Evolution of Pedagogy & Andragogy

Evolution of Pedagogy & Andragogy

Allison Black & Nicolas Zebrowski INTC 5410-001: Adult Learning Dr. Amy Ackerman

ChatGPT assisted in organizing our research and providing resources for our project.

Read our transcript

4th Century BCE

5th Century BCE

1926

1833

1830s

Pedagogy

Pedagogy

Andragogy

Andragogy

Early Learning

At Aristotle’s Lyceum, learning was organized, teacher-directed, and aimed at shaping both the mind and the moral self.

Alexander Kapp introduces “andragogy” in Platon’s Erziehungslehre, describing methods for adult education

Johann Friedrich Herbart establishes pedagogy as a formal discipline, emphasizing moral and intellectual development.

Eduard C. Lindeman argues adult learning should be experience-based, relevant, and self-directed — a major precursor to Malcolm Knowles.

Socrates develops the socratic method, which encourages learning via reflection and reason.

"Question everything"

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness"

Learn more about Socrates

Learn More about Kapp

Learn More about Lindeman

Learn More about Herbart

Learn More about Aristotle

Evolution of Pedagogy & Andragogy

1950s

1990s

1981

1950

1938

1968

Pedagogy & Andragogy

Pedagogy

Andragogy

Andragogy

Andragogy

Septima Poinsette Clark, “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," created Citizenship Schools that taught literacy, leadership, and empowerment to adults in the Jim Crow South.

K. Patricia Cross publishes Adults as Learners, shaping continuing education and distance learning

Jean Piaget studies how children construct knowledge through developmental stages — a foundation of modern pedagogy.

John Dewey promotes experiential, democratic learning — a bridge between pedagogy and andragogy

Peter Jarvis views adult learning as continuous, shaped by social context and experience.

while, separately, Jack Mezirow introduces Transformative Learning Theory.

Learn more about Clark

Learn more about Jarvis

Learn more about Piaget

Learn more about Dewey

Listen

Evolution of Pedagogy & Andragogy

Today

Valerie Storey and Amiee Wagner publish Andragogy in the Age of AI, arguing that adult education has entered a new “transformational stage.” Generative AI and immersive technologies now personalize and democratize learning, but raise ethical and humanistic concerns. Educators are challenged to preserve self-directed, reflective, and equitable learning amid algorithmic influence.

Learn More

Hear from Septima Poinsette Clark!

Script generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, AI Voice provided by elevenlabs, and animation is courtesy of Blabberize.

Andragogy

Malcolm Knowles

Knowles introduces andragogy to U.S. audiences, emphasizing self-concept, experience, and readiness to learn. Andragogy becomes the all-encompassing term for adult learning in the United States.

Learn more about Knowles