TCR 5060 – Week 5 Post – Andragogy in FYC

       The 21st century poses a number of new challenges for higher education. First-year composition ("FYC") classrooms, while mainly made up of college freshmen, are made up of second career and older returning students. This is not new for community colleges, but is new for universities. Ultimately, this new context will serve students better. Instructors of FYC often have freshman who are in their first courses of college. These students are lost, confuses, and trying to figure out the very different expectations of college work than high school work. It is tempting to think of these students as high schoolers, children even, rather than adults. However, these students are adults in the process of transition. Therefore, we should utilize practices from andragogy while borrowing as necessary tools from pedagogy when approaching students in order to empower students and aid students in their transition process. Andragogy, according to Malcolm Knowles, is “the art and science of helping adults learn.” Knowles, M. wrote in the 70's and 80's, identifying six principles for adult learning:

1.            Self-concept - Adults are internally motivated and self-directed;
2.            Experience - Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences;
3.            Readiness to learn - Adults are goal oriented, bringing knowledge to bear on their personal and professional lives.  ;
4.            Relevance - Adults are relevancy oriented,  seeking knowledge and understanding which is applicable to their lives;
5.           Orientation on learning - Adults are practical, seeking to solve problems rather than focus on subjects (Knowles, 1980); and
6.           Motivatatition to learn - Adult learners like to be respected and are more motivated by achievement, accomplishment and being treated respectfully.
   
   These six principles, when applied to our view of FYC students, can empower and help these transition learners to become adults in this self-directed sense. We should use an emphasis on andragogy, so as not to enable underdeveloped students or atrophied student thinking. Andragogy might be better understood if we look at how it functions in contrast to pedagogy. Educators also might benefit from using the following chart as a self-reflective rubric for teaching practices (e.g. are students dependent upon your instruction or are you promoting practices which allow students to be self-directed?). The following chart shows some distinctions which are important for the FYC classroom:

(I found this chart from an anonymous blog post at: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/).  By incorporating reflective teaching practices, instructors can better prepare to teach adult learners.  By acknowledging the needs of adult learners, instructors can embrace practices which empower, respect, and help adult learners to pursues a more meaningful education.

References

Keesee, G. (2011). "Andragogy -- Adult learning theory."  Accessed at: http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/30310516/Andragogy--Adult%20Learning%20Theory

Knowles, M. (1980).  The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy.  Cambridge.

"Pedagogy vs. Andragogy chart.  Accessed at: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/awesome-chart-on-pedagogy-vs-andragogy.html