ADULT LEARNER DEVELOPMENT INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS Adult Changes Biological (Physical) Phychological Sociological INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS

Physical changes aging process Two type of aging:- 1. Primary aging  is the basic, shared and inevitable set of gains or declined governed by some kind of maturational process. 2. Secondary aging  is the product of environmental influences, health habits or disease.

Physical changes Most adults will experience changes in their vision, their cardiovascular systems, their bones and connective material, and their reproductive function sometime in their 40’s. Although as adults we will all experience many major changes in our physical beings as we grow older, the effect of these changes on our capacity to learn is still largely unknown.

Physical changes Senses Deterioration in our ability to see and to hear can create problems with the learning process. Specific changes in vision are well documented. E.g. ability to perceive small detail such as words on the printed page and computer screen.

Physical changes Senses This loss of close vision starts to decline for most people between ages of 40 and 50 and results primarily from the lens becoming more dense and thus losing its elasticity. By the age of 70 poor visual acuity is common A second major sight-related change concerns light

Physical changes Senses Hearing loss is a progressive but gradual process throughout adulthood Most adults, however, will not notice any discernible change until their 50s, when sounds, especially in the high-frequency range, become more difficult to hear. This loss is most often noted by males, as hearing loss more often affects males than females at this age. Inability to understand the spoken word

Physical changes Senses Adult learning on their own have fewer problems than those who choose to learn in formal settings. E.g. an institution does not take into consideration the physical differences of adult learners.

Physical changes The Nervous System The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and the spinal cord, forms the primary biological basis for learning. Changes in the central nervous system has something to do with decline in reaction time as people age (time it takes a person to complete a psychomotor task such as putting together a puzzle).

Physical changes Disease processes Although other health impairments may affect the learning process, two specific disease processes affect learning depending on the severity and stage of disease. Cardiovascular disease e.g. results in a stroke, can lead to a loss of memory and aphasia, restricting the ability to reproduce verbal speech.

Physical changes Disease processes Massive brain damage, chronic organic brain disorder might affect learning. Alzheimer’s disease become very apparent over time. Symptoms range from impaired memory and disorganization of thought to changes in judgement and emotion and finally the inability to care for oneself at even a rudimentary level.

The effects of physical changes Physical changes effected day-to-day activities in a variety of ways, some trivial, some more significant . Slowing also manifests itself in the learning process especially the brain and central nervous system change 1. Stamina 2. Dexterity 3. Balance 4. Sleep 5. Sexual activity

Psychological Changes (Merriam & Cafarella, 1991) How development occurs within the individual and in interaction with the environment? 3 major categories: Intellectual development Cognitive development Personal development

Intellectual development What is intelligent? Being smart? How it might be affected by the aging process? The first extensive study of adult intelligence was completed by Thorndike and colleaques (1928).

Intellectual development It is argued that intelligence declines with age depends on where in the age spectrum one chooses to look. E.g. early, middle, later adulthood. There is also evidence for the possibility of growth in intellectual abilities; these changes are most likely to involve those functions associated with previous experience or accumulated knowledge.

Cognitive development Describes how thinking patterns change over time, as one grows older. It is often linked to a combination of factors, primarily the interaction of maturational and environmental variables. Shcolars: Piaget (1972), Riegel (1973), Kramer (1983, 1989), Perry (1981)

Cognitive development Much of the work on cognitive development in adulthood has been grounded primarily in the work of Piaget. Piaget’s idea represent qualitatively different ways of making sense, understanding, and constructing a knowledge of the world. Active role of the person in constructing his or her knowledge (with the implication that learning through activity is more meaningful, than passive learning). “mature adult thought”

Cognitive development A number of scholars have proposed new structures or patterns of thinking for adults that are seen as developmentally beyond or different from Piaget’s stage of formal operation. Two prominent themes that emerge from this work are the dialectic and relativistic nature of mature adult thought. Riegel: dialectic thinking. Thinking in the dialectic sense allows for the acceptance of alternative truths or ways of thinking about similar phenomena that abound everyday adult life.

Cognitive development Arlin: “creative thought vis-à-vis discovered problems” – the ability to generate and respond to important new questions and problems. (problem solving) Perry: his works suggest how people view instructor’s roles and their own roles as learners. Learners at the lower positions, for example, tend to view instructors as authority figures and their jobs as learners to filter out the right answers from the material presented.

Personal development Diverse concepts in the personal development: Theories of ego development Faith development General personality development Moral development

Personal development The literature on personal development is grounded primarily in cross-sectional clinical studies and qualitative biographies obtained through in-depth interviews. How adults can develop? Sequential patterns of development, life events, and transitions

Personal development The sequential development theories of Levinson, Gould, Erikson, Kohlberg, and others attempt to delineate the common themes of adult life according to what age or stage of life one is in. The characteristics and concerns of a particular stage of life have been linked to learning through what Havighurst called the “teachable moment”.

Personal development Life events are happening that shape the context of people’s lives and also precipitate learning. Transitions have been connected to both the sequential pattern and the life event paradigms, but they have also been studied in their own right and have been linked to adult learning by several authors.

Personal development Sequential patterns of development Many development theorists view development in adulthood as a series of stages that adult pass through as they age. (chronological time) A linkage between age-appropriate tasks and behavior and the fostering of learning activities for adults. “Teachable moment” is grounded in the concept of developmental tasks – tasks that arise at a certain period in a person’s life: selecting a mate etc.

Personal development Sequential patterns of development Knowles (1980) views developmental tasks as producing “a readiness to learn” which at its peak presents a ‘teachable moment’ and outlines his own lists of :life tasks” for young, old, and middle-aged adults.

Robert J. Havighurst Robert J. Havighurst was born in 1900 in Wisconsin, America. His family was German origin. He had four siblings. We went to Ohio Wesleyan, than did his PhD in physical chemistry in Ohio State University. In 1924, he published a number of papers in journal of physics and chemistry about the structure of the atom. In 1928, he wanted to change his career and decided to work in experimental education. He was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin. Later he became a direct of the general Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1940, he joined the University of Chicago as a professor of education at the Universities Child Development department. He worked in the field of aging. Again, in the same year he was interested in international and comparative aspects of education. He wrote several books and published many papers. His most famous book called "Human Development and Education".

Psychological Changes Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 1: Ages 0-6 Learning to walk. Learning to crawl. Learning to take slid food. Learning to talk. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty. Getting ready to read. Forming concepts and learning language to describe social and physical reality.

Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 2: Ages 6-12 Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games. Learning to get along with age mates. Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism. Learning on appropriate masculine or feminine social role. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living. Developing conscience, morality and a scale of values. Achieving personal independence. Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions.

Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 3: Ages 12-18 Achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both sexes. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role. Accepting one’s physique and using the body effectively. Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults. Preparing for marriage and family life. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior

Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 4:Ages 18-30 Selecting a mate. Learning to live with a partner. Starting family. Rearing children. Managing home. Getting started in occupation. Taking on civic responsibility. Finding a congenial social group.

Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 5: Ages 30-60 Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults. Achieving adult social and civic responsibility. Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one’s occupational career. Developing adult leisure time activities. Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person. To accept and adjust to the physiological changes of middle age. Adjusting to aging parents.

Developmental Tasks (Harvighurst, 1971) Stage 5: 60 and over Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income. Adjusting to death of a spouse. Establishing an explicit affiliation with one’s age group. Adopting and adapting social roles in a flexible way. Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements.

Levinson's Life Structure Theory Yale psychologist Daniel Levinson (1986) developed a comprehensive theory of adult development. Through a series of intensive interviews with men (1978) and women (1987), Levinson proposed a theory based on a series of stages that adults go through as they develop. At the center of his theory is the life structure, the underlying pattern of an individual's life at any particular time. An individual's life structure is shaped by the social and physical environment

Personal development Life Events Life events are benchmarks in the human life cycle that give “shape and direction to the various aspects of a person’s life”. Individual life events such as birth, death, marriage, and divorce, are events that define one person’s specific life. Engaging in learning activities is one way in which adults cope with life events.

Personal development Life Events E.g. when a change event occurs, the need for some adaptation produces, for some adults at least, a heightened readiness to engage in educative activity. The resulting activity may be directly or indirectly related to the change event, and the relation may or may not be recognized by the individual. Indeed, most adults do “learn in order to cope with some change in their lives” – this learning is tied to a triggering event.

Personal development Transitions Are concept that is used both by the developmentalists who speak in terms of life stages and those who address the life events paradigm Adults continually experience transitions whether anticipated or unanticipated, and react to them depending on the type of transition, the context in which it occurs and its impact on their lives. E.g. having a child. Knowledge & skill that would be useful for people in transitions: exploration of the transition event and process, problem-solving techniques, and skills for coping with the transition.

Sociocultural factors social status vs lower status: They are less likely to experience periods of unemployment in their adult lives. They are healthier and live longer. They have more stable and satisfying marriages In general, more satisfied with their lives

Sociocultural factors Why middle-age adults may be less satisfied in their careers than both younger and older adults? Social roles? Parent, spouse, worker, friend. Changes in one’s social position result from modifications of these roles and the taking on of new roles. Socialization process?