Andragogy – A Very Personal Experience

I have had the opportunity to teach groups of adults many times, and I would argue that my role as a physical therapist is highly, if not solely dependent on my ability to educate adults one on one. But my most profound experience in understanding andragogy is my personal experience

As a first year physical therapy student we were required to spend 8 months learning anatomy. Three hours per week in lecture, 2 hours per week in the cadaver lab. We were required to purchase tools, do our own dissection to see how tissue relates to one another, and learn from the dissected models already in the lab. In that first year of my bachelor’s degree it was overwhelming the amount of information that we needed to synthesize, learn and memorize. The practical learning alone was overwhelming – essentially learning Latin (ie. All the anatomical terminology) added to the complexity.

I doubt that I am alone in this experience, but the honest truth is, the learning in the first year of my bachelor’s degree was based on getting the best possible grade that I could in that class. I had always been a good student, and I measured my learning by my performance. I really, really enjoyed anatomy, but my study was based on wanting that good grade and completing my program – more of an external motivation than internal. Also, the time perspective of andragogy was in play – there was no immediate application of this knowledge, only future application. I understood the reason for learning anatomy, but did not really understand how it would relate to how I would treat people in physical therapy practice.

Many years later I had the opportunity to go back into the cadaver lab for a post-graduate course that I attended at the university of Toronto. The course was all about the upper limb (how the arm works in interaction with the neck and torso) and the morning was spent reviewing anatomy. Dissected pieces of the arm, neck, upper body were set up in stations all over the anatomy lab, and we were to review how the muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints interacted. The specimens were also set up in different anatomical positions to simulate how all of these structures relate when in motion. I had been told that going back to the anatomy lab after years of practice would be impactful – I had no idea how impactful.

I had been treating patients for years by this time, and what I was learning was at an entirely different level. I now had a reservoir of experience, and there was an immediacy of application to this learning. I had matured, and there was no longer a dependency on the curriculum or the professor directing what I needed to learn to get that good grade; I was now able to self-direct my learning and apply it to the pathophysiologic response of patients I had treated in the past. There was a keen readiness to learn because my internal motivation was to develop as a professional for the benefit of my patients and to have the personal fulfillment of growing in my career. There was a deeper understanding of the reason why the knowledge of anatomy is so critical to treating patients, and my self-directed learning as I viewed all the specimens was definitely more problem centred.

Separate from all of the principles and assumptions of andragogy, that learning opportunity not only impacted me intellectually, it was perhaps one of the most spiritual encounters I have ever experienced. With a strong belief in creation and intelligent design, I was not only able to recognize the practicality of the learning, but also able to step back from the intellectual exercise and experience the wonder and the beauty of the human body. I actually became emotional as I stood in awe of the creation and the Creator. Maturity and experience allowed me to step back from the science and appreciate the art. And the education that day was far from merely cerebral.

I look forward to hearing from others on their adult learning experiences and their impact.

References

Unit 6 Notes, Leadership 500