Becoming Adult Learners

This book offers a new and promising way to support adults in Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) programs specifically, and learners in adult education, in general. Applying renowned Harvard University psychologist Robert Kegan's constructive-development theory, Drago-Severson depicts an in-depth investigation into how and why adults develop "ways of knowing" to better prepare them for their work in the 21st century. This book provides practical suggestions for applying Kegan's theory in adult education classrooms to enable teachers, curriculum developers, program designers, and policymakers to better respond to adult learners' strengths and learning needs.

Eleanor Drago-Severson is a lecturer on education at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, where she conducts research into and teaches courses on leadership for adult development and qualitative research methods.

Foreword

ix

Laurent A. Parks Daloz

Acknowledgments

xiii

Introduction: Aims, Purposes, and Intentions of This Book

1

(16)

The Field of Adult Basic Skills Development

3

(5)

The Adult Development Team Study

8

(2)

The Content of this Book

10

(4)

Contributions of this Research to the ABE/ESOL Field

14

(3)

Understanding Constructive-Developmental Theory

17

(20)

The Nature of Transformational Learning: Development of Self

18

(2)

Kegan's Constructive-Developmental Perspective on Adulthood

20

(3)

Kegan's ``Ways of Knowing''

23

(10)

Why Ways of Knowing Matter in the Classroom

33

(2)

The Holding Environment: A Dynamic Context for Growth

35

(1)

Summary

36

(1)

Research Method

37

(18)

Site and Participant Selection

37

(3)

Research Questions: What Did We Want to Learn?

40

(1)

Data Collection

40

(8)

Data Analysis

48

(3)

Summary

51

(4)

The Polaroid Learning Site

55

(17)

About Polaroid

55

(3)

About CEI's Adult Diploma Program

58

(6)

The 1998--1999 CEI Program at Polaroid

64

(3)

Cohorts and Collaborative Learning Defined

67

(3)

Summary

70

(2)

``Not I Alone'': The Power of the Cohort and Collaborative Learning

72

(31)

``Everybody Thinks Differently'': The Cohort as a Holding Environment for Learning and Teaching

73

(17)

``Like a Family'': The Cohort as a Holding Environment for Emotional Support

90

(4)

``I Have a Better Appreciation for People'': The Cohort as a Holding Environment for Perspective Broadening

94

(5)

Conclusion

99

(4)

``Good Teachers Understand Their Students'': A Developmental View of Learners' Expectations of Their Teachers

103

(26)

How Learners Conceptualized Teacher-Learner Relationships

105

(19)

Summary and Conclusions

124

(5)

``We're Trying to Get Ahead'': Changes in Learners' Conceptions of Themselves, Their Skills, and Their Relationship to Work

129

(25)

How Program Learning Influenced Learners' Work Lives

131

(19)

Conclusion

150

(4)

Implications of a New Pluralism for Program Design, Curriculum Development, Practice, Policy, and Research

154

(27)

Designing Programs that Center on the Cohort and Collaborative Learning

155

(5)

Creating a Developmental Curriculum

160

(4)

Contextualizing the Curriculum: Goal Setting

164

(3)

Conceptualizing Competency as a Developmental Continuum

167

(1)

Creating Opportunities for Development in the Classroom: Teaching Practice

168

(3)

Policymaking in Support of Developmental Learning

171

(4)

Promising Avenues for Developmental Research

175

(2)

An Appetite for Learning

177

(4)

Epilogue. Graduation: A Red-Letter Day

181

(6)

Notes

187

(4)

References

191

(14)

Index

205

(18)

About the Author

223

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Becoming Adult Learners

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials