I didn’t know until last week that we here at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the College of William and Mary are proponents and practitioners of andragogy.
Say what? Is that even legal in Virginia?
It is not only legal, it is the only thing Osher does. We teach adults.
Side note: The “andra-“ prefix is from the Greek word for man or husband. When the Greeks (and many other people) wanted to refer to adults, they used the word “man” as a generic that included women. The Latin language also used this rule. Grammarians applied this rule to English in the 18th century. But when a word has both a specific and generic meaning, this ambiguity can be exploited. For example, when Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” it can be argued that he meant “all people.” But someone who wants to deny equality to women can use Jefferson’s words in their specific rather than generic meaning to make their argument. But I digress.
Adult learners are different from younger learners. We differ in terms of motivation, preferred teaching styles, desired outcomes, preferred settings – almost everything that matters.
Adult learners are self-directed. They are independent and like to find their own way. They can make their own decisions and want to be in control of their own learning.
Adult learners draw on the breadth and depth of their experience to approach new learning. They know a lot and probably have deeply ingrained ideas about things.
Adults want to learn things that are relevant to them at this point in their lives. They see value in meaningful learning experiences.
They are motivated by things like self-esteem, quality of life, and personal growth and development.
So what does this mean for Osher course offerings?
Being self-directed means that our members want to have a wide range of courses to choose from every semester. They want to be able to make commitments of varying amounts of time – 1 session or multiple sessions, or sometimes spreading across the entire semester. They want to be able to select among various formats of classes – lectures, seminars, experiential classes, remote classes, and activities. They don’t want to be required to do anything outside of the classroom – although some will do that anyway, because that’s what they decide to do. And they want to be physically comfortable – they want nice chairs, functional heating and AC, good lighting, accessible classroom spaces, and convenient parking. Snacks would be nice.
Because our members come to us with a lifetime of education and experience behind them, they expect us to respect them and acknowledge the value of what they bring to our classes. They want to be part of an intellectual exchange when they are in a class. They need to feel that their opinions and ideas matter. They don’t want their knowledge and opinions to be dismissed by an instructor who disagrees with them.
They want classes that are relevant to them – but relevant means something different from what it meant when they were at the peak of their working careers. They may be exploring topics and approaches that are very different from what they spent their careers doing, but this does not reduce their need for meaning. If they find themselves in a class that is not relevant to their current lives, they will probably not attend the remaining class sessions. They do not want to waste their time on something that is not meaningful, and they will vote with their feet.
Their motivations for signing up for classes may be complex. It is probably fundamental curiosity – a desire for learning – that brings them to the program. But they are also eager for socialization, self-esteem, personal growth, and entertainment They want to be stimulated intellectually, have fun, and feel good about themselves and about their lives. In addition, Osher classes give them an opportunity to create the networks that help frame a meaningful life. Our members form friendships.
People who take our classes do not expect to earn a degree or professional license. They are not looking for a credential that they can parlay into a better job or an increase in pay. At the end of a class, they want to walk away with a deeply felt satisfaction that they didn’t waste their time.
This chart, similar to one that we will use in our upcoming class “We Want You . . . to Each for Osher,” illustrates the overarching goal of Osher classes.
This chart is misleadingly simple.
Our basic goal is to inform everyone in the class. We want all the members of the class to know more at the end of the class than they did at the beginning.
We want to engage as many people in the class as we can. We can best do this through effective visuals, entertaining presentations, and robust yet civil exchanges of information and opinions about the topic.
We want to inspire members of the class to go further with the information they’ve encountered in the class. We hope that they will read more about the topic, travel to locations being discussed, participate in community events they learn about, talk to their friends about what they learned in the class, or maybe even teach a future Osher class themselves.
The better our understanding of andragogy, the more likely we are to accomplish these goals.
😎