In “Context-based Adult Learning,”
Catherine Hansman raises some interesting questions about how we really learn
to teach. Despite pedagogical training that happens in schools or professional
development that is provided by educational institutions, real learning –for both
teachers and students—seems to occur in the classroom as we interact with each
other. Students learn from teachers, although they are more likely to learn
from other students in collaborative activities; teachers learn from students
as we respond to unique needs and circumstances that arise in each classroom.
Hansman asserts the primacy of social
context as a site of learning. In addition, teachers in adult classrooms must
design pedagogical approaches that are specific to our learners’ needs. We must
pay “attention to interaction and intersection among people, tools, and context
within a learning situation” (Hansman 44).
When I think of effective pedagogies for adults, I am never comfortable
applying a needs-assessment model to the classroom where the teacher determines
the needs of the students than designs lessons to address those needs.
Adults know what they need; there’s no
need for teachers of adults to assess needs, rather the goals of any particular
class should be ascertained in collaboration with the students in that
classroom. In other words, we need to talk to our students. If we want to know
what they need, we have simply to ask. If goals are determined after this
fashion, context already infused into the content of the class. Students
determine their needs as they encounter situations and information they are
unfamiliar with understanding and producing. As teachers of adults, our real
job is to help students negotiate these circumstances as they arise.
