Adult Education Theories & Tools
Branch Out by Vrindy Spencer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Branch Out by Vrindy Spencer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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I was introduced to graphic recording at a training I attended a few months ago. It was incredible to see this artist do her magic to our discussion. A peer created this Graphic recording video explaining what graphic recording is, some of its uses, and how it works. Drawing can be done to accompany a speaker or group discussion. For example, Susan Cain's Quiet book: "Graphic recording gives everyone a voice" "interrupts the usual order of things and brings in a sense of fun, novelty, and creativity" It does more than record what participants say...
Another one of my favourite activities is to have participants gather in groups and share a story or respond to a reflection question. The participants who are listening do not interrupt or ask questions, instead they draw what they hear or what comes up for them as they listen. It is a wonderful activity, with physical and metaphysical takeaways.
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Three key insights stemmed from my research: One exercise I would like to incorporate is an emotional check-in at the beginning of each class to indicate to students that their emotions are valuable and respected. For example, it could be questions, such as:
Meacham (2014) offers several great suggestions for supporting the emotional attachment of learners, including:
I want to incorporate the idea of encouraging the discomfort of confusion into a practice in my workshops. Part of this can be accomplished through asking questions without clear answers and stating the intention of allowing this discomfort to exist in our shared space. References
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: a Handbook for College Faculty. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (US). Meacham, M. (2014, Oct, 16). All Learning is Emotional. Association for Talent Development. Retrieved from https://www.td.org/insights/all-learning-is-emotional Paul, A. M. (2012, Jul 6). What Do Emotions Have to Do With Learning. Mind/Shift. Retrieved from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/07/06/what-do-emotions-have-to-do-with-learning/ What a beautiful title for an activity. A peer in my PIDP has created a video describing the activity: Stand Where You Stand (otherwise known as Barometer or Four Corners) In his video linked above, he details:
I love that this activity incorporates the body (physically moving to the place in the room that corresponds to your viewpoint) and involves everyone.
It also can allow space for a wide range of views and opinions. Students are experiencing emotions the majority of the time they are learning. In one study they found “the participating students reported being in a neutral state only about a quarter of the time. The rest of the time, they were experiencing lots of feelings: surprise, delight, engagement, confusion, boredom, frustration” (Paul, 2012). Furthermore, understanding the emotions present in students and altering material or structure of the class can support them in ways that may be otherwise inaccessible: “recognizing and making adjustments when a student feels sad, stressed, or threatened can remove roadblocks not solvable by cognitive strategies alone” (p. 35) Another way emotions are involved in our learning process is the key role they play in recognizing patterns (Meacham, 2014). Barkley shares, "students are more likely to remember material in which they have made an emotional investment” (2010, p. 35). In fact, learning requires an “emotional tag,” even if you have not intended to elicit an emotional connection (Meacham, 2014). Meacham makes a great point, “Why not make the linkage between emotions more intentional, so we can heighten the effect?” (2014). The benefits of designing courses to address the emotional states of students includes inspiring them to put greater effort into their work, therefore supporting them in reaching their highest potential and increasing the likelihood that they will remember longer and learn more deeply (Barkely, 2010, p.35). Negative emotions, specifically confusion, can even “play a productive role in learning” (Paul, 2012). Participants who felt confused within a roleplaying exercise scored higher on the test following than those who were not confused (Paul, 2012). When one is confused, the uneasy feeling we experience motivates us to return to our content state through “thought, reflection, and problem-solving” (Paul, 2012). Paul suggests, “’productive confusion’ should be the aim. It’s achieved by helping the student recognize that the way out of confusion is through focused thought and problem solving; by providing necessary information and suggesting strategies when appropriate; and by helping the student cope with the negative emotions that may arise.” (2012). ..to be continued.
I am interested in how to support students in their social emotional learning in the classroom, both so that they can learn better, and so that their whole selves are supported, as opposed to solely focusing on their intellectual aspects. For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in emotions, emotional regulation, and the impact of emotions. My favourite course in university was Emotional Intelligence, which was the first time I was able to fully bring my emotions into a classroom in a way that was accepted and even expected. It was incredible to start the day with a check-in and how any emotion was okay (even the “negative ones” like frustration, annoyance, sadness, etc.). That experience sparked a deep interest to bring emotional intelligence concepts to a wider audience. Emotions have a clear role in learning. As humans, we are emotional creatures. Learning is no exception to how directly emotions play a role in our daily lives. With this is in mind, I want to know how to incorporate emotions more into my workshops, without it necessarily being the core focus. ...to be continued
A peer has created a video on triad listening: A structured technique to practice speaking and listening The video includes:
The 3 roles are: speaker, reflective listener, and referee Everyone has a specific role and is included and everyone tries all three different roles. One huge benefit of this style is the "safer" space it creates, in that the speaker is meant to express themselves fully without attempting to persuade and the listener is meant to listen fully without judgment. Both of these are rarities in our daily conversations. The invitation for the reflective listener to use different words / their imagination to reflect back what they heard, provides an opportunity for creativity in listening. The referee has the opportunity to witness and mediate any misunderstandings of the roles. All in all, I would say it is a cool technique to try out!
In the textbook, Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty, I stumbled across the idea of the 7 core traits of millenials. While not the traits the text cited, one interesting article I found shared these: 1. Passion Matters 2. Risk-Taking 3. Work-life alignment 4. Thinking in terms of missions 5. Allow a new perspective to change your focus on a dime 6. Spontaneity 7. World-Travelers One of the largest insights that came from reading this article and looking further into this idea of 7 core traits was relating to the concept of alignment, passion, and missions. Especially after graduating from a self-designed education for my university, I have experienced the trend of being told to "follow my dreams." I imagine a large impact on education is that students will be more driven towards their own unique focus and more easily feel restless with what is presented to them in the boxes generations previous have designed. I see a a con of more shallow or singularly focused understandings of the world around us and a pro of more passion in the world. "“Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman
I wanted to share the talent of my peers within the Provincial Instructors Diploma Program through sharing their blogs:
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AuthorI am passionate about creating experiences of personal growth for adults through self-reflection and connection with others in groups. Archives
March 2018
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