My Philosophy of Education
Purpose of Education
In the broadest sense, I believe that purpose of education is to make us better citizens of the world – nurturing our curiosity about literature & language, history & philosophy, or the arts & sciences. It also builds essential skills, such as reading, writing, mathematics, or skills we need on the job.
I think that education also contributes to our moral and ethic development, especially as our knowledge of other traditions and cultures expands. We begin to see how our personal choices affect the other 7 billion people on this planet. It gives us freedom to go places and do things, but it should also make us accept the responsibility for that freedom.
Education, or training, in the corporate world has a slightly different purpose. In this context, its purpose is to help us perform as part of a larger system – a business that brings a service or product to its customers. We must know the values and goals of that business, and then shape our behaviors to support them.
Our employers help us shape our behavior by measuring and observing our performance and comparing it to their values and goals. This analysis suggests solutions – usually it is more information or coaching by a supervisor, but sometimes it is a new computer system, or just a small change in our working environment. When our employers carefully put these solutions into practice, it creates positive change in the way that we do our jobs.
The Nature of Learning
Each of us approaches learning from our own experiences. Sometimes these experiences are more formal – like a training class at work – and sometimes they come from events in our lives such as illness or a change to our families.
At each step of the way, I believe that we evaluate these experiences. We think about them; we reflect. We decide how we feel. We may take action. Over time, the experience will change us; we will have learned something from it. The lesson may turn us in different direction, or perhaps just remind us of something we had already known. Whatever the lesson, we will continue to evaluate that experience until it simply fades into the wider context of our lives.
I also believe that there is a strong social context for learning. This social context occurs on two levels – in the classroom and in the “learning society” In the classroom, collaborative and cooperative learning methods foster a team attitude. Research has shown that collaborative learning, where students work in small groups using a variety of activities, results in their learning more and remembering longer. Student develop critical thinking skills, discover the importance of personal responsibility, and witness the positive effects of cooperation when everyone works toward a common goal.
The other social context I see is sometimes called the “learning society.” Any casual observation of our society shows that it is becoming less and less permanent with each passing day. The things we counted on as children –may no longer be true. The ways we are expected to contribute, or the benefits we thought we could expect from our society may have changed. To survive, we change. Society learns to embrace new technologies, new knowledge, new morals, and ethics. We may have to learn new skills, take on new roles or even new jobs. As society learns to adapt, we learn to adapt. As we change, society reflects those changes.
Models of Instructions
As teachers and facilitators, we may find that our industry is changing along with the rest of society. New institutions of online learning may mean changes in academic freedoms. New skills sets – those based on creativity, empathy, or seeing the big picture are replacing skill sets based on sequence, literalness, and analysis. The instructional models or methods, even our philosophies about education, may no longer help our students create the meaning they need to be part of our post-modern society.
How our students individually create meaning, their learning style, should influence our preferred instructional model to the greatest degree possible. They may prefer to listen to a lecture or read from a book, investigate a question on their own, or work in small groups, play games, or brainstorm solutions to problems.
The content often influences the models or methods we choose. Here are some examples from a corporate training classroom. 1) An employee must be able to explain how something works to a customer or perform a step-by-step procedure. Using a demonstration provides the employee with a visual reference that they can fall back on. 2) An employee must complete a task on a customer’s account. Teaching an employee to complete a task in a simulator is safer than if they learned in a real-time environment. They are able to try the task, then analyze and evaluate their actions, and then create changes in their performance without fear. 3) One of the values a business might have is to treat all of their customers in a particular manner. Using a role-playing method that puts an employee into the position of a customer helps to build empathy, and helps the employee understand why it is important for him to perform his tasks correctly and efficiently.
The conflux of these three rivers – how a student constructs meaning, the content, and a facilitator’s instructional methods – can be tricky waters to navigate. For learning to be visually obvious, the facilitator must be tuned into each learner; skilled at recognizing learning and non-learning, and be learners themselves as they look for feedback on their instructional methods. Responding to this feedback – by changing methods, adding an activity, using peer or private tutoring – in a timely and constructive manner is essential, and is the art of teaching.
Corporate Training Online
For online training to be effective in a corporate setting, a business must be prepared to reinvent their whole approach to training. Whereas in the past, a corporate trainer may have created printed manual along with a Power Point presentation and then gone on a trip, now teams of Instructional Technologists translate the course into audio or video podcasts, Flash presentations, or Captivate simulations. These are hosted in a Learning Management System that is operated and maintained by an IT department. The trainer may never see their students face to face, but meet up in a webinar, or a chat room. A simple handout now becomes a PDF. All of this technology requires a substantial commitment, both in terms of resources and in terms of skill sets. There must be a commitment to re-tool experienced trainers to use technology in an effective manner. Not all corporate trainers, whose best skills are their “people and presentation” skills are adept at using sophisticated applications that create images or edit sound and video.
Some types of training adapt easily to an online environment, for example, learning to use a new version of a spreadsheet or word processor. If the employee is self-motivated to increase his own knowledge, the flexibility of an asynchronous online class is very attractive. Providing these types of classes, either developed and hosted internally, or by subscription to an 3rd party supplier, shows an employee that advancing his skills is a valuable asset to the company.
Not all learners, content, or methods are suited to the online environment, however. Learners with weaker reading or writing skills may find some courses overly difficult. Those who learn best with a strong social context may find that the isolation hinders them too much. Content that is behavioral in nature is hard to assess if the trainer can’t see the student. Sometimes the best instructional methods translate poorly into an online environment, for example, role-playing. To obtain the same level of return for these methods can require huge expense in order to translate them into an online technology.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to say that participating in the education process, in any context, whether as a teacher or a learner, is an amazing experience. Life-long learning has enhanced every part of my human experience – greeting the new, mourning the passing of the old. I can’t imagine what life would be like without it.
References
Friedman, Thomas H (2007). The World is Flat: a brief history of the 21st century. New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Hattie, J. A. C. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Abingdon, Oxon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.
Jarvis, P. (2006). The theory and practice of teaching. Chapter 1. London: Routledge.
Jarvis, P. (2006) Towards a comprehensive theory of human learning. London and New York: Routledge/Falmer Press.
Lang, H., Evans, D. (2006). Models, strategies, and methods for effective teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Population Leadership Program, (n.d.). What is Human Performance Technology?. Retrieved August 21, 2009, from HPT Defined Web site: http://web.utk.edu/~cis/hpt/hpt%20defined.pdf
