Adult Learning Practices at My School

Being an adult learner at my current site has changed significantly over the past six years. When I began at my school I felt like the practices used for adult learning were ineffective. Our professional development was consistently brief and discontinuous. I can remember one instance where we had one introductory training on teaching students growing up in poverty and then never heard or saw any information regarding this again. In another instance, we had a training on arts integration and then heard nothing about it again until the next training which was months away. Thinking back on how we, as adult learners, were expected to adapt any of the information presented with so little information and/or follow up, it is not surprising that many teachers felt as though we were unable to really use anything we were supposed to be learning.

The way that Zepeda presents adult learning is much more closely aligned to the way that my school works on initiatives now. For one, our learning is now more individualized or self-directed. This has allowed us to choose what we feel will be most productive to further enhance out practice. We have some freedom to participate in informal or incidental learning as presented by Marsick and Watkins. When we do our work in committees or in focus groups, we are given a chance to frame our learning and interact with each other through implementation and reflection. The shift in focus we have seen at my school is tackling learning in a much more context-based situation as presented by Hansman.

As our school has moved forward these past several years, we have begun to see the learning of teachers through the lens that many of the authors this week have presented. Whether through an individualized approach so we can focus on the information we feel will benefit our practice most or through the reflection we regularly incorporate, our learning practices are much more effective. The change that has taken place has given me a new perspective on how we should approach teacher development and has made me realize what effective professional development looks like. Our practices are not perfect, but they have moved in the right direction thanks to a change in administration and teachers who have spoken out to make our learning more productive.