learningtransfer-blog

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Heutagogy and today's educator

More on Heutagogy

Paulo Friere, a well-known researcher, author and influencer of educational theory particularly in the latter part of the 19th century believed that learning is never neutral, people can either be passive recipients of knowledge or they can be actively engaged in a problem-solving approach where they themselves contribute to changing their environments, workplaces and communities.  Like most educators today he recognized that people brought their own knowledge and experiences to the learning context.  He was very concerned with dialogue versus curriculum, the oppressed and the learner’s ability to make a difference in the world.  Of real value to education today is Paulo’s belief that dialogue or conversation is not only about deepening an individual’s understanding but an opportunity for collaboration and sharing with great potential to build social capital.  Paulo believed that learning should not occur in isolation, involving only one person acting on another, but rather a collaborative approach where people work with each other.  Even though  Paulo’s approach was around structured learning environments his insistence on education through lived experiences is still very relevant to us today as we continue to focus on the importance of valuing and recognising the informal learning opportunities of our learners. 

  An andragogical approach to learning has changed the role of the teacher to one of a facilitator of learning, a coach or a mentor and encourages the learner to become more self-directed. Researchers Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon argue that while andragogy (Knowles 1970) provided the educator with various strategies to improve educational practice, it is still very much about a teacher-learner relationship. They argued that the rapid rate of change in society and the explosion of information readily available to us, suggests that today’s educator requires educational approaches where the learner determines what and how they learn. Heutagogy is one such theory that leads us in this direction.  Hase and Kenyon define Heutagogy as the study of self-determined learning, suggesting that it could be viewed as a natural progression from earlier educational methodologies such as pedagogy, andragogy and in particular from capability development – believing that it could provide the most advantageous approach to learning in the twenty-first century. 

  In the International Review of Research in open and distance learning is an article titled ‘Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning’ by  Lisa Marie Blaschke.  In this article Lisa explains that Heutagogy has its roots in andragogy and although heutagogy has lain dormant for at least a decade it has now resurfaced with renewed interest.  Lisa suggests that this is due to the popularity and affordability that web 2.0 technologies offer today’s educator and learner.  As discussed by Lisa, Web 2.0 technologies offer a learner- centred approach that encourages the learner to generate their own content, embark on a self-directed discovery of information and define their own learning path. 

  Now if you are gasping in terror you are probably not alone.  Educator’s often question that not all learners are self-directed or even have the skills to generate content and find their own information.  For now, we won’t debate this but instead will continue to explore modern theories and revisit this in a future post.

  Drawing on the work of The World Bank, 2003 and Kuit & Fell, 2010, Lisa explains that today’s educators are commissioned to develop lifelong learners who can succeed in a global knowledge economy.  These learners must have the capability to effectually apply skills and knowledge to new situations in a continually shifting, complex environment.

  Through an extensive review of past and current research and literature it seems clear that pedagogical approaches and even andragogical approaches do not sufficiently prepare the learners to be more self-directed in their quest for knowledge and skills needed for today’s workplace. Instead today’s educator should consider theories that build on from what we know about pedagogy and andragogy.  Heutagogy offers the educator a learning environment where capable learners can be developed through learner centred, net-centric, digital teaching methodologies that take advantage of web 2.0 and emerging technologies while encouraging and supporting learners to become self-directed, self-determined and autonomous.

  In my next posts we will explore two other terms you may not be familiar with; peeragogy and paragogy. Each of these terms build on from pedagogy and andragogy and describe best practices for effective peer-learning.

  Bibliography

  Paulo Friere Accessed online http://www.freire.org/paulo-freire on 28 August 2012

  Kenyan, C. and Hase, S. 2001. Moving from andragogy to heutagogy in vocational

Education accessed online at http://www.avetra.org.au/abstracts_and_papers_2001/Hase-Kenyon_full.pdf  on 28 August 2012

  Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002) 'Paulo Freire and informal education', the encyclopaedia of informal education. Accessed online at [www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm. on 30 August 2012

 Lisa Marie Blaschke (2012).  International Review of Research in open and distance learning in ‘Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning’ accessed online at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1076 on 29 August 2012.

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A brief look at some popular adult learning theories

Before we set off on a journey of discovery about ‘transfer of training’ it is helpful to revisit some popular adult learning theories. 

Now it is true that there are some that do not see the value in popular learning theories but bear with me for just a little.  Remember Gagne… he said he did not thinking learning could be explained by simple theories and Skinner  felt that hypothesis formulation and testing were often inefficient and misleading, often resulting in the investigator travelling the wrong path.  Skinner suggested learning theories were of historical interest but offered little value.

Continuing on our journey to define learning we see in the 70’s Abraham Maslow suggesting that the goal of learning was self-actualisation and Sidney Jourard putting forward the notion that man always learns by himself. 

Of course, there are many more well-known learning theorists that could be mentioned, the list could go on and on but that isn’t what is really important here.  In a nutshell these theories exist to try and explain to us what learning is and how learning happens.  If you want to know more about what these theorists proposed access ‘Exploring the world of learning theory’ by Malcolm Knowles (1990a).

For now, we will move on and consider the theories proposed by Malcolm Knowles. Knowles (1990b) was instrumental in highlighting the difference between pedagogy (the relationship between the teacher and the child – where the teacher directs the learning and is the fountain of all knowledge) and andragogy (still a teacher led relationship but emphasises the learner as self-directed, autonomous learner.  The teacher is the facilitator of knowledge rather than the fountain of knowledge).  Knowles was of the opinion that we know more about how animals learn than we do about how children learn and we know more about how children learn than we do about adults. 

Knowles explained that considering the education of adults had always been a concern but surprisingly prior to the 70’s very little documented research into how adults learn had occurred.  Drawing on the works of teachers of ancient times (such as Socrates, Aristotle, the Hebrew prophets and of course Jesus) Knowles concluded that as these great teachers were teaching adults they came to a very different concept of the learning/teaching process.  The ancient teachers saw that learning was a process of active enquiry rather the passive receipt of communicated content.  Here we see we have moved towards the idea of the learner being self-directed, wanting to learn and capable of exploring and making sense of their learning environment.

Hase and Kenyon (2001) take this idea further and present us with an additional insight into how adults learn through the concept of Huetagogy.  This approach moves away from andragogy to the concept of truly self-determined learning, proposing that” heutagogy is appropriate to the needs of learners in the twenty-first century, particularly in the development of individual capability”.

To strengthen their arguments Hase and Kenyon (2001) drawing on the work of Rogers (1969) who argued “that people want to learn and have a natural inclination to do so throughout their life” and that learning is as natural as breathing to us, it is an internal process that the learner themselves can control (Rogers 1951). Hase and Kenyon point us to a recent model that aims to challenge traditional concepts of learning.  This approach is known as Capability and considers outcomes as well as process. This theory suggests that “capable people are those who: know how to learn; are creative; have a high degree of self-efficacy”.

My next post will consider Huetagogy, its relevance to 21st Century learners, its ability to build capable people and how it applies to distance and online learners.

Bibliography

Malcolm Knowles (1990a) The Adult Learner: The Neglected Species (4th Edition) in ‘Exploring the world of Learning Theory’ accessed online at http://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/Adult_Learning/AL%201.pdf 25 August 2012

Malcolm Knowles (1990b) The Adult Learner: The Neglected Species (4th Edition) in ‘Theories of Learning’ accessed online at http://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/Adult_Learning/AL%202.pdf  25 August 2012.

Malcolm Knowles (1990c) The Adult Learner: The Neglected Species (4th Edition) in ‘A theory of adult learning: Andragogy’ accessed online at http://www.umsl.edu/~henschkej/Adult_Learning/AL%203.pdf  25 August 2012.

Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon (2001) From Andragogy to Heutagogy  accessed online at http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/pr/Heutagogy.html 25 August 2012.

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Learning transfer

Learning transfer involves an exploration on how we can take learning opportunities such as training and attendances at seminars, conferences etc and assist people to convert this learning into skills and attitudes that can enhance performance and productivity in the workplace.  It is widely reported in the literature that learning opportunities do not go far enough, we must as educators provide the participants with a range a strategies that assist the transfer of learning to the workplace and enable this learning to be applied in a range of contexts.

Learning transfer case studies online have also been a useful source of information.

 Positive and Negative learning transfer examples

Transfer of training is based on an assumption that we use training to improve job performance of those who are being trained.  The transfer of learning into job performance is what is known as the transfer of training. Transfer of training statistically suggests that much of the $$$ spent on training is wasted.

 More information can be found at the transfer of training channel http://www.youtube.com/user/edholton2?feature=results_main