Adult Learning from Pedagogy to Andragogy
Adult learning must be considered with any intervention and at SLI we apply a self-leadership methodology with all our training, programs or solutions. When organizations engage us to develop their people and leaders we understand that people must become responsible for their own learning. Although participants may start of as ‘learning prisoners‘ (they were told to attend a program), our approach encourages discovering a reason to learn new material, mindsets, perspectives. We focus learners to own the responsibility to develop their abilities and make good decisions.
“Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and behaviors to achieve your objective(s)” – Bryant & Kazan 2012
Pedagogy has become known as the holistic science of education although it originally meant the instruction of children. A self-leadership approach is closest to Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, because it embraces self-education, self-improvement, self-control, self-correction, and self-cueing for best performance.
American educator Malcolm Knowles preferred the term andragogy (Greek: “man-leading”) to pedagogy and he makes six assumptions that we apply in the design and delivery of our trainings and programs.
- Adults need to know the reason for learning something (Need to Know)
- Experience (including error) provides the basis for learning activities (Foundation)
- Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept)
- Adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives (Readiness)
- Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented (Orientation)
- Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators (Motivation).
Transcending Culture with Coaching
All of SLI’s trainers and facilitators are are also coaches. This training enables them to establish rapport with people of all cultures through asking rather than telling. A key principles of coaching is that people are much more likely to follow through on a new course of action if they think it’s their idea. During our programs we constantly coach participants by which ideas they feel connected to, and which ideas they will implement.
Coaching also encourage as meta-perspective (stepping back or self-reflection), synthesis and application of new ideas; similar to Kolb’s learning cycle. We also encourage the rehearsal of new behaviors and we can facilitate this through post program coaching or follow-ups.
Please call us to discover how we can create a learning event for your organization.
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