Andragogical Curriculum for Equipping Successful Facilitators of Andragogy in Numerous Contexts

John Henschke

Abstract

This chapter addresses a curriculum definition, especially as it relates to preparing teachers to be successful in working with adult learners. The main thrust is to clearly articulate some of the major elements needed to help the art and science of helping adults learn the ideas and practices of that process and be as consistent/congruent as feasible. Reciprocity among empathy, trust, and sensitivity are considered to be crucial in the teaching and learning exchange. Competence and experience in andragogy is important even to the extend of selecting and using various techniques and methods in the learning experience, whether used with learners in higher-order thinking or used with lower-level learners. Techniques the author found helpful are: mixing a lecture with discussion of questions raised by learners in response to content of the lecture; encouraging and giving learners opportunity to take more responsibility for their learning, thus becoming more self-directed; varying one's approach for accommodating different learning styles each learner possesses; looking at a perspective of learning in various areas/pillars of life - being, knowing, doing, living together, changing, and developing sustainability. A true story is provided illustrating a principle of andragogy - doing in practice the same thing one believes and says.