The modern practice adult education andragogy versus pedagogy

MGNT314 Report to Human Resource Manager Name: Amber Hunt
Student Number: 5397145
Tutorial: T/02 Tuesday 2:30 – 4:30
Location: 19-2004
Date of Report: 05/04/2019

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4. Principles of Learning ……………………………………………….…………….. 5

5. Recommendations …………...…………………………………………………….. 7

Multiple interrelated inadequacies have been identified by Lee (2003) and Sandlin (2005) through compilation of critical literature. Failure to recognise the importance of context in learning, the influence of the individual in learning perspectives and engagement, and the absence of recognition for external motivation are key critiques of the andragogical model of learning.

Recommendations made to PwC Australia for utilising the principles of andragogy in skills training include inciting internal motivation, establishing the learner’s primary role through self-concept in creating learning objectives, measuring achievement to foster motivation, minimise contextual threat, and practical application to create the need to know. Further, drawing on the prior experience of the learner through simulation activities and creating accountability can be employed.

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Conceptualising Andragogy
Learning is defined by Paulo Freire (1973) as a transient state of being, with the durability of educational processes a subsequent result of the interplay between permanence and change (p. 155). The tenets of an autonomous, experiential, and problem-oriented approach to learning are the foundation of current educational practices, pioneered in Malcolm Knowles’s theory of andragogy, entailed as the convention of assisted adult learning (Knowles, 1980, p.

42). Described as a set of guidelines (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991, pp. 249-250), a philosophy (Pratt, 1993, p. 23), a set of assumptions (Brookfield, 1986), and a theory (Knowles, 1989), andragogy is a culmination of all the listed propositions. Best explained as a transactional model encompassing features of the learning activity (Knowles 1980, p. 42), andragogy is developed through codifying differences between child and adult learners, wherein it attempts to understand the latter. Unlike pedagogy, where motivation is extrinsic to tangible reward and feasible outcomes, andragogy relies on the self-cultivated drive of the learner to engage in educational activities for internal pay-off, including the attainment of work or self-satisfaction, and intangible rewards.

promotes responsibility in choosing methods and resources, and accountability in evaluating independent learning (Knowles et al., 1998, p. 70).

2) The second principle entails the self-concept of the learner, consisting of the intrinsic motivation to drive individual autonomy and self-direction. Adult learners possess the notion of being responsible for themselves and their decisions. This principle is significant, as the more closely entwined the task to be undertaken is to the learner, the more effective the learning outcomes will be.

6) The sixth and final of Knowles’s precepts is that of motivation to learn, the intrinsic value and personal reward attached to learning. While some adults are responsive to external motivation such as monetary reward, Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998) identify that the most compelling motivation for adult learners are internal pressures, including the desire for increased job satisfaction and quality-of-life (pp. 65-68). A resonating educational climate for adult learners offers opportunities coinciding with developmental intentions (Van Hook, 2008, p. 17) in which learners feel respected, trusted, and unthreatened by their environment (Knowles et al., 1988, p. 70). The

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establishment of learning objectives (Merriam et al., 2007, p. 178). Through implementing this, the learner’s self-concept is intrinsic to effective performance of the task and is goal-oriented rather than simply compliant.

Further, applying the six principles of andragogical learning, recording absences and statistical data regarding learner characteristics requires that the learner is held accountable for independent and self-monitored learning, stirring motivation. This again correlates with the learner’s self-concept and ensures that internal motivation to meet objectives is implemented.

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This reference was incredibly informative in providing an in-depth and substantial analysis of each of Knowles’s six principles associated with andragogical learning.

This journal article examined the history of andragogy and the development of the features in the adult learning model. This text is recommended to PwC if additional understanding on the model is required, and the manner in which each fundamental feature can be utilised in the adult learning process.

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Reference List
Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum
Giannoukos, G., Hioctour, V, Stergiou, I., & Kallianta, S. (2016). Andragogy: Prerequistes for Adult Educators, World Journal of Education, no. 6, 4, p. 54.

Knowles, M. S. (1989). The making of an adult educator. San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass. Knowles, M., Holton, E., & Swanson, R. (1998). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Burlington, MA: Gulf Professional Publishing, pp. 35-149.

Lee, M. (2003). The Role of Cultural Values in the Interpretation of Significant Life Experiences, p. 12.

Pratt, D. D. (1993). Andragogy after 25 years. In S. B. Merriam (Ed), An Update on Adult Learning Theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 57, pp. 15-23, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sandlin, J. A. (2005). Andragogy and its discontents: An analysis of andragogy from three critical perspectives, PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, no. 14, p. 11.