Andragogy is the practice of instructing adult learners. In
contrast to some young student learners – or at least, what they’ve been taught
to expect in an academic environment – adult learners value practical
application. How can the skills learned in the classroom directly apply to the
work they’ll be doing in their careers?
Malcolm Knowles’ Four Principles of Andragogy (source below):
- Adults
need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
- Experience
(including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
- Adults
are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and
impact to their job or personal life.
- Adult
learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. (Kearsley,
2010)
Reading through these four principles, it sounds like the
“contact zones”-based curriculums we’ve discussed in class would be appealing
to adult learners. In this kind of coursework, courses are shaped around a
topic or problem and students create documents that revolve around that issue.
Andragogic techniques might be relevant to First Year
Composition students because both highly value product (versus, or including,
process) theories of writing. Adult learners and FYC students are both accustomed
to seeing direct applicability of their knowledge in the form of workplace
texts and grades, respectively. Particularly in the point of #3, both of these
learners want to see how the documents they are creating in class are going to
be immediately relevant to their future (or current) career. While theory
instruction is clearly useful, these groups prioritize praxis.
Choose Your Own Adventure Syllabus
A FYC curriculum utilizing andragogic techniques might be
adaptable to its users. Much as in the structure of this class, students could
have a kind of “Choose Your Own Adventure” syllabus, picking assignments with
point values to add up to a total “score.” To avoid students choosing only
“small” assignments (<3 points a piece) or only “large” assignments (6+
points), students might be required to choose from so many of each – perhaps,
choose two large assignments and five small assignments, all adding up to 20
points total. I don’t know, guys. I’m just brainstorming!
Keeping with this CYOA syllabus, assignments within each
point-based category would represent different values – think how Rich provides
options to do Extended Analyses with an academics/theory sway versus an industry/praxis
sway. Any option has value, but the options allow students some involvement in
(as above) “the planning and evaluation of their instruction.” The opportunity to revise assignments would
allow students to learn through experience – and failure. (Should there be a limit?
Doesn’t revising/reinvisioning the work add significantly to their workload,
acting as a self-inflicted form of motivation to do it “right” the next time
around?)
Well now that I wrote all of this…I just Googled, and a
Choose Your Own Adventure syllabus isn’t an uncommon idea! Also, I might know
what I want to do for my FYC syllabus this semester….
Helpful article
outlining Malcolm Knowles’ adult learning theory: http://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles
Some mentions of a “Choose
Your Own Adventure” Syllabus:
The choose your own adventure syllabus seems like an interesting idea. It sort of prepares students to figure out how they want to handle their studies, which seems very much adult-like in terms of studies. It's sort of like how Rich organized the extended analysis and some of the credit hours stuff, only a bit more full scale. That sort of decision-making will really help students organize their later graduate or undergraduate studies. It's also a unique idea not many people have used before, so I think that such a concept is worth a shot.
ReplyDeleteI really dig the choose your own adventure syllabus. I've had that in other classes--in addition to this one--and they've all been my favorite. Like Kevin says, having that approach will help students to be organized so they can actually produce quality works.Will the typical freshman FY writer be able to handle that?
ReplyDeleteGood connection to Knowles, Aubrey. So we need to use a range of teaching styles and motivational tools to meet the needs of our students, as some are adults and some aren't. What's clear is they all need to embrace adult, critical thinking, because we want them to use what we're teaching them beyond the classroom in their lives. Yes, connecting to contact zones here, for instance, is a solid approach. You're onto something with the choose-your-own-adventure syllabus. You might look up the "buffet style of learning," for instance, which suggest that we can all complete course goals and objectives in different ways. Like we discussed after class, it's tricky when it comes to assessment in terms of reliability and validity. Might think about how the use of a scoring guide could work for multiple types of assignments. I have one at http://richrice.com/handouts I like to use. Also, as we discussed, think a little about collaboration and assignments.
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