This chapter traces Dr. Knowles' development of andragogy for an audience which he suspects may not be familiar with the field. The audience are human resource development specialists within business, government, and non-profit organizations, mostly in the United States. He refers frequently to his own prior works and clearly delineates the development of his own thoughts and understanding of the field.

The introductory paragraph describes the history of education, specifically pedagogy. He next starts the development of andragogy in the United States with Lindeman and brings it to the mid-1980's. The 3-1/2 pages under the heading "What do we know about adult learners?" provide a clear description of his six chracteristics of adult learners and applies those appropriately to work environments. The 3-1/2 pages entitled "Implications for practice" start by contrasting the differences between pedagogs and andragogs when they approach program development. He elaborates on the andragog's approach as containing six steps entitled: 1) Climate-setting (it has six subheadings); 2) Creating a Mechanism for Mutual Planning; 3) Diagnosing the Participants’ Learning Needs; 4) Translating Learning Needs into Objectives; 5) Designing and Managing a Pattern of Learning Experiences; and 6) Evaluating the Extent to Which the Objectives Have Been Achieved.

The last two pages of the chapter contain his later understanding that both andragogy and pedagogy have a place in education and training environments, an understanding he admits was not part of his earlier publications.

Knowles lists 28 citations which he uses throughout his writing. In addition to that, he refers to seven additional items. Other than himself, he refers to well-known writing of Lindeman, Houle, Tough, Brookfield, Havighurst, Mager, Kirkpatrick, Scriven, Stufflebeam, Cronbach and Patton, all relatively well-known authors in adult education. In additional reading, he refers to Brookfield, Merriam, Knox, and Smith.

My impression is that he continues his well-established approach of trying to provide both breadth and depth in his "function" of (as Henschke describes it) field-building.

By the time he is writing this (though it is not specifically dated, I presume it it written in the mid-1980's) Knowles has developed a clear, organized and concise approach to laying out the basic concepts of the field and knowledge base referred to as "andragogy" in the English language and "andragogiek" or "agogy" in European languages. He credits the development of the term to European thinkers in the 1960's and recognizes that "andragogiek" might first have been used in the 1830's in Germany. His list of adult learner characteristics is clear and well-supported by cross-disciplinary argumentation. The section entitled "Implications for Practice" displays a clear understanding that adult learning/development is a personal and work-life concern and in industry is frequently referred to as "personal" or "professional development."

I do not have any arguments with Knowles' presentation in this chapter; it is, in fact, extremely supportive of my prior learning regarding Knowles' writings in the field. I only wish that I could force myself to take the time to organize my thinking on the field in the same manner as Dr. Knowles demonstrates so clearly.

The only issue I take with Knowles' explanation is his conceptual presumption, most clearly indicated at the bottom of page 261, that the history of education and training is a pedagogy history. My interpretation is that historically we humans have only known adult education. Pedagogy, in my opinion, did not arrive as a theory or field of study until institutionalized education became a major factor in societal development in the early to mid-19^th century. Prior to that time, my understanding is that almost all learning was on-the-job learning, frequently in one-on-one or one-to-small number environments. It is natural that in such an environment the teacher/mentor/facilitator pays close attention to the needs and desires of the learner. It is only when the teacher is faced with the task of managing the divergent needs of "large groups" (for the last century and a half we have thought that way of groups of 20-30 students) that formalization of process and content starts being common and threrfore a "theory" or field of pedagogy develops. Added to the issue of group size in the early to mid-19^th century was the fact that society was changing from an agricultural to an industrial economy, which led to imposition of behavioral objectives on the educational system (see Toffler – The Third Wave).

My feeling is that Knowles' interpretation of education as being teacher-centered historically has no effect on his fine explanation of the concepts and methodologies most of us include in the field of andragogy.

This chapter was written for the purpose of introducing the field and its underlying concepts and methodologies to practitioners in human resource management and development. It does so in an excellent manner. The last section indicates Knowles' understanding of the changes happening in American industry in the mid- to late-1980's as authors like Peter Vaill, Peter Senge, and others start introducing a holistic/systems approach to causing change in organizations. Knowles states: "For HRD professionals, the systems approach represents a major shift in role" (page 262). He clearly feels that this development is positive and should be encouraged. He ends the chapter with a statement: "How much more fulfilling a role!" (page 263), thus clearly displaying his humanistic and positivistic underpinning: learning and working should be fun.

Knowles is well-known for advocating, frequently with missionary zeal, the field of andragogy. This chapter is but one example of his fine, high-quality work.

Submitted by: Rudolf P. Vrugtman

February 12, 2000

Education 415: Dialogues in Andragogy

Dr. John A. Henschke

University of Missouri-St. Louis