How to initiate learning according to the Anthropogogical significant learning model

The Anthropogogy model assumes that the distinction between children and adults is no longer relevant in the digital age and that each student should be treated as a 'whole' person irrespective of their age. Nir Golan offers a new definition of Anthropogogy as: "Leading a person (regardless of age) throughout significant learning towards behavioral change that can be implemented immediately" (Golan, 2014). In today's reality, culture is changing rapidly, so education has to be a lifelong process: where the teacher helps the learner discover the unknown without repeating information about the known.

The significant learning model provides tools for the teacher to assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in six steps, throughout which the teacher uses dialogue in order to guide the learner. The six steps are:

1.      Action- needs identification and learner performance

2.      Behavior- conceptualization of the action

3.      Norm- transformation of the behavior to a norm

4.      Value- defining the value in the behavior

5.      Identity redefined- redefinition of my unique identity

6.      Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach the other

Action- carrying out an action for the first time in response to an internal or external need.

The teacher identifies and reflects the need of the learner: leading him/her to do what they did not do previously. The learner performs the action for the first time together with coaching from a professional person. The learner then experiences the consequences of his/her action and evaluates his/her response.

• The result of Step 1: Recognizing by the learner his/her need and the actual carrying out of the action for the first time (alongside reflection).

Richard Lavoie in his book: "The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning On the Tuned-Out Child (October 7, 2008), believes our motivation doesn’t change with age. We all have different motivational profiles that are fairly consistent. Lavoie feels that when an educator understands the motivational profile of a particular student, that teacher will have a much greater likelihood of being able to motivate that student. They will be speaking the same motivational language. The motivational profile of an individual, per Lavoie, is based on “Secondary Needs.” Our personalities are determined by the degree to which we are motivated by these:

Status: need to know how our self-conception is influenced by the opinions of other people

• Concerned by imperfection, failure

• Very sensitive to criticism and being reprimanded

• Often wants approval and encouragement

Curiosity: need to know and to learn

• Shows enthusiasm in several areas of interest

• An avid reader, independent

• Broad general knowledge

Social able: need to associate with other people

• Very verbal

• Enjoys group work

• Driven by friends

Control others: need for control, power, influence and authority

• Enjoys being in control

• Involved in frequent power struggles / arguments

• Has leadership qualities

Opinion able: need to be contentious

• Has strong opinions

• Interested in and enjoys taking responsibility

• Tends to be argumentative

Independence: need to be independent

• Quickly grasps new material

• Efficient and highly productive

• Enjoys working independently

Achievements: need for recognition and acknowledgement

• Goal-oriented

• Highly competitive

• Arrogant, pushy

Conformism: need to belong to a group

• Seeks out and shows strong group identity

• Sensitive to needs of others

• Admires role models

Education has to be a lifelong process: where the teacher helps the learner discover the unknown without repeating information about the known. Motivation doesn’t change with age. We all have different motivational profiles that are fairly consistent

A teacher looking to motivate a student would do well to understand the currency the student values.

Is the student motivated by?

The need for recognition

The need to connect with another

The need to deeply understand

The need to guide/control the session

If we work with the motivational profiles of our students, we will be more effective with them.

Nietzsche and Anthropogogy

Nietzsche’s lifetime concern was education and culture.

He observed that the system had abandoned the humanist outlook in exchange for the scientific. Instead of significant learning, education was consequently vulgarized, its objective having become to form useful and profitable men, not harmoniously matured and developed personalities. Anthropogogy (human learning) is about creating unique identity for the learner.

Alert to everything regarding education, Nietzsche decided to denounce the “unnatural methods of education” and the tendencies that undermined it.

In Nietzsche’s thoughts, education and culture are inseparable. There can be no culture without an educational project, nor education without a culture to support it. 

Culture and education are synonyms of “selective training”, “the formation of the self”; for the existence of a culture, it is necessary that individuals learn determined rules (norms), that they acquire habits and that they begin to educate themselves against themselves, or better, against the education forced upon them. That is the main reason for the creation of the significant learning model.

Anthropogogy, as a significant learning model, was developed by Nir Golan, educational and leadership expert. The Anthropogogy model assumes that the distinction between children and adults is no longer relevant in the digital age and that each student should be treated as a 'whole' person irrespective of their age. This significant learning model provides tools for the teacher to assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in six steps, throughout which the teacher uses dialogue in order to guide the individuals to learn determined rules (norms), that they acquire habits and that they begin to educate themselves against themselves.

Details of the six stages of the Anthropogogy significant learning model:

1.    Action- carrying out an action for the first time in response to an internal or external need. The teacher identifies and reflects the need of the learner: leading him/her to do what they did not do previously.

2.    Behavior- conceptualization of the action: The learner repeats the action using clear quality and quantity measurements. The learner then describes the action, helping him/her to improve the repeated action and transfer it into standard behavior.

3.    Norm- in this step, the behavior is transformed into norm as an expected behavior. It is necessary that individuals learn determined rules (norms), that they acquire habits.   

4.    Value- defining the value in the behavior: The meaning of the behavior is defined to the learner as well as the benefits that may be gained from the norm to the learner and to his/her surroundings. The value then becomes the guiding principle to making future decisions connected to the behavior; helping decide when and how to use this behavior. These principles should guide him while he makes his decisions.

5.    Redefinition of my unique identity- self-identity redefined. The values are acknowledged by the learner and assist in redefining his/her unique identity. The learner knows how to describe their newly unique identity and explain what their unique contribution is to those around them. To make him build determined principles from which he can build on, both internally and externally. The learner formation of the self - that should be the finality of every culture.

6.    Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach the other. The learner uses his/her personal experience as a role model and teaches the other using his/her own unique identity. He/ She applies the Anthropogogy model to lead a new learner to significant learning.

In his lectures on The Future of our Educational Institutions, Nietzsche examines the entrails of the educational system of his time. He perceives that the State and businesspersons are primarily responsible for the impoverishment of culture. They block the slow maturation of the individual, the patient formation of the self - that should be the finality of every culture - demanding a rapid formation so as to have efficient employees and docile students at their service, youngsters that will learn how to earn money rapidly. But this is not all. When they demand a more profound education, allowing for in-depth specialization, they do so in order to make even more money. But this is not all. This indecorous haste leads students, at an age when they are not mature enough to ask themselves which profession they should pursue, to make bad choices. Instead of an individual learner who can teach the other. 

Education begins with habit and obedience, with discipline. To discipline the youngster linguistically does not mean to overburden him with historical knowledge about the language, but to make him build determined principles from which he can build on, both internally and externally. 

In today's reality, culture is changing rapidly, so education has to be a lifelong process: where the teacher helps the learner discover the unknown without repeating information about the known. It means to turn the student into the master of his identity and to give him the possibility to construct an artistic language, starting from the works that preceded him. This, according to Nietzsche, is the only way to revive education and culture.

Reference: Nietzsche and Education/ Rosa Maria Dias/ Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Heutagogy (Self-Determined Learning) and Anthropogogy (Human Learning)

Introduction

Heutagogy (based on the Greek for “self”) was defined by Hase and Kenyon in 2000 as the study of self-determined learning. 

Anthropogogy: The study of human learning

(Greek) – Anthrop (άνθρωπ) means human and Agy (άγω) means to conduct / lead.

Heutagogy applies a holistic approach to developing learner capabilities, with learning as an active and proactive process, and learners serving as “the major agent in their own learning, which occurs as a result of personal experiences” (Hase & Kenyon, 2007, p. 112). Nir Golan, an educational and leadership expert, suggests combining the terms Pedagogy (child learning) and Androgogy (male / adult), into one term, Anthropogogy: to mean human learning. Teaching should be carried out alongside the comprehensive development of the human being regardless of his/her biological age. As in an andragogical approach, in heutagogy the instructor also facilitates the learning process by providing guidance and resources, but fully relinquishes ownership of the learning path and process to the learner, who negotiates learning and determines what will be learned and how it will be learned (Hase & Kenyon, 2000; Eberle, 2009).

According to Golan, Anthropogogy has four basic principles:

1. The independent learner: the perception of oneself as an independent entity. A person sees him/herself as someone who is self-directed; choosing what to learn, how much and how to learn it. The role of the teacher is not to give ready answers to predetermined questions, but to help the learner find out for him/herself what the important questions are and how to answer them. Through these questions, the dependence – independence conflict will decrease and there will be fewer objections to learning.

A heutagogical approach to learning and teaching is characterized first and foremost by learner-centeredness in terms of both learner-generated contexts and content. Learner-directed questions: Learner-directed questions and the discussion that results from these questions are what guide learners and serve as mechanisms for helping learners make sense of course content, bring clarity to ideas, and promote individual and group reflection (Kenyon & Hase, 2001; Eberle, 2009). Guiding learners to define self-directed questions is one of the biggest challenges facing developers of heutagogical courses, as designers must be “creative enough to have learners ask questions about the universe they inhabit” (Kenyon & Hase, 2001, para. 29).

2. Adapting learning to that person's needs: the person is ready to learn when he/she needs that specific learning process, and it is incorporated into daily tasks and social functioning. He/she sees that the learning process serves his/her personal development.

Since every person has their own characteristics and needs, therefore, the most effective way of learning is to adapt learning to the needs and characteristics of that individual person with reference to their emotional and mental components, and not only to cognitive and behavioral aspects.

A key concept in heutagogy is that of double-loop learning and self-reflection (Argyris & Schön, 1996, as cited in Hase & Kenyon, 2000). In double-loop learning, learners consider the problem and the resulting action and outcomes, in addition to reflecting upon the problem-solving process and how it influences the learner’s own beliefs and actions. Double-loop learning occurs when learners “question and test one’s personal values and assumptions as being central to enhancing learning how to learn” (Argyris & Schön, 1978, as cited in Hase, 2009, pp. 45-46).

3. Renovating learning: In the digital age where there is widespread availability of network information, learning should give news and added value to the learner.

People approach learning in possession of their life experiences. For learning to be more significant, the learner needs to connect the current learning knowledge with his/her prior knowledge. As such, educators have to find out the prior knowledge of the person and his/her previous experiences in order to connect it to the learning experience and not teach him/her things they already know. Thus the person who teaches should renovate learning.

Heutagogy’s holistic approach takes into account the learner’s prior learning experiences and the way in which these influence how she or he learns; by considering these past experiences and the learner’s current experience and reflecting upon these, the learner moves into a growth process that has the potential to lead to transformative learning – a process described by Canning and Callan (2010) as “spirals of reflection” (p. 71). The following course design elements can be incorporated to support reflective practice.

4. Immediate and practical learning: The main motive for human learning is for problem solving. The learner has a need for the immediate application of the learned material, so learning has to be more focused in giving solutions to the particular problem. Learning which cannot be implemented immediately is perceived as a waste of time.

Summery

The differences between the two approaches: 

Heutagogy: learning as an active and proactive process, and learners serving as “the major agent in their own learning, which occurs as a result of personal experiences". Hase & Kenyon (2007)

Anthropogogy: Leading a person (regardless of age) throughout significant learning towards behavioral change that can be implemented immediately. Golan (2014)

In heutagogy, learner-defined learning contracts: Learning contracts support students in defining and determining their individual learning paths. These individualized contracts. Flexible curriculum: In a self-determined learning environment, the learner is the driver in creating flexible curriculum, which is defined by the student.  Learners negotiate “how, when, where and to what upper (rather than minimal) level they want to take their learning” (Hase, 2009, p. 47).

The significant learning model provides tools for the teacher to assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in six steps, throughout which the teacher uses dialogue in order to guide the learner.

The six steps are: 

1. Action- doing

2. Behavior- conceptualization of the action

3. Norm- transformation of the behavior to a norm

4. Value- defining the value in the behavior

5. Redefinition- redefinition of my unique identity

6. Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach the other

Heutagogy is an andragogical approach, in heutagogy the instructor also facilitates the learning process by providing guidance and resources, but fully relinquishes ownership of the learning path and process to the learner, who negotiates learning and determines what will be learned and how it will be learned (Hase & Kenyon, 2000; Eberle, 2009).

Anthropogogy combines the terms Pedagogy (child learning) and Androgogy (male / adult), into one term, Anthropogogy: to mean human learning. Teaching should be carried out alongside the comprehensive development of the human being regardless of his/her biological age.

Both Heutagogy (Self-Determined Learning) and Anthropogogy (Human Learning) support learners in becoming lifelong learners, as “when a practitioner becomes a researcher into his own practice, he engages in a continuing process of self-education” Schön (1983) (p. 299). 

Reference: Sustaining lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self determined learning/ Lisa Marie Blaschke – Oldenburg University, Germany

Anthropogogy: a new learning approach

Learning approach is based on a distinction between a pedagogical, an androgogical and anthropogogical form of teaching.

The three approaches of teaching can be distinguished by their different perceptions of the relations between subject matter, teacher and student.

The pedagogical approach is based on L. Wittgenstein's idea that the teacher is the expert within a language game and that teaching is to be seen as the teacher's communication of expert knowledge to the student. Learning is the student's acquisition of this knowledge. Prior to the classroom teaching, the teacher defines clear learning objectives and chooses the subject matter that is to be worked with in the classroom. The subject matter is selected so that it distributes the quantity of information that the teacher believes is relevant to the student in relation to the given topic. The teacher and the subject are in the center and not the student. 

After teaching, the teacher will be able to compare the student's learning outcomes with the learning objectives that the teacher defined before the teaching begun. The student's learning outcome can be tested through closed tasks and tests.

The androgogical approach of teaching is based on J. Dewey's idea that student has an inherent basis of knowledge that can be developed through interaction with the outside world and solving problems. Learning is seen as the student's development of this inherent basis of knowledge. The teacher chooses a subject matter, which could make it possible for the student to experience what is relevant and to define and solve authentic problems. In the learning situation, the student chooses to work with the parts of the subject matter that he or she finds relevant and then uses this part of the subject matter as a basis for solving problem. The student's learning outcome can be tested through case assignments and simulations, where the student can show that he or she can use gained experience within different context.

Nir Golan, an educational and leadership expert, suggests combining the terms Pedagogy (child learning) and Androgogy (male / adult learning), into one term, Anthropogogy: to mean human learning. The Anthropogogy model assumes that the distinction between children and adults is no longer relevant in the digital age and that each student should be treated as a 'whole' person irrespective of their age.

According to Golan, Anthropogogy has four basic principles:

1.    The independent learner: the perception of oneself as an independent entity. A person sees him/herself as someone who is self-directed; choosing what to learn, how much and how to learn it. Digital learners (DL) prefer to access information quickly from multiple-media source: prefer processing pictures, sounds, colors and video before text.

2.    Adapting learning to that person's needs: the person is ready to learn when he/she needs that specific learning process, and it is incorporated into daily tasks and social functioning. He/she sees that the learning process serves his/her personal development. DLs prefer parallel processing and multitasking and to learn "just in time".

3.    Renovating learning: In the digital age where there is widespread availability of network information, learning should give news and added value to the learner. DLs prefer to network simultaneously with others and random access to hyper-linked multimedia information

4.    Immediate and practical learning: The main motive for human learning is for problem solving. The learner has a need for the immediate application of the learned material, so learning has to be more focused in giving solutions to the particular problem. Learning which cannot be implemented immediately is perceived as a waste of time. DLs prefer instant gratification and immediate rewards.

The significant learning model provides tools for the teacher to assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in six steps, throughout which the teacher uses dialogue in order to guide the learner.

The six steps are:

1.      Action- needs identification and learner performance

2.      Behavior- conceptualization of the action

3.      Norm- transformation of the behavior to a norm

4.      Value- defining the value in the behavior

5.      Identity redefined- redefinition of my unique identity

6.      Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach the other

The anthropogogical approach of teaching is based on K. E. Løgstrup's idea that knowledge is created thought an equal exchange of many different individual's perception of the world. The Danish theologian-philosopher K. E. Løgstrup is second in reputation in his homeland only to Søren Kierkegaard. K. E. Løgstrup presents his theory of using phenomenology in understanding our ethical decisions. According to Løgstrup, phenomenology not only provides an understanding of human existence but also of ethics, through examination of the phenomena of ethical concepts. Learning is the student's participation in this exchange. The teacher and student jointly select the subject matter that is to be worked with in the classroom, according to the student's needs. They are equal in this process, just as they are in their efforts to the stages of the anthropological significant learning model, and produce common knowledge within the field. The learning outcome can be measured within the model itself: there are significant student's behaviors related to each stage.

Details of the six stages of the Anthropogogy significant learning model:

1.      Action- carrying out an action for the first time in response to an internal or external need. The teacher identifies and reflects the need of the learner: leading him/her to do what they did not do previously. The learner performs the action for the first time together with coaching from a professional person. The learner then experiences the consequences of his/her action and evaluates his/her response.

• The result of Step 1: Recognizing by the learner his/her need and the actual carrying out of the action for the first time (alongside reflection).

2.      Behavior- conceptualization of the action:

The learner repeats the action using clear quality and quantity measurements. The learner then describes the action, helping him/her to improve the repeated action and transfer it into standard behavior.

•The result of Step 2: Conceptualizing behavior and standardizing it according to the expectations.

3.      Norm- transformation of the behavior into the norm:

Norm is defined as "a standard of achievement or behavior that is required, desired or designated as normal". These standards of behavior are "shared by members of a social group to which each member is expected to conform."  In this step, the behavior is transformed into norm as an expected behavior.

• The result of Step 3: Understanding by the learner of the benefits of turning the behavior into the norm in order to reinforce the behavior in a social context.

4.      Value- defining the value in the behavior:

The meaning of the behavior is defined to the learner as well as the benefits that may be gained from the norm to the learner and to his/her surroundings. The value then becomes the guiding principle to making future decisions connected to the behavior; helping decide when and how to use this behavior. In this manner, the behavior becomes more significant.

• The result of Step 4: Defining the value of the behavior by making it significant.

5.      Redefinition of my unique identity- self-identity redefined

The values are acknowledged by the learner and assist in redefining his/her unique identity. The learner knows how to describe their newly unique identity and explain what their unique contribution is to those around them. Although the learning process affected one behavior, it helped to redefine his/her whole identity to him/herself.

• The result of Step 5: Reformulating a unique identity by the learner.

6.      Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach the other.

The learner becomes the teacher ("Melamed"). The learner uses his/her personal experience as a role model and teaches the other using his/her own unique identity. He/ She applies the Anthropogogy model to lead a new learner to significant learning.

• The result of Step 6: Continuity of the learning process according to the Anthropogogy model to achieve significant learning for the learner and for the teacher.

When anthropogogical learners discover something they like, they are excited to share it with their friends using digital devices and social media tools. This is how they want their educational experience to be. Anthropogogical learners want to learn collaboratively and to apply what they have learned through creative path-way. They prefer learning on their own time and on their own terms and want to be involved in real-life issues that matter to them.