February 20, 2015 Innovators, Survivors, and Struggling Innovators: Using Project Based Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship with Adult Learners

This Friday, February 20, 2015, from noon-12:50 p.m. in C-1018, Bradley Gangnon, Faculty in Communications, will present a colloquium on the following subject:

Innovators, Survivors, and Struggling Innovators:

Using Project Based Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship with Adult Learners 

Three categories of learners emerged: innovators, survivors, and struggling innovators. The innovators are highly motivated by the opportunity to learn, prepared to achieve within formal education, and interested in merging the skills taught into a professional narrative. As learners, they are closer to self-actualized, ready for self-directed learning, and seeking to learn additional hard skills. The survivors tend to be self-reliant as makers and believe they cannot succeed in a formal education setting. The struggling innovators share two of the key characteristics with innovators: thinking and self-expression. Members of this group earned initial career success without completing a formal education.