EDU 528, WEEK 4, PART 2: Adult Learning Within the Human Resource Development

Slide # Topic Narration

Slide 1 Introduction Welcome to Methods of Teaching in Adult Education. In
this lesson, we will discuss Adult Learning Within the
Human Resource Development.

Next slide.
Slide 2 Topics The following topics will be covered in this lesson:

Human resource development goals;

Human resource development and performance
improvement;

Human resource development and adult learning;

The premise of individuals controlling their own learning;
and

The phases of the adult learning planning process;

Next slide.
Slide 3 Topics, continued We will also cover the following topics:

Adults determine their own learning needs;

Adults create and implement their own learning; and

Adults evaluate their own learning.

Next slide.
Slide 4 Human Resource
Development Goals
Both human resource development or HRD and adult
education or AE view adult education as central to their
theory and practice. HRD and AE differ on the issues
related to control of the goals and purposes for which
adult education is employed.

There are two perspectives on what the HRD should
focus on: Some argue that HRD should focus on
increasing the performance requirements of its
organization by developing the organizations workforce;
Others say HRD should focus on individual development
and personal fulfillment without using organizational
performance as a measure of its worth.

Hortons taxonomy of performance outcomes and
performance drivers bridges the gap between the two
perspectives on the priorities of HRD. Horton argues HRD
professionals should pay attention to both performance
outcomes and performance drivers. Organization
performance such as high quality service delivered to
customers can be linked to performance drivers such as
learning and process improvement.

One can look at HRD as a subsystem that functions within
the larger organizational system. To gain respect within
the organization HRD must position itself as a strategic
partner and attain the same level of importance as the
other traditional core organizational processes such as
finance production, and marketing.

Among the resources that a firm or an organization
depends on, the human resource is probably the most
important. Human resources are in some ways similar to
the other resources in that firms expect a return on the
money they invest in the resources. It would not make
economic sense for an organization to invest money on
their employees if they do not contribute to the
profitability and the viability of the organization.

Performance is the means by which organizations measure
their goals. This can be measured through a number of
ways such as rate of return, cycle of return, and quality of
output. Performance can be measured at organizational,
process, and individual levels.

Next slide.
Slide 5 Human Resource
Development and
Performance
Improvement
There are a number of ways in which human resource
development can improve performance at the individual,
process, and organizational levels.

Within each cell are enabling questions that permit
diagnosis of performance. Each cell in the matrix can also
serve as a conceptual framework for classifying
performance interventions.

There are a number of questions that can be asked at the
different performance levels. For example consider the
mission/goal performance variable.

Organizational Level: Does the organizations
mission/goal fit internal and external realities such as
economic, cultural and political forces? The answer this
question will determine whether there is a need for
intervention.
Process Level: Do the process goals enable the
organization to meet the organizational and individual
goals?
Individual level: Are the professional and personal
mission/goals of individuals in line with the
organizations?

Business and industry leaders use the knowledge and
expertise that fits within and between the fifteen cells of
the matrix to talk about the core competence to the life of
their companies.

Adult learning has a part to play in almost all the fifteen
cells of the performance diagnosis matrix. For example, if
HRD wants to change the organizational culture, then
principles and practices of adult learning will play an
important role as the employees develop and learn new
norms. The role of HRD is to build the organizations
strategic capability; therefore, adult learning is critical to
maintain the performance of the existing system and to
improve on that system.

Next slide.
Slide 6 Human Resource
Development and
Adult Learning
There are a number of definitions for human resource
development. Here are two examples, one by Swanson
and the second one by McLagan.

Swanson: HRD is a process of development and/or
unleashing human expertise through organizational
development and personal training and development for
the purpose of improving performance at the organization,
work process, and individual levels.

McLagan: HRD is the integrated use of training and,
organizational development and career development to
improve individual, group, and organizational
effectiveness.

The two definitions show that the outcome of HRD is
performance improvement and that learning is the core
component of HRD. However, it should be noted that
there is more to HRD than training or adult learning. HRD
can initiate interventions that do not have any planned
educational component. This requires what is called
unleashing human expertise.

We have discussed before that HRD and AE differ on the
issues related to control of the goals and purposes for
which adult education is employed. If the organization
holds the control to approve or disapprove learning
interventions, adult learning is HRD. HRD and AE are
discrete disciplines. Their area of intersection occurs
within adult learning.

When adult learning outcomes and learning process
decisions about individuals are bounded by the rules of
and requirements of the organization, then adult learning
is HRD. When adult learning outcomes and learning
process and requirements are located in the individual then
adult learning is AE. Some activities of HRD do not
focus on adult learning. For HRD, adult learning focuses
on development interventions with two attributes: The
context is organizational, and the desired outcome is
learning-that will impact the performance goals of the
organization.

There can be tension in terms of organizational control
if the individuals needs and goals are not congruent with
the organizational performance requirements. Learning
professionals in HRD must balance the two. Sometimes it
is not possible for an organization to implement all the
adult learning principles. For example, it is inconceivable
for an organization to invest in learning programs for its
employees that do not lead to performance improvement
over the long run.

Next slide.
Slide 7 The Premise of
Individuals
Controlling Their
own Learning
There is a common belief that better outcome results when
the learner has control throughout the learning phases.
This is one of the popular ideas in adult education.
However, there is no consensus on how much control
individual learners want and can handle.

There was a discussion in the eighties about embracing
self-directed learning as a unifying theory and goal for the
field of AE. Brookfield, one of the leading proponents
observed that self-directed learning is more complex
that it was first proposed.

The core assumptions of andragogy do not raise learner
self-directedness to the same level as has been proposed
by many AE theorists and practitioners. According to
andragogy, adults have a self-concept and expect others to
treat them as capable of self-direction. AE suggests that
the purpose of learning is to develop self-directed learning
capacity in adults. HRD practice is generally in agreement
with the andragogical notion of self-concept, but does not
share the goals and purpose of adult education.

HRD focuses on performance outcomes, so the
significance of learner control is viewed as secondary by
most professionals in HRD.

Next slide.
Slide 8 The Phases of the
Adult Learning
Planning Process
Adult learning is defined as the process of adults gaining
knowledge and expertise. Here we will discuss the issues
surrounding the core idea of learners controlling their own
learning process.

The adult learners controlling their learning planning
process framework can be used to discuss the issues
surrounding the core idea of learners controlling their own
learning process. It has four phases: These are used to
search for what is known about the learners controlling
their own learning process.

Need: Determine what learning is needed to achieve goals;
Create: Create a strategy to achieve the learning goals;
Implement: Implement the learning strategy and use the
learning resources; and
Evaluate: Assess the attainment of the learning goal and
the process of reaching it.

Next slide.
Slide 9 Adults Determine
Their own Learning
needs
Adults who show control in the need phase of the
framework for Adult learners control their learning
planning process will be able to determine the learning
needs to achieve their personal goals.

The idea of control at the need determination phase can be
better examined through the perspective of four types of
learning:

Unintended learning: There is no locus of control;
Self-directed learning: This is learner controlled;
Mediated learning: There is shared control between the
learner and some external authority; and
Authority directed learning: This is authority controlled.

Most of the adults want to learn on their own because they
want to retain control of the learning process.
Literature in the AE portrays learning professionals as
reacting to the needs expressed by adult learners. This
approach is neither strategic nor tactical. There are a
number of assumptions about students that this approach
makes such that the learner is fully aware of his or her
needs, the learner can accurately assess the specific
learning required.

The idea of adults determining their own learning needs
can be extended to HRD. HRD can conduct a learning or
training wants survey. The training options with the
highest votes will then be used as a basis for the course
offering. The problem with this approach is that it does not
take care of individual, work process, and the
organization. Sometimes the individual may not have the
expertise to analyze their needs. It is not effective for
improving performance.

Next slide.
Slide 10 Adults Create and
Implement Their own
Learning
The second and third phases of the adult learning planning
process involve creating a strategy to achieve the learning
goals and the resources to achieve the learning goal and
implementing the learning strategy and using the learning
resources.

There isnt enough relevant literature in adult education
that dwells much on the learner control of the creation and
implementation planning phases. Some have concluded
from research that high motivation could lead to high
satisfaction and achievement without participant planning
involvement. This could be interpreted in a number of
ways such as, the students involvement at the needs phase
is critical for the purpose of motivation and that learner
involvement at the other phases is not as important.

It is always the struggle for the HRD to strike a balance
to meet organizational goals and at the same time engage
the learners.

In the create and implement phases of planning learning
theory and practice, the shared control between the
external authority or instructor and the learner is the
principal focus rather than the learners self-direction. In
the create phase, the professional educators engage
learners and potential learners to establish motivation and
community and to promote validity of the experience and
materials. In the implementation phase, the shared control
can take a number of forms such as team learning,
formative evaluation and peer instruction.

Next slide.
Slide 11 Adults Evaluate Their
own Learning
Evaluation is defined as a systematic collection of
evidence to determine if desired changes are taking place

Who evaluates depends on who was in control of learning
in the first place. If the learner has retained and executed
control, then the learner should be asking the evaluation
question What evidence needs to be collected to
determine whether desired changes took place? All the
questions on learning are focused on learning outcomes or
summative evaluation. The questions are not focused on
the process of working toward the learning outcome or
formative evaluation.

There are two different measures of outcomes: Some are
direct while others are proxy or related measures. Indirect
measures have highly questionable validity. Adult learners
who depend on proxy measures such as self-assessment of
anticipated outcomes may make false conclusions based
on invalid data. The learner who wants to retain self-
control must reach outside his or her internal reference to
gain rational evaluation data. This can be obtained from
formal tests or expert judges.

Because HRD functions in an organizational world that
demands results and assessing of results, management or
work teams will be full partners of evaluation phase of
learning outcomes rather than the individual learners.

Next slide.
Slide 12 Check Your
Understanding

Slide 13 Summary We have now reached the end of the lesson. Lets take a
look at what we have covered.
We started our discussion by examining human resource
development goals. Here, we learnt that both human
resource development and adult education view adult
learning as central to their theory and practice. However,
they differ on the issues related to control of the goals and
purposes for which adult education is employed. We also
learned that HRD can have two foci, individual first then
organization; or organization first then individual.
Hortons taxonomy of performance outcomes and
performance drivers bridges the gap between the two
perspectives on the priorities of HRD.
Next, we examined human resource development and
performance improvement. Here, we learned that there
are a number of ways in which human resource
development can improve performance at the individual,
process, and organizational levels. The diagnosis of
performance can be done by using performance diagnosis
matrix of enabling questions. Business and industry
leaders use the knowledge and expertise that fits within
and between the fifteen cells of the matrix to talk about
the core competence to the life of their companies. Also
we learned that adult learning has a part to play in almost
all the fifteen cells of the performance diagnosis matrix.
We then examined human resource development and adult
learning. Here, we learned that that the outcome of HRD
is performance improvement and that learning is the core
component of HRD. We also learned that when adult
learning outcomes and learning process decisions about
individuals are bounded by the rules of and requirements
of the organization, then adult learning is HRD. When
adult learning outcomes and learning process and
requirements are located in the individual then adult
learning is AE.
Next, we examined the premise of individuals controlling
their learning. Here we learned that there is no consensus
on how much control individual learners want and can
handle. Self-directed learning is more complex that it was
first proposed. Andragogy says that adults have a self-
concept and expect others to treat them as capable of self-
direction. AE suggests that the purpose of learning is to
develop self-directed learning capacity in adults.
We then examined the phases of the adult learning
planning process. Here, we learnt that adult learning is the
process of adults gaining knowledge and expertise. Here,
we also learnt that we can use the adult learners
controlling their learning planning process framework to
discuss the issues surrounding the core idea of learners
controlling their own learning process. The framework has
four phases: Need, create, implement, and evaluate.
Next slide.
Slide 14 Summary, continued Next, we examined adults create and implement their own
learning. Here, we learnt that adults who show control in
the need phase of the Adult learners controlling their own
learning process framework will be able to determine the
learning needs to achieve their personal goals. There are
four types of learning that can be used to examine the idea
of control at the need determination phase:
Unintended learning;
Self-directed learning;
Mediated learning; and
Authority directed learning
The idea of adults determining their own learning needs
can be extended to HRD. HRD can conduct a process, and
the organization.
We then examined adults create and implement their own
learning. Here, we learnt that there isnt enough relevant
literature in adult education that dwells much on the
learner control of the creation and implementation
planning phases. We also learnt that it is always the
struggle for the HRD to strike a balance to meet
organizational goals and at the same time engage the
learners. In the create and implement phases of planning
learning theory and practice, the shared control between
the external authority or instructor and the learner is the
principal focus rather than the learners self-direction.
Finally, we examined adults evaluate their own learning.
Here, we learned that evaluation a systematic collection of
evidence to determine if desired changes are taking place.
There are two different measures of outcomes: Some are
direct while others are proxy or related measures. Indirect
measures have highly questionable validity.
This completes this lesson.