Running head: REFLECTION ESSAY 1

Reflection Essay

Melissa B. Tomlin

Texas A & M University

EHRD 630
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Prior to this class, I had not put much thought into what goes into learning in adulthood

although I myself have been an adult learner for the better part of my adulthood. It has been an

enlightening experience to learn the ins and outs of adult learning. This class allowed me to gain

a better understanding of how intelligence, emotions, spirituality all play an intricate role in the

process of learning. Working independently and with a group week after week I was able to

make greater connections to not only my learning but those around me. Furthermore, I looked

deeper into my own learning experiences, both current and prior, and analyzed the various

components.

Reading and Reflection Roles

At first glance, the weekly roles reminded me of literacy circles to which I implement in

my third-grade classroom, these similarities transferred into confidence with this component of

the course requirements. Much like assigning these roles in my class, I knew that completing the

role would help to set greater purpose when reading each week. The roles were very different

weekly, this allowed each member of the group to wear a different hat when it came to our

meetings. The outcome of the reflection roles did exactly what they set out to do. As a group, we

were able to learn with and about each other. Each group member contributed a different

perspective to the readings, in addition to their assigned role. Therefore, we were able to get to

know each other intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

Engineer

The Engineer was my first assigned role and my last. I really liked this role because it

required me to delve deeper into the content. Being the engineer means that one needed to make

connections and disparities by locating additional resources and share with the group. It is my
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opinion that this role most aligns with the reflective thinking process. The reflective thinking

process requires one to assessing what they know, what they need to know, and how they bridge

that gap during learning situations. However, my least favorite part of this role is the

disparities. It was very challenging to locate many resources that dispute the material being

covered in the text.

Debriefer

I also had the pleasure of fulfilling the role of the Debriefer twice also. I really enjoyed

this role. My personality is very outgoing and opinionated (at times) so this role allowed me to

sit back and listen to the group rather than facilitate. Our group had such incredible

conversations over the assigned reading and roles that it was a challenge to write up a debriefing

that was three to four paragraphs. It was very interesting to see the differences and similarities of

the group members experiences. Furthermore, this role helped to better organize and document

what the group was conversing because I needed to organize and report the information to the

professor.

Barnacle

I choose to be the Barnacle during Week 6 of the class. Honestly, at the beginning of the

semester, I did not see myself needing a free week, so I didnt read much into this role. However,

life happened and I was experiencing a large imbalance of load versus power. It was during this

time that I found myself incredibly stressed out over personal, professional, and academic

components in my world. One of my group members suggested that I use the Barnacle role to

help alleviate some of the load, at least for the week. This role really did help me to take a

moment to restore balance back in my world. Although I did not have an academic role this
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week, I do feel that this role played a big part of my adult learning. At times one needs to realize

that you need to restore the balance in life.

Highlighter

Although I see the value of the role as the Highlighter, this is a role that I most

comfortable. I usually highlight or make notes while I am reading this allows me to make better

connections with the text. Therefore, I found this task to be very easy. However, I did enjoy

relaying the information to my team. It was interesting to see how many members also made

connections and notes about the same portion of the text and how many did not recall reading the

section(s) to which I spotlighted.

Wordsmith

As I previously mentioned I use a similar reading strategy in my classroom, and the

Wordsmith role usually is the most liked role within the groups. It was a bit different for me

because there were several times that I would second guess my background knowledge. For

example, I would think do I know this term, should I know this term, or have I already

learned about this in this class or a previous course? All of these internal thoughts had me

second guessing if I wanted to present these terms to the group. However, I decided to not read

too much into the process and go with it. As an adult learner, I have noticed that nine times out of

ten if I am unfamiliar with a concept the chances are that one of my peers are as well. My group

was really great at helping me make connections to the term(s) that I presented to them during

this week.

Artist

This was my absolute favorite role that I was assigned. I feel that relating reading to the

arts is a great way to make and keep connections to reading. Each week the group presented
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great poems, video clips, and artwork which help to connect the reading to the outside world.

Just as I teach my class about mental imagery, words can fade but a picture can remain. When it

was my turn to play the Artist Role, I covered Chapter Twelve on Adult Development. This

chapter was very insightful and being the artist helped me to create a deeper understanding of

adult development.

Ringleader

Being the Ringleader was a challenging task, which is to be expected with such a higher-

order thinking task. In our group, we based our initial conversations around the questions and

topics the Ringleaders presented each week. This strategy allowed for the Ringleader to facilitate

that weeks meeting and to guide the conversation. However, the other members were invited to

add to the conversation to how their role played a part when responding to the Ringleader. The

challenge that I encountered when in this role was how to create meaningful questions that

would be thought-provoking to guide the groups meeting. Ultimately, I feel that I did a good job

of generating questions that guided a productive meeting and the responses were incredible.

Infographs

Seeing the infographs each week was probably the highlight of my week. I loved the

creativity and thoughtfulness that was put into each groups infographs. Our group split the

readings up to contribute to the material being covered in the graphic, however, one person

actually compiled and created the infograph. I will admit, I was a bit apprehensive to create one

on my own, as this was a new presentation format for me. However, I was able to maneuver the

site successfully and ultimately, I really enjoyed the create process that went into using the

Venngage website.
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Analysis Papers

Best/Worst Adult Learning Experience

As adults, our learning experiences are presented in many different forms and no two

experiences are the same, nor have the same outcome. My educational involvements have been

filled with both good and bad experiences; whether meaningful, enjoyable, and worthwhile

learning occurred in all situations. As an adult learner, one can face many challenges, therefore,

it is important to understand all of the factors that adults face when designing and implementing

educational opportunities because the ultimate goal is to create adults that are eager to learn in all

areas of learning.

After analyzing my best and worst learning experiences, I know have a better

understanding of what make a positive learning experience. It is my hope to design learning

experiences around these new understands and to steer clear from some the techniques I

experienced. Each adult learner has unique goals when deciding to learn a new task. Some are

learning for career or personal growth, while others might be filling the gaps of formal learning

that were missed during adolescents. Regardless of the reasons, teaching adults is much different

than young students because adults have more lived experiences and self-awareness.

Adult Learning Analysis Project

I had a set of beliefs about the world around me, however, not all of these beliefs were a

reality. Some of my beliefs kept me from engaging in certain learning experiences. It became

clear to me that I have missed a large number of learning involvements because I was unwilling

to alter my own thinking. A great example of this is illustrated throughout my analysis of my

personal learning experience assigned in this class. When selecting this particular endeavor, I

elected to toss my previous ways of thinking and learn the task of changing a tire.
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In retrospect, I feel that there are multiple reasons that I have never engaged in this type

of manual labor. First, I have always carried Roadside Assistant and never felt that I would use

this skill. Second, I was resistance because I felt I would not be successful, therefore, I had no

desire to set myself up for failure. Third, I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to

stereotypical gender roles. I felt as though this was a job for a man and not a woman. I honestly

thought this skill would be useful to my everyday life. However, my life experiences have

discredited my previous ways of thinking. Throughout this process, I was breaking my own

barriers on my own intelligence.

Peer Reviews

When it comes to working with my group over the semester, I believe this has been a

great component in helping me to further develop my reflective thinking practices. Week after

week we were assigned reading and a role that couples with the reading. After each member

completed their role we would communicate via teleconference to discussion our thoughts on the

readings and our roles. These meetings were always very productive and informative, as each of

the group members has different lived experiences and can add a different perspective to the

conversation.

Conclusion

This is my last semester as a graduate student and I feel like this class was a great

culmination to my degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Although I was worried about

committing to four classes in my last semester, I was also motivated to succeed. Motivation is a

big component not only in this class but to me personally as an adult learner. I have found that if

one is motivated to learn, they can regardless of the task. As this semester comes to an end I am

so grateful for challenging myself personally, professionally, and academically. This class has
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taught me so much about myself as a learner, the world around me, others that have been

learning beside me, and those that I will encounter in the future.