WW(b)

Last week we talked about the oppressions in education, which can be political powers, social discrimination, or even cultural biases. Different oppressions may affect adult learning experience in a variety of ways and levels. One of the goals of adult education is to raise individuals’ awareness of these oppressions that they may have already been subjected to and try to liberate their thinking from the cage.

From my personal experience, the deepest and most invisible oppression comes from the political power and other powers related to it. The political power has the authority to decide what kind of information the learners will have access to. According to Marx, one’s basic concepts and cognition can only be derived from and be built on what he has been exposed to. By controlling and limiting the information resources, the “power” shapes people’s perspective of view on any subject fundamentally.  

One of the example stands as the block of Facebook in China. Since there is a wide range of information accessible on Facebook, much of which opposes the official voice in China and hurts the profit of Chinese government, Facebook was required to censor this information on the Chinese site. Since Facebook refuse to limit the information, it was blocked by the Chinese government.  Using the political power, the Chinese government eliminates the information that does not match with its interest, silences the opposite voice and advocates its own notions.  People, thus, only have access of one interpretation of a certain event, which inevitably leads to bias. So when discussing what the impact Chinese economic development has on the global economy, Chinese people usually take a positive point of view, regarding it as beneficial to all nations.

But recently I watched a video on Facebook from CNN about how Chinese economic projects in Africa damaged the local economy. The video portrayed a totally different picture of Chinese businessmen in Africa from what I was informed in China. They made the employees work overtime without extra salary. They injected special hormones into chicken so that they grew faster, cost less, but tasted worse. Instead of helping develop the economy of those poverty-stricken areas, they looked out for their own interests.

The tricky thing is that both of the Chinese government and Facebook have the evidence and eloquent arguments to support their notions. When people only listen to one of them, it’s very easy to be misled and fall into the trap designed by the “power”.  It happened to me, and I am sure it also happens to many Americans who only have access to American news reports without realizing the danger of it. That’s why one of the main goals of adult education is to raise people’s awareness of the invisible powers that manipulate their point of view. Since adult learners can hardly be satisficed with one single notion, the instructor is supposed to provide materials from different resources and bring the whole picture to the learners to facilitate a thorough understanding of the issue.

Reflection(a)-Program-Dialogue Education

I had another awesome drawing class!

It is ADLT 606 Design and Deliver of Adult Learning Programs. Our topic today is the dialogue education, which is based on the reading assignment of On Teaching and Learning by Jane Vella. We were asked to discussion the concept, the meaning and the effect of Dialogue Education in groups and then visualize the ideas.

My group discussion went pretty good. Thank to the ladies in my group who brought their work and life experience to demonstrate the concept, I got a deeper understanding of it. Also, we shared our comments about what we had read. Compared with me, they focused more on the bigger picture, but not just one step or one part of it. I was very inspired. We combined our interpretation of dialogue education in the picture.

This is the picture designed by my group. Different colors are used to represent different people in the learning process, green for students and purple for the teacher.  It is a learning journey with the participation of both the students and the teacher.

First, as shown in the first picture, it’s the teacher’s responsibility of assess the learning needs and resources and create the structure of the learning according to the seven steps (Who? Why? When? Where? What? What for? How?). Then, according to the second picture, the teacher brings the structure to the students, engaging them into the learning process. But his or her role in is stage is a facilitator who provides the outside environment of learning. Once the students are involved, they should be able to ask questions, share the doubts, discuss about them, seek for the answer and finally learn what they think they should learn. The teacher need to get out of the learner’s way of questioning and exploring, and pray for doubts which lead to knowledge. When the students being spontaneous and creative, learning takes place. It is just like the students generate the electricity and power themselves on. That’s the idea in the third picture. Also, in the book, Vella mentioned a lot about Freire’s idea of “to build a world n which it is easier to love. By making the change in one’s learning experience, we hope that it may have a positive impact the general.

I like our pictures a lot, which shows the whole process of learning, from the very beginning of design to the final impact of the world. It was of great help in clarifying the concept. The picture of another group, which took a totally different approach, was equally impressive.  Here is the picture. By they way, l love the pink L so much!

Basically, this procure demonstrates 3 kinds of learning situation. In the right-top corner, the learner receives a lot from the teacher, while respond relatively less to the teacher. But still, there is a feedback. In the right-down corner, the learner enjoys an equal status and voice with the teacher in the learning process. In the left-down corner, there are many learners in one learning environment. The voice comes from the teacher, and then goes around among the students, and finally responds back to the teacher.

I feel like that this picture is an in-depth analysis of the second step of our pictures, where the teacher presents the structure, engages students in, and let them learn. My understanding of these 3 kinds of situation is not a concern of one-to-one or one-to-many situation, but the different level of dialogue education. To me, dialogue education is very similar to learning-centered education, where the learner’s active role in the learning process is emphasized.  So that the first situation is the primary stages of dialogue education, where the learner begins to have a voice, which is not very strong yet. There is still a touch of banking education in this stage, since the teacher has a dominant voice.  In the second stage, the role of the teacher and the student is balanced. It’s an equal communication. More power is entitled to the students, and less shadow of banking education is left. Then, in the third stage, the students act as the central role in learning, which the teacher just provide the structure, lead them in and learn from them. It should be the ideal dynamic that dialogue education tries to achieve.

As I perceived, dialogue educations is a great example of the humanist approach. It emphasizes on the role of the learners themselves. They should have the right to choose what they want to learn. Also, it combines the cognitive approach. In the F concepts, “Fusing” means that the new knowledge is supposed to build on the old ones. All the elements will fuse together into meaningful learning.

Reflection 1 - Consulting Skills

Sitting in front of the computer and recalling what we have discussed in class, the first thing jumps to my mind is the question raised at the begin of the 2nd class meeting, "if I have no say about the implement, then what's the meaning of my work?" If the plan ends up in the shelf, does that mean all my work is in vain?

Well, I do agree that it's so frustrating for a consultant to know that his advise is not taken no matter what's the reason behind it. But I will never take it personal. As long as I have done job step by step, it is the client's problems that he is not ready to take my advice.

Actually everybody was, is, or will be a stubborn client who refuses to take consultant's advice and have to swallow the severe consequence in the end.  For example, when I was young, my parents were my consultants about almost everything. They told me not to play with fire, do not lie, pay attention in class and watch out when going across a street. They are all excellent advices, and I don't see any reason why I didn't listen to them. But the truth was I just ignored them. Probably because I was lazy or exhausted, I cheated once about my homework and got caught. Being caught and punished made me realize that my parents’ advice was right, and I decided to take it seriously.

This is perhaps what’s going on with those clients who decide to leave the plans on their shelves and make no change. They are not ready for the change. The reasons for the absence of readiness lie in various aspects. It can be an economic problem. If the plan will cost a big amount of money at once, some of the manager may not be insightful enough to see the long-term benefit of it and decide to live with the old way which cost less each time but a lot in a long run. Also, it can be the motivation. The manager sees the benefit of the new plan, but the old one still work, and he has other priorities. So he decides to drop this issue for a moment until it becomes an urgent problem. Just like my story, I didn’t pay attention to my parents’ advise until the problem had a huge and direct impact on me. There are some lessons that the client has to learn himself. As a consultant, my job is to provide the resource of the lesson and suggest him to learn. Eventually, he is the one who decides what he is going to learn and how he is going to learn it.  This notion is in accordance with the humanist orientation of teaching. The learner has the right to decide what to learn and how to learn. The Teacher is a facilitator who helps him become the person he wants to be. I consider myself as a humanist, and this is what I believe about effective learning.

However, leaving the choice to the client does not mean less responsibility of the consultant, but, on the contrary, more responsibility. To make sure that the client is going to make the right choice, the consultant has to work carefully on all the steps from establishing relationships to designing the plan. When reading Schein’s book about building the consultant-client relationship today, I thought about one fruitless consultation I had in college. With the consulting skills we have discussed, now I can see the failure was rooted in the very begin.

It was a psychological consult (I am not sure about the English expression). Basically, there was a psychological therapist who was supposed to listen and talk to me, and make me feel better.  At least that’s what in the TV shows. At the middle of my first semester in college, I was upset about my campus life. I had difficulty talking with my friends about my problems, so that there was no outlet for the negative emotions. At that time, what I needed was just a stranger I could talk to frankly without the fear of being judged or discriminated. So I made an appointment with the psychological consultant.

Arriving the consulting room 5 minutes earlier, I found it was still closed. It should be ok to stand outside and wait for a while. But the problem was that it was just next to a classroom, which meant people, especially those who knew me, might see me waiting for a consultation. I wanted to keep it to myself, so I felt so insecure while waiting, worrying about any footstep I heard. After the suffering 5 minute, I entered the room. Thank god, no one saw me.

The room seemed not professional to me, neither the consultant, a middle-aged woman. She asked me to sit on the coach, and she sat on a chair next to the coach. “Why are you here today?” she stared the conversation. “Well, nothing big.” I answered, “I just feel smothered and want to talk to someone who don’t know me.” ”OK. So what’s the problem?” I told her that I felt frustrated about my class. I wanted to have more discussion in class. I wanted to be noticed and heard. But I just couldn’t. Once I said something, I felt the tension in the classroom that some people were getting bored or they just wanted me to stop. I couldn’t share this with my friend because I didn’t thing she would support me on this. Actually, when saying this, I was not sure if this was the real problem. I felt there was something more about my friend that provoked my anxiety, but I didn’t know how to express it, nor feel comfortable enough to express it. I guess this is what Schein means by “test” in the book (P38). Unconsciously, I was testing if the consultant was listening to me and to which degree I could trust her. I wished that she could lead me into a deeper retrospection so that I could identify the real cause of my frustration.

But her comment didn’t work in that way. She said that it was common for freshmen to feel upset about the college life because there was always a huge gap between our expectation and the reality. Also, since the university was not a top-notch one, many students were disappointed to end up here. Then she comforted me by saying things like “this university will help you achieve your dream. Just work hard.” I knew what she said was right. But it was not what I needed at that time. I believed that I had overcome the disappointment and I love my university. This was not my problem. But I didn’t feel like to talk further about how I really felt anymore, because she was not listening. She just put me into the category of students who was disappointed by the rank of the university, and I felt reluctant to argue about it. I said thank you and left the room. Fortunately, no one saw me there.

I think this is a perfect example of the importance of the consultant-client relationship. To build and develop a productive relationship, the key is active inquiry, but not quick judgment. If the consultant really listened to me and guided me to talk more, I was ready to open my heart. Hope that I won’t any mistake like this with my clients.

WW(a)

The Analysis of My Undergraduate Learning Environment

The college learning experience as an English-major student in China is the first and one of the most influential learning experiences in my adulthood. Like other learning experiences, it is influenced by several external conditions, including technology, globalization, and demographics.

First and foremost, the technology serves as the primary factor in shaping the learning experience for its fundamental impact on the way of knowing. Multimedia devices have been introduced to the classroom to facilitate the learning process and enhance students’ achievement. The listening class stands as a persuasive example.  Compared with English learners in 1980s who used taps to practice listening comprehension skills, I take tremendous advantage of computers and the internet, listening to the latest news on VOA and watching CNN live shows. With the continuous and vivid resource of newly updated English material, my listening skills are sharpened while I keep track of the development of language and culture. 

Though beneficial significantly, hi-tech devices may also interrupt the learning process when used inadequately. It is always disturbing for both students and professors when a cellphone rings during the lecture.  Also, technical challenges, such as difficulties in opening the PowerPoint file, usually waste the time of class meeting and affect the professor’s readiness to give the lecture. Inevitably, the more that technology is engaged in the learning experience and people take advantage of it, the more challenges it will pose.

Second, globalization has an impact on the content of English learning.  The increasingly tight connection contributes to widen the topics in the classroom discussion. My horizon is no longer limited to domestic affairs or the selected stories on those domestic newspapers. For instance, during the Wall Street Protest, opinions and information from different angles are presented on a variety of media, allowing a hot debate in my classroom in terms of social equality, governmental responsibility and human rights.

Moreover, as the most significant product of globalization, the marvelous development of economy and business makes  the financial success the final goal of many students’ English learning process. To meet the need, courses, such as business English and business courtesy in western culture, are offered in the English learning program and soon become the most popular ones.

There are both dispositional and societal barriers that limit learning in my undergraduate program.  My university is not a top-notch one, which means that many students there have been persuaded that they are not top students or future leaders, and working hard will not make a big difference to their destiny. The lack of motivation and confidence results in unsatisfactory participation during the class and insufficient research after class, thus prevents learning progress.  Also, since English has become one of the most popular majors in China for nearly two decades, the career prospects are not preferable in recent years. English is increasingly regarded as a tool that everyone should obtain, but not a sophisticated major that can only be handled by a small group of experts. Consequentially, English-majored students are less appreciated in job-hunting, leading to a negative atmosphere in classroom.