The Adult Learning Theory - Andragogy

Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (1913 – 1997) was an American educator well known for the use of the
term Andragogy as synonymous to adult education. According to Malcolm Knowles, andragogy is the art and science
of adult learning, thus andragogy refers to any form of adult learning. (Kearsley, 2010).

The term andragogy can be supposedly equivalent to the term pedagogy. Andragogy in Greek means man-leading in
comparison to pedagogy, which in Greek means child-leading. However, it should be noted that the term pedagogy has
been used since the Ancient Greek times, while Alexander Kapp, a German educator, first used the term andragogy in
1833.

Knowles’ 5 Assumptions of Adult Learners

In 1980, Knowles made 4 assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners (andragogy) that are different from
the assumptions about child learners (pedagogy). In 1984, Knowles added the 5th assumption.

1. Self-Concept
As a person matures his/her self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a
self-directed human being.
2. Adult Learner Experience
As a person matures he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for
learning.
3. Readiness to Learn
As a person matures his/her readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his/her
social roles.
4. Orientation to Learning
As a person matures his/her time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy
of application. As a result his/her orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject- centeredness to one of
problem centeredness.
5. Motivation to Learn
As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).

Knowles’ 4 Principles Of Andragogy

In 1984, Knowles suggested 4 principles that are applied to adult learning:

1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.

2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life.
4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. (Kearsley, 2010)
Application of Andragogy in Personal Computer Training

Knowles (1984) provides an example of applying andragogy principles to the design of personal computer training:

1. There is a need to explain the reasons specific things are being taught (e.g., certain commands, functions, operations,
etc.)
2. Instruction should be task-oriented instead of promoting memorization -- learning activities should be in the context of
common tasks to be performed by the others.
3. Instruction should take into account the wide range of different backgrounds of learners; learning materials and
activities should allow for different levels/types of previous experience with computers.
4. Since adults are self-directed, instruction should allow learners to discover things and knowledge for themselves
without depending on people. However, learners should be offered guidance and help when mistakes are made.
I highly encourage you to read the 9 Tips To Apply Adult Learning Theory to eLearning. In this article I discuss how
Knowles' 5 adult learning theory assumptions can be translated to modern day eLearning experiences, so that you can
integrate the 4 principles of Andragogy into your eLearning course for maximum learner engagement and motivation.

Adult Learners' Traits

1. Self-direction
Adults feel the need to take responsibility for their lives and decisions and this is why it’s important for them to have
control over their learning. Therefore, self-assessment, a peer relationship with the instructor, multiple options and
initial, yet subtle support are all imperative.
2. Practical and results-oriented
Adult learners are usually practical, resent theory, need information that can be immediately applicable to their
professional needs, and generally prefer practical knowledge that will improve their skills, facilitate their work and
boost their confidence. This is why it’s important to create a course that will cover their individual needs and have a
more utilitarian content.
3. Less open-minded And therefore more resistant to change.
Maturity and profound life experiences usually lead to rigidity, which is the enemy of learning. Thus, instructional
designers need to provide the “why” behind the change, new concepts that can be linked to already established
ones, and promote the need to explore.
4. Slower learning, yet more integrative knowledge
Aging does affect learning. Adults tend to learn less rapidly with age. However, the depth of learning tends to
increase over time, navigating knowledge and skills to unprecedented personal levels.
5. Use personal experience as a resource
Adults have lived longer, seen and done more, have the tendency to link their past experiences to anything new and
validate new concepts based on prior learning. This is why it’s crucial to form a class with adults that have similar life
experience levels, encourage discussion and sharing, and generally create a learning community consisting of people
who can profoundly interact.
6. Motivation
Learning in adulthood is usually voluntary. Thus, it’s a personal choice to attend school, in order to improve job skills
and achieve professional growth. This motivation is the driving force behind learning and this is why it’s crucial to tap
into a learner’s intrinsic impetus with the right thought-provoking material that will question conventional wisdom and
stimulate his mind.
7. Multi-level responsibilities
Adult learners have a lot to juggle; family, friends, work, and the need for personal quality time. This is why it’s more
difficult for an adult to make room for learning, while it’s absolutely crucial to prioritize. If his life is already demanding,
then the learning outcome will be compromised. Taking that under consideration, an instructional designer needs to
create a flexible program, accommodate busy schedules, and accept the fact that personal obligations might obstruct
the learning process.
8. High expectations
Adult learners have high expectations. They want to be taught about things that will be useful to their work, expect to
have immediate results, seek for a course that will worth their while and not be a waste of their time or money. This is
why it’s important to create a course that will maximize their advantages, meet their individual needs and address all
the learning challenges.

17 Tips To Motivate Adult Learners

The introduction of learning technology and the changing workplace recently increased the importance of adult learning.
However, there comes the problem of motivating adult learners. There are a few things that stand in the way
to motivating adults to start learning.

How To Motivate Adult Learners

Adults, unlike children, teenagers and students, in most cases, have a lot of things on their minds and your eLearning
course is probably the last one of them. In addition, your adult learners don't see the rewards of their efforts as soon as
they would expect, and giving them candy doesn't work as it works with children. Also, academic habits, they once
possessed are also long forgotten. Least but not last, a lot of the learners are often forced to take on your eLearning
course to enhance their skills, keep their job, get a job, or continue further with their career plans. All this makes it difficult
to motivate learners and make them active participants.

Here are 17 Tips To Motivate Adult Learners that you might try.

1. Create useful and relevant learning experiences based on the age group and interests of your learners
Emphasize on the practical knowledge. It is important to design a course that provides immediate relevancy. Learning
materials that can be put into practice. Adult learners appreciate more practical knowledge, rather than extraneous
facts and theories.
2. Facilitate exploration
Even though children are famous for their exploratory nature and curiosity, adult learners, too, sometimes like to take
the opportunity to construct knowledge in a way that is meaningful to them. For this reason, you should have all sorts
of materials, references, infographics, short videos, lectures, podcasts and free resources available. In such a perfect
learning environment learners are more likely to get inspired or find something that makes them want to learn more.
3. Build community and integrate social media
Keep in mind that social media websites are a powerful tool for collaboration, commenting and sharing. You can
facilitate group discussions and communities. People will quickly start exchanging knowledge, and will also have fun,
social media is fun!
4. A voice behind the video is not enough
Add a personal touch. Your course needs to have a face. Make yourself available to people, invite subject-matter
experts, authors, professors and other specialists in live online discussions and question and answer sessions.
5. Challenge through games
Come up with different problem solving exercises and case studies. Make your learners look for and find solutions.
6. Use humor
Humor would work great even with the most demotivated learners on your course. When your students know you are
funny, they will listen to your material carefully, cause they wouldn't want to miss on your witty sense of humor. You
can never lose with that.
7. Chunk information
Chunking is essential, as it helps people remember and assimilate information. Small bits are easier to process.
8. Add suspense
Don't give out everything your course is about in the beginning. Yes, you need an overview, but keep some interesting
points until the time is right. No one likes to read a book if they know what's about to happen.
9. Accommodate individual interests and career goals
Empower learners to work on these goals and individualize the training to suit their needs.
10. Stimulate your learners
Encourage them to think by either providing them with brain teasers, or by asking thought-provoking questions.
11. Let learning occur through mistakes
According to a German proverb "you will become clever through your mistakes". Have you heard the famous
expression: "Practice makes perfect"? Of course you have! Henry Roediger who started a learning experiment divided
his students in two groups. Group A studied natural sciences paper for 4 sessions, while group B studied the same
paper for one session and was tested on it three times. According to the experimenter, one week later, students from
group B performed 50% better than Group A, even though they studied the paper less. The results clearly support the
argument that "practice makes perfect".
12. Make it visually-compelling
Did you know that 83% of learning occurs visually?
13. Get Emotional
If you don't sound inspiring, if your materials are not exciting, how will you motivate your learners? Get them
emotionally involved too – come up with controversial statements, tap on memories, add real-life stories.
14. Get examples of their workplace
Your learners may not always remember to associate what is learned with its application at the workplace. Sometimes
they might need reminders and a clue to help them make that connection.
15. Be respectful to them
16. Ask for feedback
It is motivating to know that your opinion contributes to the course.
17. Present the benefits of undertaking the course
I don't know why I didn't start with this one. Sometimes outlining the benefits is all it takes.
9 Tips To Apply Adult Learning Theory to Learning. In this article I'll discuss how Knowles' 5 adult learning theory
assumptions can be translated to modern day eLearning experiences, so that you can integrate the 4 principles of
Andragogy into your eLearning course for maximum learner engagement and motivation.

THEORY NAME: Andragogy

THEORIST NAME: Malcolm Knowles; 1984.

ASSOCIATED LEARNING THEORY / APPROACH

Adult learning; constructivist.

MODEL / DESCRIPTION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The notion of andragogy has been around for nearly two centuries. It became particularly popular in North America and Britain as a
way of describing adult learning through the work of Malcolm Knowles. When adult education first became popular in the early
1900s, it was assumed that the same methods and techniques used to teach children could also be applied to adults. In fact, pedagogy
has come to mean the art and science of teaching, even though its Greek root words actually mean leading children

The term andragogy was first used by a German grammar school teacher named Alexander Kapp in 1833 to describe the educational
theory of the Greek philosopher Plato. He used it to refer to the normal process by which adults engage in continuing education (as
opposed to basic remedial education for disadvantaged or handicapped adults.)

Kapp does not explain the term Andragogik, and it is not clear, whether he invented it or whether he borrowed it from somebody else.
He does not develop a theory, but justifies ‘andragogy’ as the practical necessity of the education of adults. This may be the reason
why the term lay fallow: other terms and ideas were available; the idea of adult learning was not unusual in that time around 1833,
neither in Europe (enlightenment movement, reading-societies, workers education, educational work of churches, for example the
Kolping-movement), nor in America (Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Lowell Institute in Boston, Lyceum movement, town libraries,
museums, agricultural societies); all these existing initiatives had important dates between 1820-40 and their terminology, so a new
term was not needed.
Kapp's use of andragogy had some currency but it was disputed, and fell into disuse. In the 20th century, John Dewey, Eduard
Lindeman, and Martha Anderson all pursued theories of andragogy, but were largely ignored in the US. European educators were
quicker to pursue andragogy than educators in the US, and by the early 1970's had many universities offering degrees with andragogy
as a major specialization.

It reappeared in 1921 in a report by Rosenstock in which he argued that 'adult education required special teachers, methods and
philosophy, and he used the term andragogy to refer collectively to these special requirements' (Nottingham Andragogy Group 1983:
v). Eduard Lindeman was the first writer in English to pick up on Rosenstock's use of the term. The he only used it on two occasions.

In the 1920’s Germany, adult education became a field of theorizing. Especially a group of scholars from various subjects, the so-
called ‘Hohenrodter Bund’, developed in theory and practice the ‘Neue Richtung’ (new direction) in adult education. Here some
authors gave a second birth to the term ‘Andragogik’, now describing sets of explicit reflections related to the why, what for and how
of teaching adults. But Andragogik was not used as “the Method of Teaching Adults”, as Lindeman (1926) mistakenly suggested in
reporting his experiences at the Academy of Labor, Frankfurt, Germany. It was a sophisticated, theory-oriented concept, being an
antonym to ‘demagogy’ - too difficult to handle, not really shared. So again it was forgotten. But a new object was shining up: a
scholarly, academic reflection level ‘above’ practical adult education. The scholars came from various disciplines, working in adult
education as individuals, not representing university institutes or disciplines. The idea of adult education as a discipline was not yet
born.

It is not clear where the third wave of using andragogy originated. In the 1950’s andragogy suddenly can be found in publications in
Switzerland (Hanselmann), Yugoslavia (Ogrizovic), the Netherlands (ten Have), Germany (Poeggeler). Still the term was known only
to insiders, and was sometimes more oriented to practice, sometimes more to theory. Perhaps this mirrors the reality of adult education
of that time:

There was no or little formal training for adult educators, some limited theoretical knowledge, no institutionalized continuity of
developing such a knowledge, and no academic course of study. In this reality ‘Adult Education’ still described an unclear mixture of
practice, commitment, ideologies, reflections, theories, mostly local institutions, and some academic involvement of individuals. As
the reality was unclear, the term could not be any clearer. But the now increasing and shared use of the term signaled, that a new
differentiation between ‘doing’ and ‘reflecting’ was developing, perhaps needing a separating term.

Knowles published his first article (1968) about his understanding of andragogy with the provocative title “Andragogy, Not
Pedagogy.” Knowles’ concept of andragogy - ‘the art and science of helping adults learn’ - ‘is built upon two central, defining
attributes: First, a conception of learners as self-directed and autonomous; and second, a conception of the role of the teacher as
facilitator of learning rather than presenter of content’. Providing a unifying idea and identity, connected with the term andragogy, to
the amorphous group of adult educators, certainly was the main benefit Knowles awarded to the field of adult education at that time.
Another was that he strengthened the already existing scholarly access to adult education by publishing, theorizing, doing research, by
educating students that themselves through academic research became scholars, and by explicitly defining andragogy as science

THEORY DESCRIPTION
Knowles' andragogy is an attempt to develop a theory specifically for adult learning. Knowles emphasizes that adults are self-directed
and expect to take responsibility for decisions. Adult learning programs must accommodate this fundamental aspect.

Andragogy makes the following assumptions about the design of learning:

Adults need to know why they need to learn something.

Adults need to learn experientially.
Adults approach learning as problem-solving.
Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.

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.

MODEL

THEORY SPECIFICATIONS
DESIRED GOAL / OUTCOME

PRINCIPLES
1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-
directed human being
2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for
learning.
3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his
social roles.
4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to
immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem
centeredness.
5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal

CONDITIONS OF LEARNING / APPLICATION

Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities.
Adults are most interested in learning the subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life.
Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.

MEDIA DESCRIPTION

ROLE OF THE LEARNER

Learners should know why they are studying something.
Instruction should be task-oriented, and it should take into account the wide range of different backgrounds of learners.
Learners should be able to relate what is being studied to their personal/professional experiences.
Learners should be motivated and ready to learn.
Learners should be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. Instruction should be problem-centered rather than
content-oriented.

ROLE OF THE FACILITATOR

basically teachers should be aware that their role has been changed. Learner-centred classes will stimulate dialogue and knowledge
construction. Learners will benefit from a scaffolding approach to learning where the teacher provides more support in the early stages
of the course; this support is gradually faded until learners become self-reliant.

In a constructive approach teachers should see themselves as facilitators and co-learners. Teachers must bear in mind, however, that
learners are individuals with different life experiences and learning preferences. Some adult learners will still prefer the traditional
pedagogical approach to teaching and learning. Teachers should respect that, and at the same time gradually try to push learners away
from their comfort zone in the direction of a deeper approach to learning.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
ASSESSMENT METHODS

RESEARCH AND APPLICATION

RESEARCH PROBLEM

RESEARCH QUESTION

CONTEXT TESTED

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CONSTRUCTS / VARIABLES
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
RESOURCES (APA Style Citation)
Brookfield, S. D. (1986) Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning. A comprehensive analysis of principles and effective
practice. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.