in 1990 when he hired me as a faculty member at the School for New Learning.
Immediately I came to know David as a thoughtful man who held with great conviction progressive ideas
about education and learning. In the five or so years that David was dean of SNL after I arrived, I came to
understand that he quite simply worked to “de-center” the University and traditional ideas about educa-
tion. He wanted to place student learning at the center of what we do, in particular, student learning
within the context of their lives and the communities of which they are a part.
The idea that students’ curiosity had to drive their education informed the School for New Learning’s
undergraduate competence-based program when it was designed in 1973. Founding leaders created an
undergraduate competence framework as a way to organize a curriculum that was designed primarily
by the students for themselves. It was this idea that informed the enhancements and revisions we made
under David’s leadership.

Shortly after becoming dean, David led efforts to revise our undergraduate curriculum and worked to
maintain a program that allowed students to design their own learning plans, simultaneously creating
more opportunities for students to pursue their interests. For example, we created a variety of indepen-
dent learning options like Faculty Independent Studies (FDIS) and Guided Independent Studies (GIS).
At SNL, students can still sign up for independent studies designed by faculty based on their expertise
(FDIS) or can design their own independent study based on questions and knowledge they want to
pursue (GIS). The opportunity to write a competence statement of their own and to define how they will
demonstrate it with faculty as guides gives students numerous opportunities to determine what and how
it is they want to learn.
David’s notion – that it was students’ ideas that had to be the center of any new program we created
– also informed the School for New Learning’s first graduate program, the Master of Arts in Applied
Professional Studies. Drawing on the work of David Kolb, Art Chickering, and Donald Schön (author of
the Reflective Practitioner), David worked with Dr. Catherine Marienau, associate dean of the college
at the time, to create a graduate program that provided a structure that would allow students to satisfy
their curiosity and pursue their interests and ideas. David wanted to create a program designed to meet
students’ needs for learning beyond the B.A. degree, one that they could tailor to their own professional
and learning goals. Like our undergraduate degree program, the M.A. program is a competence-based
model that broadly defines guidelines and parameters students use to design a curriculum for them-
selves. The degree is designed to help students address professional as well as personal development
needs, gain skills in liberal learning as well as bring theory and practice together. It was David’s strong
conviction that learning had to be put into action.
Mining Learning from Experience

David was also a champion of lifelong learning, and central to this was his passion for promoting experi-
ential learning and its assessment. David worked with School for New Learning faculty to develop ways
in which we would help students draw meaning from their experience, and he led efforts to enhance our
assessment practices, especially concerning students’ learning from experience. He called on the faculty
to develop facets for our competences that we could use to better understand and assess student
learning, and that would help students in their own self-assessments.
These ideas and his work were closely tied to his interest in understanding how students could enhance
their learning within the context of their own lives. He believed that it was our job as educators to help
students elevate their expectations of what they could learn, particularly from their own histories and
daily lives.
David worked to create diverse and multiple forums, vehicles, strategies and structures that allowed
SNL to de-center the sites of knowledge production as defined by more traditional models of education
and learning. Like many progressive educators, he challenged underlying assumptions about people’s
ability to analyze, theorize and speak to their own realities and to use Foucault’s concept, “to speak truth
to power.” The competence framework was created in large part to help people learn to do just this—
recognizing the multiple sites of learning and analysis that adults use daily.
If David were still alive today and dean of our College, I can picture him looking through the windows of
what is now the SNL dean’s office, fourteen stories above the Chicago Loop area, and asking, “How can
we help people learn out there, within the context of their lives and not just primarily in here?” Today,
there is much being said about the need for continuous learning, David would add to this that we must
teach students how to continuously use their own experience as a source for learning and to enhance
their ability to mine learning from experience and to apply the knowledge they gain.

To do this, David realized that students needed learning coaches who went beyond the traditional
advising role; they needed faculty mentors who could help students understand and shape their own
education and learning, and help them find the resources they would need to do this. David urged us,
above all things, to be good mentors and to attend to the learning needs of our students.
Expanding Access
David also worked for higher education access for all students. He believed with great conviction that
learning and educational opportunities should be available to all those who desired them. He strove to
determine how to get the greatest number of people, and especially the underserved, to gain access
to institutions of higher education. It was the issue of access that inspired David to grow our college,
so that under his tenure it expanded from a College of 500 students to a College of 2,000. It was also
his passion for access that led him to pursue the idea of a bridge program with Truman College, one of
Chicago’s City Colleges, leading to a FIPSE grant and a program that still thrives today, having graduated
dozens of students.
Our bridge program with Truman extended the resources of our University to a two-year institution
and thus provided an avenue for underserved populations to earn entrance into a four-year institution.
Through the program, SNL faculty worked collaboratively with Truman faculty to design competence-
based courses that were then offered at the City College tuition rate to students at Truman. Both
Truman and SNL students could register for the classes, which were team-taught by an SNL and
Truman faculty member. Half the class sessions were held at Truman, and mid-semester the class
would begin meeting at DePaul University. In this manner, students could be easily acclimated to a
four-year university environment.
As the cost of education continues to increase and funding for adult students interested in pursuing
higher education becomes more limited, we will need more programs like this one to ensure that educa-
tion can be accessible to a diverse population and the traditionally underserved.
Seeing the Bigger Picture

Whenever we got bogged down with details, David was always good about reminding us how our prin-
cipal purpose was to help students put into practice what they learned and to integrate that learning into
their lives. It was important to him that students think seriously about how to put their learning to the
service, not only of one’s own and one’s family’s life, but also the lives of others.
David came to higher education shortly after the many movements for social justice of the 1960s and
the changes that came as a result of these. It was out of these movements that institutions like The
University without Walls, the New School, and academic programs like women’s studies, Latino and
African American studies emerged. He, like many of us involved in these movements, worked to change
higher education. David valued institutions of education and saw education as potential agents of change
in society, even while recognizing education’s limits.
David was constantly reminding us about the larger good we were trying to accomplish, wanting to
enhance the competence of the citizenry, and seeing education as an agent of change for social and
economic justice.
Future Challenges and SNL Currently

Like many leaders of non-traditional or alternative institutions, David had to navigate complexities. The
work he did, and the decisions he made, have ensured the lasting existence of our College. Although we
have adapted to many changes in student cohorts and models of learning over the years, we continue to

provide a robust alternative for adult students and believe we have also influenced our colleagues at the
larger DePaul, across the country as well as internationally.
David would be happy to know that our Truman bridge program has now become the Adult Bridge
program, and that we now partner with another City College of Chicago, Wright College, and hope to
collaborate with others. He would enjoy knowing that many of the students who have bridged over to
the School for New Learning’s program are individuals whose life realities would suggest that they are
the most unlikely in our society to go to college: poor immigrants, those of few economic means, some
formerly-incarcerated individuals who have turned their lives around, African-Americans, Latinos and
other traditionally underserved groups. Many have gone on to complete graduate degrees, and now
our program includes the option for students to be dually admitted to both Wright or Truman and
DePaul University.
Because he strongly believed that education could be an important agent of change for social, political
and economic justice, David took a lead role in launching our work in South Africa, which you can read
about in another article in this publication. There we helped a group of colleagues model their graduate
program after SNL’s while making adjustments to its design to be more appropriate for that cultural,
social, economic and political context. In addition, David would be pleased to learn that this past spring
an undergraduate degree for adult students was also modeled after ours at All Hallows College in Dublin,
and that other institutions here in the U.S. have done the same. We have also offered our own degree
programs in Hong Kong, Bangkok and currently in Kenya.
SNL’s distance education program now offers 60 courses a quarter and serves about 800 students a
year. When he first experimented with and launched nascent distance education opportunities, David
had access to higher education on his mind, but I don’t know that he foresaw the many technologies that
now exist, allowing us to provide learning opportunities unimaginable even 10 years ago. We have and
continue to improve tools that enhance the interactive nature of our programs.
Just last week I had an opportunity to meet a prospective student who was already in a graduate
program in organizational leadership and development at another institution, but hungered for more.
When I shared with her that our Master of Arts in Applied Professional Studies program would provide
her much room to follow her curiosity she immediately said – “That’s it! This is what I want. I want to
pursue questions and issues that come up in my workplace and in my field about which I am curious.” I
think David would be pleased and happy to know this and to know that we could and have provided her
and thousands of others the opportunity to claim, rather than simply undergo, their educations.
David, thank you for your ideas and work—they will continue to guide us and higher education in general
in the coming crucial years. Your colleagues, friends and I hope to continue to foster the vision of educa-
tion you held so deeply and labored to bring to fruition. Those ideas live in the thousands of students
who have graduated from SNL and are living their lives as better informed, more active, citizenry. You will
live on in our hearts and in the work of SNL.

References
Levine, A. 1997. Higher education’s new status as a mature industry. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
January 31.
Romero, M. 2000. Disciplining the feminist bodies of knowledge: are we creating or reproducing
academic structure?” NWSA Journal 12 (2): 148-162.
About the Author

Marisa Alicea was named dean of the School for New Learning (SNL) in April of 2008 after serving as
interim dean for the prior 10 months. Alicea began her tenure at DePaul in 1989 as associate director of
the Center for Latino Research. In 1990, she accepted an assistant professor position at the School for
New Learning and since then has she served in a variety of roles including director of undergraduate
programs for SNL at DePaul’s O’Hare Campus and associate dean for curriculum and instruction. During
her tenure at SNL she has mentored hundreds of students and has taught courses in the area of immigra-
tion studies, gender studies and Latino studies. Marisa earned a PhD in sociology from Northwestern
University with a specialization in race ethnicity and immigration. Her scholarship has been published
widely in journals, book reviews and articles. She also is the co-author of “Women Surviving Heroin:
Interviews With Methadone Users,” (2001, University Press) and co-editor of “Migration and Immigration:
A Global Perspective,” (2004 Greenwood Press). At DePaul, Alicea was named a St. Vincent DePaul
Professor in 2006.

Honoring David Justice
Remarks from Catherine Marienau, Faculty Mentor / Professor / Coordinator
Master of Arts in Educating Adults
Memorial Service at Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois

September 21, 2008
The first time I met David Justice was in 1974 at the University of Minnesota. As a project officer with
FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in Washington, DC), David was paying
a site visit to check out a project I was involved with. It would make for a better story if I could say that
we clicked at that first meeting and vowed to work together some day to reform higher education for
adult learners. But that’s not quite what happened. I recall that David liked our project and told me that I
needed to fire our crazy project director.
I met David again, six years later, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was leaving a year-long post as Professional
in Residence in the college of Education, and I was moving into that position for a year. This time we had
a good, long talk about the state of higher education, our ideas for innovation, and our commitments to
adult learners. But we didn’t make any vows at that meeting either.
Shortly after David was appointed dean of SNL at DePaul University, he invited me to apply for a new
associate dean position, to help him grow the undergraduate program and create the School’s first
graduate program. During my three days of interviews, David and I talked a great deal about adult
learners and learning, about the vital role of experience in learning, about the legitimacy of learning
outside the walls of academe, about students as agents of their own learning and change, and about
the challenges of building and sustaining true educational alternatives, even in a place as progressive as
DePaul. At that time, we did make a vow to work together to make a difference for adult learners, and,
ideally, for higher education.
So, 25 years later, I’m still with the School for New Learning, trying to carry on those ‘nontraditional
traditions,’ as David would say. And I live in Oak Park because, shortly after we started working together,
David and his late wife Marina convinced me to move to the west side to be their neighbor.
I have held a privileged place in David’s life over the past 25 years. I think that sharing the experience
of growing up rural—he in Indiana and myself in Minnesota-- helped account for the deep trust,
respect and care that we afforded each other, right from the start. David invited me to be his partner
in work… to share a vision, exchange ideas, work hard, create something new, take risks, learn from
mistakes. We created programs together, taught courses together, did consulting gigs together, and
wrote an article or two.
David also invited me to be his friend and to be part of his family. This included a strong friendship with
his late wife Marina for many years and a loving relationship with his wife Pam for the past 19 years. This
included David hosting my wedding reception at his home and later a baby shower for my daughter Anna.
And a special honor was David asking me to be his best man (‘best person’) at his marriage to Pam 19
years ago.
Shortly before David’s illness forced him to retire from DePaul, he worked on bringing “the Goodwork”
project from Harvard University to DePaul. David’s idea was to build on the Harvard research and help
folks in the 2nd and 3rd stages of life to be continually engaged in goodwork.

What does that mean? According to the Harvard researchers, goodwork means:
• doing something well
• doing something that benefits others
• doing something that matters to you
David didn’t need to go to Harvard University to discover the meaning of goodwork. This is how he
has defined and lived his life, certainly ever since I’ve known him. Others today will speak of David’s
goodwork at FIPSE, at CAEL, in South Africa, at the Frank Lloyd Wright School, and many other venues.
In our setting at SNL, David built the school from several hundred to over 2,000 adult students; he
created a full-time faculty; he launched our first graduate program; he built bridges with a 2-year college
so that persons who would never have had a shot at a 4-year college degree could earn one; and, he
crossed continents to advocate learning for all.
This would be a good time to share with you words from David’s colleague and friend, Anghesom Atsbaha,
who some 20 years ago was a refugee from Eritrea, and whom David mentored during Anghesom’s
undergraduate career at SNL. Anghesom is founding director of the Adult Bridge Program at Truman
College, to which I just referred. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at SNL, and went on to
earn his doctorate through National Louis University. He and David have had an extraordinary relation-
ship. I was with Anghesom during his last visit with David when he was able to share his heart. These are
Anghesom’s words:
I had the privilege of a private moment with David during his last days. I can only tell you what I
told him. I needed to let him know what his life and love means to me. There are no words that
can express the profound impact of his friendship, guidance, mentorship and how such rela-
tionships shaped my life in exile - the most challenging moments of my transition. No person
other than David had such a powerful influence on my professional life. He is the reason I am at
DePaul and stayed at DePaul for almost 20 years. I would never have considered the possibility
of finishing my degree and another degree at DePaul and to continue dreaming for more in
education without his consistent and genuinely collaborative spirit.
I cannot say goodbye to him…he will be always with me. We have so much common history...so
many memorable memories to treasure – especially our trip together to Eritrea and introducing
him to my country, my people and my family. Sometimes it’s impossible for me to imagine how
one person can be such a powerful influence and dependable system of support to others.
Knowing him was such a blessing and an inspiration. One measure of success of our lives is the
quality of friendship we create. Because of David I am wealthy from his wisdom, knowledge
and his dedication to humanity. Thank you David, I will never forget you. How can I forget you –
you built a bridge in my life.
David leaves many legacies. The one we just heard from Anghesom is about David’s respect and caring
for the individual and that person’s entitlement to learn, to grow, and to contribute.
Part of that legacy is David’s advocacy for lifelong learning—there is a large, framed poster that moved
from David’s offices at DePaul to his den at home. Simple and powerful words: “Learning Never Ends.”
It is no accident that David’s last position at DePaul was VP for Lifelong Learning—a position created
for him and by him – or that SNL established the David O. Justice Lifelong Learning Award when David
moved out of the dean position.

David’s legacy is that of Goodwork: ---doing well, doing for others, being with purpose---
With David, these qualities of “goodwork” were not just about work itself, what he got paid for or for
which he received awards. These same qualities have been there in his personal relationships, with his
“homeplace” family in Indiana, with his children and grandchildren, with his friends and colleagues, and
with his beloved wife, Pam.
This is how I will remember David. To borrow from his poster, “learning never ends”…and in honor of
David’s way of being—“loving never ends.”
About the Author

Catherine Marienau, PhD, is Professor/Faculty Mentor/Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Educating
Adults (MAEA) program at the School for New Learning (SNL), DePaul University where she has
worked since 1983. She worked closely with David Justice during his tenure as dean of SNL in her roles
as associate dean, founding director of the Master of Arts in Applied Studies (MAAPS) program, and
member of the full-time faculty. Catherine teaches and mentors in SNL’s BA and MA programs. Current
areas of consulting and writing include assessment of learning (incl. prior learning and self-assessment),
competence-based curriculum design, reflective practice, and women’s psychosocial development.
Catherine serves on the leadership group and advisory board for the Center to Advance Education for
Adults (CAEA), housed in SNL.

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Learning Never Ends

CAEL Forum and News 2009

Indeed, learning never ends. David, this one is for you.

The Forum and News Editorial Board

Access to Learning – Research and Practice

Learning from Experience

Educating for Social Change 33

Adult Learning in Africa

Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future 49

Reflections on the Life and Work of David O. Justice

Honoring David Justice 62

2 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

David will be greatly missed.

4 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Fixed vs. Learning Identities

Access to Learning – Research and Practice 5

6 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Strategies for Developing a Learning Identity

Access to Learning – Research and Practice 7

8 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Access to Learning – Research and Practice 9

10 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Access to Learning – Research and Practice 11

Freire, P. 1993. The pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Continuum Press.

12 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

About the Authors

Access to Learning – Research and Practice 13

14 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Learning from Experience 15

16 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

The Social System

The Executive System

Learning from Experience 17

18 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Principle 2: Build learners’ metacognitive reasoning skills.

Learning from Experience 19

20 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Learning from Experience 21

Hallinan, J. T. 2009. Why we make mistakes. New York: Broadway Brooks.

Lehrer, J. 2009. How we decide. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

About the Author

22 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Motivation and Cultural Pluralism

The Challenge and Potential of Innovation in Adult Learning

Although change can be a strenuous process, transformation among

The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching

24 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

How does the learning How does this learning

Copyright © 2000 by M.B. Ginsberg & R.J. Wlodkowski

4. Engendering Competence: Creating an understanding that learners have effectively learned

1. Establishing Inclusion: How do we create or affirm a learning atmosphere in which we feel

4. Engendering Competence: How do we create an understanding that learners have effectively

Workshop Mapping with the Motivational Framework

26 CAEL Forum and News, November 2009

Course Mapping with the Motivational Framework

Course Mapping with the Motivational Framework for

Use peer collaboration for community visits and journals.

Establishing Inclusion: Respect and Connectedness

…promote volition and greater personal relevance?

determining what to share in journals and class discussion.

Developing a Positive Attitude: Volition and Personal Relevance

…engage students in challenges that include their perspectives and values?

Enhancing Meaning: Challenge and Engagement

Provide ongoing instructor and peer feedback.