Toward a Theory of Situated Cognition From the eye of Adult Learners

I could state my insight explicitly from one of the favorite sayings of Aristotle “Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach”. Understanding adult learners and identifying their needs is quite crucial in order to enhance their knowledge and skills into experience as well as overcoming difficulties in a constant way. As it has been prescribed all of the definitions so far, there is no certain sound in defining an adult learner by means of universal statements. As Polson (1993) discussed in her article, the attributes of adult learners vary from their ages, social roles, background, education level and so forth. In addition, Polson clearly characterizes adult learners’ multiple roles, tasks, real life experiences, and needs including their aging process in her paper’s layout. These roles could also be associated with situated learning theory outlined by Brown, Collins and Duguit in 1989 as it is evolved by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.

The nature of situated cognition is based on the claim that every human thought is adapted to the environment. As Clancey stated the term “situated” refers what people perceive and how they concieve of their activity, and what people do physically do develop together (1997). All those are actualized in a social context. Knowledge is presented in an authentic context with its application in Situated Learning Theory. In addition, learning occurs if a learner exposes an authentic real world situation or context through interaction with others.According to the situation learning theory, we all learn by doing what experts in the field do thus, learning might not be possible if we seperate learning by doing, it becomes inert. Basically, what we think and what we do develops in a fundementally social context. Since, it could not be meaningful to teach an art topic like Turkish Çini Art without making our learners experience it in a workshop or even observe someone practicing it. The steps of that type of art could be observed and the new schema can be developed but not modified. This is because of absence of performance in social context and it is challenging to learn themes including abstract concepts since they are decontextualized. I believe that most of the failures of learning are suffering from this lack of prerequisities of learning since it is not meaningful to transfer a knowledge that is not existed. It is more like the example of an immigrant who has a great deal of vocabulary knowledge but not able to apply that knowledge in a grocery. That’s why, real world context is an important to be practiced for a meaningful outcomes and it needs a community of practice.

In addition, rather than being college students, adults have different roles that impacting their performance and attendance in programs. These roles shape their learning process and mold their academic performances. The non-academic interests such as being a parent, having a busy scheduled job, obligations in job or home need to be prioritized and reorganized skillfully. This might not be practiced all the time flawlessly and they experience some drawbacks in their academic life. As we all internalize this issue from our real life stances, we come across same extraneous factors affecting quality of our learning process. After having six hours parent meeting on a Sunday afternoon, and then coming back home to dealing with assignments and projects, pondering solutions even in driving back home might be seen never ending burden of our learning journey. Nevertheless, all those bring more real life experiences than the young learners and enrich the new knowledge. Polson indicates that experiences of adults could also cause ineffectiveness in learning that’s why learners ought to be encouraged and motivated with flexible solutions to their current needs.

On the other hand, there are different stages of adult development and they effect on classroom performance because of the age related life transitions. (as cited in Polson, 1993, p.2) In fact, adults incline to find out some alternatives that increase their life quality and help to reach their career goals as well. It is significant that instructors need to be supportive and facilitative in the courses to demonstrate how their courses will impact their life goals and future plans. Specifically, if an instructor sets his or her goals in the course and clarify outcomes of the tasks, learners will feel more concerned and goal-oriented.

The aforementioned developmental issues present instructors new challenges to improve tasks and teaching strategies as well. In fact, some teaching strategies implemented to college students might not work with adults and instructors need to find out creative and effective strategies that contribute adults’ knowledge and career. Furthermore, Polson (1993) stresses the significance of some alternative exercises rather than student surveys, information forms, writing biographies for needs analysis. The activities that facilitate learners for applying new information in their field of study are fruitful and effective. In the article, Polson gives advices to the instructors in order to set a delicate balance between teaching strategies and active learning skills by exemplifying “The bulls eye, simulation games, one minute papers which guides teachers to reinforce new information and back up for the next sections.” These following strategies are the basic implications highlighted in the article since most of us underestimate aging process on learning. Age is one of the most prominent factors effecting one’s learning process as much as aptitude and motivation. Attention span, memory retention and even impairments in senses could motive instructors to change the way of teaching and considering these factors as a key to successful learning.

To sum up, besides of teaching skills and implications highlighted in the article, Polson underlines the importance of motivation and creating positive learning environment in a very opaque way. She puts emphasize on imposter syndrome to indicate how adults feel insecure and discouraged when they are in student role. Creating a supportive learning environment and motivating adult learners is a key to success and increases their involvement even with a small discussion by having a well-designed seating arrangement as it was concisely outlined in the article. Quality and quantity of teaching materials, presenting active learning skills and encouragement to communicate with instructors build a strong academic knowledge and enable adults to learn better. Lastly, the voice of this article provides readers a glimpse into how adult students and traditional age students have varieties by enlightening and suggesting solutions for the instructors. As she clarified in her article, adults might experience feeling of failure as a result of negative experiences in their personal and academic lives in aging process. However, this psychological barrier could be overcome by providing support and encouragement. Since, age is not a constant thing but learning is in motion and it keeps your mind young.

References

Driscoll, M. P., (2005). Situated Cognition (pp.153-201).

Polson, C. J. (1993). Teaching adult students. Vol. 29 Retrieved from http://ideaedu.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_29.pdf