Education - Problem of Adult Participation in School

Source: barenakedcommunication.com

Study of the Problem

In Part Two of the action research project I discussed information regarding the subject group and its background. In this article, I will explore the problem.

Problem Description

Participation issues are not something new when it comes to religious discussion and lessons in many classes where most of the participants are men. Elders in the male Sunday religion class called Elders' Quorum for the Laveen Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not participate as actively in discussions or preparation for class time for the lesson portion of the Priesthood meeting. They did not attend class with the proper materials necessary for participation since this did take place during the time before everything could be pulled up on a smartphone.

Source: Mormon Channel: Faith in Action

All members of the Church of Jesus Christ have the opportunity to participate in the three-hour block of time scheduled on Sundays for worship and instruction in religious matters. Of the organized classes of the Church educational system, the Elders’ Quorum class seems to have the least time devoted by instructors for preparation;  therefore, the least prepared students.

Within Latter-day Saint culture there exists a stigma among the membership that the women’s organization, The Relief Society, better prepares all its teaching and curricular needs than the Priesthood organization based on the time and effort the Relief Society teachers devote to preparing the lessons specific to women. In cases across multiple cultural contexts and continents, I have witnessed where the church organization performed better under the jurisdiction of the Relief Society as opposed to the Priesthood organization--anecdotal observation but widely supportable.

The idea that Priesthood instructors generally fail to prepare properly may be considered isolated if it were a local phenomenon to a particular culture within the church organization, but the issue of less curricular preparation for priesthood meetings among Latter-day Saints has attracted the attention of media and culture within Latter-day Saint Christain society to the point that comedic references occur in casual conversation among most English-speaking LDS Christians with a direct and disconcerting understanding.

Church curriculum and education training exists to more fully instruct teachers to increase participation and understanding among all its members to prevent stagnation in class and defend against the loss of importance the weekly instruction adds to the continuation of church doctrinal purity and culture. Because the manuals are readily available for access by the members of the church and instructors, the push for church hegemony may have the adverse effect among the men to not strive as adamantly to have materials for class. Of course, all of that is now changed due to the internet and all of the hand-held devices we can use to help students better equip themseselves

Church among the LDS Christians is not a venue to debate ideas about religion' but more an expression of conformity to the established mode of worship. The elders expect to contribute little to the knowledge pool other than to agree with what morals the instructor presents. The problem in part connects to a lack in addressing the issue of participation with a specific plan.

Problem Documentation

A majority of the elders entered class not knowing the lesson to discuss in general--sometimes including the instructor!. As a member of the Elders Quorum and an active participant, I observed first-hand the problem with the lack of participation. Participation I defined is to contribute meaningfully based on knowledge of the subject discussed and the presence of proper class materials for use. I noticed the problem several years previously. To be fair to the Laveen Ward Elders' Quorum, this information is date because it was literally my graduate project and the same problems that existed then no longer exists. Still read though.

Concerns

Firstly, the expectation of the teachers for the Elders Quorum class was generally to have necessary materials and a prior knowledge of the topic so that discussion and participation could ensue. This has always been a general rule of The Church of Jesus Christ education for all classes. I noticed that though the teachers desired the students to attend class prepared, no accountability strategy existed to measure if the students were aware of the expectation. Occasionally an instructor would remind the students to attend class prepared.

Another reason the problem remained unattended to was the plurality of instructors. The Elder’s Quorum did not have any uniformity among instructors for attendance policy or material expectation. The quorum had a different teacher each week with no consistent method of instruction to which students could adjust. The lack of a pattern of familiar instructions and inconsistency in instructors created the environment of a lecture rather than discussion as the Church Education System encourages. In this environment of lecture, the students rarely expect to contribute more than token responses to questions.

Expectations?

This lecture environment also caused the instructors in many instances not to fully apply the lessons to the needs of the students because, not only were the students unfamiliar with the instructors’ teaching culture, but the instructor could not grasp the real learning culture of the adult students with so little exposure to the learning group. One way that focus has changed since this time is that the leaders of the Elder's Quorum no push for a focus on needs within the quorum and activities to familiarize quorum members with one another. Had this been an effort during the time the initial study was completed, the instructors unfamiliarity with the learning culture of the students may not have been an issue.

Each week the class could expect something different and therefore the lecturing behavior of instruction became the norm as a result. As the new instructor, I attempted to make changes in that respect immediately and the class did not know how to respond to the facilitation approach without coaching.

The Elders Quorum presidency, because of the lack of coordination between the teachers for the quorum, adjusted the format for a singular instructor with the idea that so doing would promote a change within the instructional quality. The leadership eventually returned to multiple instructors to provide more opportunities for elders to serve one another, which is one of the basic tenets of Christianity.

None of the students brought writing materials to class or notebooks to document class notes because the instructors never set the expectation that there would be anything of worth to document during the lessons because it was all in the instruction manual! No thought was given to inspiration that may occur individually to students during the lesson, student or teacher. No previous instructor presented a pattern of instructions that would lead the students to a conclusion that any such material would be necessary.

The students in the class attend out of religious obedience and take to class what they expect to work with during class, which was nothing during that time. The instructor in this instance has great control over the participation and preparedness of the students by setting the expectation for the class. The fact that no expectation to participate beyond token questions was extended by any previous instructors in a predictable fashion provides evidence instructor negligence constitutes the most significant part of the problem history. Where the student is negligent in his education reflects the lack of expectation from instructions and a breakdown of those instructors to follow the CES as suggested.

By the time the men reached the end of the three-hour block of meetings they were ready to go home! The lesson was just a formality that needed to be endure until the closing prayer, unfortunately it was ans still is the reality for many.

Next Read

• Education - Adult Participation Action Research Literary Review
  Because so many elements play a significant factor in adult education, the programs designed to instruct adults need to have more versatility than to disseminate information for regurgitation.

Previous Read

• Education - Purpose and Context of Adult Participation Action Research
  Participation is an important part of the educational experience. It increases the chance that information is correctly disseminated and received by teacher and student. This research project explores adult participation in the Laveen Ward of the Chu

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Two of the Best & Helpful Microsoft Word Tutorials You Should Use!

Word Help

I performed a search to find out a good free tutorial for Microsoft Word as part of a way to help adults and youth that are not familiar with Word to to become so. In my search for happiness in tutorials I came across two sites that I feel deserve a comparison. I intend to give a basic appraisal of the sites rather than an exhaustive critic.

FREE. I like free! Microsoft Word is one of many popular software used by millions of people the globe over for many different reasons.

Because the use of the software is so broad, many institutions create tutorials to familiarize their students or employees with the program.

During research on the Microsoft Word list of available tutorials, I found the following two that popped up immediately under.

The tutorials are from Baycon Group for employees and Florida Gulf Coast University for students and faculty.

I am not inferring that each group specializes for one group or the other, but I think one works better for students and the other for employees--time constraints and all.

Both tutorials were comprehensive covering the material in an organized pattern so that the user could locate information about the Microsoft Word software.

Baycon Group website

The first tutorial form the Baycon Group website consists of five lessons about the features of the Microsoft Word program. The lessons cover the entire program and is in a format that could be used in a classroom or office.

My first visit, the actual lessons had too much text for individual study ease and the lessons seemed long and involved. The table of content did not functional to locate the user to information listed but directed the user to the first lesson of the tutorial. The navigation links at the top of the page allowed a user to go forward or backwards in the tutorial, but other than that, the functionality was limited.

It is not a school that sponsors this tutorial so I do not expect it to be as glamorous as such. Schools must have better software tutorials to justify being an institution of learning. I would be hard-pressed to send a kid to a school with a dinky tutorial. What would that say about the academic programs?

Upon another visit to the site I found that Baycon Group revamped the tutorial and corrected all of the reasons I found for pause. The site is more user friendly and the table of content actually functions. The content in each lesson still seems to be less than concise, but it is thorough and reduced from its previous bulkiness.

I give them a B + on this FREE tutorial. In fact, I think it very generous that Baycon Group offers such top-notch tutorials on software for free.

Should I complain? No, but I recommend this site as a good source to become familiar with Word and other software for free.

The Florida Gulf Coast University Tutorial

The Florida Gulf Coast University tutorial is the more superior of the two tutorials starting from the table of content on the first visit. Since FGCU did not need to change its site it gets an A right out of the gate.

It has headings with functions to move to the next topic and a comprehensive table of content that allows the user to travel to a specific topic covering all the function of Microsoft Word.

The text is informative and not over exhaustive and the transition between pages is easy, while the information does not contain unfamiliar terms--concise!. The user can move forward or backwards in the tutorial and can jump from topic to topic depending on the need.

This functionality is great for students on the go who just need a quick reminder or employees who just need to brush up.

Though there exists no assessments or comment section for the user as does the tutorial for Baycon group, FGCU tutorial is the best suited for users as a reference tutorial and/or a learning tutorial. The most important part of a tutorial is its entertainment value.

To entertain means to hold the attention of the user. Florida Gulf Coast University tutorial has a higher entertainment value because it allows the user more control over what to learn. The search for pertinent information is quick and over!

Summation

In choosing between the two. I would of course go for the quicker FGCU tutorial, but there is something to be said about the thoroughness of the Baycon Group. If you are not familiar with Word to begin with, after you finish, you will be well informed--where as with FGCU tutorial you may be forever dependent on returning.

The question is, do you want to learn how to fish or do you just want to eat a fish?

Well another "the question" is if you know how to fish, do you still eat the fish if it is handed to you. Actually, I think I am confusing myself. I will just state that I like them both for different reasons; but for me, the quick reference FGCU tutorial works.

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