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It reports conflicting student perspectives on the value of learning theory for improving classroom practice, comparing constructivist and cognitive learning viewpoints and their implications for instructional design. The article also highlights Dewey’s functional theory of learning and pragmatic inquiry, arguing for the critical intermingling of research traditions to support collaborative problem solving in adult basic education.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/probing-the-interface-between-learning-theory-and-practice-in-adult-basic-education/588968/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/probing-the-interface-between-learning-theory-and-practice-in-adult-basic-education/588968.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Nguyễn Văn Học","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-08","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What central tension does the essay explore in adult basic education?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The essay focuses on conflicting perspectives about the relative value of learning theory for enhancing real classroom practice. It frames this as a continuing theory/practice tension participants worked through during a graduate course for adult educators.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which learning perspectives are compared regarding their role in instructional design?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The essay compares constructivist and cognitive perspectives on learning theory and examines how each relates to models of instructional design. This comparison is used to clarify how theory can shape practice differently.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does Dewey’s work factor into the course’s approach to learning theory?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The essay highlights Dewey’s functional theory of learning underlying his pragmatic philosophy of inquiry. It presents this as a way to deepen understanding of the learning theory/practice dynamic for adult educators.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},588968,1792165741,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1374402739827,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000c97e7351f1a627?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1787885694763230660","ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Summer 2021  \n| [http://doi.org/10.35847/GDemetrion.3.2.22](http://doi.org/10.35847/GDemetrion.3.2.22) |  |\n| --- | --- |\n|  | Research Article |\n\nProbing the Interface Between Learning  \nTheory and Practice in Adult Basic Education  \nGeorge Demetrion, Capital Community College and 1199 New England Training and Upgrading Fund  \nAbstract  \nThis essay tracks and expands upon critical exchanges with graduate students in a course for adult educators, highlighting conflicting perspectives among participants on the relative value of theory in enhancing practice. An underlying focus of the course consisted of comparing constructivist and cognitive perspectives on learning theory and their relationship to corresponding models of instructional design. To gain further insight on the theory/practice dynamic, the essay also highlights Dewey’s functional theory of learning underlying his pragmatic philosophy of inquiry. Participants implicitly embraced practitioner research frames of reference, drawing out the insider perspective—a topic explicitly discussed below—as an essential counterpoint to an outsider stance, that typically orients academic research. The essay calls for critical intermingling of research traditions to facilitate collaborative approaches to problem solving in adult basic education.  \nKeywords: adult educators, learning theory, instructional design, John Dewey  \nAs I read through these theoretical papers, I feel the professional academics get to dream as big as they want to, but the actual classroom teacher is the real-life practitioner who takes what might be great in theory and translates what she can into her actual working situation.  \nAs one immersed in 37 years of classroom experience and academic discourse on the relationship between pedagogy and the political culture of adult literacy, I have experienced anxieties similar to the student, above, in my course on curriculum development for adult educators in efforts to work through pervasive  \ntheory/practice tensions. This strain has underlain my ambivalence in assigning a second week on learning theory, in a course where I wrapped around several key topics, including adult education philosophies, learning theory, and instructional design. This concern echoed those of other class members of this graduate course I designed and taught from 2009-2017 in the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Online Certificate in Adult Literacy Program. Members consisted mostly of seasoned ABE, ESOL, and  \nGED preparation teachers, many of whom worked in corrections facilities. Student reflections cited in this essay are from the 2014 and 2017 semesters.  \nCorrespondence: [georged840@gmail.com](georged840@gmail.com) 22  \nI highlighted several nationally prominent programs to facilitate discussion on curriculum issues. We concentrated 1 week on the CASAS Competencies (2008), which focus on consumer economics, community resources, health, employment, and government and law. We dedicated another week to the Equipped for the Future’s (EFF) program with its “progressive mastery of the knowledge demands of key social roles”(Demetrion, 2005, p. 153) at home, work, and the community, processed through transferable content standards in the areas of communication, decision-making, interpersonal and life-long learning skills. We also studied the revised 20014 GED test which is based on“a thinking curriculum, teaching adults how to reason [emphasis added] in the context of real-life reading texts, science concepts, social science and writing”(GED Test Curriculum Blueprint, 2013, p. 3). This orientation represented a significant contrast to prior versions of the test centered more on mastery of a set body of knowledge in the academic content areas. Our primary textbook (A Guide for Planning and Implementing Instruction for Adults) used an integrated theme-based approach, which “places the learner’s life contextsat the center of the instructional process”(Dirkx & Prenger,","cbCaimYEteIjKEko","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimYEteIjKEko","pdf",259885,15,"English","# Abstract\n## Learning Theory vs Practice\n## Constructivist and Cognitive Perspectives\n## Dewey’s Functional Theory and Pragmatic Inquiry\n## Instructional Design and Curriculum Programs\n## Student Reflections and Implications","[{\"question\":\"What central tension does the essay explore in adult basic education?\",\"answer\":\"The essay focuses on conflicting perspectives about the relative value of learning theory for enhancing real classroom practice. It frames this as a continuing theory/practice tension participants worked through during a graduate course for adult educators.\"},{\"question\":\"Which learning perspectives are compared regarding their role in instructional design?\",\"answer\":\"The essay compares constructivist and cognitive perspectives on learning theory and examines how each relates to models of instructional design. This comparison is used to clarify how theory can shape practice differently.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Dewey’s work factor into the course’s approach to learning theory?\",\"answer\":\"The essay highlights Dewey’s functional theory of learning underlying his pragmatic philosophy of inquiry. It presents this as a way to deepen understanding of the learning theory/practice dynamic for adult educators.\"}]","Probing the Interface Between Learning Theory and Practice in Adult Basic Education | PDF",1792066288,38]