In: Categories » Education and reference » Philosophy » What Are Examples of Philosophy of Adult Education
| A number of philosophies of education exist, and they vary based on K–12, higher education, and work place learning. The five major philosophies underlying adult education include (1) liberal adult education (a popular philosophy underlying education in colleges and universities); three philosophies that dominate corporate training, including (2) progressive adult education; (3) behaviorism; and (4) humanistic adult education; and the lesser known, but equally influential philosophy, (5) radical adult education. Although this discussion focuses on philosophies underlying adult learning programs, similar philosophies underlie primary, secondary, and higher education, so although our discussion focuses on adults, the lessons transfer to other learning environments. The discussion of each philosophy addresses these questions:
Additionally, in these discussions, you’ll also see how the different philosophies express the value of learning and how they place value on it. A Philosophy Rooted in an Academic Model: Liberal Adult EducationLiberal adult education is probably the most widely understood and employed philosophy of learning in the Western world, although it is not common in corporate training. People who believe in liberal education value the education of minds in general over training people for specific jobs or careers in particular. Often called liberal arts, programs developed from this perspective focus on developing learners who have a basic knowledge about the world in which they live and hone the learner’s ability to analyze and synthesize a situation to make decisions. As you might expect, examples of e-learning designed with a liberal adult education philosophy are common in academic settings. Although many learning professionals may not be able to name certain philosophies of education, they would be able to recognize their characteristics and the differences each suggests for the roles played by learners and facilitators, the presentation of information, and the assessment techniques. The following sections present three of the philosophies that underlie most corporate training. We illustrate them by showing how the topic “food safety” would be taught in each. As we will discuss later, few programs purely embody one strategy, but the examples for the following three philosophies have clear leanings. Progressive Adult Education Progressive adult education is the raison d’etre for training in many organizations. This philosophy emphasizes vocational and utilitarian training that betters the individual, society, and the organization. Training programs based on progressive beliefs are, first, learner-centric (that is, course design emphasizes the success of the learner in achieving the goal rather than the transmission of the content to the learner) and, second, problem focused (that is, courses are designed around solving problems). Because an assumption underlying this philosophy is that learners are self-directed (that is, learners take initiative for learning and responsibility for successfully completing it, such as contacting instructors on their own to ask questions), the role of the instructor becomes one of planner, instigator, and arranger of the conditions for learning. The utilitarian and pragmatic nature of this philosophy has extended its use to other agencies that transmit skills and knowledge such as churches, government agencies, and social movements. A great example of this is Risk Focused Inspections published by the State of Alaska, Division of Environmental Health. This course is anchored in a progressive philosophy that emphasizes practical knowledge of food safety and sanitation and the problem-solving skills needed to conduct a risk focused food inspection. You can find examples of equally pragmatic courses at government sites such as the U.S. Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) and U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (www.cdc.gov). Behaviorist Adult Education Behaviorist adult education has inspired many of the current practices in e-learning, from the design of courses using the mastery model to such advanced practices as learning objects linked to behavioral objectives, personalization of content based on gap analysis, and competency modeling. In its most extreme form, behaviorist education is simply training that teaches learners rote behaviors through drill and practice. This philosophy has been adopted by corporate training because it is grounded in psychological principles that efficiently produce overt, observable, and measurable outcomes, which are popular in corporate environments that are also focused on measurable results. Behaviorist adult education lends itself to clear and measurable outcomes. To illustrate behaviorism as a learning philosophy, we turn to a different course about food safety, Farm Food Safety Analysis from TEAGASC. The program reviews overall principles of analyzing food hazards, and teaches learners to master the Hazard Analysis and Control Principles (HACCP) approach to identifying hazards. More specifically, this program focuses on mastery of concepts related to food safety. The multiple-choice exam offers learners an opportunity to practice applying the concepts and provides good feedback. The assessment takes advantage of the Web’s ability to let learners display and interact with images. Additional examples of the behaviorism abound in e-learning. Some of the best examples are programs that teach learners how to use desktop applications such as PowerPoint™ and Excel™. NETg, a Thomson company (www.netg.com), offers an excellent example of evidence of behaviorist adult education. NETg provides an application called Precision Learning™, which is a preassessment using performancebased testing techniques to determine the skills and knowledge that a learner has at the beginning of a course. After learners complete the preassessment, the system generates a Precision Learning Track, a personalized learning plan and sequence of modules recommended to the learner that helps the learner master content that he or she did not demonstrate mastery of during the preassessment. Humanistic Adult Education Humanistic adult education is concerned with the development of the whole person, with emphasis on the emotional and affective dimensions of the learner. Programs with a humanistic design are generally targeted to learners who are highly motivated and self-directed. In fact, this high motivation and self-direction are hallmarks of humanistic programs, in which learners assume full responsibility for learning. In such programs, instructors act as guides, organizers of learning, and helpers. That is, rather than dictate the learning program, instructors in humanistic adult education programs help learners decide their own learning paths and rely heavily on communication and collaboration tools. To illustrate the philosophy of humanistic adult education, we turn to yet another example drawn from the topic of food safety. This time, we look at the Interactive Knowledge Exchange (IKE), an online service of the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Technical Service Center. This learning program relies on e-mail to send out scenarios twice a month to Field Operations employees. These scenarios are authentic problems that are ambiguous— like those in the real world. One educational component of the scenarios are questions like “What would you do?” and “What is the correct action?” These questions are intended to drive discussion and learning in the field. The goal of this program is to increase employee understanding of how to apply regulations, policies, and standards for the inspection of meat, poultry, and egg products by presenting them with realistic scenarios in which aspects of these regulations, policies, and standards must be addressed. Help from experts working in the headquarters is available to learners but to succeed in achieving its goal, the program relies on motivated learners who initiate a dialogue with work groups at the regional and plant levels. The questions and answers generated by the program are archived for future students to review. A Lesser-Known Philosophy: Radical Adult EducationIn addition to the liberal adult education (which is popular in colleges and universities) and the three philosophies of education that dominate corporate training (progressive, behaviorist, and humanistic adult education), there is a fifth dominant philosophy in adult education, radical adult education. Radical adult education is not as well known as the other four philosophies discussed in this section, but is prevalent throughout e-learning designed for adults. Radical adult education is the belief that social, political, and economic changes can be brought about through education. Examples of radical adult education include programs designed to raise consciousness, teach critical thinking and reflection, and spur political action or change. One example is Living Sustainably on the Earth (http://environment.jbpub.com/home.cfm), which encourages sustainable living practices. Another example is the gang violence prevention program, Coming Soon to a School Near You: A Project on Youth Gangs (http://mail.nvnet.org/ ~cooper_j/YouthGangWQSite/). Coming Soon to a School Near You is an award-winning WebQuest designed for high school students. WebQuest is an online teaching strategy developed by Bernie Dodge that uses inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact with information gleaned primarily from other sites on the Internet (hence the name WebQuest because learners embark on a quest for information on the Internet). Although not technically designed for adults, the strategies used provide a clear example of radical adult education. Notice how images and questions are used to raise awareness. The questions in this program promote critical thinking and reflection, ultimately to help learners decide whether to stay out of or join a gang. The goal of the program is to influence students to make a thoughtful choice that has a social and economic impact.
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