Andragogy vs, Pedagogy

How can you teach someone unless you know something about them?  Pedagogy is a child centered teaching approach, while andragogy is adult centered.  There are many differences between teaching children vs. teaching adults, and the better you understand these differences the better you can reach your target audience.  When teaching children the teacher is responsible for all instruction and evaluation of learning. When teaching adults the learner is responsible for his or her own learning and there is more of a self evaluation of learning.  Children learners are made to go to school whether they want to or not, and told what they have to learn and what they must do you move on. Adult learners must be ready to learn and must see and reason to learn something. Pedagogy typically involves subjects where the teacher is the source of most knowledge and experience.  Andragogy involves more real life activities where the learners bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to add to the teacher’s. Knowing your audience is the first step to teaching them. Children come to you ready to learn and it is up to you to give them the information and skills to move on to the next level. Adults will only come to learn when they are ready to and when they see a need to learn, and they have an active role in what and how they learn.  Adults are quick to question things they don’t agree with or that go against their prior experience, whereas children will usually take whatever the teacher says as the truth without question. As students move from childhood to adulthood they will start moving from the pedagogy to andragogy. In my experience it is during the teenage years that this transition takes place. This is when they start questioning why we learn something and developing prior knowledge and experience from which to pull from.  Knowing where they are maturity wise is one of the first steps you need to take to teach someone. You must first know who you are teaching before you can reach them.