Want to become a better teacher? Shift your focus from pedagogy to andragogy

A few months back I explained why I will no longer work to differentiate instruction because it really isn’t the teacher’s instruction that should be at the heart of the matter but rather the child’s learning.  I was recently introduced to a new term, “Andragogy” from the Mystified Mom blog which takes this concept even further.  She explains that someone shared with her that child led learning is basically looking at how adults learn and then applying that to children. This led to some research about how adults learn which resulted in the discovery of the term andragogy.


Mystified Mom (MM) explains that Andragogy is basically learning theory as it applies to adults. It focuses on the learner whereas pedagogy is learning theory that is focused on the teacher.  Some people say it applies to adult learning only and some people are trying to push for it to be used in all contexts to refer to any learning that focuses on the learner. MM explains that what’s important here is the shift in thinking about learning as that which focuses on the learner and what he or she brings to the table rather than focusing on what the teacher brings to the table.


Mystified Mom shares that Malcolm Knowles is the one that began using the term in an academic sense and shares his six basic principles of adult learning or andragogy which are:
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