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LIFELONG EDUCATION:
CONTINUITY BETWEEN PEDAGOGY AND ANDRAGOGY MODELS
М. N. Dudina
The current educational system, as an important public resource, is developing under the influence of dynamic social and cultural transformations that have an impact upon all areas of life and individual requirements such as the implementation of human rights and its freedoms and values. However, the sudden increase in the number of incompetent teachers in arts, science and academic institutions has resulted in origination of a phenomenon: an individual who is educated and knowledgeable, but who is unable to replenish their knowledge, acquire new skills or use what they know in a creative manner.
In view of the above, the following question arises: “How do you teach an adult using adult training methods?” (S.G. Vershlovsky). In order to answer this question we can indeed point out three types of education in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education. They include formal education within the scope of educational system of a school, college, or higher educational institution according to approved curricula and relevant processes of training and control, resulting in the right to receive an educational certificate (diploma, degree certificate, etc). Non-formal education may be received in the course of general cultural or professional training, when purposes, forms, methods and means are adapted to the needs of students, and when obligatory control or appraisal of students is not meant to be organized. Informal education, more often individual or in a group, is received at a lifelong “school” or “university”, sensibly (or insensibly) received by individuals of different ages, interests and ambitions. Sources of informal education are found every step of the way and include: books, the mass media, communications, the cinema, television, the Internet, museums, exhibitions, excursions, etc. Non-formal and informal education play more and more important roles, and the traditional concept of an “education received once for all life” is likely to be replaced by the innovative concept of “lifelong education”. It is focused on continuous development of the adaptive characteristics of individuals of any age or sex and also their creative characteristics in order to reach successful selffulfillment and self-actualization by means of gaining new knowledge, including professional knowledge.
That is why we shall not discuss training of minors educated within the framework of pedagogy models, but rather the training of adults within the framework of andragogy models. However, unfortunately, a declaration about any change of the education paradigm or the need to implement the concept of lifelong education has not yet received the necessary theoretical and methodological support for its practical implementation within the scope of the lifelong education process. At the same time in scientific and pedagogic literature the search for a methodological support of andragogy beyond the limits of classic philosophy has been discussed by V. I. Podobed and V. V. Gorshkova who argued against the narrow-mindedness of the “theory of common sense, enlightenment, rationality”, the need to “abandon the ideals of logic, scientism”, the importance of
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understanding reality “from the point of view of irrationalism”, and using instinct, insight, faith, and intuition as methods of understanding [6, p. 30]. In support of this point of view [4], we find it possible to study models of pedagogy and andragogy not only from the point of view of their opposition (at first a strict then a mitigated opposition, Knowles M.S. The Modern Practice of Adult Education. From Pedagogy to Andragogy. 1980), but rather in terms of their continuity and interrelation [2]. The efficiency of raising such a question can be proved by the analysis of common features and different features in the above models. Common between them is the existence in space and time of an individual, both a child (infant) and an adult, and the existential and anthropological subjectivity of a historical and cultural chronotopos. Hence, there is a common paradigm -humanism, personality development, common concepts of lifelong education, common components of the training process (goal-setting, communication, submission of information, technology, diagnostics and achievement of results) focused on the opportunity of self-fulfillment and development of an individual in accordance with their age and sex based on self-conception. Hence, there is interaction, mutually creative activities, cooperation, tolerance; integrated metadisciplinary and disciplinary knowledge and skills, experience of creative activities; innovative forms, methods, ways and means of education, including PC skills. The expected result is: the development of personality and the study of competences. As for follow up and correction activities, they are both proactive and focused on corrective measures, both take into account the self-consciousness of the student, and are based on accumulating cumulative techniques including self-appraisal (module and rating, “portfolio”, individual cumulative index, ICI, etc). It is clear that the training of both adults and children shall be based on different levels and split-level appraisal - low, average, and high levels in the study of competences in accordance with the age and learning capacity of students.
Distinctive features include: the space-time range of development (relatively small and important, and life experience), potential of creativity in life, the availability of situations for existential choice (new goals, types of communication, activities), the possibility of new life organization in accordance with goals and interests (choice of types of activity, different professions, family life, upbringing of children), professional experience, etc. The need for tutors, instructors, and moderators will grow, and their tasks will not only include the transfer of knowledge but also the teaching of adults (and children - M.D.) in how to use ways and methods that make it possible for them to use own reserves to solve professional and other vitally important issues [1, p. 7]. Put in another way, the question is of the implementation of existential methodological and theoretical bases of professional activity and communication focused on the value of the individual, their subjectivity and existence. This is the hard work of teaching specialists in pedagogy and andragogy, the efficiency of which will depend on their motivation and wish to work with the spirit of the times.
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Bibliography
1. Вершловский С.Г. Взрослый как субъект образования // Педагогика. 2003. № 8. С.3-8.
2. Дудина М.Н., Загоруля Т.Б. Андрагогика и педагогика: проблемы преемственности и взаимосвязи. - Екатеринбург, 2008.
3. Дудина М.Н. Педагогика, андрагогика, акмеология: вопросы преемственности и взаимосвязи/ Образование и наука. Известия Уральского отделения Российской Академии Образования. №5(53), август 2008. С.3-11.
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