For any teaching model to be effective it is essential to consider the issue of motivation. As Oxford (1990, p.140) notes, ‘the affective side of the learner is probably one of the biggest influences on language learning success or failure’. In order to design a teaching model that takes into consideration how adult learners approach learning, it is necessary to explore the relationships between life experiences and motivation for learning. Houde (2006) argues that the relationship between motivation and adult learning can be explained from the perspective of the socio-emotional theory. This theory focuses on individuals’ relationship with time, goals and emotions and highlights the impact of age on the choice between goals focused on knowledge and goals focused on regulating emotions. A key component of this theory is
relatedness, which refers to the relationships with other people and the choices individuals
make between different types of goals. The choice of which type of goal is mediated by an individual’s perspective on whether future time is constrained or expansive. For example, an individual in their adolescent years is likely to have an expansive future time perspective, while the same individual in their old age will have a more constrained future time perspective (Carstensen 1987, 1991). When explaining how adults approach learning and how motivation influences them, Knowles (1980) coined the term andragogy to refer to the process of engaging adults with the structure of a learning experience. He based this on his own experience and observations rather than logical postulates and empirical research. In Knowles (ibid) and Knowles, Holton & Swanson (1998) andragogy is summarised in six principles:
Principle one: the learner needs to know. An adult, when learning on their own, spends a large amount of energy and time trying to understand the value of the new learning; either the benefit from learning or the consequence of not learning. They are self- motivated and self-directed. According to Knowles et al (1998, p.64) ‘adults need to know why they need to learn something before undertaking it’. The adult learner needs either to be told or, even better, to be led to discover why certain knowledge is worth learning. An adult learner will be brought from non-motivation (amotivation) to motivation when the benefit of learning something is connected to goals that they value. Making clear the connection between learning something and a goal is an ideal example of telling an adult why they need to know something.
Principle two: self-concept of the learner. ‘Adults have a self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions, for their own lives’ (Knowles et al 1998, p. 65).
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Following Houde (op. cit.), adults are more likely to pursue emotional regulating goals, while children are more likely to pursue knowledge related goals.
Principle three: prior experience of the learner. ‘Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences’ (Knowles et al 1998, p.66). This principle proposes that adults have more experience and more diverse experience than children. As a consequence, the learner’s experience is a valuable resource in the classroom. An adult derives their self-identity from their experiences, whereas a child’s identity tends to come from social connections, for example, family, school, or sports teams. Because of the integral nature of prior experience to the identity of the adult learner, when their ‘experiences are ignored or devalued, adults will perceive this as rejecting not only their experience, but rejecting themselves as persons’ (Knowles et al 1998, p. 67). A learner’s prior experience is likely to be full of memories of activities that fulfilled the competence need. These experiences will be in multiple domains, both relevant and not relevant to the classroom.
Principle four: readiness to learn. Adults are living their lives while learning. The contexts of life-demands lead adults to prioritize different learnings at different points. At any given point in life, adults are ‘ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life situations’ (Knowles et al 1998, p. 67). An adult learner would like to feel that they are choosing to study a particular topic instead of being forced to study it. With this consideration, an adult learner is likely to be more motivated to learn if they choose the topic that is relevant to a current problem.
Principle five: orientation to learning. Adult learners are life-, problem-, or task-centred in their approach to learning. In fact, they arguably build on each other: task-centred would be considered most effective if the task is relevant to an important problem, and problem-centred would be most motivating when that problem is a life issue, rather than a trivial matter. According to Knowles (1980, p.44), adult learners become ready to learn when ‘they experience a need to learn it in order to cope more satisfyingly with real-life tasks or problems’ and they generally prefer a problem solving orientation to learning as opposed to subject-centred learning. Adults learn best when information is presented in real-life contexts.
Principle six: motivation to learn. Adults tend to be more motivated toward learning that helps them solve problems in their lives or results in internal gratifications. This
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does not mean that external satisfactions have no relevance, but the internal need is the more compelling motivator (Knowles et al, 1998).
The views that adult learners have the potential to become self-motivated and self-directed informed the design of a teaching approach as discussed in section 4.5 on page 110. Andragogy, as used in such approach, emphasises student-centeredness and learners’ capacity to participate in collaborative discourse as they are capable of individual agency and reflective thinking (Merizow, 1991, 2000; King & Wright, 2003; Merrian, 2004). Additionally, an important contribution of andragogy is related to the role of the teacher. Andragogy views the teacher as a facilitator of learning and a co-learner simultaneously who negotiates curricular activities. In practice this means that the learner sets the agenda and the teacher negotiates and facilitates learning.