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Malcom Knowles		 In 1970, Malcom Knowles began to popularize andragogy by advocating the adult learning theory - a set of assumptions that characterize adult learners. Knowles identifies four characteristics of adults as learners:
  • a self-concept tending towards self-direction
  • a growing reservoir of experience
  • a developmental readiness to learn
  • a problem-centered and present reality orientation to learning.
He also taught us that students enter with learner self-concepts shaped by the realities of a classroom experience that taught them to be dependent and passive, two potentially fatal learner attributes in a distance learning environment. As Malcolm put it so succinctly, "most of us only know how to be taught, we haven't learned how to learn."

"We are nearing the end of the era of our edifice complex and its basic belief that respectable learning takes place only in buildings and on campuses. Adults are beginning to demand that their learning take place at a time, place, and pace convenient to them. In fact, I feel confident that most educational services by the end of this century (if not decade) will be delivered electronically . . . . Our great challenge now is to find ways to maintain the human touch as we learn to use the media in new ways." - Malcolm S. Knowles in 1984 From Andragogy in Action.

Notes
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 Copyright 1999 by Donald Clark
Created December 1, 1999
Last Update January 22, 2000
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