Term 2-06
Do we all have a fear of learning?
Place yourself in this situation. You have been asked to undertake a task that requires knowledge and skills you currently do not have. It may be a simple task or a complex one. What do you feel?
If the task is to be performed in public, you will probably but not necessarily feel anxious. Why is this so?
The most likely cause will be a deeply held fear of failure. We don’t want to feel or look stupid. It is most likely that this fear is learned.
As children, most things we do are done with a sense of excitement and wonder. We do things that we aren’t very good at over and over until we become better at it. Skipping, running, rhyming, spelling, you name it we do it without too much fear. However, somewhere along the way, our fear seems to take hold and we step back from participating in the uninhibited manner of previous experience.
It is thought that school experiences play a big role here as early success with appropriate levels of positive reinforcement build young confident learners. To the contrary, early failure combined with negative reinforcement will un-doubtedly build poor learners.
It is possible that we have all experienced the pain of being laughed at and subsequently baulked at trying.
Having our ability tested; being benchmarked against others, is also a source of real worry to most of us. What if we should fall short of the mark? What if someone (everyone) suddenly realises that we are not what we pretend to be and that all along we have been lucking our way through life?
It is a sad fact, that many adults, because of early failure, bad experiences at school or in clubs and groups, never really return to structured learning and in some cases, actively avoid it. Designing learning activities that take into account, reluctance and fear is a challenge even for the best teachers. A good starting point is an acknowledgement of the Principles of Adult Learning. These are:
•Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. Their teachers must actively involve adult participants in the learning process and serve as facilitators for them.
•Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base.
•Adults are goal-oriented. Upon enrolling in a course, they usually know what goal they want to attain. They, therefore, appreciate an educational program that is organized and has clearly defined elements.
•Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them.
•Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work.
•As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect. Instructors must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the classroom. These adults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and allowed to voice their opinions freely in class.
It is our aim at Sydney Community College to provide all of our students an environment where they will be grow as successful self directed learners and that their experience with us will lead them to other learning experiences that will form part of a great continuum throughout their lives. This can only benefit us all.
Garry John Traynor
Principal
garry.traynor@scc.nsw.edu.au
The views expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
