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Educator's Voice

Volume 4, Issue 2
February 18, 2003

Andragogy: Hit and Myth

Jean Piaget and his followers informed us that children were not simply "Little Big People." Education changed accordingly, and for several decades, education theory focused on the developmental stages of youthful cognition. Partially in reaction to this emphasis, Malcolm Knowles asked, "What about adult learners?" He and his followers then informed us that adults were not simply "Big Little People." Again, education changed accordingly, and Knowles favorite word, "Andragogy," or education of adults, gained tremendous popularity. Now we are in the position to take what we need and leave the rest. Let's examine what andragogy means for online educators.

Andragogy Basics
Enter "Teaching Adults," or a similar phrase, into your favorite Web search engine, and you will be inundated with scores of sites that are remarkably alike. You will be informed about the characteristics that adult learners share and given admonitions on how to teach them. Knowles' five key truisms are readily apparent, summarized as:

1. Adults are self-directed, as opposed to dependent.
2. Adults bring a lifetime of experiences that are resources for learning.
3. Adults learn based on their social roles.
4. Adults want immediate applicability for what they are learning.
5. Adults are less subject-centered and more problem-centered.

Many authors, in addition to Knowles, have expanded or modified these basics to fit their own experience and perceptions of adults as learners. However, if one may generalize about generalizations, then generally they are of limited value. The trick is to know how to validate or invalidate them.

Who is the Adult Learner?
From this key question, we can quickly conclude that there is more diversity than uniformity. What can we say to generalize about millions of individuals who vary widely by ages, abilities, job experiences, culture, linguistic fluency, personal goals, and educational background? Online education reaches the single parent with children, the unemployed high-tech worker, the traditional college student, and the corporate employee. Let's look at the andragogy model more carefully, item by item, and test it against reality.

A. First, can we safely assume that adults are all self-directed?
The clearest answer would be that there is a wide-range of autonomous behavior for adults. This is partially a personal characteristic related to the learner's confidence, motivation, experience, and prior history of educational success or failure. However, there is also an important situational element at play in the degree to which a person is self-directed. Simply put, it depends on the subject and the context for learning that subject. Familiarity with content makes it easier, for instance, to be self-directed and choose what and how to learn. The context of learning also circumscribes the degree of an individual's self-direction, at least in that setting. For instance, a corporate or military training session does not allow learners to work on topics according to their personal interests or to discover processes to meet their own needs.

B. Secondly, do adult learners bring experiences that are resources for their learning?
Certainly, adults have accumulated many experiences, some of which are relevant to a given topic, most of which are not. This is true, however, to a lesser degree with learners of all ages. Younger students may have more technological experience than adults do, and this reservoir of expertise may make online education easier for them. Every learner may have either positive or negative personal experience that will facilitate or hinder learning on a given topic.

C. Third, do adults learn according to their social roles?
Knowles emphasized that adults may seek education in response to life transitions, such as promotions, divorce, or job loss. Due to such circumstances, he suggested that education be structured to enhance life applications. Another interpretation is that the adult learns only what he or she needs to know according to their existing roles. This perspective works for learners of all ages if there is an identifiable need to know a certain utilitarian subject, such as how to program the VCR, burn CDs, or create an Excel spreadsheet. Unfortunately, this tenet of andragogy ignores that learners also select subjects that are interesting, intriguing, or simply bring them pleasure from the knowledge or skill itself.

D. Fourth, do adults want immediate applicability for what they are learning?
This tenet is similar to the preceding one in that there is a presumption that education is strictly for utilitarian or immediately useful purposes. While this pertains to some of the courses we teach, it is not true of all. Corporate training, language skills, and vocational education may be good examples of immediately applicable topics; but soft skills, or history, or basic science courses may primarily lay the foundation or fundamental upon which later education builds. Such learning may be inherently interesting or compelling for students of any age, or may be requirements for larger goals such as degree completion or certification.

E. Lastly, do adults prefer to learn about matters that solve one of their problems more than about less practical topics?
To assert this shortchanges the breadth of learner motivations and interests. In fact, students of all ages like to learn how to solve problems that concern them. For younger students, that might be how to use their calculator or PlayStation. For college students, it might be how to write convincing resumes, and for older learners, it might be how to develop a solid business plan. All learners have practical concerns, but that is not the limit of their quest for knowledge and skills.

Differences between Adults and Younger Students
When we examine the extensive body of literature about andragogy, we find strings of traits ascribed to the Adult Learner. We have examined five of the basic propositions above. Yet when we look around us, we find that all learners to one degree or another possess the attitudes and interests purported to mark adulthood. Self-directedness can be seen in all learners, depending on their personality, maturity, interest level, motivation, and the subject. The role of learner is perhaps the most important role when we are talking about our students. The reason a person is in a class will help define the degree to which the learner sees himself or herself as an apt learner, capable and eager to learn. The other social roles a person of any age, such as worker, parent, or caregiver, may affect that person's availability or support for learning, but are secondary to whether the person is attending to the topic and intending to learn. Finally, not everything a person either has to learn or desires to learn is immediately practical. To pretend otherwise is folly and by implication leads us to assume that only a narrow band of subjects are important or inherently interesting.

Therefore, it is more accurate to suggest that the most important difference between adult learners and younger ones is the quantity and diversity of experience that they bring to the class. The experience may not be relevant directly to the topic, but there is a greater probability that the adult has had somewhat similar life or learning experiences. These experiences can and should be incorporated into the learning opportunities for the relevance to the learner but also, and perhaps more importantly, to enrich the understanding of other students in that class.

Learner-Centered Education
In all his suggestions of who the adult learner is and what motivates and energizes that adult, Knowles emphasized the learner's point of view. Though Knowles and his followers tried to draw sharp distinction between younger and older learners, much of what he espoused applies to all learners, as we have just discussed above. There are matters of degree, but the learner-centered emphasis has wide implications.

Adapting the strong points from the writings on andragogy can enhance Learner-Centered Education for all ages. Here are a few of the suggestions that will support learners.

1) Know who the learners are: their backgrounds, interests, reason for taking a course, expectations, and goals. Integrate this information into the discussions and target the content accordingly.

2) Encourage learners to discuss their relevant experiences, and for others to ask questions about and expand on these experiences.

3) Encourage learners to identify how a topic applies to matters of interest to them. It may become clearer to all involved how a subject relates to the larger world in this way.

4) Pose questions at higher levels of thinking to encourage learners to integrate what they already know with what is being presented.

5) Allow learners flexibility in defining their own projects and applications that will demonstrate their mastery of a subject.

6) Ensure there is a scaffold of support readily available for the learner who wants and/or needs it. Not all learners, and certainly not all the time, are students ready and able to be highly self-directed.

7) Check in individually with each learner as a course progresses to ensure that they are satisfied with their progress and the direction their learning is taking. If needed, make adjustments or offer tangible suggestions to facilitate their further successful learning.

Conclusion
The tenets of andragogy that suggest adult learners are quite different than younger learners are usually taken as a given. Yet, closer examination of the assumptions about adults reveals that we should not be so unquestioning. It is hard to justify proposing any set of traits that all adult learners might share. Adults are diverse, perhaps more so than children. Nevertheless, all is not lost, nor should the practical insights of andragogy be ignored. By showing us that adults, and, in fact, all learners, bring experience, needs, expectations, and personalized motivations to a learning situation, the field of andragogy gave strong support to the learner-centered approach to education. Using some of the suggestions detailed above, we all can make our online or classroom courses, more attuned to our learners, and therefore more successful.

Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Paiget, J. (1970). The Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child. NY: Grossman.

       --Charlotte Redden, Ph.D.

TIP

SPLASH: Using "Napster"-like Technology to make Learning Objects More Easily Reusable

As the members of the eLearning community continue to grow pedagogically (using that term very loosely, to encompass the entire breadth of learning theory), the conversation of the reusability of learning objects (LO) arises more and more often. To make sure that we're all on the same page, the folks at edusplash.net define learning objects as: "the digital files that are combined to make up an eLearning experience. They may be text, images, sounds or even computer programs or applets." These are the little pieces that some educators are stockpiling and ultimately sharing to enhance the learning environment as a whole.

The topic of the "reusability" of learning objects, I think, is less a result of any sort of laziness on the part of course builders, but rather an offspring of the quest for quality. In that quest for the quality, many educators have come to realize that you don't always have to reinvent the wheel, and that many good teaching ideas have already been discovered and created. And, in avoiding the unnecessary evil, we can save time for the next great idea. Websites like http://www.merlot.org/ have sprung out of this dialogue to help maximize effort in developing excellent LOs through peer feedback.

Now, through the use of relatively familiar "peer-to-peer" (P2P) technology, the folks at www.edusplash.net have created a place for educators to share their technology-based learning objects. For definitions of the key vocabulary involved in this conversation, and to read more about the SPLASH project, visit the FAQ page, http://www.edusplash.net/default.asp?page=FAQ, and the NEWS page, http://www.edusplash.net/default.asp?page=News.

Although this project is still somewhat in its infancy, the use of P2P technology seems to be an excellent avenue to allow educators to share and exchange their work - without having to utilize expensive server space. The ability to locate and use great little learning tidbits can really enhance the learning opportunities we provide for students - online, in hybrid courses, and even in the classroom.

       --Peter S. Cassidy, M.A.