Creative Community Building Research Paper

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Adults, especially seniors need a place where they can learn new things and express themselves. Sometimes seniors go to a senior community arts program where they learn to paint and create things for themselves and for their loved ones. Art theory in the field of physical therapy is a very helpful and useful way of integrating varied learning and complex tasks all while promoting growth and renewal. For anything to flourish, especially a program like a senior community arts program, it needs to integrate lessons and objectives that promote the growth and learning of its participants.

Therefore, it is important to understand and analyze prior and current research that not only offers a different perspective, but also assures the teacher that what they are instructing has been proven to succeed and assists the people learning, to achieve certain pre-planned objectives. This paper is a literature review of six scholarly research articles along with a summative discussion on what these articles can provide in a lesson plan. The articles focus on adult learning methods and how adults learn. Adults learn differently than children, more slowly, and need a plan to eliminate distraction. They also tend to allow ego to get in their way of learning, which must be circumvented.

Not only is it a different task altogether to teach adults effectively, it's also harder because of all the responsibilities adults face on a daily basis. One of the research articles highlights the use of a developmental action inquiry approach in order to discover what qualities are characteristic of a successful learning program. Much like most of the great programs out there, successful learning program use a responsive, dynamic learning curriculum that engages its participants and keeps them focused all while providing useful and intriguing insight into their field of study.

Introduction

Learning objectives are imperative in helping to organize formulate and implement effective teaching methods. This research paper will focus on the elements of a thriving senior's community arts program and how effective art theory is within the field of physical therapy. I chose these learning objectives because I am a teaching artist that is integrating into the field of adult community art education and believe strongly that art theory can be applied to adult learning and can provide a powerful instrument of memorization. The choices for the literature review focus on how adults learn, think, and understand class material as well as why adults learn in the manner that they do. Adult lives are far more complicated and riddled with responsibility and so therefore must be regarded differently and approached differently. Some articles also discuss the use of images, (pertaining to art theory) to help eliminate distraction by associating emotion and specific memories to them.

Literature Review

Memories are after all, a moment of experience. Experiences enhance memories and skills. In an article by Dzubinski, Hentz, Davis, & Nicolaides (2012), the authors discuss what kind of actions are needed for performance improvement and learning in adults. It examines how adults learn through a methodology that lays out eight imperatives. These imperatives are based on the authors' investigation and involvement with adult learners. Experience with teaching adults must be taken into contemplation when designing, employing and evaluating adult-learning experiences in the contemporary office.

The findings illuminate the imperatives as follows:

…relevance, importance and utility are paramount; hubris and ego can roadblock learning; the credibility of the information source is important; never underestimate the importance of clear learning objectives; adults learn by engagement and doing; accountability for learning is critical; adult learners need coaching and feedback; and plan to stave off learning distractions (Longenecker & Abernathy, 2013, p. 30).

They also examined practical implications and its objectives to get trainers to reflect through the detailed things that can assist in increasing and accelerating learning across the range of adult-learning prospects. It is important to understand why adults seek learning at this stage in their lives. Most of the time it is to advance in their careers. They seek additional training and certification to either change jobs, or acquire a promotion. Keeping context such as this in mind helps teachers create a curriculum to satisfy those needs. The article also states including the listed imperatives in the curriculum will permit for adults within the class or program to learn more and feel more satisfied with what they have learned. "When these imperatives are ignored or not taken seriously, time, talent and treasure are wasted and leaders risk damaging their own credibility" (Longenecker & Abernathy, 2013, p. 30). The difficulty beset for adults to learn often generates tension in the learning process.

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Dzubinski, Hentz, Davis, & Nicolaides (2012), discuss in their paper the speedy pace of social and technological modification in the early 21st century. The twisting nether of modern society grasping at the coils of dissent keep the people of today bound. For instance, the latest innovations like smart phones and social networking sites, leave countless adults clambering to meet the difficulties that typify their daily lives. The article continues with examining what types of difficulties adult learners are faced with. Not only do they deal with multiple, often conflicting, demands, but it can come from all facets of their life. "…from work, education, family, and leisure, which requires adult education graduate programs to carefully consider how best to meet these changing needs of today's students" (Dzubinski, Hentz, Davis, & Nicolaides, 2012, p. 103).

Still there is some hope to understanding the riddle. Through the use of a developmental action inquiry method, the authors composed data using various rounds of reciprocated examination from miscellaneous groups of stakeholders in adult education. They asked each group to discover the question, "How does adult education as a profession, field, and practice help adults, organizations, and society meet the demands of 21st century life?" (Dzubinski, Hentz, Davis, & Nicolaides, 2012, p. 103). The results were indicative of a need and desire for responsive and dynamic graduate programs that must maintain the cultivation of critical and sensible consideration. They also stated a need for learning environments established on deliberate community and mutuality allowing adult learners to feel connected and involved.

Adult learners often do not feel emotionally attached to their classes or programs which is sometimes necessary for them to make the commitment necessary to learn. That feeling of connection is important to investigate and utilize. For instance, a senior community arts program would have to establish emotional connection through its participants so they can feel a sense of unity and relation to keep them motivated in coming. People need to feel safe and desire to belong. A classroom should be one of those safe havens where they learn, grow, and experience positive, educational things.

The Cicerone Project examined and discussed by Edwards et al. (2011), investigates the allowance and education procedures and outcomes and reflects on how fruitful the assignation of livestock producers was through a partnership, which concentrated on co-learning by all contributors. "Several different communication approaches were used including the production of 40 newsletters and the delivery of 61 field days" (Edwards et al., 2011, p. 827). Collaborators also held two conferences, which offered wide-ranging overviews of the research outcomes. The reason this article was included in the paper was to show regardless of setting, successful learning outcomes can still be implemented. Often people, especially in art programs or art classes, feel they cannot achieve their learning objectives because of where their students are emotionally and mentally. This article proves, regardless of where something done, and with who, as long as the proper methodology is applied, learning outcomes can be successfully completed.

Art theory has its place in adult education. Investigating further into the subject is important to breathe life into a sometimes mismatched area. In an article by Machajdik & Hanbury (2010), they discuss how images can have a profound affect people on an emotional level. Since the emotions that ascend in the watcher of an image are decidedly idiosyncratic, they are infrequently indexed. Nevertheless there are instances when it would be supportive if images could be recovered based on their emotional content. The authors examine and cultivate approaches to extract and fuse low-level features that characterize the emotional content of an image, and use these for image emotion cataloguing. "Specifically, we exploit theoretical and empirical concepts from psychology and art theory to extract image features that are specific to the domain of artworks with emotional expression" (Machajdik & Hanbury, 2010, p. 83). As mentioned before, emotional connections can be an important aspect of successful adult learning programs. To incorporate emotional connections to the art theory aspect of a program will help adult participants learn better than through traditional solely academic means.

In an article by Trivette, Dunst, Hamby, & O'Herin (2009), the authors discuss adult learning and how it refers to an assortment of philosophies and methods for relating the conditions under which the developments of learning are augmented. "Knowles used the term andragogy to describe the assumptions of adult learning: Readiness-to-learn, self-directened,….....

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