马尔科姆·诺尔斯:成人教育学的传道者

Malcolm Knowles: Apostle of Adult Pedagogy

诺尔斯的成人教育思想有两个重要来源:一是基于他长期的成人教育实践经验的总结,二是吸收和改造了实用主义和人本主义心理学的一些重要概念。诺尔斯对成人教育的主要贡献和重要影响是其提出的有别于“儿童教育学”的“成人教育学”模式。后者的核心内涵是学习者的自我概念、经验、准备、倾向、动机和需要及相应的学习环境、规划、活动和评估等方面,“成人教育学”模式明显区别于“儿童教育学”模式。以成人学习者和成人学习为核心的成人教育学模式,强调学习的非正规性、自我导向性等特征,以及组织学习、团体学习和自主学习等非正规途径。自1833年德国教师凯普(Alexander Kapp)发明“成人教育学”这一术语长达一个多世纪以来,诺尔斯是第一个将其系统化、综合化和广泛流行的成人教育学者。正是在“成人教育学”这一理论的影响下,长期被忽略的“成人学习者”才逐渐走向了终身学习舞台的中心,不见经传的成人教育才有了专业化的路向标。

Knowles'adult education thought has two important sources.One is based on his long-term adult education practice experience.The other is to absorb and transform some important concepts of pragmatism and humanism psychology.Knowles'main contribution and important influence on adult education is his"adult pedagogy"model which is different from"children pedagogy".The core connotation of adult pedagogy is that"adult pedagogy"is obviously different from"child pedagogy"in the aspects of learners'self-concept,experience,preparation,tendency,motivation and need,as well as the corresponding learning environment,planning,activities and evaluation.The model of adult pedagogy,which takes adult learners and adult learning as its core,emphasizes the informal and self-directed characteristics of learning,as well as the informal approaches of organizational learning,group learning and autonomous learning.Since Alexander Kapp,a German teacher,invented the term"adult pedagogy"in 1833,it has been more than a century.Knowles is the first to systematize,synthesize and widely popularize this term.It is under the influence of the theory of"adult pedagogy"that"adult learners",which have been neglected for a long time,gradually move to the center of the stage of lifelong learning,and the unknown adult education has a professional direction.