Issues on Adult Education: from Pedagogy to Andragogy

Prof. Aldo Rodriguez

Pedagogy: Greek roots: to lead a childPais child ago lead

Andragogy: to lead an adultAndro adult ago lead

The one who has delayed enrollment

Financially independent

Has dependents other than a spouse

Is a single parent

Full time or part time employment

They are called ‘Non-traditional students’

Community-forming beings

Different generations at school:Matures (1900-1946), baby boomers (1946-1964), generation x (1965-1982), millenials (1982-?)Net-generation (80s)i-generation (90s) (Rosen, L)

Challenges:• family responsibilities• positive/negative attitude• fear• less energy and interest• loss of income and family time• fights and arguments

Classroom experiences:• different level of maturity, ethnic• life experiences• responsibility• learning styles• commitment (ask everything/know all)• technology

Formal,non formaland informal education

• ADULTS CAN LEARN

• LEARNING IS AN INTERNAL PROCESS

• NEED-MEETING PROCESS OR GOAL-STRIVING PROCESSES

Regarding Pedagogy AndragogyConcept of the learner A dependent role, the teacher is

socially expected to take full responsibility for determining what to be learned, when, how and if it has been learned.

Self-directedness at different rates due to maturation. Teachers encourage and nurture this movement. Adults have a psychological need for self-directedness, dependency is temporary

Role of learner’s experience

Of little worth. Used as a starting point but most experience will be gained from the teacher, the book, the audiovisual material and other experts. Predominance of transmittal techniques such as reading

Rich source of learning for themselves and others. People attach more meaning to learnings they gain from experience than those they acquire passively. Learning techniques should be experiential like experiments, discussions, problem-solving cases, simulation exercises and field experience among others.

Readiness to learn People are ready to learn whatever society and school says. Most people of the same age are ready to learn the same thing. Learning should be organized into a fairly standardized curriculum.

People become ready to learn when they experience the need to learn in order to cope with real life tasks or problems. The educator has to create conditions to help learners discover that need for learning. Programs should be organized around life application categories and sequenced according to the learners’ readiness to learn.

Orientation to learn Education is seen as a process of acquiring subject matter content used later in life. Curriculum is subject-centered

Learners see education as a process of developing increased competence to achieve their full potential in life. They want to be able to apply their knowledge now. People are performance-centered in their orientation to learning.

Can any of us motivate anyone?

Motivation has both sides: the instructor and the learner. Inspirational teacher?

The four conditions of motivation: competence, inclusion, attitude (toward the instructor, learning, self-efficacy and learning goals) and meaning.

Establish a climate of respect and use motivational strategies like positive feedback, give learners the chance of introducing themselves, provide opportunities for multidimensional sharing (ice-breakers?), indicate your cooperative intentions to help EXPLICITLY, use cooperative and collaborative learning.

We have…• reflective thinkers (they ask the whys)• creative thinkers (create their own solutions)• practical thinkers • conceptual thinkers (accept new info when it fits with the one they have)• critical thinkers (they read between the lines)

We usually see:• Action learning (job training)• experiential learning• Project-based learning• Self-directed learning• Problem-based learning

Some questions:• Do you strike a balance between teaching and learning?• How much TTT and STT is there in your class?• Do you differentiate curriculum and knowledge?• Do you have your own definition of learning?• What is your philosophy of teaching? and learning?• How much do you consider affect in your classes?• Are learners treated as human beings?• Are you a challenging or a distant teacher?• How do you provide an atmosphere to your sts to be creative, critically examine their own experience and challenge them higher than they already are?• How do you get them to be critical thinkers?• How do you recognize your st’s positive and negative skills?• How do you encourage them to participate?• How do you pay attention to their personal process?• how do you empower them when they are in class?• How do you connect teaching with their reality?

• The learning climate: climate of adultness feel at ease, informal arrangement, light should be appropriate to declining audiovisual acuity, climate of respect and mutual support, friendly atmosphere, culture of listening

• Diagnosis of needs: self-directivity in conflict with the teacher telling what to learn. Self-diagnosis of need for learning: 1- model-building phase, 2- diagnostic experiences, and 3- motivation to learn (self-induced dissatisfaction with present inadequacies, coupled with a clear sense of direction for self-improvement)

• The planning process: people feel committed when they were part of the decision-making. Teacher imposition is incongruent with adult’s concept of self-directivity

• Conducting Learning experience: learning-teaching transaction is a mutual responsibility.

• Evaluation of learning: it is the crowning instance of incongruity between traditional educational practice and self-directivity. Re dimension self-evaluation, rediagnosis of learning needs. Assessment: which is the type of formative assessment that best adapts to andragogical learning?Criterion-referenced?Norm-referenced?Self-referenced?About the task?About the process?About the person?About self-regulation?

CONDITIONS OF LEARNING PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING

The learners feel a need to learn The teacher exposes the learner to new possibilities for self-fulfillment

The teacher helps the learners clarify their own aspirations for improved behavior

The teacher helps the learners diagnose the gap between their aspirations and their present level of performance

The teacher helps the learner identify the life problems they experience because of the gaps in their personal equipment.

The learning environment is characterized by physical comfort, mutual trust and respect, mutual helpfulness, freedom of expression, and acceptance of the difference

The teacher provides physical conditions that are comfortable (as to seating, temperature, ventilation, lighting and decoration) and conductive to interaction (preferably, no person sitting behind another person)

The teacher accepts the learners as persons of worth and respects their feelings and ideas.

The teacher seeks to build relationships of mutual trust and helpfulness among the learners by encouraging cooperative activities and refraining from inducing competitiveness and judgmentalness.

The teacher exposes his or her own feelings and contributes resources as a co-learner in the spirit of mutual inquiry

The learners perceive the goals of a learning experience to be their goals The teacher involves the learners in a mutual process of formulating learning objectives in which the needs of the learners, of the institution, of the teacher, of the subject matter, and of the society are taken into account.

The learners accept a share of the responsibility for planning and operating a learning experience and therefore have a feeling of commitment toward it

The teacher shares his/her thinking about options available in the design of learning experiences and the selection of materials and methods and involves the learners in deciding among these options jointly.

The learners participate actively in the learning process The teacher helps the learners to organize themselves (project groups, learning-teaching teams, independent study, etc) to share.

The learning process is related to and makes use of the experience of the learners

The teacher helps the learner exploit their own experiences as resources for learning through the use of such techniques as discussion, role playing, case method, etc.

The teacher gears the presentation of his/her own resources to the levels of experience of particular learners.

The teacher helps the learners to apply new learning to their experience and thus to make the learnings more meaningful and integrated.

The learners have a sense of progress toward their goals The teacher involves the learners in developing mutually acceptable criteria and methods for measuring progress toward the learning objectives.

The teacher helps the learners develop and apply procedures for self-evaluation according to these criteria.

Adapted from Knowles, M (1980) “The modern practice of adult education”

Adapted from Knowles, M (1980) “The modern practice of AdE”

Adapted from Knowles, M (1980) “The modern practice of adult education”Adapted from Knowles, M (1980) “The modern practice of adult education”

• Provide effective feedback• Promote equity in assessment procedures• Use formative assessment• Authentic performance tasks• Assessment should be realistic, innovative and practical.• Take multiple intelligences and learning styles into account.• The use of rubrics as a democratization element• Think-feel-act• Use appropriate grading activities• Effectively praise and reward learning (Praise well rather than often)• Use incentives to develop motivation• Emphasize when learning has natural consequences• provide positive closure at the end of units• KWL

• Provide frequent response opportunities• help learners realize about their accountability of what they learned.• introduce and connect tasks (the use of transitions)• Use humor liberally as well as examples, metaphors, stories and anecdotes.• Invite learners to anticipate (cognitive strategies)• Use concept maps and graphic organizers• Use problem-solving tasks, project-based instruction and enactment and role playing.