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TOWARDS THE ISSUE OF ANDRAGOGICAL COMPETENCE OF TEACHERS OF ADULTS
S. G. Vershlovsky
Continuously updating knowledge and skills is not just a right, but also a duty of every adult to themselves, to others, and to society as a whole. This attitude to education cannot be shaped by governments, public organizations or relevant institutions without active contribution from those who are involved in the interactions with adults. These represent quite a wide range of specialists, including teachers in postgraduate and additional education, consultants, experts, tutors, administrators, resource teachers, inspectors, and social workers. Modern life sets a number of requirements for the level of their andragogical competence. The structure of this competence may be presented as follows (see the Table below).
Classification of andragogical competence of teachers of adults
Table
Competence type Competence set Competence characteristics
Basic Subject- Ability to be conversant in age-specific, personal, psycho-
competencies specific physiological, social and professional features of adult learners.
of teachers in (scientific) Ability to be conversant in the system of psychological and
postgraduate didactic knowledge pertaining to adult education.
education as Ability to follow the principles of adult education in teaching
an andragogue Organizational Ability to create optimal (intellectual and physical) loads for
and adult learners.
methodological Ability to rely on professional and personal experience of adult learners. Ability to select and arrange educational content in line with demands of adult learners. Ability to take into account wishes of adult learners to learn under individual programs. Ability to engage a group in active interactions. Ability to conduct psychological and andragogical diagnostics. Ability to conduct group sessions and individual work with adult learners. Ability to use verbal and non-verbal communication means to promote communication with adult learners. Ability to efficiently use time resources in teaching teachers. Ability to arrange for self-guided work of learners
Socio- Ability to take into account gender-specific characteristics of
psychosocial adult learners. Willingness to treat an adult as a personality capable of creative self-realization. Ability to treat an adult learner as an actor of the educational process. Ability to take into account individual thinking characteristics of adults. Ability to arrange for investigating the quality of andragogical training of learners, analyze and interpret the results
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Personal Ability to critically evaluate one's own activities as an
andragogue.
Willingness to improve one's own andragogical competence. Ability to perceive oneself as a moderator, a specialist working with a group of adults on the basis of equality and dialogue. Ability to cooperate with colleagues on issues of andragogy. Ability to use innovative experience in one’s own activities
This classification of competences gives an idea of the essential characteristics of andragogical activity as a special type associated with teaching, counseling, providing social aid and acting as a manager in the adult learning environment.
Surveys conducted among teachers in advanced training show that these qualities are represented in their activities in different ways. For our purpose, we can identify a few groups of teachers depending on the degree of representation of andragogical orientations in their professional activities and the "scale" of socioprofessional identity in this area.
The first group identify themselves with subject-specific specialists. This understanding of their professional role causes them to follow the trivial principle: "Know your subject and explain it clearly". In other words, supporters of this position pursue the usual approach to teaching as transmission of the latest information in the specialty area. This viewpoint was developed in the years when psychological and pedagogical sciences limited their scope of interest to children. Despite the availability of quite serious research in adult psychology, the purely "object-centered" approach to students is still quite common nowadays. It is noted that the higher professional competence of teachers as specialists in their subject is, the more neutral they are about the art of teaching. Their activity prevails over independence and activity of learners. Many teachers in this group are convinced that research in teaching technology cannot produce practically significant results to the same extent as solving practical (scientific) tasks can. Such specialists are valued for high professional competence, but the subject often isolates them from learners, creating a "semantic barrier".
The second group of teachers has a wider "scale" of andragogical identity, including awareness of the special characteristics of teaching adults. Teachers in this group are active in searches for the most effective methods and means of teaching. Being interested in didactic and methodological issues drives them to think about the goals and models of teaching, methods of organizing collaboration, and criteria of the efficiency of the educational process. Hence, a wider selection of programs, projects and methodological materials. Their research often addresses not only the subject-specific area, but also their own teaching activities. Benchmarking their work against colleagues and assessing their own educational strategy underlie the enhancement of teacher's professional skills as an andragogue. But despite the significance of this position, the learning process does not acquire meaning for adults in its own right, but only facilitates their adaptation to different aspects of professional activity (skills improvement, mastering a new profession, etc.). The narrow didactical attitudes of these teachers are supported by students who treat the process of gaining new knowledge in a rather utilitarian way. In this case, learning exhausts itself as soon as the goal set by adults when
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entering the educational process is achieved. Inexhaustibility and continuity of education is more of a symbol than a reality.
The real continuity of education is provided by the third group of teachers who involve adults in educational activity in such a way so that learning becomes a means of skillful interpretation and solution of significant social and professional problems. Many Russian and foreign scholars note the need to pay attention to this aspect of adult education. Thus, the American researcher in adult education
J.W. Apss opposes a purely adaptive function of education to its capabilities of development: "When building teaching on solving individual problems, we ignore larger social problems. Teaching is centered not on the needs of an individual, but around the problem and its solution for the life of human society."1 In fact, this is the position of a facilitator who analyzes one’s actions, is able to interpret the learning content, or a question or comment of a student in such a way so as to promote a deeper understanding of professional and social problems not only by an individual, but by the audience as a whole. In this case, there are additional opportunities for satisfying not only explicit, but also implicit needs of students. This position is opposed to the "consumption" orientation of education which is based on the statement that "students should be taught what they want to know". The teacher should anticipate demands of the adult learner audience and be able to predict what they will need in the future, and not only "here and now".
Andragogical orientation of the educational process requires specialists of a certain kind who realize "subject-specific" problems in the broad context of socioprofessional problems. This "transcendent" position causes a qualitative transformation of the nature of the educational process itself. It becomes truly dialogical, based on the equality of personality involved in collaborative activities. We can conclude that in this case, a dialogue becomes a means of developing a free personality on the one hand, and an indication of the democratic atmosphere in the educational institution on the other. In fact, it is only in this case that the educational process becomes continuous. The teacher is, in turn, enabled to get deeper insight and even reconsider his or her point of view. The ability for reflection which develops in this case is an important incentive for the involvement of the teacher in the educational process. Teachers of this kind are rather few, but paradoxically, they are more frequently found in adult education than in school or even higher education. Life experience and the general culture of such teachers play an essential role in their development. But the significance of these qualities does not make the problem of andragogical training less relevant. There is already some experience of training teachers of additional education in this country (for example, in the Krasnoyarsk Teachers Training University, and in the Pskov Office of the Znanie Society, etc.). "Andragogical education" constitutes the main research and practice content of the activities of the Pedagogy and Andragogy Department in the St.Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. In this paper, we can identify a few stages: the first stage is designed to train a group of moderators who will be able to teach teachers of advanced training in the basics of andragogy. A detailed review of the methods used by the
1 Apss J. W. Mastering the teaching of adults. - Florida. 1991. P. 87.
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1
Department is found in a special resource book ; the second stage is aimed at "transferring" knowledge and abilities to the classroom. To this end, a special program was developed. Every session was designed to introduce students to the problems of adult education, and was educational in nature, enabling the students to master the basics of adult teaching based on their own experience in an adult-specific manner. Every session was concluded with reflection that helped students to critically evaluate their own "andragogical development; the third stage was designed to further extend the audience for whom andragogical knowledge becomes objectively necessary. A special 72-hour program was designed for resource teachers. Training under the program is currently delivered in district information and methodology centers.
A review of issues relating to the development of andragogical problems in lifelong education enables us to turn our attention to a few important areas in the improvement of andragogical competence of teachers of adults. These include creating a uniform system for training teachers of postgraduate education; placing more focus on the andragogical component of training (programs, learning guides); and broad deployment of modern multi-media technology. Supposedly, the solution of these problems will help improve general professional and andragogical competence of teachers of adults.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau 1
1 Технологии образования взрослых. Пособие для тех, кто работает в системе образования взрослых / под общ. ред. О.В. Агаповой, С. Г. Вершловского, Н. А. Тоскиной. - СПб.: КАРО, 2008.
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