Recently I have been thinking about the term ‘pedagogy’.
The term Pedagogy and pedagogue come from the Greek paidos ‘boy, child’ plus agogos ‘leader.’ We tend to usually say something is ‘pedagogical’ if it is easy to understand and teach. The underlying assumption is that if it is easy for children it is easy for adults to learn.
But the thing is adults and children don’t learn the same way. There is another similar word ‘Andragogy’ that describes how adults learn.
In 1980s, Malcolm Knowles studied this and made 5 assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners (andragogy) that are different from the assumptions about child learners (pedagogy).
Here they are:
1. Participation
Learning should permit and encourage active participation of the learner. Participation improves motivation and apparently engages more senses that reinforce the learning process.
2. Repetition
An important principle of the learning is to provide the learner with the opportunity for practice and repetition. To gain the full benefit of training learned behaviors must be ‘overlearned’ to ensure smooth performance and minimum of forgetting at a later date.
In my experience, the idea of ‘overlearning’ is important to make things stick.
3. Relevance
Learning is helped when the material to be learned is meaningful. The learning should be problem-centered rather than content centered.
‘How will this learning help me solve a problem?’
4. Transference
Because the training occurs in a special environment, an important question to ask is whether learning will transfer to the actual job situation.
5. Feedback
Gives learners information on their progress. Performance feedback is a necessary prerequisite for learning. Feedback improves performance not only by helping learners correct their mistakes but also by providing reinforcement for learning.
I view feedback as critical in the learning process.
Feedback in the learning context needs to be specific and aimed squarely towards the ‘not known to self - known to others’ quadrant of the learners. Often, much of the feedback we give is already known to the recipient and is not very helpful. Through good feedback this we reduce the ‘blind spots’ (shift to the right) over time and increase the mastery of the subject.
Creating a constructive environment for learning and feedback is something that I feel is incredibly challenging to create. So often the learners hold back for the fear of failure or judgement. I don’t have a silver bullet managing this but try to focus on a few areas to create a good environment:
Celebrate failure in a playful way. This is something that I have taken from my Co-Active training. When you make a mistake you stop and proclaim ‘Ta da’ with a hat tip.
‘No one gets to be right, or wrong’. By starting each conversation by revisiting this saying removes much of the competition from the learning environment and creates a safe space.
Focus on acknowledgement of others. Learning is often an environment of vulnerability for the participants. This is even more sensitive with adults since they are expected to be ‘fully educated’ and making mistakes is more difficult. Acknowledging when students make progress or have mastered a new skill is critical to maintaining motivation. ‘I would like to acknowledge Chris for making some incredible progress with this method today.’
So when teaching adults focus on problem orientation - taking time to really understand the challenge for the learners and start from there. Build in time for real practice.
Lastly, spend time and understanding the transference to the workplace and ask the question:
What will be different in my work after learning this new skill?
How many of your recent training experiences have followed these principles?