Malcolm S. Knowles

Andragogy: Adult Learning Theory in Perspective.

Considering that the education of adults has been a concern of the human race for a very long timeas Grattan well documents in his In Quest of Knowledge-it is curious that there has been so little thinking, investigating, and writing about adult learning until recently. Although many of the ancient great Chinese, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman teachers taught adults and philosophized about the aims of adult education and invented techniques especially for adults (such as the Socratic dialogue), I can find nothing in their writing that indicates any interest in the processes of adult learning. They had theories about the ends of adult education but none about the means of adult learning. They presumably made the assumption that adults learned in precisely the same way that children learned (or, better, in the same way that they believed that children learned). These assumptions and beliefs (and blindspots) persisted through the ages well into the twentieth century. There was only one theoretical framework for all of education, for children and adults alike-pedagogy-in spite of the fact that pedagogy literally means

adult education in the United States

ways: to describe a process, an activity, and a movement. Perhaps the most common usage is in reference to the activity of people learning together in groups. But people are increasingly recognizing that there is a process by which individuals can systematically learn from their dailv experiences. and that this also is adult education. (Thus, there are certain ways that a clerk in a store can handle

an institutional approach to adult education in the community

ured in terms of its efficiency in assisting individual and group growth in desirable directions: Presumably in such directions as ( 1 ) increasing acceptance of civic responsibilities (2) increasing commitment to personal and professional growth (3) increasing ability to see larger social relationships and the personal responsibilities they entail (4) increasing insight into the interdependence of individuals and groups with all of the implications of this concept (5) increasing capacity for purposeful action based on the realities of the sit-

Andragogy in practice: expanding the usefulness of the andragogical model

Practice Expanding the Usefulness of the Andragogical Model HISTORY OF ANDRAGOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS Depending on which citation is consulted, various a thors present andragogy in different ways. Accordingly, it has of ten been difficult to ascertain both the number and content of the cor assumptions of andragogy. This difficulty stems from the fact that the number of andragogical principles has grown from four to six over the years as Knowles (1989) refined his thinking. In addition, m any authors still seem to prefer to use Knowles (1980) as the core ci tation for his andragogical assumptions, despite the fact that he updated the list twice since then. The addition of assumptions and t he discrepancy in the number cited in the literature has led to some confusion. Table 7-1 shows the six principles (or assumptions) f the current model, as well as the ones cited in Knowles’s previ ous works. As the table indicates, andragogy was originally presented with four assumptions, numbers 2–5 (Knowles, 1980, 1978, 1975 ). These first four assumptions are similar to Lindeman’s four ass umptions about adult education, though there is no evidence that K nowles obtained his early formulation of andragogy directly from Li ndeman (Knowles, Holton, and Swanson, 1998; Stewart, 1987) . Assumption number 6, motivation to learn, was added in 1984 (K nowles, 1984a) 140

Direction-Finding Processes in the AEA:

hopes will be a more conclusive direction-finding process. This review of past attempts at direction-finding is presented merely as background information for what help it might give in planning the new undertaking. While direction-finding has been a subject of almost continuous discussion at meetings of the executive committee, delegate assembly, and other AEA groups, this survey will be limited to the major activities focused specifically on this problem. They are described categorically according to type of process used, rather than seriatim, for ease of analysis. The approach most frequently used to find the proper direction for a national adult education organization is that of assessing the needs of the adult education field and deriving objectives from them. An outstanding example of this approach is the &dquo;Carnegie Conferences&dquo; of 1924-25.

NEW UNDERSTANDING OF LEADERSHIP. By Murray G. Ross and Charles E. Hendry. New York: Association Press, 1957. 158 pp.

LEADERSHIP. By Murray G. Ross and Charles E. Hendry. New York: Association Press, 1957. 158 pp.

3.50

3.50. The purpose of this book, the authors state in the preface, is &dquo;to provide, for those who carry day-to-day responsibilities for leadership training and development in business, educational, or social organizations, a relatively simple summary of recent thinking and research on the nature and meaning of leadership.&dquo; They organize their material into three parts: (1) Leadership Theory, (2) Research Findings, including chapters on &dquo;What the Leader Must Be,&dquo; &dquo;What the Leader Must Do,&dquo; and &dquo;Group Fac-