Paper 1

PERFORMANCE

COMPETENCIES FOR ORLD 4051 HOW ADULTS LEARN

There are two papers required for the course. Each paper must be 5-7 pages, double-spaced in 12 pt Times Roman and in APA format. The papers are designed to help you develop a problem case using one or more of the adult developmental theories covered in the readings. Thus, the two papers actually represent one comprehensive work that uses all of the components of the class and requires you to apply it to a work/personal situation. All papers must contain a thesis/argument, discussion, and conclusion. NOTE: NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED

Paper 1: Due October 16th:

Select one or more of the Development Theories covered in the reading and apply it to a particular work/personal situation that you would like to explore. The paper must contain a section that describes the construct of the theory—i.e., assumes that the reader has no prior knowledge about adult development theories. The paper also needs to define the situation or problem and associate the correlation you are making between the developmental theory and the situation.

Outline

In Search for an Adaptive Teaching and Learning Classroom

Jose Nava

ORLD 4051, Fall 2017: Paper 1 (Resubmission)

Teachers College, Columbia University

Background: Definition of Problem (in practice)

Theory section: Perry's Scheme and the LWMA.

Correlation between theory and problem

Langer Sample:

Introduction

Core Philosophy

Arguments against

Arguments for

A Practical and Integrated Approach

Conclusion

The main features of Perry’s scheme are summarised in the table below: Main Line of Development

Position 1: The student sees the world in polar terms of we-right-good vs. other wrong-bad. Right Answers for everything exist in the Absolute, known to Authority whose role is to mediate (teach) them. Knowledge and goodness are perceived as quantitative accretions of discrete rightnesses to be collected by hard work and obedience (paradigm: a spelling test).

Position 2: The student perceives diversity of opinion, and uncertainty, and accounts for them as unwarranted confusion in poorly qualified Authorities or as mere exercises set by Authority “so we can learn to find The Answer for ourselves”.

Position 3: The student accepts diversity and uncertainty as legitimate but still temporary in areas where Authority “hasn’t found The Answer yet.” He supposes Authority grades him in these areas on “good expression” but remains puzzled as to standards.

Position 4: (a) The student perceives legitimate uncertainty (and therefore diversity of opinion) to be extensive and raises it to the status of an unstructured epistemological realm of its own in which “anyone has a right to his own opinion,” a realm which he sets over against Authority’s realm where right – wrong still prevails, or (b) The student discovers qualitative contextual relativistic reasoning as a special case of “what They want” with Authority’s realm.

Position 5: The student perceives all knowledge and values (including authority’s) as contextual and relativistic and subordinates dualistic right–wrong functions to the status of a special case, in context.

Position 6: The student apprehends the necessity of orienting himself in a relativistic world through some form of personal Commitment (as distinct from unquestioned or unconsidered commitment to simple belief in certainty).

Retreat: The student entrenches in dualistic, absolutistic structures of Position 2 or 3.

Escape: The student exploits the opportunity for detachment offered by the structures of Position 4 and 5 to deny responsibility through passive or opportunistic alienation.

Temporizing: The student delays in some Position for a year, exploring its implications or explicitly hesitating to take the next step. Escape:

Conditions of Delay, Deflection, and Regression Temporizing:

Position 9: The student experiences the affirmation of identity among multiple responsibilities and realizes Commitment as an ongoing, unfolding activity through which he expresses his life style.

Position 8: The student experiences the implications of Commitment, and explores the subjective and stylistic issues of responsibility.

Position 7: The student makes an initial Commitment in some area.

WORK / PERSONAL SITUATION

Introduction and Context

Universities (4-year) and community colleges (2-year) compose what is referred to as higher education in the United States. While 4-year institutions educate a relatively homogeneous student demographic, community colleges serve a wider and more diverse population with a large proportion of so-called nontraditional (e.g. older, working, limited English speaking) students who can usually be categorized on either a transfer (to a 4-year) or career (training for job) track. A major challenge for community colleges is that they serve two very different missions that require, arguably, divergent teaching methods. Transfer students require more theoretically-based programming that can become the foundation for more advanced learning at their transfer institutions, whereas career-track students need technical knowledge that can be applied immediately at their current or future jobs. In this context, the community college instructor needs a broad scope in terms of both learning outcomes and teaching strategies.

In our business program at Foothill College, we offer a typical set of courses that align to the dual mission mentioned above. In recent years, a number of challenges have put pressure on the department. Government legislation and mandates for accountability, competition, low enrollments, and a consistent and significant achievement gap between certain segments of our student population have instigated some self-assessment both at the college level and as individual instructors. For several years now, the business department has held conversations and have tried interventions that have proven ineffective, especially as it relates to student performance. Achievement gaps have persisted at all levels of the college (including the business program) for over a decade, regardless of the various programs designed and implemented to address the issue.

Problem Statement

It is my contention that although there are significant structural and systemic sources for our nonperformance and the resulting persistence in the achievement gap, traced to the college and the community college institution as a whole, there is a specific condition related to the mindset of our instructors, including myself, that plays a principal role in the problem. As was in my case, the vast majority of our instructors (practitioners) are hired directly from industry (mostly as adjuncts). Their resumes usually include top rated academic degrees and decades of impressive work experience for brand Silicon Valley firms, yet they very often lack the skills to convert their stellar careers into effective teaching. There are also examples of “academic” instructors (mostly tenured, full-timers) who for different reasons do not have the practical experience or have not kept up with industry, limiting their effectiveness in relating their teaching skill to the needs of both our students and our employer base. Even more to the point, most instructors, whether in practice or not, appear not to realize that their approach to teaching is lacking. The practitioner-instructors seem to believe that given their currency in the field that their expertise is unquestionable and more than sufficient for their teaching of the subject. Likewise, academic-instructors, in the majority of cases, apparently believe that their content is permanent and unchanging. Generally, the mindset of our business community college instructor seems to perceive knowledge as fixed and possessed by and within themselves. Such a perspective limits not only the predisposition of the instructor to new ideas and to others’ perspectives, including those from his or her own students, but also inevitably confines the teaching methods (e.g. lectures) that result in passive learning. Passive learning is the antithesis to what is needed and, indeed, demanded by employers and students (Adecco, 2017). If our instructors were to expand their mindsets to match the complexities of both their disciplines and the teaching process, better aligned and more effective learning outcomes would ensue, perhaps finally taking a positive step in closing the achievement gap. But for our business department faculty to reach that goal, we need to first, as is usually the case in any change process, become aware of our current state, in this instance, as it relates to our individual mindset towards knowledge and teaching.

Purpose of Paper

The intent of this paper is to formulate the problem (done above) and then take the first step in the process of addressing it. That first step is gaining an understanding of our mindset in terms of our philosophy of knowledge and cognition which directly and consequently influence how we teach and how our students learn. I will use William Perry’s scheme of development to describe some examples of our current practice of teaching business at Foothill College, based on both my own experience in the classroom as an instructor and my observations while conducting teaching evaluations over several years. I hope that in tying a theoretical framework to actual examples of our teaching, we can begin to elucidate our structurings of meaning (Perry and Chickering, 1997) as they relate to teaching and learning that then can inform ways to potentially improve learning outcomes for all our students, including our underperforming populations.

THEORY

Developmental Theory

Perry’s Scheme

CORRELATION BETWEEN PERRY’S SCHEM AND SITUATION

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CONCLUSION

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References

Adecco (2017, July 26). Watch the skills gap: See how U.S. executives see the skills gap impacting the American workforce. Retrieved from https://www.adeccousa.com/employers/resources/skills-gap-in-the-american-workforce/.

California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (n.d.). Student Equity. Retrieved from http://extranet.cccco.edu/Portals/1/SSSP/StudentEquity/Student_Equity_Expenditure_Guidelines_2015-16_Final.pdf http://extranet.cccco.edu/Divisions/StudentServices/StudentEquity.aspx

CTE Policy Watch Blog (2015, April 16). National Journal: Career Training "Holy Grail for Success". Retrieved from http://ctepolicywatch.acteonline.org/2015/04/national-journal-career-training-holy-grail-for-success.html.

Langer, A. M. (2013). Employing Young Talent from Underserved Populations: Designing a Flexible Organizational Process for Assimilation and Productivity. Journal of Organization Design, 2(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.7146/jod.7311

Langer, A., & Knefelkamp, L. L. (2008). Technological Literacy Development in the College Years- A Model for Understanding Student Progress. Theory of Practice.

McLeod, S. (2015). Jean Piaget. SimplyPsychology. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Perry, W., & Chickering, A. (1997). Cognitive and ethical growth: The making of meaning. College Student Development and Academic Life, 4, 76–116. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xsO1IlWMEOAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA48&dq="in+a+faculty+meeting+(Perry,+1959)+and+read+one+student%27s+comment+as+my"+"the+time,+no+one,+myself+included,+stopped+to+inquire+whether+this"+"and+have+tried+t

Background and Problem

In the spring term of 2016, a contingent of 50 Dutch CEO’s and Deans of career and technical educational and higher education institutions visited Foothill College, a community college located in the Silicon Valley in California. Their objective was to explore how Foothill and other colleges in the US bridged the gap between education and industry. The solution (or solutions) to that question is the holy grail of vocational education (CTE Policy Watch Blog, 2015) or, as it is called nowadays, career and technical education (CTE). Foothill College has a reputation for innovative programming that successfully transfers many of our students to four-year institutions. In part, this reputation has been built on the commitment to adapt our offerings to the demands of both our students and employers. But there is a gap between our reputation and reality, in my view, especially in the programs that I am associated with. As the lead faculty member and chair of the accounting and business programs over the last couple of decades, I am keenly aware of the gaps that exist both programmatically with our offerings and the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that students come to and leave with from Foothill. Yet, I was very surprised to discover through a review of popular press sources that the gap is perceived to be much wider than I expected. In my presentation to the Dutch contingent, I pointed to several surveys and articles that stated that in the US, 92% of business sector executives think that Americans lack the skills needed for today’s work requirements (Adecco, 2017). I also detailed the skill sets where the gaps may be most prominent. I categorized skills into three areas as shown below in Table 1.1. Much of the articles and white papers on the skills gap do not make a distinction between the various types of skills. But I and my colleagues at Foothill have proposed, as we did in the Dutch presentation, that a more granular evaluation of the types of skills is required for the appropriate design of programs and curriculum to effectively address the skills gap. We believe that there are certain types of teaching and learning methods and extracurricular activities that align more fittingly with the cognitive demands of distinct types of skills. In most cases, the literature (mostly non-peer-reviewed) suggests that “soft-skills” are what is required to be taught. Usually, the listing includes communication (e.g. writing, math, presentation), collaboration (interpersonal / e.g. team work), project management, critical thinking, innovation, and technology (e.g. productivity, web, discipline-specific software) skills.

Table 1.1 Categorization of Skills by Cognitive Demand

mentioned above. We do not know how.

Theoretical Tools

But there are differences in the cognitive demands for the teaching and the learning of technical versus professional skills and more so with what we refer as traits. While using excel (technology skill) or booking the correct amount of expense (discipline-specific) presents a well-defined procedural type of knowledge that can be taught instrumentally on an individual basis, problem-solving and project management (professional skill), on the other hand, reflects a less well-defined context that requires a social and collaborative teaching and learning experience. Even more importantly, in our view, is the development of what we refer as professional traits that would potentially embed in students the ability to continually adapt to their every-changing professional and personal contexts.

Can academic programs actually develop such traits as innovation, leadership, risk-taking, visioning, empathy, global thinking, etc. We think so. Our recent social entrepreneurship project in the Philippines was our latest attempt at piloting a program that simulates an entrepreneurial experience in a completely distinct context to that of our students. Our hope is to methodically offer our students an authentic experience within which they are called to analyze an initial story and use their previously learned classroom content to define the problem, select potential solutions, implement and adapt, and deliver. The desired outcome of the projects is to solve real problems for underserved communities, while providing sustainable and eco-friendly solutions. Students learn to take reasonable risks, adapt and innovate, collaborate, lead, and globalize their thinking. This is the message we conveyed to the Dutch attendees during our presentation. But we also admitted that we did not and, still to this day, do not know if our theory holds. We claim that such open-ended student projects are best when approached in an authentic context and with a real problem. However, we do not truly know how to measure whether our students actually developed. We only have anecdotal evidence that our students are more adaptable and innovative. I did ask our participating students to write a reflection paper on their experience. But later we realized that we did not properly train our students on how to reflect. We did not get the information that we desired from their write-ups. Our biggest omission on our part, in designing the project, was that we did not measure our students’ starting point with respect to the skills and traits

Generally, as an adult educator, I rely on certain schemas (Piaget, 1936, as cited in McLeod, 2015) on teaching and learning that I have learned over the years. My basic cognitive process model of learning (Figure 1.1)shows three phases in the learning process, including learner, inclusive of individual differences, the instructional or learning environment along with the motivation dimension, and the learning outcome (or achievement). Within our regular business and accounting programs, the learning outcomes are content-based, although there are some attempts by some individual instructors to simulate experience and potentially develop some the skills mentioned above. However, instructional methods are still very much lecture-based and focused on covering content and procedural knowledge that does not align to the skills (or trait) development. Not surprisingly, when our graduates move on to business or accounting jobs, there appears to be a very noticeable void between the theoretical knowledge acquired through schooling and their job requirements. This is what the skills gap refers to – mostly evidenced anecdotally by formal interviews and informal questioning at advisory board meetings). In order for us at Foothill to be part of the solution, we would need to redesign our learning outcomes and teaching methods to align to the skill sets described in Table 1.1, while still covering the required content. Aside from a few administrative issues (e.g. faculty union contract) to resolve to make the transformation happen, there is one practical challenge. Class time is usually very limited and is only enough to cover content. For this reason, we have developed several extra-curricular activities tied to selected courses that can extend the content by providing experiential projects, including our social entrepreneurship program.

Given our desire for a comprehensive change in how we teach, it would make sense to design a program not only to target our new learning outcomes, inclusive of content and skills/traits, but also one that is informed by who is in our classroom. In other words what are the individual differences the enter our classroom each term? More importantly, given that we want to target higher-order skills, are our students ready for our new learning environment. We need tools to gain an understanding of the cognitive maturity in our students. The so-called Perry’s Scheme (Perry and Chickering,1997) and the Langer and Knefelkamp (2008) Student Technology Arc (STA) can potentially offer the help we need. While Perry’s Scheme provides the theoretical framework, Langer’s STA could be modified to fit our purposes and help us to continually assess student progress across certain variables.

Perry’s Scheme

Perry’s Scheme

Langer’s Student Technology Arc

Langer and Knefelkap’s Student Technology Arc

Conclusion

Without learning how our students make meaning of our lessons, we will not understand our students’ perceptions of the purpose of the program or whether they have the foundation needed for the enhanced teaching methods.

Discuss how model above parallels the problem; link the model with Perry’s scheme and the LWMA; mention in correlation section how the problem relates to the models and how the LWMA needs to be modified to address higher-order skills

In our scenario, with our social entrepreneurship project, we already have claimed that learners enter our authentic (and self-directed) learning environment and that the learning outcome is students with enhanced set of skills and traits.

Applicable Theories

Conclusion

Basic model and extended model of learning

Individual differences >> thinking complexity >> perry’s scheme, LWMA

Application to my current practice

Follow up applications: faculty, admin

conclusion

References

California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office Student Equity 2015-16 (2016, August). Expenditure Guidelines. Retrieved from http://extranet.cccco.edu/Portals/1/SSSP/StudentEquity/Student_Equity_Expenditure_Guidelines_2015-16_Final.pdf

Merriam, S. B. (Ed.). (2010). Third update on adult learning theory : new directions for adult and continuing education. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

The Guardian (2017, September 14). What is Daca and who are the Dreamers?.

Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-daca-dreamers

McLeod, S. (2015). Jean Piaget. SimplyPsychology. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Langer, A., & Knefelkamp, L. L. (2008). Technological Literacy Development in the College Years- A Model for Understanding Student Progress. Theory of Practice.

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