"INSIDEPIDP"

Well on my first visit to the moodle to look at what my first PIDP looks like I saw a discussion was already going on, on these three words: Pedagogy, Andragogy and Heutagogy. I found it very interesting. It was all so new to me. The learning environment and the course. I was initially thinking the course would be a cake walk, it now seemed very challenging. 

 

And I started to read the discussion. Every discussion was led by a student, facilitated by the instructor. This one was being led by my classmate Martha. And she was doing a fabulous job.

 

Together we all were studying in a Heutagogical environment, we were reading, discussing, reflecting, contradicting and creating our own perspectives about it. It was an amzing experience, being together with your classmates and studying. It was like being in community even in the isolation of online learning.

 

And thus my first learning at PIDP was the about the 'GOGYs'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pedagogy as most of us are already familiar with in the strictest form is the way of learning that gives learners the least control on the environment. The learner is like a child. He doesn’t mind the control and regulation of the pedagogical environment. In fact he needs for many reasons a controlled environment to study in. 

 

The andragogical learner is different, he is mature and occupied. Just like regulating an adult about what he learns is very unlike to regulating a child, the andragogical learner prefers to take the responsibility of regulating himself. He most likely wants to be in the driver's seat in the learning process. This leads to a less controlled learning environment where the educator and the learner exchange knowledge. 

 

There is another dimension to it. A completely different level of learning is attained when the learner becomes the leader. He decides his direction, his motivation and his method. He engages into an exploration of the context and decides not to bind himself to the text. He thus embarks upon the journey of knowledge creation. This according to me is Heutagogy

 

Well when I ponder more there is another thing that comes to my mind. The three 'gogys' also depend to a large extent on the learner’s objective. When the learner is seeking to learn a concept, an area in which he is completely new he enters the pedagogical environment first. Later, as the leaner is more familiar with the concept and his objective of learning is to explore the body of knowledge relating to that subject he moves to the andragogical environment. The third stage is when the learner is very seasoned with the concept and wants to become an expert at it or probably challenge it, he enters a heutagogical environment. The learner now explores through the body of knowledge, is more reflective about his learnings, challenges what he has learnt, starts identifying gaps and addressing them. Therefore:

 

For the pedagogical learner the path is unknown, the learner is unaware, learner is immature, learner needs both direction and regulation.

 

For the andragogical learner the path is known, the learner is aware, he is mature, he wants to regulate himself and he can find his path with little direction, he starts looking for variant pathways to learning.

 

For the heutagogical learner all the pathways are known, they are all well-treaded upon, the learner is the challenger, he is self-regulated and directed, he wants to explore and investigate all pathways, he may land up or create a new one.