VOLUME 17
•
ISSUE 2
•
NOVEMBER 2018
THE TOOLBOX
A Teaching and Learning Resource for Instructors
A LOOK AT HEUTAGOGY: NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING F
or many years, the psychology of teaching and Brad Garner learning was encapsulated under the general Director of Faculty Enrichment, National & Global Campus rubric of pedagogy. The theory and practice Indiana Wesleyan University of pedagogy, which by definition focuses on teaching brad.garner@indwes.edu children, was guided by giants such as Benjamin Bloom, Jerome Bruner, John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky. Their theories were expanded and refined over the years and generalized as best practices in instruction. When Malcolm Knowles and others began to suggest that adults learn differently from children, this singular perspective began to change, ultimately giving rise to andragogy as a means of responding to the learning needs and preferences of adults. This bifurcation of teaching and learning made intuitive sense and has persisted, as practitioners and researchers work to create instructional strategies effective with children and adults. With technology rapidly increasing the number and types of learning resources available (e.g., vast amounts of easily accessible digital information, open coursebased learning opportunities), some have called for tweaking these longstanding theoretical frameworks. Hase and Kenyon (2000) proposed a new perspective, heutagogy, that acknowledges the “issues about human adaptation as we enter the new millennium” (p. 5). While pedagogy and andragogy rely heavily on teachers as the primary facilitators of learning, heutagogy creates a space where learners assume greater responsibility and control over the content and skills chosen for mastery. Blaschke (2012) explained how heutagogy can engage with today’s learners: … In a heutagogical approach to teaching and learning, learners are highly autonomous and self-determined and emphasis is placed on development of learner capacity and capability with the goal of producing learners who are well prepared for the complexities of today’s workplace. (p. 56)
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. — Chinese proverb
This observation adds another dimension to the conversation, as we think about how technology enhances the learning process while also preparing our students for the workplace. National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
www.sc.edu/fye/toolbox
1