Teaching, Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners

Lessons for professionalism and partnership

Heather Fehring, Susan Rodrigues, Heather Fehring, Susan Rodrigues

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317335801
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The challenge for those coaching, mentoring, supervising or teaching adults is to design and deliver high-quality programmes that encompass a blend of teaching and learning approaches and strategies, that are constructed for adult learners in multiple educational environments and that cater for the diversity of adult learners' needs. Adult learners are complex individuals who come to the learning process with a multitude of different experiences. Teaching, Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners helps practitioners step up to this challenge by developing the skills needed to share their expertise with adult learners and engage them in new transformative practices.

This book also forms a timely contribution to the current period of evolution in adult education, where extreme changes in the nature and scope of work and the globalisation of work and life are influencing learning. The shift in adult education addressed in this book includes:

• the globalisation of the workforce and the cultural impact on adult, tertiary and further education
• the relationship established between adult educators and adult learners
• provision of adult education and professional development by private and major multimedia and corporate interests
• occupations boundaries between professions and between skilled and unskilled work
• assessing adult learners' needs and adapting strategies to meet the perceived needs of adult learners in medicine, education, psychology and industry
• designing learning experiences to maximise the processing of complex conceptual knowledge and then transforming the knowledge to fit new learning environments
• the role of new technologies of learning in adult and vocational learning.

This book provides research-based insight into the expectations and the value of the coach, mentor, tutor and supervisor roles and combines research with strategic guidance to support the implementation of innovative techniques through case studies, strategies and methodologies in teaching and learning in higher education and professional learning. Bringing together insights from an expert range of international contributors, this text will be invaluable to higher education professionals and those involved in supervising, coaching and mentoring in the workforce.

Chapter 1
Adult learning and the mentoring and coaching of teachers

Rita Ellul and Heather Fehring

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Introduction

This chapter discusses the main principles of adult learning as a context for effective professional learning that is tailored to the diverse cognitive and/or affective needs of adult learners in a variety of learning environments. Adult learning can be a challenging area for educators. For some adult educators, their role is clearly defined as a coach, a mentor or a supervisor. For others, their role may require a blend of these differing roles, depending not only on the course or programme, but also on the differing needs and status of the adult learners.

This chapter highlights some of the key features of the distinction between coaching and mentoring practices, and the essential professional development strategies needed when teaching adult learners in school settings. Developing appropriate learning opportunities, which address any content requirements, need to be underpinned by approaches which take into account both the professional and personal needs of the adult learners.

Educational context

Education systems worldwide provide professional learning opportunities for a myriad of purposes encompassing policy change, new curriculum content knowledge, pedagogical strategies initiatives, development of new Information and Communication Technologies capabilities, and the list goes on. High-performing systems around the world focus on professional learning that improves classroom learning and teaching (Hattie, 2009; Jensen et al., March 2014). In the context of the Australian educational systems, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) is one system that is driving the agenda of change for professional learning initiatives. In a fluid and fast-changing environment, teachers must keep up with current teaching practices and policy changes in environments where they often have no voice in determining or influencing the timing of any ensuing changes or requirements.

With the many demands made of time-poor teachers, dedicating the time to undertake professional learning, time away from the classroom and completing any necessary pre-course or in-course learning tasks is challenging. For school leaders there are the added challenges of assessing where they will get best value for money that translates into improved student learning outcomes and a more highly skilled professional workforce. There is also the consideration of the different ways in which adults like to learn and what they value enough to dedicate the time and intellectual investment required in order to maximise the potential of the learning opportunity. Astute, strategic thinking is required by teachers and school leaders alike in order to identify professional learning that aligns best with adult learning principles and the identified needs of adult learners to make a positive impact on their learning.

Adult learning is a complex area. The learning needs of adults within their work, career and personal contexts, along with the life and work experiences they bring create the need for different approaches to the planning and delivery of professional learning opportunities to adults. The strategies and approaches used for the teaching of children do not necessarily apply to the teaching of adults. Malcolm Knowles’ research into andragogy, which he defines as ‘the art and science of helping adults learn’ (1970), distinguishes adult learning from pedagogy, the art and science of teaching children. Andragogy addresses the different ways that adults learn and so differentiates it from childhood education.

Andragogy is a learner-centred approach and is based on six underlying assumptions, expanded from the original four developed in the 1970s, and these strengthen its differentiation from child-focused education. These assumptions inform an approach to learning in which the learner:

• needs to know the purpose of the learning before undertaking it;

• has an independent self-concept and can direct her/his own learning;

• brings life experiences from which to draw upon;

• is ready to learn;

• is a problem-based learner, wanting to apply her/his learning immediately to an issue at hand; and

• is internally motivated to learn (Knowles et al., 2015).

These assumptions can be used by instructors or facilitators to inform the way in which they structure professional learning to optimise meaningful engagement by the adult learners and impact on the practices of teachers and school leaders.

Knowles et al. (2015) present the andragogical model as a process model, which provides ‘procedures and resources for helping learners acquire information and skills’ (p. 51). The process commences with the facilitator establishing a positive climate for learning and enables a collaborative approach between facilitator and adult learner in which elements such as mutual planning, identifying the needs for learning, developing the programme objectives, designing the learning experiences, evaluating the learning outcomes and identifying new needs inform the next cycle. Andragogy provides a lens through which to re-assess the planning of professional learning in a way that understands and respects teachers as adult learners.

Professional learning is a vital component of any education system if it is to maintain a high standard of teaching and retain a high-quality teacher workforce (OECD, 2009). There is a vast range of professional learning opportunities available to teachers at any time, such as workshops, conferences, seminars, classroom walk-throughs, coaching and mentoring to name just a few; these can be delivered face-to-face, online or through a blended learning mix of the two. With such a range available, it would seem that adult learning would be a regular practice in the culture of schools (Stoll et al., 2006). However, the purpose of professional learning is to improve student learning; building teacher capacity is not an end in itself but a critical means with which to achieve this goal. Research shows that teachers are the most important variant on the level of student learning and achievement (Hattie, 2012). In this pre-eminent influencing role, it is essential that there is an ongoing approach to improving teacher skills. By the very nature of the students they teach, teachers’ professional learning needs will vary as the needs, challenges, interests and habits of their students change, further strengthening the imperative for making ongoing professional learning.

The challenge for school leaders lies in understanding how to develop professional learning that is the most effective in building teacher capacity that will impact on student learning while meeting the needs of the adult learner. Effective professional learning, as with any meaningful learning, needs to take place over time, with opportunities to reflect, plan, learn with colleagues and receive feedback, with the learning taking place on site at the place where the actual work occurs (Ingvarson, 2003). Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin (1995) also identified professional learning as needing to be collaborative, sustained and intensive, involving problem-solving around specific problems of practice and supported by coaching. Characteristics such as these make the case for a move away from the ‘one-hit’ workshop or conference if long-term and sustained change in practice is to be achieved. Discrete isolated skill-based professional activities and out-of-context clinic-type professional sessions have long been discredited if sustained change to practice is required by adult learners in the workplace. Such learning is associated with notions of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) professional activities and the development of workplace partnerships where mentoring and coaching practices can be integrated in authentic practices.

Jensen et al.’s, (March, 2014) research into high-performing systems around the world identified intensive professional learning programmes with similar elements including teacher mentoring and coaching. From studies undertaken by OECD (2011) and Barber and Mourshed (2007) they concluded ‘effective mentoring and coaching helps teachers diagnose their students’ learning needs, and develop classroom management skills and pedagogy specific to their subjects’ (Jensen et al., 2014, p. 7). Mentoring and coaching, if properly resourced, could be used to underpin the strategies identified by Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin (1995) and Jensen et al. (2014) to optimise their potential for achieving positive impact in the classroom. They also align with adult learning principles as the following section demonstrates.

Mentoring and peer coaching strategies

The concepts of mentoring and coaching are not neatly differentiated in the literature. There are elements common to both strategies, such as the building and sustaining of trusting, confidential relationships and the appropriate matching of mentor–mentee or coach–coachee. Mentoring and coaching are also professional learning strategies, which can be used to support the development of teachers, regardless of content area or school context.

Mentor was a character in Homer’s Odyssey, in which as a wise and faithful advisor, he was entrusted to protect the son of Odysseus while he went off to battle. A mentor is considered to have experience and wisdom that can be shared with a novice or someone less experienced, helping significant transitions in knowledge or work (Clutterbuck, 2014). Mentoring can involve additional behaviour such as counselling and professional friendship (Rhodes et al., 2004). It is a supportive process with mentor and mentee coming together to focus on the area of need identified by the mentee. This may vary from a novice mentee having a vague idea of what they need to know through to a mentee who may have some of the broader knowledge and experience but requires the more in-depth knowledge and understanding of an experienced colleague. In education, pre-service teachers and teacher graduates are commonly assigned a mentor to guide and advise them as they commence their professional journey. However, even more experienced teachers could find themselves at a ‘novice’ stage later in their career, for example through a transfer to a new school or progress to a new role.

Consider the following scenarios.

Scenario 1

Olivia is completing a Master of Teaching Practice (Secondary). After a few days into her school placement, her supervising teacher asks her to plan and teach a differentiated mathematics lesson based on the current focus of algebra, which is to cater for the diverse needs of her Year 8 class. Olivia is confident with the content, but has no idea how to set up the class so that she can manage students working on different tasks. Olivia decides to seek her mentor’s help in preparing for the lesson.

Scenario 2

Mark has three years’ teaching experience, all of which have been as a classroom teacher for senior primary students. In developing the school’s workforce plan for the coming year, Mark’s principal asks him if he would consider taking on the role of Physical Education (PE) teacher across the whole school as there will be vacancy in this position, knowing that it is an area in which Mark has a keen interest. Mark is excited by the prospect, but does not know what might be involved in planning and overseeing a whole school programme. He decides he will approach the mentor who had ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction: adult educators working with adult learners
• 1 Adult learning and the mentoring and coaching of teachers
• 2 Professional identity: insights, strategies and approaches
• 3 Enhancing reflective practices in professional adult education
• 4 Professionalism in adult education
• 5 Including adult learners from diverse cultural backgrounds
• 6 Education provision for sight impaired adult learners
• 7 The use of technology in the supervision and teaching of medical education
• 8 Shared objectives and communication
• 9 Developing teams: boring title, interesting case studies, great outcomes!
• 10 cCase studies in solution focused practice (SFP)
• 11 cPromoting twenty-first century skills development among international adult learners
• 12 cAdult educators working with adult learners: applying theory and practice
• Index