People used to think about education as of the process that is inseparably connected with a certain period of life. Language also plays a trick influencing our vision: talking about students, we mainly imagine children or teenagers in situations, typical for schools or universities. We rarely think about adult people in this case since they do not fit our stereotypes concerning studying. Nevertheless, modern technological and social development stresses the necessity on non-stop education, which is why we can see more and more adult students. Consequently, psychologists and pedagogues could not omit this fact in their researches and studies. A special area emerged – adult learning, also called andragogy, aiming at study of learning peculiarities of adults and design of proper education strategies for them. These educational techniques require clear understanding of specifics of an adult mind. There are several visions upon this problem represented in a range of adult learning models.
One the first questions that adult learning theorists had to face is whether they should assume similarity or difference of learning processes between children and adults. The first theories in the field of adult education used to focus primarily on peculiarities of adult learning (in contrast with traditional views, aimed at children). Coben and Llorente (2003) stress the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, arguing that this position encouraged the development and growth of this theoretical sphere, though such focus prevented possible exchange with other spheres of social and human sciences, especially with pedagogy. Consequently, the emphasis was shifted from the ideas of lifetime education, inspiring studies with more sociological approach, for example, specifics of teaching children and teaching adults. Thus, at certain stage, basic principles and purposes of “education for all” were ignored.
No doubt, one of the most influential contributions to the adult learning theory was made by Malcolm Knowles. He designed a model of adult learning, which got the name “andragogy”, suggesting a set of assumptions concerning the adult students. Arguing that adults need precise and strong motivation for learning, he suggested moving from a dependent self-concept towards a self-directing one (Knowles et al., 2011). The underlying logic for this assumption is the following: adult people have already experienced more that children, and these experience is more various, that is why their style of learning depends not only on psychological, but also on social issues. Hence, learning capacities and corresponding motivation is connected with the duties and roles people perform on the social stage of life. Knowles, therefore, develops the idea of problem-centred (as a contrast to subject-centred) leaning that should be supported by internal motivation.
Knowles opposed another model of education that focuses on a teacher as a key person within the educational system. The logic of this model stresses that students need to study only the material suggested by teacher, so that their experience becomes guided, not self-directed. Consequently, personal accumulation of knowledge is positioned as being not as important and worthy as the one, supported and provided by a teacher. The material given is not …