Personal Philosophy of Adult

Education
Rafaela Morales
The purpose of adult education
• To learn new skills to improve job performance.
• To learn new skills to get into a new career.
• Recertification purposes.
• Solve problems.
Role of the instructor
• Facilitate learner's journey by implementing andragogical learning
strategies.
• Recognize that adult learners are busy.
• Provide opportunities for students to communicate their needs via
needs assessments.
What should be taught
• Any topic that was repeatedly mentioned in needs assessment.
• Topics deemed relevant by majority of students.
• Self-directed by student.
How adult students best learn
• Discussions
• Reflections
• Self-directed learning
• Transformative learning is grappling with ideas that challenge their
schema, allowing for a new schema to emerge once the cognitive
dissonance has been resolved (Taylor, 5).
• Online courses
Discussions
• Students learn from each other by sharing ideas.
• Having discussions allows for different points of views to be
considered.
• Discussions can be through Zoom meetings, discussion boards, or live.
• Students that can consider multiple perspectives improve collaboration
skills, an integral job skill in a globalized workforce.
Reflections
• Reflection requires that students evaluate what they know and assess
its validity.
• It is an exercise in thinking about various other perspectives.
• It emphasizes the importance of experience and asks that students
evaluate that experience and those of others.
Self-directed learning
• Adult students decide what needs to be learned given his/her
circumstance.
• Adults are the decision makers of what is relevant to learn.
Transformative learning
• Challenges students to identify and rethink assumptions.
• Learning occurs when new knowledge is embedded into previous
knowledge and students continue to add new knowledge, thereby
changing their frame of reference in the process (Taylor).
Online courses
• Best addresses the time constraints that adult students face.
• Best practices for online learning consisting of clear requirements,
expectations, and objectives with an easily navigable website that can
be accessed by those with limited ability.
References

Mukhalalati, B. A., & Taylor, A. (2019). Adult learning theories in

context: A quick guide for healthcare professional educators. Journal of

Medical Education and Curricular Development, 6, 238212051984033.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120519840332