Interventions that changes learners attitudes and perceptions

Adult education poses numerous challenges to both the learners and the facilitators. It is even critical especially when the majority of the learners are focused on certification only. This is certification that is aimed at ensuring that they are either promoted or are assured of attaining some levels of prestige among their peers and in the society. It is therefore a daunting task for the facilitator to maintain interest in the learning process. Interest that can ensure that the learners see the bigger picture of acquiring knowledge, skills and change of attitudes for future personal and intellectual prosperity. 

It is in such a situation that I found myself in. The students had a totally different perception of the unit that I was facilitating and it took more than two lessons to change their perceptions. I had to carry out a CIA at the end of the unit. At least I manage to change this perception and attitude as evident in the analysis I did at the end of the sessions. I carried out an elaborate the Bad, Good and Interesting Analysis (Tripp, 1993) of the the class experiences. 

It should be noted that the unit focused on how to employ the skills of reflective practice, developing a reflective portfolio, using critical incident analysis and applying action research to understand one's practice. 

One key point I noted was that the learners could not differentiate between their teaching practice i.e. what they always do as teaching professionals and Teaching Practice i.e. the teaching exercise carried out by student-teacher when pursuing a degree program on teaching training, as part of their teacher training.

Findings: 

The analysis below outlines the learners’ comments. It should be noted that the analysis was done in groups of 3 students. It was noted that all groups, by default, focused on either themselves, the facilitator or the unit, or a combination of all. The categorization is therefore based on these three players;

The Good about we the students

• We have meet new people and made friends who may help us now and in the future.
• We had a different picture and understanding about reflective writing. We thought developing a reflective portfolio is simply filing our professional and academic certificates and testimonials.
• We learnt new ways of developing our portfolio by creating blogs that may advertise our practice and maybe our careers. 
• we learnt that a portfolio is a document that can be used for interviews. 
• My colleagues  were cooperative and shared their real life experiences freely.

The Good about the unit

• The unit changed our attitude and we realized it is such an interesting and crucial unit.
• It involved learners’ active participation.
• It used a practical approach and real examples.
• The unit encouraged learners to reflect on issues critically and come up with real problem solving skills that can be applied to solve future problems.
• The unit is also good because there is no sit-in end of trimester exam but assessment is basically formative.
• The seating arrangement allowed interactions and all our facial expressions could be easily observed by all in the class.

The Good about the facilitator

• The facilitator involved us and broke monotony using humor and he was open minded and had a good mastery of content. 
• There was good rapport between the facilitator and the student.
• The facilitator constantly emphasis a need to remain focused and concentrate on the task at hand and avoid been distracted by our other social responsibilities.
• The class well managed.
• The facilitator catered for individual differences.
• The facilitator was quite open and shared freely his personal experiences as far as the unit was concerned.
• The facilitator played a good role model in observing the classroom rules e.g. he did not receive or make calls during the lesson and he was also punctual.
• The facilitator is a patient and encouraging teacher. He encouraged the learners until they started viewing the unit in a positive manner.
• The facilitator offered timely feedback and is able to analyze the learners' work and advice accordingly.      

The Bad

The bad about the unit ended up with two categories. The bad about the unit and about the learners. For the learners, they were concentrating on seeing on the negatives of other learners. Except on one instant where students claimed that they have many distractors, the rest were about the others. None of the respondents pointed anything bad with themselves. This interesting in that one key point of reflection is to look inward and point out your strengths and weaknesses.

The other significant observation is that none of the respondents pointed out anything bad about the facilitator. Is it out of fear of being reprimanded for pointing out anything bad about the facilitator? Do they also expect their learners not to point out anything bad about them? or also it ingrained in our culture where you are not supposed to talk bad or criticize your seniors?

On the other hand, the bad things about the unit did not focused on the content of the unit but only on the expectations of the unit that required their input.

The Bad about the Unit

The following are some of the learners' comments about the course;

• It was not to our expectations based on prior information about the unit. Our information was that it is an easy unit with less expectations and involvement.
• Most students did not finish some of the many assignments given in time due to limited time as students had other units to research on and attempt other units' assignments.
• Some concepts were not clear.The unit is expensive since we had to type and print all the assignments and the final portfolio.
• The unit's exercises and assignments are time consuming. The unit requires critical thinking in analyzing the various chapters of the reflective portfolio.

The Bad about we the students

Some of the comments about the Bad things were as follows;

• Some students are egocentric and hence do not like sharing.
• There is gender imbalance i.e the female : male ratio was wanting at 10:1.
• Some learners misbehaved by going out during the lesson without seeking permission from the facilitator.
• Some students did not take it positively when they were positively criticized.
• The students were not comfortable in presenting their portfolios in blog form. There were occasions when students seemed to fear asking questions or seeking for clarification from the facilitator.
• As adult learners we had so many challenges such as lateness to class, distraction from phone calls/texts, and low concentration span among many others.
• There were some instances of poor teamwork as a result of superiority complex among learners. 
• Learners were expecting not to be given extra work since they are already overwhelmed by their personal responsibilities.

The interesting

The interesting thing about the unit can be categorized in terms of those that concerned the learner, unit content and expectations, and the facilitator. These included;

• At first we had a negative attitude towards the unit and this made us to be dull, felt bored and we started predicting failure but later the lecturer realized all this and encouraged us and clearly outlined his expectations.
• The seating arrangement was unique and interesting and we realized that we can apply this in our classes. It also broke the monotonous of the front facing rows that we had in other units. 
• The facilitator has a seemingly care free attitude. The learners wanted to do all the assignments at their own convenience.
• Some learners had bought box files to put in their academic and professional certificates and testimonials as their reflective teaching portfolio, yet it was not a requirement.
• Most students were averse to creating a blog for their reflective portfolio. Though, it was the first time for us learners to hear about a blog and how one can represent the portfolio as blog.
• The facilitator reading of students’ work in class as a show case of good or bad work was very interesting and helpful in clarifying what is expected in the assignments.
• The gender ratio that favored women left us asking if men are really interested in furthering their education or they are not interested in the teaching profession or they are not financially empowered.
• They was a student who had written his portfolio even without the facilitator outlining the expectations and the right format. 
• It was interesting to see, at the beginning of the unit, that when the learners seemed annoyed by the unit, the facilitator seemed not care but seemed to be enjoying the unit.
• The teacher taught difficult content to us learners but it seemed easy to him and he just said it is even easy for us as teachers if we relax, and with time, we shall all understand. 
• At first we thought the unit is all about our bio but with time we realized it was more than that, what with reflection, critical incident analysis and action research.
• The lecturer was not easily provoked even when some of the students had varied attitudes that were irritating. 
• At the begging, the lecturer seemed to be enjoying the unit content as we students seemed like we were struggling. There was a lot of humor during the lessons.
• It equipped us with ideas (reflection on critical incidents) of handling learners with different abilities.  The facilitator used real-life situations and incidents during teaching.

It was evident that from the above analysis that there was attitude change on the part of learners. They finally viewed the unit positively. As a facilitator it was both a learning and turning point on how to handle adult learners with diverse expectations. In conclusion my intervention bore positive fruit. It also created the urgency of always harmonization content delivery among facilitators to maintain and assure quality and standards.