THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.4 Andragogy
2.4.1 Self-concept
The notion of self-concept is based on the assumption that as people mature, they move from being dependent personalities towards being self-directed. Self-directed learning describes a process,
.. in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes (Knowles 1975: 18).
Being self-directed signifies that adult students can and should be allowed to participate in evaluating their learning needs, planning and implementing the learning activities, and evaluating those experiences. Knowles further stated that individuals can be assisted in becoming more self-directed when given appropriate learning tools, resources, experiences and encouragement. For example, educators might provide assistance to individuals or groups of learners in locating resources or mastering alternative learning strategies. The learners would then seek assistance through technology or learning centres.
Knowles gave three reasons for promoting self-direction among learners. First, Knowles argues that proactive learners, who take the initiative in learning, learn more and learn better than passive or reactive learners, who wait to be taught by a teacher. ―They enter into learning more purposefully and with greater motivation.
They also tend to retain and make use of what they learn better and longer than do the reactive learners‖ (Knowles 1975:14). Secondly, self-directed learning parallels the natural processes of psychological development. ―An essential aspect of maturing is developing the ability to take increasing responsibility for our own lives—to become increasingly self-directed‖ (Knowles 1975:15). Finally, many new developments in education place responsibility on the learners to take the initiative in their own learning. ―Students entering into these programs without having learned the skills of self-directed inquiry will experience anxiety, frustration, and often failure, and so will their teachers‖ (Knowles 1975:15).
With the current rapidity of change, the continuous creation of new knowledge and an ever-widening access to information, it is no longer reasonable to define the purpose of education as simply transmitting what is known. Instead, the purpose must be to develop the skills of inquiry (Knowles 1975). Being proactive and responsible for one‘s own learning underlie andragogy. However, how learners deal with self-directed learning experiences generated several process models. For
example, Knowles (1975) presented a linear progression from diagnosing and formulating needs to identifying resources and learning strategies to evaluating outcomes. Later models like Mezirow‘s (1991) are more interactive. In addition to the learner, the context of the learning experience and the nature of the learning itself are also considered. This process of maturation where people move from dependency towards self-directedness happens at different rates for different people and in different dimensions of life. Educators need to encourage and nurture this movement in a manner that is compatible with the learners and their situations. Adults have a psychological need to be self-directing, but they may be dependent in certain temporary situations. For example, ―adults resent and resist situations in which they feel others are imposing their wills on them‖ (Knowles, Holton et al 1998: 65).
In spite of their desire for autonomy, previous schooling may have made some of them dependent learners. It is the job of the adult educator to move adult students away from their old habits into new patterns of learning to become self-directed and take responsibility for their own learning. For example, it is motivating to adults to design adult learning with flexibility to skip sections that students already understand and multiple forms of presentation of material which assist people with various learning styles. All these can be used to permit students to follow a path of learning that most appropriately suits them (Knowles, Holton et al 1998).
2.4.2 Learner’s experience
As people mature, they accumulate experiences that help them in their learning.
Those experiences also enable them to help others to learn. Since adults manage other aspects of their lives, they are capable of directing and even assisting in the planning and implementation of their own learning. Furthermore, people attach more meaning to learning they gain from experience than the learning they acquire passively. Hence, the primary techniques in adult learning are experiential ones.
These include laboratory experiments, simulations, discussion, problem-solving cases and field experiences. Adults have had a lifetime of experiences. These make
adult learners more heterogeneous than younger learners and also provide an additional base of knowledge that should be used during adult learning. Adults want to use what they know and want to be acknowledged for having that knowledge.
The design of instruction for adults must include opportunities for learners to use their knowledge and experience. Case studies, reflective activities, group projects that call upon the expertise of group members are examples of learning activities which facilitate the use of learners‘ already acquired expertise. An important corollary to the experience that adults bring with them is the association of their experiences with who they are. Their self-identity including habits and biases are determined from their experience. It is for this reason that those developing instruction for adult learners need to create opportunities for reflective learning.
―Reflective learning involves assessment or reassessment of assumptions‖(Mezirow 1991: 6). Mezirow also says that, ―reflective learning becomes transformative whenever assumptions or premises are found to be distorting, inauthentic or otherwise invalid‖(Mezirow 1991: 6). Reflective learning activities can assist students in examining their biases and habits and move them toward a new understanding of information presented. To have students reflect on learning activities or to put themselves in a different character in a case study or scenario may cause adults to re-evaluate already learned information (Knowles, Holton et al 1998).