For Sonya: Teaching Adults: the longest blog I’ve written since the beginning!! Grab a cuppa java and sit back and muddle through. I promise it all makes sense at the end.

And if it doesn’t all make sense, you tell me in the morning, Sonya, and I promise to clean it up a bit. Just brainstorming tonight

 

Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching children. Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn. Hmmm…. notice the difference?  In the first approach, the focus is on teacher-directed education with the underlying premise that learners are dependent upon the teacher for their learning. In the second approach, the focus is on learner-centered education that guides learners to be self-directed and independent in their learning. In adult education, we hope that students will be, at the least, equal partners with equal responsibility in the learning process. The ideal, of course, is that learners will be intrinsically motivated to figure out both what and how to learn. I teach online higher education courses and it really irks me when people talk about principles of “online pedagogy” when we should be thinking and talking in terms of online andragogy. Big difference there, folks, but …. are you ready for this …… the different is ONLY in concept and practice, not in the different ages of our learners.

Surprised? Well there’s more surprises around the next few paragraphs so let’s get on with it.  Pedagogy is teacher-directed education and I suppose that is why, when we talk about, or hear others talk about, online teaching and learning in higher education the term “pedagogy” is bandied about freely. I honestly believe that online higher ed teachers are SO rooted in pedagogy that they either don’t know how, or are even afraid to guide their students, nay expect their students, to be self-directed, independent, and responsible learners. Did I really say “Afraid to”? Yes, I did say that because, for most faculty, this means giving up too much control in the classroom. No more lectures; no more lock-step weekly assignments; no more everyone doing the same thing at the same pace. My gosh they say, if we do that, what’s left for us to do? Well we give it all up to the learners and then we let them be the teachers and we learn right along with them, guiding the process along the way and keeping everything and everyone on track.

Granted, it is difficult for some professors (teachers of all levels of students, actually) to give up control in the classroom. What? Let the students decide what to learn? Say what? You mean let them also decide how they’re going to learn whatever it is they decide they need to learn? What if they don’t want to learn what’s in the syllabus in my course? Well the easy and obvious answer is that you provide them with the learning objectives and outcomes and they meet those however they need to. Some can do that in half the semester. Others will need to take the class more than once. But make no mistake about it — I am not talking about total free rein here. YOU provide the structure, the objectives, the learning outcomes, the learning activities so the learners can use those tools to learn. But here’s another surprise! YOU do not have sole control over assessment of learning. Mmm hmmmm…….. YOU have to share that with your students, too. oops …… Hey…. you over there…. can you help that fella who just fell on the floor in a dead faint? I think he teaches .. .oh nevermind, there he goes.

When I was an undergrad, I didn’t want to waste time taking courses in which I already knew all the stuff but they were on my required list of courses for my degree. How boring is that?  So, I had this idea long before clep exams were ever invented. I made a deal with my advisor (who cleared it with the dean). I chose a couple of required courses for my major that I felt I already knew all the required material from previous background and experience. The professors (not happy campers about this either, by the way) were to give me the textbook, any lecture or study notes provided to the entire class, and give me two weeks to prepare for the final exam. My grade in the course would be the grade I earned on the exam. I did that for three courses and have three As for those courses on my undergraduate transcript. On the flip side, I really hate to tell this …. but I took algebra twice in a classroom before I got a minimally passing grade and I took economics twice, in a classroom, same result. Obviously there were different things I needed to learn in all those classes. And it was all based on what I already knew going into those exams or those classes. 

Was motivation a factor in my passing the exam classes with flying colors and minimally passing the in class courses? I don’t think so. I was plenty motivated, desperate in fact, to pass math and econ but I just didn’t have the skills or the background. I knew nothing going into either class. I was motivated to learn and learn I did. But not nearly as much as most of the other people in my class. But I passed, finally. And I learned what I needed to know in all those courses, including the ones I studied for and took an exam without ever sitting my behind in the classroom as well as in the ones where, had I not sat my behind in the classroom, I would have failed for sure. I had choices in both what and how to learn. I made the right choice based on what I already knew and what I never had known. Did all this work for me? Sure seems that way. And I lead my students to figure out what they need to know to successfully master the course objectives and then take it from there.

And the best part? Well, since they are given the responsibility of making those kinds of decisions, then they earn a little self-confidence along the way. When they make the right choice, then they’re doing what they want to do. And they are exhibiting mature and responsible behavior and gaining more confidence in their ability to make the correct choices. Because higher education is not about pedagogy, it’s about andragogy.

 So we who teach in higher education (and remember this entire blog is bout ONLINE teaching) must learn to be comfortable with leading our adult learners to be self-directed. How do we do this? Actually it’s rather easy. And I’ve learned over the years, from teaching both young children and adults, that it works with young children, too, albeit on a different level. I know because I taught young children (yes in public schools, in both affluent and low socio-economic areas) to be self-directed. It can be done if a teacher is willing to lead rather than spoon-feed. Many of the principles that apply to teaching adults can and should also apply to teaching children. But we’ll leave that for now and focus on adult education.

First we must consider who or what is an adult? When a person reaches age 16 or 18 or 21, is he or she automatically an adult learner? Uh uh .. not really. Sometimes even after a person reaches 30, 40, 50 or whatever, he or she is STILL not an adult learner. Teachers (consider this synonymous with instructors, professors, and such) must teach learners how to be adult learners. Some adults come to our classrooms scared to death of two things. Technology is fear number 1. That feeds into fear #2, which is failure. Adults are afraid of failing. There are a lot of reasons for this and I’ve seen them all so let’s not go there. Let’s just say that they all fear something and it is our job to banish that fear, find that part of them inside that wants to learn (you know they wouldn’t be in your class if they didn’t want to learn somewhere deep inside all that fear of whatever), and help them let it loose. Once they start giving up the fear, the sky is the limit and they will continue to fly until or unless we shoot them down.

And we have to be VERY careful not to do that. Because it’s almost easier to shoot down the light in an adult’s eyes than a child’s. Children are far more adaptable than adults and if you tell them or show them you think they’re stupid, they’ll just dust themselves off and try it again. For a few years anyway and then they get worn down too. But consider that our adult learners have been shot down and told, in many ways, for many years, that they are stupid. This has gone on for so long that we’re lucky sometimes to even find a tiny spark of interest that’s not been totally drowned out by fear.

So here’s what you do —- Ready to learn? 

Every learner comes to us with prior knowledge and experience in many different areas. I’ve had 5 year old learners who knew more about some things that I did. It was simply a matter of their experience and background. For example, one of my kindergarten students many years ago taught a class lesson about how to snow ski. This kid’s lesson was so good that he was invited to present the lesson to each class on every grade level up through the fifth graders. I’ve never been skiing in my life (don’t want to either but that’s beside the point). If I had been of a mind to go skiing, I could have been a pretty good beginner after this kid’s lesson. And remember, he was only five years old and he taught something I couldn’t teach.

A simplistic example, perhaps, but one that demonstrates that everyone knows something that someone else does not know. Now let’s take this to the higher education level. I would bet any amount of money that in every single one of your classes, you have more than one student who knows something more about the subject you teach than you do. The interesting thing is, that most teachers don’t realize that. Why? Because they don’t ask. They don’t try to find out what each learner in the class already knows and still needs to know about the course objectives. And if the teacher doesn’t care, then the learner will be afraid to ask. And the vicious cycle continues round and round.

So what does this have to do with adult education? Simply that we must acknowledge what our adult students already know and we must encourage them to share that knowledge and experience with others. Our learners become the teachers. And then they, in turn, learn from their peers who also share what they already know. What’s our part in the process (we’re the teachers, remember?)? Our part is to encourage them to go beyond what they already know and have taught each other. We ignite the fire that they each have inside them to WANT to know more. Then they each choose what more they want to learn about the topic or issue (each week or in each unit or however you structure your course material) and then they choose HOW they want to learn it.

In online classes, I have a structured outline of topics/issues to cover within the subject of the course. Within that structure, I provide flexibility so that students have choices in content and learning methodology. In every course I provide a variety of learning activities from which they may choose at some point or another during the course (research, writing, presentations, and the list goes on). In every course, there are also choices of content for individual and group discussions and projects. I don’t tell them what to study and what to write — they figure it out. I give them guidelines and possibilities, but they brainstorm and figure out the rest.

Okay — if you’ve hung around with me this long — I promise you it’s time to roll this one to a close for tonight.

Here’s a buzzword for you — thinking outside the box. We all know what that means, right? Well, maybe .. sort of… I guess so. My husband says that with me, there is no box. My imagination and brainstorming are unequaled anywhere (I wish my math and computer skills were, too, but alas, not in this lifetime). But tell me about a problem someone is having with something or other (NOT Math please) and i can always think of a way to do anything. Off the wall maybe but hey, it’s an idea so it counts. It counts because my off the wall idea sparks another idea from someone else. And so it goes until we’ve come up with a solution to the problem.

That’s what it means to be an adult learner: having no limits when it comes to motivation, interest, creativity, and desire to learn. An adult learns because he or she wants to. And nothing is off-limits. That makes even some kids adult learners.

Adult Education is self-directed learning for the sheer sake and joy and love of gaining more knowledge and experience about a topic or issue. Adult learners are not measured by years; they are measured by the ability to not only think outside the box, but to go a step further and just toss out the stupid box (it’s a dumb buzzword anyway!!).

I’ve had students like that — students of all ages.

Haven’t you?

Of course you have.

But if for some reason, you have failed to recognize or acknowledge each and every one of them in every class you teach, then it’s time for you to …. well ……. start thinking outside the box so that you, too, can someday throw it away for good.