Heutagogy and today's educator
More on Heutagogy
Paulo Friere, a well-known researcher, author and influencer of educational theory particularly in the latter part of the 19th century believed that learning is never neutral, people can either be passive recipients of knowledge or they can be actively engaged in a problem-solving approach where they themselves contribute to changing their environments, workplaces and communities. Like most educators today he recognized that people brought their own knowledge and experiences to the learning context. He was very concerned with dialogue versus curriculum, the oppressed and the learner’s ability to make a difference in the world. Of real value to education today is Paulo’s belief that dialogue or conversation is not only about deepening an individual’s understanding but an opportunity for collaboration and sharing with great potential to build social capital. Paulo believed that learning should not occur in isolation, involving only one person acting on another, but rather a collaborative approach where people work with each other. Even though Paulo’s approach was around structured learning environments his insistence on education through lived experiences is still very relevant to us today as we continue to focus on the importance of valuing and recognising the informal learning opportunities of our learners.
An andragogical approach to learning has changed the role of the teacher to one of a facilitator of learning, a coach or a mentor and encourages the learner to become more self-directed. Researchers Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon argue that while andragogy (Knowles 1970) provided the educator with various strategies to improve educational practice, it is still very much about a teacher-learner relationship. They argued that the rapid rate of change in society and the explosion of information readily available to us, suggests that today’s educator requires educational approaches where the learner determines what and how they learn. Heutagogy is one such theory that leads us in this direction. Hase and Kenyon define Heutagogy as the study of self-determined learning, suggesting that it could be viewed as a natural progression from earlier educational methodologies such as pedagogy, andragogy and in particular from capability development – believing that it could provide the most advantageous approach to learning in the twenty-first century.
In the International Review of Research in open and distance learning is an article titled ‘Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning’ by Lisa Marie Blaschke. In this article Lisa explains that Heutagogy has its roots in andragogy and although heutagogy has lain dormant for at least a decade it has now resurfaced with renewed interest. Lisa suggests that this is due to the popularity and affordability that web 2.0 technologies offer today’s educator and learner. As discussed by Lisa, Web 2.0 technologies offer a learner- centred approach that encourages the learner to generate their own content, embark on a self-directed discovery of information and define their own learning path.
Now if you are gasping in terror you are probably not alone. Educator’s often question that not all learners are self-directed or even have the skills to generate content and find their own information. For now, we won’t debate this but instead will continue to explore modern theories and revisit this in a future post.
Drawing on the work of The World Bank, 2003 and Kuit & Fell, 2010, Lisa explains that today’s educators are commissioned to develop lifelong learners who can succeed in a global knowledge economy. These learners must have the capability to effectually apply skills and knowledge to new situations in a continually shifting, complex environment.
Through an extensive review of past and current research and literature it seems clear that pedagogical approaches and even andragogical approaches do not sufficiently prepare the learners to be more self-directed in their quest for knowledge and skills needed for today’s workplace. Instead today’s educator should consider theories that build on from what we know about pedagogy and andragogy. Heutagogy offers the educator a learning environment where capable learners can be developed through learner centred, net-centric, digital teaching methodologies that take advantage of web 2.0 and emerging technologies while encouraging and supporting learners to become self-directed, self-determined and autonomous.
In my next posts we will explore two other terms you may not be familiar with; peeragogy and paragogy. Each of these terms build on from pedagogy and andragogy and describe best practices for effective peer-learning.
Bibliography
Paulo Friere Accessed online http://www.freire.org/paulo-freire on 28 August 2012
Kenyan, C. and Hase, S. 2001. Moving from andragogy to heutagogy in vocational
Education accessed online at http://www.avetra.org.au/abstracts_and_papers_2001/Hase-Kenyon_full.pdf on 28 August 2012
Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002) 'Paulo Freire and informal education', the encyclopaedia of informal education. Accessed online at [www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm. on 30 August 2012
Lisa Marie Blaschke (2012). International Review of Research in open and distance learning in ‘Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning’ accessed online at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1076 on 29 August 2012.
