Photograph contributed by Fernando
Carranza and taken in Honduras, CA
In Search for Comprehending Learning
Attitudes
Embrace Differences and Help College
Learners Succeed
By Prof. Jonathan
Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty
of Social Sciences
Universidad
Latina de Costa Rica
Sunday, October 16,
2016
Post 301
As a language teaching professional
with 20 years of experience in higher education settings, trying to understand
college students’ learning attitudes has been a real challenge. Coming from a
very different teaching scenario (a bi-national center sponsored by the US
Embassy) before I started teaching English at the university level was not
exactly the experience needed to deal with language trainees in university
classrooms. Time has been a very persistent and eloquent trainer for me and for
many of my colleagues; it has taught us lots of lessons when one intends to
understand traditional learners and working adult students’ attitudes towards
their learning in higher education.
To try to fully comprehend learners in
higher education, their attitudes need to be isolated and compared. Working
adult students (WASs) are very much different from the traditional learner who
is coming to college for the first time in their lives, usually with no work
experience. Any student needs to be understood based on his/her knowledge and
abilities, self-concept, expectations, needs, and attitudes. All learners
present a very interesting symbiosis of elements that make them unique and
different; this implies embracing all the diversity that can coexist in a
classroom with respect and admiration.
The panorama of higher education can
be better understood when one is aware of learners’ attitudes towards learning.
Traditional learners and working adult students differ substantially, but this
does not mean they cannot coexist in a classroom. Having WASs mentor
traditional students while developing projects is one of the best ways for
adult learners to see how they can also guide newbies into the working world
they live in on a daily basis. As an instructor in higher education one is
exercising different leadership trends that can help WASs develop their
potential and can help other learners to construct their knowledge for the
working life to come.
To conclude, do analyze learners in
your higher education teaching context to have a better understanding of what
your students are and what they expect from their education (and from you).
Self-evaluate what you understand and see in each of their attitudes:
- Knowledge
and abilities,
- Self-concept,
- Expectations,
- Needs,
and
- Attitudes.
Comprehending
each point and how they relate to learners will help you develop a more
thorough understanding of who is sitting in class waiting to be guided towards
their construction of knowledge.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
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