Adult Learning In Groups :: Learn Education Adults Essays

Adult education In GroupsGroups can exert powerful act both to advance and to obstruct eruditeness. A group can be an environment in which people invent and explore symbolic structures for apprehension the world, acquisition from separately other and trying out for themselves the discourse of the cosmos of knowledge they seek to acquire. Alternatively, groups can encourage con pass waterity, squander time and naught on ritual combat, revel in failure, and generally engage in all sorts of fantasy tasks that have little or nothing to do with learning. (Knights 1993, p. 185) The use of groups has deep historical roots in adult education, and, if asked, about adult educators would say that learning in groups is a fundamental precept of the field. Adult educators use groups frequently in structuring learning experiences, and groups also form the basis for much informal adult learning both in spite of appearance and outside institutional boundaries. Although group theory once pla yed a major role in shaping the field, the topic of learning in groups has been relatively unexamined in the recent literature. This Practice Application Brief provides reading that can be used in developing adult learning groups in formal educational settings. First, the nature of learning in groups is considered, followed by discussions of the role of the facilitator and forming groups. Guidelines for structuring group learning experiences for adults conclude the Brief. The Nature of Group Learning Little research exists on how learning occurs in groups (Cranton 1996 Dechant, Marsick, and Kasl 1993). Futhermore, when forming groups, adult educators tilt to condense on helping learners work effectively together quite than on helping them understand the learning branches that may be occurring in the group (Dechant, Marsick, and Kasl 1993). By drawing on Habermas domains of knowledge and interests, Cranton (1996) has developed a helpful way of thinking about how groups can accom plish or facilitate different types of learning. Cranton suggests that there are three types of group learning, each affiliated with the following kinds of knowledge proposed by Habermas-- instrumental (scientific, cause-and-effect information) communicative (mutual intelligence and social knowledge) emancipatory (increased self-awareness and transformation of experience) As outlined by Cranton, the type of learning that occurs in groups varies according to the learning tasks and determinations. Group learning that has as its goal the acquisition of instrumental knowledge is called cooperative. In cooperative learning groups, the focus is on the subject matter rather than on the inter- personal process .