Following last week's megapost, I'm going to skirt this week with a less intense discussion. Andragogy, the teaching of adults, requires understanding that the needs of adult learners not only differ from those of younger learners, but perhaps are more diverse among the demographic labelled "adult."
Objectives of K-12 educational institutions differ from objectives of adult education centers. Adult education may range from developmental instruction to advanced or specialized context instruction (such as for a given field, workplace, or merely a project).
Most of my undergraduate (minor and certificate) coursework in TESOL focused on educating children in mainstream classrooms. My graduate studies, practicum, and teaching experiences in TESOL have been teaching adults. When I first began teaching at the university, I was surprised to learn that many of my ESL students had come to the U.S. with advanced degrees in their first (or often second, third, or fourth) languages. Like me, many already had education and professional experience -- They were learning new language skills to increase their chances of promotion and/or international employment.
In non-ESL classrooms, K-12 classes provide a great deal of course scaffolding including management of the students' time and resources; however, in FYC classrooms, scaffolding lessons is important, but less strictly guided time management necessitates. While providing comprehensible, not simplified input (Krashen), an FYC instructor has the responsibility deliver content, but not to closely monitor students' reading and study habits. Providing a clear syllabus and weekly schedule is one way to provide a structured scaffold for the FYC student to begin taking adult responsibility for his/her coursework. It is important to note that not all FYC students are native English speakers or between the ages of 18-24. Many non-traditional students attend college and university courses. An instructor's awareness of individual needs can help provide well-scaffolded need-based instruction on a case-by-case basis. The temptation to provide normative instruction may leave advanced learners bored and disengaged or allow students in need to fall through the cracks. Learning is personal, so teaching must be provided as such to the extent the environment will allow.
I'm going to play a bit of devil's advocate here, you say, "An instructor's awareness of individual needs can help provide well-scaffolded need-based instruction on a case-by-case basis. The temptation to provide normative instruction may leave advanced learners bored and disengaged or allow students in need to fall through the cracks. Learning is personal, so teaching must be provided as such to the extent the environment will allow."
ReplyDeleteI completely 100% agree with you on this, however, I've only taught HS English (with over 85% of my classroom being ESL kids, so I'm used to teaching differently to accommodate ESL and non-traditional students), but what about brand new teachers with little to no experience. For example, I have a friend who finished her bachelors in education and teacher certificate through TTU. She completed her student teaching hours at Talkington, the all girls private school here in Lubbock, this school, while does have diversity, was still significantly white upper class girls. Her first job was in Carrollton at a title 1 HS where 75% of the students are Hispanic/Latino, 20% is Black and 4% white, 1% other. Of that student population, nearly half were or are ESL students. While I want to believe that TTU prepared her with the necessary education to teach a wide range of students from any background and economic status, she said they didn't. She was wholly unprepared for the behavioral issues, the language issues, the economic status issues, among a whole host of other issues that arose during her first year teaching.
While yes, we are given IEPs, ARDs, and other paperwork that tells us which students are allowed or need accommodations for learning or behavioral granted by the state, no one prepares us for the behavioral issues that aren't classified under an IEP or ARD. We aren't properly prepared for the blatant disrespect, racist comments, unruly behavior, and parents who most of the time don't even recognize that they are parents.
So my question is, how are brand new teachers with little to no experience supposed to be aware of every individual's needs and provide a well-scaffolded need-based instruction on a case-by-case basis? How are we supposed to teach a certain curriculum each day, for a wide range of student with a wide range of learning abilities, disabilities, and capabilities.
Excellent question, Meghan! I also understand the state of Texas operates in a unique way integrating ESL and special education as mainstream students -- not to group the two into homogeneity by any stretch of the imagination, only to recognize the two types of students as non-traditional and in need of consideration. When I was studying for my TESOL certificate, I read some excellent case studies of teachers who had encountered these same issues. Being fully prepared to teach requires experience via practicum, and a great deal of study. Here are a few of the books I studied (though not nearly a comprehensive or conclusive list):
DeleteChristina Ioga -- The Inner World of the Immigrant Child
Sylvia Helmer & Catherine Eddy -- Look at Me When I Talk to You
Guadalupe Valdés -- Learning and Not Learning English
Curtis W. Hayes et al -- literacy con carino
Robin C. Scarcella & Rebecca L. Oxford -- The Tapestry of Language Learning
Pauline Gibbons -- Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom
Danling Fu -- An Island of English
These books discuss many of the issues you mentioned. Even experienced teachers are increasingly attending professional development courses to prepare them for SL issues. Certification in TESOL will certainly give you an advantage as a new teacher, I feel.
Your post is great, as always. The issue you discuss in your last paragraph is of particular interest to me. It has always been a struggle to balance instruction so that more advanced students aren't wasting their time and less advanced students aren't left behind. There is something to be said about discussing concepts and practicing skills on different levels in class, but it is an art I am not sure I have yet mastered.
ReplyDeleteThe work I do outside the classroom can go a long way in supplementing this differentiated classroom teaching. Meeting with students one-on-one is one of the best ways to supplement classroom instruction, and I wish I had the time to do more of it. It is much easier to help a student understand concepts when we can discuss back and forth rather than in a classroom environment (which is great for so many other reasons). Feedback is another way that I can give more help to struggling students and challenge advanced students. I grade every student on the same criteria. It would be unethical to do otherwise, but my feedback is usually very individual. I may give an advanced student an A but still push the student to refine ideas and reach a higher level. Now I am just rambling. Your post got me thinking.
Thank you for the compliment, MaryAnn. The course provokes good thought. I agree that the 1-on-1 F2F conferencing is a great benefit. I'm trying to change my ways of thinking and ways of teaching so I am an equally effective as a hybrid or online instructor as I am F2F. I really appreciate your comment that you push advanced students. I have been in many classes as an unchallenged advanced student. It is so frustrating. I love bending my teaching to different needs and different learning styles -- In a way, I believe it requires an anthropologist to get to know her students, then to teach to them.
DeleteGood thinking here and in your comments, Brandy. How might your syllabus course objectives reflect principles of andragogy, or can these principles be useful in helping you show students how you plan to measure course objectives? If students know WHY they're doing something, perhaps the WHAT they're doing can become easier, or at least more interesting. For me, it's about increasing on-task thinking time. They're more students think about the relevance of your topics in class, and think about they outside class by connecting them to life tasks, they more they're likely to get it. Is andragogy, though, in competition with banking model pedagogy or formulaic writing examples, like what Jerry mentioned during the first book club meeting?
ReplyDeleteThis isn't really a response to your questions about andragogy. I was rifling through some old lesson plans to share with classmates, and came across this piece I wrote several years ago as I was considering the first draft of my teaching philosophy in the context of another interesting book I was reading:
DeleteThe point from this week's reading which struck me is found in Chapter Six of Literacy Con Carino. Hayes et al write, "We believe children are born empowered, but school often strips empowerment from them." This is the opposite of the philosophy I have always held about good education. To read this in a book on how to teach well gave me pause. Schooling should be empowering. As a woman, I can't stand on my own feet without my education. Years of experience, dedication, hard work, and tangible evidence of those things mean very little without the completion of my education. My primary purpose in parenting (and educating) my children is to empower them to reach their full potential. Like Robert Hayes, I seek to know the individuals I'm instructing so that I can customize each lesson and to relate it to the individual so that it speaks to the student.
In life, I've often dealt with an overabundance of energy. Energy I haven't always known how to spend. In elementary school, I spent it running and doing pull-ups, setting school athletic records. In junior high, I spent it practicing my instrument so I could be at the top of the class. In high school, I spent it playing sports, doing homework, acting, and tutoring friends. In adulthood, I have spent my energy teaching my children, working on my own education, working doubly hard in the office, and trying to figure out where I'll focus my energy for the rest of my life. I've spent my life yearning for something to focus on, something that would grab me, give me wonderful things to feed my brain, and a positive outlet once I've processed the good information. Like Danling Fu, Hayes' experience inspires me. As I've read through his stories, I've felt like he has some good ideas not only in how to connect with his students (mostly by listening to each one as an individual) but also how to record those experiences so that others might learn from them.
My hope is that I might not only empower my own children, but also others' children as well as future educators. Hayes, Bahruth, and Kessler have given me some fantastic ideas on how to document my experiences in order to share them with other educators. Hayes used his knowledge of Spanish to encourage his students. Although I don't speak fluent Spanish, I have many skills and a lot of experience which (has and) will contribute to my own success as a teacher. Hayes exemplifies that the combination of related experiences, combined with care of the individual student, and well-focused energy can be empowering to a range of students. I hope to employ many of his techniques in my own teaching.