Andragogy

Andragogy consists of learning strategies focused on adults. It is often interpreted as the process of engaging adult learners with the structure of learning experience. The term ‘andragogy’ has been used in different times and countries with various connotations. Nowadays there exist mainly three understandings:

1. In many countries there is a growing conception of ‘andragogy’ as the scholarly approach to the learning of adults. In this connotation andragogy is the science of understanding (= theory) and supporting (= practice) lifelong and lifewide education of adults.

2. Especially in the USA, ‘andragogy’ in the tradition of Malcolm Knowles, labels a specific theoretical and practical approach, based on a humanistic conception of self-directed and autonomous learners and teachers as facilitators of learning.

3. Widely, an unclear use of andragogy can be found, with its meaning changing (even in the same publication) from ‘adult education practice’ or ‘desirable values’ or ‘specific teaching methods,’ to ‘reflections’ or ‘academic discipline’ and/or ‘opposite to childish pedagogy’, claiming to be ‘something better’ than just ‘Adult Education’.

The oldest document using the term "Andragogik": Kapp, Alexander (1833): Platon's Erziehungslehre, als Pädagogik für die Einzelnen und als Staatspädagogik. Leipzig.

Originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, andragogy was developed into a theory of adult education by the American educator Malcolm Knowles.

Knowles asserted that andragogy (Greek: "man-leading") should be distinguished from the more commonly used pedagogy (Greek: "child-leading").

Knowles' theory can be stated with six assumptions related to motivation of adult learning:

1. Adults need to know the reason for learning something (Need to Know)
2. Experience (including error) provides the basis for learning activities (Foundation).
3. Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept).
4. Adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives (Readiness).
5. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented (Orientation).
6. Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators (Motivation).

The term has been used by some to allow discussion of contrast between self-directed and 'taught' education.

Diversity and generalization

Adults learners are a very diverse group and draw upon a variety of experiences. Graduate students in medicine or physics may respond differently from executive MBA students or adults returning to complete their high school diplomas. Knowles' theory may not hold for many groups of adult students.

Critique

Knowles himself changed his position on whether andragogy really applied only to adults and came to believe that "pedagogy-andragogy represents a continuum ranging from teacher-directed to student-directed learning and that both approaches are appropriate with children and adults, depending on the situation."

The European development: towards Professionalisation

In most countries of Europe the Knowles-discussion played no or at best a marginal role. ‘Andragogy’ was, from 1970 on, connected with the in existence coming academic and professional institutions, publications, programs, triggered by a similar growth of adult education in practice and theory as in the USA. ‘Andragogy’ functioned here as a header for (places of) systematic reflections, parallel to other academic headers like ‘biology’, ‘medicine’, ‘physics’. Examples of this use of andragogy are the Yugoslavian (scholarly) journal for adult education, named ‘Andragogija’ in 1969; and the ‘Yugoslavian Society for Andragogy’; at Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech republic) in 1990 the “Katedra sociologie a andragogiky” was established. Also Prague University has a ‘Katedra Andragogiky’; in 1993, Slovenia’s ‘Andragoski Center Republike Slovenije’ was founded with the journal ‘Andragoska Spoznanja’; in 1995, Bamberg University (Germany) named a ‘Lehrstuhl Andragogik’; the Internet address of the Estonian adult education society is ‘andras.ee’.

On this formal level ‘above practice’ and specific approaches, the term andragogy could be used relating to all types of theories, for reflection, analysis, training, in person-oriented programs as well as human resource development.

Andragogy: Academic discipline

The field of adult education worldwide went in the last decades through a process of growth and differentiation, in which a scholarly, scientific approach emerged. An academic discipline with university programs, professors, students, focusing on the education of adults, exists today in many countries. And a new type of ‘adult educators’ was born, which was not qualified by missions and visions, but by academic studies: reflection, critique, analysis, historical knowledge qualifies this new type of academic professionals. Dusan Savicevic, who provided Knowles with the term andragogy, explicitly claim ‘andragogy as a discipline, the subject of which is the study of education and learning of adults in all its forms of expression’ (Savicevic, 1999, p. 97, similarly Henschke, 2003, Reischmann, 2003).

Further reading

• Knowles, Malcolm; Holton, E. F., III; Swanson, R. A. (2005). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Elsevier. ISBN 0750678372. LCCN 2004-24356. http://books.google.com/books?id=J6qGsHBj7nQC. 
• Knowles, Malcolm (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. Wilton, Connecticut: Association Press. ISBN 0695814729. LCCN 80-14344}. 
• Thorpe, Mary; Edwards, Richard; Hanson, Ann (1993). Culture and processes of adult learning. Routledge. http://books.google.com/books?id=l9EOAAAAQAAJ. 
• Merriam, Sharran B.; Caffarella, Rosemary; Baumgartner, Lisa (2007). Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0787975885. LCCN 2006-19145. 
• Reischmann, Jost (2005): Andragogy. In: English, Leona (ed): International Encyclopedia of Adult Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. S. 58-63. (.pdf-download)
• Roberts, Michael (2007). "Applying the Andragogical Model of Adult Learning: A Case Study of the Texas Comptroller's Fiscal Management Division". Applied Research Project. Texas State University. http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/209/. 

• Smith, M. K. (1996; 1999) 'Andragogy', in the Encyclopaedia of Informal Education.

External links

• Moving From Pedagogy To Andragogy
• Jost Reischmann: Andragogy.net
• John Henschke: Andragogy Website
• American Society of Training and Development
• National Association of State Judicial Educators

See also

• Cooperative Education: Andragogy
• Adult education
• Andragogical learning theory
• The Learning Plan and the ePortfolio are emerging as important tools that adults can use to manage their own learning.
• Motivation
• Situated learning a model of learning often associated with adult learners.
• Heutagogy