What is Andragogical

In an effort to promote the andragogical teaching model in helping adult learners learn online, the author of this chapter has sought to compare and contrast this model with conventional online teaching model. In doing so, the author argues while conventional online teaching is guided by behaviorism, in order to help adults learn in the online environment, instructors must go beyond the conventional online teaching model characterized by the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and embrace humanism from which andragogy flows. The two models addressed in this chapter were not developed in a vacuum. Rather, they were derived from pedagogical and andragogical assumptions of learners. According to the literature in adult education, pedagogical principles were developed as early as in the 7th and 12th centuries whereas andragogical principles emerged in the early part of the 19th century in Europe. Both pedagogical principles and andragogical principles have been used to guide online adult teaching and learning since universities began to deliver courses in the virtual environments at the beginning of the 21st century.