The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the
University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
Edited by Daniel Schugurensky
This site includes questions and answers on Adult Education that were written by students in the course 'Outline of Adult Education' at OISE/UT. The questions are first raised in class by the students themselves. Then they organize in teams in order to research and answer them. New entries are added regularly. This website is intended to provide information about the field to new students and to those who have a general interest in Adult Education. Anyone is welcome to submit a question and/or answer.
By
Karen Webster, Miriam Zachariah, Joelle McFaury, & Leah McMullin (OISE/UT)
In his book, The Modern Practice of Adult Education: from
Pedagogy to Andragogy, Malcolm Knowles
defines several components of learning for adults, which he claims are different
from the learning needs of children. First,
adults need to be self-directed in their learning because they are maturing and
moving away from the dependency of children.
Second, adults have a vast reservoir of experience, which is rich
resource for learning and suggests that adult learners learn best through
experiential techniques. Third,
adults choose to learn some thing in order meet more immediate needs in their
lives where as children learn because they are told to learn things that will
have some relevance in the distant future.
In addition, according to Piaget and other developmental theorists,
children complete several stages of cognitive, emotional and physical
development, which are presumably complete for the adult learner.
We have compared all of the above components for both children and adult
learners and examined the implications for educators working with young and
mature learners.
Knowles suggests that “teachers have the responsibility to
encourage and nurture the movement” from dependence to independence while
Brookfield (1995) states that self-directed learning is the process by which
adults take control of their learning. While
adults are certainly expected to be more independent members of society,
children can learn the skills they will need for independence early in life by
experiencing some components of self-directed learning. Given the opportunities,
we believe that children are also capable of self-directed learning.
Montessori (1955), writing about children, felt that learners were
primarily self-motivated and generally learned by themselves. The teacher only
played a small role in their learning environment.
Weikart examines this concept in Educating Young
Children, where he describes the need for children to direct their own
learning (child-directed), with the teacher as facilitator, guiding the process
as it relates to children’s interests and goals. This type of curriculum for
children is called active learning. It
is defined as learning in which the child, by acting on objects and interacting
with people, ideas and events, constructs new understanding.
The children also have the opportunity to reflect on their actions,
thereby making the learning experiences more meaningful.
Through this process children become ‘inventors and questioners’ of
their own learning. Rogaff (1990)
suggests that children are very active in choosing their own activities and
companions, directing themselves and their caregivers toward desirable and away
from undesirable activities. Teachers
structure learning situations through joint participation by providing access to
and regulating the difficulty of tasks. Adult
involvement can motivate children toward a goal and focus their attention.
This type of learning illustrates that within a caring and supportive
environment, children as well as adults, can make choices that reflect their own
interests, set goals which are meaningful to their world and choose a style of
learning which best suits them. Bell
(1999) finds that most learners, adults and children, are best motivated when
they are self-directed and can take responsibility for their own learning.
One of the main areas that distinguish the learning of adults
from that of children is the amount of life experience the learner possesses.
Adults have been exposed to a variety of experiences, such as
participating in different relationships, taking part in the workplace and
having significant responsibilities in their families.
Some of adult’s experiences may be spontaneous but others are chosen
intentionally. Children’s experiences, on the other hand, are more limited and
are not necessarily intentional, at least on the part of the child.
Experience is equally important for adults because they often
tend to define themselves through their unique experiences.
In contrast, children, according to Erikson, have not developed a strong
sense of self-identity.
In the learning environment, experience provides a wonderful
asset for adults because the diversity of experiences can make learning more
meaningful, relevant and rich. However,
experience can also hinder the adult learner because adults tend to have more
fixed patterns as a result of their experiences and can therefore be less open
minded than children to new learning. Children,
with less experience, are often more open to learning new things.
The role of experience plays a significant role in learning
for both children and adults. Dewey
felt that in order to be effective, learning had to be based on the learner’s
experience. Children, as well as
adults, need to have opportunities in their learning to reflect on their life
experiences-to explore concepts of family, culture and nature in their own way.
Teachers need to help children and adults access their prior experience
in order to help them integrate new learning into their current experiential
schemas. These experiences make meaning for the learner within the
learning environment.
Young and mature learners also differ in terms of the
motivation for learning. According
to Knowles, adults tend to learn specific skills that may be applied in the
workplace as a means to a specific end identified by the learner.
The adult’s application of their learning is more immediate and
relevant to their particular life circumstance.
A child’s learning is motivated by their natural curiosity about the
world. Instead of learning
pertinent skills that will be useful in the immediate present, children often
learn about skills that may be useful “one day in the future”.
The application of a child’s learning does not take on the same urgency
as that of adults.
Another way we can compare the adult learner and the child
learner is to examine their differing stages development.
According to Piaget’s theory, children pass through different stages of
physical, emotional and moral development as they mature into adults.
We can view development as the change in a person’s cognitive
development, which may include knowledge about stimuli and the environment as
well as age related interpretive tools. Therefore,
there is a need for the teacher to use specific teaching strategies to target
the needs of the young learner.
We need to acknowledge some fundamental differences between
adult and child learners. First, adults differ from children in terms of the
quality and quantity of life experience they possess. Secondly, children have
not completed developing, cognitively, emotionally or physically into mature
human beings. Thirdly, children are generally not motivated to learn by
immediate needs in their lives. However,
despite these obvious differences, the educators of children and adults have a
similar task. Both sets of learners
benefit from some degree of facilitated self-directed learning and experiential
techniques.
References
Hunt,Lloyd. Andragogy vs. Pedagogy - Executive Summary.
October 21, 2001
Jones, Elizabeth & Nimmo, John. Emergent Curriculum.
NAEYC.1994.Washington.
Knowles, Malcolm. The Modern Practice of Education: From
Pedagogy to Andragogy. Follet Publishing, Chicago, 1980
Rogoff, Barbara. Apprenticeship In Thinking: Cognitive
Development in Social Context. Oxford
University Press. 1990. New York.
Rutherford, Jane. Adult Education Learning:Major Theories
in One Instructor's
Weikart, David P. & Hohmann, Mary. Educating Young Children: Active Learning Practices for Preschool and Child Care Programs. High/Scope Foundation.Ypsilanti, Michigan. 1995.
Other links
http://instructordiploma.com/core/102%20B/victoria/mynen.htm
November 2001
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