A COMPARISON OF THE ASSUMPTION OF ANDRAGOGY AND PEDAGOGY

INTRODUCTION

The assertion that first, there was pedagogy and then came andragogy, is simultaneously true and misleading. What is pedagogy? What is andragogy? Which preceded the other? And what, if anything,does any of this have to do with medical education? In this article, we will explore the answers tothese questions, review the historical bases for the pedagogical and andragogical paradigms.

THE ASSUMPTIONS OF PEDAGOGY

Pedagogy is derived from two words, paid meaning “child” (paediatrics/pediatrics derive from the same stem) and agogus meaning “leader of.” Thus, it literally means the art and science of teaching children. The roots of pedagogy can be traced back to seventh century Europe during the introduction of organized education at monastic schools which were also known as cathedral schools (Knowles et al., 1998). The primary purpose for the establishment of these institutions was the induction of young men into the priesthood. The model of pedagogy first emerged at this time and was founded on several assumptions about learners. These assumptions were to have a major impact on the designof the educational model. The first pedagogical assumption was the dependent personality of the learner. This implied that the learner not only did not know but could not know his or her own learning needs. The second assumption on which pedagogy was founded was that learning needed to be subjected-centered. Hence, instructional curricula were organized around subjects, such as arithmetic and geography. A third assumption emphasized extrinsic motivation as the most important driving force for learning. Therefore, learners needed to be motivated with prizes and punishment. The last foundational assumption of pedagogy was that the prior experience of the learner was irrelevant. This is the concept of the blank slate or tabula rasa. In this model, the teacher need not consider the student’s prior experience as consequential (Knowles et al., 1998). Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as secular and public schools emerged in large numbers, pedagogy was readily adapted because it was the only existing educational model at the time. Today, many contend that the entire educational system has been frozen in the pedagogical approach, ever since the initial application of pedagogy in the eighteenth century. It should be noted that pedagogy is fundamentally a teacher-centered model, where the teacher determines what will be learned, how it will be learned, when it will be learned, and if it has been learned.

THE ASSUMPTIONS OF ANDRAGOGY

In 1833, a German grammar school teacher named Alexander Kapp coined the term andragogy (van Enckevort, 1971). Kapp used the word to describe the educational paradigm employed by the Greek philosopher Plato. The terminology never quite caught on until 1926 when Eduard C. Lindeman wrote extensively about andragogy (Gessner, 1956). In describing his theory of adult learning, Lindeman stated that The approach to adult learning will be via the root of problem solving, not subjects. I am conceiving adult education in terms of a new process by which the adult learns to become aware of and to evaluate his experience. To do this, he cannot begin by studying “subjects” in the hope that this information will be useful. On the contrary, he begins by giving attention to situations in which he finds himself, to problems which include obstacles to his self-fulfillment. Facts and information from the differentiated spheres of knowledge are used, not for the purpose of accumulation, but because of need in solving problems. In this process the teacher finds a new function. He is no longer the oracle who speaks from the platform of authority, but rather the guide, the pointer-out who also participates in learning in proportion to the vitality and relevance of his facts and experiences (Lindeman, 1926). Beginning in 1959, Malcolm Knowles expanded on the work of Eduard C. Lindeman. Extensive work by Knowles and other educators resulted in the development of new assumptions about adult learners (Cross, 1981; Knowles 1950, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990; Knowles et al., 1998; Tough 1967, 1971, 1979, 1982):

I. The Need to Know. The first assumption is that adults need to know the utility and value of the material that they are learning before embarking on learning. As an example, Tough (1979) demonstrated that when adults undertake to learn something on their own, they invest considerable energy probing into the benefits they will gain from learning it and the negative consequences of not learning it.

II. The Learners Self-Concept. Adults have a deep psychological need to be seen by others and treated by others as being capable of self-direction. They resent and resist situations in which they feel that others are imposing their wills on them. However, an educational system that does not nurture this need for autonomy and self-direction is likely to produce adults who assume the role of dependent and passive learners.

III. The Role of Experience. Adult learning practitioners believe that prior experiences are the richest resources available to adult learners. Adults tend to come into adult education activities with a greater volume and higher quality of experience than younger children. Consequently, practitioners of adult learning theory tend to employ experiential techniques, such as simulation exercises, problem solving activities, case methods, laboratory methods, and group discussions.

IV. Readiness to Learn. In adults, readiness to learn is dependent on an appreciation of the relevancy of the topic. Adult learners tend to become ready to learn things that they believe they need to know or be able to do in order to cope effectively with real life situations and problems.

V. Orientation to Learning. In contrast with pedagogy, where orientation to learning is subject-centered, adult learning theory is of the view that an adult’s orientation to learning is problem-centered, task-centered, or life-centered. Adults are motivated to learn to the extent they perceive that the knowledge will help them perform tasks or solve problems that they may face in real life. Thus, adults learn best when new knowledge, skills, and attitude are presented in the context of real-life situations.

VI. Motivation. A sixth assumption of adult learning addresses the motivation to learn. While adults are responsive to extrinsic motivation, they are most driven by internal pressure, motivation, and the desire for self-esteem and goal attainment. Tough (1967, 1971, 1979, 1982) documented in his studies that all normal adults were motivated to keep learning, growing and developing.

One may conclude that andragogy and pedagogy are opposed to each other, but in fact, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive paradigms. It is true that the assumptions of pedagogy do not acknowledge the principles of andragogy (or adult learning theory), but rather focus on the dependent personality, subject-centeredness, extrinsic motivation, and irrelevant prior experiences. However, it should be noted that andragogy contains an appreciation and acceptance of pedagogy in many instances. Thus, an individual who is learning to fly an airplane for the first time and who has no prior aviation experience may be viewed as a dependent learner. In such a circumstance, it is entirely appropriate to employ the pedagogical approach and provide information in a dependent way. However, whereas adherents of pedagogy may sustain this approach indefinitely, practitioners of andragogy would gradually move the learner away from the dependency of pedagogy toward increasing autonomy and self-direction.
So, which came first, pedagogy or andragogy? At first glance, it might seem that the approach to adult learning is a relatively new concept, especially given that pedagogy was formally established in the seventeenth century and the term “andragogy” was only introduced in the nineteenth century. To the contrary, however, all of the great teachers of ancient times were teachers of adults, not children. The great teachers of ancient times all used the process of mental inquiry and believed in active participation of the learner, not passive reception of information. Additionally, they invented and perfected techniques for engaging adult learners. For example, Confucius, Lao Tse of China, the Hebrew Prophets, and Jesus in Biblical times separately invented what is described today as the “case method” (Knowles et al., 1998). In this process, the leader or one of the group members describes a situation (often in the form of a parable) and, together, the group explores its characteristics and possible resolutions. In ancient Greece, Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato invented and practiced the Socratic dialogue, which is quite similarto “problem-based learning” (Knowles et al., 1998). This was a process whereby the facilitator or a participant posed a question, dilemma, or problem, and the group pooled its thinking and experience to seek an answer or solution. Likewise in ancient Rome, Cicero, Evelid, and Quintillian invented a confrontational method in which they forced group members to state their theses or positions, and then to defend those positions (Knowles et al., 1998). Thus, it is evident that the great teachers of ancient times all employed principles of adult learning much earlier than the formal development of the model of pedagogy. These great teachers approached adult learning from an apparent understanding that adults had a need and capacity to be self-directing and autonomous. They also understood, perhaps intuitively, that adults had a need to organize learning around problems, not subjects. Our current understanding of adult learning comes not only from the practices of the great teachers of ancient times but also from groundbreaking work in the social sciences

CONCLUTION

In summary, andragogy is premised on several crucial assumptions about the nature and characteristics of adult learners . These assumptions are different from those that form the foundation of pedagogy, which are assumptions about child learners. Adult learning theory contends that as a person matures, his self-concept moves from dependency to self-directedness and autonomy. It maintains that adults accumulate a growing reserve of experiences, which form the richest resource for their learning. It argues that readiness to learn is increasingly oriented toward tasks associated with social roles. Adult learning theory also asserts that an adult’s time perspectivechanges from postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application and accordingly, orientation to learning shifts from subject-centered to problemcentered. The Table summarizes the principles of adult learning derived from analyses and integration of all the bodies of work in this field.