ORGL 3113 Foundations of Organizational Leadership and Personal Development (BA): Home

The primary mission of the Library is to support the educational, research, and outreach objectives of the University by:

• organizing and providing access to information resources, both on-site and through remote access, and
• promoting the necessary condition for their effective use, organization, and maintenance.

Its secondary mission is to provide the same services to residents of the Eastern Oklahoma region.

Library contact info:

John Vaughan Library (Tahlequah)
918-444-3235

NSU Broken Arrow Library
918-449-6459

CLASS DESCRIPTION: This course is an introduction to the Organizational Leadership Bachelor of Science Program. Essential components will include:

• overview of program expectations
• principles of adult learning
• resources for success, including library, campus and online resources and mentoring relationships
• personal wellness/stress and time management techniques
• study and test-taking skills;
• and basic computer skills for working in an online environment.

If you are more of a visual learner and would like to see the below information presented as an infographic, check out the "Andragogy (Adult Learning Theory) Infographic" link above.

Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (1913-1997) was an American educator well known for  the use of the term Andragogy as synonymous to the adult education.  According to Malcolm Knowles, andragogy is the art and science of adult learning, thus andragogy refers to any form of adult learning. (Kearsley, 2010).  A more complete biography can be found at the link below.

The term andragogy can be supposedly equivalent to the term pedagogy.  Andragogy in Greek means man-leading in comparison to pedagogy, which in Greek means child-leading.  However, it should be noticed that the term pedagogy is  used since the Ancient Greek time while Alezander Kapp, a German educator, originally used the term andragogy in 1833.

Knowles' Five Assumptions of Adult Learners

In 1980, Knowles made four assumptions about  the characteristics of adult learners (andragogy) that are different from the assumptions about the characteristics of child learners (pedagogy).  In 1984, Knowles added the fifth assumption.

Characteristics of Adult Learners (Andragogy)

1. Self-Concept: as a person matures his/her self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being.
2. Adult Learner Experience: as a person matures he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness to Learn: as a person matures his/her readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his/her social roles.
4. Orientation to Learning: as a person matures his/her time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his/her orienteation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centeredness.
5. Motivation to Learn: as a person matures the motivation to leasrn is internal (Knowles 1984:12).

Knowles' Four Principles of Andragogy

In 1984, Knowles suggested four principles that are applied to adult learning:

1. Involved Adult Learners: adults need to be involved in the planning an evaluation of their instruction.
2. Adult Learners' Experience: experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
3. Relevance & Impact to Learners' Lives: adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life.
4. Problem-Centered: adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-centered.