EHRD 630 AD Introduction

Today is the first day of Spring'10, and my first class is Dr. Chlup's Adult Education (AD). The class is starting from 4pm to 7pm. I hate evening classes, but all the classes I have are evening classes. (Actually, the classes of HRD are designed for those people who have work, so that they can go to school pursuing their master degree in the evening).

in Downtown Houston, Texas

Anyway, I decide to have notes after the class. I think this will help me to review the course and to make sure what I have learned.

And why am I writing in English? It's just because NOW I am in the mood of writing in English.

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For this course, I have to buy two textbooks and read them thoroughly. (Well, I never did that when I was in Taiwan). Two textbooks are Learning in adulthood (Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner, 2007) and Non-western perspectives on learning and knowing (Merriam and Associates, 2007). And we also have other additional readings!

Dr. Chlup was studying adult learning in Harvard University. She has the background of MFA in English literature and history. (She said she loves to write). She came to Texas A&M in 2004. This is the second time she teaches adult learning. (We are not guinea pig. Ha!).

I notice that the teachers in the United States are paying much attention on plagiarism, APA style and writing skills. Teachers spends five to ten minutes talking about what is plagiarism, what is the definition of plagiarism, and what's the effect of doing that. Remember the AGGIE CODE? "Aggies do not lie, cheat, or steal and tolerance those who do." And we have turnitin.com to make sure our papers do not plagiarize others work.

APA style of citation is a required knowledge for everyone who studying in graduate school in the United States. I have bought one (Chinese version) when I was in Taiwan. (It's pretty useful when I was writing Jamie's paper. haha...) Dr. Chlup provided us another website of how to cite correctly using APA style: APA Exposed.

As for writing skills, I think that's the dream of all international students. College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) provides POWER service to improve our writing ability. Writing Center also holds some workshops for students and international student to know how to write.

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Three major papers are required in this course: Educational autobiography/ photography assignment, Learning analysis project or learning observation, and Reading Circles.

I don't know how to explain Reading Circle in Chinese.

Dr. Bob Hill, from University of Georgia, developed Reading Circles. This method is commonly used in reading club (I think Toastmasters use this kind of method too!). There are seven roles: Keeper (develop questions), Passage Master (identify key passages), Illustrator (capture the meaning of reading), Vocabulary Enricher (develop key word and define), Creative Connector (make connection to important topics), Question Collector (collect questions), Devil's Advocate (challenge or critique key ideas).

I don't know what's that and how to do... the only thing I know is that "we have lots to read and write!!!"