APP 1

Application: Building a Community of Learners

“Humans have a basic need to be part of a social community. Students will engage more in classroom-based learning if they feel they are welcomed, valuable, contributing members of a learning community.”
—Barkley, 2010, p. 110

Your Application Assignment this week consists of two parts:

Part 1: Course Project: Choosing Your Focus

The Course Project, which you will complete in Week 7, will help you learn more about working as an adult educator in the early childhood field. Your primary research will be done in the form of interviews with three professional adult educators of your choice. You may conduct the interviews in person, by phone, or via video conferencing platform, such as Skype. Each one will have a specific theme with questions drawing on educators’ experiences, recommended practices, and tips for success.

This week, begin your Course Project by locating the "Course Project: Week 1: Choosing Your Focus" document, found in this week’s Learning Resources, or by clicking the link that follows.

Course Project: Week 1: Choosing Your Focus

Fill in the form by choosing three areas in the early childhood field in which you might like to work as an adult educator (e.g., college-level instructor in early childhood education, children’s museum director working with staff, instructor in child development for Head Start associates). In identifying professional adult educators to interview, look for those with positions that parallel your interests.

Complete the sheet by providing from one to three professional associations or other resources related to the settings you select.

Part 2: Compiling a Strategies for Teaching Adults Toolkit

Throughout this course you will be compiling a Strategies for Teaching Adults Toolkit. In Weeks 1–7, you will be asked to draw from the Learning Resources in order to choose and describe at least three strategies or techniques to add to your Strategies for Teaching Adults Toolkit. Keep in mind that these are strategies and techniques that you believe will be helpful to your future work with adult learners.

For your Application Assignment in Week 8, you will be required to submit your Strategies for Teaching Adults Toolkit as well as write a summary of how the strategies you chose add to and represent your philosophy of working with adults in the early childhood field.

Before you begin this part of the Application Assignment, take a moment to reflect on Elizabeth Barkley’s words above. Consider how making connections with fellow learners creates a sense of belonging and deepens commitment to learning on the part of individuals and the group. As an adult educator, it is your role to develop that sense of community among your adult learners. The readings in the Barkley text, as well as other resources this week, offer a variety of strategies for building community.

For Part 2 of this Application Assignment, you will be drawing from Barkley’s strategies to create a customized blueprint for building a learning community. To begin, locate the "Blueprint for Building a Community of Learners" document in this week’s Learning Resources, or by clicking the link below.

Blueprint for Building a Community of Learners

Follow the steps outlined in this document for creating your blueprint. You will find guidance for focusing your thinking and selecting the community-building strategies you would use with a target group of adult learners. Write directly in the file, responding to each section as directed.

Note: Create a folder on your desktop that you will use to house your toolkit—one that you will add to throughout the course and take with you after you have completed your coursework. Each of these assignments should be saved as a Word document in the folder you have created; each should be titled by week. Each week your assignment should be approximately 2 pages.

To complete this Application, submit the following:

• Your completed "Course Project: Week 1: Choosing Your Focus" document
• Your completed "Blueprint for Building a Community of Learners" document
• A 1-page reflection on what you understand about developing a learning community, what else you need and/or want to know, and ideas for how to gain that additional knowledge.

(Assignment length: approximately 2–3 pages)

Submit this assignment by Sunday of this week:

COMPLETE ATTACHMENTS AND RELECTION