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Andragogy in the information age educating the IT adult learner

Published: 28 October 2004 Publication History

Abstract

Learning takes place as an act, process or experiences of gaining knowledge or skills about a topic. Androgagy has become the study of how adults learn in our modern society. This knowledge can only help the information technology educator understand their students and help assist in preparing both faculty and students for a better classroom experience. Knowles has taken some general adult learning theory and created the study of andragogy - the study of how adults learn. Knowles' theory of andragogy is his attempt to develop a theory for all adult learners. He points out that adults tend to be self-directed and expect to take responsibility for decisions. Education programs need to accommodate these fundamental aspects.
Andragogy has as a main theme the model of self-directed learning. Knowles' theory states that adult learners are independent, self-directed learners and that adults expect to be held accountable for their learning. Originally Knowles defined four underlying assumptions for adult learners. This has since been changed to five underlying assumptions. These are 1) adult learners need to know the importance of a subject and its relevancy before undertaking to learn it; 2) adult learners are self-directed learners and want to be treated as capable of self-direction; 3) adult learners bring a variety of life experiences that represent the foundation for learning; 4) adult learners are ready to learn those things most relevant to their employment or personal lives; and 5) adult learners are more goal-oriented and want education to be clearly defined with achievable goals.
As educators teach in the information age, adult learners play an important role in the future of education. IT educators need to learn about these adult learners, and how best to structure the classroom to allow adult learners to succeed fully.
Studies in how adults learn have been carried out by Brookfield and McEvoy - for general adult learning, and Malcolm Knowles for the study of andragogy - from the Greek adult learning.
Brookfield lists six principles of facilitation for adult learners. These are: 1) voluntary participation, 2) respect for participants self worth, 3) collaboration, 4) praxix, 5) critical reflection, and 6) nurture of self directed, empowered adults.
McEvoy defines: adult learners 1) are not beginners, but are in a continual state of growth; 2) bring with them a package of experiences and values, each one unique; 3) come to education with intentions; 4) bring expectations about the learning process; 5) have competing interests, the realities of their lives; and 6) already have their own set patterns of learning.
As IT educator, we need to be more aware of how our adult students learn, and be able to adjust our teaching styles accordingly.

Cited By

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  • (2024)Broadening Participation in Adult Education: A Literature Review of Computer Science EducationProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630797(11-17)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
  • (2019)Psychosocial Techniques Used in the Classroom to Captivate Non-Traditional Community College StudentsCommunity College Journal of Research and Practice10.1080/10668926.2019.159025244:5(329-346)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2019
  • (2007)Information communication educational technologies in lifelong learning of underprivileged groupsProceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Software Engineering, Parallel and Distributed Systems10.5555/1353801.1353827(140-147)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2007

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cover image ACM Conferences
CITC5 '04: Proceedings of the 5th conference on Information technology education
October 2004
300 pages
ISBN:1581139365
DOI:10.1145/1029533
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 28 October 2004

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  1. adult learners
  2. andragogy

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Broadening Participation in Adult Education: A Literature Review of Computer Science EducationProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630797(11-17)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
  • (2019)Psychosocial Techniques Used in the Classroom to Captivate Non-Traditional Community College StudentsCommunity College Journal of Research and Practice10.1080/10668926.2019.159025244:5(329-346)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2019
  • (2007)Information communication educational technologies in lifelong learning of underprivileged groupsProceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Software Engineering, Parallel and Distributed Systems10.5555/1353801.1353827(140-147)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2007

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