Pedagogy and Andragogy

By: Babasab Patil

Pedagogy
Literally means the art and science of educating children and often is used as a synonym for teaching. More accurately, pedagogy embodies teacher-focused education. In the pedagogic model, teachers assume responsibility for making decisions about what will be learned, how it will be learned, and when it will be learned. Teachers direct learning.

Andragogy
Initially defined as "the art and science of helping adults learn," currently defines an alternative to pedagogy and refers to learner-focused education for people of all ages. In other words an andragogic approach is all about putting the learner in the driving seat.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

1. The need to know

Youths only need to know that they must learn what the teacher teaches if they want to pass and get promoted; they do not need to know how what they learn will apply to their lives

Adults need to know why they need to learn something before undertaking to learn it. The most potent tools for raising the level of awareness of the need to know are experiences in which the learners discover for themselves the gaps between where they are now and where they want to be.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

2. The learners selfconcept

The teachers concept of the learner is that of dependent personality; therefore, the learners self-concept eventually becomes that of a dependent personality

Adults have a selfconcept of being responsible for their own decisions, for their own lives.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

3. The role of

experience

The learners experience is of little worth as a resource for learning;the experience that counts is that of the teacher, the textbook writer, etc.

Adults come into an educational activity with a greater volume and a different quality of experience from that of youths. The downside is that as adults we tend to develop mental habits, biases, and presumptions that tend to cause us to close our minds to new ideas, fresh perceptions, and alternative ways of thinking.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

4. Readiness to learn

Learners become ready to learn what the teacher tells them they must learn if they want to pass and get promoted.

Adults become ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life situations.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

4. Readiness to learn

Learners become ready to learn what the teacher tells them they must learn if they want to pass and get promoted.

Adults become ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life situations.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

5. Orientation to

learning

Learners have a subjectcentered orientation to learning; they see learning as acquiring subject-matter content. Therefore, learning experiences are organized according to the logic of the subject- matter content.

In contrast to childrens or youths subject-oriented orientation to learning (at least in school), adults are life-centered (or taskcentered or problemcentered) in their orientation to learning. Adults are motivated to learn to the extent that they perceive that learning will help them perform tasks or deal with problems that they confront in their life situations.

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

6. Motivation

Learners are motivated to learn by external motivators (e.g. grades, the teachers approval or disapproval, parental pressures).

Adults are responsive to some external motivators (better jobs, promotions, higher salaries, and the like), but the most potent motivators are internal pressures (the desire for increased job satisfaction, self-esteem, quality of life, and the like). Normal adults are motivated to keep growing and developing but this motivation is frequently blocked by such barriers as

Assumptions about Learners

Preadult Learning (Pedagogy)

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

negative self-concept as a student, inaccessibility of opportunities or resources, time constraints, and programs that violate principles of adult learning.

Adult Learning
The perspectives on adult learning vary according to the context or discipline in which one operates. Many of the policy documents published in recent years take a human capital approach to adult learning with the primary consideration being the development of a skilled workforce. The American Society for Training and Development's mission statement has changed from training to training and development, to human resource development, to workplace learning and performance.

Types of Adult Learning

Cranton classified adult learning into three categories:
1. Subject-oriented adult learning The primary goal of subject-oriented adult learning environments is to acquire content. The educator "speaks of covering the material, and the learners see themselves as gaining knowledge or skills

2.

Consumer Oriented adult learning The goal of consumer-oriented learning is to fulfill the expressed needs of learners. Learners set their learning goals, identify objectives, select relevant resources, and so forth. The educator acts as a facilitator or resource person, "and does not engage in challenging or questioning what learners say about their needs

3.Emancipatory adult learning The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control over their lives, forces that they have taken for granted or seen as beyond their control. Emancipatory learning results in transformations of learner perspectives through critical reflection . The educator plays an active role in fostering critical reflection by challenging learners to consider why they hold certain assumptions, values, and beliefs (Cranton 1994).

The Stages of the Learning Process

According to Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1980), to acquire a skill through instruction and experience, a student normally goes through five developmental stages: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert and master.

Novice
The novice is then given rules for determining an action on the basis of these features. To improve, the novice needs monitoring, either by self-observation or instructional feedback. For example, a student acquiring a second language would be classified as novice when he had learned the phonetic rules for producing and recognizing what seemed to him meaningless noises which got specific results when produced on specific occasions.

Advanced Beginner - An advanced beginner is still dependent on rules, but as (s)he gains more experience with real life situations, (s)he begins to notice additional aspects that can be applied to related conditions.

Competent - At this stage, the competent person grasps all the relevant rules and facts of the field and is, for the first time, able to bring his/her own judgement to each case. This is the stage of learning that is often characterized by the term "problem solving." A language learner has achieved conpetence when he no longer hears and produces meaningless

streams of sound, but rather perceives meaningful phrases which, when used on appropriate occasions, produce effects by virtue of these meanings.

Proficient - The fourth stage is called fluency and is characterised by the progress of the learner from the step-bystep analysis and solving of the situation to the holistic perception of the entirety of the situation. The language learner finally becomes able to combine the phrases he uses into whole sentences, with subordinate clauses, which enable him to describe whole situations, and to use language to request, demand, order, etc. decides how to do it. The expert not only knows what needs to be achieved, thanks to a vast repertoire of situational discriminations he knows how to achieve his goal.

Adult Learning
Learning Styles All students have different intellectual abilities. They think and learn differently. Some learning patterns will have been developed as a result of the schooling experience where materials were largely presented in a way that benefited students with linguistic/numeric abilities. As a result innate learning styles may not have been developed and students may need to be encouraged to identify their own learning pattern.

There are various ways of classifying differences in learning styles. Many theories and models have been proposed. This section will look at three of the most common learning styles classifications: * left and right brain * auditory, visual and kinaesthetic * activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists

Left and Right Brain

In the last 20 years, research has revealed that the two hemispheres of the brain perform different functions. According to Rose and Nicholl (1997)

Left (Analytic)

Right (Global)

Predominantly left-brained people Predominantly right-brained people prefer a slow step-by-step build need to see the big picture, to have an up of information; they are overview; they are the 'global' type of sometimes called 'linear' learners. learner.

Responds to word meaning Processes information linearly

Rational

Responds to tone of voice Processes information in varied order

Holistic

Left (Analytic)

Right (Global)

Analytical

Synthesising

Recalls people's names

Recalls people's faces

Punctual

Less punctual
Prefers sound/music background while studying

Prefers formal study design

Andragogy
Learners are called participants or learners. Independent learning style. Objectives are flexible. It is assumed that the learners have experience to contribute. Active training methods are used.

Pedagogy
Learners are called students. Dependent learning style. Objectives are predetermined and inflexible It is assumed that the learners are inexperienced and/or uninformed.

Passive training methods, such as lecture, are used.

Learners influence timing and pace. Trainer controls timing and pace.

Andragogy

Pedagogy

Participant involvement is vital.

Participants contribute little to the experience.

Learning is real-life problemcentered.

Learning is content-centered.

Participants are seen as primary Trainer is seen as the primary resource resources for ideas and examples. who provides ideas and examples.

Thank you