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ERIKSON'S DEVELOPMENT STAGES and PIAGET'S COGNITIVE STAGES

2008-08-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson describes the physical, emotional and psychological stages of development and relates specific issues, or developmental work or tasks, to each stage. For example, if an infant's physical and emotional needs are met sufficiently, the infant completes his/her task -- developing the ability to trust others. However, a person who is stymied in an attempt at task mastery may go on to the next state but carries with him or her the remnants of the unfinished task. For instance, if a toddler is not allowed to learn by doing, the toddler develops a sense of doubt in his or her abilities, which may complicate later attempts at independence. Similarly, a preschooler who is made to feel that the activities he or she initiates are bad may develop a sense of guilt that inhibits the person later in life.

Infant
Trust vs Mistrust
Needs maximum comfort with minimal uncertainty
to trust himself/herself, others, and the environment

Toddler
Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt
Works to master physical environment while maintaining
self-esteem

Preschooler
Initiative vs Guilt
Begins to initiate, not imitate, activities; develops
conscience and sexual identity

School-Age Child
Industry vs Inferiority
Tries to develop a sense of self-worth by refining skills

Adolescent
Identity vs Role Confusion
Tries integrating many roles (child, sibling, student, athlete,
worker) into a self-image under role model and peer pressure

Young Adult
Intimacy vs Isolation
Learns to make personal commitment to another as
spouse, parent or partner

Middle-Age Adult
Generativity vs Stagnation
Seeks satisfaction through productivity in career, family, and
civic interests

Older Adult
Integrity vs Despair
Reviews life accomplishments, deals with loss
and preparation for death

Child psychologist Jean Piaget described the mechanism by which the mind processes new information. He said that a person understands whatever information fits into his established view of the world. When information does not fit, the person must reexamine and adjust his thinking to accommodate the new information. Piaget described four stages of cognitive development and relates them to a person's ability to understand and assimilate new information.

Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
During this stage, the child learns about himself and his environment through motor and reflex actions. Thought derives from sensation and movement. The child learns that he is separate from his environment and that aspects of his environment -- his parents or favorite toy -- continue to exist even though they may be outside the reach of his senses. Teaching for a child in this stage should be geared to the sensorimotor system. You can modify behavior by using the senses: a frown, a stern or soothing voice -- all serve as appropriate techniques.
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child starts to talk to about age 7)
Applying his new knowledge of language, the child begins to use symbols to represent objects. Early in this stage he also personifies objects. He is now better able to think about things and events that aren't immediately present. Oriented to the present, the child has difficulty conceptualizing time. His thinking is influenced by fantasy -- the way he'd like things to be -- and he assumes that others see situations from his viewpoint. He takes in information and then changes it in his mind to fit his ideas. Teaching must take into account the child's vivid fantasies and undeveloped sense of time. Using neutral words, body outlines and equipment a child can touch gives him an active role in learning.
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
During this stage, accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgements about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand. In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain things back to you allows him to mentally manipulate information.
Formal Operations: (adolescence)
This stage brings cognition to its final form. This person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements. At his point, he is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Teaching for the adolescent may be wideranging because he'll be able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.

STRESS-Causes, values, and management.

2008-08-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

The stress faced by professional workers is substantial. For many professionals, it is intrinsic to the job itself, where competing demands and pressures cannot be escaped. The sheer volume of work can also be overwhelming at times, whether one is a social worker, teacher, doctor or manager. Anyone in this kind of job knows, either from their own direct experience or from observing colleagues, that stress can have very serious consequences. It can develop into a living nightmare of running faster and faster to stay in the same place, feeling undervalued, feeling unable to say 'no' to any demand but not working productively on anything. The signs of stress can include sleeplessness, aches and pains and sometimes physical symptoms of anxiety about going to work. What is more, people who are chronically stressed are no fun to work with. They may be irritable, miserable, lacking in energy and commitment, self-absorbed. They may find it hard to concentrate on any one task and cannot be relied on to do their share.

And yet, some people seem to have the ability to stay in control of their workload and to handle job frustrations without becoming worn out, irritable or depressed. These people are able to handle stress, having ways of taking the rough with the smooth, keeping a sense of humor and renewing their energy and resources so that working life continues to bring pleasure and reward.

Here's a little story. This story concerns a man (it could just as well be a woman) who is chased by a tiger and falls over a cliff. To break his fall he is lucky enough to catch hold of a small shrub growing on the cliff face, and there he hangs, poised precariously between life and death. Above him the tiger prowls, and looking down he sees another tiger at the bottom of the cliff. Even were he to survive the fall, there would soon be nothing much left to him to be found by his rescuers. As he hangs there, he sees two small mice busily gnawing away at the stem of the shrub on which his life depends. Simultaneously he sees some wild strawberries growing just within reach, plucks them and pops them into his mouth and thinks to himself, 'Ah how sweet these strawberries taste!'

It isn't easy to find a generally acceptable definition of 'stress.' Doctors, engineers, psychologists, management consultants, linguists and lay-person all use the work in their own distinctive ways with their own definition. A useful definition for this handout is that stress is a demand made upon the adaptive capacities of the mind and body. If these capacities can handle the demand and enjoy the stimulation involved, then stress is welcome and helpful. If they can't and find the demand debilitating, then stress is unwelcome and unhelpful. This definition is useful in three ways; (1) stress can be both good and bad, (2) it isn't so much events that determine whether we're stressed or not, it is our reactions to them, and (3) the definition tells us that stress is a demand made upon the body's capacities. If our capacities are good enough, we respond well. If they aren't, we give way.

GENERAL CAUSES OF STRESS AT WORK

# organizational problems insufficient back-up
# long or unsociable hours
# poor status, pay and promotion prospects
# unnecessary rituals and procedures
# uncertainty and insecurity

SPECIFIC CAUSES OF STRESS AT WORK

unclear role specifications
role conflict
unrealistically high self-expectations (perfectionism)
inability to influence decision making (powerlessness)
frequent clashes with superiors
isolation from colleagues' support
lack of variety
poor communication
inadequate leadership
conflicts with colleagues
inability to finish a job
fighting unnecessary battles

TASK-RELATED CAUSES OF STRESS AT WORK

difficult clients or subordinates
insufficient training
emotional involvement with clients or subordinates
the responsibilities of the job
inability to help or act effectively

STRESS AT HOME

stress caused by a partner
stress caused by children
stress caused by domestic arrangements
stress caused by environmental pressures upon the home

EFFECTS OF TOO MUCH STRESS

concentration and attention span decrease
distractability increases
short- and long-term memory deteriorate
response speed becomes unpredictable
error rate increases
powers of organization and long-term planning deteriorate
delusions and thought disorders increase
physical and psychological tensions increase
hypochondria increases
changes take place in personality traits
existing personality problems increase
moral and emotional constraints weaken
depression and helplessness appear
self-esteem falls sharply
speech problems increase
interests and enthusiasms diminish
absenteeism increases
drug abuse increases
energy levels are low
sleep patterns are disrupted
cynicism about clients and colleagues increases
new information is ignored
responsibilities are shifted onto others
problems are 'solved' at an increasingly superficial level
bizarre behavior patterns appear
suicide threats may be made

MANAGING STRESS

learn and utilize relaxation breathing
meditation
water - inside and out
learn relaxation programs
change diet - less fat, more fresh fruits, vegetables and fiber
give your self permission to experience your emotions, cry if you want
began an exercise program
build healthy personal relationships, have someone to talk to
learn to control your displaced aggressions; desire to yell at the kids and kick the dog at home because of stress at work
reappraise your life and priorities
realize that most stress is caused from within, not without; take time to smell the flowers and taste the strawberries

By David Fontana
From Managing Stress, The British Psychology Society and Routledge, Ldt., 1989

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

2008-08-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

Abraham Maslow developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of different fields, including education. This wide influence is due in part to the high level of practicality of Maslow's theory. This theory accurately describes many realities of personal experiences. Many people find they can understand what Maslow says. They can recognize some features of their experience or behavior which is true and identifiable but which they have never put into words.

Maslow is a humanistic psychologist. Humanists do not believe that human beings are pushed and pulled by mechanical forces, either of stimuli and reinforcements (behaviorism) or of unconscious instinctual impulses (psychoanalysis). Humanists focus upon potentials. They believe that humans strive for an upper level of capabilities. Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches of consciousness and wisdom. This has been labeled "fully functioning person", "healthy personality", or as Maslow calls this level, "self-actualizing person."

Maslow has set up a hierarchic theory of needs. All of his basic needs are instinctoid, equivalent of instincts in animals. Humans start with a very weak disposition that is then fashioned fully as the person grows. If the environment is right, people will grow straight and beautiful, actualizing the potentials they have inherited. If the environment is not "right" (and mostly it is not) they will not grow tall and straight and beautiful.

Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, esthetic appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow's basic needs are as follows:

Physiological Needs: These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.
Safety Needs: When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness: When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
Needs for Esteem: When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
Needs for Self-Actualization: When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind. Ten points that educators should address are listed:

We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens.
We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right mate.
We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there.
We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs.
We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death.
We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making good choices.

From Psychology - The Search for Understanding
by Janet A. Simons, Donald B. Irwin and Beverly A. Drinnien
West Publishing Company, New York, 1987

CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

2008-08-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

In the 1990's, educational reformers are seeking answers to two fundamental questions: (1) How well are students learning? and (2) How effectively are teachers teaching? Classroom Research and Classroom Assessment respond directly to concerns about better learning and more effective teaching. Classroom Research was developed to encourage college teachers to become more systematic and sensitive observers of learning as it takes place every day in their classrooms. Faculty have an exceptional opportunity to use their classrooms as laboratories for the study of learning and through such study to develop a better understanding of the learning process and the impact of their teaching upon it. Classroom Assessment, a major component of Classroom Research, involves student and teachers in the continuous monitoring of students' learning. It provides faculty with feedback about their effectiveness as teachers, and it gives students a measure of their progress as learners. Most important, because Classroom Assessments are created, administered, and analyzed by teachers themselves on questions of teaching and learning that are important to them, the likelihood that instructors will apply the results of the assessment to their own teaching is greatly enhances.

Through close observation of students in the process of learning, the collection of frequent feedback on students' learning, and the design of modest classroom experiments, teachers can learn much about how students learn and, more specifically, how students respond to particular teaching approaches. Classroom Assessment helps individual college teachers obtain useful feedback on what, how much, and how well their students are learning. Faculty can then use this information to refocus their teaching to help students make their learning more efficient and more effective.

College instructors who have assumed that their students were learning what they were trying to teach them are regularly faced with disappointing evidence to the contrary when they grade tests and term papers. Too often, students have not learned as much or as well as was expected. There are gaps, sometimes considerable ones, between what was taught and what has been learned. By the time faculty notice these gaps in knowledge or understanding, it is frequently too late to remedy the problems.

To avoid such unhappy surprises, faculty and students need better ways to monitor learning throughout the semester. Specifically, teachers need a continuous flow of accurate information on student learning. For example, if a teacher's goal is to help students learn points "A" through "Z" during the course, then that teacher needs first to know whether all students are really starting at point "A" and, as the course proceeds, whether they have reached intermediate points "B," "G," "L," "R," "W," and so on. To ensure high-quality learning, it is not enough to test students when the syllabus has arrived at points "M" and "Z." Classroom Assessment is particularly useful for checking how well students are learning at those initial and intermediate points, and for providing information for improvement when learning is less than satisfactory.

Through practice in Classroom Assessment, faculty become better able to understand and promote learning, and increase their ability to help the students themselves become more effective, self-assessing, self-directed learners. Simply put, the central purpose of Classroom Assessment is to empower both teachers and their students to improve the quality of learning in the classroom.

Classroom Assessment is an approach designed to help teachers find out what students are learning in the classroom and how well they are learning it. This approach has the following characteristics:

Learner-Centered
Classroom Assessment focuses the primary attention of teachers and students on observing and improving learning, rather than on observing and improving teaching. Classroom Assessment can provide information to guide teachers and students in making adjustments to improve learning.
Teacher-Directed
Classroom Assessment respects the autonomy, academic freedom, and professional judgement of college faculty. The individual teacher decides what to assess, how to assess, and how to respond to the information gained through the assessment. Also, the teacher is not obliged to share the result of Classroom Assessment with anyone outside the classroom.
Mutually Beneficial
Because it is focused on learning, Classroom Assessment requires the active participation of students. By cooperating in assessment, students reinforce their grasp of the course content and strengthen their own skills at self-assessment. Their motivation is increased when they realize that faculty are interested and invested in their success as learners. Faculty also sharpen their teaching focus by continually asking themselves three questions: "What are the essential skills and knowledge I am trying to Teach?" "How can I find out whether students are learning them?" "How can I help students learn better?" As teachers work closely with students to answer these questions, they improve their teaching skills and gain new insights.
Formative
Classroom Assessment's purpose is to improve the quality of student learning, not to provide evidence for evaluating or grading students. The assessment is almost never graded and are almost always anonymous.
Context-Specific
Classroom Assessments have to respond to the particular needs and characteristics of the teachers, students, and disciplines to which they are applied. What works well in one class will not necessary work in another.
Ongoing
Classroom Assessment is an ongoing process, best thought of as the creating and maintenance of a classroom "feedback loop." By using a number of simple Classroom Assessment Techniques that are quick and easy to use, teachers get feedback from students on their learning. Faculty then complete the loop by providing students with feedback on the results of the assessment and suggestions for improving learning. To check on the usefulness of their suggestions, faculty use Classroom Assessment again, continuing the "feedback loop." As the approach becomes integrated into everyday classroom activities, the communications loop connecting faculty and students -- and teaching and learning -- becomes more efficient and more effective.
Rooted in Good Teaching Practice
Classroom Assessment is an attempt to build on existing good practice by making feedback on students' learning more systematic, more flexible, and more effective. Teachers already ask questions, react to students' questions, monitor body language and facial expressions, read homework and tests, and so on. Classroom Assessment provides a way to integrate assessment systematically and seamlessly into the traditional classroom teaching and learning process

As they are teaching, faculty monitor and react to student questions, comments, body language, and facial expressions in an almost automatic fashion. This "automatic" information gathering and impression formation is a subconscious and implicit process. Teachers depend heavily on their impressions of student learning and make important judgments based on them, but they rarely make those informal assessments explicit or check them against the students' own impressions or ability to perform. In the course of teaching, college faculty assume a great deal about their students' learning, but most of their assumptions remain untested.

Even when college teachers routinely gather potentially useful information on student learning through questions, quizzes, homework, and exams, it is often collected too late -- at least from the students' perspective - to affect their learning. In practice, it is very difficult to "de-program" students who are used to thinking of anything they have been tested and graded on as being "over and done with." Consequently, the most effective times to assess and provide feedback are before the chapter tests or the midterm an final examinations. Classroom Assessment aims at providing that early feedback.

Classroom Assessment is based on seven assumptions:

The quality of student learning is directly, although not exclusively, related to the quality of teaching. Therefore, one of the most promising ways to improve learning is to improve teaching.
To improve their effectiveness, teachers need first to make their goals and objectives explicit and then to get specific, comprehensible feedback on the extent to which they are achieving those goals and objectives.
To improve their learning, students need to receive appropriate and focused feedback early and often; they also need to learn how to assess their own learning.
The type of assessment most likely to improve teaching and learning is that conducted by faculty to answer questions they themselves have formulated in response to issues or problems in their own teaching.
Systematic inquiry and intellectual challenge are powerful sources of motivation, growth, and renewal for college teachers, and Classroom Assessment can provide such challenge.
Classroom Assessment does not require specialized training; it can be carried out by dedicated teachers from all disciplines.
By collaborating with colleagues and actively involving students in Classroom Assessment efforts, faculty (and students) enhance learning and personal satisfaction.

To begin Classroom Assessment it is recommended that only one or two of the simplest Classroom Assessment Techniques are tried in only one class. In this way very little planning or preparation time and energy of the teacher and students is risked. In most cases, trying out a simple Classroom Assessment Technique will require only five to ten minutes of class time and less than an hour of time out of class. After trying one or two quick assessments, the decision as to whether this approach is worth further investments of time and energy can be made. This process of starting small involves three steps:

Step 1: Planning: Select one, and only one, of your classes in which to try out the Classroom Assessment. Decide on the class meeting and select a Classroom Assessment Technique. Choose a simple and quick one.
Step 2: Implementing: Make sure the students know what you are doing and that they clearly understand the procedure. Collect the responses and analyze them as soon as possible.
Step 3: Responding: To capitalize on time spent assessing, and to motivate students to become actively involved, "close the feedback loop" by letting them know what you learned from the assessments and what difference that information will make.

Five suggestions for a successful start:

If a Classroom Assessment Techniques does not appeal to your intuition and professional judgement as a teacher, don't use it.
Don't make Classroom Assessment into a self-inflicted chore or burden.
Don't ask your students to use any Classroom Assessment Technique you haven't previously tried on yourself.
Allow for more time than you think you will need to carry out and respond to the assessment.
Make sure to "close the loop." Let students know what you learn from their feedback and how you and they can use that information to improve learning.

By Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross
From Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd Ed.

PRINCIPLES OF ADULT LEARNING

2008-08-07T06:28:00.001-07:00

Adults As Learners

Part of being an effective instructor involves understanding how adults learn best. Compared to children and teens, adults have special needs and requirements as learners. Despite the apparent truth, adult learning is a relatively new area of study. The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcom Knowles. He identified the following characteristics of adult learners:

Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. Their teachers must actively involve adult participants in the learning process and serve as facilitators for them. Specifically, they must get participants' perspectives about what topics to cover and let them work on projects that reflect their interests. They should allow the participants to assume responsibility for presentations and group leadership. They have to be sure to act as facilitators, guiding participants to their own knowledge rather than supplying them with facts. Finally, they must show participants how the class will help them reach their goals (e.g., via a personal goals sheet).
Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base. To help them do so, they should draw out participants' experience and knowledge which is relevant to the topic. They must relate theories and concepts to the participants and recognize the value of experience in learning.
Adults are goal-oriented. Upon enrolling in a course, they usually know what goal they want to attain. They, therefore, appreciate an educational program that is organized and has clearly defined elements. Instructors must show participants how this class will help them attain their goals. This classification of goals and course objectives must be done early in the course.
Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them. Therefore, instructors must identify objectives for adult participants before the course begins. This means, also, that theories and concepts must be related to a setting familiar to participants. This need can be fulfilled by letting participants choose projects that reflect their own interests.
Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work. They may not be interested in knowledge for its own sake. Instructors must tell participants explicitly how the lesson will be useful to them on the job.
As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect. Instructors must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the classroom. These adults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and allowed to voice their opinions freely in class.

Motivating the Adult Learner

Another aspect of adult learning is motivation. At least six factors serve as sources of motivation for adult learning:

Social relationships: to make new friends, to meet a need for associations and friendships.
External expectations: to comply with instructions from someone else; to fulfill the expectations or recommendations of someone with formal authority.
Social welfare: to improve ability to serve mankind, prepare for service to the community, and improve ability to participate in community work.
Personal advancement: to achieve higher status in a job, secure professional advancement, and stay abreast of competitors.
Escape/Stimulation: to relieve boredom, provide a break in the routine of home or work, and provide a contrast to other exacting details of life.
Cognitive interest: to learn for the sake of learning, seek knowledge for its own sake, and to satisfy an inquiring mind.

Barriers and Motivation

Unlike children and teenagers, adults have many responsibilities that they must balance against the demands of learning. Because of these responsibilities, adults have barriers against participating in learning. Some of these barriers include lack of time, money, confidence, or interest, lack of information about opportunities to learn, scheduling problems, "red tape," and problems with child care and transportation.

Motivation factors can also be a barrier. What motivates adult learners? Typical motivations include a requirement for competence or licensing, an expected (or realized) promotion, job enrichment, a need to maintain old skills or learn new ones, a need to adapt to job changes, or the need to learn in order to comply with company directives.

The best way to motivate adult learners is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers. Instructors must learn why their students are enrolled (the motivators); they have to discover what is keeping them from learning. Then the instructors must plan their motivating strategies. A successful strategy includes showing adult learners the relationship between training and an expected promotion.

Learning Tips for Effective Instructors

Educators must remember that learning occurs within each individual as a continual process throughout life. People learn at different speeds, so it is natural for them to be anxious or nervous when faced with a learning situation. Positive reinforcement by the instructor can enhance learning, as can proper timing of the instruction.

Learning results from stimulation of the senses. In some people, one sense is used more than others to learn or recall information. Instructors should present materials that stimulates as many senses as possible in order to increase their chances of teaching success.

There are four critical elements of learning that must be addressed to ensure that participants learn. These elements are

motivation
reinforcement
retention
transference

Motivation. If the participant does not recognize the need for the information (or has been offended or intimidated), all of the instructor's effort to assist the participant to learn will be in vain. The instructor must establish rapport with participants and prepare them for learning; this provides motivation. Instructors can motivate students via several means:

Set a feeling or tone for the lesson. Instructors should try to establish a friendly, open atmosphere that shows the participants they will help them learn.
Set an appropriate level of concern. The level of tension must be adjusted to meet the level of importance of the objective. If the material has a high level of importance, a higher level of tension/stress should be established in the class. However, people learn best under low to moderate stress; if the stress is too high, it becomes a barrier to learning.
Set an appropriate level of difficulty. The degree of difficulty should be set high enough to challenge participants but not so high that they become frustrated by information overload. The instruction should predict and reward participation, culminating in success.

In addition, participants need specific knowledge of their learning results (feedback ). Feedback must be specific, not general. Participants must also see a reward for learning. The reward does not necessarily have to be monetary; it can be simply a demonstration of benefits to be realized from learning the material. Finally, the participant must be interested in the subject. Interest is directly related to reward. Adults must see the benefit of learning in order to motivate themselves to learn the subject.

Reinforcement. Reinforcement is a very necessary part of the teaching/learning process; through it, instructors encourage correct modes of behavior and performance.

Positive reinforcement is normally used by instructors who are teaching participants new skills. As the name implies, positive reinforcement is "good" and reinforces "good" (or positive) behavior.
Negative reinforcement is normally used by instructors teaching a new skill or new information. It is useful in trying to change modes of behavior. The result of negative reinforcement is extinction -- that is, the instructor uses negative reinforcement until the "bad" behavior disappears, or it becomes extinct. (To read more about negative reinforcement, you can check out Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction Negative Reinforcement Univeristy.)

When instructors are trying to change behaviors (old practices), they should apply both positive and negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement should be part of the teaching-learning process to ensure correct behavior. Instructors need to use it on a frequent and regular basis early in the process to help the students retain what they have learned. Then, they should use reinforcement only to maintain consistent, positive behavior.

Retention. Students must retain information from classes in order to benefit from the learning. The instructors' jobs are not finished until they have assisted the learner in retaining the information. In order for participants to retain the information taught, they must see a meaning or purpose for that information. The must also understand and be able to interpret and apply the information. This understanding includes their ability to assign the correct degree of importance to the material.

The amount of retention will be directly affected by the degree of original learning. Simply stated, if the participants did not learn the material well initially, they will not retain it well either.

Retention by the participants is directly affected by their amount of practice during the learning. Instructors should emphasize retention and application. After the students demonstrate correct (desired) performance, they should be urged to practice to maintain the desired performance. Distributed practice is similar in effect to intermittent reinforcement.

Transference. Transfer of learning is the result of training -- it is the ability to use the information taught in the course but in a new setting. As with reinforcement, there are two types of transfer: positive and negative.

Positive transference, like positive reinforcement, occurs when the participants uses the behavior taught in the course.
Negative transference, again like negative reinforcement, occurs when the participants do not do what they are told not to do. This results in a positive (desired) outcome.

Transference is most likely to occur in the following situations:

Association -- participants can associate the new information with something that they already know.
Similarity -- the information is similar to material that participants already know; that is, it revisits a logical framework or pattern.
Degree of original learning -- participant's degree of original learning was high.
Critical attribute element -- the information learned contains elements that are extremely beneficial (critical) on the job.

Although adult learning is relatively new as field of study, it is just as substantial as traditional education and carries and potential for greater success. Of course, the heightened success requires a greater responsibility on the part of the teacher. Additionally, the learners come to the course with precisely defined expectations. Unfortunately, there are barriers to their learning. The best motivators for adult learners are interest and selfish benefit. If they can be shown that the course benefits them pragmatically, they will perform better, and the benefits will be longer lasting.

By Stephen Lieb
Senior Technical Writer and Planner, Arizona Department of Health Services
and part-time Instructor, South Mountain Community College
from VISION, Fall 1991

Andragogy. History, Meaning, Context, Function

2008-08-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

The term ‘andragogy’ has been used in different times and countries with various connotations. Nowadays there exist mainly three understandings:

1. In many countries there is a growing conception of ‘andragogy’ as the scholarly approach to the learning of adults. In this connotation andragogy is the science of understanding (= theory)and supporting (= practice) lifelong and lifewide education of adults.

2. Especially in the USA, ‘andragogy’ in the tradition of Malcolm Knowles, labels a specific theoretical and practical approach, based on a humanistic conception of self-directed and autonomous learners and teachers as facilitators of learning.

3. Widely, an unclear use of andragogy can be found, with its meaning changing (even in the same publication) from ‘adult education practice’ or ‘desirable values’ or ‘specific teaching methods,’ to ‘reflections’ or ‘academic discipline’ and/or ‘opposite to childish pedagogy’, claiming to be ‘something better’ than just ‘Adult Education’.

Terms make sense in relation to the object they name. Relating the development of the term to the historical context may explain the differences.

The History of ‘Andragogy’

The first use of the term ‘andragogy’ - as far as we know today - was found with the German high school teacher Alexander Kapp in 1833. In a book entitled ‘Platon’s Erziehungslehre’ (Plato’s Educational Ideas) he describes the lifelong necessity to learn. Starting with early childhood he comes on page 241 (of 450) to adulthood with the title ‘Die Andragogik oder Bildung im maennlichen Alter’ (Andragogy or Education in the man’s Age - a replica can be found on www.andragogy.net). In about 60 pages he argues that education, self-reflection, and educating the character is the first value in human life. He then refers to vocational education of the healing profession, soldier, educator, orator, ruler, and men as family father. So already her we find patterns which repeatedly can be found in the ongoing history of andragogy: Included and combined are the education of inner, subjective personality (‘character’) and outer, objective competencies (what later is discussed under “education vs. training”); and learning happens not only through teachers, but also through self-reflection and life experience, is more than ‘teaching adults’.

Kapp does not explain the term Andragogik, and it is not clear, whether he invented it or whether he borrowed it from somebody else. He does not develop a theory, but justifies ‘andragogy’ as the practical necessity of the education of adults. This may be the reason why the term lay fallow: other terms and ideas were available; the idea of adult learning was not unusual in that time around 1833, neither in Europe (enlightenment movement, reading-societies, workers education, educational work of churches, for example the Kolping-movement), nor in America (Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Lowell Institute in Boston, Lyceum movement, town libraries, museums, agricultural societies); all these existing initiatives had important dates between 1820-40 and their terminology, so a new term was not needed.

The Second and Third Invention

In the 1920’s in Germany adult education became a field of theorizing. Especially a group of scholars from various subjects, the so-called ‘Hohenrodter Bund’, developed in theory and practice the ‘Neue Richtung’ (new direction) in adult education. Here some authors gave a second birth to the term ‘Andragogik’, now describing sets of explicit reflections related to the why, what for and how of teaching adults.But Andragogik was not used as “the Method of Teaching Adults”, as Lindeman (1926) mistakenly suggested in reporting his experiences at the Academy of Labor, Frankfurt, Germany. It was a sophisticated, theory-oriented concept, being an antonym to ‘demagogy’ - too difficult to handle, not really shared. So again it was forgotten. But a new object was shining up: a scholarly, academic reflection level ‘above’ practical adult education. The scholars came from various disciplines, working in adult education as individuals, not representing university institutes or disciplines. The idea of adult education as a discipline was not yet born.

It is not clear where the third wave of using andragogy originated. In the 1950’s andragogy suddenly can be found in publications in Switzerland (Hanselmann), Yugoslavia (Ogrizovic), the Netherlands (ten Have), Germany (Poeggeler). Still the term was known only to insiders, and was sometimes more oriented to practice, sometimes more to theory. Perhaps this mirrors the reality of adult education of that time: There was no or little formal training for adult educators, some limited theoretical knowledge, no institutionalized continuity of developing such a knowledge, and no academic course of study. In this reality ‘Adult Education’ still described a unclear mixture of practice, commitment, ideologies, reflections, theories, mostly local institutions, and some academic involvement of individuals. As the reality was unclear, the term could not be any clearer. But the now increasing and shared use of the term signaled, that a new differentiation between ‘doing’ and ‘reflecting’ was developing, perhaps needing a separating term.

Andragogy: A banner for identity

The great times of the term ‘andragogy’ for the English-speaking adult education world came with Malcolm Knowles, a leading scholar of adult education in the USA. He describes his encounter with the term:

‘… in 1967 I had an experience that made it all come together. A Yugoslavian adult educator, Dusan Savicevic, participated in a summer session I was conducting at Boston University. At the end of it he came up to me with his eyes sparkling and said, ‘Malcolm, you are preaching and practicing andragogy.’ I replied, ‘Whatagogy?’ because I had never heard the term before. He explained that the term had been coined by a teacher in a German grammar school, Alexander Kapp, in 1833 … The term lay fallow until it was once more introduced by a German social scientist, Eugen Rosenstock, in 1921, but it did not receive general recognition. Then in 1957 a German teacher, Franz Poggeler, published a book, Introduction into Andragogy: Basic issues in Adult Education, and this term was then picked up by adult educators in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia …’ (Knowles 1989, p. 79).

Knowles published his first article (1968) about his understanding of andragogy with the provocative title ‘Andragogy, Not Pedagogy.’ In a short time the term andragogy, now intimately connected to Knowles’ concept, received general recognition throughout North America and other English speaking countries; ‘within North America, no view of teaching adults is more widely known, or more enthusiastically embraced, than Knowles’ description of andragogy’ (Pratt & Ass., 1998, p. 13).

Knowles’ concept of andragogy - ‘the art and science of helping adults learn’ - ‘is built upon two central, defining attributes: First, a conception of learners as self-directed and autonomous; and second, a conception of the role of the teacher as facilitator of learning rather than presenter of content’ (Pratt & Ass., 1998, p. 12), emphasizing learner choice more than expert control. Both attributes fit into the specific socio-historic thoughts in and after the 1970’s, for example the deschooling theory (Illich, Reimer), Rogers person-centered approach, Freire’s ‘conscientizacao’. Perhaps a third attribute added to the attraction of Knowles concept: Constructing andragogy as opposing pedagogy (“Farewell to Pedagogy”, 1970) (later reduced) provided opportunity to be on the ‘good side,’ not a ‘pedagogue,’ seen as ‘a teacher, especially a pedantic one’ (Webster’s Dictionary, 1982, p. 441). This flattered adult educators in a time, where most adult educators were andragogical amateurs, doing adult education based on their content expertise, experience, and a mission they felt, not based on trained or studied educational competence. To be offered now understandable, humanistic values and beliefs, some specific methods and a good sounding label, strengthened a group that felt inferior to comparable professions. And this came coincidentally along with a significant growth of the field of practice plus an increased scholarly approach, including the emerging possibility to study adult education at universities. All these elements document a new period (‘art and science’) in adult education; it made sense to concentrate this new understanding in a new term.

Providing a unifying idea and identity, connected with the term andragogy, to the amorphous group of adult educators, certainly was the main benefit Knowles awarded to the field of adult education at that time. Another was that he strengthened the already existing scholarly access to adult education by publishing, theorizing, doing research, by educating students that themselves through academic research became scholars, and by explicitly defining andragogy as science (Cooper & Henschke, 2003).

Issues with Andragogy

Over the years critique developed against Knowles’ understanding of andragogy. A first critique argues that Knowles claimed to offer a general concept of adult education, but like all educational theories in history it is but one concept, born into a specific historic context. For example, one of Knowles’ basic assumptions is that becoming adult means becoming self-directed. But other genuine concepts of adult education do not accept this ‘American’ type of self-directed lonesome fighter as the ultimate educational goal: In family, church, or civic education, for instance, the ‘we’ is more important than the ‘self’. Similarly an instructor who presents (=teaches) the name of the stars in a hobby-astronomy class would not work andragogical because this is not autonomous learning. Consequently the Dutch scholar van Gent (1996) criticizes, that the andragogy concept of Knowles is not a general-descriptive, but a ‘specific, prescriptive approach’ (p. 116). Another critique is Knowles’ conceiving of pedagogy as pedantic schoolmasters’ practice, not as an academic discipline. This hostility toward pedagogy had two negative outcomes: On a strategic level, scholars of adult education could make no alliances with the colleagues from pedagogy; on a content level, knowledge developed in pedagogy through 400 years could not be made fruitful for andragogy (more critical remarks see Merriam/Caffarella, 1999, p. 273ff, Savicevic, 1999, p. 113ff). Thus, attaching ‘andragogy’ exclusively to Knowles’ specific approach means that the term is lost for including pedagogical knowledge and those who do not share Knowles’ specific approach.

The European development: towards Professionalisation

In most countries of Europe the Knowles-discussion played no or at best a marginal role. The use and development of ‘andragogy’ in the different countries and languages was more hidden, disperse, and uncoordinated, yet steady. ‘Andragogy’ nowhere described one specific concept or movement, but was, from 1970 on, connected with the in existence coming academic and professional institutions, publications, programs, triggered by a similar growth of adult education in practice and theory as in the USA. ‘Andragogy’ functioned here as a header for (places of) systematic reflections, parallel to other academic headers like ‘biology’, ‘medicine’, ‘physics’. Examples of this use of andragogy are

the Yugoslavian (scholarly) journal for adult education, named ‘Andragogija’ in 1969; and the ‘Yugoslavian Society for Andragogy’;
at Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech republic) in 1990 the “Katedra sociologie a andragogiky” was established, managed by Vladimir Jochmann, who advanced the use of the term “andragogy” (andragogika) against “adult education” (“Vychova a vzdelavani dospelych”), which was discredited by communistic use. Also Prague University has a ‘Katedra Andragogiky’;
in 1993, Slovenia’s ‘Andragoski Center Republike Slovenije’ was founded with the journal ‘Andragoska Spoznanja’;
in 1995, Bamberg University (Germany) named a ‘Lehrstuhl Andragogik’;
the Internet address of the Estonian adult education society is ‘andra.ee’.
On this formal level ‘above practice’ and specific approaches, the term andragogy could be used in communistic countries as well as in capitalistic, relating to all types of theories, for reflection, analysis, training, in person-oriented programs as well as human resource development.

A similar professional and academic expansion developed worldwide, sometimes using more or less demonstratively the term andragogy: Venezuela has the ‘Instituto Internacional de Andragogia’, since 1998 the Adult & Continuing Education Society of Korea publishes the journal ‘Andragogy today’. This documents a reality with new types of professional institutions, functions, roles, with fulltime employed and academically trained professionals. Some of the new professional institutions use the term andragogy - meaning the same as ‘adult education’, but sounding more demanding, science-based. Yet, throughout Europe still ‘adult education’, ‘further education’ or ‘adult pedagogy’ is used more than ‘andragogy’.

Adult education or education of adults?

Some writers limit andragogy to a teaching situation (or more in the jargon: helping-adults-learn situation). An early example is Lindeman (1926), when reporting from his experiences at the Academy of Labor, Frankfurt, Germany: he connects Andragogik (using the German term) with teaching by giving his article the title ‘Andragogik: The Method of Teaching Adults’. Knowles, who brought the Americanized version “andragogy” into discussion, also uses this limiting understanding: ‘Andragogy is the art and science of teaching adults’. This definition is generalized by Krajinc (1989, p. 19) from Slovenia in a British international handbook: “Andragogy has been defined as…’the art and science of helping adults learn and the study of adult education theory, processes, and technology to that end’.’

Other authors include ‘education and learning of adults in all its forms of expression’ (Savicevic, 1999, p. 97). Reischmann (2003) offers the term ‘lifewide education’ to describe the opening of this new field, thus encompassing formal and informal, intentional and ‘en passant’, institution-supplied and autodidactic learning.

These differences in understanding have to be seen in a historic development of the perception of ‘adult education’: What was perceived as ‘adult education’ in 1833 or 1926 is different from 1969 or 2001. While until the 1970’s the interest in adult education was focused on the action-oriented questions “How can teachers/facilitators support the learning of adults?”, now a new, more analytical-descriptive perspective was added. From the 1970’s on it was more and more perceived and discussed, that learning of adults did not only happen in more or less institutionalized or traditional settings, arranged specifically for the learning of adults. In North America Allen Tough’s research about adult learning projects provided evidence that only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of adults learning was ‘adult education’. In Germany the perception of learning in social movements like self-help groups or citizen-initiatives (peace-movement, feminist groups) started the discussion about the ‘Entgrenzung’ (de-bordering) of adult education. Distance- and E-learning, assessment of prior learning, learning in non-traditional forms, life-situations as learning opportunity, and other non-school-oriented forms and situations where adults learn widened the perception that the education of adults happen in more situations than just in adult education.
As a consequence today many experts understand “adult education” only as a segment of the wider field of the education of adults.
Andragogy: Academic discipline

Besides this widened perception of adult learning another development challenged the understanding of ‘adult education’ in the last decades: The field of adult education worldwide went through a process of growth and differentiation, in which a scholarly, scientific approach emerged. And a new type of ‘adult educators’ was born, which was not qualified by their missions and visions, but by their academic studies. And writing a thesis or dissertation is a quite different task than educating adults: reflection, critique, analysis, historical knowledge qualified this new type of academic professionals.

An academic discipline with university programs, professors, students, focusing on the education of adults, exists today in many countries. But in the membership-list of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education of the USA (2003) not one university institute uses the name ‘andragogy’, in Germany one out of 35, in Eastern Europe six out of 26. Many actors in the field seem not to need a label ‘andragogy’. However, other scholars, for example Dusan Savicevic, who provided Knowles with the term andragogy, explicitly claim ‘andragogy as a discipline, the subject of which is the study of education and learning of adults in all its forms of expression’ (Savicevic, 1999, p. 97, similarly Henschke 2003, Reischmann 2003). This claim is not a mere definition, but includes the prospective function to influence the coming reality: to challenge ‘outside’ (demanding a respected discipline in the university context), to confront ‘inside’ (challenging the colleagues to clarify their understanding and consensus of their function and science), overall to stand up to a self-confident academic identity.

Again here this claim only makes sense when an object exists worth to get labeled. Not the term makes a (sub-) discipline, but a reality with sound university programs, professors, research, disciplinarian knowledge, and students. If, where and when this exists, a clarifying label like “andragogy” will make sense.The coming reality will show whether the ongoing differentiation in institutions, functions, and roles will need a term ‘andragogy’ for conceptual clarification.

References and Further Reading

Gent, van, Bastian (²1996): ‘Andragogy’. In: A. C. Tuijnman (ed.): International Encyclopedia of Adult Education and Training. Oxford: Pergamon, p. 114-117.
Cooper, Mary K. & Henschke, John A. (2003): An Update on Andragogy: The International Foundation for Its Research, Theory and Practice (Paper presented at the CPAE Conference, Detroit, Michigan, November, 2003).
Henschke, John (2003): Andragogy Website http://www.umsl.edu/~henschke
Jarvis, Peter (1987): Towards a discipline of adult education?, in P. Jarvis (ed): Twentieth Century Thinkers in Adult Education. London: Routledge, p. 301-313.
Kapp, Alexander (1833): Platon’s Erziehungslehre, als Paedagogik für die Einzelnen und als Staatspaedagogik. Minden und Leipzig: Ferdinand Essmann.
Knowles, Malcolm S. (²1978): The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston: Gulf Publishing Company.
Knowles, Malcolm S. (1989): The Making of an Adult Educator. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Krajinc, Anna (1989): Andragogy. In C. J. Titmus (ed.): Lifelong Education for Adults: An International Handbook. Oxford: Pergamon, p. 19-21.
Lindeman, Edward C. (1926). Andragogik: The Method of Teaching Adults. Workers’ Education, 4: 38.
Merriam, Sharan H. and Caffarella Rosemary S. (²1999): Learning in Adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pratt, Daniel D., & Associates (1998): Five perspectives on teaching in adult and higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger.
Reischmann, Jost (2003): Why Andragogy? Bamberg University, Germany http://www.andragogy.net/.
Savicevic, Dusan (1991): Modern Conceptions of Andragogy: A European Framework. In: Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 179-191.
Savicevic, Dusan (1999): Understanding Andragogy in Europe and America: Comparing and Contrasting. In: Reischmann, Jost/ Bron, Michal/ Jelenc, Zoran (eds): Comparative Adult Education 1998: the Contribution of ISCAE to an Emerging Field of Study. Ljubljana, Slovenia: Slovenian Institute for Adult Education, p. 97-119.
Pöggeler, Franz (1957): Einführung in die Andragogik. Grundfragen der Erwachsenenbildung. Ratingen: Henn Verlag.
Tough, Allen (²1979): The Adult’s Learning Projects. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Webbster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (1982). New York: Warner Books.
Zmeyov, Serguey (1998): Andragogy: Origins, Developments, Trends. In: International Review of Education. Vol. 44, No. 1, p. 103-108.

Autor: Reischmann, Jost (2004): Andragogy. History, Meaning, Context, Function. At: http://www.andragogy.net. Version Sept. 9, 2004.