Andragogy
ANDRAGOGY INTRODUCTION
ADULT LEARNING..
Andragogy, as the name implies its the art and science of adult learning. Adult learners are self directed and build new knowledge over the prior learning. Adults are more keen to learn things that are immediately useful in their roles. They are intrinsically motivated.
Motivation to Learn
As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).
ANDRAGOGY - A LEARNING SCENARIO
AN EXAMPLE SCENARIO..
My first job was into quality control for software applications. The work profile required me to run test cases across developed applications, and detect any error in them. The work was regressive and time consuming. I come from a pure science masters back ground and learning some tools that could automate the whole process was a big task!
As my working progressed in the organization I felt the necessity to try something new at work and decided to take up a formal course on automation tools that help automate the application testing. This thought aligns with the learning principle that “As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).”
The learning progressed well, I completed the course and later went for certification. The learning was structured as it was an online tool driven. This helped me in understanding all the basic concepts of the tool well. The learning of the tool was beneficial at work. I entered an automation testing environment and it later took me to the automation center of excellence team.
Again, the choice of the learning tool as the topic of study came from the thought that over a period of time this would simplify the testing process and assure a better quality at work I do. So, the interest in learning the tool was relevant to what I was currently doing or currently working on. The principle of adult learning that fits in well here is: Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life. (Knowles’ 4 Principles Of Andragogy;1984)