The Language of Adult Learning
I was on the bus en route to my friend’s invitation for Christmas eve dinner. There were 3 people in the bus before it stopped to the next 2 stations. In the southern corner of Manhattanville, 3 people went onboard with 1 guy seemed to have arguments with one of the people onboard before him. He was targeting a woman — shouted and ranted to her to keep her silence. Angry, her spouse turned back to him a few minutes later and confronted if the guy wanted to fight. Since then, I wished that I brought my earphone with me because the rant did not stop until I finally destined in my station, 3 stops later, and went straightly to the subway. Those guys were that near for custody as they had a very thin line of punching each other inside the bus. My logic didn’t seem to stop biting me. It shut off my emotion to feel overly anxious, as a person who experienced it first time.
2 months ago, I was in one of my last classes in my first semester of graduate school. We were instructed to do final presentation to share what we have learned in the past full month and connected the knowledge to our practice. I took a big advantage for taking the chance to present last: to witness creativity and potential from most of my classmates in presenting their work. I broke down in tears halfway. Something was screaming inside my brain, nearly crying, wanting to get out. I realized I haven’t done my homework in discovering why I haven’t been creative enough. I then reflected silently. Lots of why-s coming from anywhere connected to my brain, like the electrical energy burst into the lamp before it lights up.
My quick reflection eventually produced keywords like happiness, trauma, emotions, awareness, culture, education, systems — from little bites to bigger chuck of problems. Drawing patterns from these keywords, the conclusion I made was deeper than I could imagine about creativity. It defined the awareness of how I approach my problems, how I converge my emotions, and how it defined me as a product of education, culture, and systems in where I lived in the past 25 years. In the perceptions I conserve all this time, I felt that I was reincarnated. I started to reconstruct what I previously believed was the truth, to the fact that it is the truth until something breaks in — a mental disruption.
My learning doesn’t stop in the 3 dots above. Going back to the beginning, my experiences in adulthood have been dominant in informal, accidental learning. Those examples are the tip of a finger within the past 4 months in a new environment. What insights that emerged from those stories? I would reflect about how I learn as an adult.
The language of learning for adults differs from children. White and Brockett (1987, from Galbraith, 2004) have described other approaches that emerged about learning philosophies: acquisition and mastery of knowledge (liberal), ability to experience and solve problems (progressive), change in behavior (behaviorism), focused on personal development (humanism), and driven for greater benefit in social change (radicalism). Another one from Merriam & Bierema (2013) is constructivism, which means we learn by creating meaning. So what do these philosophies have in common? They are backed by two learning languages that adults have:
Experience
Adults are perceived to have traits and responsibilities that can be held accountable in social, cognitive and emotional context. Through this process, Adults form certain life experience. These experiences become the key language for adults to learn.
Merriam and Bierema (2013) mentioned that experience posits as the highest value in the context of adult education. I would not say theories are degrading their power when it comes to adult learning, but the core aspect for effective learning is through appreciating where Adults are coming from and how they can be who they are in the present moment. This is what differs adult education from children education, where experience is not a primary aspect for the children to learn, but instead focusing more on formal, institutionalized teaching.
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My experience in the bus was based on experience. Observing the guy ranting and two people fighting got me reflecting on my emotional response under indirect pressure. I was in a very rational mode to decide to take off from the bus when they’re still fighting in the back. My progressive learning mode was on in the middle of their battle.
Critical reflection
This underestimated activity turns out to be crucial in educating adults. I learned about critical reflection when I was introduced to Jack Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning, a little bit of Marxism, and Paul Friere’s critical adult education theory (more on towards radical social change). The benefit of doing critical reflection can touch not only to the personal development sphere, but also painpoint problems in the bigger social and cultural space (ie. race, gender, and politics).
Mezirow’s take on transformative learning clearly stands from having the disoriented dilemma, which I personally think this is a powerful start. Critical reflection can be done when we have a deep riddle of disorientation that we need to solve, through engaging in what Mezirow defined as the 10 steps of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1990). Although there are many critics to his theory, I deeply believe the moment when we have disorientation, we would be engaged in the transformative learning journey, whichever the steps work.
My experience in my last class expresses the process of disorienting dilemma, although the reflection was quick and simple. The realization that I have discounted my enthusiasm in exploring creativity was the moment when I wanted to find out the real why, as the real truth, yet the condition wasn’t supportive at the time and I eventually went home feeling overwhelmed. The process of finding the truth was exhausting but the moment when I realized the truth was beyond relieving. The critical reflection would be a never-ending homework for me and I believe most people would feel it too.
One more highlight to make us understand how experience and critical reflection can provide the effective adult learning process is self-awareness, on top of everything. This is one of the most underestimated traits that make most adults skip it until they encounter with a strong emotional stimulation. In the midst of social and technological development, the benefit of increasing self-awareness is huge for health and prosperity. With self-awareness, it produces life experience and from this experience (then caused disorientation), adults conduct critical reflection — generating a chain of learning process.
Again, my learning doesn’t stop in the 3 dots above. I hope this can be a helpful source in understanding that learning is a lifelong process, taking the liberty to choose whichever form we think most suitable for each one of us as an adult.
Wishing you Merry Christmas 2022 and joyful holidays until next year!
Source:
Galbraith, M. (2004). Adult Learning Methods. Krieger Press
Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons
Mezirow, J. & Associates. (1990). Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood. Jossey-Bass
