Adult Learning Theory: The Future Of Andragogy

Let’s start with the end in mind – the future. Currently, Adult Learning Theory is in its infancy stage. This emerging theory is on the crawling stage before walking, in terms of developmental research, application, and practice. For the purpose of this report, the terms: adult learners, adult educators, adult education, and adult learning will be used interchangeably. The author will attempt wholeheartedly to align the appropriate term to the specific narrow point of discussion. In this report, Andragogy is defined as the study of adult learners, as oppose to the study of student learning, called Pedagogy. The six core principals of Andragogy include: adult learners need to know, self-concept, experiences, readiness to learn, orientation

In the Adult Learner, Malcom S. Knowles, in his chapter titled “The Future of Andragogy,” the author states that in the U.S, Andragogy is an emergent theory. In the U. S., it is not a well-defined disciplined backed by an extensive array of strong, historical empirical research. In a recent article titled, “Adult Education Lagging Way Behind in Tech,” the author suggests that we are missing an enormous slice of adult learners in America that is being left behind. The author writes, “While schools have placed a great deal of attention on technology in the classroom, 54% of adult learners have access on site to computers for instructional purposes (THE Journal, April 1, 2015.) The author suggests that future policy makers to create catalysts for policies and programs that support collaboration and technology in adult education. There is very little discussion on this problem and more attention is needed from educators as this area becomes a more critical educational

The intent is for educators in eight school districts and two charter school organizations will participate to begin development of a learning community for K-8 on how to teach the new science standards (Schauffhauser, 2015.) Of course, this raises significant questions. If past professional development models have not succeeded, why is this K-8 model selected? Why is this professional development model not implemented uniformly with all the other states that are adopting the new science standards? Will these district get ahead and create more inequities in education? As stated in the article by Dian Schaffhauser, “The intent is for participating education agencies to serve as “lab rats” for beta testing science standards-aligned curriculum (Schaffhauser, 2015.)” This form of professional development may lead to over-reaching of current standards and extending beyond the necessary time to justify budgetary expenditures. The better approach will be to add another layer to the existing knowledge of the science curriculum. IPhone 6 took a few years to develop based on previous knowledge technology from iPhone 5. This constant “new this” and “new that” is like standing in the sea shore and new wave of learning splashes at your feet and there is never a calm sea to get your feet grounded, in