Andragogy-The Art of Adult Learning

Have you ever wonder why when you were a student you felt so reluctant to attend a lecture but now that you have graduated you, surprisingly, learn more passionately?

Well, I do. Now, I read more books and many references without even being told to do so. I know that some of my blogger friends read a lot and they learn how to write, voluntarily.

In a training I had to attend as a junior lecturer, I learned about Andragogy. Andragogy applies to any form of adult learning. The term was originally used by Alexander Kapp (a German educator) in 1833, was developed into a theory of adult education by the American educator, Malcolm Knowles.

Now, adults here means mature psychologically and sociologically. In Indonesia that means if you are 17 years old or older.

Basically, it has four principles:

(1) Adults need to know why they need to learn something. When I studied at electrical engineering department, I never know why I study transformation method, signal and system and stuff, because my teacher never told why. So, I and I believe most of my friends, studied because we need to have a good mark in order to have a good GPA.

(2) Adults need to learn experientially. For Instance, if you want your student to learn about bugs in programming, ask your students to do some programming. As a beginner, I believe there will be plenty of bugs.

(3) Adults approach learning as problem-solving. Give real cases to solve. I heard that Problem Based Learning works really well in the medical faculty, UGM.

(4) Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life. One of my friends was interested in studying logical fallacies because he was frustrated in dealing with what he refers to be a non-smart blogger. While, Logical fallacies can be a very serious&geeky topic to some people hihihiii...

In practical terms, Andragogy means that instruction for adults needs to focus more on the process and less on the content being taught. Strategies such as case studies, role playing, simulations, and self-evaluation are most useful. Instructors adopt a role of facilitator or resource rather than lecturer or grader.

Moreover, if you want to be treated like an adult, you should act like and take the responsibility of an adult.