Facilitating the Learning of Adults

The articles in this issue of Adult Learning address varied ways of facilitating adult learning or administering programs. They are designed for different settings and purposes, but all discuss facilitating the learning of adults. Some focus on specific teaching techniques, some on events in the classroom, others on classroom climate, and a few on the philosophies and viewpoints of the teachers of adults. Why an issue focusing on teaching techniques and the classroom environment? It is easy to become distracted from our central focus of teaching adults among the necessary and real requirements of ensuring that programs for adults are planned and administered. Programs need to be created and marketed, students enrolled, teachers hired, facilities located and managed, funds generated, evaluations conducted, and reports written. Demands on teachers of all ages for increased accountability and documentation cost time and money while competing with concerns that the needs of adult students are met and valuable programs survive. An issue of Adult Learning that refocuses our attention on the needs of adult students and different approaches to facilitating their learning may be inspiring and revitalizing for adult educators. Another reason is to return our focus to the central issue of adult learning. In The New Update on Adult Learning, Merriam (2001) writes that knowledge of adult learning is at the heart of our practice of adult education, whether we are involved in planning and administering programs, teaching, and/or counseling adults. It is also "the most studied topic in adult education" (p. 1). Unfortunately, many adult education theories do not always come attached with practical ideas for how to apply the information, even when the theories have been drawn from practice. Translation of theory to practice is the work of inspired educators working directly with adult students. One part of moving away from the distractions of program development and administration is to focus our attention on the adult learners we meet. Employing a humanistic perspective, Nuckles describes student-centered teaching as the alignment of teacher's concerns with the learners. He explains what is needed for teachers and administrators to be more responsive to students' needs and concerns. Student-centered teaching begins with preparation prior to learners arrival, requires understanding of adult learners, self-assessment of one's own teaching style and content mastery, the ability to model skills being taught and modify preferred teaching styles to accommodate learners with varied preferences, and an administration that is congruent with and reinforces the facultys responsive teaching styles. Recognizing the complexities involved with being empathetic with the needs of diverse students, Nuckles indicates that honest, authentic effort, and not perfection, is the aim. This issue includes several articles that describe specific teaching practices or techniques. Paul Lones examines the relationship between learning and creativity to explore implications for adult learning. He outlines a model for developing and facilitating creativity with adults students, and uses his experiences of learning to lead mountain club activities as an example. The model requires visualization of what a person wishes to create, a clear view of current reality, and the ability to use the tension between the vision and reality as an energy source for action. Developing actions to activate this vision involves the ability to conceive a new reality, freedom to create it, and critical reflection and discussion. Facilitating a simulated field trip without leaving the classroom also requires creativity and imagination, and involves an attempt to change the perceived reality of a physical space. Douglas describes a method for field trip simulation created for a graduate class in adult education. He notes that the pedagogical literature on field trips has not been examined in adult education. …