Allison Newton

I learned that the most important thing I can do as an educatior besides delivering material is to activate learning, support my students, enhance the learning environmet, and maintain that environment for the studet to be sucessful.

Quadrant learning was interesting to look at and emphasized that students need different approaches- Holistic and visual in particular can be difficult to stimulate learning- but by making a game of something to review may engage the playful qualities of that quadrant.

I liked the point made about how students value self evaluation is a good assessment of learning.  Many students want to learn and see an industry standard that they want to achieve.  They are more likely to give a realistic assessment which helps them set personal goals if they are motivated to reach a specific benchmark and are made to look at where they need more practice and experience.

I have seen these theories of adult development before.  I do enjoy the perspectives, but also I see a great need for them to be updated due to different societal expectations.  Marriage and family are not alway a priority, and there are other definitions of family to be explored.  I think that the most important thing to do with your students is ask questions to find out what their current motivation is based on thier personal life experiences.  The age ranges are completely different for many students when you consider that some may serve in the military, moving the retirement… >>>

The blocks to motivation in adult education were covered well here.  It is often that I find resistance in the classroom when students feel like they "know the material already" or that the current topic is not something that they are interested in or see as valuble...  I also run into many students who struggle with time, transportation, money, and childcare issues.