Understanding how to create a personalized Knowles’ learning contract and developing my course contract was frustrating.  I found the incongruencies between my personal goals and the language that we were required to use for our first assignment made comprehending and applying Knowles’ ideas very challenging.  I didn’t feel that my self-identified learning goals could be accurately stated using only the Bloom’s 1^st level verbs our assignment allowed us to use.  Verbs such as “ask,” “discuss” and “copy” could only describe goals I hoped to achieve within the first few days of the course rather than by the end of the course. After extensive consideration, I settled on simply creating a ‘good enough’ learning contract by augmenting the examples provided during class. Goals such as “to identify an education theory as it applies to learners with weakness in the domain of clinical skills” were not reflective of the higher level learning I had hoped to achieve at a graduate level of study. The goal of fully understanding how to create a learning contract was deferred to a future date. Furthermore, I felt disappointed in the work that I submitted, as I did not believe in it nor did I understand what I had written.  I believed the goals in my contract were all achievable within the first week of the course rather than the completion of INTAPT.  When I received feedback from my contract I was quite surprised when my work was asked to be used as an example for the class.

Initial INTAPT Learning Contract

I feel I only began appreciating and understanding how to use a learning contract when I was required to guide my Determinants of Community Health students with creating a modified contract for their course.  Their assignment gave the freedom to use the full spectrum of Bloom’s terminology to accurately reflect what they hoped to achieve.  The contract was able to describe specific, measurable, realistic and timely goals for their yearlong project and was able to make them accountable as their project progressed.

In the end I feel creating a Knowles contract is a useful endeavor that can help guide adult learning however its utility requires the learner to have the freedom to use a spectrum of verbs that accurately reflect their needs.  The goals demonstrated in my final contract, shown below, are a better representation of the complexity I hoped over my time in INTAPT.

Final INTAPT Learning Contract

Reference:

1. Bloom’s taxonomy – learning domains. (n.d.). Businessballs.com. Retrieved on October 15, 2014 from http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm
2. Knowles MS. The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Revised and Updated. Chicago: Association Press; 1980