GRADUATE ADULT EDUCATION EDUCATION:
FOUNDATIONS OF PRACTICE

When you begin the process of studying the field of adult education, especially if seeking an advanced graduate degree related to the topic, it is not unusual to enroll in a related graduate course. Elmira College has such a course, entitled AED 5000 Adult Education: Foundations of Practice. This course introduces the learner to the field, its literature and resources, to adult education agencies and programs, to the types of learners and professionals or volunteers working in the field, and to the nature of what it means to be an adult learner. Students develop a foundational statement of philosophy, visit adult education agencies, interview adult learners, read about the field, and carry out some type of major project, write a major paper, or design through learning contracts some way of obtaining an overview of the field. They often work in teams, so here are are some ideas on how to be successful in team activities. Here is some information on how to get the most out of a graduate program.

The primary text for the course is Sharan B. Merriam and Ralph G. Brockett's excellent book, THE PROFESSION AND PRACTICE OF ADULT EDUCATION: AN INTRODUCTION (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997).

It is recommended that all students in the course obtain an e-mail account. To obtain a FREE e-mail account that is accessible right through the World Wide Web, try Microsoft's hotmail system. This system allows you to set up your account and then access it from any work station that can access the web. Thus, even if you don't have a a computer at home or an e-mail account via some local carrier like AOL or Compuserve, you can set up this e-mail account just by visiting your local library and using its work station that typically is connected to the Web or perhaps you have access to a similar setup at your place of work. It is quite user friendly and once you get to the site it walks you through the signup procedure. You can have your account established and operating within minutes and then can participate in the course through e-mail and can communicate with others through e-mail. This also is a good backup system to read your regular e-mail if you are on the road and don't want to pay the expense of a long distance phone call back to your typical server if no local phone number is available. You can access your regular e-mail through a POP connection.

Following are some useful links if you would like some general information on the field.

The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy provides some interesting site and information suggestions related to adult literacy.

This "informal education" site provides some provides some overview information on adult education, and this one suggests some general reading sources.

Here are some more useful Internet resources to research in adult education as seen through Canadian adult educators' eyes.

The AskERIC resource will help you find a variety of information about adult education.

This is another Canadian site intended for adult learners who are looking for education resources on the internet. It provies links related to distance education, adult learning, and related sites.

An ERIC Digest provides a variety of Internet resources related to adult education.

The ERIC center at Ohio State University has a related web site you can try. They also have established a "read-only" listserv that will be used to announce new products, conference presentations, full text of all ERIC user products, and other items of interest to the adult, career, technical, and training communities. To subscribe send the following message subscribe ericacve yourfirstname yourlastname. Leave the subject line blank and do not use a signature file. Send it to this location.

National-Louis University's excellent web page related to adult education under the leadership of Tom Heaney. It also contains several write-ups on past adult education leaders. Here is another one with information on past and current adult educators. I also have begun developing a page related to information on past leaders, too.

The Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) proceedings. It contains the proceedings or abstracts for papers from past conferences.

A master bibliography related to general adult education materials available to Elmira College students, another specialized bibiliography related to the training of trainers certificate program available to Elmira College students, and a resource related to andragogy, including an annotated bibliography.

Here is information related to Howard McClusky's theory of margin. Here is information related to two articles written about Howard, one published in Lifelong Learning and one published in Educational Gerontology. Finally, here is a conference paper related to some of Howard's early work in adult education.

Here is a good guide to working together in groups, called a lay person's guide to working in cooperative groups.

Here is a good resource page developed by one of the Elmira College graduates.

Here is a great site by Desi Larson with many links for adult educators.

Here is the syllabus for AED 5000

Finally, I made a presentation to graduate students and faculty related to adult education and educational leadership at Florida Atlantic University on November 3, 1998. In the airplane on the way down I was thinking about my presentation and wanted to come up with something to finish it with. Following, are Roger's Ten Top "P's" for what it takes to be an excellent professional adult educator:

  1. Perseverence - staying with the process of being a better professional; learning to do better as you grow and develop as an experienced educator of adults
  2. Pride - pride in yourself, pride in your profession; this includes learning to love yourself and recognize the personal attributes you have; it also may need to include reading personal development books
  3. Patience - with yourself, with learners; remember that something like becoming a highly proficient and skilled self-directed learner takes time
  4. Patterns for success - there are existing models for teaching or training adults that work; individualizing the instructional process, self-directed learning, etc. are some of them; find a mentor that understands these various patterns or models and seek guidance
  5. Persnickety - become more organized and disciplined in what you do; depending on your personality style, this may take lots of effort, but it is worth it
  6. Preparation/preparedness - do your homework, practice everything before you do it, refuse to "wing" it when you are working with adult learners
  7. Personal philosophy - develop a personal philosophy statement, statement of personal ethics, and/or a personal statement of professional commitment that will serve as the foundation for what you do in the future (see a chapter on writing a personal philosophy statement or a section on creating ethical or professional commitment statements.)
  8. Presentation skill development - continuously work on developing your platform skills; seek feedback, obtain evaluations, video tape yourself, etc.
  9. Professionalism - develop your professional writing skills, join and participate in a professional association, contribute to your profession in various ways, understand professional standards that apply to you, develop a personal portfolio
  10. Potentiality - strive to live up to the potential that is within you; I truly believe there is a greatness in each of us that only remains to be unlocked, to be developed; you can do it!!!

Roger Hiemstra

April 10, 2005

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