Andragogy is the way adults learn as opposed to pedagogy, the way children learn. The term was first introduced by Alexander Krapp in 1833. It was later popularized by Malcolm Knowles as he described his theory of adult learning. He had 6 theories as to how adults learn:
1. Learners need to know- Why am I learning this? What is it that I am learning? How will it help me? How is it important? In summary, if I need it, then I will learn it.
2. Self-concept of the learner- Adult learners are naturally self- directed which means they will take ownership of what and how to learn and how to manage their time and learning.
3. Prior Experience- Adults have a lot of previous experiments which may help them understand situations better, or it may make them biased toward learning new material, ideals or strategies.
4. Readiness to learn- Do they need a lot of direction in order to figure out where to go? How much support do they need in order to learn? Can they do it even if no one is there to cheer them on? Adult learners need their learning to be timely and relevant.
5. Orientation to learn- It is life centered and focuses on tasks and problems, not subjects. It is more organized around life and work situations.
6. Motivation to learn- The motivation is possibly for self-esteem, recognition or the possibility of a better quality of life.
The facilitation of this model allows adult learners to be active and self-directed in their learning.
In the article, 5 Principles for the Teacher of Adults, the writer used a real life experience of how she learned to can pickles as an adult, instead of as a child when her mom tried to show her. The difference from her experience as a child and now is she was motivated. She wa...
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... create their own wish list to Santa Claus. They begin to see the value of how what I set up for them to learn will be beneficial for them.
In summary, I guess I disagree with the theory that adults learn differently than children. I think we all learn the same. I think it is the strategy that is different. I believe that the role of any good educator is to guide the learner into connecting what they are learning in the classroom to their world.
Works Cited
Blaschke, Lisa Marie. Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning [Web log message].
Peterson, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://adulted.about.com/od/teachers/a/teachingadults.htm
Whitby, Tom. (, 05). Pedagogy vs. andragogy [Web log message].
Whitmyer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.futureu.com/shared_resources/andragogy_versus_pedagogy.pdf
Pedagogy is the passive trends from transfer of information from teachers to students, Andragogy is about active information seeking by the learner. Pedagogy assumes that students comes into the classroom with no life experiences to build on. Andragogy assumes that students have prior experiences that they can apply to the learning process. In Pedagogy teaching structure is subject-oriented, In Andragogy learning is less instructed and more relevant, relevance to real life issues are usually more essential using Andragogy as compared to Pedagogy. Pedagogy assumes that students have few internal motivations to learn and must rely on rewards and punishments. Andragogy assumes students have more internal motivations to learn. In Pedagogy students are dependent on teachers, In Andragogy students are more independent and responsible for their own learning. Pedagogy is more authoritarian model and Andragogy is more collaboratively learning model. In summary Pedagogy is more suitable for children in most cases and Andragogy is more suitable for adults in most
Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S. &Baumgartner (2007) Learning in Adulthood: A comprehensive guide, san Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass
the reason why they are learning something, then they will get a greater sense of the
Having known that adults are supposed to be self-directed, internally motivated and goal-oriented in the learning process, it is believed that Expectancy-Value Theory proposed by Wigfiled and his colleagues might be fruitful in explaining adults’ learning motivation in this case study.
Willed learners need to be empowered from their own passion, and they need to have a substantial voice in their learning, which generates self-determination to succeed when their voice is truly heard. They learn by their choices, for them it is to lead, and not to be led by others. It generates trust, love, kindness and respect when a learner can express how they want to learn, and they are not prevented from learning in the manner they selected, but supported with trust, respect, love, caring, and kindness. It is personal learning, which is something instilled, willed by us, not a personalized learning which is selected for us. The responsibility of how one learns is largely their choice of how to learn, with assistance. The will to learn like young children wants to walk, talk, eat, or dress on their own. It is self-determination to succeed, and it is the self-determination within us, which drives us forward with our own interests.
Adults are self-motivated. They learn best by building on what they already know and when they are actively engaged (Lindeman, 2010). The approach of adult education revolves around non-vocational ideals and is based on experience rather than subjects (Lindeman, 2010). It helps adults gain knowledge about their powers, capacities, and limitations (Funnell et al, 2012).
Being a teacher of adult education is a very demanding job. It requires an absolute commitment towards embedding real-life tasks into the curriculum to make learning more meaningful and purposeful for adults (Early & DeCosta, 2007, p.1). At the heart of it, teaching adults really is about being flexible enough to address the needs of an individual student; being creative enough to challenge adult students’ ways of thinking; and finally being sensitive enough to understand that some students’ paths towards higher education can be more challenging than ours (Early & DeCosta, 2007, p.2). In other words, a good teacher of adult education is a teacher who is able to inspire and motivate students to think differently, read and write meaningfully, and communicate purposefully.
The learning process for adults is never ending and can be very challenging. As an adult educator, teaching adult learners you will face many challenges in the learning process. It is our responsibility to keep the learners engaged, and to help them to realize their full learning potential.
What is andragogy? Andragogy consists of a theoretical model of six assumptions that was developed by Malcolm Knowles in order to “distinguish adult learning and adult education from other areas of education” (Mirriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 83). And so, andragogy might also be defined in terms of the efforts of “multiple researchers and scholars” (Henschke, 2011, p. 35) searching for a way to “establish andragogy as a proven theory and strong method for teaching adults” (Henschke, 2011, p. 35). But why is the topic of andragogy important for both adult learners and teachers? It is important because in order to effectively teach adult learners we must first “be cognizant of the differences which adult students bring to the classroom” (Schultz, 2012, p. 1) and to also understand that among adult learners, there exist “varying expectations and reasons for learning” (Schultz, 2012, p. 1). Andragogy is more¬over important to adult learners and teachers because both “learners and educators alike can use [it] to strengthen the learning transaction” (Mirriam et al., 2007, p. 84). With this brief definition of andragogy, along with the corresponding reason for its importance in mind, what now follows is what this paper is going to be about. The topic of this paper is an evaluation of whether or not the traditional learning environment is conducive to learning for adult learners as opposed to the andragogical environment. And the dual purpose hereof is to first briefly relate my own personal experience in a traditional learning context (under the heading of a ‘Traditional Learning Environment’), and then to reflect upon whether or not that traditional context (this time under the heading of ‘Andragogy Reflection’) i...
In adult learning there have been few styles of learning but Malcolm Knowles theory has been around for nearly forty years. (Merriam, 2007) Knowles came up with six assumptions for his theory. Maturity helps one become more independent and self-directing. As an adult experiences life this makes their experiences a good resource. The adult’s readiness to learn that is associated with their work and social role. (Merriam, 2007) “ There is a change in time perspective as people mature-from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem centered than subject centered in learning.” (Merriam, 2007, p. 84) Adults are motivated internally and they need to know why they are learning. (Merriam, 2007) Andragogy theory is a good way for instructors to encourage their students to learn and this will help them be successful.
Hiemstra, R., & Sisco, B. (1990). Moving from pedagogy to andragogy. Foundations of Adult Education: Critical and Contemporary Issues, Retrieved from http://www-distance.syr.edu/literature.html
One theorist that is relevant to this study is Malcolm Knowles’s theory of adult learning. Though Malcom Knowles may not be the first one to introduce adult learning, he was the one that introduced andragogy in North America. (McEwen and Wills 2014). Andragogy means adult learning. The core concept of Knowles’s Adult learning theory is to create a learning environment or awareness for adults to understand why they learn .Knowles developed six main assumptions of adult learners. Those assumptions are the need to know, self- concept, experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning and motivation. (McEwen and Wills, 2014)
Teaching the adult student is a great and unique responsibility; Andragogy preaches that teaching the adult learner takes a certain skill set and approach in order to be highly effective. The adult teaching theory and approach is based off the characteristics of the adult student. Andragogy views the adult learner as a very highly motivated student, a student ready and prepared to learn, and a student that comes to class with expectations of learning (Knowles 1984, pg12). With such a capable learner in the classroom the teacher must make the necessary adjustments. When teaching the adult learner, the teacher will have respect for their students and respect the fact that each student will have their own individual learning style. The teacher will also allow the adult student to experie...
Professor Ozuah mentioned that Edward C. Lindeman wrote lengthily about this subject of andragogy. Lindeman in 1926 stated that the way adults learned was by attacking the problem and thinking of ways to solve the situation not by what academic subject it fell under. Lindeman also stated that adults get self-gratification by solving a problem and coming up with a way to master the obstacles. (Ozuah) I do agree with both Professor Ozuah and Edward Lindeman. I know I feel better about my approach to teach when I watch my students use their intuition that the height of the building they just calculated with a protractor, straw, and tape measure doesn’t seem
Within the andragogical model described by Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (2015), adults need learning experiences that are different than those found in the pedagogical model. Instead of waiting for experiences that are directed and controlled by a teacher, adults need to have a clear rationale and understanding for the learning, feel past experiences are valuable, and have a developed internal system for motivation in order to help a learning experience be successful. The connection and orientation to the learning task, the readiness to learn, and self-concept are other important ideas to adult learning.