EDUC 2200

Introduction to Adult Learning: CLASP Democratic Education Seminar I

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

Do adults learn differently than do youth?   This experiential and community-engaged course is for anyone interested in planning and facilitating adult, community and lifelong learning.  As inquirers ourselves, we not only study principles, theories and methods, we also put into practice what we learn. One of the ways we do this is by incorporating adult learning approaches within the seminar's design and educational practice (andragogy, rather than pedagogy). Another way we apply what we study is by mentoring adult learners.  Each student serves as a learning partner to a Cornell employee who is pursuing an educational aim. A journey of mutual learning is a satisfying and meaningful adventure. As employees' partners, we are co-learners and co-educators, recognizing that each person has knowledge and experience to bring to the quest. 

When Offered Fall, spring.

Distribution Category (D-AG, KCM-AG)
Course Attribute (CU-CEL)

• Examine the relationship of leadership and learning as a basis for informed practice.
• Develop deep consciousness of one's own core values, cultural backgrounds and intersectional identities for the purpose of mindfully engaging with others in constructive and respectful ways.
• Identify cultural variables and examine roadblocks to intercultural communication.
• Engage with the essential question, "How do we know what we know?" through consideration of theories of knowledge and conceptualizations of evidence.
• Construct and pilot instructional designs and teaching practices for adult learners.
• Examine trends of educational inequity in this country and ramifications in the lives of adults of poor schooling as children.


• Examine trends of educational inequity in this country and ramifications in the lives of adults of poor schooling as children.
• Through historic and contemporary cases, unpack narratives of popular education in community development, public engagement and social justice through formal, nonformal and informal venues.

• Recognize that being an educator involves understanding issues of power, inequity, and access within a specific context of historical and systemic structures of oppression.

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