Andragogy as an art of self-realization of a person

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Andragogy as an art of self-realization of a person

Berestok O.V., Kurinnyj O.V., Shcherbyna Y.M.

Abstract

The article deals with the main tendencies of the development of andragogy from a scientific and practical point of view. A detailed description of the adult learning andragogy system at different historical stages is presented. The task of the science of adult education in light of the trends of modern society and its role in the implementation of professional and social aspirations of an adult are shown. The basic tasks of adult education and their difference from the peculiarities of the pedagogical system are determined. The general tendencies, content, sources, means, forms and methods of adult learning process are highlighted. The key ways of overcoming the contradictions that arise in the path of self-improvement of an adult in the present are called. It is emphasized that andragogy is a science created for people independent, who aspire to self-realization in various spheres of activity. The basic andragogy provisions, which do not contradict the didactic principles of pedagogy, are formulated, but supplement and promote their development.

Key words: andragogy, pedagogy, adult education, self-perfection, the andragogical system, technology of joint activity, technology of reflectivity, self-realization.

Анотація

У статті розглядаються основні тенденції розвитку андрагогіки з наукової та практичної точки зору. Надається детальна характеристика андрагогічної системи навчання дорослих на різних історичних етапах. Окреслено завдання науки про навчання дорослих у світлі тенденцій сучасного суспільства та її роль у втіленні професійних та соціальних прагнень дорослої людини. Визначено базові завдання навчання дорослих та їх відмінність від особливостей педагогічної системи. Висвітлено загальні тенденції, зміст, джерела, засоби, форми та методи процесу навчання дорослих. Названо ключові шляхи подолання протиріч, що виникають на шляху самовдосконалення дорослої людини в умовах сьогодення. Акцентується увага на самореалізації людини, що навчається, у різних сферах діяльності. Сформульовано основні положення андрагогіки, що не суперечать дидактичним принципам педагогіки, а доповнюють та сприяють розвитку.

Ключові слова: андрагогіка, педагогіка, навчання дорослих, самовдосконалення, андрагогічна система, технологія спільної діяльності, технологія рефлективності, самореалзація.

Аннотация

В статье рассматриваются основные тенденции развития андрагогики с научной и практической точки зрения. Дается подробная характеристика андрагогический системы обучения взрослых на различных исторических этапах. Намечены задачи науки об обучении взрослых в свете тенденций современного общества и ее роль в воплощении профессиональных и социальных стремлений взрослого человека. Определяются базовые задачи обучения взрослых и их отличие от особенностей педагогической системы. Освещаются общие тенденции, содержание, источники, средства, формы и методы процесса обучения взрослых. Называются ключевые пути преодоления противоречий, возникающих на пути самосовершенствования взрослого человека в сегодняшних условиях. Акцентируется внимание на самореализации обучающегося в различных сферах деятельности. Сформулированы основные положения андрагогики, которые не противоречат дидактическим принципам педагогики, а дополняют и способствуют их развитию.

Ключевые слова: андрагогика, педагогика, обучение взрослых, самосовершенствование, андрагогическая система, технология совместной деятельности, технология рефлективности, самореализация.

The aspiration to become an independent and self-governing personality and the desire for self-realization and self-perfection transform a modern adult into a “person of learning”, take him or her into new and new spheres and forms of cognition, and new technologies for the transfer of information and organization of learning offer him or her enormous opportunities for satisfying his or her educational needs.

Speaking and thinking about adult learners as pupils or students, the stereotypes that are common to the situation of a school or college for pedagogy dealing with children, adolescents, but not with adults, are transferred. Recently, in the pedagogy they deal with a special direction which has been identified as the theory and practice of adult education called andragogy. Its foundation is to take into account the peculiarities of adult learners and the context they are taught in.

Like any other science, andragogy has its structure, conceptual approach and terminological constituent. Since it reveals the general patterns of adult education, it highlights the theory of adult learning. Andragogy examines and sets the basic laws of the activity of those who study in the process of learning and therefore its component is the technology of adult learning.

The purpose of the article is to study andragogy by its most general categories: the characteristics of the adult learner, the process of adult learning, the relationship of andragogy with different branches of education, patterns and trends in the development of education and the very andragogy.

The growing importance of the science of adult education is a recognized fact. There is no country on earth where technological, socio-economic and cultural progress does not depend on the study of andragogy. There is no country that would not link its future with the future development of this science. In the present century, sociologists consider the science of adult education to be very important. A characteristic trend of historical changes in andragogy is reflected in its compliance and organizational personality, expressed in the increase in the number of educational institutions, created exclusively for the adult population, in the growth of the diversity of programs that they are offered. As a consequence of this global process, a range of realities, that are not found in children's and youth science, arises and appears there. J. Draper, investigating the origin and development of androgogy, believes that the preconditions for its appearance are: the humanistic social philosophy of 1700-1800's, the beginning of the working-class movement in the twentieth century in Germany and the United States, the rapid development of adult education after the Second World War, intensity research in the field of adult education and substantiation of the viability of the andragogical theory. He noted that “the consideration of the metamorphosis of the androgogy / adult education is important for the search for the identity sector. The search definition was also an attempt to humanize and understand the educational process of adults” [1, p. 5].

Alexander Kapp, a German teacher, was the first who defined the term of andragogy in 1833. In his definition he used some constituents of Plato's education theory. Andragogy (andrmeaning “man”) could be contrasted with pedagogy (paid- meaning “child” and agogos meaning “leading”) [2]. Despite of its importance, Kapp's definition of andragogy was disputed, and changed into ill-used. In 1921 in his report Rosenstock argued that “adult education required special teachers, methods and philosophy, and he used the term andragogy to refer collectively to these special requirements” [3]. The first English researcher who picked up Rosenstock's definition of andragogy was Eduard Lindeman. According to Stewart, his biographer, “the new term seems to have impressed itself upon no one, not even its originators” [4]. The term was rarely used in North America, but in Yugoslavia, France, and Holland this definition was frequently being used mainly to refer to the discipline which studies the adult education process or the science of adult education. Peter Jarvis states that the term comes from the Greek word “aner”, which means “man, person”, and it was first used in the educational context of Europe in the nineteenth century. However, the name of M. Knowles is associated with this notion first defined as “the art and science of helping adults to learn” [5, p. 125].

A lot of international organizations, namely ILO, WHO and FAO tried more than once apply andragogy in various branches and spheres. But it was UNESCO that attached the importance of this science to enhance international relations and exchange which help to promote their development at national level.

So in 1949, at Elsinore in Denmark UNESCO run the first International Conference on Adult Education. The purpose of the Conference was to distinguish the possibility of adult education to restore the education system damaged by the Second World War and to accommodate East and West. The basic suggestion of the Conference was “to aid and foster movements which aim at creating a common culture to end the opposition between the so- called masses and the so-called elite”. The promotion of democracy and peace and strive for understanding between peoples, not simply between governments were among the leading ideas announced at international level.

According to UNESCO, the purpose of adult education is to satisfy all the various needs and aspirations of the adult. The priority task of adult education is to provide a person with a set of knowledge and skills necessary for active creativity and activities in today's dynamic life. It is a constant, continuous lifelong development of man as a worker, citizen and personality [6].

Nowadays, there is a set of views on the role of science about adults in achieving the agreed progress not only in personality and collectivism but also in understanding the way of its renewal.

The basic provisions of adult learning theory are better to consider, comparing in general pedagogical and andra- gogical systems of education. Dealing with the systems of learning, it is essential to mention a systematic set of basic regularities of the activities of the learner and those who teach in the learning process. In this case, of course, it is necessary to take into account other components of the process, namely content, sources, means, forms and methods of training. But the main thing in the model is the activity of the learner and the trainer.

The regularities are defined in the system of study, for one or another approach of the organization involved in the learning process, but they are presented in a complex and more complete form. Actually, they are not always realized in such a scale, but practically never. This is so called an ideal representation of the learning process that is created either from the point of view of pedagogy and learning of the young, or from the point of view of andragogy and adult education.

According to Knowles, one of the greatest theoreticians and practitioners of adult learning, the number one challenge was “the training of competent people - people who would be able to use their knowledge in a constantly changing environment, whose core competence would be in the ability of continuous self-improvement and lifelong self-education” [7, p. 13].

The problem of training becomes even more difficult and tense. So, andragogy, being a science which concerns adult learning, is a true useful power that helps a modern person to overcome his or her problems with the help of learning.

Andragogy is defined as a separate branch of pedagogy due to a number of factors of different nature. Scientists distinguish the basis of the new science as the objective conditions that arose due to the need for the development of andragogy.

Firstly, the very process of the development of education helps people who study to take the lead in the learning process. Pedagogy underlines the principle concept that the person who is studying occupies a mainly passive position when choosing the education, he or she wants to obtain, excluding the subject oriented instruction at school, characteristic for senior pupils; while adults subconsciously choose not only the course, but also the form, term and level of education.

Secondly, the evolution of philosophical and psychological sciences has led to the conscious recognition of the leading role of man in all social processes, including science.

Thirdly, advances in information technologies offer a new way of organizing a learning process that significantly changed the role of the learner and the trainer (teacher) in the learning process.

Fourthly, the evolution of pedagogical concepts also led to the recognition of the need to provide more freedom of the learner in the learning process.

Moreover, taking into consideration different activities of children and adults, it is necessary to define the principles of pedagogical and andragogical systems of education more clearly.

Finally, physiologists and psychologists have shown that people are able to study successfully and recurrently.

The set of the basic principles of andragogy was proposed in 1970 by the American scientists such as M. Knowles and R.M. Smith, the Englishman P. Jarvis and a group of young scientists from Nottingham University. E.F. Holton and R.A. Swanson noted, in the early 1970's when andragogy and the concept that adults and children learn differently was introduced for the first time in the United States by Malcolm Knowles, this idea has become a new discovery, inspired many further studies and sparked controversy [8].

According to Peter Jarvis, a well-known English specialist in adult education, M. Knowles can be considered “the father of androgogy”, although he did not invent this term, but he “is mainly responsible” for its popularization in the US and in Western Europe [9, p. 125]. P. Jarvis in his main work “Adult Learns: Abandoned View” (1978) points out and analyzes the ways used in adults and children learning presented by Knowles. He highlighted four basic provisions that distinguish andragogy from pedagogy, namely: a change in the representation of oneself (“I-concept”); experience (mature people accumulate experience that becomes extremely rich); readiness to study( adults want to study in those problem areas where they encounter and what they consider to be “relevant to the case”); focus on self-learning: it is unlikely that adults who focus on the problem will be guided by the subject [10, p. 126].

According to Z. Hellston [11], the concept of learning based on experience (experiential learning) makes it possible to effectively use both the life and professional experience of adults in education. Perhaps, therefore, E. Lindeman called the experience of a living textbook of an adult student, which provides a continuous process of assessing the events taking place, and the Swedish scientist S. Larsson - “a valuable resource” that provides continuity of learning, serves as a motivation for learning and improves its effectiveness. Add and create conditions for self-directed learning.

M. Knowles is known to focuse on self, or “I”, and this is the basic concept for teachers who deal with adults to agree with [7]. Later, in 1984, M. Knowles added the fifth position, such as “motivation to learn”, and in his autobiographical book in 1989 he added one more, the sixth, provision, namely “the need to know”. All mentioned above testifies to the fact that each of the highlighted positions by M. Knowles is opened to the discussion [12].

Based on the main fundamentals of andragogy nominated by Knowles, it is proposed to build adult learning activities, where the main characteristics can be distinguished as active and leading role of the learner in the elaboration and implementation of a training program on the one hand, and the cooperation of an adult student with his teacher on the other. Knowles considers the students to be active researchers in the process of taking participation on each stage. He obviously shares many of the ideas suggested by J. Dewey. On this basis, it can be argued that Malcolm Knowles offered the advanced education ideas for adults. Consequently, the ideology of andragogy is humanistic [8, p. 215].

Generally speaking, it is possible to state that according to the pedagogical system of teaching a person who teaches will dominate. It determines all the constituents of the process, such as the purpose, content, forms and methods, means and sources of learning. Taking into account the objective factors, namely lack of personality, dependence on economic and social situation, insignificant life experience, lack of significant problems which caused the necessity to study, and according to the pedagogical system the one being taught takes an active position and actually is not able to influence the planning and evaluation of the learning process. Hence, his or her participation in the study is also quite passive, for his main role is the perception of social experience, shared by the person who teaches.

In the andragogical system, the leading role belongs to the person who learns. Adult learning person is an active element, one of the equal partners of the learning process. Therefore, andragogy should be identified as a separate unit of pedagogy, engaged in investigating the process of adult learning and organizing the learning process. The purpose of the study was to define the features of adult education, the allocation of forms and methods of andra- gogy, their comparison with the forms and methods of pedagogy. The purpose has defined the following tasks of the research, such as to study pedagogical, methodological, sociological and historical literature on adult education; to analyze the practical adult education research; to describe, compare, provide recommendations for the development of adult education. To solve these problems, the following methods are proposed to be used, namely theoretical analysis of literature; analysis of the work of teachers working in the system of andragogical education; surveys, questionnaires and observations.

Research results may be of interest to: specialists - beginners who start to work in the field of adult education; students and undergraduates who want to work in adult learning system in future; adult people who want to get additional training; training providers of various forms of andragogical studies.

Conclusions. Due to the fact that andragogy has some pedagogical roots, training takes place taking into account pedagogical theories of education. Therefore, andragogy can be defined as a branch of scientific knowledge, as a sphere of social practice and academic discipline. Pedagogy is a science, studying the patterns where adults share their special social experience and children “absorb” it actively. Protecting the semantic continuity with pedagogy, the concept of “andragogy” contains an indication of the peculiarities of adult training and the necessity of its special study.

As a result of this contradiction, the place of andragogy among the other sciences is not definitely defined yet. Andragogy discovers such learning technologies as: technology of self-learning, technology of joint activity, technology of using life experiences, technology of an individual approach to learning, technology of selective learning, technology of reflectivity, technology of the demand for learning outcomes, technology for the development of the learner. The learning technologies of andragogy make a real solution to the problem of lifelong education. Pedagogy reveals the technology of teaching depending on the level of pedagogical knowledge, distinguished as general pedagogical, private methodological and local. Basing on the ever-developing circumstances of the modern world and dealing with some peculiarities and characteristics of andragogy, it is important to take into account such philosophical foundations as teaching technology, technology of psychological development, technologies of orientation to personal structures, as well as branch, subject and mono technologies to enhance the strive of adults for self-improvement and readiness for on-going education.

andragogy science education adult

Використана література

1. Draper J.A. The metamorphoses of andragogy. The Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education. 1998. № 12 (1). Р 3-26.

2. Thorpe M., Edwards R., Hanson A. Culture and processes of adult learning. Davenport: Routledge, 1993. 300 p.

3. Smith M.K. “Andragogy”, the encyclopedia of informal education (1996; 1999).

4. Stewart D. Adult learning in America: Eduard Lindeman and his agenda for lifelong education. Malabar, Florida: Krieger, 1987.

5. Knowles M.S. The modern practice of adult education: andragogy versus pedagogy. New York: Association Press, 1970. 384 p.

6. Summary report of the International conference on adult education (Elsinore, Denmark, 19-25 June 1949).

7. Ноулз М.Ш. Современная практика образования взрослых. Андрагогика против педагогики. Москва, 1980. 200 с.

8. Knowles M.S., Holton III E.E., Swanson R.A. The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 6th ed. London; New York: ELSEVIER Butterworth Heinemann, 2005. 378 p.

9. Jarvis P Adult Education and Lifelong Learning. Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. London; New York: Routledge Faimer, Tailor and Francis Group, 2004. 382 p.

10. Knowles M. S. The modern practice of adult education: andragogy versus pedagogy. New York : Association Press, 1970. 384 р.

11. Hellstrom Z. Nordic Model of Adult Education: A Comparative Study of Model Parameters and Effects. Tuijnman A., Hellstrom Z. Curious minds: Nordic adult education compared. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2001. P. 11-27.

12. Кукуев А.И. Питер Джарвис об андрагогике М. Ноулза. Новые знания. 2009. № 1. С. 25-30.

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