Hi Michael
I think Robert's point was that Andragogical principles were perhaps as lacking
in empirical evidence as learning styles ... not that they are equivalent or
related in any other way.
You mention some of the assumptions made about "older" learners. Ignoring for
a moment the definition of older, is there evidence for these assumptions? Or
are they simply based on common sense and intuition?
Thinking about the "less time" assumption, for example, would it be true of
retired people? And what about younger people who may work long hours outside
of school? Or students who take a full or more course load, rather than a
single course?
One of the principles you do not mention, but I read somewhere was that
andragogical teaching would be more a negotiation and collaboration between
teachers and learners, as more mature learners would be better able to
contribute to deciding what they need to learn. When I think of teaching
something like statistics, I don't see the validity to this assumption. And I
wonder about other substantive courses as well ... how are learners suppose to
know what they need to know about subjects that they haven't already learned
about? Seems somewhat paradoxical to me.
And to again draw an analogy to the learning styles literature, is there
evidence that adapting one's teaching along the lines of adragogical principles
is in fact more effective for mature learners (and not for younger learners)?
Isn't one criticism of the learning styles literature that such studies tend to
NOT support the idea of "different strokes for different folks"?
Take care
Jim
James M. Clark
Professor of Psychology
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca
>>> Michael Britt <mich...@thepsychfiles.com> 19-Sep-11 9:03:23 PM >>>
I don't see any connection between the idea of Androgogy and the pseudoscience
of learning styles. Androgogy is simply a set of suggested teaching methods
for adults who most likely are in a different stage of life and are probably
approaching their experience as a student with a different set of expectations,
goals and capabilities than are college age and younger learners.
Adults have less time to waste than younger folks due to family and work
obligations and most are more able to work independently than your typical
college student. Taking this into account when the teacher sets up her course
seems like a good thing. I don't see more to it than that.
Michael A. Britt, Ph.D.
mich...@thepsychfiles.com
http://www.ThePsychFiles.com
Twitter: mbritt
On Sep 19, 2011, at 6:12 PM, Dr. Bob Wildblood wrote:
> Paul Brandon
>
>> Talk about dichotomizing a continuum!
>> Are 17 year olds adults? 18? 22?
>>
> I've read a bit about andragogical Education and come away with the same
> feeling I have about different learning styles in younger students. These is
> some smoke, but but I haven't seen any read data on it.
>
>
> .
> Robert W. Wildblood, PhD
> Adjunct Psychology Faculty
> Germanna Community College
> drb...@rcn.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: michael.br...@thepsychfiles.com.
> To unsubscribe click here:
> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958f69&n=T&l=tips&o=12775
>
> or send a blank email to
> leave-12775-13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca.
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=12780
or send a blank email to
leave-12780-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org.
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12782
or send a blank email to
leave-12782-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
