Spotting
differences Between Andragogic Instructors & Traditional Teachers
By Prof. Jonathan
Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty
of Social Sciences
Universidad
Latina de Costa Rica
Wednesday, October 12,
2016
Post 299
Andragogic instruction
differs greatly from the traditional teaching that faculty members have when
dealing with students who have recently graduated from a high school. Several
of the college traditional instructors I know do stick so much to a course
program that there is little room for changes, upgrades, or additional topics
to cover to favor working adult students (WASs). As part of my intention to
better comprehend faculty members’ teaching beliefs, several colleagues of
various fields of expertise were shortly interviewed. After analyzing data
collected on instructors’ behavior and attitudes while talking to their
students (WASs and traditional learners), four different aspect of their
teaching popped up as striking differences in their discourse and in their way
of delivering their classes and the content of the course: 1)
How each one is meant to promote learning among their students, 2) their relationship with their pupils,
3) the setting of learning goals around
the program provided by the university, and 4)
the strategies to be employed to satisfy learners’ immediate needs.
In order to understand the four
different aspects revealed by instructors’ answers during the analysis of their
answers, the following chart with commonalities has been designed for a better
understanding of these criteria. The four different pieces of criteria are
mentioned and a correlation with both types of faculty members is made for each
type.
Though the first instructors, Mr.
Traditional-Pedagogic Educators, were quite confident in their answers, they
were meant to promote some sort of animosity among the group member due to its
narrow-mindedness in term of content expansion and learning strategy provision
to their learners. Though a course outline does include present standards
demanded by the university, it is not meant to be written on stone and not to
be slightly or amply changed to suit the diversity of needs present in a group
of traditional learners and WASs. This narrow-minded perspective of course
content is bound to trigger a “negative” atmosphere surrounding the instructors
who look like not meaning to use suitable strategies for adult learners or
really challenging goals for the course participants. Students’ immediate needs
are not meant to be satisfied by this type of teaching professional. In the
eyes of the learners, the need for Mr. Andragogic WAS Instructors is present.
An Andragogic orientation in our
college teaching is needed in spite of the different areas of expertise we have.
Its absence can simply turn a course into a useless, boring one for many
traditional learners and WASs. For this reason, take a look at the following
suggestions and questions to have ourselves mull over some good answers.
As
seen throughout this blog entry, Andragogic teaching is a fascinating field,
but we faculty members need to be smart enough to get the best from our
students and provide them with what they really need to become competent and
autonomous. Here you were also provided with various suggestions to make you
come up with more to be very efficient in your WAS teaching and creation of
assignments for them and for traditional learners. In terms of didactics you
were also given other recommendations to help adult learners get to develop
deep learning that can have a long-lasting effect in their professional lives.
Understanding all these differences can prepare you and your peers to face the challenge
to help working adult students to develop their own knowledge, skills, and
competences.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
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