1. education

D500 Introduction to Adult Education Theory
Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
CONTACT INFORMATION
Instructor: Frank DiSilvestro
Phone: 812-855-6520
E-mail: [email protected]
Welcome to D500. This course will cover various theories and philosophies of adult education,
as they were developed over a long history. It can be a really fascinating and interesting online
course, if you actively participate in the online activities. The life of the course comes from a
willingness of each person to engage one another in online dialogue and questioning about the
theories we study. Be ready to give your genuine opinion and to draw upon your considerable
experiences in the critique and application of the theories and ideas we study. I will frequently
engage you in dialogue and questioning and I hope you will do the same with me and each
other.
I look forward to our semester together!
COURSE DETAILS
Course Description:
This course examines the writings of major Adult Education theorists including Lindeman,
Knowles, Bergevin, and Freire. Adult Education theories are analyzed in historical perspectives.
You will be expected to develop and defend your own personal theories of practice.
Course Objectives:
1. To gain an overview of the philosophical foundations of Adult Education within Western
civilization.
2. To recognize the names and theories of selected key philosophers in the field of Adult
Education.
3. To be able to distinguish between some of the major schools of thought in Adult
Education and compare and contrast their main ideas.
4. To be able to demonstrate practical applications of seven Adult Education theories
covered in this course.
5. To develop, describe and defend your personal philosophy of Adult Education.
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D500 Introduction to Adult Education Theory
Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
Textbooks which you must purchase:
Elias, J. L., & Merriam, S. B. (2005). Philosophical foundations of adult education (3rd ed.).
Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co.
Merriam, S. (1995). Selected writings on philosophy and adult education(2nd ed.). Malabar, FL:
Krieger Publishing Co.
The course design is centered on eight modules and their respective assignments, which are
found by clicking the individual Module links on the tools menu. Each module will provide:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The competencies targeted for that module.
The required readings for that module.
An overview of the module.
A recommended Analysis Framework. In Modules 2-8 you will see the competency
related to analysis frameworks. It is highly recommended that you complete, on your
own (since they are not required to be submitted), the analysis framework described in
that module for the theory covered. The analysis frameworks will be a tremendous help
for your final paper.
The course has an online midterm and an online comprehensive final. They are in Modules 5
and 8. Please note: my policy for missing any exam (midterm or final) for reasons other than
medical or family emergencies is to allow one re-scheduled exam with a 25% point reduction
penalty. So don't oversleep or forget to take an exam.
You must submit assignments by the date noted in each assignment to receive full credit.
Assignments submitted late will lose 5 points each unless there is a medical reason or
emergency. A late essay or paper will lose 10% of the total points for the essay or paper. The
following are the types of assignments you will encounter:
Philosophy of Adult Education Inventory.
In Module 1, and again in Module 8, you will complete the Philosophy of Adult
Education Inventory, to help you assess your own personal philosophy of Adult
Education in comparison with the prevailing philosophies in the field of Adult Education.
Instructions on how to complete the inventory are in Module 1. The results will be
automatically compiled so that you will have a profile based on your responses. This is
for your own and for my information. Please keep a record of your scores, and send a
copy of both sets of scores to me via Oncourse email as you complete the inventory.
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Theory Essay.
The theory essay is an assignment for Module 1. It requires you to demonstrate your
understanding about what a theory is. You will submit a 1000 word essay via email to
me through Oncourse. Grading criteria for this essay are described in the module
assignment along with helpful online indexes for the assignment.
Discussion Assignments and Participation.
After the first week of class, when the enrollment stabilizes, the class likely (depending
on enrollment)will be divided into smaller discussion groups. Each module will have an
assigned question for your consideration. Starting with Module 2, you will be required
to complete two discussion assignments in the Discussion Forum. Each assignment has
two parts.
The first Discussion Forum assignment requires you to:
1. post your opinion to the question related to the theory under study, due by the
first Sunday (8 pm) of that week.
2. react to the posted opinions of your other group members by the second Sunay
(8 pm) of that week.
You will receive feedback at the end of each module (typically the Tuesday morning
following the module) concerning the quality of your discussion and your
participation. Remember that a Discussion has two components: Posting an opinion the
first week and reacting to at least two other posted opinions the second week. I will
typically select and ask some students specific questions about their opinions during
each module in this discussion forum.
The second Discussion Forum assignment requires you to use the Theory Application
Forum where you will:
1. post your theory application by the first Sunday (8 pm) of that week. This is
where you will demonstrate the practical application of the theory under study
for that module.
2. critique two other theory applications posted in your group by the second
Sunday (8 pm) in that week.
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Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
Remember that a Theory Application Forum has two components: Posting an
application of a theory the first week and reacting to two theory applications the second
week including at least one suggestion for improving each application you read. Again,
you will receive feedback at the end of each module (typically the Tuesday morning
following the module) concerning the quality of your theory application and
participation.
Annotated Articles.
You will have assigned articles to read from the Elias and Merriam paperback, and from
articles provided to you digitally. Starting with Module 2, you will be required to choose
and annotate one of those assigned articles for each module. These annotations should
be turned in via the Oncourse Assignments tool by the second Sunday (8pm) of the
module. Instructions for the article annotations are provided in Module 2.
Term paper
The term paper is an opportunity to explain your personal philosophy of Adult
Education. The paper should be 3,000 words and is described in greater detail in
Module 8. The term paper is an important component of the course and the criteria by
which it will be graded are described in Module 8. You may submit the paper using the
Assignments tool. You are expected to use APA style for all papers in this course. You
may find help with APA style here.
On-line Midterm Exam.
You will have an on-line midterm during module 5. Instructions for the midterm are
provided in both Module 4 and in Module 5.
Comprehensive Final Exam.
You will have an online final exam during module 8. Instructions for the final exam are
provided in Module 8.
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Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
Points:
Summary of course requirements and their total points toward the final grade
Assignment
Points
Theory Essay
60
Pre & Post Philosophy of AE Inventories
5
Annotations (15/module)
105
Discussion participation
Group Discussion (15/module)
105
Theory Application (25/module)
175
Midterm exam
100
Term paper
200
Final Examination
250
TOTAL
1000
Grade
Points
A
930
A-
900
B+
870
B
830
B-
800
C+
770
C
730
C-
700
Anything lower than a C is considered a failing grade.
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Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
Academic Integrity
At the graduate level it is expected that everyone has developed a strong sense of ethical
responsibility, and knows what constitutes the appropriate use of intellectual property in its
various forms. The Adult Education Department uses the services of TurnItIn.com to verify all
papers submitted.
In case there is any question about this issue, here are the rules: Projects or papers may not be
submitted to fulfill the requirements of two courses without the permission of both instructors.
Submission of a paper completed in one course for an assignment in another course is a
violation of the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct. The code is accessible
on the internet at http://www.iu.edu/~code/ and reproduced in part below. If you have any
questions about using others' work, or work you have created for other courses, please ASK
ME. I'm happy to discuss these issues, and I'd rather we talk about it up front, rather than have
to deal with it after the fact when you may have jeopardized your academic reputation, and
that of the university.
Part II, STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES G. Academic Responsibilities & Misconduct
Academic misconduct is defined as any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity
of the institution. The university may discipline a student for academic misconduct. Academic
misconduct may involve human, hard-copy, or electronic resources.
Policies of academic misconduct apply to all course-, department-, school-, and university
related activities, including field trips, conferences, performances, and sports activities offcampus, exams outside of a specific course structure (such as take-home exams, entrance
exams, or auditions, theses and master’s exams, and doctoral qualifying exams and
dissertations), and research work outside of a specific course structure (such as lab
experiments, data collection, service learning, and collaborative research projects). The faculty
member may take into account the seriousness of the violation in assessing a penalty for acts of
academic misconduct. The faculty member must report all cases of academic misconduct to the
dean of students, or appropriate official. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to,
the following:
1. Cheating
Cheating is considered to be an attempt to use or provide unauthorized assistance, materials,
information, or study aids in any form and in any academic exercise or environment.
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Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
1. A student must not use materials from a commercial term paper company; files of
papers prepared by other persons, or submit documents found on the Internet. A
student must not collaborate with other persons on a particular project and submit a
copy of a written report that is represented explicitly or implicitly as the student`s
individual work.
2. A student must not submit substantial portions of the same academic work for credit or
honors more than once without permission of the instructor or program to whom he
work is being submitted.
2. Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else`s work, including the work of other students,
as one`s own. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use
must be fully acknowledged, unless the information is common knowledge. What is considered
"common knowledge" may differ from course to course. A student must give credit to the
originality of others and acknowledge indebtedness whenever:
1. A student must not adopt or reproduce ideas, opinions, theories, formulas, graphics, or
pictures of another person without acknowledgment.
2. Directly quoting another person`s actual words, whether oral or written;
3. Using another person`s ideas, opinions, or theories;
4. Paraphrasing the words, ideas, opinions, or theories of others, whether oral or written;
5. Borrowing facts, statistics, or illustrative material; or
6. Offering materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections
without acknowledgment.
There are serious consequences for academic misconduct. An instructor may choose to not
accept an assignment, lower the grade or give the grade of F for the assignment.
The IU Academic Handbook states that faculty members have the responsibility of fostering the
"intellectual honesty as well as the intellectual development of students....Should the faculty
member detect signs of plagiarism or cheating, it is his or her most serious obligation to
investigate these thoroughly, to take appropriate action with respect to the grades of students,
and in any event to report the matter to the Dean of Students. The necessity to report every
case of cheating, whether or not further action is desirable, arises particularly because of the
possibility that this is not the student`s first offense, or that other offenses may follow it. Equity
also demands that a uniform reporting practice be enforced; otherwise, some students will be
penalized while others guilty of the same actions will go free." (p. 172).
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Master of Science in Education, Adult Education
Americans with Disabilities Act
If you need any special accommodations due to a disability, please contact your instructor and
Adaptive Educational Services at (317)-274-3241 or [email protected].
General Tips for Online Courses
An online course includes more writing, both formal and informal, than most traditional
classroom courses. The reflecting and writing activities are done in place of the 3 hours per
week you would normally be in the classroom. Some of the writing is formal, such as the
assignments described in this Syllabus. These are described in terms of number of words (e.g.
400-500 words). To give you another yardstick, a traditional double-spaced page with normal
margins contains about 250 words. Therefore, a 400-500 word paper is about 2 pages.
Most word processing software includes a "word count" feature. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
that you write in word processing software and polish your written product until you're
satisfied it reflects well on your efforts and abilities at the graduate level, and then cut & paste
it into a posting or email. Then you'll have the original copy on your computer as backup in case
of a hardware, software, connection, or person malfunction NOTE: Each participant is
responsible for keeping electronic (and back-up) files of all work submitted.
The informal, or perhaps less formal, writings are your contributions to asynchronous and
synchronous discussions on the Oncourse Discussion Forums and Chat Sessions. When you are
posting asynchronously, you have time to be more thoughtful and polished. When we are
interacting synchronously (in real time) then it's more like in-class discussion where it is a freer
flow as ideas and reflections build on each other. It is expected that all discourse in our
learning community will be conducted with professionalism and civility.
Learning and Communication Technology
If this is your first online course, please don't feel intimidated by the technology used to
participate in the course. It is part of the digital competencies we all have to develop to be
effective in the future. The Oncourse technology tools have many Help features built-in, so
don't be afraid to use them. There are continuous changes to the Oncourse system, so we are
all learning new tools and techniques.
I also ask those students who are more experienced and comfortable with online learning and
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these tools to give suggestions and positive feedback to those who are less experienced so we
develop a supportive climate in our online Learning Community.
Email (in the Messages tool) is the primary form of communication between students and the
course facilitator and with other students. Email may be a message from one individual to
another or from one individual (or group) to the entire class by posting the message to all
within the Oncourse utility. Email is asynchronous (you and the recipient do not have to be
online at the same time), so use this is you can wait for a response.
The Forum tool provides several other forms of communication. One is the posting of a
message or questions to create a discussion topic to which other course participants respond
when they have set aside time to work on the course. This is an asynchronous discussion (not at
the same time). The discussions may have a theme or "thread" assigned to them so when you
sign on you can see what topics are being discussed, who has responded with a new message
since you last logged on, etc.
The Assignments tool is where your longer assignments are turned in. Think of it sort of like a
drop box. The instructions and other details on each assignment are on the individual module
pages.
Explore Oncourse by taking the Online Tutorial (access it from the My Workspace tab) as well as
clicking on the other links at the side of the screen to lead you to information about each
module, your fellow class members, the course calendar, the gradebook, and other resources.
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