1. Refrences
1.1. Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. n.a. (2014) Adult cognitive development [Word Document]. Retrieved from USF Canvas website: https://usflearn.instructure.com/courses/1092797/files/47761075?module_item_id=8772994
2. Personal Perspective of Adult Cognitive Development
2.1. Adult Education is unique in that it serves learners throughout the majority of their life (approximately 18 until hopefully death at old age). Learners may enter/partake in adult education at any point in their life on any topic/subject areas that is of interest to them. Adult Cognitive development starts as the learner being a receptacle of information that is provided by someone else as fact and evolving into being able to look at each new learning experience to construct the knowledge that is relevant to that experience. This process will differ from learner to learner as each learner will have different prospective based on their previous learning experiences.
3. Applications of the Theories: Formal Adult Learning, Non-Formal Adult Learning, Informal (Self-Directed) Adult Learning: Adult Education takes place in all areas of life beyond formal education, from attending museums, to researching new applications for our phones, to searching the internet for information because you want to take up photography.
3.1. Formal Adult Learning
3.1.1. Young Adults attending College
3.1.1.1. Perry's 9 Positions: Students starting out as undergraduate students who go to class to learn information in order to pass the weekly exams.
3.1.1.2. Reflective Judgement Model: Once students get into their upper level course work or start a graduate degree (MA, PHD) they have to expand on the information they are taking in and draw appropriate judgement of what knowledge fits the context of each learning experience as they do research and write papers that are more than just repeating facts.
3.2. Non-Formal Adult Learning
3.2.1. Perry's 9 Positions: College students who join clubs or organizations engage in adult learning for the sake of learning or to expand their skills. They go through the learning process but no actual grade is assigned at the end. The beauty of adult education is that learning anything is considered adult learning/education; there is no limit to the content.
3.2.2. Reflective Judgement Model: Adults who partake in learning experriences like taking seminars, joining professional organizations, and joining special interest groups will utilize this model of cognitive development. As they progress through the learning experiences they will evolve to be able to construct their own knowledge with in each set of context and relate those learning experiences together.
3.3. Informal (Self-Directed) Adult Learning
3.3.1. Perry's 9 Positions: Self directed learning for adults would use this model where they are trying to learn the direct answers to their questions or in learning new tasks like googling how to handle your own plumbing or how to build something.
3.3.2. Reflective Judgement Model: This model applies to adults who partake in self-directed learning because they want to know more and understand more. Examples would include those who research politics, philosophy, religion etc. They are trying to construct knowledge that works with the learning experiences that they have had.
4. Reflective Judgment Model 1994 (King and Kitchener)
4.1. 3 Level model with 7 stages that examine the "Epistemic Assumptions" or how people make judgements about specific complex problems that lack clear defined solutions (Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner, 2007, p. 332)
4.1.1. Level 1: Pre-Reflective Thinking There is a definitive answer to everything provided by an authority (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
4.1.1.1. Stage 1
4.1.1.2. Stage 2
4.1.1.3. Stage 3
4.1.2. Level 2: Quasi-Reflective Thinking Looking at a situation and making a judgement of what feels like the right answer (gut-instinct) and then finding the facts to support that conclusion. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
4.1.2.1. Stage 4
4.1.2.2. Stage 5
4.1.3. Level 3: Reflective Thinking Their view/knowledge of each learning situation is not a given. The learner must look at the situation in the appropriate context it is presented in and construct their knowledge. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
4.1.3.1. Stage 6
4.1.3.2. Stage 7
4.2. Relevant to learners from early adulthood into later adult hood (Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner, 2007, p. 332)
4.2.1. Adults partake in adult education from their formal college years into middle and old age as they take part in formal, independent, and self-directed learning experiences
4.3. Learner starts out believing that there is an absolute answer that must come from an authority on the subject and then eventually evolves to develop critical thinking so that they can construct their own knowledge that is specific to the context of the learning experience. They no longer take everything as fact and instead search for the answers themselves.
5. Perry's Theory, 1970s (9 "positions" of Intellectual Development)
5.1. 9 Positions/stages representing qualitatively different ways of interpreting Learning Experiences. (Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner, 2007, p. 329) These Positions are broken down into 4 categories :
5.1.1. Dualism (Received Knowledge)
5.1.1.1. Basic Duality
5.1.1.2. Full Dualism
5.1.2. Multiplicity (Subjective Knowledge)
5.1.2.1. Early Multiplicity
5.1.2.2. Late Multiplicity
5.1.3. Relativism (Procedural Knowledge)
5.1.3.1. Contextual Relativeism
5.1.3.2. Pre-Commitment
5.1.4. Commitment (Constructed Knowledge)
5.1.4.1. Commitment
5.1.4.2. Challenges to Commitment
5.1.4.3. Post-Commitment
5.2. Mostly applied to young adults (First time in College students, Aged 18 to 25)(Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner, 2007, p. 329)
5.3. Hierarchical system moving through the positions as learner adapts their perspective/viewpoint of the Instructor as an authority and themselves and the Learner.
5.3.1. Starts out as learner taking in concrete facts from the Instructor/Authority. Their role is to take in, memorize, and regurgitate information that is taken as concrete coming from the authority. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
5.3.2. Learner progress through the positions to take on more responsibility for their own learning. They are no longer taking what the Authority/Instructor teaches as concrete fact. The learner actively questions all absorbed information and develops their own theories to form personalized learning experiences. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
5.3.3. They take an active part in the learning experience, they are not just a receptacle of information any more. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
5.3.4. While this is hierarchical learners can be at different positions for different subjects at the same time. (Adult Cognitive Development, 2014)
6. Comparing Theories
6.1. Audience
6.1.1. Reflective Judgement Model: Adult from early 20s to middle or old age (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s)
6.1.2. Perry's 9 Positions: College Students
6.2. Perry's 9 Positions are Kind and Kitchener's Reflective Judgement Model are both sets of hierarchical stages that begin with the learner taking the teachings of others as fact.
6.3. The beginning stages of each model have the learner viewing each learning experience as having a concrete right and wrong solution
6.4. View of the relationship Between the Learner and Instructor/Authority on the subject
6.4.1. Perry's 9 positions: The learner takes in the information imparted by the Instructor/Authority for the purpose of being able to recall later for test taking
6.4.2. Reflective Judgement Model: The learner is evolving in their ability to judge what material imparted by the Instructor/authority is the most valid as there is no absolute answers
6.4.2.1. This results in starting with looking at the material presented at face value and evolving to develop critical thinking and judging the material as it relates to the individual learning experience in order to rate it's validity