The Adult Learner

During class last week, I was a little overwhelmed by the reactions some people had towards feminism.  Although I was familiar with this “-ism,” I had not really given it much thought.  Growing up, I attended an all girls school.  We were always told we could do anything we set our minds to.  I just assumed, in this day and age, that everyone else thought so, too.  Since the class, I have opened my eyes a bit more to this topic.  I had lunch on Monday with a friend, and asked her what she thought about feminism.  On Tuesday night in finance class, the topic was still on my mind.  This prick in my class was droning on and on about himself and his thoughts and said something to the effect of, “Eventually, you are going to be spending all your time at work, and your wife is going to call and say ‘Honey, you’re never home.’”  I was like EXCUSE ME?  Not everyone in the class is a male.  I was surprised at my reaction, and the whole class laughed when I said it.  Not because I sounded stupid, but because the prick looked like an idiot.  It was priceless.

Conscientization

Heany says that the process of conscientization is ongoing, and that the learner becomes increasingly aware of oppressive forces in his or her life, and at some point becomes part of the social change process.  I guess this is another way of saying that we gain knowledge from each other in group discussions, which raises our awareness of our surroundings.  

There are three different levels of conscientization: least-aware, midway, and critical.  When I was younger, I was mostly least-aware, believing that there were many things out of my control that I cannot change.  As I have gotten older, I have moved into the midway level of conscientization.  I feel that I have a certain degree of control over my life.  Also, I have learned to question things.  I think this class demonstrates my feelings exactly.  As we discuss different topics, such as feminism, I became more aware of it.  I began to question my own beliefs based on the discussion in the group.  As far as the third level of conscientization, I do not think I am there on most levels.  I am still learning.

There are several situations in life that I enter into thinking I will not learn anything. I have been proven wrong so many times. You think by now, I would always be open to learning. Well, I am not.

Recently, I went to preview an art show of my former painting teacher, Laura. I went in, and was immediately taken with the colors and the smell of paint. Recently in school, I have not been able to paint, because I am always studying or working. However, when I walked into her studio, I knew that I needed to make time for painting in my life.

I had not spoken to Laura since a workshop I took with her this summer. We began to catch up, and she told me that I am creative, and that I will paint again. She gave me two books to read, and told me I could do it. She calmed my fears.

At the most, I expected to leave with a small piece of her art work. However, she taught me not to give up. She believes I can do it, which makes me believe in myself. I was not open to this at first, but I left feeling confident, I will paint again.

For this assignment, we were asked to reflect on transformative learning in our lives.  I have had several different experiences in my life from which to draw an example.  One that sticks out in my mind the most is the death of my mentor in Upper School. 

My mentor was a teacher I had in Middle School.  Her name was Mrs. Miller.  She taught classes, but she was also the guidance counselor.  As a pre-teen, I had a drama-filled life, or so I thought, and her guidance helped me.  After Middle School, there was a shift from mentor-mentee to friends.  I confided in her, and as time passed, she began to confide in me.  She was there for me when my own mother was not.  Our bond was extremely special, and when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, my life changed.

In childhood, I had been brought up to believe that people die of old age.  When a human being reaches a certain age in his or her life, the body gives out, and the person dies.  In my life, death did not touch me until the death of my grandmother, when I was 11 years old.  Four years later, at the age of 15, my grandfather lost his life.  These deaths, however, were expected in my mind.  This was congruent with my belief that people die of old age.  In the world, I knew people could die of tragedies and sickness earlier, but in my world, it was not a possibility.

When Margie Miller was diagnosed with breast cancer, my life changed immediately.  Someone I loved was sick, and there was nothing I could do about it…or so I thought.  Margie began to teach me that there were ways I could.  She had always donated blood when she was healthy, so I decided I should do the same.  I took on the responsibility of heading up the blood drive at school.  It was called the Margie Miller Blood Drive.  She was so proud of me.  Unfortunately, she did not live long enough to hear of the results.  She died a few days before it took place, but we had a school record: over 160 pints donated, including one of my own.  Her family members were in town for the funeral, and they, too participated.  It was then that I realized, good things can come out of devastating situations.

After her death, I made a very big transformation in my life.  I started to look outside of myself.  Suddenly, things that had bothered me in my life seemed trivial.  My world was not the only world that existed.  The day after I learned of her death, I skipped school, and went over to Margie’s house to be with her family.  I took phone calls, and wrote down the names of people that came by to deliver food and flowers.  I was able to talk with her family about what happened.  I was able to process what had happened, and how meaningful the experience was.

Although painful, Margie’s death forced a transformation within me.  It has been a positive one, which I guess you could say is the silver lining of this tragic event.

I am extremely frustrated with one of my courses (not this one, of course!), and this frustration is actually inhibiting my ability to learn.  There is one particular assignment that I cannot get out of my mind, and will demonstrate my point.  This assignment is called “Social Networking Analysis.”  Each team is assigned a different social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, e.g.), and is required to market four products on that site.  What are these four products?  Two journals and two conferences.  Can you guess who is editor of these journals and chair of these conferences?  The professor.  We are doing an assignment that directly benefits him and promotes his products.  This might not seem that bad, but he has made no mention of his involvement with these products.  Also, this is not a marketing class.  It is an IS class.  The only part of this assignment that involves IT is that these websites are on the web.  What is the purpose of this assignment?  We have been given no explanation, and when we ask about it, he gives us nothing.  Also, no one in the entire class knows what the expectations are for the project or when it is due. 

I mean, seriously, how am I supposed to get over this frustration and get through the course?  I am, as an adult learner, a conscientious student, and I want to perform to the best of my ability in my classes.  I strive for A’s, but even an A is not enough motivation for me to try my hardest in this class.  I guess I am writing all of this, because I have never had my learning affected so negatively.  My emotions have taken over, and it has made learning almost impossible.  Just an observation for this week.

Taking this assessment was a little difficult for me, as I have not formally instructed adults before.  I answered the questions as best as I could by thinking about how I would act.  I was surprised to see that I have no dominant perspectives.  I do, however, have two that rank just below the dominant line at 33 points each: transmission and nurturing.

Transmission.  Effective teaching requires a substantial commitment to the content or subjectmatter.  This perspective makes the most sense to me.  It means having some mastery of a subject, and presenting it to your students accurately and efficiently.  This is how I have been taught throughout most of my formal education.  I respond well in this setting, because I know what is expected of me.  It is clearly outlined in a syllabus, or clarified for me in class.  This is not to say that I have positively responded to all of these types of instructors.  Some have been very ineffective, often appearing tired, or even bored with what they are teaching.  I, however, strive to be an enthusiastic teacher.  It is my hope that through mastery of content and effective delivery, my students will learn.

 Nurturing.  Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head.  At first, I did not think I identified with this perspective, because it is not what formal learning is to me.  I do, however, identify with this perspective in my relationships in life.  I want to nurture others, because I have been nurtured.  I know what it feels like to have low self-confidence, and how important it is to have “teachers” in your life to help build you up.  When I first began the MBA program, I did not have high hopes for being able to finish it.  I knew I was smart, but business smart?  I have been fortunate enough to have an advisor that has been with me every step of the way.  She has believed in me all along, and now, finally, I believe in myself! 

Although they seem somewhat opposite, transmission and nurturing go together for me.  I think I can be an effective lecturer, and provide a safe learning environment.  I will encourage participation, and let people ask questions without fear of ridicule.  I will challenge my students to do their best, but I will not push them to the breaking point.

As I look at my mantle piece, I am reminded of my post last week about my VARK assessment.  Within the past year, I have put my visual capabilities to use through oil painting.  Learning about how shadows and colors work together is exciting to me.  I have taken something with which I have always associated learning – color – and applied it to learning more about painting.  The top of my blog is actually a piece of a painting I did.  I have attached most of the painting here (still having trouble formatting!!).  When I look at my art, I laugh at my teacher in school who thought I was “immature” because I used colors.  My association with colors not only fosters my learning, but also it fosters my talent.  I never thought of that before.

I just completed the VARK Assessment online.  Not surprisingly to me, I have a strong visual learning preference.  My scores were: Visual -12; Aural – 6; Read/Write – 5; and Kinesthetic – 2.

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved colors.  More so than most people in my classes.  Every year before school started, I would look forward to getting new packs of markers and crayons.  So much so that, as I grew up, I continued to use markers.  Instead of fat ones for coloring, I bought thin ones for note taking.  I clearly remember in 9th grade French class, my teacher told me that I was “immature” for taking notes in different colors!

Although I do not take notes with markers anymore, I have become a little obsessive with my handwriting.  My notes have to be somewhat interesting for me to look at, or I will not pay attention.   With advancements in technology, though, I can at least transpose my notes to the computer.  I can add graphs and different colors to categorize my notes. 

At the moment, I am looking over my Visual Helpsheet.  It is interesting to me that there are different intake and output strategies.  I just assumed they were the same.  A particularly interesting strategy that I will try to use is to convert my notes into a learnable package by reducing them 3:1 into picture pages.  Then, to perform well on an exam, I am supposed to practice turning my visuals back into words. 

My overall feedback is that I continue to be amazed that I am not always learning to my full potential.  I always knew I was a visual learner, but I never really thought of different ways to use this to my advantage.  If something in class does not connect with me, I can work to make it connect, instead of just assuming I will not understand a concept.

A reflection on your learning style self-assessment based on the Kolb cycle

When I was reading through the LSI Workbook, I was excited, because I have never filled out anything like this before.  I actually had to sit down and think about when I learn best, etc.  These were not easy answers.  It was hard for me to think about how I learn, because I do not think about it, I just do it.  I learn. 

When I scored my LSI, I learned that I scored very low on Active Experimentation, which was surprising.  I thought I learned by doing, showing the ability to get things done, taking risks, and influencing people and events through action.  Apparently, I do not.  At least most of the time.

When I recorded my scores on the Learning Cycle, my kite looked like a triangle.  It appears that in my cycle, I skip over Active Experimentation.  Looking at the other three elements of the Learning Cycle, I believe my cycle begins with Abstract Conceptualization.  I like to plan and organize my thoughts before I move into learning by experiencing.  Once I understand a situation intellectually, I transition into the Concrete Experience stage.  In this stage, I relate to people.  I am sensitive to people and their feelings, and I take advantage of learning from specific experiences.  Finally, after learning by experiencing, I move into Reflective Observation.  Only after I have analyzed and experienced learning, can I reflect on it.  In this stage, I look for the meaning in the experiences that have taken place.  By looking backwards, I can look at what I learned from different points of view. 

When I looked at my Learning Style Grid, my scores placed me in the Diverging quadrant.  Whereas the data point on my grid is very close to the center of the grid between Experiencing and Reflecting, it is almost off of the chart towards Reflecting.  This tells me that my learning style that I always assumed was balanced, is not.

When I read about the Diverging Style, I immediately recognized myself.  I do like to look at concrete situations from different points of view.  I guess I had never thought about it before.  Working in small groups helps me learn.  However, when it comes to completing assignments, I prefer to work on my own.  I do not trust others to do their shares of work, and I almost always am the person to bring the project together, finalize the paper, and/or design and finalize the PowerPoint presentation.

When I continued to read what each learning style means, the other descriptions made sense to me.  I immediately identified with how I do not like to learn: through readings and analytical models; through using experimentation and use simulations; and working with others to accomplish assignments. 

When I looked at the basic strengths of a Diverging learning style, I also identified with the description.  I am creative and I like to try to understand how people work and what they feel.  I do, however, have trouble being open-minded.  It is something I could definitely work on.

When I found out that my learning was not balanced, it was a little difficult to accept.  I have always been a good student, strived for good grades, and achieved them, for the most part.  How can I get A’s without learning in a balanced way?  It is a question that I look forward to exploring in this course.  

When I think about it, I am amazed that, in 20 years of formal education, I have never learned about how I learn!

Last Thursday in class, I realized that time goes by so quickly in this class. In most of my classes in the Business School, I am obsessively looking at my watch to see what time it is. I have no attention span during the last 1/2 hour or so. In this class, however, my attention span lasts the whole class period. There is some lecture, when my attention is best, and then there is group work, often times at the end of class. I an not used to doing group work, unless it is a formal presentation or paper for class. This group work was more reflective. I was nervous at first, because I’m not used to talking about myself. I am confident when speaking in class, but not when it comes to me. My life is personal, and I didn’t want to share, but my group made it so easy. They listened patiently, and gave me very helpful feedback. They told me what the important themes were in my learning life. In class, I learned about me and my comfort level. I learned that if I have to push myself a little harder, it can be rewarding, in some cases!