Malcolm Knowles' "Six Assumptions of Adult
Learning" seeks to establish a framework for adult teaching and learning
that is decidedly different than what has been most commonly used in the West
in the education of students from kindergarten through high school. As Patricia
Williams explains thoroughly in her post, Knowles believed that adults bring a
very different set of characteristics to the classroom in the broad categories
of self-concept, experience, readiness, orientation, motivation, and need to know.
Andragogy vs. Pedagogy
For Knowles, the passive learning pedagogy used on the young in which teachers
acted as a "sage on a stage" with very little regard for the needs
and desires of their students was wholly inadequate if not poisonous for the
adult learning community. Like the Brazilian educator and social
reconstructionist, Paulo Freire, Knowles saw adult learners as having reached a
stage in life where simply “banking knowledge”, as Freire described it, for
withdrawal as intellectual currency on standardized tests was unfulfilling and
even a cause for disdain. Outside of the educational setting, as Williams also
rightly points out, insensitivity to the needs of adults in any other setting
(such as business training) will also result in futility and resentment.
Knowles theory of “andragogy” is posed as an alternative to
pedagogy which is spawn from the behaviorist stream of learning “where the
student takes for granted what is being said to them and they learn it word for
word so they can receive positive feedback from their lecturers (McGrath,
2009). Though some have questioned whether or not Knowles assumptions really
fall into the category of a “theory” and pointed to the lack of empirical
evidence to support his claims, andragogy has resonated with many in adult
education and training because it encourages students to “return to education
and by allowing them to participate they are treating them like equals, and the
student is no longer dependent on them for learning as they would have been
when they were children in the primary and secondary school” (McGrath, 2009).
Credit: thetutorreport.com
Application to General Educational Thought
Though our consideration of Knowles’ work takes place in the
context of a course in adult learning, I contend that what he proposes
represents sound educational philosophy at any level. Even if someone has not
reached the level of taking responsibility for their own learning, experiencing
the enjoyment and satisfaction of new knowledge, and applying it to their own
lives through intellectual or physiological maturity, the approach that Knowles
advocates has the best chance of fostering it. As someone who has spent most of
my life in K-12 education as a teacher and administrator, I see the absolute
necessity of engaging all learners on an appropriate level as seekers of
knowledge that is validated by continual exploration of practical problems in
the classroom and in personal life.
Credit: michaelmccurry.net
Otherwise, education becomes a wasteland of
isolation. “From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school
comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school
in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other
hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. This
is the isolation of the school – its isolation from life” (Dewey, 1990). My
work with adult learners has shown me that adults, by virtue of their experiences
and both internal and external motivating factors, are even less able to live
in such a wasteland than their adolescent counterparts. Yet adult education is
often just an extension of what they were subjected to in their earlier
schooling and “as a result of this experience, adults may be unwilling to
participate in an adult education type course later in life as they have the perception
that the same style of teaching and learning is still in existence in today’s
classroom.
The Challenge Ahead
I see the challenge ahead in adult education as being tied
directly to the greater effort in our society to wrench teaching and learning
from the grasp of behaviorism and political/social assimilation. Applying
Knowles’ assumptions means a profound power shift that restores education to
its rightful place as the conduit for personal and social responsibility and
growth. Only then can we hope to tap into the enormous power of the human mind
and those who shape it.
References:
Dewey, J. (1990). The school and society and the child and the curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pg. 75.
McGrath, V. (2009). Revewing the evidence on how adult students learn: An examination of Knowles' model of andragogy. Adult Learner: The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education. 99-110.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines andragogy as the art and science of helping adults learn.[1] Gathering of knowledge has always played a vital role in the existence of humans. From the beginning of time, humans have learned to survive, learned to increase quality of life, learned to understand how to function in social groups, and created inventions to modernize the world. Malcolm Knowles was instrumental in introducing the concept of andragogy. He theorized that methods used for teaching children were not effective in teaching adults. When Knowles first introduced andragogy he proposed the following four assumptions:
Knowles’ Andragogical Assumptions
Concept of the Learner
During the process of maturation, a person moves from dependency toward increasing self-directedness, but at different rates for different people and in different dimensions of life. Teachers have a responsibility to encourage and nurture this movement. Adults have a deep psychological need to be generally self-directing, but they may be dependent in certain temporary situations.
Role of the Learner's Experience
As people grow and develop they accumulate an increasing reservoir of experience that becomes and increasingly rich resource for learning—for themselves and for others. Furthermore, people attach more meaning to learning they gain from experience than those they acquire passively. Accordingly, the primary techniques in education are experiential ones—laboratory experiments, discussion, problem-solving cases, field experiences, etc.
Readiness to Learn
People become ready to learn something when they experience a need to learn it in order to cope more satisfyingly with real-life tasks and problems. The educator has a responsibility to create conditions and provide tools and procedures for helping learners discover their "needs to know." Learning programs should be organized around life-application categories and sequenced according to the learners' readiness to learn.
Orientation to Learning
Learners see education as a process of developing increased competence to achieve their full potential in life. They want to be able to apply whatever knowledge and skill they gain today to living more effectively tomorrow. Accordingly, learning experiences should be organized around competency-development categories. People are performance-centered in their orientation to learning.
Later, the following two assumptions appeared in publication.
Motivation to learn: As people mature, they become more motivated by various internal incentives, such as need for self-esteem, curiosity, desire to achieve, and satisfaction of accomplishment. [2]
Relevance: As people mature, they need to know why they need to learn something. Furthermore, because adults manage other aspects of their lives, they are capable of directing or, at least, assisting in the planning and implementation of their own learning. [2]
Credit: Aaron Bacall [3]
Does this only apply to school?
The short answer is no! The ability and need to learn is present everyday and in every situation. Learning can even take place in recreational settings. How many of us have sat on the beach looking out over the horizon to have an amazing fact revealed to us? It may have been an observation about how the sun appears to be swallowed up by the ocean to watching a sand crab make a burrow. We don't stop and think, "I've learned something", when we observe interesting and enjoyable things but our brains realize the new fact and log in for future use.
I'm not in an education profession so how do I apply this concept?
I'm glad you asked! I would like to take Knowles' six assumptions and apply them to a situation within my current place of employment. First, you have to have some background information about the situation. I work for Social Services where I manage the administration of public assistance programs. In 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS, decided that the entire state had to move to a new software system. The system was called NC Fast and it was supposed to be able to determine eligibility without the worker having to know policy. Our old system was a repository of information. The worker had to know the policy to determine if clients were eligible to receive services. The worker then enter the information into the old system and the system would issue the benefits.
Credit: officeclipart.com
NC Fast truly rocked our world! The system was so convoluted that the simplest things became frustrating and time consuming. My workers had to learn an entirely new way of issuing benefits on a system that did not work most of the time.
The six assumptions in action..........
Self- Concept: Knowles believed as people matured they became more independent and self-directed. My workers found themselves very dependent with the implementation of the new system. Workers who had several years of experience were now having to ask questions on how to do things that they had done for years. Workers felt very intimidated by the system and frustrated that they felt like a "new" worker again. Most of the workers were very self-directed in their learning. They sought out training and created "cheat sheets" to share with each other.
Experience: Knowles thought that adult learners have accumulated many resources for learning because of their various life experiences. My workers had to use their past experiences with various cases to learn how to manipulate the information entered into the new system so that correct results would be generated. Knowles mentioned that adults can become dogmatic and close minded about learning something new because their prior knowledge has worked in the past. Some learners would not see a reason to learn something new (p. 50). Some of my workers were very resistant to learning the new system. They felt that the old system was fined so why did we need a new one!
Readiness to Learn: The main emphasis of this assumption is that the social roles of adults create a need for learning. Training should be planned around situations that create "teachable moments" (p.52). This assumption was true in my organization. The line workers had to learn enough about the new system so that they could get their work complete. Supervisors had to learn more than workers because they had to train new workers and be able to assist existing workers. Program managers had to learn even more because they had to trouble shoot all of the cases that would not work. They also had to create reports for upper management to show progress within the new system.
Problem-Centered Orientation: This assumption implies that the adult is motivated to learn so that he/she can deal with an issue or problem. This learning is often more engaging because immediate results are noticed (p. 53). My workers could not learn everything in the new system all at once. They focused on learning the processes that would allow them to get their work done. Once they learned the basics some workers sought out additional knowledge that would allow them to be able to troubleshoot their cases when they did not work as designed.
Internal Motivation: Knowles stated that internal motivators was the most influential motivators for adults to learn. Not all learning can be internally motivated (p.54). There are times when learning is required for other reasons. Some of my workers were internally motivated because they have the desire to be the best worker possible. They desired to deliver benefits correctly and as quickly as desired. However, there were other workers that had to be instructed to learn. They saw the system issue as an easy excuse for not getting things finished.
Need to Know: Adult learners want to know why the need to know the information presented and how it will help them. My workers were much more interested and receptive to training once they understood that the new information would make their jobs easier. The workers were much more motivated to learn once they realized why the information was important.
Andragogy is a learner-centered approach where the teacher is a facilitator that will help bridge the gap between student and the information being presented. Corporate trainers should consider utilizing the andragogical approach to ensure knowledge retention, application of information, and motivation of staff.
Chapter 3 in the textbook discusses the process of adult learning. Adult learning appears to be as complicated and diverse as learning in any other stage of life. Most learning theories center around pedagogy, which deals with teaching children how to learn. A lot of times, the focus on how adults learn, whether in a educational setting, work setting, or just general everyday learning is designed around the way children or young adults learn. Instructors, whether in education or in business training, can fail to understand what the needs of the learners are. This, according to our textbook, is not indicative of a good learning experience for adults.
Then and Now: A Brief History of Adult Learning
Learning is something that has always been apart of life. Every aspect of our lives involve learning, from cavemen learning to feed themselves and survive in a harsh environment to us trying to better ourselves in a constantly changing world. According to Ozuah (2005), "all of the great teachers of ancient times were teachers of adults" (p. 84). The process of adult learning and the understanding of the process of guiding and instructing adults has been present for centuries. It has only been recently, within the past 50 or so years, that the need to understand how adults learn has been at the forefront of education and business training. More adults are returning to school for training, more business are requiring training and professional development beyond schooling. The need to understand the adult learner has never been greater.
Malcolm Knowles Credit: utk.edu
While there were a lot of individuals involved in the development of andragogy, there is one name that stands out above all the rest, Malcolm Knowles. Even in his own writings, Knowles states he was uneasy teaching adults. According to our textbook, Knowles sought out people who taught in adult education programs to help him understand the best ways to teach adult learners. As Knowles started understanding the process of adult learning through his own experience and through others working in the field, he began to write and publish about his understanding of the adult learning process. He is considered the father of andragogy and according to out text, "helped professionalize the field of adult education" (p.46).
While there was a lot of different contributions to the field by Knowles, I would like to focus on his Six Assumptions about Adult Learners. Knowles needed more than just a term to distinguish androgogy from the commonly use pedagogical approaches. According to out text, he needed to "differentiate between the assumptions about learners..." so that instructors can properly instruct adult learners. To do this, Knowles proposed six assumptions about adult learners.
Knowles' Six Assumptions of Adult Learning
In 1980, Knowles published a list of four assumptions of adult learning. These included: self concept, experience, readiness, and problem-centered orientation. In later publications, according to our textbook, Knowles added two more assumptions, which included: motivation and reason for learning. Below, I will discuss each of the six assumptions that are central to andragogy.
Knowles' Six Assumptions of Adult Learning Credit: Edtech Tutorials (Blog)
Assumption 1: The Learner's Self-Concept
In the first assumption, Knowles realized that there was a difference between the adult and the child with regard to learning. An adult learner is a person who has grown up, reached independence, and contributes to society through that independence. The adult learner has a responsibility for themselves and for others around them. This independence is directly related to their learning. While a child may be dependent upon adults for care and learning, the adult is responsible for themselves. Adults make decisions about their life and choices everyday. To take that away in an educational setting, according to our text, is to create resentment and resistance with the adult learner. Adults have a concept of self and this needs to be addressed in the educational setting as well.
Assumption 2: Experience
The second assumption is that an adult typically brings more to the table than a child in a learning environment. The adult, for the most part, will have a lifetime full of experiences which will serve them in their learning environment. There are many different learning situations outside of the classroom and an adult learner may be bringing a wide variety of life experiences with them to help with their learning (whether in an education setting or a learning experience in business or professional development).
Assumption 3: Readiness to Learn
The third assumption addresses the adult's readiness to learn. This can be from a variety of contexts, but, according to the text, is related to the "developmental tasks and social roles of adult life" (p. 51). This readiness to learn can be because a person needs professional development to improve in their job or it can be a self-directed learning project where the learner is seeking personal development in a personal or social context.
Assumption 4: Problem-Centered Orientation
The fourth assumption addresses the need for the adult learner to solve immediate problems. It is essential for adults to be able to learn about a topic or issue to solve a problem. While this could be work related for the learner, it could also be personal. It is a process where the learner needs to gather information and apply that learning in an immediate situation. This could be due to the diagnosis of a medical condition or an issue that is going on in their life. The learner may not need to know every aspect of the subject, but may need to know certain information in order to solve a problem they are dealing with. According to the textbook, "problem-centered learning is preferred by adults because it is more engaging and lends itself to immediate application..." (p.54).
Assumption 5: Motivation
In the fifth assumption, the adult learner is more focused and motivated by internal factors as opposed to external ones. Adults tend to want to have personal fulfillment and improve their quality of life. This leads to internal motivation as opposed to being required by an agency or institution.
Assumption 6: The Need to Know
The sixth and last assumption deals with the learner and their need to know why they are learning something. It is essential for the learner to know how they will apply what they are learning to their job or their personal situation. There needs to be a reason other than the traditional "because I said you need to know it". This is largely because the adult learner needs to make connections to the information they have learned to the real world.
So... What Does This Mean for the Leader of Adult Learners?
With all of different needs of the adult learner, what can we do as instructors and supervisors of adult learners? When we are teaching or training the adult learner, we need to make sure we take each of their individual needs into account. We need to let the adult learner use the skills and talents they have and let the learner apply it to their learning situation. A lot of this is easier said than done, but here are some examples of things we can do to help the adult learner.
Helping the Adult Learner in an Educational and Business Setting.
The Thinking Brain Credit: digitalstorm @ stockfresh.com
Lucky for us, the approaches an educator and a business leader can take to help the adult learner are very similar. The adult learner has a lot of different experiences to bring to the table. It is important for educators and leaders to let the learner tell you what they know as well as tell the leader what they need to know. If you are teaching in an educational setting or training an employee, it is important to ask your adult learner what they need to get out of the training (or course). By asking the learner what they need, the leader is better equipped to address the needs of each learner. This is beneficial to the training of the adult learner.
It is also important to make sure their learning or training is problem-centered. If you are training an adult learner (whether in a business or educational setting) it is essential to go beyond the concept and instruct the learner on how they can apply that concept to an issue or situation they are dealing with outside the learning environment. It is important to make training for adult learners relate to an issue affecting the community they are involved it. When you connect the concepts to their environment, the learner will have a better learning experience and will have a strong motivation towards the training (or education) they are experiencing.
If anyone has any other tips for helping the adult learner in the educational and business setting, please feel free to comment. I am sure we are all looking for tips to help us learn as we go.
Resources:
Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Cognitive Learning Theory, CLT, uses the perspective process to explore the depths of a person's mind. The primary aspect of the cognitive learning theory involves various mental components and how information flows throughout the network.
Credit: psybibs.revdak.com
The CLT reminds me of the function of a computer. A computer can obtain information by various means such as keyboard input, scanned input, and internet searches. The information received has to be sorted and stored in multiple places. Some information is best stored in short term memory or RAM, random access memory, while other information is stored in long term memory on the hard drive. The computer has to determine where to store the information so that it would be the most beneficial. The brain has to do the same with all of the stimulus that we receive.
Gagne stressed that different variables influence the learning of different types of tasks. He identified five domains of leaning outcomes: information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes.Gagne believed that the different variable may effect the ability to learn tasks in one domain but not in another. He placed emphasis on identifying the best instructional events to maximize learning. Gagne used his theory to determine nine separate things that needed to happen to optimize learning called Gagne's Nine Events of Learning. [1]
Credit: arcmit01.uncw.edu
The Nine Events of Learning can be applied to both educational and other professional environments.I use the Nine Events of Learning in team trainings. All nine are important but there are several that more effective in trainings. It is very important to "Inform Learners of the Objective" being taught. Team members need to know what they need to learn and understand why it is important. The trainer should convey the benefit of what is being taught to the team members and the organization. The trainer has to "Provide Learning Guidance" to help the team learn and retain the information. Alternate approaches should be used to illustrate the information to ensure that team members have full understanding of the information. The trainer must also "Elicit Performance" by having the team member demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. The member can demonstrate the new skill or relay the information being taught. The trainer should ask the members to complete an assessment or other tool of measurement to "Assess Performance". Last, the trainer will seek to determine how well the team members retain and transfer the information by having the team members apply the skills to various situations.
In Act One, Scene 4 of Hamlet,
Marcellus (not Hamlet, as is often assumed) complains to Horatio that “something
is rotten in Denmark”. While there may still be some decay remaining in the
social, political, and religious institutions of Denmark, it seems that, along
with other small countries such as Finland, the institution of education is
thriving and indeed outpacing some of the world’s major players.
Knowles and
McCluskey
During
the 2009 inaugural meeting of the European Society for Research in the Education
of Adults (ESREA), Roger Yap Chao, Jr, of the Arhus University Danish School of
Education, presented a fascinating paper that echoed many of the points made by
group one and others in the course blog (https://www.academia.edu/1267765/Understanding_the_Adult_Learners_Motivation_and_Barriers_to_Learning).
In the paper Chao outlines many of the primary forces that drive adult learning as well
as some of the obstacles that perplex those of us engaged in it. Of particular
interest to me was his inclusion of Malcolm S. Knowles’ “Andragogy” theory
(covered in the next chapter of our text) and Howard McCluskey’s “Theory of
Margin” (covered in chapter eight). Both approaches embrace certain elements of
the behavioral, humanist, cognitive, social cognitive, and constructivist approaches
to adult learning. Understanding the dynamics of the social, emotional, and
cognitive sorting that occurs during the adult phase of life is key to understanding
Robert Gagne’s “Nine Events of Learning Model” referenced by Lisa Harris in her
post. For Knowles important characteristics such as self-direction, experience,
readiness to learn, desire to solve real problems define the adult learner in
ways that demand special pedagogical considerations.
Pin by Teresa Van
Der Merwe on Psychology and Psychiatry – Pinterest.com
McCluskey sees the
balancing act between the amount of energy needed (load) and the amount
available (power)(Chao, 2009) as the axis on which the many spokes in the wheel
of adult learning turn.
The
Maelstrom of the Adult Learner
Getting the most out of the adult
students (one of the challenges that Patricia Williams mentioned) in my classes
over the years has often depended on respecting the maelstrom that their lives
can sometimes be and designing curriculum and pedagogy that is flexible,
self-directed to some degree, and targeted to sometimes urgent personal,
vocational, and/or academic needs. While there was certainly a significant
amount of drama among the students in my K-12 teaching experience, adult
learners that I have worked with are less driven by impulsive emotions and more
by a need to make sense of the origins, contexts, and goals of their existence.
As Victor Wang and Lisa Sarbo noted in 2004, the adult learner is likely more
desirous of transformative learning rather than simply fulfilling
graduation requirements.
The How and
the Why
Especially in online programs, I
have found that there is often undo, if not exclusive, concentration on the “how”
rather than the “why”. Chapter Two in our text seeks to build the foundation
(the “why”) on which various approaches to adult teaching and learning (the “why”)
will rest. Though in my Master of Arts in Teaching program I try to provide
students with a “toolkit” of specific, targeted resources they can use in their
classrooms, I spend a fair amount of time teaching them the philosophical
underpinnings that guide the selection of those tools. If the classrooms they
are about to enter were static, then those tools would be enough. However, in
the maelstrom of the real classroom, teachers need to be moored to principles
that will keep them from being battered and set adrift when things do not go as
expected and the tools they had placed so much confidence in no longer work.
Whether these principles are founded on behavioral, humanist, cognitive, social
cognitive, or constructivist philosophies, they will help teachers to create
new tools or use the ones they have for purposes that they had not before
considered.
Reference:
Chao, R. (2009). Understanding the
adult learners’ motivation and barriers to learning. Proceedings of the Inaugural Meeting of the European Society for Research
in the Education of Adults. University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece,
pp. 905-915.
Resources:
This link succinctly presents the
principles of Knowles “Theory of Andragogy”. As I noted, this concept is
covered later in the text but, like McCluskey’s “Theory of Margin”, it is
relevant to what is presented in Chapter Two as well as the blog posts. Perhaps
more valuable are the links to other related websites that are useful. - http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy.html
In this Prezi a student introduces
her case study on McCluskey’s “Theory of Margin”. She organized the
presentation well and the visual aspects make McCluskey’s work a bit easier to
understand. Of particular interest for this class is the application of the
theory specifically to digital learning. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICFxyxxBPxY
