Andragogy: Adult LearningTheory in Perspective

Malcolm S. Knowles

This article is condensed from achapter in theforthcoming revisededition of The Adult Learner: ANeglected Species. This source willbe published in 1978 by The GulfPublishing Company.

Considering that the educationof adults has been a concern of thehuman race for a very long time-as Grattan well documents in hisIn Quest of Knowledge-it iscurious that there has been so lit-tle thinking, investigating, andwriting about adult learning untilrecently.Although many of the ancient

great Chinese, Hebrew, Greek,and Roman teachers taught adultsand philosophized about the aimsof adult education and inventedtechniques especially for adults

(such as the Socratic dialogue), Ican find nothing in their writingthat indicates any interest in theprocesses of adult learning. Theyhad theories about the ends ofadult education but none about themeans of adult learning. Theypresumably made the assumptionthat adults learned in precisely thesame way that children learned(or, better, in the same way thatthey believed that children learn-ed).

These assumptions and beliefs(and blindspots) persisted throughthe ages well into the twentiethcentury. There was only onetheoretical framework for all ofeducation, for children and adultsalike-pedagogy-in spite of thefact that pedagogy literally means

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the art and science of leadingchildren.

Starting shortly after the end ofWorld War I there began emergingboth in this country and in Europea growing body of notions aboutthe unique characteristics ofadults as learners. But only in thelast decade have these notionsevolved into a comprehensivetheory of adult learning. It isfascinating to trace thisevolutionary process in this coun-try.Two streams of inquiry are dis-

cernible beginning with thefounding of the American Associa-tion for Adult Education in 1926,with funding for research andpublications by the Carnegie Cor-poration of New York. One streamwe might call the scientificstream, and the other the artisticstream. The scientific stream,which seeks to discover newknowledge through rigorous-andoften experimental - investiga-tion, was launched by Edward L.Thorndike with the publication ofhis Adult Learning in 1928.1 Thetitle is misleading, however, forThorndike was not concerned withthe processes of adult learning butrather with learning ability. Hisstudies did demonstrate thatadults could learn, and this wasimportant, for it provided a scien-tific foundation for a field that haspreviously been based on the merefaith that adults could learn. Addi-tions to this stream in the nextdecade included Thorndike's AdultInterests in 19352 and HerbertSorenson's Adult Abilities in1938.3 By the onset of World War

II, therefore, adult educators hadscientific evidence that adultscould learn and that theypossessed interests and abilitiesthat were different from those ofchildren and youth.

Lindeman's PioneeringTheories

It was the artistic stream, whichseeks to discover new knowledgethrough intuition and the analy-sis of experience, which was con-cerned with how adults learn.This stream was launched in 1926with the publication of Eduard C.Lindeman's The Meaning ofAdultEducation, in which appear suchinsightful statements as these:.. . the approach to adult educa-tion will be via the route of situa-tions, not subjects. Our academicsystem has grown in reverse or-der: subjects and teachers con-stitute the starting-point, studentsare secondary. In conventionaleducation the student is requiredto adjust himself to an establishedcurriculum; in adult education thecurriculum is built around the stu-dent's needs and interests. Everyadult person finds himself inspecific situations with respect tohis work, his recreation, hisfamily-life, his community-life, etcetera-situations which call foradjustments. Adult educationbegins at this point."4". . . the resource of highest valuein adult education is the learner'sexperience. If education is life, thenlife is also education. Too much oflearning consists of various sub-stitutions of someone else's ex-

1 Edward L. Thorndike, Adult Learning (New York, 1928).2 Edward L. Thorndike, Adult Interests (New York, 1935).3 Herbert Sorenson, Adult Abilities (Minneapolis, 1938).4Eduard C. Lindeman, The Meaning of Adult Education (New York, 1926), pp. 8-9.

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perience and knowledge. Psy-chology is teaching us, however,that we learn what we do, and thattherefore all genuine educationwill keep doing and thinkingtogether. . . Experience is theadult learner's living textbook."5

"Authoritative teaching, ex-aminations which precludeoriginal thinking, rigidpedagogical formulae-all thesehave no place in adult edu-cation. . . [aspiring adults] whoare led in the discussion byteachers who are also searchers af-ter wisdom and not oracles: thisconstitutes the setting for adulteducation, the modern quest forlife's meaning."6

"Apologists for the status quo ineducation frequently assert thatthe great majority of adults arenot interested in learning, are notmotivated in the direction of con-tinuing education; if theypossessed these incentives, theywould, naturally, take advantageof the numerous free educationalopportunities provided by publicagencies. This argument begs thequestion and misconceives theproblem. We shall never know howmany adults desire intelligenceregarding themselves and theworld in which they live untileducation once more escapes thepatterns of conformity. Adulteducation is an attempt to discovera new method and create a new in-centive for learning; its implica-tions are qualitative, not quan-titative. Adult learners areprecisely those whose intellectualaspirations are least likely to bearoused by the rigid, uncom-promising requirements of

5Ibid., pp. 9-10.6Ibid., pp. 10-11.7Ibid., pp. 27-28.

"Adult education is an attemptto discover a new method andcreate a new incentive forlearning. . . "

authoritative, conventionalized in-stitutions of learning."Two excerpts from other Lin-

deman writings elaborate on theseideas:

"I am conceiving adult educa-tion in terms of a new techniquefor learning, a technique as essen-tial to the college graduate as tothe unlettered manual worker. Itrepresents a process by which theadult learns to become aware ofand to evaluate his experience. Todo this he cannot begin by study-ing 'subjects' in the hope thatsome day this information will beuseful. On the contrary, he beginsby giving attention to situationsin which he finds himself, to prob-lems which include obstacles tohis self-fulfillment. Facts and in-formation from the differentiatedspheres of knowledge are used, notfor the purpose of accumulation,but because of need in solvingproblems. In this process theteacher finds a new function. He isno longer the oracle who speaksfrom the platform of authority,but rather the guide, the pointer-out who also participates in learn-ing in proportion to the vitalityand relevance of his facts and ex-periences. In short, my conceptionof adult education is this: a coop-erative venture in non-authori-tarian, informal learning, the chiefpurpose of which is to discoverthe meaning of experience; a quest

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of the mind which digs down to theroots of the preconceptions whichformulate our conduct; a tech-nique of learning for adults whichmakes education coterminous withlife and hence elevates living it-self to the level of adventurousexperiment."8"None but the humble become

good teachers of adults. In anadult class the student's experi-ence counts for as much as theteacher's knowledge. Both are ex-changeable at par. Indeed, in someof the best adult classes it issometimes difficult to discoverwho is learning the most, theteacher or the students. This two-way learning is also reflected byshared authority. In conventionaleducation the pupils adapt them-selves to the curriculum offered,but in adult education the pupilsaid in formulating the curricula.... Under democratic conditionsauthority is of the group. This isnot an easy lesson to learn, butuntil it is learned democracy can-not succeed."9

I am tempted to quote furtherfrom this pioneering theorist, butthese excerpts are sufficient toportray a new way of thinkingabout adult learning. Lindemanhere identifies several of the keyassumptions about adult learnersthat have been supported by laterresearch and that constitute thefoundation stones of modern adultlearning theory: (1) Adults aremotivated to learn as they ex-perience needs and interests thatlearning will satisfy; these are,therefore, the appropriate startingpoints for organizing adult learn-ing activities. (2) Adults' orienta-

tion to learning is life-centered;therefore, the appropriate unitsfor organizing adult learning arelife situations, not subjects. (3) Ex-perience is the richest resource foradults' learning; therefore, thecore methodology of adult educa-tion is the analysis of experience.(4) Adults have a deep need to beself-directing; therefore, the roleof the teacher is to engage in aprocess of mutual inquiry withthem rather than to transmit hisor her knowledge to them and thenevaluate their conformity to it. (5)Individual differences among peo-ple increase with age; therefore,adult education must make op-timal provision for differences instyle, time, place, and pace oflearning.

It is interesting to note that Lin-deman did not dichotomize adultversus youth education, but ratheradult versus "conventional"education-thus implying thatyouth might learn better, too,when their needs and interests,life situations, experience, self-concepts, and individual dif-ferences are taken into account.

Early Theories From theJournal of Adult Education

The artistic stream of inquirywhich Lindeman had launched in1926 flowed on through the pagesof the Journal ofAdult Education,the quarterly publication of theAmerican Association for AdultEducation, which betweenFebruary, 1929 and October, 1941provided the most distinguishedbody of literature yet produced inthe field of adult education. The

8 Robert Gessner (ed.), The Democratic Man: Selected Writings of Eduard C.Lindeman (Boston, 1956), p. 160.

9Ibid., p. 166.

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"The most significant fact inAmerican industrial andprofessional life at present isthis steady transformation ofindustry and the professionsinto educational institutions."

following excerpts from its articlesreveal the growing collection of in-sights about adult learninggleaned from the experience ofsuccessful practitioners:". . .Earning and living are not twoseparate departments or opera-tions in life. They are two namesfor a continuous process looked atfrom opposite ends. . . A type ofeducation based on this vision ofcontinuity is, obviously, the out-standing need of our times. Itsoutlook will be lifelong. It willlook upon the industry of civiliza-tion as the great 'continuationschool' for intelligence and forcharacter, and its object will benot merely to fit men and womenfor the specialized vocations theyare to follow, but also to animatethe vocations themselves withideals of excellence appropriate toeach."10

"The most significant fact inAmerican industrial andprofessional life at present is thissteady transformation of industryand the professions intoeducational institutions. TheAmerican people seem to realizethat their greatest materialsuccess depends upon the degree towhich each worker finds the rightopportunity for self-education onthe job."'1

"Surely between ages 12 and 18schools can, if they will, greatlyidealize practices of self-educationto be systematically entered uponwhen full-time attendance ceases.

Surely large proportions of theprograms of adult educationprovided by public, philanthropic,or private agencies can in a degreebe so constructed as to throw uponthe learning individualconsiderably greater respon-sibilities for educative effort onhis own behalf than is now thecase....And should not similar short

unit courses be available as a partof a program of adult education,designed to push the personalteacher into the background, topush forward the learner's ownpowers of self-help, and toemphasize also the libraries,bibliographies, analyses and thelike upon which these can work?"'I2"At the other end of the

traditional academic ladder theadult educational movement isforcing recognition of the valueand importance of continuing thelearning process indefinitely.... But among the farseeingleaders of the movement in theUnited States it is recognized notso much as a substitute for in-adequate schooling in youth as aneducational opportunity superiorto that offered in youth-superiorbecause the learner is motivatednot by the artificial incentives ofacademic organization but by thehonest desire to know and toenrich his experience.There is gradually emerging,

therefore, a conception of educa-

10 Lawrence P. Jacks, "Breadwinning and Soulsaving," Journal ofAdult Education 1, 1(February 1929): 7-10.

Charles R. Mann, "Education for More than the Job.," ibid., p. 56.12 David Snedden, "Self-Education," Journal ofAdult Education 2, 1 (January 1930): 37.

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tion as a lifelong process begin-ning at birth and ending only withdeath, a process related at allpoints to the life experiences of theindividual, a process full of mean-ing and reality to the learner, aprocess in which the student is ac-tive participant rather thanpassive recipient."'""A person is a good educator

among adults when he has adefinite conviction about life andwhen he can present intelligentarguments on behalf of it; butprimarily he does not qualify as anadult educator at all until he canexist in a group that collectivelydisputes, denies, or ridicules hisconviction, and continues to adorehim because he rejoices inthem....

... there is positive evidencethat no adult education systemwill ever make a success ofcollegiate methods of instructionto adults in the cultural fields.Something new in the way of con-tent and method must be producedas soon as possible for adult educa-tion, and probably it will have togrow up in the field. No teacher-training-college hen can lay anadult education egg."14

"Agencies for adult educationmight profitably spend a largepart of their time and resources onestablishing forums and discus-sion groups; not for rudderless dis-cussion, but for planned and direc-ted thinking under trainedleaders, using every availablesource for the acquisition of true

knowledge.... We have indeedmany groups modeled on the NewSchool of Social Research scat-tered around the country in which,under trained leaders, men maydiscuss trends and theories. Thesemen are not so much beingeducated as educatingthemselves."15

"It cannot be pointed out toooften that all education is self-education. Teachers may helpdefine procedure, collect equip-ment, indicate the most propitiousroutes, but the climber must usehis own head and legs if he wouldreach the mountaintop."'

'Teachers want help in planningcourses and units of study; insetting up definite objectives con-sistent with the needs of their stu-dents; in keeping their coursesflexible and adapted to thedeveloping interests of their stu-dents. They want to know how tobring the experiences of their stu-dents' daily lives into theframework of a course of study;how to take advantage of spon-taneous and unpredictableeducational opportunities; how tocut across "subjects" in dealingwith the ways of thinking and ofacting that are characteristic ofeveryday adult life.

Teachers want to understandand master the methods of groupwork and study; to learn how tolead a group without dominating;how to provide opportunity fordemocratic participation; how toget students increasingly to accept

Robert D. Leigh, "Reducing Academic Formalism," Journal ofAdult Education 2, 2(April 1930): 123.

14 David L. MacKaye, "Tactical Training for Teaching Adults," Journal ofAdult Educa-tion 3, 3 (June 1931): 293-294.

15 Anne E. M. Jackson, "An Apology for Lectures," Journal ofAdult Education 3, 4 (Oc-tober 1931): 44.

16 James E. Russell, "Can the Art of Teaching Be Taught?" Journal ofAdult Education10, 4 (October 1938): 385-386.

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responsibility for planning theirown programs of study and ac-tivity; how to help students tobroaden their interests; how toconduct the work of a group sothat it shall be reflected in the lifeof the community. ...Teacher education at all times

should exemplify and demonstratethe teaching methods found mosteffective with adult groups.Because of the variety of needs tobe served, a teacher-educationprogram will give opportunity toutilize many teaching methods:group discussion to solve commonproblems; discussion by a panel,composed of representatives ofcommunity welfare; forums tosupply information on public af-fairs. Group projects, observation,individual study, and lectures maylikewise be employed in ap-propriate situations. If the use ofeach method is preceded by an ex-amination of its potential valuesand is followed by an analysis ofits effectiveness, every lesson willnot only serve its own specific pur-pose, but will also demonstrate atechnique of teaching."17

"In a day school, where the stu-dents are usually children oryoung adolescents, a learned-teacher-ignorant-pupil relation-ship is almost inevitable, and fre-quently it has its advantages. Butin a night school the situation isentirely different. Here, so far asthe class is concerned, the teacheris an authority upon one subjectonly, and each of the students has,in his own particular field, someskill or knowledge that the teacher

". adult education is as dif-ferent from ordinary schoolingas adult life. . .is differentfromthe protected life of thechild. . . A

does not possess. For this reason,there is a spirit of give-and-take ina night-school class that induces afeeling of comradeship in learning,stimulating to teacher and stu-dents alike. And the quickest wayto achieve this desirable state isthrough laughter in which all canjoin.And so I say again that, if we

are really wise, we teachers innight schools will, despite taxes orindigestion, teach merrily!"'8

"Authoritarian adult educationis marked throughout by regimen-tation demanding obedient con-formity to patterns of conducthanded down from authority.Behavior is expected to be predic-table, standardized.... Democraticadult education employs themethod of self-directing activity,with free choice of subject matterand free choice in determining out-comes. Spontaneity is welcome.Behavior cannot with certainty bepredicted and therefore is notstandardized. Individual, criticalthinking is perhaps the bestdescription of the democraticmethod and it is here that the gulfis widest between democracy andthe authoritarian system."'9

"On the whole, adult educationis as different from ordinaryschooling as adult life, with its in-

17 Mildred G. Wiese and G. L. Maxwell, "As We Are Taught So Do We Teach," Journalof Adult Education 11, 2 (April 1939):174-175.

18 Ruth Morton, "Merrily We Teach," ibid., p. 178.19 Ben M. Cherrington, "Democratic versus Authoritarian Adult Education," Journal of

Adult Education 11, 3 (June 1939): 244-245.

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dividual and social respon-sibilities, is different from theprotected life of the child....

Adult education, accordingly,makes special allowance for in-dividual contributions from thestudents, and seeks to organizethese contributions into someform of social purpose.20 'Let theclass do the work' should be adopt-ed as a motto. There must be am-ple opportunity for forums, dis-cussions, debates. Newspapers,circulars, and magazines as well astextbooks should be used for prac-tice in reading. Extracurricular ac-tivities should become arecognized part of the educationalprocess.... These are some of theelements that must be incor-porated in a program of adulteducation for citizens if it is to besuccessful."21By 1940 most of the elements re-

quired for a comprehensive theoryof adult learning had been dis-covered, but they had not yet beenbrought together into a unifiedtheory; they remained as isolatedinsights, concepts, and principles.During the 1940s and 1950s theseelements were clarified,elaborated on, and added to in averitable explosion of knowledgefrom the various disciplines in thehuman sciences. (It is interestingto note in passing that during thisperiod there was a gradual shift inemphasis in research away fromthe highly quantitative, fragmen-tary, experimental research of the

1930s and 1940s to more holisticlongitudinal case studies-with, inmy estimation, a higher yield ofuseful knowledge.).

ExamplesFrom the discipline of

psychotherapy. -Rogers providedstrong evidence of the need of thehuman organism to move fromdependency toward self-direct-edness as it matures, and hedemonstrated the central impor-tance of the quality of therelationship between teacher andlearner in effecting learning.22Maslow presented the clearest con-ceptualization yet of adult moti-vation.23 Erikson clarified thestages of personality developmentand contributed the concept ofidentity-formation.24 In fact, thecentral role of self-concept inhuman development received in-creasing reinforcement from theentire field of psychiatry as itmoved away from a medical modeltoward an educational model in itsresearch and practice.From the discipline of develop-

mental psychology.-Havighurstidentified the developmental tasksassociated with different stages ofgrowth.25 Pressey and Kuhlenpioneered the collection ofresearch on human developmentinto a sequential picture ofchanges in personality charac-teristics with age through the lifespan26 -an undertaking more

20 Wendell Thomas, "What Is Adult Education?" Journal ofAdult Education 11, 4 (Oc-tober 1939): 365-366.

21 Harold Fields, "Making Education of Adults, Adult," Journal ofAdult Education 12,1 (January 1940): 44-45.

22 Carl R. Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy (Boston, 1951).23 Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York, 1954).24 Erik Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (New York, 1959).25 Robert Havighurst, Developmental Tasks and Education (New York, 1961).26 Sidney L. Pressey and Raymond G. Kuhlen, Psychological Development through the

Life Span (New York, 1957).

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recently resumed by Bischof andby Goulet and Baltes.27From the disciplines ofsociology

and social psychology.-A greatdeal of new knowledge about thebehavior of groups and largersocial systems, including theforces which facilitate or inhibitchange in them, has come from theworks of Kurt Lewin, LelandBradford, Warren Bennis, Ken-neth Benne, Robert Chin, ChrisArgyris, and many others.28Together with the sociologists, thesocial psychologists have also con-tributed important new knowledgeabout environmental influences-such as culture, race, populationcharacteristics, and density-onlearning.29From the discipline of

education. -The behaviorist andcognitive researchers in educationhave been primarily concernedwith the responses to teaching ofanimals and children, and sorelatively little knowledge aboutadult learning has come from theirwork.30 Considerably more usefulknowledge has come from the

works of the humanisticeducators."1 But the most usefulnew knowledge has come fromstudies of adult learners directly.Houle's pioneering in-depth in-vestigation of 22 "continuinglearners" gave us the insight thatsome adults are goal-oriented,some are activity-oriented, andothers are learning-oriented intheir approach to learning.32 Hisdemonstration of the fruitfulnessof the case method of researchspawned a number of doctoral dis-sertations and a major work byAllen Tough, The Adult's Learn-ing Projects.33 Tough's studyhas taught us much about howadults learn naturally (in contrastto when they are being taught), in-cluding the fact that they organizetheir learning activities into "pro-jects" (not courses) and the factthat they seek out "helpers" whoare both knowledgeable and sup-portive. A rash of inter-disciplinary studies of theprocesses of aging and their im-plications for learning since themid-1950s has also provided a

27 L. J. Bischof, Adult Psychology (New York, 1969); and L. R. Goulet and P. B. Baltes,Life-Span Developmental Psychology (New York, 1970).

28 For an overview of this literature, see W. Bennis, K. Benne, and R. Chin, The Plan-ning of Change (New York, 1968); M. S. Knowles and H. F. Knowles, Introduction toGroup Dynamics (New York, 1973); and K. Benne, L. Bradford, and R. Lippitt, TheLaboratory Method of Changing and Learning (Palo Alto, 1975).

29 For an overview of this literature, see Jack London, "The Relevance of the Study ofSociology to Adult Education Practice," in Adult Education: Outlines of an EmergingField of University Study, eds. Gale Jensen, et al. (Washington, D.C., 1964).

30 An exception to this generalization is a very recent series of investigations intocognitive processes in adult years. See L. R. Goulet and P. B. Baltes, Life-Span Develop-mental Psychology (New York, 1970); J. Botwinick, Cognitive Processes in Maturity andOld Age (New York, 1967); and L. F. Jarvik, C. Eisdorfer, and J. E. Blum, IntellectualFunctioning in Adults (New York, 1972).

31 For an overview of this literature, see D. A. Read and S. B. Simon, Humanistic Educa-tion Sourcebook (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1975).

32 Cyril 0. Houle, The Inquiring Mind (Madison, 1961).33Allen Tough, The Adult's Learning Projects (Toronto, 1971). The increase in disserta-

tion research concerning adult learning is indicated by the fact that three such studieswere listed in 1960 (Adult Education 10, 4 [Summer, 1960]: 195-198), while 58 were listedin 1970 (Research and Investigations in Adult Education ERIC Clearinghouse in AdultEducation, Syracuse: [1970], pp. 13-29).

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". . adult education requiredspecial teachers, specialmethods, and a specialphilosophy."

large volume of new knowledge.34Attempts to bring the isolated

concepts, insights, and researchfindings regarding adult learningtogether into an integratedframework began as early as 1949,with the publication of HarryOverstreet's The Mature Mind,and continued with my ownInformal Adult Education in 1950,Edmund Brunner's Overview ofResearch in Adult Education in1954, J. R. Kidd's How AdultsLearn in 1959, J. R. Gibb's chapteron "Learning Theory in AdultEducation" in the Handbook ofAdult Education in the U. S. in1960, and Harry L. Miller'sTeaching and Learning in AdultEducation in 1964. But theseturned out to be more descriptivelistings of concepts and principlesthan comprehensive, coherent,and integrated theoreticalframeworks. What was neededwas an integrative and differen-tiating concept.

Andragogy in EuropeSuch a concept had been evolv-

ing in Europe for some time-theconcept of a unified theory of adultlearning for which the labelandragogy had been coined to dif-ferentiate it from the theory ofyouth learning, pedagogy. I wasfirst introduced to the concept and

the label in 1967 by a Yugoslavianadult educator, Dusan Savicevic,and introduced them into ourAmerican literature with my arti-cle, "Androgogy, Not Pedagogy"in Adult Leadership in April, 1968.(Note my misspelling of the worduntil I was corrected throughcorrespondence with thepublishers of Merriam-Websterdictionaries). Since this label hasnow become widely adopted in ourliterature, it may be worthwhile totrace the history of its use.A Dutch adult educator, Ger

van Enckevort, has made an ex-haustive study of the origins anduse of the term andragogy, and Ishall merely summarize hisfindings.35 The term (Andragogik)was first coined, so far as he coulddiscover, by a German grammarschool teacher, Alexander Kapp, in1833. Kapp used the word in adescription of the educationaltheory of the Greek philosopherPlato, although Plato never usedthe term himself. A few yearslater the better-known Germanphilosopher Johan Friedrich Her-bart acknowledged the term bystrongly opposing its use. VanEnckevort observes that "the greatphilosopher had more influencethan the simple teacher, and so theword was forgotten and disap-peared for nearly a hundredyears."Van Enckevort found the term

being used again in 1921 by theGerman social scientist EugenRosenstock, who taught at theAcademy of Labor in Frankfort.In a report to the Academy in 1921

34 For a recent treatment of this literature, see G. Grabowski and W. D. MasonLearning for Aging (Washington, 1974).

35 Ger van Enckevort, "Andragology: A New Science," Nederlands Centrum VoorVolksontwikkeling, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, April, 1971 (Mimeographed).

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he expressed the opinion thatadult education required specialteachers, special methods, and aspecial philosophy. "It is notenough to translate the insights ofeducation theory [or pedagogy] tothe situation of adults . . . theteachers should be professionalswho could cooperate with thepupils; only such a teacher can be,in contrast to a 'pedagogue,' an'andragogue.' Incidentally,Rosenstock believed that he in-vented the term until 1962, whenhe was informed of its earlier useby Kapp and Herbart. Van Encke-vort reports that Rosenstock usedthe term on a number of occasions,and that it was picked up by someof his immediate colleagues, butthat it still did not receive generalrecognition.The Dutch scholar next finds the

term being used by a Swiss psy-chiatrist, Heinrich Hanselmann,in a book published in 1951,Andragogy: Nature, Possibilitiesand Boundaries of Adult Educa-tion, which dealt with the non-medical treatment or re-educationof adults. Only six years later, in1957, a German teacher, FranzPoggeler, published a book en-titled Introduction to Andragogy:Basic Issues in Adult Education.About this time the term startedbeing used in other than German-speaking countries. In 1956, M.Ogrizovic published a dissertationin Yugoslavia on "penological an-dragogy," and in 1959 he publisheda book entitled Problems of An-dragogy. Soon other leadingYugoslavian adult educators, in-cluding Samolovcev, Filipovic, andSavicevic, began speaking andwriting about andragogy, andfaculties of andragogy offeringdoctorates in adult education were

established at the universities ofZagreb and Belgrade inYugoslavia and the universities ofBudapest and Debrecen inHungary.Andragogy started being used in

the Netherlands by Professor T. T.ten Have in his lectures in 1954,and in 1959 he published the out-lines for a science of andragogy.Since 1966 the University ofAmsterdam has had a doctoratefor andragogues, and in 1970 adepartment of pedagogical and an-dragogical sciences was es-tablished in the faculty of socialsciences. In the current Dutchliterature a distinction is madeamong "andragogy," which is anyintentional and professionallyguided activity which aims at achange in adult persons; "an-dragogics," which is thebackground of methodological andideological systems which governthe actual process of andragogy;and "andragology," which is thescientific study of both andragogyand andragogics.During the past decade an-

dragogy has come into increasinguse by adult educators in France(Bertrand Schwartz), England (J.A. Simpson), Venezuela (FelixAdam), and Canada (a Bachelor ofAndragogy degree program wasestablished at Concordia Univer-sity in Montreal in 1973).

Andragogy in the U.S.

In this country, to date four ma-jor expositions of the theory of an-dragogy and its implications for

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practice have appeared,36 a num-ber of articles have appeared inperiodicals reporting on applica-tions of the andragogicalframework to social work educa-tion, religious education, un-dergraduate and graduate educa-tion, management training, andother spheres; and an increasingvolume of research on hypothesesderived from andragogical theoryis being reported. There is growingevidence, too, that the use of an-dragogical theory is making a dif-ference in the way programs ofadult education are beingorganized and operated, in the wayteachers of adults are beingtrained, and in the way adults arebeing helped to learn. There iseven evidence that concepts of an-

dragogy are beginning to make animpact on the theory and practiceof elementary, secondary, andcollegiate education.

Summary and Conclusion

The field of adult education haslong sought a glue to bind itsdiverse institutions, clienteles, andactivities into some sense of unity;perhaps andragogy will give it atleast a unifying theory. And, ex-tended in its application to theconcept of life long education,perhaps andragogy will provide aunifying theme for all of educa-tion."Andragogy" is not yet a word

that appears in any dictionary.But apparently its time is coming.

36 These include: M.S. Knowles, The Modern Practice ofAdult Education: Andragogyversus Pedagogy (New York, 1970); J. D. Ingalls and J. M. Arceri, A Trainer's Guide toAndragogy (Washington, 1972); M. S. Knowles, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species(Houston, 1973); and M. S. Knowles, Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners andTeachers (New York, 1975).

Malcolm S. Knowles is a professor of adult and community college education at NorthCarolina State University, Raleigh. He holds both the M.A. and Ph.D. from the Univer-sity of Chicago.

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