What is andragogy, and how might the approach help in teaching FYC?

Andragogy is a term coined in 1833 by a German teacher named Alexander Kapp. Kapp used it to describe elements of Plato’s education theory. The word andragogy is rooted in the Greek words andr- (man) and agogos (leading). Kapp’s definition was disputed and fell out of use until a report was written by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy in 1921 that argued, “adult education required special teachers, methods, and philosophy”; as a result he used the term andragogy to refer to these special requirements. Decades later, Malcolm Knowles redefined andragogy with five assumptions that adult learners differ from child learners: self-concept, experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning, and motivation to learn. Knowles’ explanation of these assumptions is:

•          Self-concept: Maturation leads to a focus on being a self-directed human being instead of a dependent personality
•          Experience: Maturation also brings experience that becomes a resource for learning.
•          Readiness to learn: Learning becomes focused on the developmental tasks of a person’s social roles.
•          Orientation to learning: With maturity, a person starts to apply the knowledge they’ve gained and their learning style shifts from one of subject-centeredness to problem centeredness.
•          Motivation to learn: Maturity brings the internal motivation to learn.

I agree wholeheartedly with the distinction between child learners and adult learners. In America, as children, we aren’t given a choice about going to school; instead, structured learning is a forced activity that begins around age 4. Most of us don’t question why schooling is required, we just participate. Frankly, I enjoyed the routine of it all: waking up at the same time each day, eating breakfast, walking to the bus stop with my friends, riding the bus, etc. Until it was almost time for me to graduate from high school, I perceived school as something you “just do.” Maybe I felt this way because school was easy for me. I enjoyed learning, and like most children, soaked up information like a sponge.

College introduced me to the ability to choose what I wanted to learn, where I wanted to learn, and in many cases, how I wanted to learn. Like many of my classmates, the main reason I chose to go to college was to learn skills that would allow me to work in a career that was mentally stimulating and offered financial stability. It was during my time as an undergraduate that the assumptions Knowles outlines about adult learners applied to me. Most of my professors pushed us to consider how our lessons related to real-world scenarios. They encouraged us to apply the knowledge we gained not just to situations in academia, but also to current events. We learned so that we may help solve the world’s problems and teach others how to do so.

Andragogy is the best approach to take with First-Year Composition as it forces students out of their comfort zone and pushes them to think about their role as an adult and possibly, a future leader. For many students, applying the knowledge they’ve learned is difficult; after all, K-12 doesn’t teach you how to think outside of the box. I think of early adulthood as being at a crossroads in life: either you decide that you’re done learning, and have no use for additional knowledge; or, you keep an open mind and recognize that knowledge doesn’t have a “fill level.” I believe having the motivation to learn is the most important assumption Knowles makes. If the subject matter that FYC students at Texas Tech study isn’t related to current events, or issues their age group are facing, I think it will be nearly impossible to keep their interest.

*Background information on andragogy from: http://infed.org/mobi/andragogy-what-is-it-and-does-it-help-thinking-about-adult-learning/

Detail your philosophy of composition.

I’m not ashamed to say that my philosophy of composition is already evolving from what I thought it was a few days ago. Last week, I believed the expressive philosophy was the best way to go about teaching composition. What appealed to me most was the emphasis being placed on the writer, rather than the traditional idea of audience emphasis. As of now, my philosophy of composition is a mimetic-rhetorical hybrid. In Richard Fulkerson’s Four Philosophies of Composition, he notes that a mimetic philosophy is the connection between good writing and good thinking. As we discuss in almost each class session, writing starts before a pen is ever touched to paper. Without the ability to think critically and analyze, your writing will be flat, one-dimensional and not a true reflection of the world you live in. Something else to consider with the mimetic philosophy is its emphasis on teaching sound reasoning as a best practice. In addition, the ability to write well stems from knowledge already known and research performed in pursuit of additional knowledge. So, the practical side of me can appreciate the mimetic philosophy as I believe everyone, at all levels of education, has the ability to work within this philosophy. The rhetorical composition philosophy is also valuable to me because it emphasizes that writing is “good” when it has been adapted to have the desired effect on an audience. This allows us to include blogs, social media communications (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), emails, and other forms of informal writing in what can be considered “good” writing. Too often students are told that academic published works are the examples of good writing that they should strive to emulate, but for many students, they cannot relate to the texts they are assigned in the classroom. It is more helpful to students to take foundational texts and apply the knowledge they gain from them to situations they experience daily.

Here are the two values that are most important to me:

1. Teaching students to learn for life, not just the classroom: When teaching students, don’t assume that your influence over them ends after the last assignment is turned in and grades are submitted. What would you like for students to take from a course? How can they apply some of the knowledge they’ve learned to real-life situations? I think this is especially important when working with K-12 students since many of them will not continue their formal learning at a college or university. I also like to think of this as a student-oriented approach.

2. Providing students with a safe space and the appropriate atmosphere for learning: I want students to approach learning in my class not just as a requirement, but also as a way to safely express their ideas. After reading the BA1 essays from Texas Tech’s First-Year Composition program, I was disheartened to see how many students had been told they were bad writers. Many students even shared that their previous instructors did not attempt to help them become better writers; instead, instructors were more concerned about making sure they hit all of the points that their state-approved lesson plans required of them. Some students even wrote that they believed they were terrible writers and had no hope of improving; in fact, the ultimate goal was to “just pass this class.” Fortunately, I didn’t have any experiences like this in my high school years. All of the teachers I had were caring professionals who were willing to go the extra mile and make sure that each student was given the tools they needed to succeed.

I plan to enter back into the industry after completing my Master’s degree but gave this blog post a good deal of attention. I see myself teaching after gaining a few more years of experience in the workforce so will hold on to these ideas I’ve come up with. I will also take note of the ideas my 

Based on your teaching philosophy (which may change over time), what are types of assignments which you would include in a FYC syllabus?

Out of all the teaching philosophies that we've learned about, the new rhetoric/epistemic rhetoric philosophy appeals to me most. I agree with the idea that knowledge is not simply in existence waiting for me to retrieve it. Truth is dynamic and is created with the interactions of players in the communications process: the writer, speaker, audience, reality, and language. Further, the data from truth must be structured and organized in order to be interpreted. I believe this philosophy allows students to understand that their thoughts and conclusions are valid and open to their own interpretation. Collaboration from student to student and instructor to student should be encouraged.

The most important assignment I would include in my syllabus is a bi-weekly free writing exercise. Free writing would be conducted every other week for the first 30 minutes of class and during this period, students would be allowed to write about any topic they wish. The goal of this assignment would be for the students to stretch their mental "legs" and write without regard to grade or fear of judgment from their peers. I believe that free writing instills confidence in students and gives them a starting point for future writing assignments. Although I wouldn't make this a mandatory step, I would encourage the students to share their writing with each other through a class collaboration website.

Another assignment I would add to my syllabus is an observation exercise. For this assignment, students would be required to reach out to another professor or high school teacher of English or composition and request to observe them teaching a class. I believe this would provide students with different perspectives of how classes are taught and allow them to see how other students learn with different teaching methods. Part of the assignment would be to have the observation class complete an anonymous survey asking them about their experience in class and to provide suggestions for improvement.

I would also include a major research paper in the syllabus. This assignment will teach students about academic research, test their critical thinking processes, and push them to organize their thoughts in a well-thought, coherent manner. Research papers can be a great way to see how much a student has learned over the course of a class and will teach them how to budget their time and plan for this submission over the course of a semester. I would plan for mini assignments during the semester that break down the research paper into manageable pieces. For example, I would include an assignment that asks students to provide the sources they plan to use as a Works Cited page. To encourage students to improve in their writing, I would allow one revision to the research paper after the initial grade is given. Feedback from the instructor would be geared towards helping the student correct any mistakes they made.

What is the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing, and how do you go about teaching that?

Unlike many of my classmates, I have no experience teaching students. So, I have no direct experience in how difficult it can be to teach others how to write. I do however, remember the difficulties I and other classmates had in our earlier years learning how to write well. The troubles we had makes me feel very sympathetic towards the students' papers that I am grading as a Document Instructor for the First-Year Composition program.

As a high school student, in many of my classes, I had teachers who were interested in developing our ability to think critically. With these lessons, we were allowed the choice of either writing essays in response to a prompt or of presenting orally (and with visual aids) a response. I believe my teachers wanted to provide this option as a way for students to choose the way they felt most comfortable expressing themselves. At the time, I didn't realize what was most important to my teachers was that we learned how to explain our analysis of a text to an audience. I usually chose to write my analysis in essay form as presenting in front of class caused me a lot of anxiety back then. Fast forward to my undergraduate years and I found myself knee deep in papers but rarely presenting my analyses orally. I found myself wishing for a chance to present my thoughts orally.

What I'm getting at is the difficulty of going back and forth between written and oral communication when trying to write a coherent and well written response. Many times students are told to give a response as a writing assignment but not shown how to pull the thoughts from their heads and organize them well on paper. This is very evident in the students' responses I read from the 1301 classes. Many of them have great and well-thought out responses to the writing prompts but have no idea how to organize them on paper. Much of their text is written as a direct stream of consciousness expression.

When I think about bridging this gap and teaching students how to properly express their thoughts on paper, I draw a blank. I ask myself how I'm capable of doing it and can't give a ready response. Is the problem the revamped curriculum present in modern schools' standards of learning goals? Is it more important to test students based on a multiple choice test that is intended to determine what an acceptable standard of learning should be?

I'm hoping that at the conclusion of this course I'll have a better idea of how to answer this question. Or, at the very least, a way to help high school and college students see what their writing is missing.