ANDRAGOGY
Teaching Adults
TEACHING & LEARNING CONNECTIONS
The Educator's Role
Andragogy is the study of teaching adults and is highly influenced by the research of Malcolm Knowles.
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Knowles understood that teaching adults is different than teaching children because they have many more experiences and competing interests and time constraints. Motivation and applicability are more important to the adult learner than to a child.
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Adult Educators are responsible for helping their learners play an active role in their instruction, setting their own goals, leaning on past experience, finding relevance, and solving actual real-life problems. These educators are not merely guards of specific knowledge that they impart to their student.
SCENARIO
Externship/ Job Shadow Program
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I led an Externship Program for college students. I created relationships with employer hosts and we invited students to spend 1-5 days shadowing these professionals in the prospective fields during Fall Break.
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To appeal to adult learners, we made sure to include the students in their introduction to their hosts and helped them develop learning outcomes and goals. After the shadowing day(s), students wrote a reflection paper that helped them link their experience to past work and academic roles. Finally, students projected their satisfaction and fit with their shadow organization and role to their future career self.
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Understanding the students' full and busy life while appealing to their specific motivation for their future career, we were using several elements of Andragogy.
REFERENCES
Finlay, J. (2010, May 17). Andragogy (Adult Learning). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLoPiHUZbEw
Freifeld, L. (2014, December 22). Training for the New Year: Formal vs. Informal Learning. Retrieved from https://trainingmag.com/training-new-year-formal-vs-informal-learning
Learning Theories/Adult Learning Theories. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Learning_Theories/Adult_Learning_Theories#Andragogy
Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy. (2013, April 04). Retrieved from http://infed.org/mobi/malcolm-knowles-informal-adult-education-self-direction-and-andragogy/
Pappas, C. (2018, July 30). The Adult Learning Theory - Andragogy - of Malcolm Knowles. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles
The Adult Learning Theory - Andragogy - Infographic - e-Learning Infographics. (2019, February 21). Retrieved from https://elearninginfographics.com/adult-learning-theory-andragogy-infographic/