Facilitating Adult Learning

This book provides a critical examination of the myths surrounding adult education and its practice.

Praise for Facilitating Group Learning "In this engaging and accessible book, George Lakey draws on a lifetime's experience to provide a highly practical resource to anyone seeking to understand and respond to the complexities of group work. The book will be invaluable to anyone trying to effect social change through groups while striving to stay simultaneously sane and employed." Stephen D. Brookfield, Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas "I've been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!" Starhawk, author, The Earth Path, Dreaming the Dark, and Webs of Power "George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that challenges us to redefine social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. This book helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members." Denis Lemelin, national president, Canadian Union of Postal Workers "Facilitating Group Learning will ease the way of all who venture into the white waters of facilitation. George clarifies the most basic, complex, and nagging challenges of facilitation, while honoring the realities of individual and social power dynamics and providing real-life examples from the path of continued growth and mastery. A rare gift!" Niyonu D. Spann, founding president, TRV Consulting and Beyond Diversity 101 "This book is a must-read for people who teach adults of any age, no matter what the subject, and care about doing it in ways that yield deep and abiding learning. Wonderfully well-written and rich with psychological and spiritual insights as well as practical strategies, it represents the fruits of a lifetime of transformational teaching and learning by one of the foremost adult educators of our time." Parker J. Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and The Heart of Higher Education

Practical "brain-aware" facilitation tailored to the adult brain Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind explains how the brain works, and how to help adults learn, develop, and perform more effectively in various settings. Recent neurobiological discoveries have challenged long-held assumptions that logical, rational thought is the preeminent approach to knowing. Rather, feelings and emotions are essential for meaningful learning to occur in the embodied brain. Using stories, metaphors, and engaging illustrations to illuminate technical ideas, Taylor and Marienau synthesize relevant trends in neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. Readers unfamiliar with current brain discoveries will enjoy an informative, easy-to-read book. Neuroscience fans will find additional material designed to supplement their knowledge. Many popular publications on brain and learning focus on school-aged learners or tend more toward anatomical description than practical application. This book provides facilitators of adult learning and development a much-needed resource of tested approaches plus the science behind their effectiveness. Appreciate the fundamental role of experience in adult learning Understand how metaphor and analogy spark curiosity and creativity Alleviate adult anxieties that impede learning Acquire tools and approaches that foster adult learning and development Compared with other books on brain and learning, this volume includes dozens of specific examples of how experienced practitioners facilitate meaningful learning. These "brain-aware" approaches can be adopted and adapted for use in diverse settings. Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind should be read by advisors/counselors, instructors, curriculum and instructional developers, professional development designers, corporate trainers and coaches, faculty mentors, and graduate students—in fact, anyone interested in how adult brains learn.

This book equips instructors with fresh, practical teaching and training methods to support adult learning in both formal and continuing educational environments. An extensive, how-to guide, Methods for Facilitating Adult Learning covers adult teaching and learning fundamentals, collaborative teaching methods, methods for facilitating autonomous learning, community-based teaching methods, and technology-enhanced teaching and learning approaches. Readers will emerge with an in-depth understanding of each method, made comprehensive by the inclusion of definitions, philosophical and/or theoretical underpinnings, advantages and limitations, practical guidelines for application, and ample real-world examples. Ideal for any educator working with adult learners, this book offers a toolbox of approaches designed to enhance reader understanding and practice of adult instruction.

When teaching and learning are characterized by collaboration, challenge, support, risk taking, and reflectivity, they become a transactional process. This book provides a practical guide for those involved in helping adults learn to critically examine, question, and rethink the teaching and learning encounter. The authors detail the descriptive elements, skills, and guiding principles of the transactional process, what it means to ground teaching in learning, how to individualize the teaching and learning process, and how to foster critical reflection. The book provides specific advice on adult learning methods and techniques most appropriate for facilitating the adult learning transactional process, how technology can be interactive and collaborative, numerous approaches for evaluating the teaching and learning process, and various strategies for improving instruction and resources for one's own professional development.

Learning is an inseparable part of human experience. Understanding how adults learn and applying that expertise to practical everyday situations and relationships opens the window on a broader understanding of the capacity of the human mind. Dorothy MacKeracher's Making Sense of Adult Learning was first published in 1996, and was acclaimed for its readability and value as a reference tool. For the second edition of this essential work, MacKeracher has reorganized and revised many of the chapters to bring the text up-to-date for contemporary use. Concepts are presented from learning-centred and learner-centred perspectives, while related learning and teaching principles provide ideas about how one may enable others to learn more effectively. Written for people preparing to become adult educators, Making Sense of Adult Learning provides background information about the nature of adult learning and the characteristics that typify adult learners. This new edition will be quick to assert its place as the premier guide in the field.

The third edition of ?Adult Learning Methods?, with revisions, updates, and six new chapters, provides the educator of adults with ways to understand and facilitate adult learning. It is a clearly written guide to understanding the complex aspects associated with techniques and methods of the teaching and learning encounter.

How do you tailor education to the learning needs of adults? Do they learn differently from children? How does their life experience inform their learning processes? These were the questions at the heart of Malcolm Knowles’ pioneering theory of andragogy which transformed education theory in the 1970s. The resulting principles of a self-directed, experiential, problem-centred approach to learning have been hugely influential and are still the basis of the learning practices we use today. Understanding these principles is the cornerstone of increasing motivation and enabling adult learners to achieve. The 9th edition of The Adult Learner has been revised to include: Updates to the book to reflect the very latest advancements in the field. The addition of two new chapters on diversity and inclusion in adult learning, and andragogy and the online adult learner. An updated supporting website. This website for the 9th edition of The Adult Learner will provide basic instructor aids including a PowerPoint presentation for each chapter. Revisions throughout to make it more readable and relevant to your practices. If you are a researcher, practitioner, or student in education, an adult learning practitioner, training manager, or involved in human resource development, this is the definitive book in adult learning you should not be without.

For teachers in higher education who haven't been able to catch up with developments in teaching and learning, James Davis and Bridget Arend offer an introduction that focuses on seven coherent and proven evidence-based strategies. The underlying rationale is to provide a framework to match teaching goals to distinct ways of learning, based on well-established theories of learning. The authors present approaches that readers can readily and safely experiment with to achieve desired learning outcomes, and build confidence in changing their methods of teaching.Research on learning clearly demonstrates that learning is not one thing, but many. The learning associated with developing a skill is different from the learning associated with understanding and remembering information, which in turn is different from thinking critically and creatively, solving problems, making decisions, or change paradigms in the light of evidence. Differing outcomes involve different ways of learning and teaching strategies.The authors provide the reader with a conceptual approach for selecting appropriate teaching strategies for different types of content, and for achieving specific learning objectives. They demonstrate through examples how a focused and purposeful selection of activities improves student performance, and in the process makes for a more effective and satisfying teaching experience.The core of the book presents a chapter on each of the seven ways of learning. Each chapter offers a full description of the process, illustrates its application with examples from different academic fields and types of institutions, clearly describes the teacher's facilitation role, and covers assessment and online use.The seven ways of learning are: Behavioral Learning; Cognitive Learning; Learning through Inquiry; Learning with Mental Models; Learning through Groups and Teams; Learning through Virtual Realities; and Experiential Learning.Along the way, the authors provide the reader with a basis for evaluating other approaches to teaching and other learning methodologies so that she or he can confidently go beyond the "seven ways" to adapt or adopt further strategies. This is the ideal companion for teachers who are beginning to explore new ways of teaching, and want to do some serious independent thinking about learning. The book can also be used to prepare graduate students for teaching, and will be welcomed by centers for teaching and learning to help continuing faculty re-examine a particular aspect of their teaching.