Andragogy

I think that the following ideas are relevant as we all teach adults and it is very different from primary and secondary education; which is not always recognised.

The concept of andragogy has been around for almost two centuries but within the field of adult education andragogy is connected to the works of Malcolm Knowles have become inseparably .  It has become popular as a way of describing how adults learn; this differs from assumptions about how children learn on which pedagogy is based. 

“1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being

2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.

3. Readiness to learn: As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.

4. Orientation to learning: As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.

5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal.”

(Knowles, 1984: 12)

I don’t know if I agree with all the above points, for example, point 5.  In the past I have worked with the long term unemployed who were required to go on training in order to keep their benefit who definitely did not have internal motivation to learn.  However, I think that the above points become more pertinent and relevant when an adult chooses to learn.

Tell me about your experiences.  

References

Knowles, M. (1984) Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.