Artefact 5: Learning Poem

This poem was written for the final assignment in MDDE 613: Adult Education and Life Long Learning. The requirement was simple,

“How can we utilize the purpose and goals of adult education in our interactions with learners outside the classroom? How may we continue to apply adult education knowledge outside of a “controlled classroom setting”?

In nursing training, post conference is a routine part of the day where students are given the opportunity to speak and reflect on their experiences. In my training, I found many to be quite tedious and too often just a reiteration of the day’s events. Of course, some instructors were better at guiding us than others, but frequently the students, we were very tired and felt like we were so close to freedom that we became like robots. When I became an instructor, I wanted to try to make these post conferences “Fun”, so that the students were not counting the minutes to release but were able to look forward to these times together and release in a different way. Outside the traditional classroom is what we seem to consider fun! Movies, books, concerts etc.. But all these things have the power to help us learn.  More about ourselves, other things, cultures and then the ability to change our view, our perspective, we just do not always consider it thus. I believe that by using the humanities to learn, it can help engage people in lifelong learning.  For this assignment, I chose to respond to the prompt through a poetic format to reflect the spirit of creativity, critical reflection, and emancipation that is central to adult education theory. Poetry, like adult learning, transcends traditional boundaries and invites the learner to engage emotionally, intellectually, and experientially. Rather than present theory in a conventional essay, I sought to embody the purpose and goals of adult education through metaphor, rhythm, and narrative flow. The poem also reflects the application of adult education outside the classroom: learning through work, relationships, community, resistance, and everyday acts of living. It invites the reader to question authority, embrace lifelong learning, and see education as a transformative, liberating force. The poem also reflects the application of adult education outside the classroom: learning through work, relationships, community, resistance, and everyday acts of living. It invites the reader to question authority, embrace lifelong learning, and see education the transformative, liberating force that it is. In true adult education fashion, this piece is meant to provoke thought, challenge norms, and evoke the spirit of dialogical learning—where educator and learner are co-participants in meaning-making.

In the context of my research question: How can reflective practice be used to enhance critical thinking and leadership development in nursing education?

My poem considers the core values of reflective practice and discusses my engagement with theory and challenges assumptions about learning.  By referencing Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, I emphasize that critical reflection is a pathway to change.  These are skills that nursing leaders need in order to foster self-awareness and the ability to navigate uncertainty.  Learning does not just happen in the classroom, and we all have our own experiences that we can reflect on and use to seek creative solutions to complex issues.