Malcolm Knowles - The Principles of Andragogy
I recently was involved in two classes where a group of students were asked to present a snapshot of Knowles principles back to the rest of the class. Â To be honest I had only a generic knowledge of Knowles principals myself. Â Seeing his principals all spelled out once again solidified my thoughts that teaching and supervising are very closely linked.
Knowles principles are:
Adults are internally motivated and self-directed
Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiencesÂ
Adults are goal oriented
Adults are relevancy oriented
Adults are practical
Adult learners like to be respectedÂ
At a completely unrelated training event several supervisors were going over the critical elements of warrant service and the instructor (a supervisor himself) made a long point that if adult police officers are being asked to risk their lives at a search warrant then they deserve the respect of at least being told what the purpose of the warrant is instead of just being given a simple assignment.  The instructor was teaching us to expect our personnel to make reasonable decisions when the warrant inevitably does not go as planned.  Without realizing it the instructor had just spelled out the application of Knowles principles in a real world setting.
