What is education about, and what should it be about? As educators, how can we best facilitate the learning of adults who come to the teaching/learning exchange with a wide array of their own experiences and expectations of what learning is all about? How to answer the questions directly affect how we approach the teacher/learning, exchange and how successful we are. While there are no right or wrong answers, each instructor's success depends in part of integration of one's philosophies and practices.
My philosophy of adult education is to create learning environments where adults can go to grow and develop at their own pace. The purpose of education can not be confined to any one purpose but vary according to the needs of the individual. Education is about empowering people with tools for approaching today and tomorrow more effectively based on what they wish to create with their lives. There is a wide range of ways for accomplishing this task, as there should be to accommodate the individual learning styles. .
Today's world is full of options; one of the major goals of education, I believe, is to make people aware of their options for learning and help them select the ones best suited to their needs. I see the role of the learner as being in charge of the direction of their own education; while the role of the teacher is to provide options that the learner might choose to use and guidance for supporting the learners" choices. .
My philosophy of education is indeed learner-centered with an emphasis on empowerment by creating environments that match learner needs. In practice, this means that I am create instruction that does more than simply tell or show; I am trying to create instruction that allows learners to choose for themselves whether they want to read about, watch, reflect, or do. I am trying to create instruction that embeds critical thinking, problems solving, and other learning-how-to-learn skills within the methods and strategies used.
