EP 520: NOTES FROM READINGS
1. KNOWLES – Self – Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners &
Teachers
PART I: THE LEARNER
#1 Why Self-Directed Learning?
-
p.7 - “But learners can use the book as a resource for developing their own
competence as self-directed competence as self-directed inquirers, in which case
it still would be a good idea for them to read both Part I and Part II, and in the
latter, simply substitute a ‘helper of any kind’ for the word teacher ” {Knowles,
1975 #20}
- p.10 – “Regarding my motives, I have been so impressed with the joy that most of
my students have found in self-directed learning (and the results they have
achieved!) that I want to spread the gospel. My motives are the motives of a
missionary – so beware, I’ll try to convert you” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
- p.11 – “But I don’t think that it is healthy – or even humane for a person to be
kept permanently dependent upon a system or upon another person” {Knowles,
1975 #19}
- p.14- 18 –It is a tragic fact that most of us only know how to be taught; we
haven’t learned how to learn. Why is this a tragic fact? There are both immediate
and long-run reasons” {Knowles, 1975 #19}.
-  (con’t)
- Immediate Reasons why “tragic fact”:
1. “… convincing evidence that people who take the initiative in learning learn
more things, and learn better, than do people who sit at the feet of the
teachers passively waiting to be taught.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
2. “… self-directed learning is more in tune with our natural processes of
psychological development. When we are born we are totally dependent
personalities… An essential aspect of maturing is… to become increasingly
self-directing.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
3. “… many of the new developments in education – the new curriculums, open
classrooms, non-graded schools…- put a heavy responsibility on the learners
to take a good deal of initiative in their own learning. Students entering into
these programs without having learned the skills of self-directed inquiry will
experience anxiety, frustration, and often failure, and so will their teachers.”
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
- Long-Run Reasons why “tragic fact”:
1. “Alvin Toffler calls this reason ‘future shock.’ Entering into a strange new
world in which rapid change will be the only stable characteristic.
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
2. Implies that it is no longer realistic to define the purpose of education as
transmitting what is known… Thus, the main purpose of education must
now be to develop the skills of inquiry. {Knowles, 1975 #19}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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3. p.16- “must be a somewhat different way of thinking about learning… We
must learn from everything we do; we must exploit every experience as a
‘learning experience.’ Every institution in our community – government
agency, store, recreational organization, church – comes a resource for
learning, as does every person we have access to – parent, child, friend,
service provider, doctor, teacher, fellow worker, supervisor, minister,
store clerk, and so on and on. Learning means making use of every
resource – in or out of educational institutions – for our personal growth
and development.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
#2 What is Self-Directed Learning?
- p. 18 – “In its broadest meaning, ‘self-directed learning’ describes a process in
which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in
diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human
and materials resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate
learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
- p.19 – Definition: “Andragogy” – comes from combining of Greek word aner
(meaning “man” and agogus (meaning “leader”). Andragogy is defined therefore,
as the art and science of helping adults (or, even better, maturing human beings)
learn. {Knowles, 1975 #19}
- opposite of “Pedagogy” – the teaching of children
- p.21 – “… whereas self-directed learning assumes that learners are
motivated by internal incentives, such as the need for esteem (especially selfesteem), the desire to achieve, the urge to grow, the satisfaction of
accomplishment, the need to know something specific, and curiosity.”
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
#3 What Competencies Are Required for Self-Directed Learning?
From “Learning Resource B” in back of book ->
1. An understanding of the differences in assumptions about learners & the skills
required for learning under teacher-directed learning & self-directed learning,
& the ability to explain these differences to others.
2. A concept of myself as being a non-dependent & a self-directing person.
3. The ability to relate to peers collaboratively, to see them as resources for
diagnosing needs, planning my learning, & learning; & to give help to them &
receive help from them.
4. The ability to diagnose my own learning needs realistically, with help from
teachers & peers.
5. The ability to translate learning needs into learning objectives in a form that
makes it possible for their accomplishment to be assessed.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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6. The ability to relate to teachers as facilitators, helpers, or consultants, & to
take the initiative in making use of their resources.
7. The ability to identify human & material resources appropriate to different
kinds of learning objectives.
8. The ability to select effective strategies for making use of learning resources
& to perform these strategies skillfully & with initiative.
9. The ability to collect & validate evidence of the accomplishment of various
kinds of learning objectives. {Knowles, 1975 #19}
#4 Designing a Learning Plan
** Design a Learning Contract ** (p.26 – 28)
1. Set a) Learning Objectives; b) Learning Resources & Strategies; c) Evidence
of Accomplishments; and d) Criteria & Means of Validating Evidence
a) Make Learning Objectives -> clear, understandable, & realistic
b) Make Learning Strategies -> reasonable
c) Make Evidence -> relevant to various objectives (can you think of other
evidence you might consider?)
d) Are Criteria & Means for Validation of Evidence clear, relevant, &
convincing? Can you think of other ways to validate evidence?
e) Modifications may be necessary to contract!!!
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
PART II: THE TEACHER
- p. 31-> Defining a New Role: “…I experienced a severe dissonance in the
conception of my role. I had been trained to perceive my role as essentially that of
content-transmitter & judge of the students’ absorption of the transmitted
content… I saw my main function as preparing & executing a content plan, which
involved my answering only the following four questions: 1) What content needs
to be covered? (not learned) 2) How can this content be organized into
manageable units? 3) How can these units be organized into a logical sequence?
4) What means of transmission will be most efficient for transmitting each
unit?{Knowles, 1975 #19}
CHANGES OF HIS THOUGHTS:
p.33 1. “In the first place, my self-concept has changed from that of teacher to that
of facilitator of learning. It required that I focus on what was happening in the
students rather than on what I was doing.”
- p. 37 -> How he introduces his classes to his students: “ When they first hear me
describe my perception of the role of a facilitator & resource to self-directed
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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learners it seems so structureless to them that they become anxious. So I have
learned to emphasize that we shall be working within a structure, but that it is a
different kind of structure from what they have been used to – that it is a process
structure; whereas they have been used to a content structure. And I assure them
that I am in charge of the process, that I shall make decisions about procedures
when they aren’t in a position to make them with me, & that I know what I am
doing. I assure them that I understand that they are being asked to take more
responsibility for learning than they are used to, & that I shall help them learn to
do it.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
p. 38- Grading System: Invites students to “… draft contracts in which they
specify on separate sheets what objective they propose fulfilling for a C, a B, and
an A.” He studies these 1st drafts & writes his reactions on them, then hands them
back to the students, informing what revisions will have to be made. Then, “Only
when a contract is revised to the point where it calls for a level of performance
that I feel represents A quality will I agree to a contract for an A.” {Knowles, 1975
#19}
p. 38- He says that this grading system, “… produces a high degree of motivation
along with an output of energy that results in superior learning.” {Knowles, 1975
#19}
Developing Self-Directed Learners
p. 39- “… first responsibility of a facilitator of learning is to help students develop
competence as self-directed learners; Four optional strategies ->
1. Ask students individually to engage in Inquiry Projects on their own
2. Team students up into small groups (2 to 5) & ask them to pursue the Inquiry
projects independently as teams & also having them analyze their experience the
1st session of class
3. Involve all of a given group of students in an intensive 2-day workshop on selfdirected learning.
4. Provide students with an introductory orientation to the concept & skills of selfdirected learning through the following 3-hour design, which I have developed,
for our entering degree candidates: … Each student is asked to bring an
information-resource book, preferably with its dust jack still on it, & with a table
of contents & index. The students sit in groups of five or six, around tables or in
circles of chairs, as they enter the room.
In opening the session, I explain that they are entering a program in which they
will be expected to take a good deal of responsibility & initiative in their learning,
& that the purpose of this orientation session is to acquaint them with the concept
& to give them some skill practice in self-directed learning. I then explain that the
design for the session consists of four activities: (a) development of a cognitive
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
4
map; (b) a relationship-building exercise; (c) a proactive reading exercise; and (d)
an exercise in utilization of peer resources.
Implementing the Role of Facilitator
1. First meeting – give 5” x 8” card & ask students to fold & write their names
on it, so that all students can see. “Then, I introduce myself again & explain
that in this course I am making certain assumptions about learning & about
mature learners that they should be aware of & have a chance to react to.”
- Then distribute “Comparison of Assumptions & Processes of Teacher-Directed
Learning & Self-Directed Learning” chart & ask them to scan both sides & ask
Questions they may have.
- Then pass out Syllabus: contains- Course Objectives, Resources for Learning,
Units of Inquiry
2. Second meeting – review what happened 1st week & invite new students to
introduce themselves; then explain that students are going to use each other
frequently throughout semester as consultants, and that therefore it might be
useful for them to have some practice in using skills of consultation.
Also, students form triads, after introducing themselves & describing his/her
learning needs. Then, pass out copies of 1st drafts of learning contracts, along with
some previous examples of older contracts. Tell students I will collect their
contracts at next class meeting.
3. Third meeting – Students get into triads, explain task is to test the adequacy of
the learning contracts that have been drafted during the week… (p.50) {Knowles,
1975 #19} Also, suggest members get feedback from the 2 other members of triad
about contract. Raise questions about contract, such as:
- Concerning the objectives
- Concerning the learning strategies
- Concerning the evidence of accomplishment of objectives
- Concerning the criteria & means for validating the evidence
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
- Students then revise their contracts in light of the feedback they have
received, and then I collect the contracts.
4. Fourth meeting – Hand contracts back to students with revisions (if
needed) & tell those students who want to make revisions they can turn their
contracts back in the 5th meeting
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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- p. 53 “… rest of session is devoted to team meetings, while I stand by for
consultation or resource help” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
5. Fifth, Sixth, & Seventh meeting - Receive revived contracts; ask if any
teams have ran into any problems that need the attention of all of us, and I
emphasize that I am available during these sessions as a consultant and
resource person.
** Beginning of 7th Meeting make it a point that the task now facing the teams
is to design learning experiences which will enable the rest of the students to
acquire the content of their respective inquiry units.
6. Eight through Thirteenth Meetings – Information presented by lectures,
panel discussions, symposiums, and the like (p.55) ; Each team member
having equal time
- End of 12th Meeting I remind the students that their contracts, with
supportive evidence of fulfillment, are due at the beginning of the next
meeting.
7. Fourteenth Meeting – (Completion of contract evidence)
-“As soon as all of the students have arrived I ask them to group themselves
into the consultative triads that were formed in the second-meeting.”
{Knowles, 1975 #19}
- Each student is allotted up to 45 minutes to present evidence of
accomplishment of objectives to his or her 2 consultants
8. Fifteenth Meeting – (Course evaluation)
- “As the students enter the room I hand back contracts & portfolios evidence,
with comments & proposed grade.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
- Then he states they can discuss w/ him after class if they have questions.
- For evaluation he forms groups of 5 or 6 students each (by having them
count off) They are to choose the 3 or 4 most useful evaluative questions that
might be asked about a learning experience of this kind and b) tabulate the
answers the members give to these questions. One member is chosen to
report the tabulations.
PART III: LEARNING RESOURCES
Learning Resource D – The Self Concept of a Self-Directing Person
p. 64 - How does one develop this? Having a clear picture of what it means –
being able to visualize how you would feel, how you would think, what you
would do if you were completely self-directing. {Knowles, 1975 #19}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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Learning Resource E – Relationship-Building Exercises
*** p.71 – Rationale -> “Self-directed learning can flourish only when learners
& teachers see one another as mutually helpful human beings with resources to
share.” {Knowles, 1975 #19}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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2. KNOWLES – Introduction to Group Dynamics
(p.14-15) What is Group Dynamics?
- 4 uses
1. “In its most basic sense, it is used to describe something that is happening in all groups
at all times, whether anyone is aware of it or not. ‘Group dynamics’ used in this way
refers to the complex forces that are acting upon every group throughout its existence
which cause it to behave the way it does.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
2. “…field of study – a branch of the social sciences concerned with using scientific
methods to determine why groups behave the way they do… As a field of study, group
dynamics employs the tools and personnel of several disciplines of the social sciences:
notably social psychology, clinical psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthrolopology,
and education.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
3. “… in reference to the body of basic knowledge about group behavior that has
accumulated from past research. This body of knowledge is found in doctoral
dissertations, articles in the journals of the social sciences, monographs, pamphlets, & a
growing number of technical books.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
4. “… to describe a growing body of applied knowledge, or technology, which attempts
to translate the findings and theories of basic knowledge into practical principles &
methods.”
History:
- “Field theory” (p.22) -> “The foundation for a ‘field theory’ of group behavior was laid
by Kurt Lewin, who came to the United States in 1932 as a visiting lecturer at Stanford
& remained when the Nazi coup made his return to Berlin impossible. In 1935 Lewin & a
dedicated group of graduate students initiated a series of classic studies of group behavior
at the University of Iowa’s Child Welfare Research Station. This group moved in the mid
forties to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to form the Research Center for
Group Dynamics. Within a year after Lewin’s death in 1947 the Center moved again, the
time to the University of Michigan. This Center has exerted a powerful influence on the
study of group dynamics through its field theoretical approach.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- “Field theory… makes the assumption that a group at any point of time exists in a
psychological field that operates not unlike an electromagnetic field in physics. This field
consists of a number of forces (or variables) that are affecting the behavior of the
group… It is the task of the social scientist to develop techniques of observation and
measurement that will enable him to analyze these forces and state the laws governing
their operation.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- (p. 24) “Factor organization approach” – “… dominated the research conducted over a
period of years by the Ohio State University Leadership Studies staff headed by C.L.
Shartle. Its techniques emphasize observations of interactions in organizational systems
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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& detailed descriptions of the formal organizational structure of the systems.” {Knowles,
1972 #14}
- “Sociometric Approach” – “…this approach focuses on the social aspects of group life,
especially the emotional quality of the interpersonal relationships among group
members.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- (p.25) “Interaction Analysis Approach” – “… this approach asserts that the overt
behavior of individuals in interaction with one another & their environment is the
‘ultimate stuff’ of scientific study.”{Knowles, 1972 #14}
- “Psychoanalytic Approach” – “The emotional – primarily unconscious – elements in the
group process & their effects on personality growth are stressed in this approach. Deals
with therapeutic groups.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- “Social Group Work Approach” – “This approach has traditionally consisted of the
analysis of narrative records of group workers & the extracting of generalizations from
series of case histories of groups. Social group work has been primarily concerned with
personality development through group experience, although not in a therapeutic
setting… In recent years there has been a shift in group work research from descriptive
research to action-research ‘to ascertain the influence of the leader’s behavior & other
conditions on the interaction within the group & on the personality development of its
members.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
** p. (26) “A major milepost in the history of the group dynamics movement the
establishment in 1947 of the National Training Laboratories (later renamed the
NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science).” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- This became a supply of education, research, summer laboratories, expansion of human
relation trainings, & also several journals were published during this time period.
- “Modern Era” (1960s & 1970s)
-*Note: the “Modern Era” years were the ‘60s & ‘70s*
- “Trends” were noted:
1. “Growing emphasis on precision of quantitative measurement & statistical
sophistication.”
2. “A rebellion against the fragmentation & dehumanization of human beings &
their relations, & an insistence on a more holistic, creative, subjective, valueoriented approach to the study of man.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- “Characteristics” also noted”
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
9
1. Explosive growth in the volume of technical literature. Went from 1.5 items in
first decade to the 1969 edition listing 5, 156 listings.
2. “The number of technical journals carrying articles on small group research has
greatly increased and broadened, as well. In the 1959 edition of this book we
listed fourteen that were giving prominent attention to group dynamics; in
preparation of this edition we found major articles in forty-three journals.”
{Knowles, 1972 #14}
3. “Increasing attention being paid to the group dynamics movement & its
offshoots by the popular mass media.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
Ex: Newsweek, Time, Playboy, The Wall Street Journal; books as well on the
best-seller list; adopted as training manuals of Christian denominations.
4. “Proliferation & uses of group techniques in education & training” {Knowles,
1972 #14}
(p.32-39) Understanding Individual Behavior
- To understand the groups, you must first understand the behavior of individuals,
b/c a group is a collection of individuals.
** “The starting point is to know what questions to ask & then to know where to
go in the literature of the social sciences to find answers.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
1. First Set of Questions to Ask: Effect of an Individuals past Experience in Lie?
- Attitudes, values, & habits developed from the family… can come from here…
- Also can help determine how / why a person responds in a certain manner
2. Forces based on Psychological Needs
- Ex: Security, Affection, Response, Status, Recognition, Belonging, New Experience
3. Associational Forces
- “Invisible committees” (p.36) {Knowles, 1972 #14} – associations w/ population
groupings
4. Goals & Ideologies
- “Set of forces influencing an individual’s behavior is tending to pull him rather than
push him.” (p.36) {Knowles, 1972 #14}
- Own goals, standards/ values, perceptions of reality, fears, what he is/ wants to be
5. Internal Processes
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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- (p.37) “Determinists” (early psychologists” thought an act of behavior was produced by
the sum total of these forces at work on an individual at a given time – that in reality he
had little control over what he did.” {Knowles, 1972 #14}
(p.40-64) Understanding Group Behavior
- There are disagreements on what defines a group; but in general, people are a group
when it possesses these qualities: (p.40-41)
1. “Definable measurement – a collection of 2 or more people identifiable by name
or type.
2. Group consciousness – the members think of themselves as a group, have a
‘collective perception of unity,’ a conscious identification with each other.
3. A sense of shared purpose – the members have the same ‘object model’ or goals
or ideals.
4. Interdependence in satisfaction of needs – the members need the help of one
another to accomplish the purposes for which they joined the group.
5. Interaction – the members communicate with one another, influence one another,
react to one another.
6. Ability to act in a unitary manner – the group can behave as a single organism.
{Knowles, 1972 #14}
Properties of Groups: (p.42 ->)
1. Background – historical background (or lack of it), which influences is
behavior… “a group that has met together often may be assumed to be better
acquainted with what to expect from one another, what needs to be done, and how
to do it.” (p.42-43)
2. Participation pattern – “… many studies show that, on the whole, the broader the
participation among members of a group the deeper the interest and involvement
will be.” (p.43-44)
3. Communication- “… how well group members are understanding one another –
how clearly they are communicating their ideas, values, and feelings…
Sometimes a group will develop a specialized vocabulary of its own, a kind of
verbal shorthand, or private jokes that aren’t understood by new members and
outsiders.” (p.45)
4. Cohesion – “The cohesiveness of a group is determined by the strength of the
bonds that bind the individual parts together into a unified whole.” (p.46)
5. Atmosphere – “… often referred to as the ‘social climate’ of the group, with such
characterizations as ‘warm, friendly, relaxed, informal, permissive, free,’ in
contrast to ‘cold, hostile, tense, formal, restrained.’ Atmosphere affects how
members feel about a group and the degree of spontaneity in their participation.”
(p.46 – 47)
6. Standards – “Every group tends to develop a code of ethics or set of standards
about what is proper and acceptable behavior. Which subjects may be discussed,
which are taboo; how openly members may express their feelings…” (p.47)
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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7. Sociometric pattern – “… participants tend very soon to begin to identify certain
individuals that they like more than other members, and others that they like less.
These subtle relationships of friendship and antipathy – the sociometric patterns –
have an important influence on the group’s activities.” (p.48)
8. Structure and organization – “Groups have both a visible and an invisible
organizational structure.” (p.49) Visible can be highly formal, i.e. appointed
officials, etc.; or quite informal. Invisible structure are things like, “… relative
prestige, influence, power, seniority, ability, persuasiveness, and the like.”
{Knowles, 1972 #14}
9. Procedures – “All groups need to use some procedures – ways of working – to
get things done. In formal business meetings we are accustomed to the use of
Robert’s Rules of Order, a highly codified and explicit set of procedures. Informal
groups usually use much less rigid procedures.” (p.49)
10. Goals – All groups have goals, some are long-range, some immediate; some
clearly defined, others vague. “Since goals are so important to the group’s
ultimate accomplishment, they receive a good deal of attention in the literature.”
(p.50)
(p.85-90) What Does It Add Up To?
(p. 89-90) “Important as have been the discoveries to date, it seems obvious to us that the
surface has only been scratched. The years ahead are bound to bring further exciting
developments, both in pushing back the frontiers of knowledge about human relations
and in applying these unlocked secrets to practical human affairs. We look forward to an
increasingly thrilling adventure in exploring new territories with the social scientists. And
we hope our readers will join us on the trip.”{Knowles, 1972 #14}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
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3. KNOWLES – Higher Adult Education in the U.S.
(p.xiii) “… Moving from the Wings An Introduction” – by Paul A. Miller
*** Several points that he makes could be made about today’s educational systems***
- Miller writes, “However, in the past ten years, as change has brought devastating
challenges to human competence, educators generally have advanced the theme that
continuous learning is a necessary part of life. That the university should help people
continue to learn has grown increasingly obvious. Nothing could seem more
straightforward!” {Knowles, 1969 #10}
- Miller goes on to write (p. xiv) “Education in general is expanding in every direction
and turning into a concept of human resource development. Therefore, it is becoming less
the province of the young; it is moving from the learning space of the classroom to that of
the community.” {Knowles, 1969 #10}
1. (p.3-8) Why This Study?
- (p.3) Knowles knew what was going to happen to our education system 30 years before
it happened. He made reference to Stephen R. Graubard’s writing in Daedalus’, Toward
the Year 2000: Work in Progress. It was in this writing where Graubard writes,
The present university population mix – overwhelmingly undergraduate and predoctoral
or preprofessional – will change and dramatically in the next thirty-five years, at least in
university cities. There, great numbers of post-doctoral fellows and professional adults of all ages
will congregate for longer or shorter periods. They will be seeking something quite different from
what is today so quaintly called “continuing education.” Long before the year 2000, a
businessman will be as apt to spend a sabbatical year at a university as in travel and sport. When
men and women no longer deem it unreasonable to pursue two or three different careers in
succession, the university city will provide the stimulus (and the instruction) to make
such things possible.
{Stephen R. Graubard, “University Cities in the Year 2000,” Daedalus 96 (Summer 1967
): 820, as cited in Knowles, 1969 #10}
- (p.5) The Purpose of This Study: “… to stimulate leaders of higher education, both
nationally and within individual institutions, to initiate strategies for involving all
relevant parties in solving these problems confronting these issues.” {Knowles, 1969
#10}
2. (p.9-18) Higher Adult Education in Perspective?
** (p.9) “The only true perspective on higher adult education in the United States is
kaleidoscopic, for its evolution has consisted of shifting patterns of variegated bits and
pieces.” {Knowles, 1969 #10}
(p.15-16) Problems adult education faces: As universities grow & develop their services,
then there will come a time that they are “too large to be regarded any longer as a
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
13
miscellaneous assemblage of particular activities scattered throughout the
institution.”{Knowles, 1969 #10}
- This is when “policies” come into conflict:
1. Adult Education needs to be considered as an extension of the whole university
2. The need to coordinate the work in the field so that there can be proper focus &
balance of services in terms of the needs & interests of the mature clientele, & so
that the resources of the institution will be used carefully & economically.
{Knowles, 1969 #10}
If they have to split into their own facility  “Only a small proportion of the administrators &
faculties of higher adult education have had any professional training specifically in the theory &
practice of educating adults, & few universities have more than a superficial orientation for their
faculties to the unique requirements of adult educations.” (Carey, 1961; DeCrow, 1962; Dyer,
1956; Gowin and Daigneault, 1961)
3. (p.19-22) Forces for Change in Higher Adult Education
- (p.19) “Many forces outside the universities are promoting an academic revolution.”
- Ex: Technological revolutions  demand for talent; knowledge explosion  engineer,
pharmacist, physician “out of date almost before the ink is dry on his diploma.” (p.19)
- Other examples of people who cannot move along b/c they do not have the chance:
1. Prisoners 2. Handicapped 3. Women 4. Aged 5. Geographical Handicapped
(THAT WAS THEN, EXPLAIN HOW NOW THEY DO HAVE CHANCES)
- (p.37) “Financial Policies and Practices”
- “… the total absence of any central data bank on extension finances make it impossible
to get evidence of specific trends as to money spent for what purposes for whom.”
- “(1)… double standard in financial policy…policy puts the general extension divisions
under pressure to skew their programs to money-making activities (large credit classes &
popular noncredit activities) & limits experimental funds. (2) When state aid is given, it
often is loaded with the pet projects of pressure groups & too often is ephemeral; it is the
first item to be reduced when a new administration enters office. (3) Fiscal policies &
practices of the central administrations, & especially attitudes of budget officers, tend to
be geared to the operation of stable programs for full-time students…
“Concern is growing over the rising federal financing of higher adult education.”
-“… many programs are improvised and shoddy.” {Knowles, 1969 #10}
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- (p.38) “Although funds for aid to full-time young students in universities are increasing,
scholarships usually are denied to part-time adult students. Yet the financial sacrifices
required for adults to continue their education often are greater than for youth.”
{Knowles, 1969 #10}
*** Knowles’ Predictions in 1970s based on “present” trends & assumptions ***
1.
2.
3.
4.
The size of the ‘student body’ of adult education will expand.
The educational level of this student body will continue to rise.
The resources & facilities for the education of adults will gradually expand.
The curriculum & methodology of adult education will become increasingly
differentiated from those designed for children & youth.
5. There will be a rapid expansion in the body of knowledge about the education
of adults.
6. The role of the adult educator will be increasingly differentiated from other
roles, & training for this role will become more specialized.
{Knowles, 1969 #10}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
15
4. KNOWLES – The Making of An Adult Educator- An
Autobiographical Journey
- Forward: (by Leonard Nadler and Zeace Nadler)
- (p.xiii)  “In a sense, we “get into the head” of an international leader in the
field of adult learning. We find, for example, that he does not remain stagnant. He does
not develop a point of view and then set it in concrete.”
“This is important, for one of his major contributions is to challenge all of us in
the field of adult learning to examine our concepts and assumptions about adults as
learners.” {Knowles, 1989 #16} (p.iv)
- “Humility” – (p.xv) (Nadler & Nadler) write about how they invited Malcolm to meet
with their students at a conference they have & speak for about a half-hour session.
- “When he arrived, the students sat in awe and just waited for him to pontificate. Of
course, that does not happen with Malcolm! It took just a few minutes for him to get them
involved. Suddenly, it was an hour later. We called for a break, to give Malcolm a chance
to leave. During the break, he continued to make himself available to the students and
then asked us if he could come back to the class for another hour. Naturally, we readily
concurred.
That evening, we were seated with Hulda <Malcolm’s wife> at a table at a
function where Malcolm was receiving an award. We related the incident to Hulda and
shared with her the reaction of our students. They stated to us that they felt that they had
been in the presence of a real leader – a person who was so far above others that in one
sense he was up in the clouds – and yet what he had to share was down-to-earth. Hulda
looked at us and said in surprise, ‘But, he is only Malcolm!’”{Knowles, 1989 #16}—
needs to say (Leonard Nadler & Zeace Nadler, as cited in … for both of the previous
citations).
- Malcolm S. Knowles is professor emeritus of adult and community college education at
North Carolina State University and previously was professor of education at Boston
University, executive director of the Adult Education Association of the U.S.A., and
director of adult education at the YMCAs in Boston, Detroit, and Chicago
- Education: B.A. degree (1934) from Harvard College and M.A. degree (1949) and his
Ph.D. degree (1960) for the University of Chicago – all in education. He has honorary
degrees from Lowell Technical Institute, the National College of Education, and Regis
College
- (p. xxi) “In addition to administering adult education programs and teaching in graduate
schools, he has done conulting and conducted workshops for a wide variety of
organizations in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
16
- Talking about positive self-concept; A very smart in early years  Knowles gives an
example of his fourth grade teacher, “Miss Utley, at Roosevelt Grammar School in
Missoula. After a month or so of our studying arithmetic she gave us a test. The next
morning she announced that she had scored the test and had an important piece of news.
Sh held up one of the test papers (I thought it looked like mine) and said something like,
‘For the first time since I have been giving the test, I have received an absolutely perfect
answer sheet. We are fortunate to have such an able student in our class – Malcolm
Knowles.’”
-Humility  “My family had moved from Missoula to Kelsey City (now Palm Beach
Gardens), Florida, elementary school. My family had moved from Missoula to Kelsey
City in 1925, and I enrolled in the sixth grade in Mr. Sargeant’s school, where he also
taught the combined sixth and seventh grades. Within weeks it became clear that I was
doing the seventh-grade asignments, and he called me into his office and told me that he
was promoting me to the seventh grade, skipping the sixth grade. He gave me the
impression that it was because I was so smart; it wasn’t until much later that I realized
that the real reason probably was that the school in Missoula was more advanced than the
one in Kelsey City.”
- League of Nations experience: Beginning of junior year at Harvard, there was an
announcement in the Harvard Crimson that the Institute of International Education would
give a scholarship to one Harvard student for a summer of study at its headquarters in
Geneva, Switzerland.
- Basis of Selection: an essay based on “The Challenge and Promise of the League
of Nations”
- an interview with Edward R. Murrow, chairman of the selection committee
** Knowles WON & spent summer of 1933 in Geneva.
** Knowles said that, (p.6) “As a result of this experience, I decided to make my
career in the U.S. Foreign Service.
- He passed exam; however positions were being filled by people who had passed the
year before and he had to wait three years; HOWEVER the Boston Globe had an
announcement that the federal government was establishing the National Youth
Administration as a work-study program for unemployed youth between the ages of
eighteen and twenty-five and the state director for Massachusetts was Eddie Casey,
former football coach at Harvard. (who Malcolm knew b/c he was the water boy for the
team)
- Knowles made a phone call to Eddie, talked to his deputy Bill Stern & was hired.
- Responsibility: “… consisted of finding out what skills employers were looking
for, finding instructors to teach those skills, finding locations for courses to meet in, and
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
17
recruiting youth to take the courses. I immediately formed an advisory council and began
finding some direction.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- When accepted to University of Chicago (1946), his adviser was Cyril O. Houle,
(leading adult educator in the country at this time) chairman of the Department of Adult
Education and dean of University College, which was located in the YMCA building.
- Houle mentored and guided Knowles during his studies. Knowles writes (p.13), “His
attitude toward students is exemplified in the inscription he made in the copies of his
books he sent me for years: ‘To Malcolm Knowles, from whom I have learned so
much!’”{Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Also at Univ. of Chicago  took a seminar class under Professor Arthur Shedlin, an
associate of Carl Rogers. First day of class Knowles showed up about 5 minutes late,
others were talking (about 15 of them). About 10 minutes later they started to look at
their watches, then, “Finally one of the person said to whole group, ‘If the teacher doesn’t
show up by fifteen minutes after the hour isn’t the course supposed to be cancelled?’
Another member of the group said, ‘You are concerned that the teacher is letting us
down?’ ‘Yes,’ said the first speaker. Another person said, ‘Shouldn’t one of us go talk
with dean?’ The same member of the group who had responded to the first speaker said,
‘You feel the dean should know about this deprivation?’ ‘Yes.’ After a few minutes more
of this kind of interaction one of the students pointed to the person who had been
responding and shouted, ‘You’re Arthur Shedlin.’ Shedlin acknowledged that he was, and
the rest of the afternoon was spent with the students probing him about his role and his
reflecting their feelings and thoughts.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}(p.13)
** Knowles said after this course meeting he ran to the library and checked out every
book that he could on Carl Rogers b/c he was curious to find out what this man was all
about. He stated, (p.14) “I began to sense what it means to get ‘turned on’ to learning. I
began to think about what it means to be a facilitator of learning rather than a teacher.”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
** Knowles went from U. of Chicago  Boston University (1960)
- The school was setting up a new program with his arrival
- (p.18) He was notified that there were some 30 applications for the program, but he had
limited enrollment to 20 people for each course. He writes, “I wrote the course
descriptions to sound stuffily academic but actually organized them around studentplanned projects.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
** “Several of the applications were rejected by the committee because the GRE scores
were below a predetermined minimum. I protested that other evidence, such as
achievement in work experience, professional publications, and letters of
recommendation – plus my own experience with them in my courses – indicated that they
had the ability to do academic work at the graduate level. But the committee held that
“academic standards” must be maintained. I knew for a fact that these people were
superior students, and I wanted them in the program. So I wrote an appeal to the graduate
committee of the university, making a case for the fact that adults who have been away
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
18
from academia for several years do not do as well on timed tests as younger students
(adults would rather be right than fast, whereas youth would rather be fast than right).
The committee rejected this suggestion (again in the name of ‘academic standards’) but
authorized me to submit petitions to the admissions committee for a waiver of this
requirement in individual cases, with strong supportive evidence of other sorts of their
ability to perform academically. I did submit petitions of waiver for these applicants, and
all but one were accepted.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- After this experience, Knowles was tempted to resign, but discovered that the university
didn’t care what he did in his classroom, as long as he turned in grades at the end of the
semester. So, this is when he began (p. 19)“experimenting with competency-based course
syllabi, self-diagnosis of learning needs, student-initiated learning projects, learning
contracts, performance assessments rather than tests, and other innovations.” {Knowles,
1989 #16}
** Knowles states (p.20), “ My fourteen years at Boston University were years of
tremendous growth for me. I learned a good deal about university politics and how
“academic standards,” often interfere with learning. Perhaps most important, I had a
living laboratory in which to test the andragogical model; by the time I left, I had refined
it to the point that I felt it was at least a sound basis for further research and theorizing.”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
- 1974  North Carolina State, Edgar Boone, calls him & asks him to come work for
them. Knowles asks what would he be doing. Boone replied, “Come and do whatever you
want to do so long as you continue to help us with staff development.”{Knowles, 1989
#16}
- Taught for 5 years & retired in 1979 b/c of the university’s mandatory retirement age of
65.
- After retirement, he continued to help universities by speaking at university
organizational needs; also an adjunct professor for half a dozen Union Graduate School
students and a mentor for about thirty Fielding Institute students
“8 Episodes That Changed My Life”- Chapter 2
1. Working on his master’s thesis  Cyril Houle had lunch with the editor of the
Association Press, the publication arm of the national YMCA – “at that time a
principal publisher of adult educational materials.” {Knowles, 1989 #16} (p.27)
The editor read over what Knowles had completed so far & told Houle that when
it was completed that he would like to see it. Knowles began having a writer’s
block (what it is called today) & could not finish it), until Hulda came in & asked
him, “Who are you writing this book for?” She told him to name three people that
are the target audience of this book.
- Knowles said that he pictures their faces & acted like he was talking to them,
asking them if this met their criteria in what they were looking for in their
requests.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
19
2. Marrying Hulda  They actually met b/c the girl he was supposed to go to a
dance with backed out on him, but set him up with Hulda. They married in 1935.
At the time Knowles writes (p.29), “I was working at the National Youth
Administration of Massachusetts and earning $22 a week. She got a job at the
Boston YWCA paying $15 a week. That hardly seems like living wages these
days, but at that time tenderloin steak was selling for something like 29 cents a
pound, and we actually started a savings account.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Hulda became his copyreader and helped improve his spelling errors.
- They had 2 kids, Eric & Barbara
3. Learning to Be Authentic  exposed to concept of authenticity at University of
Chicago, under tutelage of Carl Rogers and his associate Arthur Sheldin
- States that, “… Rogers’s three characteristics of the effective helper to be
fundamental: (1) unqualified positive regard for the helpee, (2) a deep ability to
empathize – to think and feel with rather than about a helpee, and (3) absolute
authenticity – to behave out of your real personhood rather than out of some role.”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
- He took this with him & used it in all of his professional experiences. Had a
tough time with some experiences, b/c some people told him that he was supposed to be a
‘dignified professor, act stuffy, better than thou;’ but Knowles states that this was not his
persona & he (p.33) “… fell flat on his face the first year that he tried this at Boston
University” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
4. Overcoming Resistance to Learning
- Ways he has used to overcome ‘resistance to learning’:
a) He stated to students that he realized some of them were being forced to be
there, against their will, but told them that he wanted to be sure they understood the
purpose & application to their life of that sequence. (it was a 4-semester sequence
course). He told them there was nothing he, nor they, could do about it at that time –
although they might be able to have the requirement removed in the future.
b) Usage of role models- example given in this book was a New Jersey
correctional institution former convict, who had “made it” on the outside world, coming
back in & talking to the inmates. After he came back in, as inmates release times became
closer, they started working harder to get their lives in order, so that they could get a job
in the outside world.
c) General-duty nurses in hospitals were being asked to perform in ICCUs
(intensive coronary care units), because of shortage of staff. However, they were not
picking up on the information quickly enough. Knowles discovered that it was b/c they
felt that they did not need further training for anything that they did on their jobs and
didn’t appreciate being told so. Knowles arranged for a movie camera to be placed in an
ICCU to record what was going on. Then, he showed the movie to the nurses at a nurses
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
20
staff meeting. He showed the video 3 times, the first time played regularly for them to get
an overview of it. “Then I told them I would show it again, but this time they were to rate
the nurses’ performances as poor, mediocre, or excellent.” A consensus rating was
reached. “I showed the film a third time, and asked the viewers to list the attributes
(knowledge, skill, attitude) that the excellent performers seemed to have that the poor and
mediocre didn’t have… Finally, I had the nurses rate themselves individually in terms of
the degree to which they possessed each characteristic on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
We didn’t have them report these ratings, but I saw a lot of 1s, 2s, and 3s, on their
sheets.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
5. Learning About Cross-Cultural Education
- During 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, he conducted several workshops in Puerto Rico,
England, France, Guatemala, and Venezuela. (He didn’t think about them being crosscultural educational activities).
- States that “I simply thought of the participants as being people who were interested in
examining the principles of adult learning and their application to a variety of adult
educational situations.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Biggest problem in the Brazilian culture was getting them to “come back together after
he had released them into smaller group settings.”
6. Reaching an Understanding of Learning Theories
- (p.47) “… all three of these sets of theories reflect facets of human reality; none is
wholly right and none is wholly wrong. In some respects human beings do behave like
machines… The behaviorist strategies are appropriate in helping one learn to perform
these tasks. Other performances are essentially operations of the brain…Here the
strategies of the cognitive theorists are appropriate. But probably the largest number of
performances in life are as living, growing organisms – performing complex and
changing life roles. Here the strategies of the humanistic theorists are most appropriate.”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
7. Learning About Meaningful Evaluation
- States that in early years of his teaching he, “… relied on what we would now call
‘informal subjective data’ to evaluate how well our programs were accomplishing their
objectives.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Went away to war in 1944, but when came back he states, “… it was like landing on a
strange new planet. While I was away, the statisticians had taken over. The dominant
note in evaluation had become quantification. Unless an evaluation report was stated in
numbers, it wasn’t respectable.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
21
- Knowles rambles on about the insignificance of the quantitative data & how what he
had learned he had forgotten, until 1978, when Michael Q. Patton, wrote a book
entitled, Utilization-Focused Evaluation.
- In Patton’s book he interviewed he discovered that several people were
interested in the qualitative data, which was not being shown, in their programs.
** Knowles was excited  1981- Patton wrote Qualitative Evaluation Methods- “the
main theme of which is that evaluation is a creative process in which the evaluator has to
make a judgment about which methods – quantitative or qualitative – will produce the
kind of data required for a particular situation.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Knowles uses this & Patton’s later writings in his courses & workshops to ask the
participants to do a qualitative evaluation of the course or workshop.
8. Learning to Make Things Happen by Releasing the Energy of Others
- Came up with idea that in “leadership position” one should use the energy of others to
help lead them.
- (p.52) writes “It gradually came to me that the highest function of leadership is
releasing the energy of the people in the system and managing the processes for giving
that energy direction toward mutually beneficial goals.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Discovered 8 behavioral characteristics of creative leaders:
- Creative leaders…
1. make a different set of assumptions – essentially positive – about human nature
from the assumptions – essentially negative – made by controlling leaders.
2. accept as a law of human nature that people feel a commitment to a decision in
proportion to the extent that they feel they have participated in making it.
3. believe in and use the power of self-fulfilling prophecy.
4. highly value individuality.
5. stimulate and reward creativity.
6. are committed to a process of continuous change and are skillful in managing
change.
7. emphasize internal motivators over external motivators.
8. encourage people to be self-directing.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
22
“Landmarks & Heroes in Adult Education”- Chapter 3
- “Ancient Roots” – participated in a seminar led by Cyril Houle & learned that the
education of adults was probably the earliest form of systematic education.
EX: Confucius and Lao-tsu in ancient China; the Hebrew prophets and Jesus in
biblical times; Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and other ancient Greeks – taught adults, not
children.
- These people recognized that (p. 61) “adults entered into an educational activity with a
wealth of experience that influences what they want to learn and that is itself a rich
resource for one another’s learning. They also perceived learning to be a process of active
inquiry, not passive reception of transmitted content.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- “… there is a comparative void in the literature about adult education between the fall
of Rome and the Renaissance. The main footprint left during this period, as I see it, was
the institutionalization of education for children…they evolved a set of assumptions
about learning and strategies for teaching that came to be subsumed under the label
‘pedagogy,’ literally meaning ‘the art and science of teaching children.’” {Knowles, 1989
#16}
- Knowles states that when our public schools were organized several centuries later this
pedagogical model was the only model that teachers knew, so they became stuck in it,
and the entire school system, from elementary to higher education became frozen in that
model.
- The Renaissance, b/w the 14th and 17th centuries, left “two footprints,” according to
Knowles. These were (p.62): “… the invention of the printing press and the Protestant
Reformation in the sixteenth century, when it became a standard expectation that people
would continue their religious education by reading the Bible and other printed
materials.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Period after World War I was an era of continuous and rapid expansion in the number
of institutions offering adult education opportunities and the number of adults
participating. “The founding of the Department of Immigrant Education (later changed to
Adult Education) in the National Education Association in 1921 signaled the recognition
of adult education as an integral function of the public schools and the rising awareness
of adult education as an emerging profession.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Knowles nominates Frederick K. Keppel as the “father of the adult education
movement” in this country. This is because he convened four regional meetings of adult
educational workers from a variety of agencies to obtain facts about what educational
services were being offered to adults and to solicit opinions as to what would be required
to develop a strong adult education movement in this country. As a result the American
Association for Adult Education formation was founded and held a conference in
Chicago on March 26, 27, 1926. “In my view, this event marked the beginning of an
organized adult education movement in the United States.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
23
- The establishment of graduate degree programs in adult education in adult education at
universities would soon follow.
“How My Ideas About Adult Learning Have Evolved and Changed”Chapter 4
- (p.73) “… meaning must reside in the things for which people strive…” (Eduard
Lindeman, 1926) {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- (p.76) “In 1950 I discovered Harry A. Overstreet’s (1949) The Mature Mind and found
further reinforcement of the notion that adult learning in concerned with ‘linkages with
life’: ‘A mature person – one whose linkages with life are constantly becoming stronger
and richer because his attitudes are such as to encourage their growth… A mature person,
for example, is not one who knows a large number of facts. Rather, he is one whose
mental habits are such that he grows in knowledge and the wise use of
it’(p.43).”{Knowles, 1989 #16}
*** My Introduction to Andragogy *** (p. 79)
- Knowles had been working on an outline of theoretical framework of adult learning in
his mind
- “In 1967, 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, in journal articles explaining how differently he was dealing with adult students in
his evening classes from the teenage students in his day classes. The term lay fallow until
it was once more introduced by a German social scientist, Eugen Rosenstock, in 1921,
but it did not yet receive general recognition.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- (p.79) “It made great sense to me to have a term that would enable us to discuss the
growing body of knowledge about adult learners in parallel with the pedagogical model
of childhood learning. I used it in the next article I wrote, ‘Androgogy, Not Pedagogy,’ in
Adult Leadership in April 1968. (I did not learn that the correct spelling is andragogy
until I corresponded with the publishers of Merriam-Webster dictionaries in 1968;
Knowles, 1980, pp.253-254). {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- He received reports during the next 10 years from elementary and secondary school
teachers that the children they were teaching learned better under the andragogical
assumptions and strategies in many situations. He also received some comments that in
some situations that the pedagogical assumptions and strategies were necessary with
adults… “So in the revised edition of The Modern Practice of Adult Education in 1980
the subtitle was changed to From Pedagogy to Andragogy.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
24
- Knowles states that his “Later Influences” include:
-“Freire’s (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Stating that this “… made him
aware of the importance of ‘consiousness-raising’ as a part of the learning process.”
-“Maslow’s (1970) Motivation and Personality. “… in the framework of the
hierarchy of human needs, a deeper understanding of the meaning of readiness to learn as
well as the concept of the self-actualized person.”
-“Goulet and Baltes’s (1970) Life-Span Developmental Psychology enlarged my
vision of the developmental process during the adult years.”
-“Edgar Faure and others (1972) Learning to Be helped me put my ideas about
adult learning into the perspective of lifelong learning.”
-“Neal Berte’s (1975) Individualizing Education by Learning Contracts helped
me refine and improve my use of contract learning as a strategy for enhancing selfdirected learning.”
-“Kay Torshen’s (1977) The Mastery Approach to Competency-Based Education
deepened my understanding of and commitment to this reorientation to the purpose of
learning.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
*** Current thinking of Pedagogical & Andragogical Models ***
Pedagogical
1. Need to Know: (Learners) only need to know they must learn what the teacher
teaches if they want to pass & get promoted; they do not need to know how what
they learn will apply to their lives.
2. Learner’s Self-Concept: (Teacher’s) concept of learner is that of a dependent
personality; (Learners) self-concept becomes that of a dependent personality.
3. Role of Experience: (Learners) experience is of little worth as resource for
learning. Teacher’s experience is what counts, as well as textbook writer’s, etc.
So, transmittal techniques are the backbone of pedagogical methodology.
4. Readiness to Learn: (Learners) have a subject-centered orientation to learning.
They see as acquiring subject-matter content.
5. Regarding Motivation: (Learners) are motivated by extrinsic motivators – grades,
teacher’s approval / disapproval, parental pressures
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
25
Andragogical
1. Need to Know: (Adults) need to know why they need to know something before
undertaking learning it / investing time in undertaking the task.
2. Learner’s Self-Concept: (Adults) being responsible for their own lives. Need to be
seen & treated by others as being capable of self-direction.
3. Role of Experience: (Adults) come into an educational activity with both a greater
volume and a different quality of experience from youths. This has several
consequences for adult education. A) will have wider range of individual
differences in terms of background, learning style, motivation, needs, interests,
and goals  this is why emphasis in adult education in placed on
individualization of learning and teaching strategies
4. Readiness to Learn (Adults) become ready to learn those things they need to
know or to be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life
situations…Importance of timing learning experiences to coincide with those
developmental tasks.
5. Orientation to Learning (Adults) are life centered (in contrast to children &
youth). Their learning experiences are increasingly organized around life tasks or
problems.
6. Motivation to Learn: (Adults) somewhat responsive to extrinsic, but more potent
motivators are intrinsic motivators (desire for increased self-esteem, quality of
life, job satisfaction, etc.)
“Fifteen Questions I Am Frequently Asked and Answers I Give”- Chapter 5
- I have selected a few of these questions out of the 15 questions written in chapter:
- Q. Is everybody capable of being a self-directed learner?(p.92)
A. “ I suppose there are some people who are pathologically dependent, but if so, they
are more likely to be found in mental institutions than in the normal community… My
assumption is that if we fail to engage people in take some responsibility, it is more likely
to be our fault than theirs.”
- Q. Is self-directed learning the best form of education?(p.92-93)
A. “ I believe that straight indoctrination is an appropriate form of education in some
situations, particularly where protection of human life is involved. And I believe that in
other situations direct didactic instruction is appropriate, such as how to operate a
machine the learner has never seen before. Nevertheless, whenever more complex human
performances are involved, especially those requiring judgment, insight, creativity,
planning, problem solving, self confidence, and the like, I think that self-directed learning
is appropriate.”
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
26
- Q. Does adult education maintain, increase, or reduce the social and economic
inequalities in American society?
A. “ As things stand to date, I think that adult education increases inequalities, because
studies of participation (Cross, 1981; Knox, 1977) show that the more education people
have, the more likely they are to participate in adult educational activities. This is an
intolerable situation. We cannot afford to enter the twenty-first century with one-fifth of
our population functionally illiterate; therefore, it must become a high-priority national
policy to mount a crash program to deliver adult educational services to our
undereducated fellow citizens at their convenience in terms of time, place, and pace, as
well as in terms of their needs to perform life roles effectively. Courses in reading,
writing, and arithmetic are not the answer. Adult Performance Level programs are what
are needed. And since this is a national problem, federal financing is required.”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
“How I Am Evaluated and How I React to and Use Evaluations”- Chapter 6
- Knowles definition of Evaluation: (from Kempfer (1955, p. 399)) “The basic purpose of
evaluation is to stimulate growth and improvement. Whatever other worthy purposes
exists are only facets of the all-inclusive effort to assess present conditions as a basis for
achieving better ones. Evaluation that does not lead to improved practice is
sterile.”{Knowles, 1989 #16}
- If receive “Mostly Positive Evaluations”:
Comments like, ‘This workshop was fun.’ Knowles says, “I think all learning experiences
should be fun.” (p.104) {Knowles, 1989 #16}
Rule of Thumb: No activity should last more than 30 or 40 minutes without a change to
another activity or a break  never gets comments, “Activities too long.”
- “Some Evaluations are Contradictory”:
Comments like: ‘Too much time on anecdotes; example over 5 minutes with statistics
story – funny but of little value.’  Knowles says that he (p.104) “makes a point of
illustrating principles with descriptions of personal experiences (which in the current
literature would be referred to a the use of imagery). As a result, he did cut back a little
on some of his stories.
- He accepts the fact that there is always a wide range of differences in a group of adults
–The way that he handles this (p. 105) “…differences in background, experience,
interests, motivation, speed of learning, learning styles, and abilities… but I accept the
reality that I can’t satisfy everybody equally. My rationalization if that if not more than
10 percent of the participants are relatively dissatisfied, I have at least bettered the curve
of normal distribution.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
27
- The last evaluation that Knowles uses are what he calls “Back-home Applications.” He
uses comments that he receives from people that have been to his workshops, lectures,
and classes, and how they have used his teaching “back home.” He takes their feedback /
comments and says that this is the “most telling form of evaluation.”
- Finally, Knowles states that the Evaluations he receives have led to new books that he
has written. Evaluations from workshop participants in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
telling of how they were using the andragogical model in their institutions were used to
help him write his book, Andragogy in Action, publish by Jossey-Bass in 1984.
- Correspondence with Individuals:
- Knowles writes about the many letters that he receives each month from students,
describing their personal experiences, using andragogy in their classrooms now.
- Example of how he reached other fields / careers  (p.109) One example: “The next
letter is from a faculty member at the University of California, Davis: ‘This is to express
my appreciation once again for your taking the time to join the staff of University
Extension… I think that the personal experiences that you related and your thoughts on
adult and continuing education validated the career choices many of us have made… On
a personal note, some of us were fascinated with the skills that you have as a group
leader. Your few hours with us have set a model for accomplishment for those of us who
came out of other fields and have inadvertently made careers in adult education.’”
{Knowles, 1989 #16}
** CRITIQUES AGAINST KNOWLES **
- “The most recent example I know of is an article by Ronald L. Podeschi, (p.111)
“Andragogy: Proofs or Premises” (1987), ‘which presents an overview of the ‘debate’
and concludes that ‘Even to raise the issue of so-called ‘neutral’ research, and to urge
critical attention to assumptions underlying research in adult education, is to take a
philosophical stance… practitioners should be wary of covert epistemology and values
underlying adult education research – whether about andragogy or any other topic.’” (p.
16). {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- (p.112) “A criticism that has been leveled against andragogy several times is that it is
not a theory. My problem with this is that in the social science literature there appears to
be little agreement as to the meaning of the word theory. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary gives two definitions that apply to this kind of situation: (1) ‘The analysis of a
set of facts in their relation to one another’ and (2) ‘A belief, policy, or procedure
proposed or followed as the basis of action.’ I believe that andragogy qualifies as a theory
according to both definitions. However, I prefer to think of it as a model of assumptions
about learning or a conceptual framework that serves as a basis for an emergent theory. It
certainly has served its purpose as a stimulant for a growing body of theoretical thinking
in our field, and I thoroughly applaud this use of it.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
28
- One made especially in the 1970s was that the andragogical model dichotomized
assumptions about learning in children and learning in adults.
- Knowles admits that this was true in his first writing in the ‘70s, however, “in
the 1980 revised edition of the book I changed the dichotomy to a continuum, proposing
that when pedagogical assumptions are realistic (as when the learner is truly dependent
on receiving instruction upon entering a totally strange new territory of subject matter),
pedagogical strategies are appropriate – but only up to the point at which the learner has
acquired sufficient knowledge of the content to be able to start engaging in self-directed
inquiry about it.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Knowles criticism about criticisms: “A fairly frequent criticism is that the andragogical
theory has not been tested empirically. I have several reactions to this criticism. The first
is that while there was very little research on the theory in the first few years, a growing
volume of research, both quantitative and qualitative, has been reported in the literature
from around the world in the last decade. The qualitative and action-research studies have
tended to support and refine the theory.”
“ My second reaction is that much of the quantitative research tends to focus on
one element of the theory and ignore its interdependence with other elements… A point I
have made repeatedly in my writings is that when adults enter into an academic setting,
they hark back to their earlier conditioning in schooling to be dependent learners.”
Knowles comments that his third reaction is that when critics use the term
empirical they limit it to controlled laboratory experiments or statistical correlational
research. He adds that (p.114), “… qualitative methods such as case studies diaries, and
action research have been much more productive than quantitative methods. And these fit
the definition of empirical, too.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
“Technology and Education: My Reflections and Projections”- Chapter 7
- (p.117) “My first experience with technology for educational purposes was with the oldfashioned telephone.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- He had to teach a 12-week graduate course in adult learning principles to students in the
School of Nursing at the University of West Virginia. There were going to be about thirty
students scattered in groups of from about two to six at several locations across the state
and they communicated via telephone from his office in Newton, Massachusetts, for two
hours a week. Each location had a speakerphone so the students could hear him and talk
back as a group.
- He developed a “Course Learning Guide” (p.118) {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Included:
- “Introduction to myself, my position, significant past experiences, personal
characteristics, … my perception of my role and relationship with them as a facilitator of
their learning
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
29
-A statement of my philosophy of education and the assumptions I was making
about them as adult learners, and accordingly, my perception of their role and
responsibilities as students in this course.
-A description of the competency-development objectives of this course.
- A set of inquiry units identifying the questions that had to be answered to
achieve the objectives of this course and the specific resources… available to them for
getting answers to these questions.
- A self-diagnostic rating scale listing the competencies this course was designed
to help them develop or improve and providing a rating scale for them to use in rating the
level at which each competency was important to them and the level to which they
already had developed each competency through previous training or experience.
- A set of guidelines for preparing a learning plan identifying a student’s learning
objectives, the resources he or she planned to use in accomplishing each objective, and
the evidence he or she would produce to indicate the extent to which each objective was
accomplished.
* The course was very successful, the director of graduate studies called Knowles and
shared, (p.120) “… the enthusiasm that the students had expressed to her and indicating
that as a result of this success, she was planning to expand the use of courses by
teleconferencing.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Television: 1952 – His first experience was with a local commercial channel that sold
furs on television. He had set up some local some local service family counselors to
resolve to problems phoned in by the audience. The trick was that all of the phone calls
were staged. They were friends of Knowles, they used false names, and their questions
were false. As a result there were not many people that “bought the idea” of the show and
it was canceled after the third week.
- He experienced more with television, producing a “five principles of adult learning”
series, entitled, “The Dynamics of Leadership.” This was in 1962 on a Boston PBS
station, WGBH, and it was a ten-week series. He also made “One-Shot Videotapes” for
group networks and other Public Broadcasting and Educational Television network
stations. {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Computer: 1981- December, bought an Apple computer –
- Had several problems when he got started, told his wife that he felt “dumb”
- Her response was, (p.125) “Honey, you can’t be really dumb; you have a Ph.D., and you
don’t get one of those if you’re really dumb.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
- Knowles continued to struggle for over one month, until he finally called Steve Jobs,
the owner of Apple!
- He did not hear back from Jobs, but had a technician from Baltimore come to his house
and work on the computer for him! (Knowles lived in Raleigh, NC at this time)
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
30
- The technician found the problem & also showed Knowles that the instructions to
resolve the problem were in the instruction manual, but the technician said to Knowles,
“I see what you mean: the manual needs an index and needs to show you how to
make the computer do what you want it to do. I’ll pass the word along to
Cupertino.” (he was Apple’s sales manager at the time)
** (p.127) This incident led to change the title of Malcolm’s next article  it was
changed to, “Malcolm Knowles Finds a Worm in His Apple.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
** Knowles states in this book (written in 1989) that (p.129), “I am now convinced that
most educational services will be delivered electronically within another couple of
decades.” {Knowles, 1989 #16}
“Looking Toward the Twenty-First Century”- Chapter 8
-“Educated Person needs a new definition”
- (p.132) “In my twenty-first century reincarnation I would want an educational system
that would help me become a competent person, with my highest competence being that
of continuous, self-directed, lifelong learning – the ability continuously to anticipate new
conditions and to change in ways that would enable me to avoid becoming obsolete. And
I would want the same thing for all the inhabitants of this planet.” {Knowles, 1989}
- What It Takes to Be a Competent Educator of Adults
- (p.137) “First, I must confess that I think that there is no such thing as ‘an
educator of adults’ in pure form. There are many kinds and degrees of adult educators.
For examples, I perceive myself to be at least three kinds. I was first of all a developer
and administrator of adult educational programs in a government agency and the YMCA.
Then I became an administrator of and adult educational association. Then I was a
professor of adult education, with a bent toward theory building and writing adult
educational materials. Now, in my retirement, I am essentially a trainer of adult
educational practitioners. In all these roles I was also a facilitator of learning.” {Knowles,
1989}
- Competencies: Use Exhibit 2  p.140 in book  copy & make .pdf, then
place on webpage
- Where can you go to gain these competencies?
- Conferences of professional associations, short courses offered @
universities, seminars, workshops, & graduate degrees in adult education.
5. KNOWLES – Adult Learner
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
31
“Exploring the World of Learning Theory”- Chapter 1
- (p.4) “There are some psychologist who don’t believe in theories at all. Gagne, for
example, writes, ‘I do not think learning is a phenomenon which can be explained by
simple theories, despite the admitted intellectual appeal that such theories have.” (Gagne,
1965, p.v.) {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Many different theories about the process of how adults learn; one example…
- (p.9) “Gagne identifies five domains of the learning process, each with its own praxis.
1. Motor skills, which are developed through practice.
2. Verbal information, the major requirement for learning being its
presentation within an organized, meaningful context.
3. Intellectual skills, the learning of which appears to require prior learning
of prerequisite skills.
4. Cognitive strategies, the learning of which requires repeated occasions in
which challenges to thinking are presented.
5. Attitudes, which are learned most effectively through the use of human
models and ‘vicarious reinforcement.’ (Gagne, 1972, pp. 3-4)” {Knowles,
1990 #4}
“A Theory of Adult Learning: Andragogy”- Chapter 3
- (p. 27) “Considering that the education on adults has been a concern of the human race
for a very long time, it is curious that there has been so little thinking, investigating, and
writing about adult learning until recently.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- (p.28) “Two streams of inquiry are discernable beginning with the founding of the
American Association for Adult Education in 1926 and the provision of substantial
funding to it for research and publications by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
1. Scientific Stream: Seeks to discover new knowledge through rigorous (and
often experimental) investigation
- “Launched by Edward L. Thorndike with publication of his Adult Learning in
1928; misleading title – he was not concerned with the processes of adult learning
but rather with learning ability.”{Knowles, 1990 #4}
2. Artistic Stream: Seeks to discover new knowledge through intuition and the a
analysis of experience, that was concerned with how adults learn.
- “Launched with the publication of Eduard C. Lindeman’s The Meaning of Adult
Education in 1926.
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
32
- Strongly influenced by John Dewey, Lindeman laid the foundation for a
systematic theory about adult learning with such insightful statements such as
these:
… the approach to adult education will be via the route of situations, not
subjects…
… the resource of highest value in adult education is the learner’s experience…
Contributions to Andragogy from the Social Sciences (p.38)
- Clinical Psychology:
- Sigmund Freud- identifying the influence of the subconscious mind on behavior
-concepts such as anxiety, repression, fixation, regression, aggression, defense
mechanism, projection, and transference, have had to be taken into account by learning
theorists
- Carl Jung- introduced concept that human consciousness possessed four
functions or four ways of extracting information from experience and achieving
internalized understanding – sensation, thought, emotion, and intuition… laid the
groundwork for the concepts of the balanced personality and the balanced curriculum.
-Erik Erikson – provided the ‘eight ages of man,’ the last three occurring during
the adult years, as a framework for understanding the stages of personality development.
- Maslow – Self-actualizing persons  (p.40) “breaking things down into their
component parts and studying them separately. Maslow placed special emphasis on the
role of safety, as becomes clear in the following formulation of the elements in the
growth process.”{Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Carl R. Rogers – “… in a general way, therapy is a learning process.” {Knowles,
1990 #4}. ‘Student-centered’ approach to education was based on five ‘basic hypotheses.
(1) We cannot teach another person directly; we can only facilitate his learning. (2) A
person learns significantly only those things which he perceives as being involved in the
maintenance of, or enhancement of, the structure of self. (3 & 4) Experience which, if
assimilated, would involve a change in the organization of self trends to be resisted
through denial or distortion of symbolization, and The structure and organization of self
appear to become more rigid under threat; to relax its boundaries when completely free
from threat. Experience which is perceived as inconsistent with the self can only be
assimilated if the current organization of self is relaxed and expanded to include it. (5)
The educational situation which most effectively promotes significant learning is one in
which (a) threat to the self of the learner is reduced to a minimum, and (b) differentiated
perception of the field is facilitated. {Knowles, 1990 #4}
-Developmental Psychology:
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
33
- Presey and Kuhlen (1957): “Collection of research findings on human
development and laid the foundation for a new field of specialization in psychology –
life-span development psychology” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Bischof (1969) and Goulet and Baltes (1970): built upon  findings
- Havighurst (1961): “identified the developmental tasks associated with different
stages of growth which give rise to a person’s readiness to learn different things at
different times and create “teachable moments.”
** Knowles uses this and adapts it in his own teachings **
-Sociology and Social Psychology:
- (p.44) “The disciplines of sociology and social psychology have contributed a great deal
of new knowledge about the behavior of groups and larger social systems, including the
forces which facilitate or inhibit learning and change [Argyris, 1964; Bennis, 1966;
Benne and Chin, 1968; Bennis and Slater, 1968; Etzoni, 1961, and 1969; Hare, 1969;
Knowles and Knowles, 1973; Lewin, 1951; Lippitt, 1969; Schein and Bennis, 1965;
Schlossberg, Lynch, and Chickering, 1989; Zander, 1982] and about environmental
influences, such as culture, race, population characteristics, and density, on learning.
-Philosophy:
- (p.44) “Eduard Lindeman laid the foundation of this theme in his The Meaning of Adult
Education in 1926 and it was reinforced by Lyman Bryson in his Adult Education in
1936 and The Next America in 1952.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- “The underlying premise of the argument was that we could have a unified and potent
adult education movement in this country only if all programs in all institutions were
working toward a common goal, one side holding that this goal should be the
improvement of individuals, and the other holding that it should be the improvement of
society.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- The 1956 conference of the newly formed Adult Education Association of the USA
produced three positive results (in the eyes of Kenneth Benne – its president):
1. Uncovered some tool concepts that would prove useful in working through the
strife of tongues and the maze of special interests and moved the emphasis toward
areas of genuine agreement and disagreement.
2. Revealed the importance of philosophizing as a necessary and continuing
ingredient of all policy formulation and program determination.
3. Furnished an example of the pains and tribulations that men from many
disciplines and from many special vantage points in adult education encounter as
they venture seriously and thoughtfully to seek common ground in their chosen
field. [Sillars, 1958, p. 5] {Knowles, 1990 #4}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
34
- Contributions from Adult Education to Andragogy (p.46 )
- Cyril O. Houle investigated in the 1950s (University of Chicago) (p.46) “…twenty-two
subjects to discover primarily why adults engage in continuing education, but it sheds
some light also on how they learn.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- “He found individuals could be fitted into three categories and inside these categories
there were four ‘subgroups of learners’ (Houle, 1961, p.16)” {Knowles, 1990 #4} “The
criterion for typing the individuals into subgroups was the major conception they held
about the purposes and values of continuing education for themselves.
- 3 Categories: (p.46-47)
1. Goal Oriented: use education for accomplishing fairly clear-cut objectives
2. Activity-Oriented: take part b/c they find in the circumstance of the learning a
meaning which has no necessary connection – and often no connection at all –
with the content or the announced purpose of the activity
3. Learning-Oriented: seek knowledge for its own sake; been engrossed in
learning for as long as they can remember {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Allen Tough continued Houle’s investigations & (p.48) “… he was interested in
determining what motivated adults to begin learning a project, and found that
overwhelmingly his subjects anticipated several desired outcomes and benefits to result.
Some benefits immediate, others long-run…Clearly pleasure and self-esteem were
critical elements in the motivation of Tough’s subjects.”{Knowles, 1990 #4}
-Tough’s Conclusion: (p.49) “… an adult learner proceeds through several phases in the
process of engaging in a learning project, and speculated that helping them gain increased
competence in dealing with each phase might be one of the most effective ways of
improving their learning effectiveness.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Roots of Andragogy (p.51 )
- Dutch adult educator, Ger van Enckevort, performed exhaustive study of the origins
- He discovered the term “Andragogik” was first used by a German grammar school
teacher, Alexander Kapp, in 1833
- (p.52) “Kapp used the word in a description of the educational theory of the Greek
philosopher Plato, although Plato never used the term himself. A few years later the
better-known German philosopher Johan Friedrich Herbart acknowledged the term by
strongly opposing its use. Van Enckevort observes that ‘the great philosopher had more
influence than the simple teacher, and so the word was forgotten and disappeared for
nearly a hundred years.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
35
- Van Enckevort found the term being used again in 1921 by the German social scientist
Egen Rosenstock, who taught at the Academy of Labor in Frankfort. Rosenstock
delivered a report to the academy in which he expressed his opinions that adults should
be taught different than youth, and because of this the teachers should be, “… in contrast
to a ‘pedagogue,’ an ‘andragogue.”
Rosenstock thought that he invented the term until 1962, when Kapp and Herbart
informed him about its earlier use.
- A Swiss psychiatrist, Heinrich Hanselmann, in a book published in 1951, Andragogy:
Nature, Possibilities, and Boundaries of Adult Education, which dealt with the
nonmedical treatment of reeducation of adults, was the next findings of the Dutch
scholar. In 1957, a German teacher, Franz Poggeler, published a book entitled
Introduction to Andragogy: Basic Issues in Adult Education.
- After this, Yugoslavian adult educators began speaking and writing about andragogy,
offering doctorates in adult education at their universities.
-(p.52-53) “Andragogy started being used in the Netherlands by Professor T.T. ten Have
in his lectures in 1954, and in 1959 he published the outlines for a science of
andragogy.”{Knowles, 1990 #4}
- (p.53) “Since 1966 the University of Amsterdam has had a doctorate for andragogues ,
and in 1970 a department of pedagogical and andragogical sciences was established in
the faculty of social sciences.” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- (p.53) “During the past decade andragogy has come into increasing use by adult
educators in France (Bertrand Schwartz), England (J.A. Simpson), Venezuela (Felix
Adam), and Canada (a Bachelor of Andragogy degree program was established at
Concordia University in Montreal in 1973).” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- (p.53) “In this country, to date several major expositions of the theory of andragogy and
its implications for practice have appeared; [Godbey, 1978; Knowles, 1970, rev.1980;
Ingalls and Arceri, 1972; Knowles, 1973, 1975, and 1984] a number of articles have
appeared in periodicals reporting on applications of the andragogical framework to social
work education, religious education, undergraduate and graduate education, management
training, and other spheres; and an increasing volumes of research on hypotheses derived
from andragogical theory is making a difference in the ay programs of adult education are
being organized and operated, in the way adults are being helped to learn.” {Knowles,
1990 #4}
“Theories of Teaching”- Chapter 4
** (p.77) “‘Teaching, in my estimation, is a vastly over-rated function. Having made
such a statement, I scurry to the dictionary to see if I really mean what I say. Teaching
means ‘to instruct.’ Personally I am not much interested in instructing another in what he
should know or think. ‘To impart knowledge or skill.’ My reaction is, why not be more
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
36
efficient, using a book or programmed learning? ‘To make to know.’ Here my hackles
rise. I have no wish to make anyone know something. ‘To show, guide direct.’ As I see it,
too many people have been shown, guided, directed. So I come to the conclusion that I do
mean what I said. Teaching is, for me, a relatively unimportant and vastly overvalued
activity. [Rogers, 1969, p.103]’
Rogers goes on to explain that in his view teaching and the imparting of
knowledge make sense in an unchanging environment, which is why it has been an
unquestioned functioned for centuries. ‘But if there is one truth about modern man, it is
that he lives in an environment which is continually changing, and therefore the aim of
education must be the facilitation of learning. [Ibid., pp. 104-105]” {Knowles, 1990 #4}
- Concepts of Teaching Derived from Theories of Teaching (p.87 )
- Dewey’s Concepts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Experience
Democracy
Continuity
Interaction
- Teaching through Inquiry (p.90)
- Jerome Bruner – most notable proponent of this approach to teaching; Teacher
rarely tells students what he thinks they ought to know, basic mode of discourse
with students is questioning; does not accept a single statement as an answer to a
question
- Teaching through Modeling (p.95)
- Albert Bandura – (Stanford University) developed this system, the teacher
behaves in ways that he wants the learner to imitate
- Change Theory (p.99)
- Concepts drawn from field theory, systems theory, organizational development
and consultation theories, and ecological psychology
- Cleland, Kast and Rosenzwieg, Parsons, Seiler, Von Bertanlanffy, Zadeh,
Knowles
“Applying Theories of Learning and Teaching to HRD”- Chapter 5
- (p.139) “Without question the single most potent tool I have come across in my more
than half-century of experience with adult education is contract learning. It has solved
more problems that plagued me during my first 40 years than any other invention. It
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
37
solves the problem of the wide range of backgrounds, education, experience, interests,
motivations, and abilities that characterize most adult groups by providing a way for
individuals (and subgroups) to tailor-make their own learning plans.” {Knowles, 1990
#4}
6. KNOWLES – Using Learning Contracts- Practical Approaches to
Individualized and Structuring Learning
“The Contract Learning Process: A Hands-On Experience”- Chapter 1
Selection 1 – Study Guide: The Theory & Practice of Adult Education Methodology
“Why should people who have been exposed to teaching methods through years of being
taught (and, perhaps, also through years of teaching) now spend time ad energy studying
adult education methods?” {Knowles, 1986 #21}
Reasons:(p.3)
1. Methods have gradually changed from the methods of traditional
schooling as the knowledge has increased about the characteristics of adult
learners.
2. Over the past three decades the technology of adult education has been in
a state of tumult. “The ability to incorporate new techniques into a
growing repertoire of techniques and then choose the technique that is
most effective for accomplishing a particular educational objective is a
competence that separates the professionals from the amateurs in adult
education.
3. There is “finally a coherent, comprehensive, and integrated theory of adult
learning that requires a redefinition of the role of teacher.”{Knowles, 1986
#21} (andragogical model)
P. 20 ** Use APPENDIX A  MAKE A SPREADSHEET IN EXCEL
- Why Use Learning Contracts? (p.27)
“… what adults learn on their own initiative they learn more deeply and
permanently than what they learn by being taught.” {Knowles, 1986 #21}
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
38
“This imposed structure conflicts with the adult’s deep psychological need to be
self-directing and may induce resistance, apathy, or withdrawal.” {Knowles, 1986 #21}
“How Contract Learning Evolved and How It Works”- Chapter 2
- How Do You Develop a Learning Contract (p.28) *Use POST-IT note-APPENDIX C*
Step 1: Diagnose you learning needs: “A learning needs is the gap between where
you are now and where you want to be in regard to a particular set of competencies.”
{Knowles, 1986 #21}
Step 2: Specify your learning objectives: “Be sure that your objectives describe
what you will learn, now what you do to learn them.”
Step 3: Specify learning resources and strategies: “When you have finished
listing your objectives, move over to the second column of the contract, ‘Learning
Resources and Strategies,’ and describe how you propose to go about accomplishing each
objective. Identify the resources (material and human) you plan to use in your field
experience and the strategies (techniques, tools) you will employ in making use of them.
Step 4: Specify evidence of accomplishment: “After completing the second
column, move over to the fourth column, ‘Evidence,’ and describe what evidence you
will collect to indicate the degree to which you have achieved each objective. (p.30)
Step 5: Specify how the evidence will be validated: “After you have specified
what evidence you will gather for each objective in column four, move over to column
five, “Verification.” For each objective, first specify what criteria will vary according to
the type of objective…indicate the means you propose to use to have the evidence judged
according to these criteria.
Step 6: Review your contract with consultants: “After you have completed the
first draft of your contract, you will find it useful to review it with two or three friends,
supervisors, or other expert resource people to get their reactions and suggestions.”
Step 7: Carry out the contract: “… simply carry out the contract… as you work
on it you may find that your notions about what you want to learn and how you want to
learn it may change… so don’t hesitate to revise your contract…”
Step 8: Evaluation of your learning: “When you have completed your contract,
you will want to get some assurance that you have in fact learned what you set out to
learn. Perhaps the simplest way to do this is to ask the consultants you used in Step 6 to
examine your evidence and validation data and give you their judgment about their
adequacy.
“Introducing Contract Learning in an Organization or Program”- Chapter 3
KNOWLES–Andragogy: Website Notes
39
- Nothing here to mention
Chapter 4  Did Not Use Anything
7. KNOWLES, HOLTON III, SWANSON – The Adult Learner – The
Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development
- (p.1) “Since the earliest days, adult educators have debated what andragogy really is.
Spurred in large part by the need for a defining theory within the field of adult education,
andragogy has been extensively analyzed and critiqued. It has been alternately described
as a set of guidelines (Merriam, 1993), a philosophy (Pratt, 1993), a set of assumptions
(Brookfield, 1986), and a theory (Knowles, 1989).” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
- (p.1) “The disparity of these positions is indicative of the perplexing nature of the field
of adult learning; but regardless of what it is called, ‘it is an honest attempt to focus on
the learner. In this sense, it does provide an alternative to the methodology-centered
instructional design perspective’ (Feur and Gerber, 1988).” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
- (p.2) “Care must be taken to avoid confusing core principles of the adult learning
transaction with the goals and purposes for which the learning event is being
conducted…Therein lies the strength of andragogy: It is a set of core adult learning
principles that apply to all adult learning situations. The goals and purposes for which the
learning is offered are a separate issue.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
-Six Principles of Andragogy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Learner’s Need to Know
Self-Concept of the learner
Prior Experience of the learner
Readiness to learn
Orientation to learning
Motivation to learn
** Figure 1-1: SCAN THIS FIGURE & USE ON WEBSITE **
“Exploring the World of Learning Theory”- Chapter 2
(p.12) Learning- “There is a remarkable agreement upon the definition of learning as
being reflected in a change in behavior as the result of experience.” (Haggard, 1963,
p.20) {Knowles, 2005 #7}
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 This implies “… we don’t directly know what learning is, but can only infer what it is.”
“A Theory of Adult Learning: Andragogy”- Chapter 4
(p.35) “The ancient Chinese ad Hebrews invented what we now call the case method, in
which the leader or one of the group members describes a situation, often in the form of a
parable, and together with the group explores its characteristics and possible resolutions.
The Greeks invented what we now call the Socratic dialogue, in which the leader or a
group member poses a question or dilemma and the group members pool their thinking
and experience to seek an answer or solution. The Romans were more confrontational:
They used challenges that forced group members to state positions and then defend them.
In the seventeenth century in Europe, schools were organized for teaching children,
primarily for preparing young boys for the priesthood. Hence, they became known as
cathedral and monastic schools. Since the indoctrination of students in the beliefs, fatih,
and rituals of the church was the principal mission of these teachers, they developed a set
of assumptions about learning and strategies for teaching that came to be labeled as
pedagogy, literally meaning “the art and science of teaching children” (derived from the
Greek words paid, meaning “child,” and agogus, meaning “leader of”). This model of
education persisted through the ages well into the twentieth century and was the basis of
organization for this country’s educational system.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
 Use Table 4.2 and make page on website
“An Andragogical Process Model for Learning”- Chapter 6
(p.116)  Table 6-1 Use and make page on website
“Adult Learning Within Human Resource Development”- Chapter 8
- Human Resource Development has to be concerned with performance / productivity. It
also has to be respected and useful; however, it is often a department that is overlooked.
So, what is the most efficient way for them to operate with what they have?
- Adult learning is important in every aspect of human resource operation.
(p. 170) “Swanson (1996) defines human resource development as a process of
developing and/or unleashing human expertise through organizational development and
personnel training and development for the purpose of improving performance at the
organization, work process, and individual levels.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
- (p.171-172) “For HRD, adult learning focuses on development interventions that have
two attributes: First, the context is organizational, and second, the desired outcome is
learning – knowledge and expertise – that will impact the performance goals of the host
organization.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
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 Controversies raised in the 1980s about embracing self-directed learning as a
unifying theory and goal for the discipline of Adult Education.
*** (p.173) “It must be recognized that the core assumptions of andragogy do not raise
learner self-directedness to the same high level as has been proposed by many AE
theorists and practitioners. Andragogy suggests that adults have a self-concept of being
responsible for their own lives and expect others to treat them as being capable of selfdirection.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
- Four Phases of Adult Learning Process: (p.174)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Need – determine what learning is needed to achieve goals
Create – create strategy & resources to achieve learning goal(s)
Implement – the learning strategy & use the learning resources
Evaluate – assess the attainment of the learning goal & process for reaching it
“New Perspectives on Andragogy”- Chapter 9
1. Learner’s Need to Know: “why” before they engage in learning  has led to
learner being engaged in the learning process; ex: shared control in program
planning / learning strategies
- “Need to Know”  ‘How,’ ‘What,’ ‘Why’
2. Self-Directed Learning: 2 Concepts Prevalent – (Brookfield, 1986; Candy, 1991)
- Seen as ‘self-teaching’
“The Future of Andragogy”- Chapter 11
** Tie this in with notes from other book about technology **
 (p.236) “Knowles (1989) foresaw technology as one of the major forces
shaping adult learning in the twenty-first century and a force that would be consistent
with andragogy. We now see technology as a force that presents both great opportunities
for andragogical adult learning, as well as presenting special challenges.” {Knowles,
2005 #7}
- (p.237) “Technology… caters to adults’ desires to be self-directed in their learning.
Technology is inherently a self-directed learning media that enables adults to access
learning in a just-in-time, just-enough format under conditions of full learner control.”
{Knowles, 2005 #7}
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- “… well-developed computer-based instruction enables adults to tailor the learning
experience to fit their prior experiences.” (i.e.  alternative paths to finding a solution)
{Knowles, 2005 #7}
- “… if properly designed, technology-based instruction easily allows learners to tailor
the learning to their real-world problems.” (b/c it is used in their ‘real-world settings)
{Knowles, 2005 #7}
“From Teacher to Facilitator of Learning”- Chapter 13
- Cy Houle asked him to teach a seminar at George Williams College. Knowles states
that this is the day that he, (p.252) “…decided to switch from being a teacher to be a
facilitator of learning.”
- He had students introduce themselves and identify and special interests and resources.
** “He asked which inquiry units they would take responsibility for during the week. The
second session, he had them volunteer for the inquiry units they were interested in, and
they formed ‘inquiry teams.’”
The inquiry teams met and Knowles acted as a “consultant and resource” person
for the next four weeks. The remaining of the semester the teams put on ‘show and tell’
sessions. Knowles states, (p.253) “I had never seen such creative presentations and pride
of accomplishment. By the end of that semester, I was a confirmed facilitator of
learning.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
“Some Guidelines for the Use of Learning Contracts”- Chapter 15
Steps to Developing a Learning Contract
1. Diagnose Your Learning Needs: (p.266) “Construct a model of the competencies
required to perform excellently the role about which you are concerned. There
may be a competency model already in existence that you can use as a thoughtstarter and checklist…if not you can build your own…
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… your next task is to assess the gap between where you are now and where the
model say you should be in regard to each competency.” {Knowles, 2005 #7}
2. Specify Your Learning Objectives: (Make a chart like Figure 15-1; p.268)
“Fill in first column of chart (Fig.15-1); Be sure that your objectives describe
what you will learn, not what you will do.
3. Specify Learning Resources and Strategies: Identify resources that will be used in
field experience and strategies (techniques, tools) you will employ in making use
of them. (This goes in 2nd column of chart)
4. Specify Evidence of Accomplishment: 3rd column  describe what evidence you
will collect to indicate the degree to which you have achieved each objective
5. Specify How the Evidence Will Be Validated: 4th column  for each objective,
first specify by what criteria you propose the evidence will be judged. The criteria
will vary according to the type of objective. Then, indicate the means you propose
to use to have the evidence judged according to these criteria.
6. Review Your Contract with Consultants: After completion of 1st draft, review it
with 2 or 3 friends, supervisors or other expert resource people to get their
reactions & suggestions  ask if learning objectives are clear, understandable &
realistic; can they think of other objectives; do learning strategies & resources
seem reasonable; can they think of other resources & strategies they might
consider; does evidence seem relevant to various objectives & would it convince
them; can they suggest other evidence they might consider; are the criteria &
means for validating the evidence clear, relevant, & convincing; can they think of
other ways to validate the evidence they might consider?
7. Carry Out the Contract: Carry out what contract calls for; keep in mind that as
you work on it notions about what you what you want to learn & how you want to
learn it may change  revisions may be necessary
8. Evaluate Your Learning: Easiest way  ask consultants used in Step #6 to
examine your evidence & validation data & give you their judgment about their
adequacy
“Core Competency Diagnostic and Planning Guide”- Chapter 16
** Use Self-Diagnostic Rating Scale (p.273-277)- “As a Learning Facilitator”
- Look at reference notation at bottom of page 272
References
NOTE: These are only the articles
1. KNOWLES (article)– Apostle of Andragogy – see article
Kempfer, H.H. Adult Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955.
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Printed from: http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/malcolmknowles.cfm
2. Smith, M.K., 2002. (2002) ‘Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction
and andragogy’, the encyclopedia of informal education.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm.
3 – 5. Eric Documents – Need to Cite these
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