Analyze Professional Development for Alignment to Knowles' Assumption 2: Experience of the Adult Lea

Video Transcription

In this series of six tutorials, I'll be walking you through the process of aligning your professional development to Knowles' six assumptions for adult learners. Recall that the six assumptions are self-concept, experience, readiness, problem-centered orientation, internal motivation, and the need to know.

It's important for us to analyze our professional development plans in the context of adult learning theories. In all stages of professional learning, from the design to the implementation, teachers need to be able to connect the various stages of their learning to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills and to their classroom practice.

Knowles' six assumptions of adult learning can help us here, as they provide a framework for analyzing our professional development. For each of Knowles' six assumptions I'll guide you through a three-step process. We'll begin by identifying the areas of existing alignment, we'll then identify areas of possible misalignment, and finally, we'll identify specific areas for enhancement.

This analysis of our professional development is going to be an evaluative process, so I will be providing you with some evaluative questions and possible solutions that I recommend you use throughout the process. Evaluative questions are going to ask for an opinion or ask for a belief or a point of view, and so it's important to remember that these types of questions don't have any wrong answers. Rather, they are meant to spark some thought and to get you to consider multiple points of view as we go through the process of alignment.

As we go through this process, I will be referring to a sample professional development plan. Note that this plan includes the focus area of professional development-- the site goal and the alignment to district goals, along with action steps, resources, a timeline, details about who is responsible and who is involved, and evidence. The two action steps outlined in this plan are aligning curriculum to common core standards and enhancing instruction with technology. We'll look at various aspects of this plan more closely as we go through the alignment process.

In this tutorial, will align to the second assumption for adult learning. Experience. This assumption tells us that adult learners come to us with a reservoir of experience that can and should be used as a rich resource for learning. Step 1 of the alignment process is to identify areas of existing alignment. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about your professional development plan.

If there is alignment, do learning experiences allow teachers the opportunity to share their experiences? Are learners able to apply and use their previous experiences within the context of the professional development? Our learners given time to reflect on their personal experiences and to incorporate those reflections into the new learning or into the professional development?

Step 2 in the alignment process is to identify areas of potential misalignment. Here, we are looking for specific instances in which the assumption is violated or where it is not applied properly to the professional development plan. So here are some questions that you might ask yourself during this step. If there is misalignment, what can we change in order to involve the learner and their past experiences in the learning process? What can we change in order to help our adult learners connect their past experiences with any new learning that is occurring? Are we making sure that learners are creating connections between their experiences and any new learning?

And finally, step 3 is to identify specific areas for enhancement. Here, we might be looking for areas in which the approach to the professional development is just fine, but the design could still be potentially altered in order to create even better alignment. So here are some questions that might be helpful in this step.

What needs to be changed in the professional development plan in order to facilitate optimal learning for the adult learners? What can we improve in order to strengthen the professional development activity and to incorporate opportunities for our learners to share their experiences? Let's return to the sample professional development plan to check for alignment.

Step 1 in the alignment process is to identify areas of existing alignment. Unfortunately this plan does not display a great deal of alignment to the assumption of the experience of the adult learner. The training seems to be coming from above. In the case of the alignment to the common core standards, the curriculum director will be conducting the training. And when it comes to enhancing instruction with technology, the district technology staff will be conducting this training. There is no indication that teachers who have experience in either of these areas will be conducting any of their related training.

So this leads us right into step 2 of the alignment process-- identify areas of misalignment. Certainly both of these training opportunities are areas of misalignment. These parts of the plan are not taking into account the valuable experiences that these adult learners will be bringing with them to the process. So in step 3, when we identify areas for enhancement, a great way to enhance alignment of this plan to the assumption of the experience of the adult learner would be to involve some of those adult learners in this training process, allow teachers to share their experiences and their expertise with their colleagues.

Now it's your turn to stop and reflect. Take a look at your existing professional development plan. Does it take into account the experience of the adult learners that are taking part in the professional development? To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.

Thanks for joining me today. Have a great day.