In this first week of PIDP 3250 - Instructional Strategies, I have struggled through the definition of Heutagogy. I personally believe that education is in a pendulum swing, going from being completely teacher based (pedagogy) to completely learner based (heutagogy). In the middle lies Andragogy, where the content is still derived from the teacher, however, most of the 'how' of the learning is driven by the learner. If this is in fact a pendulum swing, perhaps it will swing back to Andragogy? Perhaps not. I'm not completely sold that heutagogy is the best way to go. I don't understand how that can even work in the extreme. I think a lot of content could be missed, and then how would a person really be prepared to do a job in that profession? I could see some parts being heutagogy, but not the complete course.
Andragogy on the other hand really resonates with me. I completely agree with Knowles assumptions about adult learners. In fact, I think more and more people are starting to believe that these assumptions apply to children as well. My son just started Kindergarten, and this year the school is starting to implement a new method of teaching which blends children's interest with content that they are required to learn. For example, they may have the children build a couch in order to learn about angles. This is stepping towards child led teaching, using their interests to guide the method in which they learn about topics, as opposed to just lecturing and giving out pieces of paper with problems on it. I found this to be very interesting.
In addition, even in parenting, many professionals will encourage parents to allow their children to learn more from their experiences on their own, as opposed to just being told what the parent feels they need to know.
This is all very interesting.
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