Knowles' Prominent Long-Range Contribution to Andragogy

Introduction

It is refreshing when someone opposed to a particular point-of-view, nevertheless, expresses clear acknowledgement of the value of a beneficial illustration provided by the other side. Although Newman (2007) declared he was not a fan of andragogy, he said that in his estimation Knowles had contributed something to adult education and andragogy that was quite unique. As he thought it through, he came to the conclusion that Knowles provided a means to assess the needs of adult learners, and he could not detect that any other adult educators provided such. Isenberg (2007) provided a break-through framework for bringing together the interaction of theoretical and practical aspects of andragogical and internet learning. Hurt’s (2007) study found that effective software training can be divided into five components: pretraining; systematic training; minimalist training; situated training; and used the principles of andragogy throughout the entire process. Zollar and Harrison (2007) concluded that Knowles’ (1970) expanding upon his earlier work, propelled the movement of the differences between individual adult and child learners. Henschke and Cooper (2007) provided one of the first detailed papers on the worldwide foundation of andragogy in the English Language, published in the Romanian Institute for Adult Education Yearbook. Boucouvalas (2008) underscored, clarified and strengthened Knowles’ andragogical emphasis being on organizational as well as individual learning. Vodde’s (2008) research on police preparation found better results with using Knowles’ andragogy than with using pedagogy. Henschke (2009) discovered the same with Brazilians in 30 corporations. Tannehill (2009) provided one of the broadest and most encompassing studies of using andragogy for educating and servicing adult learners in 85 different post-secondary institutions. Henry’s (2009) dissertation on Knowles was number eight and was published later as a history (2011) of Knowles’ thought. Bright’s and Mahdi’s (2010) andragogical research in Iraq fostered and secured long term peace and stability. LeNoue et al. (2011) vigorously and energetically asserted their point of view regarding, “A world increasingly characterized by high digital connectivity and a need for life-long, demand-driven learning calls for the development of andragogies specialized to DML (digitally mediated learning) environments” (p. 6).