Read a selection of your colleagues postings. As you read their responses, note those to which you would like to respond with advice, questions, comments, and/or encouragement.

Respond to two or more of your colleagues postings in any of the following ways:

Build on something your colleague said.
Explain why and how you see things differently.
Ask a probing or clarifying question.
Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
Offer and support an opinion.
Validate an idea with your own experience.
Ask for evidence that supports the posting.

One colleague tom
Biological aspect pertains to age, environment, physical health. The learning process can be a challenge for adult learners because of these factors.

Physical health can affect a learning process, having a disease can make learning a difficult challenge.

For example, dementia in an adult is almost impossible for the person to learn. Dementia is a deterioration disease that affects the mind.

Dementia is defined as “a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental process”. (Wikipedia).

Dementia slows down the learning process and adults have memory and personality changes.

    Psychological aspect and biological aspects seem to go hand in hand. Both can be related to age, environment, physical and mental well-being.

Psychological aspect is more as a internal development and as a unique personality. I believe that factors such as age

can be a stand point for both. Learning in adults can have an affect on each individually differently.

The process an be different for each entity and it depends on the circumstances.

As an educator it will be my job to know how to teach each individually, whether it will be biologically or psychologically.

I would need to learn myself how to educate according to the adult and their needs.

Colleague2 bill

According to Merriam et al. (2007), there are four approaches to adult development including biological, psychological, sociocultural, and integrative models such as Bronfenbrenner’s (2001) ecological model. In addition to these generalized models based on specific disciplines, there exist myriad models of development that combine or otherwise integrate concepts from multiple disciplines that could help explain how human beings develop and therefore learn. Although each of these disciplines or models might be helpful in understanding personal factors or characteristics that might relate to our propensities or abilities to learn, it is not simply the existence or identification of such tacit traits, but rather the appreciation of their existence on a continuum of constant change that informs educators processes in attempting to effectively communicate with students.

Our human existence on a continuum of dynamic development offers both new opportunities and potentials while at the same time presenting new challenges in learning how to leverage newfound capabilities, knowledge, and sometimes new limitationsoften comprised of physical or sociocultural factors. These changes, both positive or negative, could offer challenges to both educators and students because dynamic conditions or environments often require those affected to adapt, just as businesses often must adapt to disruptive changes in dynamic markets. Educators could be further challenged by having to integrate their own adaptations and development with those required by students who may often be on divergent paths of growth. The physical and sociocultural models offer some pretty clear illustrations of challenges that educators and students might face.

Physical factors of development include easily identifiable issues that can predictably appear as humans age. While increasing experiences as we grow can add to our abilities to inculcate new information and form complex analogical relationships to increase our understanding and syntheses of knowledge, other factors could present limitations. As humans mature, many predictably experience diminishing hearing, eyesight, physical stamina, and so forth. Many of these experiences can be accommodated through intervention; e.g., using eyeglasses to correct diminishing vision. Many physical factors become obvious over time and are therefore easily identified and mitigated. An adult students abilities to adapt to physical challenges is requisite to successful learning endeavors. Sociocultural factors may also be readily identifiable, but adaptation could be challenging.

Sociocultural factors could include timing of life events, societal beliefs, or changes in a persons social position (Merriam et al., 2007). Addressing changes in such factors could require extended effort or time for students to resolve changes in personal stature or abilities. As an educator, Ive seen first hand the effects of such changes on student priorities or internal commitment. For example, a student who became a new mother left a program for a 6 month break but has not returned in the past 5 years. Another student was offered a significant job promotion that caused a 3 year pause in their academic goals. Sociocultural factors can cause students to shift priorities in ways that relegate educational goals to a lower status that precludes strong commitment. Students educational goals and tracks remain constantly vulnerable to moderating effects of sociocultural and other intervening  factors (Pinquart & Silbereisen, 2004).

Multiple Perspectives On Adult Development

The myriad approaches and factors that are evident in literature on educator effectiveness with adult learners leads us to realize the exponential possibilities of interrelated concepts. As an employer for over 40 years, I can attest to my companys experiences with human resources that include acquisition of talent, training of employees, and support and growth of our workforcewho can also be defined as learners. Over the years we used many assessment tools and perspectives in hopes of improving our performance in supporting current employees and efficiently onboarding new employees who could fit in or resonate with our companys culture. It seems from my experiences that adult development is sometimes best illustrated through end results such as those evident in successful workplace experiences.

In our attempts to improve our success rates we used tools such as the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Tests, which measures the cognitive ability and problem-solving aptitude of prospective employees. We also used personality inventories such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator in attempts to further define and refine our recruitment practicesour hopes were to ensure better employment fits and fewer failures in assimilation. Clearly the new-hire selection process posed a high degree of complexity and many challengesthis required significant investment. Did I mention that my first company had an average of 25 employees? My second company had an average of 7 employees but had more than double the revenues of the first company$1MM annually.

Through all our efforts to determine the perfect new hire and keeping in mind that Ive only mentioned a few of many, I can attest from my anecdotal experiences that our efforts proved largely ineffective. We had attempted to distill some singular or individual factors or perspectives into a profile within which we felt a potential new hire should fit. These were not the only criteria by which we attempted to assess applicants, but were rather part of a 3- or sometimes 4-step assessment process designed to judge our ability to onboard someone into a productive role within our company in an effective way. We later progressed into areas of emotional intelligence and intellectual agility components, but we always seemed to suffer what I felt were unacceptable failure rates.

I see our roles as educators as experientially quite similar to those of human resource mangers when considering that new employees are perhaps the ultimate definition of learners. Similarly to job applicants, students come into educational programs with often-scant knowledge of actual datathey dont know what they dont know. While they might enter programs with preconceptions, they are often challenged by the realities of new educational opportunities and demands that require them to adjust their planned commitments and objectives. Our primary tasks as educators just might be to help students adapt to those new paradigms that have recently appeared on their continuing journeys through life, recognizing that multiple perspectives and approaches are in play and often unpredictable.

Respond to two or more of your colleagues postings in any of the following ways:

Build on something your colleague said.
Explain why and how you see things differently.
Ask a probing or clarifying question.
Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
Offer and support an opinion.
Validate an idea with your own experience.
Ask for evidence that supports the posting.