Principle One: Foster and Empowered Learning Environment

As an instructor, I aim to make each course enjoyable, challenging, and relevant learning experience. I do this by fostering a learning environment in which students feel empowered to think creatively and openly discuss their experiences in class. Learning occurs as students integrate knowledge and experience, collaborate with peers, reflect, question, and exercise critical thinking skills. I serve as more of a coach than a source of absolute knowledge. I encourage students to trust their instincts but be prepared to explore and challenge their assumptions and opinions.

I follow the What, So What, Now What model (W³) when facilitating learning activities within my classroom setting (liberatingstructures.com). This activity helps students reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. During each phase, I ask guiding questions to help participants reflect on their thoughts and experience. The W³ model helps students to discover gaps in their understanding while learning from others’ perspectives. 

Principle Two: Acknowledge the Unique Characteristics of Adult Learners

Andragogy represents guiding principles that acknowledge the unique characteristics of adult learners (Knowles, 1968). Andragogy’s guiding assumption states that adults need to know why they need to learn something before investing their time and energy into educational pursuits (Knowles et al., 2015). As adults voluntarily participate in educational activities, adult learners naturally seek to direct their learning experiences. Adults are self-directed and internally motivated learners. Additionally, adults evaluate learning opportunities in terms of their immediacy of application to real-life situations, such as improved job performance and quality of life (Hanstock, 2004). Adults also highly value experiential knowledge and will use their experiences to enrich their learning activities.

While Knowles et al. (2015) offered biological, social, and psychological benchmarks for defining adults, in my experience, college students bridge the gap as emerging adults as many college students have begun fulfilling adult roles (working, voting, marriage, prior military service) and many college students would identify their self-concept as responsible and self-directing. Experiential learning techniques such as group discussions, problem-solving activities, and case studies offer value-added benefits for adult learners. Additionally, adult learners benefit from sharing their experiential knowledge with others as “experience is who they are” (Knowles et al., 2015, p. 45).

Principle Three: Harness the Power of Reflection for Personal Development

We do not learn from doing; we learn from thinking about what we do. To reflect on a learning experience means to think about the experience critically and to acknowledge and share reactions, emotions, observations, and new ideas gained from the learning experience. Reflection can happen through various activities, including writing, speaking, listening, reading, drawing, and acting. Benefits of integrating reflection with learning include assigning meaning to experiences; connecting experiential knowledge with formal classroom knowledge; fostering life-long learning skills; developing an ability to learn from positive and negative experiences; improving problem-solving and increasing personal empowerment; providing an opportunity to challenge perceptions and biases; and acknowledges gained skills and builds confidence (McPherson, 1997).