How Adult Learning Occurs: Reflections With A Fellow Student

It was my privilege to meet with fellow student Ana Gupta in early November to not only discuss our previous blog posts and the course in general, but also to have my first live, in-person interaction with anyone else in my class! 

I assume this was part of the rationale behind the assignment, much like the group forums and this blog, to address and mitigate a potential weakness of online (or distance) learning by providing at least some "touch points" between students so we can still hear, consider, and borrow from our different perspectives, teaching styles, and learning preferences.

This actually became the centrepiece of my conversation with Ana. While we explored the course's content, things we had learned from the assigned readings, and the differences between andragogical and pedagogical approaches (ultimately coming to a conclusion echoed by Knowles that real-world adult learning typically involves elements of both), the most exciting part of the discussion for me was getting to know Ana: her work as an employment specialist, how she hoped this course would help, the unique challenges of her daily tasks, the nature and needs of her clients, and above all, her deep passion for learning and effectively communicating ideas to others. 

Talking with Ana reminded me that this is what lies at the heart of andragogy for instructors: getting to know your students, discovering their goals and motivations, assessing their level of interest, and constantly evolving to to accommodate how they learn best. (It also reinforced my belief that all teacher's reflexive tend to treat every interaction as a learning moment!)  Don't get me wrong, our time together, which lasted roughly four times longer than expected, was thoroughly enjoyable on a personal level and Ana was a delight to meet. But the activity itself also created the environment for a kind of self-directed learning I hadn't anticipated. A bit of genius, actually, on the part of the course designers.

A good reminder that some of the best opportunities for learning are ever-present (if not always obvious) and incredibly easy for an instructor to build into their curriculum...so long as we remember the fundamental andragogical idea of how real-world learning occurs in the first place.