The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species

Book Critique

While many educators and scholars simply explain the principles and assumptions of human learning, Knowles goes one step further; he provides practical guidelines for action. In this book, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species, Knowles creatively and successfully uses diagrams and charts to provide the reader comprehensive information about theories of learning, a theory of adult learning and theories of teaching. After the readers obtain basic knowledge of human learning theories, Knowles introduces andragogy, which by his definition is "the art and science of helping adult learn" (Knowles, 1984, p. 52). Furthermore, he also provides the readers an andragogical working model that clearly demonstrates the procedures and guidelines for designing an adult education program. In the end, he attaches ten appendices offering the application of the andragogical model in corporate and university settings. He is not merely organizing his thoughts in a textbook fashion, but offering “how-to" procedures for any adult learning situation.

Although Knowles clearly and successfully demonstrates his andragogical model in a conversational fashion, there are some weaknesses in this book. First, his organization of material in each chapter appears too varied. While reading from chapter to chapter, readers have to constantly adapt themselves to the different structure in each chapter. Second, although the appendices are offering the applications of the andragogical model in the real world, some of them are business-oriented. Some readers might not be able to comprehend them. For instance, Appendix H, Westinghouse Corporation’s Andragogical Executive Forum, provides an excellent application of the andragogical model for people in business and industrial settings, such as corporate leaders, trainers, consultants, and executives. However, this appendix might be boring and irrelevant to those who have little or no experience with business environment, such as school teachers, curriculum planners, and students.

In my opinion, there are three major contributions achieved by the author in this volume. First, it is the author’s achievement in unifying many learning and teaching theories. He has chosen to take what he considers the best of many theories from Bruner, Dewey, Gage, Gagne, Hilgard, Maslow, Rogers, Skinner, Schwab, and Thorndike and then proposes his adult learning theory. This synthesis serves a foundation for further development in adult education.

Knowles' second contribution is to offer a feasible working model for practice and application. Knowles not only synthesizes learning and teaching theories proposed by theorists, he also designs practical guidelines to carry out his adult learning theory. He puts theories into actions. For instance, Dewey (cited in Knowles, 1984) spoke about experience:

All genuine education comes about through experience…The central problem of an education based upon experience is to select the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences (Knowles, 1984, p. 86).

Realizing the importance of experience, Knowles emphasizes:

The andragogical design model involves choosing problem areas that have been identified by the learners through self-diagnostic procedures and selecting appropriate formats (individual, group, and mass activities) for learning, designing units of experiential learning utilizing indicated methods and materials, and arranging them in sequence according to the learners' readiness and aesthetic principles (Knowles, 1984, p. 131).

His practical approaches are very beneficial for adult education practitioners.

The final contribution Knowles makes is urging adult educators to pay attention on the adult learner motivation. It is not difficult to notice that the motivational variables, such as sense of control, interest, utility, relevance, and meaningfulness, are integrated in the process of Knowles' working model. In Knowles' model, adult learners are invited to assess the competencies and skills that are necessary to accomplish their jobs. Participants decide what they need. This provides the participants a sense of control, making the learning more meaningful to them. As Knowles states:

When learners understand how the acquisition of certain knowledge or skills will add to their ability to perform better in life, they enter into even didactic instructional situations with a clearer sense of purpose and see what they learn as more personal. It converts course takers and seminar participants into competency developers (Knowles, p. 125).

Learners are the center of Knowles' model. In an environment built on Knowles' model, participants will be more motivated and committed to the learning tasks.

Because adults and children do not share the same psychological, biological, and experiential perspectives, adults do not learn the same way as children do. As a prospective adult educator myself, I found this book provides me an alternative perspective on what adults want to learn and how they learn it. Also, given the numerous successful applications of Knowles' working model in business and in university settings, this is a book worthy for anyone involved in adult education and its development.

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