Fundamental Principles to Adult Education Essay

Adult education’s principal and fundamental principle is to harness and enhance adult individual’s skill and knowledge to be productive contributors to the society. Adult learners are provided then with programs and adult education movement for granting more opportunities for their advancement, as their success is regarded as the society’s growth as well. Adult learners should be educated not only for increase of knowledge but also for gaining more integral values as they were expected to give more of themselves and contribute in productivity of the society they belong. Fundamental Principles to Adult Education Being a teacher of a particular credit-based community college course is a very serious and tedious task. Since there would be a variety of 35 students’ whose age range vary from 17- 70 years old, this would certainly mean a† big challenge† for the instructor’s part, in order to teach and provide learning effectively. Malcolm S. Knowles, a prominent writer and instructor, advocated the theory of non-formal (informal) andragogy or adult education in the United States. He taught various principles and wrote numerous detailed accounts discussing on how to facilitate learning especially for the adults. Applying clinical Rogerian psychology in his writings and teaching; in result, he was able to train his students to acquire the attitude of being self-motivated. Furthermore, Knowles initiated the interest for implementation of informal adult education and he differentiated the advantages of the informal education, to the standard, traditional formal education. According to Knowles, formal education are mostly implemented and commonly used in secondary educational schools, commerce schools, and universities; whereas in informal adult education, students are just likely to complete credits on particular vocational or training courses and their classes are to be held on â€Å"community center unions, and other industries and even churches. Moreover, formal education requires that of being stable for completion of long term four-year course or more; when the latter (informal education) serves to be more temporary and flexible. However, it does not mean that informal education is not serious, the system just purports to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the adults who may be busy with their lives (job, family, religious and other activities). And these cases meet the demands of several adults who would want to re-educate themselves and to refresh their knowledge and learning from their vast experience, or to simply increase and gain more knowledge and training from their desires course of interest. In brief, Malcolm Knowles acknowledged the increasing demand and importance of adult education in the present 20th century. Knowles objective of real learning in adults, he emphasizes that an adult learner should acquire self-concept, readiness to learn, experience, orientation towards learning, and especially, the motivation to learn (Smith, 2002). On the other hand, a professor in New Zealand named, T. A. Hunter, also propounded the proliferation and development of an adult education movement. Hunter’s principle of education is grounded on his belief that education is depicted to the successful adjustment of a man to physical and social changes in one’s environment. His blueprint for adult education is the successful integration of biological, physiological, sociocultural, and cognitive knowledge derived from the informal training or education (Hunter, 1929). Adult education should mainly function to harness and enhance adult individual’s skill and knowledge. Adult learners at the same time should still be given the opportunity for advancement since their success is the society’s growth as well. Adult learners should be educated not only for increase of knowledge but also for gaining more integral values as they were expected to give more of themselves and contribute in productivity of the society they belong. In addition, this adult education is more of an inspiration among individuals who are in search for more adequate and applicable learning, and is regarded as an opportunity to success with one’s endeavors and purpose of serving the society (UNESCO, 1960). Fundamental principles of adult education then, should be grounded on the â€Å"realistic† and objective goal of learning. Education as embedded in the infinite realm of knowledge should be available to everyone regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and culture. Adult education, as it plays a significant role and is the demand of most populace, should be taken seriously to address the learner’s need for proper, adequate, and effective learning. Moreover, there is a call for the government, to increase attention for the provision of the proper adult education. Increase of funding for the adult learners’ facilities, venues, and other learning tools is urgent to make this effective learning possible (UNESCO, 1960). References Hunter, T. A. (1929, July 1). Adult education. The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 4, 3. Retrieved from October 13, 2008, from http://www. nzetc. org/tm/scholarly/tei- Gov04_03Rail-t1-body-d7. html Smith, M. (2002) Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and Anadragogy. Tthe encyclopedia of informal Education. Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www. infed. org/thinkers/et-knowl. htm UNESCO. (1960). World conference on adult education. Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www. unesco. org/education/uie/confintea/montre_e. pdf