Effects of Androgogical Teacher Training on Adult Students

Muhammad Tanveer AfzalLecturer

STED

Introduction

• Adults learns differently from the young people.

• Reasons for learning are different.• Its theory tries to answer why adults learn

differently.• Reasons: adult learning should provide base

for solutions.

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Adult Learning

• The central question of how adults learn has occupied the attention of scholars and practitioners since the founding of adult education as a professional field of practice in the 1920s.

• Some eighty years later, we have no single answer, no one theory or model of adult learning that explains all that we know about adult learners, the various contexts where learning takes place, and the process of learning itself.

Pedagogy

• Pedagogy is defined as the art and science of teaching children.

• Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults to learn.

Andragogy

Knowles based Andragogy upon certain crucial assumptions concerning the differences between children and adults as learners.

The Theory of Andragogy

• Self-directing• A growing reservoir of experience, a rich

resource for learning.• The readiness of an adult to learn is closely

related to social role.• Problem-centered • Motivated to learn by internal factors

–(Merriam & Caffarella, p. 272)

Andragogy• Seven components of andragogical practice prevalent

in education. – Facilitators must establish a climate of humanness, – they must involve learners in mutual planning of methods

and directions, – they must involve participants and encourage them to

formulate their own learning objectives, – they must encourage learners to identify resources and to

devise strategies for using these resources, – they must help learners carry out their learning plans, and – they must involve learners in evaluation.

Andragogy: Theory or Set of Assumptions?

• Defining questions:– What is andragogy and to whom does it apply?– Do some or all of the assumptions apply to

children?– Are its assumptions too simplistic?– Does andragogy ignore the learning context?– Is it a teaching theory or learning theory?

Andragogy: Theory or Set of Assumptions?

• As the scholarly debate over Andragogy raged in the 1970s and 1980s Knowles become more open to criticism.

• In 1980 Knowles stated: “I don’t see andragogy as an ideology at all, but a set of assumptions about learners that needs to be tested for different learners in different situations”. (The Modern Practice of Adult Education, 1980)

• He also stated that pedagogy (teacher centered learning) and andragogy (learner-centered learning) existed on a continuum.

• Now take a look at Adult Learning through the lense of Transformative Learning.

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Goals of Adult Education(Paul Bergevin)

To help the learner (individual/organization/society) achieve a

degree of success, fulfillment, meaning.

To help the learner understand their capabilities, limitations, and

relationships.

To help the learner recognize and understand the need for

lifelong learning.

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Goals of Adult Education

Bergevin (continued)

To provide conditions and opportunities for

advancement in the maturation process: spiritually,

culturally, physically, politically, and vocationally.

To provide education for survival in literacy, vocational

skills, and health measures.

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Adult Education Defined

Key Words From Definitions

Literacy

Set Men Free

Essential Knowledge

Skills

Disseminate Information

Understanding Mutual Problems of Generations

Maturing

Organized Learning/Activities

Social System

Quality of Life

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Principles of adult learning

• Autonomous and self- directed • Life experiences and knowledge• Goal- oriented• Relevancy- oriented• Practical• Respect

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The Learner

• The learner is dependent upon the instructor for all learning

• The teacher/instructor assumes full responsibility for what is taught and how it is learned.

• The teacher/instructor evaluates learning

• The learner is self-directed• The learner is responsible

for his/her own learning• Self-evaluation is

characteristic of this approach

Pedagogical Andragogical

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Role of the Learner’s Experience

• The learner comes to the activity with little experience that could be tapped as a resource for learning

• The experience of the instructor is most influential

• Learner brings a greater volume and quality of experience

• Adults are a rich resource for one another

• Different experiences assure diversity in groups of adults

• Experience becomes the source of self-identify

Pedagogical Andragogical

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Readiness to Learn

• Students are told what they have to learn in order to advance to the next level of mastery

• Any change is likely to trigger a readiness to learn

• The need to know in order to perform more effectively in some aspect of one’s life

• Ability to assess gaps between where one is now and where one wants and needs to be

Pedagogical Andragogical

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Orientation to Learning

• Learning is a process of acquiring prescribed subject matter

• Content units are sequenced according to the logic of the subject matter

• Learners want to perform a task, solve a problem, live in a more satisfying way

• Learning must have relevance to real-life tasks

• Learning is organized around life/work situations rather than subject matter units

Pedagogical Andragogical

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Andragogy vs. Adult Learning

• Knowles revise his thinking as to whether andragogy was just for adults and pedagogy just for children.

• Between 1970 and 1980 he moved from an andragogy versus pedagogy position to representing them on a continuum ranging from teacher-directed to student-directed learning.

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Heutagogy

• The concept of truly self-determined learning, called heutagogy, builds on humanistic theory and approaches to learning described in the 1950s.

• It is suggested that heutagogy is appropriate to the needs of learners in the workplace in the twenty-first century, particularly in the development of individual capability.

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The need for Heutagogy• This revolution recognizes the changed world in

which we live. A world in which:• information is readily and easily accessible; • change is so rapid that traditional methods of

training and education are totally inadequate; • discipline-based knowledge is inappropriate to

prepare for living in modern communities and workplaces;

• learning is increasingly aligned with what we do; • modern organizational structures require flexible

learning practices

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Cont…

• where the teacher provides resources but the learner designs the actual course he or she might take by negotiating the learning.

• Thus learners might read around critical issues or questions and determine what is of interest and relevance to them and then negotiate further reading and assessment tasks.

• With respect to the latter, assessment becomes more of a learning experience rather than a means to measure attainment.

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Cont…

• Concern with developing the learner’s capability, not just embedding discipline-based skills and knowledge.

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Effective Adult Learning

1. A learning experience must be personally meaningful if individuals are to become actively involved in it.

a. Content which evolves from the genuine concerns of learners and for learners to actively share in shaping the context in which they learn.

b. Individualized concerns which give rise to educational needs and from which motivation to learn stems.

c. Matters foreign to our personal worlds of reality seem to generate little spontaneous action in us.

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Effective Adult Learning 2. We require an understanding and supportive social climate in order

to learn and grow.

a. Active affirmation of differences among individuals and to actively uphold the uniquely personal way an individual feels and thinks.

b. None of us are inclined to let others know what really is on our minds if we sense that it will lead to being ignored, rejected, misunderstood, belittled or attacked.

c. All of us need to feel that our individual concerns will be accorded due respect and dignity before we are apt to make them known.

d. Likewise, the more free we feel to make known our individual concerns, the more involved we tend to become in the situation.

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Effective Adult Learning

3. We need to feel free to communicate honestly with our own “self” and with our fellow human beings.

a. The prevalent practice of communication to our own “self” and to others what isn’t so, simply directs us to a blank wall where so often we sit spinning our wheels.

b. The conditioned fear of being honest with ourselves and our fellow learners has tended to restrict educational content to abstract, impersonal and/or irrelevant matters.

c. If it is understanding that we seek, it should be borne in mind that a simple, honest statement is the shortest line of communication between people.

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Effective Adult Learning

4. We require understanding of the nature of learning and of our behavior as learners in order to make effective use of the learning process.

a. We are products of a socio-cultural environment whose spokesman have been generous in telling us what to learn, but for the most part, have overlooked our need for discovering how to learn.

b. We cannot learn or do anything else very well unless we are consciously aware of what it involves and what is going on. In this way, we can free ourselves from the misconceptions and conditioned fears which have kept many of our positive qualities submerged.

c. We normally do best those things which we know how to do. Learning is no exception.

Thanks for PatienceYour questions