2019 Annual Conference

Adult Basic Education and Literacy Education

Roundtable (45 minutes)

This session will explain that caring and trust are foundations of and directly relate to learning.  Research on caring and trust between teachers and learners will be shown to help improve learning in various classroom settings: Higher education; nursing education; adult, continuing, community, workplace, distance learning, and human resource development.

The target audience for this session is anyone working with adult learners.  This includes:  Veteran facilitators of adult learning in the field; Nursing educators; Newcomers in the field of adult education; Teachers in adult literacy education; Seasoned educators of adults in the fields of human resource development; Matured facilitators of adult, continuing, community, lifelong, workplace learning; University Professors in various subject matter areas; Educational technologists working with numerous aspects of distance learning; and, anyone interested in recognizing and gaining expertise in combining  caring and trust between learners and teachers as foundational for effective learning.

The learner will be provided with a brief summary of a study that found evidence of a correlation between caring and trust in adult learning classroom settings. Learners will gain better understanding of the relationship between caring and trust. Along with information pertaining to what the student values from his/her learning experiences, each will gain understanding of a caring and trust perspective on what students [learners] value from reciprocal learning relationships among students/students, and teachers/students. Each learner will garner some insight regarding how to implement caring and trust into their own educational practice.

Student learner active participation is essential to student learning.  Students who do not feel valued during the learning session may not be fully engaged in the learning process.  A passive learner could be crippled by stunted growth if learning needs are not met.  The learner may or may not choose to continue with learning when their learning needs are not satisfied.  According to the Gallup-Purdue Index (2015) report, 27 % of students answered, ‘strongly agree’ to the statement, ‘My professors cared about me as a person,’ from a web-based survey comprising a nationally represented sample of more than 30.000 respondents (p.1).

               The impact from indifference within the class room affects student learning.  If only 27 % of students feel strongly that professors care about them, what would motivate students to participate in learning?  For many of us, it is the learning experience that motivates us to continue learning.  To facilitate a better learning experience, a reciprocal relationship of caring and trust is essential between faculty and students.  Opportunity will be provided during the session for participants to express their ideas about the extent and manner caring and trust was exemplified.  

Information pertaining to the study will be delivered with a Power Point presentation.  Time will be set aside for participants and the leader to discuss their thoughts and observations about caring and trust from their personal experiences.  Index cards will be provided before the session begins for participants to write questions or thoughts pertaining to caring and trust within the class room.  The index cards will be used to guide the open conversation about caring and trust within the class room.