Unit 7 Creativity, Structured Activities, Team Learning and Integration/Implementation
Overview
In this final unit of content for LDRS 627 you will explore using the creative arts in teaching, team learning and adult educator competencies.
Our first topic focuses on using the create arts in teaching. Even if you don’t consider yourself particularly ‘artistic’ this is indeed possible! Keep in mind that most educators are linguistic learners and, since we tend to teach the way we prefer to learn, it is important for us to break out of our ‘comfort zone’ and try something new from time to time. The effort to relate content in creative ways has the potential to reach students in new and inspiring ways.
The next topic relates to team learning. If you took LDRS 502, you learned that in the contemporary leadership paradigm, leaders no longer control and determine, they are more likely to guide, influence, and respond. This is also true of adult educators. Decisions are more often made in groups or teams that embrace a variety of views and interests in a flexible environment that remains responsive to change. Group exercises in the classroom help learners to work with others in a collaborative manner toward a common goal as they practice communication and problem solving skills.
The final subtopic of this unit is a wrap up topic for the course. You are asked to consider where your skills are as an adult educator and where you still need to learn and grow. This course has surveyed a myriad of techniques, approaches and dispositions in adult education and it is important to critically reflect on your learning, making plans for your future development.
Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit you should be able to:
- Describe ways to incorporate the aesthetic into learning experiences.
- Describe the benefits of and strategies for facilitating team learning.
- Create a personal plan for further growth and learning in the area of adult education competencies.
Activity Checklist
Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.
Learning Activites
- Read Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults (Ch.7).
- Reflect and respond to the quote presented.
- Read Silberman, M. L., & Biech, E. (2015). Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons (Ch.14).
- Read Wang, C. X. (2017). Theory and Practice of Adult and Higher Education. Information Age Publishing Inc. Chapter 9.
- Take the self-assessment and discuss the competencies.
- Planning your ALDA (Adult Learning Design Assignment)
Assessment
- Complete the Unit 7 Discussion Post commenting on three of the competencies of adult educators described in Adult Education Teacher Competencies. Respond to at least two others’ posts.
Resources
Here are the resources you will need to complete this unit:
- Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Silberman, M. L., & Biech, E. (2015). Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips. (4th ed.) Wiley.
- Other online resources will be provided in the unit, or can be accessed through the TWU Library.
7.1 Using the Creative Arts in Teaching
Brookfield addresses teaching using the creative arts in chapter 7. As a graduate student you can relate to the idea of ‘living in your head’. Think about ways to incorporate other expressions beyond the linguistic into your life. “What art offers us is a chance of breaking with the familiar, of inducing in us an awareness of other ways of being in the world” (p. 187). Art encourages us to slow down, take a deep breath and use our senses to really appreciate the amazing world that we have around us.
I have been fortunate to visit several wonderful art galleries in beautiful cities around the world. In these places I find myself surrounded by beauty, both natural and human-made. The experience for me is the epitome of using the senses to capture artistry in its highest form. Our own Vancouver Art Gallery is surrounded by a city close to mountains and beaches. The architecture in the city is also stunning. I hope you have had the opportunity to enjoy create arts in many forms and let this infuse your inspiration as you design learning opportunities.
Committing to beauty is perhaps an unusual call to action for adult educators, but it can be an effective tool. “Beauty appeals to what is good in us” [1] – not manufactured or superficial beauty focused on the self, but a natural or created beauty that inspires to innovation, creativity, love, generosity, sacrifice and selflessness. An adult educator can empower and inspire motivation for a common good or shared vision through beauty in language (speech, poetry, literature), the visual and performing arts, music, prayer and ritual. There is power in art, music, literature and nature that leads to wonder and gives us a clearer vision into the depths of reality. Those who experience them can become moved towards unity, fullness and community.
Here are a few ways you could incorporate the aesthetic into your training even if, like me, you don’t consider yourself particularly ‘artistic’:
- Play music as students enter the room to set the tone; experiment with various genres of music.
- Display an image of a photograph or art piece and ask students to connect the topic of the lesson to it metaphorically.
- Use image association: say a word related to the lesson and ask what image comes to students’ minds.
- Ask students to create a collage using magazine pictures, online images or small objects.
- Create a group collage or ‘quilt’. Gather the individual collages onto a common black background.
- Ask students to create found poems summarizing their understanding of the material. Found poetry weaves selected words and phrases from research reports into poetry
- Incorporate role play or theater.
- Ask students to take pictures that evoke for them one or more of the concepts studied. These can be made into a slideshow for presentation.
Activity: Reading
Read Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. (Ch.7)
In your notes, jot down other ways could you incorporate the aesthetic into your training.
Activity: Reflect & Respond
In your notes consider your personal response to this portion of the introductory notes to topic 1:
“An adult educator can empower and inspire motivation for a common good or shared vision through beauty in language (speech, poetry, literature), the visual and performing arts, music, prayer and ritual. There is power in art, music, literature and nature that leads to wonder and gives us a clearer vision into the depths of reality. Those who experience them can become moved towards unity, fullness and community.” [1]: Clayton, D., 2015: 18.
7.2 Team Learning
I would like to share with you a quote related to this week’s theme of team learning. I find this meaningful not only to this week but as an excellent way to conclude, from a servant-leadership perspective, this threshold course on adult learning.
“Life needs to link with other life, to form relationships where all individuals are better supported by the system they have created. It is impossible to look at the natural world and find an individual…Everywhere we look, we see complex, tangled, messy webs of relationships. From these relationships, life creates systems that offer greater stability and support than life lived alone. Organisms shape themselves in response to their neighbors and their environments. All respond to one another, coevolving and co-creating the complex systems of organization that we see in nature. Life is systems-seeking. It seeks organization. Organization is a naturally occurring phenomenon. Self-organization is a powerful force that creates systems we observe and that testifies to a world that knows how to organize from the inside out.” (Quoted in Spears, 1997, Insights on Leadership: Service, Stewardship, Spirit, and Servant-Leadership. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 346-47)
This emphasis on relationships and interdependence in the natural world relates to the arena of adult education since it focuses on processes that empower people and bring us together in positive relationship. Educating is not about ‘lording it over’ others, seeking greatness or power. Rather it is about developing others to be the best they can be, relating to them as individuals with dignity, caring enough to prepare and deliver competently according to need and without discrimination.
7.3 Adult Educator Competencies
Introduction
The Adult Education Teacher Competencies from the American Institutes for Research identifies the knowledge and skills expected of any adult education teacher. Consider the professional development activities that will help you acquire these competencies. There are four domains that represent broad areas of activity for an adult education teacher:
- Monitors and manages student learning and performance through data.
- Plans and delivers high-quality, evidence-based instruction.
- Effectively communicates to motivate and engage learners.
- Pursues professionalism and continually builds knowledge and skills.
Within those four domains of activity, 17 individual, observable competencies represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities that an adult education instructor should possess to be effective within that domain. Each domain has four to five competencies. Each competency has a set of indicators that articulate what the performance of this competency looks like in an adult education context. Each performance indicator is accompanied by a sample illustration that provides examples of the practice in different adult education settings (p. 3).
Keep in mind that this document does not address competencies related to content. Each discipline or area of training will require unique content competencies. There are also dispositions of an adult educator that are not covered by this document. As you review it, consider your context and the content and dispositions you need to develop and foster in order to be most effective.
Activity: Self-Assessment
See the following interactive graphic for more details on the competencies: https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/te/competenciesgraphic.pdf.
Then, take the self-assessment at https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/te/self-assessment.html. What competencies do you feel you are proficient at, and which ones need improvement?
Activity: Planning Your Work
As you probably have figured out, you’ve been working on this project with your two posts already. In this third post, create a step-by-step plan of 5-6 specific steps you will take as you complete this ALDA (Adult Learning Design Project).
Once again, make sure you respond to and offer suggestions to at least three of your colleagues.
These are separate discussions located in the Adult Learning Design Project tab.
Summary
In this unit, you have had the opportunity to learn about using the aesthetic in your teaching, collaborative or team learning and the competencies of an effective adult educator.
We are at the end of this threshold course on adult learning. May you be blessed with many happy and fulfilling moments as you continue with your work and particularly the teaching aspect of it – transforming lives.
Assessment
Assignment: Unit 7 Discussion
Write a discussion post commenting on three of the competencies of adult educators described in Adult Education Teacher Competencies. What is significant about each of these? What is going to be your top growth area or focus as you embark on refining your skill set in this field? (This may be one of the three or a different competency.)
Make a personal growth plan for the top growth area or focus you identified. Use the SMART goals template and include this with your post as a public commitment to your growth.
Checking your Learning
Use the learning outcomes for this unit as a checklist of understanding before you complete the course.
- Can you describe ways to incorporate the aesthetic into learning experiences?
- Can you describe the benefits of team learning?
- Can you describe implementation strategies for facilitating team learning?
- Did you create a personal plan for further growth and learning in the area of adult education competencies?
Resources
- Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. (Ch.7)
- Clayton, D. (2015). The Way of Beauty. Brooklyn, New York: Angelico Press.
- Competencies of Adult Educators
- Silberman, M. L., & Biech, E. (2015). Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. (Ch.14)
- Wang, C. X. (2017). Theory and Practice of Adult and Higher Education. Information Age Publishing Inc. (Ch. 9)