Adult Learning Planning Process

Adult Learning Planning Process

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Adult Learning Planning Process

Introduction

The course will teach adults how to cope with combat veterans who have been diagnosed with bulkpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For the course to be effective, it would be vital for the learners to have control of their learning process. This would require the instructor to use the four phases of adult learning planning process. These include the need, create, implement, and evaluate. Therefore, this paper will focus on how to implement the four phases of adult learning in teaching adults how to cope with combat veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD.

Phase 1: Need

This phase will involve the identification of the learning needs of adults whose fulfilment is vital to their ability to achieve their personal goals. Adults aspire the learn on their own to retail control of the learning process. Therefore, it is vital to determine the learning needs of adults beforehand. The identification of the learning needs in adult education would be strategic or tactical instead of being reactive.

I will undertake a training needs analysis among potential learners. This will help in identifying the learning needs of adults in relation with coping with combat veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD. This strategy will use surveys and other electronic data-gathering systems. It would also enable the potential learners to participate in the development of the learning process at a personal level. It would help in the creation of alternative strategies that would meet the learning needs of the adult learners.

Phase 2: Create

The second phase would be the creation of the learning strategies and the identification of the resources that would be required to achieving the goal of the learning process. During this phase, the educators should engage learners to stablish their motivation and that of the community in relation to their ability to cope with combat veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD. Involving learners will also help in validating their experiences and identification of the resources that would be required to improve the learning process. Engaging learners also helps in mediating the actual learning process (Romiszowski, 2016).

Admittedly, members of the community appreciate the sacrifice of combat veterans in serving their country. Therefore, they would like them to be integrated back to the community after completing their tour of duty. Therefore, it would be vital to consider their input in the creating of courses that strive to ensure efficient integration of combat veterans back into the community after completing their tour of duty.

Phase 3: Implement

Implementation is the third phase in the adult learning planning process. During this phase, the instructor should ensure there is shared control of the process. Efficient implementation should ensure that there is formative evaluation. Formative evaluation would involve the evaluation of the course while the course activities are forming. This will enable the designers, learners, instructors, and managers of the course to determine the effectiveness of achieving the goals of the course. The main aim of using formative evaluation is to ensure that the deficiencies of the course are identified as soon as possible to facilitate the creation and implementation of proper interventions that would enable the learners to master the requires knowledge and skills after completing the course.

Team learning would be used in the implementation phase. Team learning would involve the use of a collaborative effort to enable the group of learners achieve the goals of the learning process. The learners will achieve the goals of the course through dialogue and discussion and practice within the group (Khalil & Elkhider, 2016). Since the learners with interact with the combat veteran diagnosed with PTSD in a community setting, the learning process will ensure they know how to help other members of the community cope with combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD. It will ensure that coping with the combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD is a community process that incorporates all members of the community.

Peer instruction will play a vital role in the course. It will increase the interactivity in the course without the need to make drastic changes to the course. Getting the learners to be engaged and talking during the course would help the instructor determine and respond to what they are thinking, which would help in improving the learning process. Higher engagement of learners during the implementation phase will help in providing higher validity of the chosen learning strategies.

Phase 4: Evaluate

Evaluation would involve the systematic collection of evidence to determine whether desired changes have occurred after the learner has taken part in the course. Prior to evaluation, it is vital to distinguish the learning that the learners have controlled and the learning process that has been controlled by the instructor or other parties. The learner would be asked evaluation questions at this phase. In addition, there would be follow up questions based on what the learners has learn in relation to what they are required to learn after completing the course.

The questions in the evaluation phase would focus on the learning outcomes instead of the process of achieving the learning outcomes. For instance, they would strive to provide a direct measure of the desired knowledge and expertise acquired gained after undertaking the course. These would provide a direct measure of the change caused by the learning process and content.

The instructor should not simply use self-assessment of the anticipated outcomes. In addition, the instructor should not rely on the perceptions and feelings of the learners on the desired changes that should take place after undertaking the course. Doing so will only complicate the problem. For instance, relying on secondary sources of perception data as highlighted in literature would be a questionable evaluation practice.

Nevertheless, it would be crucial for the instructor to engage learners during this phase. This would enable the learner gain higher self-reflection and integrate the knowledge and expertise that is required after completion of the course. It will ensure the learners reach outside their internal reference to acquire rational data related to the outcomes of the course (Brockett & Hiemstra, 2018). This will ultimately help in facilitating the personal development of the learner in addition to furthering the goals of various interest groups focusing on the welfare of combat veterans.

Conclusion

Combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD face several challenges while being integrated into the community after completing their tour of duty. Therefore, it is vital for members of the community to know how they can cope with them. This would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the integration process. Members of the community should be taught on how to cope with the combat veterans. Teaching them requires the use of the four phases of adult learning planning process.

References

Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (2018). Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research and practice. New York, NY: Routledge.

Khalil, M. K., & Elkhider, I. A. (2016). Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction. Advances in physiology education, 40(2), 147-156.

Romiszowski, A. J. (2016). Designing instructional systems: Decision making in course planning and curriculum design. New York, NY: Routledge.