This reflection is for EDTECH 522, Module 1
What are the primary criticisms of andragogy and where do you stand on the issues?
Proponents of andragogy as a separate practice from pedagogy claim that instructional techniques used with children are not entirely appropriate for use with adult learners. As presented by Stravredes (2011), Knowles, Holton, & Swanson maintain that adults are more likely to be self-motivated, and that adults place more value on associating new information with existing knowledge, as well as on understanding how the new information will be useful to them. In addition, adults depend more on internal motivation (Chap 2, para. 5-8). Further but alternative support for the difference between children and adults is proposed by David Grow, who describes the stages of learning that adult students are likely to go through, including gradual movement from dependent learner to self-motivated learner (Stravredes, 2011, Chap 2, Self-Directedness, para. 2).
As stated in Taylor & Kroft (2009), there has been little effort to investigate how valid these claims are. As a starting point, it is not clear if andragogy is a theory of learning that can be used to improve student outcomes, or if it is simply a philosophy that can act as a guide for instructors of adult learners. If it is a theory, we should be able to prove it using evaluations of students, to see if the techniques are effective at improving learning. However, because andragogy rests on a foundation where the learner determines what they will learn, it is very difficult to compare the outcomes of one student to the outcomes of another student.
Samaroo, Cooper, & Green (2013) summarize the recognized difference between pedagogy and andragogy as that of directed learning versus self-directed learning. In other words, pedagogy includes the assumption that children need a teacher to manage what the children learn, while adults are more capable of learning on their own, without specific instruction. However, they claim that the emphasis on the fact that a child requires a teacher is overstated. They maintain that all people of any age learn through self-direction, regardless of age, and that any learner can benefit from a teacher who acts as a guide through the learning process. They use the term pedandragogy to describe this model of teaching.They recognize that there are differences between how children and adults approach learning, but they also claim that all people learn in essentially the same way, regardless of age or other differences. Their model includes creating an appropriate learning environment for each student on an individual basis, with emphasis on self-directed learning techniques (p. 85).
I tend to follow Samaroo, Cooper, & Green’s (2013) model that emphasizes individual learning differences instead of grouping specific learning styles by general characteristics. I believe that any successful learner must have some amount of internal motivation toward the learning process, and that the internal motivation drives a process of self-directed learning. In my experiences as a teacher and as a mother, those learners who have been most successful are those who took on challenges that were not required by the expectations of the teacher or the course. I do not think that age or other societal characteristics are as important as the learner’s willingness to learn.
At the same time, though, I do believe that Grow’s stages of learning as described by Stavredes (2011) describe an essential part of the learning process for any age student. Any learner can benefit from some amount of guidance on how and why they should learn new skills, and some learners will need more than others. However, the truly successful student--who not only learns the new skills but who also knows how to use those skills in other contexts and how to find even more information about how those skills can be used--must reach the point where they do not depend on another person to show them how to learn new things.
As an interesting and relevant point, I happened to come across a TED talk this week on this specific subject. It was given by Sugata Mitra in 2010, and it is entitled “The child-driven education.’ While I think that it is important to hear the talk in its entirety, his experiment of giving tools to children in poor neighborhoods and watching them learn from teaching themselves and each other demonstrates that children are capable of teaching themselves.
References
Mitra, S. (2010, July) The child-driven education. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education
Samaroo, S., Cooper, E., & Green, T. (2013). Pedandragogy: A way forward to self-engaged learning. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 25(3), 76-90. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.boisestate.edu/docview/1532178557/C60E49371AE4756PQ/1?accountid=9649
Stavredes, T. (2011) Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Online-Teaching-Foundations-Strategies/dp/0470578386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409602551&sr=8-1&keywords=stavredes+2011+effective+online+teaching
Taylor, B., & Kroft, M. (2009) Andragogy's Transition into the future: Meta-analysis of andragogy and its search for a measurable instrument. Journal of Adult Education 38(1). Retrieved from http://edtech.mrooms.org/pluginfile.php/91632/mod_resource/content/0/M1/Taylor_Kroth_2009.pdf
Where are you on the Grow's Staged Self-Directed Learning Model described in Stavredes (2011)? What is the implication of this model for you as an online teacher?
I am firmly in Stage 4 of Grow’s Staged Self-Directed Learning Model. I have already completed one Masters degree and most of a PhD in French Linguistics, and I have chosen to complete this Masters degree in Education Technology as a personal learning project, rather than as a job requirement or because of other people's expectations. I have also started several free MOOCs, but only completed one to its end. (I don’t see the unfinished MOOCs as a failure, however. For those classes I did not finish, I made the decision to stop participating either because I had no motivation to learn the content, or because other things became more important to me at the time.) I am well-organized in terms of scheduling my time effectively, and understanding what I need to do to learn what I want to learn. I rely little on an instructor except as a guide to help me determine the best order in which the learning process should take for the class, and I find that I resent instructors who try to control the class flow too restrictively--by placing too strict limits on what content is available, for example, or by trying to impose their own concepts of how students should learn the material (Stravredes, 2011, Chap 2, Self-Directedness, para. 5).
As an online teacher, I tend to think that my students are as advanced in Grow’s Model as I am, and as a result, I often stay by the side of the learning activities provided in my classes, stepping in only when things seem to get too far off-course. As a result, while I do read everything posted to discussion boards, I rarely post to them except to answer questions or to prompt a student with an interesting idea to expand on that idea. Instead, I like to see that students are interacting and learning from their peers. When I first started teaching online, I did post much more frequently, with the idea that I would be more “present” in the class that way, but I found that it often made it too easy for students lean on me to guide them. By waiting a day or two to post a reply that I feel is necessary, I am giving other students the chance to step into that gap, and they often do it quite well.
While the ideal online student should be at Stage 4, I also recognize that there are many who are not, especially in the classes I teach at the 100- and 200-level. At the start of each quarter, I do try to identify where my students are on Grow’s spectrum, then try to make more effort to guide the students who are still clearly at Stage 1 or Stage 2. This can be very challenging in an online class, however, because many of the students at the lower stages lack confidence not only in their ability as a student, but also in their understanding of how classes function online. For these students, rather than imposing myself as a strong instructor in the online discussion boards, I tend to reach out to them by phone or email, so that I can provide a more personalized interaction with the course material. As the quarter progresses, though, I try to wean these students off the need to rely on me, and show them that they can be more independent in the learning process.
As an analogy, virtually every video game I have ever played--be it for a child or an adult--includes a tutorial as a starting point, to teach the new player the basic skills required to be successful in the game. Some players will need more practice in learning these skills than others, and a few players may decide that the game is too complicated before even making it through the tutorial. I think that any approach to education should include this stair-step approach that allows the learner to acquire the basic set of skills required for the learning goal, and to move forward at their own pace as they master those skills.
Reference
Stavredes, T. (2011) Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Online-Teaching-Foundations-Strategies/dp/0470578386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409602551&sr=8-1&keywords=stavredes+2011+effective+online+teaching
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