21st Century Students Need21st Century Professors:

Applying the Servant-Professor Paradigm

Dr. Janet McNellisHoly Family University

Dr. Dionne Rosser-MimsTroy University

Overview

- Challenges with Teaching Adult Learners

- Adult Learners Today- Faculty Today- Servant Professorship - Putting Theory to Practice

Challenges with Teaching Adults

What are the most pressing challenges you have encountered while teaching adults?

Challenges with Teaching Adults

What solutions have you tried?

Faculty Today

How would you describe the appropriate role of a college professor today?

Adult Learners Today

Demographics• 75% of undergraduate students are 24 or older• Many students are first-generation college

students• Diverse student population—i.e., race, age,

culture, economics, and profession• Working adults• Rise in underemployed/unemployed

adult student population

Adult Learners Today, cont.

Learning Characteristics- Multiple learning styles and preferences- Different stages of self-directed learning- Prefer for learning to be practical and relevant to

personal and professional life experiences

Learning Context- What else is going on in the student’s life?- Are Maslow’s lower-level needs being met?

Paradigmatic shift in view of the teacher-learner relationship.

Servant Professor – one who effectively supports, manages, and guides his or her students’ development- “The guidance is tailored towards each individual student’s

highest priority needs” (Kitahara & Hannay, 2008, p. 6).

Educators who are servant professors believe it is an educator’s role to “integrate work, academics, and leadership to promote the personal and spiritual growth of others and ourselves” (Derrick & Jordan, 2009; Greenleaf, 1977).

Changing Students Requires New Paradigm

Servant Leaders

Robert K. Greenleaf (1970) states:

“There is an important difference between someone who takes a “leader-first” versus someone who takes a “servant-first” perspective…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.”

Servant Professor Role

Principles of Servant Professorship

Principle #1: Connectedness- Between the professor and the learners. - Both learner and professor play important roles in

student’s learning process- Roles are not mutually exclusive. - Professor’s knowledge, expertise and leadership

guides student learning experiences.

Principle #1: Connectedness

Can you provide an example of when you have experienced connectedness in your

classroom or observed it in other classrooms?

- Meaningful and significant- New material presented in a manner that closely

resembles its use in “real world “ - Promotes:

Higher-order thinking, Depth of knowledge, Connectedness to the world beyond the

classroom Substantive conversationSocial support for student achievement.

Principle #2: Authentic Instruction

Principle #2: Authentic Instruction

Can you provide an example of when you have experienced authentic instruction in

your classroom or observed it in other classrooms?

- Feeling empathetic- Need to watch “knee-jerk” responses

Students’ life experiences, problems, feelings enter the classroom Work, school, and life balance challenges

- Assume students does not know how to overcome issues- Keep Maslow’s hierarchy in mind

- Showing empathy- Let students know you understand and care- Refer students to appropriate support services

- Maintain requirements and academic standards- Let students know it’s OK to take a break from school until

they get their issues worked out

Principle #3: Empathy

Principle #3: EmpathyCan you provide an example of when you have

experienced empathy in your classroom or observed it in other classrooms?

Putting Theory into Practice

Using the principles of Servant Professorship, what other activities

can we employ to address the challenges professors face when

teaching adult learners?

Concluding Thoughts…

Education for Transformation . . .

- Arreola, A. R., Theall, M., & Aleamoni, L. M. (2003). Beyond scholarship: Recognizing the multiple roles of the professoriate. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL. Retrieved from http://www.cccs.edu/Docs/dev-ed/Scholarship%20of%20Teaching%20and%20Learning.pdf

- Boyer, E. L. (1997). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

- Galbraith, M. W. (Ed). (2004). Adult learning methods: A guide for effective instruction. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company.

- Gear, M. R., Krumrei, E. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2009). Development of spiritually-sensitive intervention for college students experiencing spiritual struggles: Winding road. Journal of College & Character, X(4), 1-5. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from http://www.collegevalues.org/pdfs/winding_road.pdf

- Greenleaf, R. K. (1970/2012). The servant as leader. Quoted in The Robert K. Greenleaf Center, Inc. http://www.greenleaf.org/whatissl/

References

- Kasworm, C. E. (2003). Setting the state: Adults in higher education. New Direction for Student Services, 2003(102), 3-10. DOI: 10.1002/ss.83

- Kirstein, K., Brommer, S., Cholewinska, A., Diamond, J., Flores, K., Gunhold, R., Kelley, G., & Minor, M. (2011). Authentic instruction and online delivery: Proven practices in higher education. In I. Candel Torres, L. Gómez Chova, & A. López Martínez (Eds.) Proceedings of the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (pp. 5645-5652). Madrid, Spain: International Association of Technology Education and Development.

- Macfarlane, B. (2011). Professors as intellectual leaders: Formation, identity, and role. Studies in Higher Education, 36(1), 57-73.

- Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., Baumgartner, L. M. (Eds.). (2007). Embodied, spiritual, and narrative learning. In Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd edition) (pp. 189-207). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

- Tisdell, E. L. (2003). Exploring spirituality and culture in adult and higher education. San Francisco: The Jossey-Bass.

References, cont.