Utilizing adult learning literature to enrich the subject of managerial intellectual learning

Utilizing adult learning literature to enrich the subject of managerial intellectual learning: a proposal

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: Managerial intellectual learning (MIL), as a research topic in the Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research, is about using the MPSB concepts to pursue intellectual learning in management disciplines so as to purse the life-goal to become an MPSB scholar-practitioner. As such, its targeted users are primarily adult learners. Thus, it is useful, in the conduct of MIL research to examine the adult learning literature so as to propose how the adult learning literature can enrich the MIL study. This study takes up this task. It identifies five research themes in adult learning and puts forward five research proposals for MIL based on the adult learning literature review. The findings from this study contribute to the theoretical enrichment of MIL. Finally, the paper encourages more theoretical and empirical study on MIL, as informed by these findings.

Keywords: adult learning, literature review, managerial intellectual learning, mind map

Please cite the paper as: Ho, J.K.K. 2016. “Utilizing adult learning literature to enrich the subject of managerial intellectual learning: a proposal” Joseph KK Ho e-resources blog July 23 (url address: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2016/07/utilizing-adult-learning-literature-to.html).

1.      Introduction

The subject of managerial intellectual learning (MIL), launched by this writer in 2013 (Ho, 2013a) is both a sub-theme of the broader research topic called Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research (re: The Multi-perspective, Systems-based Facebook page) as well as a theme about application the MPSB Research ideas in intellectual learning (re: Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page). In this regard, it is closely associated to an earlier key MPSB concept called enlightening management education (Ho, 2013b). The main aim of this paper is not to explain what is MIL because there are already published works on it, see the managerial intellectual learning Facebook page (re: the bibliography). This paper examines some of the literature on adult learning so as conceptually enrich the MIL subject. Such an intellectual exercise adopts the same investigation approach as Ho (2016), which is on enriching practice-based intellectual learning in MIL with the action learning literature; except that this time, the literature review is on adult learning instead of action learning, and the application target is the MIL subject as a whole, instead of a component MIL activity, namely, practice-based intellectual learning. Thus, the next section is a briefing on some of the main ideas of adult learning, followed by a discussion on how adult learning ideas can enrich the MIL subject.

2.      Main ideas of adult learning from the academic literature

Adult learning is “a growing part of the population in the academic setting, as well as other settings…” (Gayle et al., 2000).  As a subject, adult learning is, unavoidably, a complicated one. This is because adults are beyond doubt not a homogeneous group of people; Wikipedia describes an adult as “a human being… that has reached sexual maturity. In human context, the term adult additionally has meanings associated with social and legal concept. In contrast to a “minor”, a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible” (Wikipedia.org, 2016). The following definition is typical on adult learning:

“the entire range of formal, non-formal and informal learning activities which are undertaken by adults after a break since leaving initial education and training, and which results in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills” (National Research Centre for adult literacy and numeracy, 2010).

Adult learning forms, also called andgragogy (Kearsley, 2010), cited by Pappas (2013), cover both “art and science of adult learning”. Four areas of adulating learning research have been identified by Brookfield (1995) which inform “how a great many adult educators practice their craft”; these are (i) self-directed learning, (ii) critical reflection, (iii) experiential learning and (iv) learning to learn. Some trends in adult learning since the 1990s include: cross cultural adult learning, practical theorizing, distance learning (Brookfield, 1995). Adult learners are recognized as “extremely diverse in their nature, needs, and preferences” (Cornelius and Gordon, 2009). The following are some of the main ideas in the adult learning literature, grouped into five related research themes, i.e.: (i) profiles and images of adult learners, (ii) adult learning activities, (iii) education programmes for adult learning, (iv) roles of educators and mentors and (v) contexts and supportive infrastructures:

Theme 1: profiles and images of adult learners

Idea 1.1.                    “…adult learners tend to (1) ‘‘have a need to know why they should learn something’’; (2) ‘‘have a deep need to be self-directing’’; (3) ‘‘have a greater volume and different quality of experience than youth’’; (4) ‘‘become ready to learn when they experience a need to know or to be able to do’’; (5) ‘‘enter into a learning experience with a task-centered orientation to learning’’; and (6) ‘‘are motivated by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators….” (Knowles (1996: 255-258) as cited by Gayle et al., (2000).);

Idea 1.2.                    “…Younger adult learners have the advantage in ‘‘reasoning, short term memory, and processing speed,’’ …. At the same time ‘‘acculturation knowledge ….. long-term memory, and quantitative knowledge appear to increase through most of adulthood…’’ (Gayle et al., 2000);

Idea 1.3.                     “…there are no generic or normative learning habits and educational pursuits among older people…” (O’Dows, 2005); “…Self-directed learners ….. know their specific learning requirements and personal learning preferences and can self-monitor and reflect productively on their own learning in order to achieve their goals”  (Knowles (1984) and Lai et al. (2013) cited in Botha et al. (2015).);

Idea 1.4.                    “..The self-managing learner is one who is self-aware, capable of exercising choice in relation to needs, of taking an active self-directing role in furthering his or her own learning and development….” (Harrison, 2000);

Idea 1.5.                    “…The effective learner is seen as embodying a strong ‘sense of self, intrinsic motivation, personal control and responsibility, high self-perceptions of competence and self-esteem’ ….. The ‘desirable’ self is represented here as a rational, self-aware and well-informed decision-maker freely choosing between learning opportunities and career destinations…” (Harrison, 2000);

Theme 2: adult learning activities

Idea 2.1.                    “ …. theory development in adult learning is weak and is hindered by the persistence of myths that ….  adult learning is inherently joyful, that adults are innately self-directed learners, that good educational practice always meets the needs articulated by learners themselves and that there is a uniquely adult learning process as well as a uniquely adult form of practice..” (Brookfield, 1995);

Idea 2.2.                    “The learning achieved by individuals through their work-based activity is unique and differentially experienced. It involves a combination of intuitive reasoning, inference and inductive thinking which is normally tacit and not available for analysis” (Cox, 2005);

Idea 2.3.                    “….that learners frequently use conversations to learn from self-paced, technology based training strongly suggests that dialogs and discussions are important in the design of these new ways of learning…” (Dobrovolny, 2006);

Idea 2.4.                    “…As adults, we ….. construct knowledge by conversing with others, analyzing problems together, identifying solutions together, and meeting goals together…”  (Dobrovolny, 2006);

Idea 2.5.                    “…for every teacher who values the “motivation” of adult students whose learning goals are tied to real life concerns, it is not hard to find another who bemoans their overweening “practicality” and lack of patience for reflective attention to the bigger philosophical questions” …..” (Hodson et al., 2001);

Idea 2.6.                    “…traditionally we have been concerned with ‘the qualitative changes in how the student knows and not just what the student knows’…  However, this may not represent the adult learners’ position, which frequently may have more specific goals…” (Hodson et al., 2001);

Idea 2.7.                     “…Metacognition is …. It is the process of regulating and modifying our cognitive activity …, planning and selecting strategies, monitoring the progress of learning, correcting errors, and changing strategies when necessary…” (Dobrovolny, 2006);

Idea 2.8.                    “…Reflection is careful, deliberate thinking that helps us make sense of experiences and supports our knowledge construction process (Jonassen and Reeves (1996) as cited by Dobrovolny (2006).);

Idea 2.9.                    Five levels of reflection have been identified by Griffiths and Tann (1991), cited by Cox (2005), namely, (i) rapid reaction, (ii) repair, (iii) review, (iv) research, and (v) retheorize and reformulate.

Idea 2.10.                “…‘reflecting-in-action’—the tacit knowledge which people bring to any situation—and ‘reflecting-on-action’, which has been summarized as ‘retrospective reflection carried out after and usually away from the event’…” (Rolfe (1998) cited in Cox (2005).);

Idea 2.11.               “…structured reflection-on-action could be viewed as a highly introspective activity that has little relevance except in higher level occupations. Reflection-on-action may have relevance in professions where there are ethical dimensions to be considered and important decisions to be made…” (Cox, 2005);

Idea 2.12.               “..the critical consciousness and particularly….theoretical reflectivity… becomes realized through perspective transformations: Perspective transformation involves not only becoming critically aware of habits of perception, thought and action, but of the cultural assumptions governing the rules, roles, conventions and social expectations which dictate the way we see, think, feel and action….”(Mezirow (1981: 129) cited in Cox (2005).);

Idea 2.13.               “….reflective practice involves reflective dialogue that ‘engages the person at the edge of their knowledge, their sense of self and the world as experienced by them’…” (Brookbank and McGill (1998) cited in Cox (2005).);

Idea 2.14.                “Self-directedness has been associated with life-preparedness, which includes the cultivation and nurturing of attributes such as agency, resilience, agility and the anticipation of adverse events” (Lent (2013) cited in Botha et al. (2015).);

Theme 3: Education programmes for adult learning

Idea 3.1.                    “…the self-learning method promoted motivation to learn, but some [postgraduate] students found the experience not meeting their expectations. In particular the role of tutors and the lack of tutor direction were key features associated with the concerns expressed by the disaffected learners…” (Hodson et al., 2001);

Idea 3.2.                    “..Adult learners have been shown to value courses which include options, allow personalisation, encourage self-direction, and provide variety…” (Ausburn (2004) and Nelson (2008), cited by Cornelius and Gordon (2009).);

Idea 3.3.                    “…Whereas …[younger students]…usually follow a consecutive, linear learning route, adults’ engagement with education and training tends to be intermittent and more varied…” (McGiveney, 2004);

Idea 3.4.                    “…It is generally found that that men are more likely to cite course-related, finance-related or work-related reasons for leaving courses [education programmes] before completion, whereas women are more likely to withdraw for reasons to do with family commitments and the lack, inadequacy or costs of childcare…” (McGiveney, 2004);

Idea 3.5.                    “…the wrong choice of course was a highly significant factor in early withdrawal from further and higher education programmes…” (McGivney, 2004);

Theme 4: Roles of educators and mentors

Idea 4.1.                    It has been suggested by Mezirow (1981: 135), as cited in Cox (2005), that the adult educator’s role is to “‘respond to the learner’s educational need in a way which will improve the quality of his or her self-directedness as a learner”;

Idea 4.2.                    “In the face of ….diversity in self directedness (and learners’ other needs and preferences) the educator’s role is to provide a framework in which learning can take place, and learners are themselves responsible for contextualising their learning – making it important, relevant, and instructive (Illeris (2007) cited by Cornelius and Gordon (2009).);

Idea 4.3.                    “….mentoring influences doctoral student retention, degree completion, and overall satisfaction, and that it can help close significant gaps across demographic groups and academic disciplines…” (Mullen et al., 2010);

Idea 4.4.                    “….Co-mentorship or collaborative mentoring promotes reciprocal learning, power sharing, turn taking, co-leading, dialogue, constructive feedback, and authenticity in learning….. Co-mentorship occurs where mentors and mentees (or students) proactively teach each other in ways that are completely respectful while being critically supportive….” (Mullen et al., 2010);

Theme 5: contexts and supportive infrastructures

Idea 5.1.                    “It is widely assumed that adults should engage in learning throughout their working life in order to adapt to changing conditions in the labour market and to ensure that national economies remain competitive in a global skills race” (Jenkins, 2016);

Idea 5.2.                    “…In narrating and reflecting upon their past lives, participants spoke, often in terms of class and gender, about how initial schooling, family life, employment or unemployment affected their present lives in terms of attitudes towards and participation in learning…”  (Merrill, 2004);

Idea 5.3.                    “…Most individuals are now expected to be more self-sufficient: managing lives with less support from the state, public institutions or large employers. (McNair (1996 : 8) cited by Harrison, 2000);

Idea 5.4.                     “Since self-directed adult learners manage their own learning, they require a facilitative environment in which to learn optimally (Knowles (1984) cited in Botha et al. (2015).);

Idea 5.5.                    “…While adult learners represent a wide variety of developmental stages, for information literacy, for a successful search for electronic information, each one must learn to cope with the burgeoning explosion of information…” (Gayle et al., 2000);

Idea 5.6.                    “…the main problem [with lifelong learning] is that it fails to critically assess how conditions for individual development, ethnic and social background, previous schooling and working life conditions create very different preconditions for lifelong learning…” (O’Dowd, 2005);

Idea 5.7.                     “…Modularization, credit transfer, open learning and competence based qualifications have contributed towards the development of a more complex set of choices for learners and a correspondingly increased role for guidance and the use of techniques such as ‘ action planning’, ‘personal development planning’ and ‘ recording achievement ’…” (Harrison, 2000);

Idea 5.8.                    “..When the impact of mobile and wireless technology on lifelong learning (LLL) is discussed, the specialist literature suggests many possible positive influences: increased flexibility, engagement, critical thinking, collaboration and communication…”  (Cobcroft (2006), cited by Seta et al. (2014).);

Idea 5.9.                     “….Our goal in libraries is to help adult learners …. make good decisions in selecting ….information. The users must first make a decision about which resources to search. Next they must identify and locate appropriate sources within those resources, make judgments about their appropriateness, and finally integrate the data and information into their understanding of the topic before producing a written report…. “(Gayle et al., 2000);

The ideas associated with the five research themes are representative viewpoints and voices in the adult learning literature; the literature review conducted by the writer is not comprehensive as the adult learning literature is quite substantial. Together, these ideas render in a broad-brush way the knowledge structure on adult learning as informed by the literature review done by this writer, also refer to Literature on adult education Facebook page. This knowledge structure can be visualized in the form of a mind map (see appendix 1). It is not the intention of this paper to provide an introduction to all the adult learning ideas mentioned here as this will substantially lengthen the paper. Rather, the identified adult learning ideas serve as illustrative examples as well as pointers to the original sources of them. All in all, the adult learning ideas help us to develop a more comprehensive and complicated understanding on adult learning. For the same reason, these adult learning ideas promote a more comprehensive and complicated pathway to theoretically develop the subject of MIL. The next section further explores this topic how adult learning ideas could enrich MIL.

3.      Research proposals on how to enrich MIL with the adult learning literature

Managerial intellectual learning is “the Multi-perspective, Systems-based intellectual learning by people of management concepts to be employed to inform real-world management practices” (Ho, 2015a); it relies on the MPSB Research, including its key ingredient MPSB concepts, to go through the intellectual learning process. Especially, it is attentive to the MPSB concept of enlightening management education (Ho, 2013b) and is structured with the managerial intellectual learning process framework (Ho, 2014), see Figure 1.

Referring to Figure 1, the MIL framework identifies a number of components, notably component 1 (the managerial intellectual learning capability-building mechanism (MILCBM)), component 2 (the MIL process), component 3 (infrastructural support), component 4 (the world of management practices), and component 5 (work & non-work influences, support & constraints). Besides, the “feedback” arrow in Figure 1 is also important for stressing the looping nature of the MIL process. These components are introduced in Ho (2014). Subsequently, the components of the MIL framework has been enriched with ideas from the coaching and mentoring academic literature (Ho, 2015b) and the action learning literature (Ho, 2016). Since MIL is mainly for adult learners to adopt so as to pursue the career goal of becoming an MPSB scholar-practitioner, it benefits from learning from the adult learning literature. This enables the development of a more comprehensive and complicated view of MIL. With a set of adult learning ideas identified in the previous section, this writer can now propose how these adult learning ideas can enrich the subject of MIL. This proposal takes the form of a set of research proposals that need to be conducted based on both the adult learning ideas and the MIL framework (re: Figure 1):

Research proposal 1: to consider the profiles and images of adult learners (adult learning theme 1) to configure MILCBM for specific adult learners;

Research proposal 2: to consider how the observations of adult learning activities and adult learning theories (adult learning theme 2) can inform theoretical and empirical investigation of the various MIL phases, i.e., data management phase, absorbed reading phase, the MPSB knowledge compilation and practice-based intellectual learning;

Research proposal 3: to consider how adult learning ideas on education programmes (adult learning theme 3) can inform the theoretical and empirical study of enlightening management education in the MPSB Research as well as “infrastructural support” and “work & non-work influences, support & constraints” in MIL.

Research proposal 4: to consider how adult learning ideas on educators’ and mentors’ roles (adult learning theme 4) can inform the theoretical and empirical investigation of “infrastructural support” and “work & non-work influences, support & constraints” components in MIL.

Research proposal 5: to consider how adult learning ideas on contexts and supportive infrastructures (adult learning theme 5) can inform the theoretical and empirical investigation of “infrastructural support” and “work & non-work influences, support & constraints” components in MIL.

The five MIL research proposals above are daunting research topics as each adult learning research theme and each MIL component itself comprises a number of theories and concepts. Clearly, these research proposals require both substantial theoretical and empirical studies. These studies are non-trivial intellectual ventures; it is thus outside the scope of this paper to discuss them further.

4.      Concluding remarks

Managerial intellectual learning is chiefly targeted at adult learners who aspire to become MPSB scholar-practitioners. Naturally, it is necessary to inform its theoretical development using ideas from the adult learning literature. This is done in this paper, resulting in the identification of five adult learning research themes with associated ideas. A mind map on adult learning further renders an image of the intellectual landscape on the adult learning subject. Finally, the enrichment of the MIL subject takes the form of five MIL research proposals on MIL based on the identified research themes and associated ideas of adult learning. Particularly, the adult learning ideas identified in this paper equip the MIL researchers with additional conceptual concepts and tools to conduct theoretical and empirical investigation on MIL. These MIL research proposals thus represent the study outcome of this paper on adult learning and MIL – the enrichment of the MIL study with the adult learning literature.

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Appendix