Androgogy vs. Pedagogy in Adult Learning

These two terms can cause some confusion and have serious implications for how an Instructional Designer designs an Adult Learning course.

According to Malcom Knowles' theory, Andragogy encourages instructors and Instructional Designers to do a better job of connecting learning experiences to what adult learners already know. Allowing for personal opinion, better pacing, and knowledge checks and re-checks, and helps adults to leverage what they already know against the new topics they are presented with. This facilitates both knowledge transfer and integration of new knowledge into their daily work activities. The goal is to encourage behavior change and satisfy the learning objectives established at the beginning of the training needs assessment.