Adult and Continuing Education Commons^™

Toward An Invitational Andragogy: Articulating A Teaching Philosophy For The Andragogic Classroom, Whitney Tipton, Stephanie Wideman

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Students older than 25 years are a growing population on our campuses. However, separating these students and labeling them as “nontraditional” further isolates them from campuses that are already geared toward younger learners. This reflective essay explains the need for a philosophy of invitational andragogy—a classroom approach rooted in invitational rhetoric (S. Foss & Griffin, 1995) and Knowles’s assumptions about older learners (1980, 1984). While inviting transformation is important in all classrooms, it is especially important for older learners who often feel separated from the campus at large. To explain how an invitational approach to the andragogic classroom can be …

Andragogy For All? A Look At Arkansas Community College Students' Preferences For Andragogical Assumptions, Emilee Sides

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community colleges are tasked with juggling multiple missions. They provide open access to education for adults in their community, work with industry partners to educate the local workforce, and provide relevant programming to the communities they serve. When compared with students at four-year institutions, community college students are older, more ethnically and racially diverse, come from lower socioeconomic statuses, and less academically prepared.

Like other community colleges across the country, one of the primary goals of Arkansas community colleges is to help their students succeed. Unfortunately, the state has historically performed poorly in regard to educational outcomes. To get the …