Adult Eduacation Essay Research Paper 1 INTRODUCTIONIn — страница 5

  • Просмотров 1369
  • Скачиваний 13
  • Размер файла 31
    Кб

what questions: Are these learners introverts or extroverts? What is their cognitive style? What personality characteristics do they have in common? What level of education have they achieved? Are they more autonomous than other learners? Basically researchers are trying to gain an understanding of the typical learner??s characteristics and style. Specifically they have tried to link a number of different variables with being more or less self-directed in one??s learning. The notion of readiness and the concept of autonomy have been studied and discussed most often in the professional literature on self-directedness as a personal attribute. The notion of readiness implies an internal state of psychological readiness to undertake self-directed learning activities. Guglielmino

(1977) has provided the most widely used operational definition of this idea. She states that people must possess eight factors to be considered ready to pursue self-directed learning: openness to learning, self-concept as an effective learner, initiative and independence in learning, informed acceptance of responsibility, love of learning, creativity, future orientation, and the ability to use basic study and problem-solving skills. These factors undergird her Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), designed to ascertain adult readiness for self-directed learning. The relationship of autonomy and self-directedness in learning has been discussed primarily at the conceptual level. Chene (1983), for example, defines the autonomy of the learner as independence and the will

to learn. However, she also notes that the learner must have an awareness of the learning process, an understanding of what is conceived as competence in a specific area of study, and the ability to make critical judgments: ??[Autonomy] is a structure which makes possible the appropriation of learning by the learner?? Autonomy, however, is not necessarily context-free; there is a relationship between the personal and situational variables that must come into play for a person to be autonomous in certain learning situations. As Candy (1987b) observes: ??One does not ??become?? autonomous in any final or absolute sense.?? Confidence and commitment enter into each learning situation. Pratt (1988), in agreement with Candy, contends that self-direction is a situational attribute of

learners, not a general trait of adulthood. Therefore, adults vary considerably in their desire, capacity, and readiness to exert control over instructional functions and tasks. To understand self-directedness in learning as a personal attribute, more in-depth study is required. We need to isolate the variables that appear to assist a person to be more self-directed in his or her learning-from seemingly simple demographic variables such as age, socioeconomic status, and occupation to more complex concepts like autonomy, life satisfaction, cognitive style, and motivation.3). SELF – EFFICACY Understanding how people adapt and adjust to life??s infinite challenges is, perhaps, the most important problem for scientific psychology. Not surprisingly, most of the important models of

human learning, cognition, emotion, personality, and social interaction have tried to account for the individual??s capacity for adaptively responding to environmental changes, often referred to as competence (e.g., Sternberg & Kolligan, 1990; White, 1959). Self-efficacy theory is one of the more recent in a long tradition of personal competence or efficacy theories and has generated more research in clinical, social, and personality psychology in the past decade and a half than other such models and theories (Bandura, 1977,1982b,1986). The crux of self-efficacy theory is that the initiation of and persistence at behaviors, and courses of action are determined primarily by judgments and expectations concerning behavioral skills and capabilities and the likelihood of being

able to successfully cope with environmental demands and challenges.1. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY Social cognitive theory is an approach to understanding human cognition, action, motivation, and emotion that assumes that people are capable of self-regulation and that they are active shapers of their environments rather than simply passive reactors to them. There are essential ideas in social cognitive theory, which makes the belowing specific assumptions. (Brandura 1996 describes)1. People have powerful symbolizing capabilities that allow for creation of internal models of experience, the development of innovative courses of action, the hypothetical testing of such courses of action through the prediction of outcomes, and the communication of complex ideas and experiences to others.