Unit 6

Andragogy

What is Andragogy?

Andragogy is a theory that was developed in the 1980s by Malcolm Knowles. This theory focuses on adult education rather than child education. Andragogy sees adult students as "autonomous and self-directed learners" who are looking to their education for their own goals or to solve problems (UMGC, 2024a). Andragogy can be broken down into six principles.

Need to Know: Adult learners need to understand why they are learning something (Wil, 2020).
Experience: Use past experience for learning activities (Wil, 2020).
Self-Concept: Autonomy in the process (Wil, 2020).
Readiness: The learning must be applicable to real life (Wil, 2020).
Problem Orientation: The learning must be applicable to CURRENT real-life problems (Wil, 2020).
Intrinsic Motivation: Internal motivation > external motivation (Wil, 2020).

Malcolm Knowles. (n.d.). Malcolm Shepherd Knowles. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/andragogy-theory-malcolm-knowles/

Malcolm Knowles

Knowles is known for popularizing the theory of andragogy and coining the term. Knowles based his theory on adults having different and "unique characteristics, experiences, and motivations" that would differentiate them from children (UMGC, 2024a). He crafted five assumptions that give rise to the previously discussed principles. A major concept of his is that adults are searching to be more active in their learning, looking for answers to their real-life problems/needs, and thus being intrinsically motivated rather than requiring as many external motivators as younger learners.

Instructional Design and Andragogy

With what we have already discussed with the principles of Andragogy, there are some simple courses for an instructional designer to begin utilizing Andragogy in their toolkit.

Promote Autonomy: Adult learners are autonomous and need their course to reflect this. Allowing for them to tackle content in the manner they see fit/at their own pace is a way to self-direct their learning (UMGC, 2024b).
Create Collaborative Opportunities: By creating group learning situations where adult learners can get peer feedback and share their knowledge, you are creating a community amongst the learners and enhancing the outcomes (UMGC, 2024b).
Align Content with Real-World Relevance: Utilizing real-world scenarios, case studies, and examples can allow for adult learners to connect the material they are learner to their lives and learn how to apply it there (UMGC, 2024b).

Andragogy in Higher Education

Andragogy's basis is adult learning and the unique aspects to that. It focuses on the relevance of the knowledge being learned, which is important in higher education as the students will typically be there for career aspirations. By having the content relate to the real world and be applicable, the student can take what they learn and understand the importance of it better, as well as be more interested since this is not just some generic equation they are solving, this is dealing with what they are wishing to do. Student's would be able to answer the question of why they are learning something and see that application. While not every choice might be able to be made and they still may have deadlines, there is greater autonomy in selecting courses, instructional formats, timing for the course, and instructor. The student will be able to dictate how, when, and what they will be learning rather than being told.

On the flip side, this level of freedom in selection can cause students to slow their progression down if not managed correctly. Degree programs have specific courses that are required to be taken, and there are times where the order is critical. If the student doesn't have the structure they need, they can cause themselves to fall behind. The same can be said for asychronous/self paced courses as well. A student in a self paced course has to consciously decide to complete their work, as internal motivation is important for andragogy, if that motivation wavers, the student can find themselves in a hole quickly and harm their overall experience. Additionally, the resources required to connect the material to the real world can be prohibitive at times. Finding applicable case studies or crafting real-life scenarios takes time, more time than just giving generic problems, and this can stress the instructor over time.

Prior Learning Experience

Formal: I began college wanting to be a pharmacist. One of my favorite courses that I was able to take before abandoning that dream was Human Anatomy and Physiology 2. I much preferred this course than the first one because it focused on the organ systems, which was more applicable to me and more interesting. I had amazing professors that spoke the material in a way that helped me understand it clearly, their teaching meshed well with the way that I learned.

Informal: I watch so much YouTube to learn things, but one of my most memorable learning experiences came from a video game. In Destiny 2 (this game was a toxic relationship for me), there is difficult content called raids. These are 6 player activities that are meant to be some of the most difficult things in the game. I had a group of friends that I would play the game with, and typically I was one of the leaders in the group. This wasn't because I was the most mechanically gifted, but it was because I would learn the mechanics of the raids and teach them to our group. I would spend hours across multiple YouTube guides to see different perspectives and learn more and more nuance to the material. I always had a blast with this, and my most memorable time doing this was for the raid that came with the expansion The Witch Queen. This was fun, successful, and memorable because of how many of my friends I was able to teach this to in the end, and how it all starts by having to learn 26 different pictures and what the appropriate callouts for them are. All of the YouTubers I watched gave me insight into the mechanics and helped my understanding grow to a point that my group never ran this without me since I was able to solve any issues that occurred on the fly due to my deep understanding of the whys and hows for this activity.

An image in my gaming discord that shares all of the callouts for this raid.

With my informal learning experience, I watched at least four different guides on how this raid was completed, as well as watching at least 4 different streams of it being completed. I'm going to take the six principles of Angradgogy and explain each of them for my learning of the mechanics.

Need to Know: I needed to know this to teach my friends how to complete this raid. At the time, this game was a large aspect of my social life, I had friends in real life, but often I was closer to my gaming buddies and could immediately spend more time with them. In our hierarchy, this raid was the thing we would be doing to hang out for the next 4-6 months, I needed to know it so that we could spend more time having fun and less time wanting to rip our hair out.
Experience: This is a video game that had been around for years at this point, Witch Queen may have been year 5, mechanics within the game existed and some were new to this expansion. Raids always introduce new mechanics entirely, but if you have raided before, you have the teamwork and understanding of how Bungie would typically frame things. I brought this, as well as all of the changes for this downloadable content (dlc) to my learning.
Self-concept: I chose all of the creators I watched intentionally and would skip around through the sections, starting and stopping, screenshotting and taking notes, and replaying video frame by frame at times to gather as much information as I could. Raids were important, knowing all the details could mean saving a death or causing a whole team wipe.
Readiness: While this was a video game, it was very much real-life for me due to how much we played. This was an important part of my life at the time and knowing mechanics meant that I could perform in the raid, teach it, and have fun. It gave me information on how to complete damage phases, what weapons might be best, how to orient the party, and more. Even when to just accept the loss and try again.
Problem Orientation: Well, seeing how we tried this raid and couldn't beat a specific part, this gave me the information and words to speak to get us beyond that part. The next section additionally required an intensive amount of knowledge and let me know how to teach 6 different roles.
Intrinsic Motivation: You don't spend almost 2000 hours with something and it not enjoy it a little. I wanted to be good at this game and I found a great joy in teaching my buddies. We liked to mess around and eventually could do raids in a relaxed manner. I was motivated to get us to the fun parts. The game was a stress relief for me too, so getting even closer to the easy parts was vital for that.

Preferred Learning Experience and PLN

While I do enjoy both formal and informal delivery, informal options fit better with my current mental health and lifestyle. Often times, it can be difficult to get myself to be able to sit down and focus long enough on something to be able to feel like I am making progress in a course. I'd blame TikTok for ruining my attention span, but I'm not on TikTok, so this is more to do with me than anything. That is why something like YouTube is a wonderful resource for me at this time, or other self paced options that are available for me to access and pick up when my brain feels like it can handle that. I know for my Personal Learning Network (PLN) I did choose multiple options that allow for me to drop in and out of learning, which is exactly what I need at this time rather than more options with hard schedules to follow. Though there can be self paced formal options, the ease with which I can drop in and out of the informal options eases the potential guilt of falling asleep on the couch rather than reading my textbook.

References:

Malcolm Knowles. (n.d.). Malcolm Shepherd Knowles. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/andragogy-theory-malcolm-knowles/

UMGC. (2024a). Andragogy Overview. University of Maryland Global Campus.

UMGC. (2024b). Applying Andragogy to Instructional Design. University of Maryland Global Campus.

UMGC. (2024c). Five Assumptions and Six Principles of Andragogy. University of Maryland Global Campus.

Wil. (2020, February 22). Six Principles of Andragogy-of Malcolm Knowles. Brilliant Learning Systems. https://brilliantlearningsystems.com/six-principles-of-andragogy-malcolm-knowles/

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