Adult Education in Practice by Group 6

 

Adult Education in Practice

EDAC631-800

Janet Shindler

February 28, 2024

 

Janet Shindler

Commented on: Brandy Tomey

 

Introductions:

Interviewee one – Dr. Rob Mathews, Jr. is the Assistant Teaching Professor of Management and Leadership and Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at Ball State University. He is also the owner of Miind2Momentem Consulting and M & W Gardens, a local garden center. Dr. Mathews He covers a broad range of topics in his workshops including:

Dr. Mathews uses activities and assessment tools such as Clifton Strengths and Basadur Profile for both individual and team growth. Clifton Strengths has been completed by more than 31 million people for work life and beyond (Live Your Best Life Using Your Strengths, 2024). Each user has a unique combination of 34 themes, which are sorted into four domains. The assessment was created by Don Clifton over 60 years ago when he posed the simple question:

                                                                                             

 

 

Clifton studied and categorized the talents of the world’s most successful people. To turn a talent into a strength, you must invest in the talents by using them in practice, then adding knowledge and skills to them (Live Your Best Life Using Your Strengths, 2024).

Dr. Mathews also utilizes LEGO Serious Play, which was created in 1996 by two professors from IMD in Switzerland and LEGO group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (Serious Play, 2024). They developed the concept of including LEGO elements as a 3-D model of business issues and challenges, naming it LEGO Serious Play (Serious Play, 2024).

Dr. Mathews works with several non-profits, companies, and trade groups to build and conduct training for these groups. He has created entire training programs for the North American Retail Paint and Hardware Association – Foundations of Leadership and Retail Management Certificate Program (Mathews, 2024). He continues to listen and ask about the customer’s needs and build programs accordingly. He also collaborates with Ball State University’s Lifetime Learning and Business and Executive Education Programs, which are guided by Greg Zirkle.

Local training has shown a challenge to Dr. Mathews as community members expect the programs to be administered free of charge. One reason for this could be that if an organization values education and employs an educated workforce, this can help people begin to identify value in learning, diversity, and employment (Deggs & Miller, 2011).

The Model of Community Expectancy is a framework that has been shown to exist in all communities. It includes physical, cognitive, social, and cultural components that are influential to community members (Deggs & Miller, 2011). If we evaluate the groups listed in this model, we might be able to work with some of these groups to help the community members feel more comfortable in the workshops.

 

Some possible solutions to this challenge could be:

Ø -Meeting in a less formal location to help participants feel more comfortable.

Ø -Asking for volunteers from the community group, such as from religious affiliations or informal associations, to help lead the workshops.

Ø -Asking for feedback from the community members to better understand their viewpoint.

The community members need to see value in the workshops to understand why there is a fee involved. Also, it would be interesting to know from the community members if they typically attend free workshops or training courses and that is just their expectation, if they don’t value the institution that is hosting the workshops, or another reason.

 

Interviewee two – Dr. Kat Greene is the Interim Director of the Writing Center and an Assistant Teaching Professor of English at Ball State University. Dr. Greene primarily teaches non-adult learners at the university who are traditional aged learners. Occasionally, she has a non-traditional adult learner in one of her courses. She mentioned one student who was the age-minority in a class having difficulty feeling comfortable with some of the content. Dr. Greene uses pop culture in her courses and this student, a sixty-year-old, struggled relating to the current pop culture. This student could not relate to the examples being used and Dr. Greene needed to bridge the gap so the non-traditional student could relate (Greene, 2024).

Another example Dr. Greene provided was an assignment where the student writes about relating author and audience. The students write a letter to three different people for the same reason. They write to their mother, their friend, and the Dean of Financial Services asking for $200 for unforeseen school expenses. Once all three notes are written, they discuss the different ways they presented themselves in each letter. For instance, no one would tell the Dean “I love you” but they may include the phrase in the letter to their mother. Or they would not introduce themselves to their mother or friend, but it would be necessary to introduce themselves to the Dean (Greene, 2024).

Both scenarios for Dr. Greene posed some awkward situations for non-traditional students. Some ways the non-traditional students could feel more comfortable could be:

Ø                 -Allow the non-traditional students to use pop culture familiar to them for their assignment.

Ø                 -Group work with their peers to help the non-traditional student understand current pop culture.

Author and humorist S.J. Perelman expresses with a bit of humor and some accuracy, “Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21^st century.” Changing technology and innovation being introduced regularly, succeeding in today’s workforce means a commitment to lifelong learning (Reese, 2011).

 

Conclusions and Discussion

The two professors I interviewed have very different positions at the university with very different challenges. Dr. Mathews primarily teaches community members who have an expectation of free training. He works with an organization outside of the university to create and implement programs and workshops. He utilizes several types of assessments, including Clifton Strengths and Basadur profiles. His workshops have high success using the LEGO Serious Play to build and story tell showing one’s strengths, contributions to their team, goals, ambitions, and challenges. He is also able to use LEGO Serious Play to build out the customer journey and support business operations (Mathews, 2024).

When asked if he could tell me about the different types of adult education provided in the organizations or in the community he works with, Dr. Mathews stated (Mathews, 2024):

 

 Dr. Greene provides education to traditional college students teaching first-year composition and professional writing courses. She is able to teach a foundation of writing skills to students so they are able to communicate once in the real world and create memos, annual reviews, and professional emails (Greene, 2024).

 

L. Horn and C.D. Carroll categorized nontraditional learners as individuals who meet at least one of the following seven characteristics:

           Delaying enrollment after high school

           Being a part-time student

Ø         Working more than 35 hours per week

Ø             Being financially independent

Ø             Having dependents

Ø             Being a single parent

Ø             Lacking a high school diploma (The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, 2021).

    

    Horn and Carroll then differentiated these traits by categorizing as follows:

Ø    Minimally nontraditional, having only one of these characteristics,

Ø             Moderately nontraditional, having two or three characteristics,

Ø             Highly nontraditional, having four or more characteristics.

They even noted in their 1996 study that at least 75 percent of the undergraduate population have at least one of the characteristics, classifying them as a nontraditional student (The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, 2021).

What I have learned and my thoughts

Overall, the two professors have very different challenges facing them in the classroom. But knowing that the nontraditional population of undergraduate students is so high, around 75 percent, the challenges are justified. Nontraditional students face many obstacles outside of the classroom, including marriage or a relationship, caring for their children or aging parents, working a full-time job, health concerns, social responsibilities, and civic responsibilities. This reduces the amount of time nontraditional students have to study and focus on their college work. It’s not to say they cannot complete the work, but it shows they have many responsibilities they face every single day. Some alterative ideas have been provided in hopes they can use them to further their classroom mission.

Implications

Dr. Mathews’ challenges can be addressed in a couple of ways.

1.     He could survey the participants in his workshops to find out why they believe the workshops should be offered free of charge. Instead of making assumptions, he would know exactly why the community thinks the way they do.

2.     He could offer the first workshop for free and explain in that workshop the benefits of future workshops to the members. This would show goodwill from Dr. Mathews toward the community. It would also show the community members the value of the workshops.

Dr. Green’s challenges can be addressed in a couple of ways:

1.     She could allow the non-traditional students to use pop culture from their youth to complete the assignment and feel comfortable in class. This shows goodwill on her part to help them feel comfortable.

2.     She could partner the non-traditional student with a peer student to work together on the assignment. This would allow both students to learn from each other since the traditional student would have a unique opportunity to learn as well.

 

 

Summary Table

Main Ideas/themes from interviewees	Discussion	Implications
1.     Dr. Rob Mathews has had success using assessment tools, such as Clifton Strengths and LEGO Serious Play	-Clifton Strengths created over 60 years ago by Don Clifton, who studied and categorized talents of the world’s most successful people. -Talent X Investment = Strength -LEGO Serious Play has been successful.	-Continue to use these assessments and activities in trainings and workshops.
2.     Dr. Mathews has been challenged by community members having an expectation of free training and workshops	-Dr. Mathews noticed community members have an expectation of training and workshops being provided free of charge.	-Survey the participants to see what their expectations are about the workshops. -Ask community members to assist with the workshops.
3.     Dr. Kat Greene has been challenged in her classroom with non-traditional learners not feeling comfortable when they are the age minority and being able to relate to content in the classroom.	-Horn and Carroll categorized non-traditional students as individuals who have at least one characteristic. -At least 75 percent of undergraduate students were non-traditional students in a 1996 study.	-Dr. Greene could allow non-traditional students to use pop culture from their youth to complete the assignments. -She could also allow non-traditional students to partner with a peer student- this would allow both students to learn from each other.

 

 

References

(2021). In The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (p. 267). Sterling: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Deggs, D., & Miller, M. (2011). Developing Community Expectations: The Critical Role of Adult Education. American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, 25-30.

Greene, K. (2024, February 2). (J. E. Shindler, Interviewer)

Live Your Best Life Using Your Strengths.  Retrieved February 23, 2024 from Gallup.com: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/home.aspx

Mathews, J. R. (2024, February 12). (J. E. Shindler, Interviewer)

Reese, S. (2011). An Education for All Seasons of Life. Association for Career & Technical Education, 20-23.

Serious Play.  Retrieved February 23, 2024  from www.lego.com: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/serious-play

 

 Name: Rob Mathews

Position: Assistant Teaching Professor of Management & Leadership & Executive Director, Entrepreneurship Center & Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute

Owner – Miind2Momentum (Consulting) and M & W Gardens (Garden Center)

Organizations you work for:

Ball State University

Self-employed

Interview questions:

Can you tell me the different types of adult education provided in the organizations or in the community? Who provided them? For what purposes

I typically lead facilitations for teams with challenges and/ or opportunities or for strategic plans as well as innovation, leadership, and transition to management training programs and workshops

What kind of activities are provided in these different types of adult education? Can you give me some examples?

Different workshops topics include the following:

·         Creativity, Innovation, and Problem Solving

·         Leadership Development

·         Assessments and Team Building

·         Communication and Conflict

·         Customer Experience

·         Doing Business Like Disney

·         Transition from Frontlines to Management

·         Employee Engagement

·         Personal Mission and Pitching

·         Team and Organization Mission and Values

·         Strategic Planning

·         Customer Research

I use the following tools/ activities:

·         LEGO to build and storytell around ones strengths, contributions to the team, goals, ambitions, challenges

·         LEGO to build out the customer journey and business operations

·         Customer journey mapping

·         Customer touchpoint mapping

·         Various communication and leadership exercises

·         Various psychological talent and employee engagement prompt cards and worksheets

·         Problem solving process using flip charts and challenge mapping

·         Why/ What’s Stopping analysis for problem solving and strategic planning

·         Various materials for scrappy prototyping

·         Creativity kits for team challenges

For example, we’ve had great success using assessment tools, i.e., CliftonStrengths and Basadur Profile, for individual and team growth in a heavily engaged workshop style format. We’ve also had remarkable success using LEGO to A) help participants openly share and storytell through objects and B) build the customer experience journey and touchpoints as teams through LEGO Serious Play. I also use two highly experiential leadership communication and internal customer exercises that participants really like. They really feel the effects of poor leadership and weak communication in those exercises.

How do adult education programs collaborate with other organizations to offer adult education activities to the local citizens or their employees.

I partner with various non-profits, companies, and trade groups to build and conduct a variety of workshops, training programs, and facilitations. I’ve created and continue to lead entire training programs (Foundations of Leadership and Retail Management Certification Program) for the North American Retail Paint and Hardware Association. I always probe for and listen very carefully to the needs of the customer and build and administer programs accordingly. I also partner with Ball State’s Lifetime Learning and Business and Executive Education programs led by Greg Zirkle.

What are the challenges in providing adult education to the local people or employees?

Local training can be problematic, as local organizations—as well as individuals—more often than not expect Ball State faculty and staff to offer everything for free. I’ve also personally found that the Ball State brand is often respected less by locals than those outside our immediate geographic region. We also tend to see less engagement and “presence” when we conduct workshops locally.

Do I have your permission to use your name, position, and organization you work for in my report?

Yes – no problem! Let me know if you need anything else or further clarification. 

                               

Name: Kat Greene

Position: Assistant Teaching Professor & Associate Director of The Writing Center at Ball State

Organizations you work for: Ball State University

 

Interview questions:

Can you tell me the different types of adult education provided in the organizations or in the community? Who provided them? For what purposes.

I work for Ball State University. The kind of adult education provided is mostly in the traditional college students. It's provided by Ball State University. Specifically, for me, I work for the English department. In first-year composition and I also teach professional writing classes.

So, first-year writing is meant to the purpose is meant to give a foundational introduction to writing skills for the college level. Whereas professional writing is meant to explore and hone some professional writing skills so that folks are ready when they go out into organizations to write things like memos and annual reviews, professional emails, professional letters, and things like that.

 

What kind of activities are provided in these different types of adult education? Can you give me some examples?

In my first-year writing classes specifically we do a lot of activities that are meant to apply the concepts that we're talking about. In my English 103 class, which is Rhetoric and Writing, we explore the relationships specifically between author and audience. One of the ways we do that is with an activity where we write a note to three different people, but for the same reason. For example, we write a note to our mom asking us for $200 for an unforeseen school's expense. Then, we write a note to our best friend asking for $200 for an unforeseen school expense. And then, we write a note to the dean of financial services for asking for $200 for unforeseen school expenses. Once we have all three notes written, we talk about the different ways we present ourselves in our notes or different writing identities. We also talk about how the relationship that we have as an author with the audience, which allows us to make specific choices for each note. For example, nobody tells the dean of students “love you,” the same way that writers would tell their mom “I love you.” Or, nobody introduces themselves to their mom or their best friend, the way writers introduce themselves in their note to the dean of financial services.

In my professional writing class, we do a lot of kind of what I like to call copycat work. When, we discuss a press releases, students go out and explore press releases from companies that they like (e.g., Nike a specific beauty brand that they were interested in). As a class we analyze these press releases, so that we can copy the branding, style, voice, and tone. Then we create a new press release, where writers are writing as that company and try to copy their tone and their style. As a class, we talk a lot about not only what goes into the press release, but we try to break down the values of the company, asking how would they approach this event or issue? How would they say this? Because a lot of times when you're doing professional writing, you are not representing yourself, you're representing a company and so you need to express the company's values and things like that.

 

How do adult education programs collaborate with other organizations to offer adult education activities to the local citizens or their employees.

There are specific courses that are immersive learning courses. In those courses, students will have the same instructor for Eng. 103 and Eng. 104 for back-to-back semesters. It's a yearlong opportunity where they do work with a community partner. I do not teach those, but I do know that they exist.

In my professional writing courses. We didn't participate in a traditional sense, but we did get to have guest speakers. I invited three guest speakers to speak about concepts that we were talking about in the class. When we were talking about resumes and building your professional portfolio, I invited a friend of mine from grad school, who I knew was working as a professional writer to talk about how he built his resume how he built his professional portfolio. When we were talking about branding and voice and values and things like that, I invited the marketing director for a property management company in Indianapolis. He talked about how he created the voice and the brand in writing for his company. That's a little bit of the interaction that we had with different organizations.

 

What are the challenges in providing adult education to the local people or employees?

When we're talking about traditional college aged students, I think one of the challenges of providing education to them is getting them to take their education seriously. Whereas, not traditional students, some of the challenges in providing education to them are getting them comfortable in a classroom where they are the age minority and getting them to relate to some of the content. I like to use a lot of pop culture in my content, for example, and I'm currently actually have a sixty year old in one of my first-year writing classes. And we talk a lot about the fact that they can't always relate to my examples. I try to build that bridge that connection with my classes, but sometimes it doesn't work for everyone and it's something that I'm learning more about in terms of my own classes.

If we're speaking beyond my class, just in general, I think what there's a lot of administrative challenges or financial challenges to providing education to employees. There might be some buy-in challenges, getting employees to understand why this education is important to them. I feel like that's speaking a little bit beyond what I do.

 

Do I have your permission to use your name, position, and organization you work for in my report?

Yes, you have permission to use my name, organization, and position in your report.