In Search for Comprehending Learning Attitudes

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.

in search for comprehending learning attitudes chart from jonacuso

          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.