I found Dawn’s post to be very insightful with regards to her experiences related to Andragogy. Dawn has first-handed experience in working with adult learners and how the 6 concepts of Andragogy effect learning. Whether in a Masters program or teaching adults in a professional setting, evidently the 6 components need to be implemented to ensure adults are committed to learning the material. In order to accumulate knowledge or skills, adults need to understand the reasoning behind why they should learn something, embody a readiness to learn, have intrinsic motivation (to accomplish a goal) and there must be immediate application for the material (Conaway & Zorn-Arnold, 2015). In addition, adults are self-directed and can draw upon their deep reservoir of experience to further facilitate learning.
In response to Dawn’s question: “Having not been in another profession, I wonder if this is also a common experience for leaders in other areas?”
I believe that it is very similar in a large array of professional settings. With my experience working in the financial industry, I would conclude that the 6 components of Andragogy apply. Employees will seek education to get licensed if they believe that taking the exams will accomplish their goal of working in the financial industry. Evidently, they have to have the intrinsic motivation and readiness to learn in order to devote their time and resources to studying an exam. Since the exam is quite difficult and adults are self-directed, many adults take the initiative to seek out workshops and courses that can help facilitate learning the complex financial concepts. Taking the exam has an immediate application because employees can be financial brokers and help families with their wealth management once they become certified. However, I am not sure to what extent having a large reservoir of knowledge and experience helps with this kind of exam. Perhaps if an individual has a background in finance or accounting; however, those without any experience can also write the exam.
It was fascinating to see that adults in most areas of life apply the concepts of Andragogy unknowingly; the concepts that inspire and motivate adults to learn. It is also interesting to see how the brain evolves as it matures by observing how children learn and comparing it to how adults learn.
Thank you Dawn for writing this post! I really enjoyed reading it as it challenged me to draw on my own reservoir of experiences and apply the concepts that I learnt this week. Looking forward to reading more!
Christina
References
Conaway, W. & Zorn-Arnold, B. (2015). The Keys to Online Learning For Adults: The Six Principles of Andragogy. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299540188_The_Keys_to_Online_Learning_for_Adults_The_Six_Principles_of_Andragogy