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Personal Adult Learning Style Inventory Paper

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PALSA: Final Project
The Personal Adult Learning Style Inventory, or PALSA (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2015) was developed by Dr. Malcom S. Knowles as a self-assessment tool for individuals involved in organizing and/or administering adult learning. The tool helps the teacher/trainer assess underlying assumptions of his or her training activities and techniques. For the PALSA, the assumptions are placed into a dual system of categories called pedagogical and andragogical. Briefly speaking, pedagogy is historically dominant in teaching/training, and assumes that the learner is dependent on the teacher or trainer taking full responsibility for what, when, how, and whether something is learned. The andragogical model is much newer, originating …show more content…

Figure 1 shows the overall results plotted on a scale from pedagogical teacher-dependent learner to andragogical teacher-independent learner. Based on the overall Figure 1 results, my style is very andragogic. Table 1 gives the individual components of six teaching/learning areas. These areas are I) Learning orientation, II) Learning design, III) How people learn, IV) Learning methods, V) Program development, and VI) Program administration. Based on the individual area results, I am andragogically oriented in all areas except for III) How people learn, where my scores place me as intermediate between pedagogic and …show more content…

I would like to become more versed in presenting learners with educational stimuli and options that they can then work on with their own motivation, timing, and aptitudes. By working more as a support system for learners rather than as a dictator, I will be able to help adult learners tap into their own motivations and desires to educate themselves, and probably facilitate a more positive outcome and road toward that outcome. While I realize that not all learners, children or adults, are best able to learn in an independent manner, it seems that at least having a choice so that one can learn in one’s best mode is very important. By becoming more andragogic in my own style, and yet remaining aware and comfortable with the pedagogic style as well, I can tailor my own teaching to the needs and desires of students or trainees.
Would the PALSA Be Helpful to Use as a Leader in the Future? The PALSA would be helpful to use as a leader in many ways. If I were to lead a class of adult learners, it might be good to give them the PALSA and let them examine their own stances on teaching and learning, pedagogy or andragogy, and dependence or independence. Many adults who have grown up and been taught in the traditional pedagogical type of educational environment may not know that there are other ways to

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