Eduard Lindeman
1885-1953
Background
Eduard Lindeman was born in St. Clair, Michigan in 1985, attended Michigan State University where he started a writing society, ethnic-sociological society and joined the YMCA. He taught at the YMCA College of Chicago, but had to leave due to his theological and social ideas. He was a social worker, educator, philosopher and a pioneer of adult education.
Major Principles of Theory
Eduard Lindeman is known for advancing the field of adult education and the concept of learning through experience. He, along with Martha Anderson, introduced the term andragogy in the United States, however, he did not see much value in the term and as such, he did not use it much. The term was mostly ignored until Malcolm Knowles popularized it. “Lindeman might be seen as the spiritual father of andragogy while Knowles could be seen as the putative father who nurtured the adragogical child into young adulthood” (Davenport & Davenport, 1995, as cited in Davenport, 1987, p. 17).
Lindeman saw the potential of education to change life and society. In his classic book, The Meaning of Adult Education, he wrote, “Adult Education will become an agency of progress if its short-time goals of self improvement can be made compatible with a long-time, experimental but resolute policy of changing the social order” (Lindeman, 1926, p. 166).
Dominant School of Thought
Lindeman was influenced by the philosophies and writings of Nikolai Grundtvig, founder of Denmark Folk Schools as well as Ralf Waldo Emerson. However, he was most influenced by the pragmatism and progressive educational beliefs of John Dewey who was a friend and colleague. “It is generally accurate to say that adult education as articulated by Eduard Lindeman, is a derivative of Deweyan progressive education” (Steward, 1987 as cited in Smith, 1997, 2004, pg. 3).
Influence on Adult Education
Lindeman played a major role in the advancement of adult education through his theories and assumptions. He viewed experience as the major tool in adult education and that learning needs to be relevant to the immediate needs of adult learners in living their life and solving practical problems. He saw learning opportunities beyond the convention of the classroom, teachers and textbooks. According to Lindeman, “the approach to adult education will be via the route of situations, not subjects” (Lindeman, 1926, p. 8).
Lindeman greatly influenced the writings and teachings of Malcolm Knowles, who popularized the term and concept of Andragogy. In writing about Lindeman, Smith states, “his work fed straight into the thinking of central figures in adult education such as Malcolm Knowles” (Smith, 1997, 2004, p. 8).
Welton sums it up the impact of Lindeman in his comments that “Lindeman’s importance to American and international adult education cannot be denied…he shaped his discourse for a broad audience in response to the pressing issues of his day” (Welton, 1991, p. 291).
Criticisms
Despite the importance of Lindeman’s ground breaking book, The Meaning of Adult Education, it has also been a source of criticism as can be observed with the following quote by smith, “Nothing was rewritten. The result was an uneven and quirky book. His ideas, when taken separately, were hardly original. There were obvious gaps in, and issues with, his exposition of adult education” (Smith, 1997, 2004, p. 4).
Application to Adult Learning Theory
Eduard Lindeman broke new ground with his philosophy and writings on adult education and the adult learner which has direct implications on how we teach as shown in the following quotes fromLindeman’s 1926 book, The Meaning of Adult Education:
1) “Education is life – not a mere preparation for an unknown kind of future living”(p. 6)
2)“Education conceived as a process coterminous with life revolves about non-vocational ideals. Its purpose is to put meaning into the whole life.”(p. 7)
3) “The approach to adult education will be via the route of situations, not subjects…texts and teachers play a new and secondary role in this type of education”(p.8)
4) “The resource of the highest value in adult education is the learner’s experience. If education is life, then life is also education” (p.9)
5) “Small groups of aspiring adults…who dig down into the reservoirs of their experience before resorting to texts and secondary facts; who are led in the discussion by teachers who are also searchers after wisdom and not oracles”(p.11)
Impacts for Learning Transfer
In order for an adult educator to follow the philosophy of Lindeman, they would take more of a facilitator approach, operating as a guide drawing out the learner’s experience and gaining meaning and understanding from the experience. Lindeman was a great proponent of group work and discussion.
Facilitation Methods for Learning Transfer
In examining the writings of Lindeman, we can see that the teaching approach would lend itself to being learner centered. The main resource for learning would be the learner’s experience in the context of meeting real needs and solving specific problems. The learning needs to be relevant to the learners’ needs and problems and provide for immediate application.
The teacher takes on the role of facilitator who pulls out and draws from the learner’s experience, helps to uncover meaning in situation specific experiences and shares in the discovery and learning. Process is very important and would include such activities as group discussion, reflection, experiential learning, Socratic questioning, and formulating solutions to be tried and tested and then further discussion.
The quote from Lindeman as cited below, summarizes the facilitation methods and role of the facilitator,
When discussion is used as method for adult teaching, the teacher
becomes group chairman; he no longer sets problems and then casts
about with various kinds of bait until he gets back his preconceived
answer; nor is he the oracle who supplies answers which students
carry off in their notebooks; his function is not to profess but to evoke-
to draw out, not pour in. (Lindeman, 1926, p. 188).
References
Davenport, J. & Davenport, J. (1985) Knowles or Lindeman: would the real father of American
andragogy please stand up. Lifelong Learning. 9:3, 4-5.
Fischer, C. & Podeschi, R. (1989) From Lindeman to Knowles: a change in vision. International
Journal of Lifelong Education. 8:4,345-353.
Lindeman, E. (1926). The Meaning of Adult Education. New York: New Republic, Inc.
Smith, M. K. (1997, 2004) Eduard Lindeman and the Meaning of Adult Education. Retrieved
from:
Welton, M. (1991). What’s new in the history of adult education. Historical Studies in Education,
3:2, 285-297.