Andragogy and its contributions to higher education

Structural scheme of adult education and adult learning Taken from http://www.andragogy.net/

Andragogy and its Contributions to Higher Education

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Wednesday, September 28, 2016 Post 297

“Knowles’ theory of Andragogy is an attempt to develop a theory specifically for adult learning” (Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles), 2015). In higher educational contexts and teaching scenarios, it has been well understood that working adult students (WASs) and traditional learners cannot be taught in the very same way.

“Knowles emphasizes that adults are self-directed and expect to take responsibility

for decisions” (Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles), 2015). Those decisions Knowles talks about are connected to how they perceive themselves in term of knowledge and abilities, self-concept, expectations, needs, and attitudes towards their academic life and how much they have learned empirically at their workplaces. “Adult learning programs must accommodate this fundamental aspect” (Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles), 2015) of Andragogy to their study programs and to the corresponding training that needs to be provided to their faculty members.

As pointed out before, faculty members need to comprehend that WASs are quite different from the regular traditional learners. “Andragogy makes the following assumptions about the design of learning: (1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something, (2) Adults need to learn experientially, (3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value” (Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles), 2015). This is the way WASs are expecting to be taught by their instructors, and to better understand the relationship of these four assumptions, the infographic summary below has been prepared.

The idea behind this simple infographic summary is to always keep in mind the four basic principles in WASs’ education. “Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction” (Andragogy [Malcolm Knowles], 2015).

Opposed to the common belief where the traditional learners do not get “involved” in how they are going to be taught, WASs have an active participation on “the planning and evaluation of their instruction” since they come to class ready to acquire knowledge that can be quite practical for their day-to-day office tasks. WASs also contribute with the expansion of contents that courses in higher education offer due to the concrete needs that they have in their corporate positions; besides, they also participate in the ways they can be graded to demonstrate how they can handle new information but applied to their current jobs. This is quite different to

what we commonly expect from the traditional students who lack this dynamism imported to class by WASs.

Student uses new information to carry out tasks more efficiently at work, not later on in life.

Learning Style

Learner greatly relies on former working experiences to deal with the content of courses, projects, class discussions, and so on.

S k i l l

Information

Intrinsically motivated to get a diploma that backs up experience or to be promoted, and so on

Motivation

Understanding the Working Adult Learners

Maturity allows them to self-direct and self-control their learning in terms of content and time.

s

WAS comes to class with empirical skills developed at work & that need to become competencies.

Horizontality

Understanding the Working Adult Learners, Created by Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano

“Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities” (Andragogy [Malcolm Knowles], 2015). Comprehending the prevalent dynamism in WASs’ way of learning, any knowledge-building activity needs to be rooted in their empirical experience(s) gain while at work. Since WASs’ maturity allows them to

self-direct them and self-control their learning in terms of content and time, they need to be provided the chance to exercise their horizontality in learning. Problembased and project-based tasks are ideal for them especially when learning activities are addressing common problems faced by them while doing what it is expected from them but efficiently and effectively. And as noted before, WASs come to class with empirical skills developed at work and that need to be transformed into competencies, and all these can be achieved by allowing them to exercise their prior knowledge in what they are accustomed to doing.

“Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life” (Andragogy [Malcolm Knowles], 2015). WASs greatly rely on their former working experiences to deal with the content of courses, projects, and so on. If course learning is aimed at interesting them, it needs to be grounded on hands-on experiences that have a direct impact on what they do at work, either by clarifying them processes or by giving them extra ideas of how to face those processes. WASs want to see that what they learn have an immediate use in what they have to perform at work. Traditional learners are not exactly made this way, and they simply received knowledge to be later on used in their future jobs sience they lack “immediate relevance” to their lives or even studies. These learning experinces targeted at helping WASs develop themselves are not quite productive for traditional learners whose expectations are merely in the creation of skills that can be used in their future positions.

Finally, “adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented” (Andragogy [Malcolm Knowles], 2015). WASs use new information to carry out tasks more efficiently at work, not later on in life. That is why they need to be challenged with problems they may face regularly at work; in this way, they can come ot exercise all they have gained in their workplaces to find sensible solutions to what

they are confronted with. WASs come to our classrooms with lots of empirical knowledge and skills developed solely at work and that –by means of our guidanceneed to become competencies. Content orientation in teaching is not for these kind of learners; it works pretty well with traditional learners. However this latter type of students need to be also taught in this way, too.

The true Andragogic facilitator needs to “design didactic situation that allow adults to meet new self-realization possibilities” (Laureate Education Inc., n.d.). If this is not properly met, dissatisfaction is going to be present in every WAS in a higher education classroom. “The Andragogic Facilitator will accept and value every student as a complete person, will respect their ideas and thoughts” (Laureate Education Inc., n.d.). This respect for the kind of individual each WAS is can provide the instructor with room to successfully create a learning community where the exchange of data and the sharing of experiences can help each and every one (including the instructor) with real-life experiential learning activities to be later on adopted and adapted to enhace their working perfomance to more efficient standards.

References

Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles). (2015). Retrieved from InstructionalDesign.Org: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy.html

Laureate Education Inc. (n.d.). Understanding the Working Adult Student. Obtenido de Laureate Faculty Development: http://global.laureate.net