Sull'Autore
Dan Spalding has more than ten years' experience teaching adults in both academic and nonacademic settings. He has developed curriculum for nonprofits, consulted with online learning startups, and is currently building a web platform to help people discuss and learn about the Antarctic.
Opere di Dan Spalding
Opere correlate
Breaking the MANacles: an Anti-Patriarchy Reader — Collaboratore — 4 copie
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 2
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 28
- Popolarità
- #471,397
- Voto
- 4.0
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 3
He addresses learning for adults primarily in a classroom environment (such as with his ESL classes), not in graduate school nor informally in a workplace. As such, he misses the mark in terms of what adult education is about. Much of adult education happens in unstructured (or even pseudo-structured) environments like churches. People learn from each other in an ad hoc manner. Or they read something (say, on the Internet) that teaches them about something else and discuss it with friends, family, or colleagues. In my experience, adult education – even in more formal graduate schools – is focused on efficient learning but not as much on the formalities of a teacher/student dichotomy.
I personally aim to teach and to learn in every environment I’m engaged with. I keep a book blog; I coordinate a Sunday School class for adults; I develop software with co-workers and discuss learnings; I lead discussions about that software with computer users; I talk over life with my daughter at the dinner table; etc. I’m interested in how to make those relationships adhere to efficient two-way knowledge exchange. This book frankly did not hit that sweet spot. It did point me to some resources that might, however.
This book’s audience is those engaged with teaching adults in formal (classroom) environments. It goes into detail about the issues educators might face and pushes the envelope about how to adapt those environments to contemporary needs. It adapts how schools of education teach teachers to adult learning contexts. This is a very necessary task; it just doesn’t fit my personal situation. It would have been nice to have a chapter (or even a series of chapters) on how to teach adults in non-classroom environments, where most adults spend most of their time. This could include in informal relationships, through group presentations, in meetings, or by technology and media.
The book did close strong by dwelling on two important issues for every American teacher: how to grow personally and where American education ought to go corporately. Clearly, Spalding cares about his profession and about his own and his students’ places in the world. His pedagogy is informed by his life, and vice versa. Professional teachers in particular will benefit from his approach.… (altro)