Jane Vella (2002), has written the first chapter in her book, “Learning to listen, learning to teach”, to describe adult learning concepts. She describes the twelve principles that she feels must be present to have effective adult learning. In fact, she says that these are so intertwined, that adult learning cannot take place without all of them. I would agree. She is very succinct in her description of the twelve principles, and one of the principles that resonated with me was the first, which was needs assessment.
I found it very thought provoking to agree that all adult learners come with their own life experiences and know what they need to learn in a given subject. That as educators, we must listen and create dialogue that will help us begin to “know” our students, their lives and thus their needs. In nursing, we assess this with every interaction with patients and families, and this felt very natural to me. In fact, it is amazing that we could even think of trying to teach without this information. Her suggestion in the chapter that this needs assessment even passes cultural boundaries was very intuitive and resonated with me. This is one area that I feel comfortable in, but I also feel that I will need to be mindful of when getting caught up in the work of an educator.
The second area that enlightened me was one that I struggle with, the area of praxis. Praxis has been defined as action with reflection. As I journey through this role as a graduate student, while I enjoy every class and all the knowledge that I am gaining, I think that the reflection on what I have learned continues to be the most difficult learning experience. I am used to having an internal dialogue, of a sort, that looks at say, a class that I have taught to students about a health topic, and runs through what was effective and ineffective, what I would like to change and what I thought “worked” about the class. But I find this inner process difficult to describe on paper, and even more difficult to say “why” something doesn’t work and “why” I need to change it. For me, it is such an intuitive process, but I am learning that it is important to use the knowledge that I am gaining in my classes to make changes. How much more effective will it be to use this knowledge base to support my teaching! So I work hard to incorporate praxis into my education of myself as Vella asserts, to allow this reflection as part of the dialogue of personal experiences that will lead me to become a better teacher.
Vella, J. (2002). Twelve principles for effective adult learning. In Learning to listen, learning to teach: The power of dialogue in educating adults (pp.3-28). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
