Adult Learning

Andragogy vs. Pedagogy

Pedagogy derives from the Greek paidagogia: the word "paid," means child, and "agogos," means leader. Thus, pedagogy originally meant education, attendance on children (etymonline.com).

From this origin the teacher-centered model has been part of the pedagogical model. The teacher, according to this model has full responsibility for making decisions about what will be learned, how it will be learned, when it will be learned, and determining if the material has been learned. Pedagogy, therefore, places the student in a submissive role.

Pedagogy, or what some people refer to as didactic, has had competition from a different approach to teaching and learning, a new theory called andragogy.

The term andragogy was originally formulated by a German teacher, Alexander Kapp, in 1833 (Nottingham Andragogy Group 1983: v). The first time the term "andragogy" became widespread among adult educators in North America was in 1968, when a professor of adult education at Boston University, Malcom Knowles introduced the term (then spelled "androgogy") through a journal article. Knowles later developed it into a theory of adult learning education in the Modern Practice of Adult Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy, in 1970. In this book, Knowles, differentiates the two disciplines as follows:

Andragogy Pedagogy

Learners are called “participants”or “learners.”

Learners are called “students.”

Independent learning style. Dependent learning style.

Objectives are flexible.Objectives are predetermined andinflexible

It is assumed that the learners have experience to contribute.

It is assumed that the learners are inexperienced and/or uninformed.

Active training methods are used.Passive training methods, such as lecture, are used.

Learners influence timing and pace. Trainer controls timing and pace.

Participant involvement is vital.Participants contribute little to the experience.

Learning is real-life problem-centered. Learning is content-centered.

Participants are seen as primary Trainer is seen as the primary resource

resources for ideas and examples. who provides ideas and examples.

For Knowles, andragogy is premised on at least four crucial assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners that are different from the assumptions about child learners on which traditional pedagogy is premised (http://www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/b-andra.htm). A fifth was added later.

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 centeredness.

5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).

By 1984 Knowles had altered his position on the distinction between pedagogy and andragogy. The child-adult dichotomy became less marked. He claimed, as above, that pedagogy was a content model and andragogy a process model but the same criticisms apply concerning his introduction of behaviourist elements. He even added the fifth assumption: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (1984: 12). Yet while there have been these shifts, the tenor of his work, as Jarvis (1987b) argues, still seems to suggest that andragogy is related to adult learning and pedagogy to child learning.

 

References

Knowles, M. et al (1984) Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass. A collection of chapters examining different aspects of Knowles' formulation.

Knowles, M. S. (1990) The Adult Learner. A neglected species (4e), Houston: Gulf Publishing. First appeared in 1973. 292 + viii pages. Surveys learning theory, andragogy and human resource development (HRD).

http://adultlearnandtech.com/historyal.htm