If the general population were asked to explain Andragogy or Pedagogy, many would have difficulty with this task, while most have been exposed to both, these are two topics that are usually left to educators for discussion. However, the general public would have a lot to say about how children and adults should be taught. Should adults be educated differently than children? How do Andragogy and Pedagogy best practices differ? Where do the teenagers lie? These and other questions are explored by educators around the world. With the increase in technical and computer learning in both primary and secondary education, the distance between pedagogy and andragogy is narrowing. In A Paradigm Shift: Teaching Adults As Children And Children As Adults, Earl Harewood describes adult educators, "They allow the adult learner to have greater autonomy over the learning process, recognize the content of the learner's life, and make provisions to blend the life experience with the teaching method." Anagogic students bring a greater capacity for experience to the classroom. They are often as much of a resource to each other as the instructor. The anagogical learner is self-directed, self-confident, and self-evaluating. Adult education is most effective when it is centered on the student through experiences. The instructor should find ways to make these experiences personal to the student. The principles of adult learning; self-directed, life experiences, goal orientation, relevance orientation, practical, and respectful are all components that students of all ages would benefit from. The pedagogical student relies on the instructor for all learning. As education has changed, modern teaching ideas suggest that the student finds his or her own understanding, not unlike the techniques used in Andragogy. The teacher or instructor takes full responsibility and is held accountable for the student's performance and growth. In Andragogy vs. Pedagogy: the Tutoring Difference, Bob Lasiewicz, explains that even as anthology methods are incorporated into K-12 classrooms, “class sizes, time constraints, curricular requirements, and the overall structure of K-12 schools are more favorable to the pedagogical training approach”. Teaching adults can be very similar to teaching children or teenagers. However, instructors of adult students appear to have an inherent advantage. Adults usually attend a course, training or seminar because they want to be one or because they get paid to be one. Furthermore, the topic is almost always in some way related to something that interests them or is of obvious importance.
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