Critical Evaluation of Andragogy against Other Learning Theories in Relation to Adult - Essay Example

Critical Evaluation of Andragogy against Other Learning Theories in Relation to Adult Learning January 7, There have been numerous theories about adult learning by scholars including the Behaviourist, Humanist, Cognitivist, but the one to gain most prominence in recent years is Androgogy for its individual-centred propositions encompassing new dimensions of human learning which, they offer, is affected mostly by one's cultural experiences, individual achievement and life changes. In the early 20th century, the Behaviourist school of thought played a central role in explaining human learning by mainly focusing their attention on overt behaviours that can be observed objectively and measured as indicators of learning (Good & Brophy, 1990). Most of its assumptions are derived from animal research whereby, Behaviourism, influenced by Thorndike (1913), Pavlov (1927), and Skinner (1974) mostly, postulates that learning is a change in observable behaviour caused by external stimuli in the environment (Skinner, 1974). Researchers like John B. Watson and Edward L. Thorndike (1874 - 1949) based most of their focus on laboratory experimentation from where they generated the famous stimulus-response model as they believed that the inner experiences that were the focus of psychology could not be properly studied as they were not observable. In behaviourist orientation to learning, the principles of contiguity (how close in time two events must be for a bond to be formed) and reinforcement (any means of increasing the likelihood that an event will be repeated) are central to explaining the learning process (Merriam and Caffarella 1991, p.126). Using consequences to control the occurrence of behaviour, known as operant conditioning - reinforcing what you want people to do again; ignoring or punish what you want people to stop doing, behaviourists generalize their findings from animal research to human learning patterns in classrooms. The two famous researches on dogs by Pavlov (1906) and laboratory rats by Skinner demonstrated how the concepts of classical conditioning (a process of associating a previously neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to evoke a conditioned response) and operant conditioning can be applied to human education. This orientation to learning has been criticized for its overly deterministic nature of the conditioning theory derived from only empirical evidence of stimulus-response behaviour of animals which, sensibly, cannot be so indiscriminately applied to humans. Their overdependence on single events, stimuli and overt behaviours to judge and evaluate human mind and measuring human learning quantitatively, totally ignoring the cognitive processes in the learner's mind are in great opposition to the views of the cognitivists. Humanistic theorists, on the other hand, advocate the type of education that is both intellectual and emotional, taking into account the personal experience of the learners involved. Humanistic theories basically emerged in 1960's, following the publication of A S. Neill's book called Summerhill, as a reaction to behaviourist methods and was particularly attractive to post-16 education with students who had not succeeded within the traditional school system. Neill's system was a radical approach to child rearing which represented the true principle of "education without fear". In his book Summerhill, Neill maintains a firm faith "in the goodness of the child" believing that the average child is not born a soulless automaton, but has full potentialities. The aim of education, according to him, should include both cognitive and emotional development of the trainees helping them to respond to life not just with their brain but also their whole personality, a feature that has been lacking in modern society. Perhaps the most persuasive exploration of a humanistic orientation to learning camefrom Carl Rogers, a gifted teacher, who was able to demystify therapy; focus on the person of the counsellor (tutor) and the client (learner) and crucially emphasize honesty and the destructiveness of manipulation as should be applied in education. Significantly, Carl Rogers took up the challenge to explore what a person-centred form of education might look like, though his works have been criticized for being too ideally person-centred and dialogical in education which is in part hard to achieve as the focus on the other rather than on what lies between the tutor and the learner could lead away from the relational into a rather selfish individualism. Rogers believed that there are 'ways of being' with others that foster exploration and encounter where learning combines the logical and intuitive, the intellect and feelings. "When we learn in that way", he said, "We are whole, utilizing all our masculine and feminine capacities" (1983, p.20). His concept of a person's self-initiation and experiential learning and his focus on tutor-trainee relationship where the element of meaning to the learner is to be built into the whole experience gained a ready audience (Rogers, 1983, p.20). Rogers once wrote, The facilitation of significant learning rests upon certain attitudinal qualities that exist in the personal relationship between facilitator and learner"1 (1990, p.305). Maslow (1970), however, in his Needs theory stresses the significance of the learner's emotional and physical needs too, on their ability and motivation to learn. "Freedom to Learn" (1969; 1983; 1993) and "Freedom works" by Neill are classic statements of educational possibility in this respect. Rogers emphasized achieving a full 'empathetic understanding' of the other person as is possible which involves a willingness and ability to enter "the private perceptual world of the client without fear and to become thoroughly conversant with it" (Thorne 1992, p.31). Although Thorne argued saying that it is not too simplistic to, "affirm that the whole conceptual framework of Carl Rogers rests on his profound experience that human beings become increasingly trustworthy once they feel at a deep level that their subjective experience is both respected and progressively understood" (1992, p.26). However, quite similarly, Androgogy as presented by Knowles is also intent on facilitating educational situations for adult learners that most effectively promote significant learning, in which threat to the self of the learner is reduced to a minimum and where differentiated perception of the field of experience is facilitated. Moreover, Malcolm Knowles, goes on to focus on the context of the lifelong learner; being more than just about learning or teaching, it sees adult learning as a psychosocial drama involving developed personalities where context of the educational transaction and political climate affect the nature and form of learning of the adult. Cognitivists, like Dewey (1859 - 1952), present a new dimension of the human learning process whereby learning is seen as the use of memory, motivation, and thinking, and reflection defined as "active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends" (Dewey 1933, p.118) giving learners independent willpower to 'infer' about anything when confronted with a given, present situation. They see learning as an internal process and contend that the amount of learned depends on the processing capacity of the learner, the amount of effort expended during the learning process, the depth of the processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972), and the learner's existing knowledge structure (Ausubel, 1974). One other distinct propositions by Dewey was grounded in the idea that "the individual student and teacher learns to reflect on a particular experience individually" (Cinnamond and Zimpher 1990. p.58) and his insight was that thus setting rules for mass learners should be avoided. His works have been criticized for a lack of attention to the ways in which people's sense of self, their frames of reference are formed in dialogue with others. Dewey often speaks, "as if a correct account of the nature of thought would make possible the sort of improvement in thinking which had been promised in the past by others" (Rorty 1989, xvii). Cognitivists facilitate education of the learners by encouraging teachers to employ methods of teaching that help acquaint them with the learner's cognitive processes, rendering the transmission of the needed knowledge accordingly, as Ausubel (1968, p.18) puts it: "The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows; ascertain this and teach him accordingly'.2 Today, with the benefit of insights from psychoanalytical traditions, educators have been able to trace out many key emotional aspects (Salzberger-Wittenberg et al 1983) where perceptions or images are approached as a pattern or a whole rather than as a sum of the component parts. Psychoanalysis has assisted a lot in the development of thinking about group functioning (perhaps most famously in the work of Kurt Lewin). Cognitivists like Jerome Bruner, concerned with cognition - the act or process of knowing, have explored how mental processes could be linked to teaching, emphasizing, particularly, learning through discovery. Shedding light on the process of education, he contributed a great deal of insight into the development of curriculum theory claiming, "how one conceives of education is a function of how one conceives of culture and its aims, professed and otherwise" (Jerome S. Bruner 1996, ix-x).3 A so called 'cognitivist revolutionist' especially in the field of education, Bruner focused on the building of cultural psychology that takes proper account of the historical and social context of participants. Under a close analysis of the behaviourist, cognitivist, and constructivist schools of thought, many overlaps in the ideas and principles become apparent. Malcolm Knowles, following all these orientations to learning, emerged presenting a new dimension of adult learning which is based on crucial assumptions focusing on the 'characteristics' of the adult learners involved rather than the teaching methods used by the teacher. The theory suggests that unlike children, adults come to the table with different life experiences, expectations, and goals. By not acknowledging this, adult learners may very well encounter conflicting purposes, contrasting personality styles, or challenges to engage in an anxiety-producing re-evaluation of self. Malcolm Knowles (1913-1997) states that a lot of adult learning actually takes place informally in clubs and social groups, not classrooms. In fact, in adult learning the appropriate role of the tutor was to be leader and facilitator, not to be the teacher. This role was less central than that of the teacher in a school or in existing teaching and pedagogic theories. Knowles (1970) popularised the term Androgogy to refer to the science and art of adult education and learning which is based on five assumptions about how and why adults learn which distinguish them from the way children learn. In his view, adults are mature, responsible, independent and self-directed human beings that can 'freely' articulate their learning needs, goals, theories and opinions. This sense of a self-concept, unlike the passive nature of the students according to the behaviourist perspective, influences their process of learning and affects how and why they seek education. Factors like, life changes, self-improvement, cultural or industrial changes give adults opportunities for self-actualization, developing an interest in them and influencing their readiness to learn those things which will help them cope effectively with life situations. Based on all the above variables, Stephen D. Brookfield in his text, 'Understanding and Facilitating Adult learning' highlights two overall characteristics of adult learning, 'self-directedness' and 'the use of personal experience'(San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass, 1986). Down the road in their socialization, adults are constantly accumulating a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasingly important resource for their learning and which comes to use in their problem solving of their work and social life. Knowles advocates the use of 'Peer learning' in education, a learning process whereby trainees bring their own life and vocational experiences to the learning situation for better reinforcement of positive education. The idea of a hierarchy of needs of the learners as presented by Maslow's Needs theory (1970), the identifying of different needs by the teacher, and the notion of self-actualization on the part of both adult learners and teachers as stated by Neill did, however, exert a powerful hold over adult education writers like Malcolm Knowles in bringing about Androgogy. However, in practice, a good trainer will use a mixture of strategies based on the concepts of Pedagogy and Androgogy - depending on the nature of individual trainees and the particular learning situation. One of the main criticisms of Knowles' work has been that not all adults exhibit the characteristics that are outlined in his assumptions and that some children possess some of them, this theory is though greatly appreciated in the modern times for its broader contribution to the art of adult learning. Knowles' idealistic model of learning focuses on a need for intrinsic motivation in learners instead of extrinsic motivation by external circumstances (which are employed in Behaviourist views of education by teachers). Orientation to learning based on intrinsic motivation from self-satisfaction and self-esteem gives trainees control over their own rate of progress through training and will encourage them to provide valuable input into what is to be learned. Androgogy, thus unveiling critical aspects of reception and application of knowledge on the part of the trainee, brings to the fore the underlying factors that influence adult learning which may not be empirical but need to be addressed. References Merriam, S 1991, Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide, Jossey-Bass, Michigan. Read More