Four Responses #4

Helen Dano

Teaching the Adult Learner

   in Diverse Contexts

English CO855—Dr. Barbara Gleason

May 22, 2015

Four Responses   #4

Merriam, Sharan B. “Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning Theory.”

New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.  89. Spring (2001). 3-13. (Class handout).

            I like the conclusion of this article: that there would most likely be a continued debate, discussion and research reshaping, clarifying the concepts of andragogy —and what has been regarded as its antithesis: pedagogy—  and self-directed learning (SDL) and where research will take these aspects of adult learning theory (13).  I had forgotten about this article and Knowles’ reworking his idea of andragogy, he retooling his position that it is not delineated as to say only adults have andragogic manifestations.  Rather, depending on the learning circumstances and the intellectual makeup of an individual, pedagogic features could be found in an adult, who say, was learning something totally new (say wanting to learn a foreign language for traveling and residential purposes).  A precocious child (I had one of those) self-directing himself to play the piano at age three just because he wanted to.

            Further, Merriam does state that just because a person is self-directed in one situation, does not mean a conclusion can be made that that will be the case in any/all other situations.             

Because I had forgotten about reading that Knowles had reconsidered andragogy (6) to take into account situations and people as just noted above when I was writing up my ethnography and wrestled with noted observations of why one those young college students (under 25) in her obstinance acting more self-directed and  andragogic than I would do at age 61 in my last year of my Master’s. For my ethnography, I would have relished being able to have used this detail of Knowles to support this discrepancy I observed had I remembered it.

            And what is curious to me is Merriam’s  opening statement that “we have no single answer, no one theory or model of adult learning that explains all that we know about adult learners, the various contexts where learning takes place, and the process of learning itself” (3). Curious because all that is known about how adults learn  has yet to be so, as she notes by her closing statement  that “a more likely scenario . . . of adult theory will continue to engender debate, discussion, and research, and in so doing, further enrich our understanding of adult learning” (11).