Must the precepts of Knowles’ Andragogy be solved before Mezirow’s Reflection is possible?
Merizow’s (1990) Theories of Transformational
Learning reflection leads us into the intellectual culture of ivy league castles
and may not provide the resources that students with a life poverty or trauma
may have. When people come to our Learning Centers, we must identify in the
individual what their personal issues are that both motivate and block them from
learning. How do we handle the hurdles of hurt values before clear intellectual
thought is possible?
When Adult
learning methods are used with students of poverty, or trauma, we do not have Carl
Roger’s (1959) “Self-actualized” cognitive personalities that would yield a
clear reflective process. Instead oppression from poverty and trauma yield a
reflective process that drowns the spirit in a downward spiral of failure
thoughts and negative self talk. My experience with poverty is that reflections
of an oppressed life are filled with failure and pain and can easily turn into
a private hell. This battle of the mind in negative reflection is a big
challenge in a recovery process that Merizow’s theories do not address.
In transforming personal recovery of negative
corporate cultures, I have taken a simple three step approach. 1. Identify the
issue, 2. Design change objectives, and 3. Provide the experience to change.
With rebuilding the self extreme of an ADHD child, it is the same process; set the child up in situations that you know they
can win, then reinforce the win as much as possible. We simply replace the
pattern of losing with a pattern of winning. Once trust and positive beliefs
are established, learning can begin.
Case: Mary comes to the learning center and says,
“My kids have asked me to come to the center. I know I need a GED, but I hate
school, am afraid of learning and really do not believe I will get something
from it.”
Asking Mary to simply reflect on this will send her
back into the same fearful loops of failure she has always been in. The chance
that an urban center walk in has been trained in Ivy League style “relativeness”
cognitive skills would be rare. We need to “Uncouple the negative associations
with the learning process before the learning process (or a reflective process)
can begin. Basically, we must fix Knowles issue of the adult learners’ internal
conflict and patterns before reflection can take place. In addition,
destructive beliefs will only reinforce themselves in the reflective process.
In this we can see that Knowles (1990) precepts must be satisfied before
reflection can take place. It is not Adrogogy vs. Reflection, it’s a case of
Adrogogy before reflection. Mary’s cognitive processes must be healed of negative values on learning before the
reflection techniques can be deployed within the safe guidance of the group.
Method: Remember how Mad Libs were so much fun because
of the contrast of randomly changing the context words in a sentence? We can
use similar techniques with values in the sentence Mary originally gave us.
First:
Please fill in the missing words: I know I need a GED,
but I am (emotion)__________ of school, am (emotion) _______ of learning and
really (Do – Do not)____________ believe I will get something from it.”
Second. Ask to following questions related to the
sentence:
- a. What happened that makes you (emotion) of school?
- b. How come you feel (emotion) of learning and what would it take to get you to love learning?
- c. What makes you believe that you (will or will not) get something from a GED?
Third is to uncouple the negative experience with
school, learning and the future with first evidence and then the experience
that will transform one set of destructive context/values with a productive set
of values. Note Coupling and Uncoupling of context is part of my development
work on the Personal Learning Framework.
“Well,
Mary, you are free to walk around the Learning Center, talk with students and
the staff. I believe you will find that:”
a. “I
think you will discover by the smiles, laughter and focus of the students that
this place is more than safe. The students and volunteers love what they do and
are very encouraging.”
b. “You
will see in the center that we work in circles, encouraging one another and
love our unique culture. We make learning a long string of successes and fun.
We have faith in your capabilities and ability to contribute to your groups.”
c. “We
place 85% with jobs and a number of our volunteers were once students. Would
you like to talk with them?”
d. “We
are an open book and would love to have you join. You are welcome to spend some
time with us and make your own decision if this is what you want to do. I think
you will be surprised at what you are capable of doing.”
My question is what do you do in your learning
center to open students up to feel safe to start learning?
References
Knowles, M. (1990).
“Exploring the World of Learning Theory and Chapter Four: A Theory of Adult
Learning: Androgyny.” Chapter two: The Adult Learner,
A Neglected Species.
Mezirow, J.
(1990). “How Critical Reflection Triggers Transformative Learning.” In Mezirow,
J. and Associates.Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to
Transformative and Emancipatory Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pescitell, D. An
Analysis of Carl Rogers' Theory of Personality 3,13,2014 Retrieved from : http://pandc.ca/?cat=carl_rogers&page=rogerian_theory
Rogers, C.R. (1959). A
theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships, as developed in
the client-centered framework. In S. Koch (ed.). Psychology: A study of
science. (pp. 184-256). N.Y.: McGraw Hill.
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