{"id":1306,"date":"2018-02-22T21:48:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T21:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edvance360.com\/lms\/interview-coming-tsunami-of-new-adult-learners\/"},"modified":"2018-02-22T21:48:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T21:48:50","slug":"interview-coming-tsunami-of-new-adult-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edvance360.com\/lms\/interview-coming-tsunami-of-new-adult-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Interview with Stephen Higgins on the Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners and How Bible Colleges &amp; Seminaries can prepare to meet their needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <!--more--> <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Cathy Garland, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales at Edvance360, interviews Reverend Professor Stephen Higgins, who has served and is serving in Pastoral\/Business\/Higher Ed field for the last 38 years. His background is colorful:<\/span><strong><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He has pastored, started two churches, worked for two Colleges as Vice President and President and Consults for non-profits (both business and Higher Education)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University Adjunct Professor (Theology, Business, and Humanities)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CEO of TBG that has it\u2019s work focus on Alexander College Israel through Christ Church, Anglican, Jerusalem as an International Platform for Higher Education within a new framework of Teaching\/Training the Adult Learner, which has students internationally from China, Rwanda\/Uganda Africa, N. America and in 2020 targeting Latin America.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having earned his Master\u2019s in Church Studies\/Counseling, he has taught throughout Africa, Asia, and teaching\/traveled in Europe, Israel and Kurdistan<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teaching concentration: Pastors, Ordinals, Business Students\/leaders<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the last 25 years, he has taught over 180,000 people in various settings in the USA and overseas<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018 he will be ordained in the Anglican Church. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ve had a varied tenure serving Christian institutions&#8230;president of a small Bible College, adjunct at several large Christian universities, vice-president of a mid-sized Bible college, co-director of an international training program for church leaders in Israel, a student at Fuller and Hope International&#8230;what am I missing?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yep. And I\u2019m still living.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I feel like &#8211; and this is why we\u2019re interviewing you &#8211; you have a unique perspective on Bible colleges and seminaries. A wholistic one, if you will.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland:<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you met your younger self, on your way to take the president position at the small Bible college, what would you say to encourage yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are tools available to enhance the student learning and the faculty\u2019s interaction with that student that the traditional model of learning can be improved upon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To warn yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ha! Go easy on change management. Create a culture that wants change by building your team. Don\u2019t try to change the wheels while riding the bike. Throw the bike away and get a new one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To prepare yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins:<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I\u2019ve been teaching organizational leadership for the past 5-6 years and I\u2019m using those principles. I\u2019d tell myself to study project management and relational management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you see as the most pressing need for Bible colleges and seminaries right now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not orthodoxy but rather <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">orthopraxy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is the practice of and emphasis of spiritual disciplines and inward transformation. We need to focus on mentoring: students mentoring students, professors mentoring professors, not just professors mentoring students. Discipleship. It isn\u2019t the study of religion that should be taught; it\u2019s the study of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">relationship<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s what Jesus gave us. We\u2019ve become too greek (we study practices in segments), but we should teach instead a wholistic approach, showing students how each area connects. Go from the \u201cSo what?\u201d to \u201cNow what?\u201d so it will become a natural pattern instead of duty. This is how an adult learning learns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Garland: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking of which, Chronicles of Higher Ed just put out a great report on the coming wave &#8211; tsunami even &#8211; of adult students returning to school. These are 1) students who dropped out previously due to maturity issues, 2) students who got a useless degree and 3) students who need more skills to compete in a tougher job market. Do you think Bible colleges and seminaries are well poised to serve these students? Why or why not? Should they be?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are not ready for these students at all. So many schools are looking at the adult learners as \u201ccash cows\u201d and don\u2019t have their best interests at heart. I\u2019m disheartened by the greed at work. They might have been student-focused in how they develop the program, but are too rigid in the application of that program. These people have families and other god-given responsibilities. They cannot and should not be asked to adhere to artificial deadlines set by administrators. The quality suffers. Adjustments will be required and time for research must be allotted, instead of shooting them through some chute.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cathy: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of the change was driven by the students in the past, do you think the students will demand a change?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh yes. It\u2019s going to happen. Just like they demanded online training. The current form of online training is extremely unhealthy for the students <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> adjuncts. For example, drowning the deployed army member in content requirements to the point where the student either quits or is divorced by the second year. This is ridiculous. It\u2019s being run by administrators, not educators. They are concerned by sequencing and hitting the mark (however many students) but a end up low graduation rate. Adult learners will get wise to that and go where they can achieve the results they want: the degree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cathy: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make some predictions for us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Higgins: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rise of different kinds of accreditation rather than the regional box &#8211; like ABHE. Or the increased freedom to \u201cmeet the students\u2019 actual needs\u201d for this other type of accreditation. When the bubble of the student loans rate bursts, you\u2019re going to see a huge drop in adult students who will refuse to pay too much money to check some \u201cbox\u201d for an additional four years. Instead, they will look for alternative options that are going to really help their job or their personal learning path. The current educational system is not built for adult learners. Some places tout \u201cstudent centered\u201d but once these adult learners get into them, they find them to be anything but. They\u2019ll get wise to this. They\u2019ll revolt. They\u2019ll find schools that prepare them for the jobs that are available, utilize technology as long as it facilitates relationships, all while balancing real life demands and duties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cathy: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully, the schools using us will continue to be able to serve these adult learners by facilitating those discipleship relationships even online, using the mentoring tools, as well as the communities and collaborative tools so they can embrace other ways of delivering the training that meets the students\u2019 needs. That is, after all, why we exist in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8212;&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/discover.edvance360.com\/hubfs\/me%20(2)%20(1).jpg\" alt=\"me (2) (1).jpg\" width=\"129\" style=\"width: 129px;\"><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Professor Stephen Higgins<br \/><\/strong><em><a href=\"mailto:tbgstephen@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tbgstephen@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><strong><br \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interview with Stephen Higgins on the Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners and How Bible Colleges &amp; Seminaries can prepare to meet their needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Interview: Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners - Edvance360<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/edvance360.com\/lms\/interview-coming-tsunami-of-new-adult-learners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview: Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners - Edvance360\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interview with Stephen Higgins on the Coming Tsunami of New Adult Learners and How Bible Colleges &amp; 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