Program Evaluation

Introduction

The first program review was provided by Emily Moulton.  Emily is an adjunct faculty member at Ivy Tech Community College in downtown Indianapolis.  Emily also serves as the assistant director of student success and retention at the college.  She also was a former school counselor within the Indianapolis area.  Emily teaches a first year seminar class for new community college students.  This course provides students with an overview of skills and strategies necessary to reach their educational, career and life objectives.  Topics include time management, learning style, and utilization of technology, critical thinking, campus and community resources and career skills. 
The second program evaluation was completed by Michelle Bojrab MS, RD, CD.  Michelle is a clinical and community dietitian for St. Joseph Hospital in downtown Fort Wayne.  Michelle often participates in Health Fairs within the community to several different populations and this year was the lead for National Nutrition Month community events for Northeast Indiana Dietetic Association.  Michelle has a special heart for the elderly community and often targets her community events at this population.

Evaluation Results

Overall, Emily recognized the value and importance of Road Scholars and providing the elderly population (ages 65 and greater) with learning opportunities within their own community Moulton said, “I like the collaboration with the community.”  She really felt like this was something that is needed in our community.  Emily not only validated the program design she also felt the idea of allowing the adults to self-direct their learning was very important.  In her own words she didn’t really think or feel you can tell a lot of people at that age what they should be doing or learning and that they will make those decisions themselves.  That was very encouraging to hear and gave our group something else to consider and look at from an age standpoint that possibly we had not considered. 
Moulton also went on to say.  “Efforts to connect seniors with other community members will alleviate loneliness.”  That was also definitely one of the objectives of the program.  To develop skills for retired people to increase their quality of life.  In addition, Michelle, a community dietitian, sees this program as a great way for senior citizens to connect at meal times to possibly ensure a healthier, greater intake at these events.
Michelle agrees with Emily that this is a much needed program within the community to help the elderly population become more engaged and take a greater role in the community.  She was impressed with the program focusing on community connections in order to keep cost low for the participants.  Michelle also felt that this program could really make some great connections with the elderly and community groups that could improve the city.  Overall, Michelle stated, “This program design is a great framework for a potentially community changing program.  I definitely see it starting small, but then slowly expanding into many different avenues and programs.” 

Evaluation Response and Improving the Program

Moulton really wanted to see this program taken to the next level.  She suggested collaborating this program with an after school program or daycare so that mentoring and teaching could take place.  She really saw this as a chance for the elders to give back to the community and that they would feel a stronger sense of usefulness and purpose.  Moulton referred to this as a win-win situation for both the seniors and the kiddos and really felt like in today’s time and age that when some parents are “checked out” or too busy to be parents that the seniors could become role models within the community to these children. 
Our group couldn’t agree with Moulton more.  One of the objectives of the program was to provide activities for an aging population that promotes learning throughout life and possibilities to give back to the community with time or skills.
Like Moulton, Bojrab really felt this program could be more.  She really saw potential for improving on the elderly population’s dietary intake and socialization.  The community has minimal programs, like Meals on Wheels or community congregation meal spots, for the older population to enjoy a meal with other peers.  This program could be a great opportunity to provide healthy meals and nutrition education for this at risk nutrition population.  Another great suggestion from Bojrab was to add a few elderly members to the program design to better understand what the elderly community wants and the best way to incorporate the program. 
Our group really felt like we may not have considered the impact that this program could have on the community overall and were really considering targeting just a specific group.  Think of the long term implications this program could have if this teaching was passed down from generation to generation.  In some ways our group created a sustainable learning model that could survive the test of time if we implemented Moulton’s ideas and that is pretty powerful. 

Conclusion

References

Corporate Training Partners (2009).  Self-Directed Learning: Be your own Chief Learning
         Officer. Retrieved from http://www.selfdirectedlearning.org

Elderhostel, Inc. (2013).  Road Scholar: Adventures in Lifelong Learning. Retrieved from
         http://www. Roadscholar,org/

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007), Learning in Adulthood: A   

Comprehensive Guide, p83-92.

Appendix A

Name: Emily Moulton
Organization Name: Ivy Tech Community College
Role: Adjunct Professor/Instructor Ivy Tech Community College and Assistant Director of Student Success and Retention
Role in Organization: Emily teaches a first-year seminar class for new community college students.  She also provides academic advising and counseling to students of all ages (adult learners). 
What do you like most about the program design?   I like the collaboration with the community.  Efforts to connect seniors with other community members will alleviate loneliness. 
What do you think should be improved? Why? How?

·         I suggest collaborating with an after school program or a daycare so that mentoring and teaching can take place between seniors and the youngsters. 

·         Connecting the seniors with the kids would form another bridge to a large segment of the community. 

·         Giving seniors the opportunity to share their knowledge with the kids would give them a sense of usefulness and purpose.  And “the best way to learn is to teach”. 

·         Kids often need more adult interaction and positive role modeling from concerned adults. It could create a win-win situation for both the seniors and the kiddos.  They could work together to plant a community garden- hooray!

Appendix B

Name: Michelle Bojrab
Position: Community Dietitian
Organization: St. Joseph Hospital
What do you like most about the program design? I like the program focusing on Seniors in the community, it is often a forgotten group of the community.  Also, keeping the program at low cost for them is great.  I also like the variety of classes that would be offered and working with other organizations throughout the community.
What do you think should be improved? Why? How?

·         Currently, the program does not have an elderly member as part of designing the program.  Possibly adding some elderly members to better reach the population may be beneficial.

·         Offering a meal at the classes would be great for the elderly population.  Studies have shown that elderly individuals often eat more in a social situation and feel less lonely when eating with other individuals.  Also, sometimes this population does not eat well-balanced meals due to costs or not wanting to cook for one.  So, incorporating a healthy meal would be another incentive for individuals to participate in the activities.

Andragogy-April Summary

April Summary

During the month of April, the focus was on the syllabus evaluation and the project demonstration.  Our group has been working hard this semester, brainstorming and creating a community program “Road Scholars: Adventures in Lifelong Learning” It has been a good feeling and sense of accomplishment for our group to see the project come together by following the assignments each month to lead us to the final demonstration.

This month, we extended our syllabus to current educators to offer feedback based on their expertise. The first program review was provided by Emily Moulton who is an adjunct faculty member at Ivy Tech Community College in downtown Indianapolis.  Emily also serves as the assistant director of student success and retention at the college. The second program evaluation was completed by Michelle Bojrab MS, RD, CD.  Michelle is a clinical and community dietitian for St. Joseph Hospital in downtown Fort Wayne. Michelle often participates in Health Fairs within the community to several different populations and this year was the lead for National Nutrition Month community events for Northeast Indiana Dietetic Association.  Michelle has a special heart for the elderly community and often targets her community events at this population.

In all, the general consensus from the feedback was positive, yet constructively criticized to allow our group to make changes to improve our community program for the elderly population to better meet the anticipated needs of adult learners who will participate. Following the feedback, we made adjustments and began discussing our plan for the demonstration. We created our program demonstration utilizing Microsoft PowerPoint, The design has really pulled everything together and we have continually through the month of April put finishing touches/adding information to the site to enhance it visually and ensure completeness.

This journey overall has allowed us to apply all that we have learned through reading assignments, discussion boards, and research to creating a great avenue for building the community and allowing for lifelong learning model directed toward the elderly population. We feel our population will develop a sense of being and self-value by having the opportunity to continue to learn, develop and give back.

Paul commented on 1 and 4.

Road Scholars Demonstration

Summary

22 April 2013

Amanda Bolin, Andrew Buckle (responded to Groups 4 and 6), Sara Pratt, Scott Rafalski (responded to groups 5 and 6), Paul Starr (responded to group 1 and 4)

Introduction

                The purpose of our project was to investigate, study and apply a theory from this course, our group selected Andragogy as the theory for our focus.

The purpose of our project was to investigate and learn an adult learning theory which we selected Andragogy. We were able to link it to a pre-existing educational program, The Road Scholars Program stood out as an applicable choice.  This allowed us to design and create our own learning course based on this adult learning theory and research into various educational avenues .  Once we created our program, it was then evaluated by two educators for review and critique.  We used this information to re-evaluate our design and make the necessary changes to better serve our adult education population.

Our program design was meant to provide elderly learners the opportunity to engage in the learning process in a low cost, local and interest based format.  This can be done through self-directed learning in which individuals take the initiative, with or without assistance, in diagnosing their learning needs (Corporate Training Partners, 2009).  Additionally, this program seeks to partner with local community businesses, senior centers, and neighborhoods. Utilizing local community or senior centers creates a low cost and engaging atmosphere to the demographic and minimizes planning on the student’s part, freeing them to engage in the learning process more.  

Findings

The literature review allowed us to really get an in depth understanding of andragogy.  This allowed us to grasp and understand the key components of andragogy.  A common theme within the literatures reviews was that this theory was based on a set of assumptions.  The six assumptions are adults need to know the reason for learning something; experience provides the basis for learning activities; adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives; adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented; and lastly, adults respond better to internal versus external motivators.

Our two programs we reviewed were Road Scholars and Corporate Training Consultants.  Road Scholars offer learning adventures in all 50 of the United States of America and over 150 different countries around the world. Scholars are educated by local and renowned experts, experience in-depth and behind-the-scenes learning opportunities, from cultural tours and study cruises to walking, and biking.  Corporate Training Consultants Inc. was created in 1992 and is based out of Chicago, Illinois.  The targeted learners for the program are individuals in the field of retail, manufacturing, financial services, transportation, utilities, non-profits and adults seeking higher education.  The program uses self-directed learning in which individuals take the initiative to diagnose their learning needs, formulating their learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, and choose and implement appropriate learning strategies.

Application

Our group sought to create a learning environment that took the elements of Andragogy to a specific group of people we felt were often left out of educational opportunities. Our response to this, was a community centered, interest based learning environment through partnerships with other local services and businesses to create a low cost educational based program to further the skill sets of the aging population.

The program is housed in local community centers and can utilize local garden centers, nutritional clinics, recreational businesses and much more. These business partnerships are able to present their products to students and share their expertise knowledge with participants creating a learning opportunity for further skill development and knowledge attainment. Students then are provided peer collaboration and workshop time to use these newly learned skills with the support of the local expert and peers

Evaluation

With the support of two adult education representatives, we were able to get useful critiques of our original program design. One concept that became apparent in our planning stages is that we made several inferences about what we believed students in our target group would want to learn, yet did not use them as a resource in the planning stages.  A second critique came up that our focus was potentially too small, and that our design could be utilized in more than one venue. Both evaluators saw partnerships with community centers, but also with k-12 school systems as well as health centers such as hospitals and dieting clinics for these partnerships. This provided our target students more avenues to engage the community, as well as improve their own quality of life from the education they received from the events.

Implication

After reviewing and having our program evaluated, we concluded that this program could have the ability to branch out to other community networks, such as daycare programs for elderly to give back to the community by educating children.   Also, we felt from our evaluation we could enhance our program with more nutrition topics or meal service programs. The elderly population is often at nutrition risk due to decrease in appetite, change in taste buds, possibly living alone, and may be challenged with complex health issues.

Conclusion

Our group feels that we have a great avenue for building up the community and allowing for a lifelong learning model directed toward a population that is often not thought of, the elderly.  Initially looking for business and community partnerships, we discovered we missed one of the biggest partnerships of all, having someone in our target demographic be a part of the planning stages. In Knowle’s Andragogy theory it is important that the students in a program feel as though they are connected with the content and learn it for the sake of learning, not because it is dictated to them.

Therefore, for our final design, we are offering a program collaborated with a daycare service for seniors to spend time with children to enhance their learning and share their wisdom. Also, provide a meal service program to offer social support and meal time together, along with preventing nutrition complications.  With these additions, we feel our program design will boost the morale of the community for senior living.

March Summary

Monthly Summary – March
Andragogy

As we are now approaching the end of March and Spring Break is behind us. Our group began the month by wrapping up our program investigation. Through our investigation, we reviewed “Corporate Training Consultants Inc.”, targeting adults seeking higher education and “Road Scholars”, offering learning adventures across all 50 states of America and over 150 different countries. We took the knowledge we gained from our program investigations and transformed the concepts of each and developed a program design targeted at a specific group of adult learners.

In creating our program design, we wanted to focus on providing a unique opportunity for elderly learners to take initiative to fulfill learning needs at a reasonable cost. We felt that developing a program specifically geared towards the older adults will offer enhanced quality of life by traveling and social interactions shared with other members with similar interests. We also felt that in collaboration with community groups and resources for the aging population will assist in development of our program, create awareness and understand the needs of our community. With this information we are able to offer classes or programs in which the older adult population will find interest and value through education.

For the month of March we have continued to work together as a group providing feedback in program design development and each contributing based on the needs of the project. Each one of us taking on different tasks in which we feel we are most comfortable and contribute the most value to our team. Each member of the group has taken an element of the project and offered their contribution to the overall project’s success. We are continuing to work on our communication as a group, primarily through email to ensure all of us are on the same page and aware of our own duties.

The next month we will be sending our course design to educators who will evaluate our syllabus. Following the evaluation, our group will reflect upon their responses and offer potential ways to improve our course if deemed necessary. Lastly, we will wrap up with a project demonstration using a source of media in which we feel most comfortable. This will be shared on our blog for our classmates to view. In the end, we hope to provide an excellent program design in the area of andragogy and how it can create unique learning opportunities for older adults.

Paul posted to blog groups 1 and 5.

Program Design

Individual Responses to other Group Blogs:
Andrew Buckle: Group 1 and Group 6
Scott Rafalski: Commented on Narrative Learning and Behaviorist Learning Group Blog on 4/5/13
Paul commented on Group 1 and Group 4


Program Design
Group 3
31 March 31, 2013
Amanda Bolin, Andrew Buckle, Sara Pratt
Scott Rafalski, Paul Starr


Introduction:

Road Scholars is an international program directed at retired seniors to engage in lifelong learning pursuits (Elderhostel, Inc., 2013). Although the program offers a myriad of choices, locations, and educational opportunities, the concern for many who may find themselves on fixed incomes, is a financial barrier to participating. The following program design is meant to provide elderly learners the opportunity to engage in the learning process in a low cost, local and interest based format.  This can be done through self-directed learning in which individuals take the initiative, with or without assistance, in diagnosing their learning needs (Corporate Training Partners, 2009).  This program seeks to partner with local community stores, senior centers, and neighborhoods. Utilizing local community or senior centers creates a low cost and engaging atmosphere to this demographic and minimizes planning out their parts, freeing them to engage in the learning process more.  

Objectives:
Provide low cost educational opportunities for aging public
Create partnerships with local community groups, sponsors and neighborhoods to serve aging public
Develop skills for retired people to increase quality of life
Provide activities for aging population that promote learning throughout life and possibilities to give back to the community with time or skills
To retool one’s learning skill set from passive to active.
Allow the learners to learn only what they need and want to learn.  (Self-Directed Learning)

Rationale:
As our aging public increases, young generations are prone to disregarding or leaving behind one of the fastest growing populations in the world, those over 65. With health care and resources, extended and increased quality of life is not only possible but becoming the norm. As this demographic has aged and retired many seek leisure activities and opportunities to engage their communities in differing ways then when they were part of the workforce.

Using a model from the Elder Hostel Inc., specifically through the Road Scholars program we seek to provide special interest educational opportunities right in the communities the learners live in. This will allow learners to further hone past or present hobbies, engage in the social learning environment, utilize their own past experiences to develop renewed or new skills and potentially put them into action within the community through neighborhood partnerships and mentoring opportunities (Elderhostel, Inc., 2013).

This program plans to model their program design off of Corporate Training partners, Self Directed Learning, by assessing that specific community of elderly individuals to find their readiness to learn and what they want to learn.  This first assessment will help tailor the offered community events to the specific population and what they would like to learn and find valuable to participate in.  When adult/elderly learners can find value in what they are taught, they are more likely to be engaged in that learning.  By allowing learners the opportunity to share these past experiences it provides them with the opportunity to feel like they are part of the group and validated.  The learning environment will work as collaboration between student, teacher and group.  Learners will come in with differing levels of knowledge from novice to expert.  Therefore, the learners themselves may have the ability to serve as a knowledgeable resource, trainer and even model and help fellow learners (Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L., 2007).  These learners will also be intrinsically motivated because they have chosen this learning and will be seeking self-gratification and satisfaction (Corporate Training Partners, 2009). 

Using community or senior centers already in existence and partnering with local businesses that specialize in interests such as gardening, interior decorating, or nutrition students will be able to be exposed to current trends and bring their own experience to the learning environment, a key element of Andragogy and Self Directed Learning (SDL).

Action Plan:
Provide the elderly population (ages 65 and greater) with learning opportunities within their own community that make the learners feel like they can share their experiences, direct their own learning, and give back to their community in order to feel a part of the community.

In order for our program to succeed we will need to start by surveying neighborhoods that have a large pool of demographics with people in the retirement age range.    We would assess the population of their readiness to learn and what is important for them to learn in order to know what businesses or organizations to target when looking for partnership.  We will then work on connecting with local businesses, city or town parks departments, and colleges/schools with special interest focuses such as lawn and garden centers, interior decorating, art and crafts, and others.  Then we would connect with local community and senior centers for educational space for these seminars or learning opportunities.  The program would then schedule a date, time, and space for the learning opportunity to take place with the organization of when their seminar would be and would make a monthly calendar to provide to the elderly population.  This calendar would allow the individuals to choose the topics they were specifically interested in learning about and give them time to plan around their own life schedules (attached below is an example of what a monthly calendar would look like). 

The organizations or groups that would partner with us would develop a half day seminar or presentation to share their product, skill, or process in the special interest field.  The organizations and groups would be responsible to develop the class and provide the volunteers; however, the organization or company would be allowed to market their services and merchandise as an incentive in providing the program.   A community organizer/facilitator would then provide a discussion for students to respond to the seminar content, bringing in their own past knowledge on the subject matter and gaining additional insight from their fellow classmates.
Students would then be able to take their learning and directly apply it to their own homes or with further partnerships within the community could volunteer their time to their own neighborhood by giving their service and knowledge in the special area.

Example Event:
Home Depot providing a presentation on How to Start a Home Garden
Date: 16 April 2013, starting at 8am
8-830am: Meet and greet with coffee
8:45-9:45am: Home depot Presentation
10-10:30am: Expert question and answer panel
10:30-11am: Group discussion
11-12pm: Gardening workshop


For example, many home and garden stores will offer classes on how to plant a square foot garden in their backyard. Having these merchants come to a local community center to share their knowledge with the specified student population. The merchant is able to give to the community through volunteering and marketing current tools, products and services. Students who attended are doing so based on interest of the subject matter and either bringing with them their own previous knowledge or are invested in the content enough to ask questions and seek learning on their own, both of which are internal motivators. After being provided information, a facilitator, likely part of the community center staff, can lead the dialogue or take away applications and organize a discussion on current trends with student’s previous knowledge. Through additional partnerships, students can go out into the community and provide basic landscaping help if they chose or take newly learned skills back to their own homes and engage in their own leisurely pursuit of the content. 






References
Corporate Training Partners (2009).  Self-Directed Learning: Be your own Chief Learning
         Officer. Retrieved from http://www.selfdirectedlearning.org

Elderhostel, Inc. (2013).  Road Scholar: Adventures in Lifelong Learning. Retrieved from
         http://www. Roadscholar,org/

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007), Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, p83-92.

Program Investigation

Running Head: ANDRAGOGY INVESTIGATION

Andragogy

Program Investigation

3 March 2013

Amanda Bolin, Andrew Buckle,

Sara Pratt, Scott Rafalski, Paul Starr

Introduction

Understanding the adult learner is quite complex. However, educators have been utilizing a theory, andragogy, since 1833 when German grammar teacher, Alexander Knapp coined the term referring to the way adults engage in continued education. Later, in the early 20^th century adult education expert Eduard Lindeman used the theory of andragogy, pointed out adults should be educated by guidance rather than a lecture type setting. Finally it was Malcolm Knowles “the Father of Adult Learning” who popularized the concept of andragogy. Andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn, has a long and rich history that has shaped understanding of adult learning and continues to be a strong force in guiding the way adults learn (Henschke, 2011). Andragogy is based on multiple assumptions in which adult learners may thrive in an educational environment. The purpose of the assignment is to investigate at least two educational programs that apply the learning theory Andragogy and find out the main features of the selected educational programs. Through our investigation we will be highlighting Corporate Training Consultants Inc. and Road Scholars.

First Program Description

Our first program is named Corporate Training Consultants Inc. was created in 1992 and is based out of Chicago, Illinois.  The targeted learners for the program are individuals in the field of retail, manufacturing, financial services, transportation, utilities, non-profits and adults seeking higher education.  The purpose of Corporate Training Consultants Inc. is to keep employees productive while enabling them to continue to learn.  The program uses self-directed learning in which individuals take the initiative to diagnose their learning needs, formulating their learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choose and implement appropriate learning strategies, and the adult learner will be able to evaluate their learning outcome.  Corporate Training Consultants’ objectives are to retool an adult student’s skill set from passive to active learning.  Also, it provides information that is relevant to everyone, from new hires to senior management.  This program enables learners to learn only what they need to acquire and develop self-directed learning skills which can also be congruent towards a life of learning.

The program is designed specific for each individual organization.  The company will meet with the senior management to discuss needs and expectations.  Then Corporate Training Consultants Inc. will determine the employee readiness for self-directed learning and provide a workshop which will train employees and their managers. 

There are two types of programs offered, an employee version and a manager version.  The employee versions main focus is to enable the employee to create and implement a learning project.  During the workshop an employee learns what their learning style is, what they need to learn, define scope of learning, documenting learning, and writing the final learning project plan.  Also, employees complete an assessment to determine their proficiency of their self-directed learning skills.  The manager version reinforces employee SDL skills and how managers can act as a coach in assisting their own employees in creating and implementing individual learning projects.  The manager program focuses on providing feedback, approving learning resources for their employees and approving learning project plans.

The main features of the SDL program are designing and developing a learning project plan and how to assess the project.  The program assesses the needs of the company and employees to ensure the learning fits the company.  Training audits and strategic training plans are provided with the program.  At the end there is a program evaluation of the learning plans and to make sure the programs were implemented and to provide additional support.

First Program Comparison of Theory and Practice

Andragogy is defined as the “art and science of helping adults learn” which is exactly the mission or goal of Corporate Training Consultants.  The self-directed learning program follows many of the six assumptions that are the basis of the theory of Andragogy.  The first assumption is that adults are self-directed learners; the entire program is based on self-directed learning and improving those skills.  The third assumption looks into an adult learners willingness to learn.  If the learning is applicable to a learner’s needs then they will be more eager to seek out the material and actually learn from it.  This program completes a needs assessment prior to starting the program to address the desire and willingness of the employees to learn.  The fourth assumption of Andragogy states adult learning is more problem centered than subject centered; the SDL program allows for their participants to have a voice in what they want to learn and helps the individuals in completing a learning action plan.

The fifth assumption touches on the motivation of an adult learner.  Stating, the most powerful motivators for adults are internal rather than external.  This program provides adults the opportunity to be self-directed their learning, creating the objectives and own learning plan.  By the program allowing this kind of learning, adults are more engaged and intrinsically motivated to learn.  The sixth assumption of Andragogy is that adult learners need to know why it is important to learn the material provided.  Since this program is based on what the learner wants to learn for their job and enables the learners to create their own learning action plan, the importance is clear to the individual and his or her career.

The main difference with this program and the theory of Andragogy is not addressing the idea of adults learn through their own experiences and are able to relate those experiences to their learning and sharing of experiences through dialogue.  Adults have had many different experiences throughout their career which they could possibly share with other co-workers that may benefit their learning plan action; however, this program does not put much emphasis on previous experiences and their value.

Second Program Description

Our second program we reviewed is called Road Scholars.  Road Scholars offer learning adventures in all 50 of the United States of America and over 150 different countries around the world. As a branch of Elderhostel Incorporated, Road Scholars offers learning opportunities to adults in non -credit programs in many academic and special interest fields. Scholars are educated by local and renowned experts, experience in-depth and behind-the-scenes learning opportunities, from cultural tours and study cruises to walking, and biking.

The idea behind Road Scholars was to provide further learning opportunities to the aging generation, often adults in a retired professional status, without the stress of formal school work that is found in most post secondary education opportunities. Additionally, it allows adults to benefit from the youth hostel concept that is prevalent in many European nations. The Elderhostel program offers low cost and comfortable housing with expert guides through an adventure, allowing peer and expert discourse, questioning and further intellectual development to take place.

Programs in the United States often take the learners to historical places such as Massachusetts to learn about the birth of American liberty or to homes of infamous presidents and dig into the issues of that historical time. Within many of these excursions learners may walk through cities taking in historical museums, homes or the natural habitat associated with the subject matter. Lectures with experts in the fields of study, food, lodging and occasionally performances associated with the subject matter are included in the program as well.

Second Program Comparison of Theory and Practice

This program highlights a great deal of opportunity for the adult learner. When compared to Andragogy’s concept, learning in this setting is based completely on the internal desire to learn, a significant point for the Knowle’s view of adult learning. Additionally, learners are likely to bring their own past experiences to the learning environment and engage the expert with his or her own past knowledge on the subject matter. The result of this framework results in peer collaboration and discourse to expand their knowledge on the subject matter. Many of the learners in this educational environment are in a retired career status, their societal framework is often considered as absent to the world.

In the Road Scholar program, retired adults seek to engage not only in the learning adventure for personal enrichment, but often fight a stereotype of disengaging the society around them. As this learning bears no responsibility to an employer, formal credential or societal mandate; the learning is based on the internal desire and self directed approach the learner seeks to invest in the adventure itself.  With an aging adults large knowledge base and personal experience, the peer and expert collaboration that takes place in healthy discussions and group study yields a unique expanse of reflective opportunities and growth in one’s knowledge base.

On a separate note, this program is likely differing from Knowle’s view of adult learning in that the knowledge gained and relevance may not always have a practical or immediate application as Knowle suggested in his concept. Retired adults may find it interesting to learn about societal problems in the times of James Monroe, but are not likely to apply this newfound material to the present standards of society today. This may not be entirely true in all cases, as tutoring for children and parks and naturalistic endeavors are educational environments that can have immediate application to the learner, this is not necessarily emphasized in the Road Scholar program.

Applying to Our Program

One of the main features from SDL that we would like to apply to our program is the needs assessment before implementing the program.  By assessing the needs of our learners we can better target our program to our audience and ensure we are providing information they feel is valuable to learn.  Also, we will be able to determine their willingness to learn the material.  Also, from the Road Scholar program, the allowing of sharing experiences between learners and the expert or instructor would be another feature we would like to apply to our program.  Since adults have so many different experiences to share, we feel allowing adults to share these experiences within our program would help foster great discussion and a greater gain of knowledge.

Table 1.

Main Features of the programs	Corporate Training Consultants Inc.	Road Scholar Program	The features we will apply to our program
Internal desire to “Want to learn”	This program will goes through a full assessment of the employee or manager in providing information on learning styles and/or coaching skills	This program is for those who want to travel and gain knowledge on different states and countries	When adult learners can find value in what they are being taught, they are likely to be much more engaged
Experience of adult learners	This program does not focus of past experiences	This program does focus on sharing of experiences and collaboration of the group to further knowledge	Allowing adult learners who have an opportunity to share past experiences provides time for each to become engaged and feel they are a part of the group
Allows for immediate application	Employees are taught their learning styles and managers are provided on how to become better at coaching and handling different learning styles – this is easily applied in the work environment	May or may not be practical in application	Programs which allow the learner to apply their new found knowledge are beneficial and will be used in our program

 References

1)      "Corporate Training Consultants | Enhanced Training." Corporate Training Consultants | Enhanced Training. Web Accessed 03 Mar. 2013.

2)      Henschke, J.A. (2011). Considerations Regarding the Future of Andragogy. Adult Learning, 22 (1), 34-37.

3)      Road Scholars. Web Accessed 02 March 2013.

4)      "The Major Principles of an SDL Program." The Major Principles of an SDL Program. Web Accessed 03 March 2013.

GROUP MEMBER COMMENTS ON CLASSMATES BLOGS:

Amanda: Groups 1, 2 & 4

Andrew: Group 1 (Transformative Learning) & Group 2 (Behaviorist Learning:Pending Moderator Approval)

Sara: Group 6 & Group 1

Scott:  Group 1 & Group 6

Paul:  Group 1 & Group 6