E-Portfolio
Module 1 Entry 1a
Reflection on how your learner’s profile will
affect your training preparation (e.g. lesson plan) and training delivery. To
provide example each for all the following
Learners have different levels of motivation,
different attitudes about learning, and different responses to specific
classroom environments and instructional practices. Understanding learners’ profile is a useful information when I plan the
training programme as I would be able to contextualise the training to meet the
learners’ different needs.
Demographic
-
Characteristic
: professional mid-level managers and those who are retiring soon and looking
for 2nd career. They are
experienced working adults.
-
Ages
: range from 30+ to 57 years old.
I have to plan my lesson plan to meet the different
age group, e.g. when I plan the group discussion, I have each group to consist
a mix of different age old so that they can draw on each other’s strength and
experiences to add value to the discussion.
Cognitive Level
-
Characteristic of taking in and
processing information, approaches to learning are deep and strategic, and also
possess intellectual skill i.e. ability to know how knowledge should be
acquired and evaluated.
As their intellectual level are about the same, I have
no problem in planning the role play, video play and group discussion which
require a lot of cognitive, multi-intelligence, verbal and non-verbal skill.
Affective :
-
Motivation
to learn as learners like to engage in continual professional development
- Most are comfortable with learning
As
most signed up for this WSQ course due to the desire to learn and improve while
still holding on to their full time jobs, their motivation level are high and I
have to plan my lesson plan such
that
they can feel engaged despite the busy schedule and tiredness from having to
juggle work, family and class e.g. plan more activities and less lecture.
Social –
- Communicate well
with people, both verbally and non-verbally.
-
listen well and understand other's views
-
prefer learning in groups or classes
-
enjoy working with a synergistic group of people.
As most come from
managerial level in public sector or institution, they already have lots of
experience with people. I can see that they can mingle well, able to talk about
anything under the sun with their classmates. Thus I have no problem in
planning any activity that require group co-operation and sharing.
E-Portfolio Module 1 Entry 1b
Apply Adult Learning Principles in Training
Reflection on i.
Application of 1 adult learning theory/Principles; ii. Potential learning
barriers of learners and iii. 3 Differences between facilitating adults and
children – Andragogy vs. Pedagogy (1b)
i.
Adult Learning Theory
Malcolm Knowles an American educator developed the Adult Learning theory and
stated that andragogy is
the art and science of teaching
adult to learn. Some of the characteristics
of adult learners are self-directed
and learning from experience, ready and motivated to learn and have an
orientation to learning.
I recalled when
interviewing the contractors, and teaching them to propose what is in the
design concept. I explained to them during the tender interview and show them
the samples of fabrics. As these are experienced Interiors contractors in the
construction industry, they were confronted with the concepting and developing
the designs of 100 different fabrics with various patterns, colors and thread
counts to match clients requirement. The interview session was very engaging
with clarifications given and every questions generated different opinions. But
there were some who could not comply to the full fabric specifications.
After the study
of Knowles Adult Learning Theory, I realized adults are resourceful, able to
experiment on their own and learn when faced with challenges. Those that were not able to cope effectively,
I could have been more empathetic and acknowledged the constraints that some
were facing. In addition, I could have given them more options with clear
instructions, if time permits; or asked them to focus just on some of the
fabrics during concepting to give them more confidence in trying.
Application of Andragogy in guiding the contractors in tender
processes
I can apply these theories to my job situation,
namely;
Mezirow Transformational Learning theory
states that through seeking out the opinions of others, assumptions may be
re-worked to build a new set of assumptions and beliefs.
I should check with clients, designers
for more opinions and whether they are able to accept alternatives.
Garry Mitchell’s theory stated that people
learn from their mistakes and through practices, also respond best when what
they learn is presented uniquely for them. I should allow contractors to make
mistakes and learn through practices, e.g. computer simulation for concepting
and design development of fabric, carpet if time permits. I should treat each
contractor uniquely and use different technique to present to them to overcome the
problems e.g. orientate them around the problem to find a solution, like contractor
unable to cope due to small scale factory, allow them to co-work with other
company.
Kolb’s theory believes knowledge and
experience can be used as a guide for active concepting. As these contractors
are experienced in the trades, I should allow more time to let them use their
experience and knowledge to experiment the concepting and development of design
works.
ii.
Potential learning barriers of learners
Barriers to learning as Cross (1981) had classified into 3
categories :
Situational--those
that arise from one’s situation or environment at a given point;
Institutional--those
practices and procedures that exclude or discourage adults from participating
in organized learning activities; and
Psycho-social --those related to the attitudes and self-perceptions about
one-self as a learner.
I applied for the scholarship to study in one of the university in China
two years ago. I submitted my application to the university and was pleasantly
overjoyed that I was accepted by the university. However subsequently I
received another letter to say that they had to withdraw the scholarship, the
reason being ‘the applicant is over 40 years of age at the time of acceptance’.
When I spoke to her on the pre-requisite for receiving the scholarship,
she told me that I was accepted because I received the top student award when I
took my UK degree 10 years back, but the
subsequent rejection of my scholarship was due to China government policy. Despite my age in the 50s, I was able to
overcome my psycho-social barrier as I knew many of the students were in the
age group of 20s to 30s. However the barrier to learning I was facing is one of
institutional. Institutional barrier is a tough barrier to overcome and I had
to respect local government policy.
Application
Many adult learners like myself face many
psycho-social barrier. One instance is most courses cost a few thousands and
though I am able to claim up to 90% subsidy but I am stressed by the fact that
if I fail, I may have to cough up from my pocket or pay more to pass. Another
factor is health reason, as we age, our brain power are not as sharp and
retention rate low. Also I suffer constant tiredness due to multi-tasking
several jobs and interests, also interpersonal friction due to course mates
with different personalities; e.g. hyper sensitive, afraid to lose, mental
block, refuse to accept others’ opinion, communication gap due to generational
or cultural gaps.
However I
will overcome these personal psycho social barrier and continue to pursue my
goal through life-long learning. I can also use my knowledge to advise some of
my friends and motivate them to pursue life-long learning despite any barriers
they may face.
iii.
3 Differences between facilitating
adults and children – Andragogy vs. Pedagogy
The 3
differences on characteristics of experience, orientation to learning and
motivation between andragogy vs. pedagogy; and possible facilitation that I can
adopt are as follows:
Characteristics
|
Andragogy
|
Pedagogy
|
Experience
|
Adults come with reservoir
of practical experiences from workplace and life, they can relate the theory
to what they have already experienced.
Facilitate adult learners, such that they can tap
on their experiences and ask them to relate to the theory learnt in class.
Create activities that use their experience and
knowledge so that they can see gaps in their work and apply knowledge learnt
to unlearn old and seek new way of doing work.
|
Children have
little to bring to the learning place in terms of personal experience. Thus
children need teachers directed learning.
Teach children as they are dependent on close
guidance from teacher;
Concept
development begins in early childhood Design learning based on the appropriate child
developmental milestone would enhance their learning.
|
Orientation to
learning
|
Adults will learn when they are
faced with a problem orientation to learning
Facilitator needs to find out and anticipate the
problems learners encountered;
Design training around life situation &
learning goals. E.g. design a course on “Improve professional communication
in an adult education program”;
Develop performance competency based Learning
experiences.
|
Children focus
on the subject to acquire knowledge for use at a later time.
Teacher interacts with children to find out their
level of knowledge on a subject matter;
Design the learning outcomes to meet children’s
ability to learn i.e. specific on the
curriculum offers;
Learning experiences should be split into bite
sizes as children need time to absorb the teaching.
|
Motivation
|
Adults’
learning are driven by internal and external factors
Identify adult learners’ needs and direct their
own learning experience, adults usually perform/learn based on personal
interests;
Offer incentives and monetary rewards as a form
of recognition for adult learning
|
Children
learning are driven by external factors
Require clear instruction and detailed curriculum
to direct the learning;
Children are generally not motivated by external
factors e.g., rewards to learn.
|
iv.
3 Differences between facilitating
adults and children – Andragogy vs. Pedagogy (continued)
Application
I
will apply the andragogy knowledge to my work by involving all in the project
team in mutual planning, identify resources to accomplish the objectives and
sets up strategies to use those resources to reach the objectives. Encourage
all to use self-directed initiatives to achieve the objectives with guidance.
Involve them in evaluating the outcome and objectives. And assess performance
by the objectives achieved.
I will apply the pedagogy knowledge to children like my nieces by teaching them through reading,
or use game to build their early concept development e.g. Make a collage or nature book from nature walk.
E-Portfolio
Module 1 Entry 1c Apply Adult Learning Principles in Training
Reflection on Different learning styles of learners
The four learning styles of adult
learning (VATK) developed by Dunn and
Dunn to
consider when designing and delivering training are visual, auditory, tactile and kinaesthetic.
Visual
learners respond to learning style: "Show me and
I'll understand, and mostly benefit from diagrams, charts, pictures, films, and
written notes. Auditory learners tend to benefit
more on lecture-style teaching, presented through speeches or information.Tactile learners need to be actively involved as they receive and
process new information; can remember complicated
directions once they've acted them out. They are usually good at sports, cannot sit still for long and likes role playing. Kinaesthetic learners tend to benefit more
when totally engaged with the learning activity. They acquire information
fastest when participating in a role playing, field trip, dance, or other
active activity.
Learners are not fixed in one category as they
respond to learning based on context and goals. Therefore it is important to
help learners to build their skills based on preferred style or modes of
learning. To understand
one’s learning style, VATK questionnaires was used as an activity in class by
one group of learners. The participants
gained insights into their preferred learning styles after completing the
questionnaire. Many of us in the class
belongs to “Tactile learner”. For the purpose to deepen the
understanding of VATK, participants of the different learning styles were asked
to form groups to discuss on their preferred learning style. Through the
session, it generated ideas through discussion; and a deeper understanding of
oneself.
Using participants’ contribution that were all
written on the whiteboard to unfold VATK learning styles will be more impactful
to learning. One important aspect in
adult learning facilitation is to engage participants – that is to utilize
their work done. It is important that
learning design and delivery that facilitator offers has to take all learning
styles into consideration to enable learning more effective.
Application
Most contractors are tactile and kinesthetic
learners. They visit sites often, need to move around and be involved in the
site environment, to touch and see design works, use their hands on site while
answering to the problems.
I would involve them on their tactile and
kinesthetic learning style to solve concepting and site problems. A lot of
co-ordination between different trades and producing the right prototype
samples is required. I will encourage them to use technology to do concepting
simulations and co-ordination drawings on the computer. These tasks allow them
to demonstrate their hand-eye coordination and keep them engaged to find a
solution to the many sample development and co-ordination problems cropped up
during tender interview.
E-Portfolio
Module 1 Entry 1d Apply Adult Learning Principles in Training
Develop strategies to promote retention
of learning.
The strategies for retention learning
are:
•
Rehearsal – Learners retain information best when they are able to internalize
the information through more practises. Based
on learning pyramid, practise has 70% retention.
•
Meaningful learning – relate new information to previously learnt knowledge
Every learner is different as they come with varying
reservoir of experience at work and life, and their participation in the
assignment will vary. Get them into
groups so that they can collectively share their knowledge – and then have one
to share how they can relate this knowledge to the new information learnt.
Based on learning pyramid, discussion has 50% retention.
•
Organisation – make connections between pieces of information
With a
baseline in place, it’s now time to expand upon the content. The best way to do
this is to ask questions based on the “reports” from the groups. Ask other
groups what they think about one group’s approach. Ask for demonstrations and
scenarios. Based on learning pyramid, demonstration has 30% retention.
•
Elaboration – expand on information based on what learners already know
Now that the content has been
thoroughly researched, discussed, questioned, and expanded, it is time to for
the learners to apply it. To do this, give them some sort of challenge. It can
be an exercise, case study. Whatever the challenge is, it needs to relate to
the subject at hand and draw upon, or expand, the topic. Based on learning pyramid, demonstration has 30% retention.
• Visual
imagery – form a mental picture
The experience of visual
memory is also referred to the mind's eye through
which we can retrieve from our memory a mental image of original objects or
people. This approach is to give the learner some sort of assignment as the
first learning experience, prior to the actual training. It gives the learner
an opportunity to collect content based on the topic. This include reading some
sort of case study or watching a video online. Based on learning pyramid, audiovisual has 20% retention;
• Primacy and Recency – is
referring to the theory and application that follows. For example, a new product or
service is released to the market. The first step in the promotion process is
to contact those who may be able to feature the product in a news story,
interview, or other introductory venue. Next, the product is advertised.
Adverts place the most important and attention getting information at the
beginning. Followed by a brief explanation in the middle, and end with a
memorable statement designed to persuade the potential customer to buy.
The goal is to have
you remember the end of the advertisement and thus buy their product.
Application
- Develop strategies to promote retention of learning.
I will apply primacy and recency strategies in my work.
When tender is called, the goal of client is to receive a
tender offer that is within budget, quality and time. The tender process from
primacy to recency is handled by me. I can use this strategy to constantly
remind contractor that if they want the job, they have to work within the
constraints.
As 70% of a memory is lost within the first
24 hours after meeting. Therefore I would require my contractor:
Immediate application and repetition -
actively recall the information and write it down.
•Micro learning the knowledge – Giving
them bite-size pieces of crucial information as it is considered the most
effective instruction method.
•Contextual
guidance - in the form of step-by-step walkthroughs the instructions/guiding
the whole process of work to unfold the outcome I expect from them while
constantly reminding them to work within the contraint.
E-Portfolio
Module 1 Entry 2 Apply Adult Learning Principles in Training
Apply code
of ethics for
Continuing Education & Training (CET) Professionals in adult education
(Application).
My
reflection on applying CET Professional code
of ethics
As trainers, we must endeavour to adhere
to CET professional code and ethics guideline at all times to ensure we can
maintain our professionalism and standard in training. How we behave as CET
professionals, our values and ethics in conduct as a trainer shape the next
batch of practitioners. Our values and attitude will serve as the foundation
that fuel and sustain the trainer/learners relationship within the community.
Values can be nurtured through a variety of ways, including induction,
practice, socialisation, or even self-discovery.
We must be committed to training, fully
aware of our roles and responsibilities of a Trainer, and to encourage mutual
respect among diverse cultural learners, able to apply teaching techniques
based on every individual’s potential to learn. We must constantly evolve,
improve and renew our personal skills, abilities and attitudes as a trainer so
as to ensure personal competence. We must also be innovative, keeping an open
mind for change and perform with integrity and objectivity.
We must be aware of common ethical
Issues involving trainer and learners, and apply strategies to resolve
conflicts, providing a standard that is justifiable by using a common good
approach to solving ethical problems.
Two code of ethics of continuing
education & training (CET) Professionals in my role as a trainer.
Firstly for adult learning principle on
ethical issues relating to training is the role and responsibility of trainer.
Apart from the role of trainer to offer knowledge and expertise, trainer should
be fair and equitable, be open and approachable, not listening to complaints of
other learners and form judgemental opinion on some learners. Being fully aware
that like workplace there is inevitable politics, so is classroom learning
among learners. Some may come from certain sectors and have preconceived
rumours, gossips of particular learner, they may take classroom learning to
attack on the particular learner. Some are arrogant, presumptuous, thinking
they know it all, and use their own little knowledge to attack other learner
during class lesson under pretext of sharing. Therefore trainer must be skilful
to manage adult learners' ethical issues.
Secondly as a trainers, we must be
mindful that adult learners come from all races and religions with own sets of
beliefs and values. We must promote culturally inclusive and harmonious
community. Our design materials must not show any disrespect to any culture or
belief. We must display sensitivity and empathy when dealing with adult
learners of diverse culture and belief.
Application
on CET Professional code of ethics
As a learner in adult learning programs,
I will abide by the adult student’s learning contract e.g. to fulfil the
minimum attendance requirement of 75%, complete all assignments and
assessments, contribute actively to class activities and discussion.
I will also abide by the ground rules
set down for the training e.g. to respect classmates, like be not too quick to
judge and trainers,; do not speak when
trainers are speaking; see frank discussions as healthy, and last but not least
to play my part as a learner.
I should also be sensitive to
generational and cultural gaps as learners come from all religion, beliefs and
ages, e.g. do not pass stereotype remarks like “younger generation are not
street smart, always so trusting, so believing everything that’s spoonfeed to
them.” Or why all chinese are so ‘kaisi’, ‘kaisu’ (afraid to lose)” etc. I must
also not impose my values and beliefs on others, e.g. if I value branded bags,
I must not pass remarks like, “you so poor in taste, cannot see value in a good
quality bag”.
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