A WebQuest for
Post-Secondary
Learners
In All Curriculums
Designed by Philip
Marsh
The adult learner, also referred to as
andragogy by Doctor Malcolm Knowles, has different learning requirements when
compared with the child learner or pedagogy (Knowles, 1980).
The child learner is a dependent learner.
The child is told what they must learn and has little choice, if any, in
determining what will be learned. The adult learner is an independent learner.
The adult, sometimes with advice from others, selects their field of study.
Adults can change their field of study whenever the need arises. The child, by
law, must continue in the education determined for them by society.
Many students entering college immediately
after graduation from high school have a difficult time making the transition
from the pedagogical world of secondary education to the adult world of
post-secondary education. Many entering college freshmen believe that the only
difference between high school and college education is that they have to walk
further on the college campus to their classes and they have more leisure time
between classes. They miss the
point that colleges are one type of post-secondary education with the purpose
of teaching students marketable job skills. The purpose of this WebQuest is to
acquaint beginning college freshmen with the world of the Adult learner and to
help them make the transition from the child learner to the adult learner.