From Pedagogy to Heutagogy Across the Lifespan
摘要
Lifelong learning is a dynamic and ongoing process that emphasizes the importance of education throughout an individual’s life, adapting to various developmental stages and societal changes. Within the sphere of lifelong learning, the concepts of pedagogy, andragogy, and gerontology play critical roles by addressing the unique educational needs of children, adults, and older adults, respectively. Building directly upon andragogy, heutagogy stretches its principles to form a new continuum. The transition from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy signifies a trajectory of increasing learner autonomy and maturity. Where andragogy is characterized by self-directed learning, heutagogy advances to self-determined learning. Understanding these educational frameworks is essential for creating effective learning environments that cater to diverse populations throughout their life spans. In the following introductory section, these concepts are succinctly presented, and in the upcoming sections, each is discussed in more depth, with a specific focus on andragogy, as it is typically more pertinent to lifelong learning. The following figure (Fig. 2.1) roughly portrays this classification.