Something that I have struggled with in the position I am in as an adult educator, is having my staff engage in education. I've had to come to the realization that not everyone has the motivation or desire to learn. The question for me is how do I get them there? How do I get them as excited as I am to expand my knowledge and thinking so that they can be successful?
I built my education and referred to these assumptions in the last year and have found that I have a better understanding of my learners and have focused on getting to know each individual learner throughout the teaching and learning process. I found this article to be very interesting and helpful.
Knowles, Holton III, and Swanson provide a list of assumptions that
are associated with andragogy and adult learning. A
summary of these assumptions is as follows:
1. Adults need to know why they need to learn something before
undertaking to learn it.
2. Adults have a self-concept of being responsible for their own
decisions, for their own lives.
3. Adults come into an educational activity with both a greater
volume and different quality of experiences from youths.
4. Adults become ready to learn those things they need to know and
be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life
situations.
5. In contrast to children’s and youths’ subject-centered orientation
to learning (at least in school) adults are life-centered (or taskcentered
or problem-centered) in their orientation to learning.
6. While adults are responsive to some external motivators (better
jobs, promotions, higher salaries, and the like), the most potent
motivators are internal pressures (the desire for increased job
satisfaction, self-esteem, quality of life, and the like).
These assumptions form the basis for many adult learning models
that attempt to address the needs adult learners identify and ensure that
those teaching adult learners approach the educational process differently
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ917394.pdf
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