HOW UNDERSTANDING ANDRAGOGY MADE ME A BETTER ADULT LEARNING FACILITATOR
TLDR: For effective learning to happen, we should all train adults like adults!
“While you were presenting, I noticed you said teach. You do not “teach” adults, you facilitate learning.”
“You were too technical; you have to make technical things easy to understand.”
“Don’t ask an adult a direct question, they don’t like being put on the spot, ask them to volunteer.”
One of the numerous benefits of being part of the Genesys and Tenece team is the opportunity to constantly learn, unlearn and relearn. In my work as a trainer with the Genesys and Tenece team, I had the opportunity to participate in a 10-day Basic Management Trainers’ Development Workshop organized by the Centre for Management and Development.
I assumed getting trained and certified to work as an instructor would be easy. But alas, it was not to be. At least, not in the beginning.
At the end of the workshop, we were all required to do a micro facilitation applying all we’d learnt. I had just concluded mine, I spoke on Increasing Efficiency in the Workplace with Online Collaboration and was receiving my feedback.
This was also the first time I was training people more than twice my age and the feedback seemed to be unanimous. I could have done better
Still smarting from the remarks I got about the session, I decided to study how to help adults learn better for future classes.
The term, Andragogy came to mind. I had briefly learned about the concept at the CMD and decided to research further.
This inquisitive foray would completely change the way I perceived adult learning. Understanding Andragogy has made me a better adult learning facilitator. Given below are some easy hacks.
Adults over 21 are the fastest-growing segment of today’s “undergraduates”, especially in distance and online education. The consideration of andragogical principles in designing courses has become more vital and valid.
If you are in the learning and development field you probably have already heard of Pedagogy and if you are a student of education you have definitely encountered that term in class.
But for those not familiar with the term or trying to remember:
Andragogy means the understanding of the science and practice of adult learning.
This contrasts with pedagogy, which is the understanding of the science and practice of children learning.
Pedagogy literally means “leading children”.
Apparently, back in the day (before the 1920s), there was only one assumed model for learning and this was pedagogy.
Adapted from the Greek word, Pedagogus, this method guided education and inadvertently shut the door to the ways more suited for adult learning. It was universally adopted as the best way to learn. No matter the age of the learners.
Considering the only method of learning was the one that translates to “Leading kids”, I can almost hear most adult learners during that period murmuring, skipping classes and complaining about this pedagogy thing.
I wonder if the teachers noticed that adult learners were resisting the strategies of pedagogy.
If this did happen, it would likely be due to the fact-laden lectures, assigned readings, cramming, quizzes and exams with insufficient knowledge and skills of the teachers that could pass unnoticed in child learning but definitely not in adult learning.
By the 1920s, progress in adult learning had started to take some form and become more systematically organized. A German school teacher, Alexander Kapp, coined the word “Andragig” which later metamorphosed to Andragogy, to categorize and describe Plato’s theory of education.
However, the term is most closely associated with Malcolm Knowles, an educator who had a massive impact on the adult-learning field.
He introduced the art and science of helping adults to learn. Knowles was convinced that adult learning had to be self-driven. Rather than having education be teacher-centric, adult learning should be centred on the students and teach them the power of self-motivated learning.
Knowles initially identified four key pillars of understanding adult learners, then added a fifth later on. Those pillars are:
PILLAR #1: A MATURING SELF-CONCEPT
As a person matures from a child to an adult, their self-concept also matures. They move from being dependent on others to being self-driven and independent.
In other words, maturity leads to growing independence and autonomy. Whereas children are fully dependent on others for learning and understanding, adults learn and understand independently.
PILLAR #2: INCREASING EXPERIENCE
In addition to a maturing self-confidence, adults build an increasing reservoir of experience. This increasing experience becomes a deepening resource for their learning. Children, on the other hand, have very little experience and must rely on the experience of others to learn.
One of the problems I found in implementing andragogy was the fact that I was training adults who knew next thing nothing about tech on Information and Communication Technology.
How could I possibly tap from their non IT well of experience to help facilitate effective learning?
I decided to go with a combination of lecturing and something I have decided to call opposites. The plan was simple, first I lectured them on novel concepts in tech, then I questioned them about instances where tech would have helped them be more efficient, but didn’t because they did not know any better.
Next thing I know, the participants began sharing their experiences with the class and the concepts began to make more sense to them, chiefly because we leveraged on their past experiences.
PILLAR #3: INCREASING READINESS TO LEARN
As an adult moves into various social roles (employee, parent, spouse, citizen, etc.), their readiness to learn becomes oriented toward those roles.
Consider how this plays out in life. As an adult moves into the workforce, they must orient their learning toward the skills necessary for their job. As they become a parent, they suddenly must learn all that’s involved in taking care of children. New roles require new knowledge.
PILLAR #4: A SHIFTING APPLICATION AND ORIENTATION
When a person is young, their application of a subject is postponed and their orientation is subject-centred. For example, when I was looking for x in mathematics back in secondary school, I didn’t normally apply it immediately to real-life problems. I still haven’t applied it yet.
As a person matures, their application of learning becomes immediate and more problem-centred. You learn how to type faster? You immediately apply that knowledge.
PILLAR #5: AN INTERNAL MOTIVATION TO LEARN
A child’s motivation to learn is typically external. They are required to go to school and will encounter externally enforced consequences if they don’t. This changes as they mature into adults.
Adults are motivated to learn internally. They want to grow in self-development. They desire to move up the career ladder and need to acquire new skills. They find themselves facing an unfamiliar problem and need to find a solution. Instead of having education forced on them, adults actually pursue education.
These five pillars provide the foundation for how Knowles understood adult learning and andragogy. Knowles believed that all adult learning must take these five pillars into account and shape the teaching and curriculum accordingly.
So, what outcomes should andragogy produce?
According to Knowles, adult education should always produce these outcomes.
OUTCOME #1: A MATURE UNDERSTANDING OF ONESELF
Proper adult education helps adults understand themselves clearly and objectively. As they grow in self-understanding, adults should also increase in self-respect and a passion for continuing growth.
If an adult understands themselves, it is infinitely easier to identify areas where they are lacking and make concerted efforts to bridge that gap with training. Ideally, andragogy should enable adults have a mature understanding of themselves.
OUTCOME #2: ACCEPTANCE, RESPECT, AND LOVE TOWARD OTHERS
In addition to increasing self-respect and love, andragogy should lead adults to increasingly accept, respect, and love others. There must be a keen understanding of the difference between people and ideas. This understanding will give adults the power to thinking critically about ideas without attacking or threatening the people who hold them.
I was doing a course on LinkedIn Learning(another perk of being on the Genesys team 😊😉) on creativity when I came across the “Yes, and…” principle. Basically, no matter what suggestions people make, accept it first (yes) and (and) add to it. No idea is a waste.
Not surprisingly, this principle was discussed at length during the workshop. In adult learning, treat everything as an improv session, accept first then add to it.
OUTCOME #3: A FLUID AND DYNAMIC ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE
Every experience is a new opportunity for adults to learn. Additionally, people are always changing, which adults must learn to accept and even embrace. When combined, this means that adult learning should create a dynamic, even passionate attitude toward life that causes people to embrace every new experience as an opportunity to learn.
One of my favourite sessions during the workshop was the Case Study session. The facilitator (also my favourite facilitator) kept on reminding us that everything we do is a case study. You miss the bus to work? Case study. You get into a spat with your boss? Case study. Andragogy should ensure that adults constantly see everything around them as an opportunity to learn.
OUTCOME #4: UNDERSTANDING AND REACTING TO CAUSES, NOT SYMPTOMS
Normally, when a problem arises, people respond to the symptoms. Proper andragogy should change this. Rather than only seeing symptoms, adults should be able to see beneath, to the actual root causes of the problem. Once they understand the root causes, they can appropriately react.
OUTCOME #5: UNDERSTANDING HUMAN EXPERIENCE
People tend to assume that modern equals better and to ignore the past. Andragogy creates a perspective shift. It teaches people to understand, appreciate, and share ideas, experiences, and traditions of the past. Rather than chalking up the past as irrelevant, it highlights it as essential.
Teaching tech to adults who used to send letters, can still use typewriters perfectly and say things like, Facebook, but are you facing your books? taught me the importance of understanding and appreciating the past and using it to better understand the present.
OUTCOME #6: UNDERSTANDING OF AND ABILITY TO CHANGE SOCIETY
Living in a “democracy” requires that adults be able to understand the society they live in and bring about effective change. Thus, proper adult education educates people on the social order and how that social order is shaped.
After all my research and whatnot, the major challenge I faced was redoing all of my training materials to conform to the standards of Andragogy. It wasn’t fun at all!
Next, the implementation proper started, here I have to give major props to my first students, post andragogy research, Joy and Uju, they were literally my guinea pigs.
I also had to unlearn a myriad of things. I had to make a conscious effort to stop myself from selecting people to answer questions, from rambling on and on, from lecturing and even from telling people who volunteered to answer questions that they were wrong.
In conclusion…
It is worthy of note that adults as learners are unique and different compared with children and teens. They have special needs and requirements as learners. Understanding the psychology of adult learning is key when we want effective learning to occur.
It is also very important to know that andragogy has come to be understood as an alternative to pedagogy; a learner-focused approach for people of all ages.
Learning is fundamental and necessary in every profession, institution, and organization. The learners in these environments are adults requiring the use of appropriate strategies to facilitate learning.
As it stands, I have done a couple more training sessions since my first session at CMD, practising these tenets of andragogy.
Not to blow my trumpet or anything, the feedback has been astounding! Learning continues to occur during my sessions and I proudly witness adults acquire new skills from my teachings. Amazing! (Actually, I am blowing my trumpet 😁😊)
