Andragogy

Adults do not learn like children. A child accepts the teacher's direction; an adult learns best when treated as self-directing, when new learning connects with experience, and when it solves a real problem now. That is andragogy — Malcolm Knowles' theory of adult learning — set against pedagogy, the art of teaching children. Worked example: a training programme for working teachers that lets them choose topics, draw on classroom experience and apply ideas the next day is andragogical; a programme that lectures them for six hours without discussion is pedagogical, however old the learners are.