Hal Beder: biography and professional contributions

¶ … represents several different paradigms. The way that individuals learn is a very important issue, but how they are taught is a different thing. In other words, the paradigm of adult learning is not always addressed appropriately. People learn in different ways, and the article looks at adult learners who are addressing the issue of literacy. There are many illiterate adults in this country today, and they are not getting the help that they need. The article represents the illiteracy paradigm that adults must be taught to read in the same way that children are. This was the expectation of thinking in the past, and it appears to be continuing toward the future. However, there is somewhat of a paradigm shift that is being looked for by people like Beder who are trying to show that the old ways might not always be the best ways. Cognitive issues were the most closely addressed in the past, and because of that there were a lot of people who did not get what they needed from their adult learning opportunities. Some of them remained illiterate - not because they could not learn but because they were not taught in a way that they could understand and they became frustrated.

All teachers who teach adults have to be able to teach kindergarten through twelfth grade and they have to be certified to do that. It is important that all teachers know how to do their job correctly, but it is equally important that teachers are aware of the fact that adults and children do not learn in the same way. If one has a group of twelve-year-olds and a group of thirty-year-olds, they are going to have different goals, agendas, and thought processes. With that being the case, teachers need to acknowledge the fact that there is a paradigm shift away from the older models of traditional learning and toward the newer models of learning that are more flexible and more closely oriented to the student.

2.What characteristics helped you identify the paradigms?

These paradigms and how they are changing and evolving can be seen in several ways. First, recent evidence has indicated that there are many different ways that students of all ages learn, and this is certainly true for adult learners just as much as it is true for those who are learning things at a younger age. Because there are inherent differences in the ways that students learn, when they are all taught in the same way their grades suffer. Some students certainly excel, but others struggle. When they are taught differently, they begin to improve and they have fewer problems with the material. That indicates that it is not the fault of the student, nor is it the fault of the material. It is really not even the fault of the teacher, but of the educational system itself, which does not really work in the way that it was designed to. Studies have shown that, despite the fact that the United States spends more on education than any other country, there are many countries where the pupils are more adept and where they are farther ahead at a younger age. This does not mean that Americans are not as intelligent, but rather it showcases the fact that there is a problem with the educational paradigm as it used to be and, to some extent, as it still is.