Nurturing the Soul in Adult Learning

I recently stumbled upon an amazing article published in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. (no. 74, Summer 1997) The article is titled "Nurturing Soul in Adult Learning." In a nutshell, the article focuses on transformative learning that addresses the 'whole' person, and understanding that emotion and 'soul' will play a part in adult learning. In our courses for the health professions, I have observed that self reflection activities are present, which is a good step in nurturing the soul. It is important that the instructor acts as a mentor to the student and assists the student in their journey to make connections with their past experiences and new concepts or practices. I believe there is an "art" to refection. Our busy and sometimes overwhelmed students may not really 'practice' reflection outside of the course. We need to teach and encourage this life-long learning skill. Recently, in the health care ethics course (HCE430), we took this skill to heart and created a little weekly activity to practice the art of reflection. The following is a case study of how we used media to create reflective spaces.

“Using media to provide a reflective space in an ethics course”
An Instructional Design Case Study

The problem/issue and context The health care ethics course (which is an online, 8-week, accelerated course) can be an emotionally challenging course. It addresses personal views, theories, morals and ethical decision-making. One goal of studying ethics is to foster the ability to be more reflective. Unfortunately, the modern world doesn't offer much space for reflection, and we often get so caught up in daily life that reflection seems like a luxury we cannot afford. So we want to provide students with a space to reflect on the course materials and related issues. We have included a different reflective space for each week.

The tool/technology used We used Adobe Presenter, which is a plug-in that works with Microsoft PowerPoint. The end result is a single .html file (that runs by Flash Player) that includes relaxing music, a peaceful image, and a thought provoking quote that relates to the weekly topic. This tool is a good fit because it includes a player (with stop, pause, play buttons), and there are no distractions (like branding or advertisements). It is quick and easy to create.

Instructional design Our goal here is to provide an effective and engaging space for students to practice the art of the reflection. I believe this activity taps into a couple ID theories and approaches such as: The humanist approach: We are encouraging the development of the whole person (emotional and affective domain). This activity addresses the student’s busy world and the fact that this is an intense and highly reflective course. It provides students with a space to take a moment to relax and reflect. Behaviorism: The design of this activity supports and encourages positive changes in the student’s behavior. The positive change= taking the time to reflect and perform moral reasoning which in turn will result in making good choices when facing difficult, ethical decisions. Cognitivisim: This theory encourages students to reflect on their faulty thinking and then rectify it. That is, reflection provides the space to identify beliefs, positions, and ideologies. This self-awareness can be transformative.

To the right is a screenshot of one of the reflective spaces.





If you have any questions or comments about the article or my case study please drop me an email. nmarcisz@regis.edu