Adult Learning

Linking Theory and Practice

Sharan B. Merriam, Laura L. Bierema

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118416310
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Erwachsenenbildung

Solidly grounded in theory and research, but concise and practice-oriented, Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice is perfect for master's-level students and practitioners alike. Sharan Merriam and Laura Bierema have infused each chapter with practical applications for instruction which will help readers personally relate to the material. The contents covers:

• Adult Learning in Today's World
• Traditional Learning Theories
• Andragogy
• Self-Directed Learning
• Transformative Learning
• Experience and Learning
• Body and Spirit in Learning
• Motivation and Learning
• The Brain and Cognitive Functioning
• Adult Learning in the Digital Age
• Critical Thinking and Critical Perspectives
• Culture and Context

Discussion questions and activities for reflection are included at the end of each chapter.

CHAPTER ONE

Adult Learning in Today's World

“Anyone who fails to learn … is regarded as oku eniyan (the living dead),” says an African proverb that captures not only how embedded buthow necessary learning is in today's world (Avoseh, 2001, p. 483). Indeed, the daily lives of most people on the planet require constant learning, not just in a classroom, but as we go about our everyday activities. The way we communicate with others, deal with personal and family problems, conduct our work, and build our communities, all require us to learn new information, new procedures, and new technologies.

In this opening chapter we take a look at the social context of learning today, a context characterized by globalization, the knowledge age, technology, and demographic changes. We then turn to a focus on adult learners, how their life situation differs from that of children, and how participation in even formal learning activities has continued to grow over the years. In the last section of this chapter we describe the various settings where learning occurs, ending with a brief discussion of the global concept of lifelong learning.

The Social Context of Adult Learning

Learning, Jarvis (1987) writes, rarely occurs “in splendid isolation from the world in which the learner lives; … it is intimately related to that world and affected by it” (p. 11). From learning to use the newest version of your smartphone, to dealing with a diagnosis of Type II diabetes, to navigating your city's public transportation system, learning is embedded in the world in which we live. In this chapter we first step back and paint a large backdrop of forces shaping the world today against which we can more specifically address who the adult learner is, and what forms of learning an adult might be engaged in. Factors we see as important for understanding the context of adult learning are globalization, the information society, technology, and changing demographics.

Globalization

Of the many factors affecting our lives today, globalization is often mentioned more than anything else. In fact if you Google the term “globalization,” you get more than 40 million “hits,” a number that increases daily. The widespread use of the term not only speaks to its many meanings and applications, but to its vagueness. For our purposes, we define globalization as the movement of goods, services, people, and ideas across national borders. Of course for centuries people and goods have moved across national boundaries. What is different today is the speed and intensity of this movement. As Friedman (2011), one of the major commen­tators of this phenomenon writes, we have moved from “connected to hyperconnected.”

What first comes to mind when most people hear the term “globalization” is outsourcing of manufacturing to low-income, low-wage countries. Indeed, something of a scandal arose in the summer of 2012 when it was learned that the U.S. Olympic team's uniforms had been outsourced to China! The economic component also makes people think of huge multinational or transnational companies that operate worldwide and are not held accountable by any single nation-state. The “market economy” underpins this accelerated version of globalization. Today, “corporations not only control the means of production—both economic and technological—but they also control the means of spreading knowledge about their products as they seek to convince the public to purchase what they produce” (Jarvis, 2008, p. 20). Thus, not only goods and services, but information and ideas are brokered across the globe, which in turn creates more demand for goods and services. One writer has wryly observed that the market economy and consumerism dimensions of globalization have resulted in the world becoming “one big shopping mall” (Cowen, 2003, p. 17). The downside of global commerce is the exploitation of workers worldwide, even children(witness, for example, the May 2013 collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh killing more than 1100 workers), along with increasing pollution and environmental exploitation. The rise of “corporate social responsibility” campaigns and a movement toward sustainability in the market are closely linked to globalization. Scherer, Palazzo, and Matten (2010) argue that because nations have declining capacity to regulate socially desirable corporate behavior with commerce crossing national, social, political, cultural, and economic borders, it is becoming more incumbent on organizations to bear this political responsibility.

Education itself has become a commodity of the marketplace. Friedman (2005) gives numerous examples of this in his groundbreaking book on globalization titled, The World Is Flat. For example, parents in the United States are hiring math and science tutors for their children—that is, they are hiring tutors who are living in India. Students arriving home from school in the afternoon get on the Internet and are greeted by their Indian tutors who are up early to meet their students in real time (and at a considerably cheaper cost than hiring tutors in the States). Students are now consumers who “shop” worldwide for the educational program that best fits their needs and pocketbooks and which promises the results they seek. There is even a growing area of research and writing on what is being called “academic capitalism.” Here institutions of higher education become a commercial enterprise in “the pursuit of market and market-like activities to generate external revenues” (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004, p. 11). So while students may “shop” for their education, colleges and universities are also shopping for students!

The Knowledge Society

Intricately related to the market economy in a globalized world is the “knowledge economy.” Companies will locate where there is a workforce with the knowledge and educational system able to sustain and develop the business. For example, the skill and educational base of potential workers was a major factor in Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of heavy construction and mining equipment, which recently chose to locate a new plant in our university's hometown of Athens, Georgia (Aued, 2012). Not only do companies move to where the qualified workers are, but workers also relocate to where they can utilize their knowledge and training. Spring (2008) talks about moving from a “brain drain” phenomenon to a “brain circulation” trend “where skilled and professional workers move between wealthy nations or return to their homelands after migrating to another country” (p. 341).

The “knowledge economy,” or, as it is more often labeled, the “knowledge society,” has replaced the industrial society and has great implications for learning and educational systems across the globe and throughout the lifespan. As Dumont and Istance (2010) point out, “21st century competencies” include “deep understanding, flexibility and the capacity to make creative connections” and “a range of so-called ‘soft skills’ including good team-working. The quantity and quality of learning thus become central, with the accompanying concern that traditional educational approaches are insufficient” (p. 20). They go on to say that “knowledge is now a central driving force for economic activity, and the prosperity of individuals, companies and nations depends increasingly on human and intellectual capital. Innovation is becoming the dominant driving force in our economy and society (Florida, 2001; OECD, 2004; Brown, Lauder, and Ashton, 2008). Education and learning systems, for which knowledge is their core business, are clearly right at the heart of such a mega-trend” (p. 21).

The knowledge society is much more complex than what is implied by the earlier term, “information” society. While we are inundated with bits and pieces of information (note the millions of Google hits for the term “globalization” above), for information to become useful and meaningful, it needs to be weighed, organized, and structured into meaningful units of knowledge; information and data are the building blocks of knowledge. It is with knowledge that we build new insights, new understandings, and even new products, all of which can contribute to a more enriching context for learning. There are some caveats about this seemingly utopian concept of the knowledge society. Some places in the world are so torn by strife, poverty, and illiteracy that a knowledge society has not evolved, leaving these countries far behind and utterly unable to compete in the developed world. And some groups of citizens, discriminated against because of gender, race or ethnicity, disability, or age, are marginalized in their own societies and prevented from meaningfully participating in the knowledge society. “Women,” for example, “make up 70 percent of the 1.3 billion absolutely poor, more than half the population of women over age fifteen worldwide are illiterate, and 75 percent of refugees and internally displaced are women” (Merriam, Courtenay, & Cervero, 2006, p. 92).

Everyone is challenged by the speed of change in this knowledge society. Most feel it is no longer possible to “keep up,” for according to some estimates, information doubles every two years and World Wide Web information doubles every 90 days (www.emc.com/about/news/press/2011/20110628–01.htm). Change is at such an accelerated pace that even some of the routine tasks of daily living require new learning. To buy groceries at your local supermarket, for example, you may have to figure out how to automatically scan your items and check out without dealing with a person. Or, you may make your purchases in front of your computer screen, never setting foot in the actual store. Tinkering with your car in your own garage may not be possible without some knowledge of computer diagnostic systems. You can make a banking transaction or check-in at the airport for a flight without ever making human contact. Even our trips to the library can be conducted from the comfort of our homes where we can electronically check out articles and books.

It is also clear that one cannot learn in the first two or three decades all that a person needs to know for the rest of his or her life. Most professional preparation becomes outdated before one gets situated in a career. Hewlett Packard has estimated that what one learns in a Bachelor of Engineering program is outdated or “deconstructs” in 18 months, and for technology-related fields the half-life is even less. Students need to be prepared as self-directed, lifelong learners “for jobs that do not yet exist, to use technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve problems that we don't even know are problems yet” (Darling-Hammond et al., 2008, p. 2)

Technology

Globalization and the knowledge society are promoted and sustained by communications technology and the Internet. From multinational companies who conduct much of their work through technology-assisted means, to friends in different parts of the world talking in real time over Skype, to social media enabling social change as in the Arab Spring revolution, technology has irrevocably affected how we work, carry out our daily lives, and interact with other people. There is little doubt that the “technology infused lives of today's learners” (Parker, 2013, p. 54) is shaping not only the context of learning, but the learning itself. Even traditional educational systems from elementary through higher education are using technology in designing and delivering curriculum. Teachers in California, for example, are experimenting with the “flipped classroom” where students watch videos for homework, “then go to class to demonstrate their learning” (Webley, 2012, p. 39). Public libraries now loan out e-books. Even prestigious higher education institutions are opening up access to learning through the Internet. In 2012 Stanford University offered a free online course on artificial intelligence that drew 160,000 students from 190 countries. This experiment has evolved into what are being called MOOCs (massive open online courses). Stanford recently partnered with Princeton, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania to offer 43 courses enrolling 680,000 students (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/education/consortium-of-colleges-takes-online-education-to-new-level.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general). Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are engaged in a similar partnership estimating that half a million students would enroll in their free, online courses (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18191589). Indeed, Friedman speculates that these MOOCs are likely to transform higher education into a credentialing system where participants, rather than getting “degrees” will get “certificates that testify that they have done the work and passed all the exams” (Friedman, 2013, p. SR11).

Technology is also changing how adults learn. Adult basic education programs through continuing professional education are incorporating technology in both the design of curriculum and its delivery. And the field of adult education is becoming particularly attentive to the Net generation, those born between 1981 and 1994. These young adults “bring with them a set of traits that includes familiarity with technology, optimism, ability to multitask, diversity, and acceptance of authority (Bennett & Bell, 2010, p. 417). They are also characterized by “shallowness in reading, lack of critical thinking, and naïveté about intellectual property and information authenticity of Internet resources” (p. 417). And while technology is certainly affecting formal learning, its impact on informal learning, that which we do as part of our everyday lives, is limitless. As King (2010) writes, “Ubiquitous (but not always obvious) informal learning opportunities make it possible for adults to tap the exploding information and learning resources of our times. Informal learning today goes beyond book-based self-study to include a plethora of Web-based, digital, and community resources, along with opportunities for worldwide collaboration with people of similar interests and needs. The world is rich with new learning opportunities—for example, iPods, TV programs, digital radio and virtual simulations—that can fit anyone's schedule and learning style” (p. 421). The availability of massive amounts of information 24 hours a day, seven days a week also challenges us, Bryan (2013) points out, in terms of dealing with information overload and learning how to critically evaluate all this information. The informality of twitter, texting, email, emoticons and so on is also bringing about changes in our language. How do tech-savvy young people know “what language formats are best suited for the workplace, or to use for technical language in the sciences and math fields, or for scholarly writings, or marketing, and the list goes on and on” (Bryan, 2013, p. 10).

As pointed out earlier, technology cannot be separated from globalization and the knowledge society...