< Serguey I.Zmeyov ANDRAGOGY: origins, developments and trends. // International Review of Education. - Hamburg, 1998. - v.44, N 1. - P. 103-108. < Education, as it is well known, is one of the most conservative social institutions, owing to its specific aim: transmission of the social experience to new generations. But at the same time, the constant and intensive searches of new contents, of new approaches to the learning and training corresponding to the spirit of time, to new educational needs of human being and society are carried out in this sector of human activities. Towards the end of XXth century, the education suffered impressive changes in its role, functions and meaning in the contemporary society and in the life of an individual. These changes are own to the development of the socio-economic situation, the human being, the transmission technology of information and the sciences of education. On the eve of XXI century the principles of free market are prevailing in the economy of practically all the countries. They open new perspectives for the initiatives, the enterprising, for all capacities and abilities of an individual, but they also require more responsibility, independence and competence of human choices and decisions. The permanent sophistication and intensification of the social life (the development of political and social movements, the enlargement of the ideological, ethical, esthetic pluralism, the consolidation of the personal freedom), the straightening of the moral requirements in all domains of the social life, the increasing influence of the culture on an individual and the society compel the modern human being, on the base of receiving and processing of a great volume of information, to make conscious choices, to take well founded decisions, to assume his or her own attitudes as regards the environment. New kinds and technologies of transmission of the information contribute to the increasing of the level of information of an individual. The actual level of the socio-economic development allows human being to pay more attention to the growing of his\her individuality, to satisfy many his\her individual needs. All these objective and subjective factors create new situation when an individual, within his\her own world of social relations and individual peculiarities (that we could denominate as an �anthroposphere�), becomes a real subject of the socio-economic and his\her own development. But all this requires a higher level of individual competence in professional, social, family, internal domains of one�s anthroposphere. That is why at the end of XXth century the individual educational needs became significantly more various and rich. They are grouped in three main sectors: needs of general secondary education; these of perfecting social roles (acquisition or perfection of professional knowledges and skills; participation in social life; improvement of the quality of family life); needs of general culture and personal growing (learning for purposes of the maintenance of health, the passing of leisure time, the personal growing). The permanent, lifelong learning is not by now only a good idea but a real necessity for a lot of people. Learning as a kind of being - this is the slogan of the day. Homo studens is the hero of our time. Finally, the different sciences on education (philosophy, economy, sociology of education, educology and others) enlarged our knowledges about the possibilities, the aims, the role and the functions of education in the modern world of rapid changes. The mentioned factors caused significant changes in the status of the education in the society and in the personal life of the individual. The main goal of education today is provide an individual with a multifaceted training and principally with knowledges and skills for the creative activities, for adapting to the changes of the natural and social environment, or the �noosphere� (by the term of the great Russian scientist V.N.Vernadsky), and for the permanent learning. In another words, the main objective of modern education is to offer to an individual a kind of formation that will allow him\her to self-realise, to become (see: �Learning to be�. Paris, Unesco, 1972, p.XXXV). This means that education must offer to the learners all possibilities for realising their educational needs. But in this case education is transforming from a rigid societal and state organism into a sphere of educational service functioning according to the �demand - supply� law. This sphere is a phenomenon much more large than a system of education. It includes all kinds of education: formal, non-formal, in-formal. It is very autonomous. It is a sort of contract organisation providing services to the customers: individuals, social groups, social institutes (the state including), society. The sphere of educational service possesses certain features which distinguish it from the system of education. It offers more diversified contents, modes, forms and methods of learning and teaching. It provides to the learner more facilities for an open, free learning, understood as �freedom from constraints in the learning process: administrative (time, space, duration, cost, etc.) and educational (objectives, methods, sequencing, entry qualifications, assessment, etc.)� (Boot R.L., Hodgson V.E. (1987), p.5). This sphere is engaged to satisfy educational needs of its clients creating educational services required by the learners but not constraining the learners to accept the existing educational facilities. Diversified educational offers don�t guarantee the high quality of education. Different educational services are in constant state of competition. There is a price evaluation of educational service. All theses changes of status of education are producing mainly because of rapid and potent development of adult education. Nowadays just the adults need to increase constantly the level of their competence for harmonise the anthroposphere of each one. But the adult education, very developed all over the world, Russia including (see more details: Bim-Bad B.M., Sokolova L.I., Zmeyov S.I., (1992), makes obvious the little efficiency in adult learning of pedagogical principles which were elaborated in the framework of children education. The practice of adult education, the researches of scientists from different countries convince that the adult learning requires its own specific principles and technology. These principles and technology are elaborating and implementing into the practice of education now very actively in Russia and in other countries. They based on the theory of adult learning named andragogy (term created by analogy to pedagogy from Greek aner, andros - adult man, mature person + ago - I guide). This is a new field of human sciences, one of the new sciences of education in the full evolution now. The appearance of this science was prepared and conditioned by the development of education itself dealt above and of the theory of learning. We could affirm that the general progress of humanity is going towards the liberation, the flourishing of human abilities, towards a more complete fulfilment of human potential, and the education evolve towards the liberation of an individual in the process of his\her learning from the rigid obsolete canons of formal education and towards his\her becoming not a passive object but a real subject of the learning at least equal to the teacher, another subject of this process. Some ideas, some suggestions about the necessity of a more active role of the learner in the process of education were expressed practically by all great pedagogues. They anticipated individual particularities of adult learning. Among the Russian pedagogues we must remember first of all K.D.Oushinsky which in the practice of the Sunday schools appeared in Russia in the second half of XIX century discerned and formulated a number of characteristic features of adult education. E.N.Medinsky generalised the experience of the out-doors education in the pre-Revolutionary Russia. In the Soviet Russia N.K.Kroupskaya distinguished some very important factors determining the specificity of adult education, particularly of workers� education. A.V.Darinsky formulated specific patterns of general adult education, A.D.Pint and N.I.Bokariev described the fundamental assumptions of the pedagogy of adults, Y.N.Kouliutkin revealed psychological particularities of general adult education. The scientist of the �pre-andragogical period� that influenced greatly on the origins of andragogical ideas and concepts was J.Dewey, a great American psychologist, philosopher and pedagogue. His concepts of experiential and pragmatic learning determined for a longtime the development of education in the USA and another countries and foreseen the main andragogical assumptions of adult learning. E.Lindeman, another American philosopher, formulated in 1926 essential philosophical assumptions of adult education. The origins and the development of andragogical ideas and concepts were influenced also by those philosophical and psychological theories which concerned the consciousness of the leading role of an individual in the social and personal development. Among them distinguish the existentialism with its categories of supreme value of the existence, personal freedom, responsibility, and so called humanistic psychology, personally A.Maslow with his concept of the hierarchy of individual�s needs and C.Rogers with his idea about the leading role of the individual in the process of his own convalescence (C.Rogers was primarily physician) and of his own learning. The origins of the andragogy as an autonomous field of sciences concerning adult learning were in the 1950-1970s. They were set in the works by German professor F.P�ggeler, Yugoslavian scientists B.Samolov�ev and D.Savi�evi�, Dutch researcher T.Ten Have, Polish scientist L.Turos. Many others theorists and practitioners of adult education, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and pedagogues in different countries who investigated the problems of adult learning, have contributed to the appearance of andragogical ideas and concepts. Among them we could mention, for instance, J.R.Kidd, R.J.Havighurst, C.O.Houle, F.Tough, A.B.Knox, P.Bergevin. The fundamentals of the andragogy as a theory of adult learning, an andragogical model of learning were created in the 1970-1980s by M.S.Knowles, an eminent American practitioner and theorist of adult education, by another American scientist R.M.Smith and P.Jarvis, an English professor. Andragogy was determined by M.S.Knowles as �the art and science of helping adults learn� (Knowles M.S. (1980), p. 43). And he specified that �andragogy is premised on at least four crucial assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners that are different from the assumptions about child learners on which traditional pedagogy is premised. These assumptions are that, as a person matures, 1) his self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being; 2) he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource of learning; 3) his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles; and 4) his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centred to one of problem-centred� (Knowles M.S. Op. cit., p. 39). We could add three other assumptions of the andragogy: 1) The learning of an adult is largely determined by his\her life context, i.e. by the time, area, daily life, professional, social, family factors. The adult learning process is characterised by 2) the leading role of the learner himself and 3) the co-operative activities of the learner and the teacher in all the stages of the learning, i.e. in the planning, the realisation, the evaluation and the correction of the learning process. So the andragogy consider the learner as a real subject of his\her learning process. This situation changes the roles and functions both of the learner and of the teacher. The learner in adult education is a self-directed, responsible person, the principal performer. The teacher in adult education is primarily an expert in the learning technology and an organiser of the co-operative activities with the learner. Then follows his functions of the co-author of individual programmes of learning, the counsellor and tutor of the adult learner, the provider of the favourable conditions (physical and psychological) of learning, and finally the source of knowledge, skills and qualities. From this standpoint the andragogy could be determined as the theory of adult learning that sets scientific fundamentals of activities of the learners and the teachers concerning the organisation, i.e. the planning, the realisation, the evaluation and the correction of adults� learning. Taking account of the particularities of adult learners mentioned above, the specific roles and functions of learners and teachers in adult learning, the distinguishing patterns of the technology of adult learning we could formulate the fundamental principles of adult learning as follows. 1. Preponderance of the self-directed learning. This is the principal mode of learning activities of adult learners. 2. Principle of the co-operative activities. It foresees the common labour of an adult learner with the teacher and other learners concerning the planning, the realisation, the evaluation and the correction of the learning process. 3. Experiential learning. Following this principle the life (social, professional, family) experience of a learner is used as a source of his\her own and other learners learning. 4. Individualisation of learning. Accordingly to this principle every learner, in co-operation with the teacher and sometimes with other learners, creates an individual programme of learning, aiming the accomplishment of the concrete objectives and the satisfaction of the determined educational needs, taking in account the experience, the preceding training, the psycho-physiological and cognitive particularities of a concrete learner. 5. Systemic learning. This principle foresees conformity of objectives, contents, methods, means of the learning and of the evaluation of the results of learning. 6. Contextual learning (the term of the contemporary Russian scientist A.A.Verbitsky). Accordingly to this principle the learning of an adult must be organised in the context of his\her anthroposphere, i.e. it must aim at the concrete and vitally important for a person objectives and, on the other hand, it must be designed in accordance to the professional, social, familiar activities and time, area, everyday factors of life of an adult. 7. Actualisation of the results of learning. This principle supposes an immediate application in the real life of the knowledges, skills and qualities obtained by the learning. 8. Elective learning. This means a certain learner�s freedom of choice of objectives, contents, forms, methods, sources, means, terms, time, place of the learning, of procedures of the evaluation of the results of the learning and also of the teachers. 9. Principle of the development of educational needs. Accordingly to it, the evaluation of the results of learning consists in the revelation of a real level of mastery of learned matters and the designation of matters not learned enough but necessary for the achievement of the learning goals. Secondly, the learning process must contribute to the creation of new educational needs, encourage the learner to the life-long learning. 10. Consciousness of learning. This means the conscious approach of both the learner and the teacher to all elements and procedures of the learning process, the awareness of these two subjects about all their activities. The andragogical principles of learning are largely demanded now and not only in the adult education. Practically all sectors of the educational service sphere need these principles. They may be successfully used every time when the learners: a) possess a lot of practical, social, professional experience; b) are conscious of the concrete life goals and the domains of use of the obtained knowledges, skills and qualities; c) possess sufficient training in the field of choose study; d) try to achieve educational objectives in a short time. The principles formulated above serve as the base of the technology of adult learning which can be used in different educational situations and in diverse domains of the educational service sphere. The problem of the elaboration and implementation into the educational practice of an efficient technology of learning suitable to the different kinds of learners and educational facilities is now one of the most acute and important theoretical and practical problems both in Russia and in other countries of the world. In the Department of Andragogy at the Institute of General Education, in collaboration with investigators from other educational and research institutions, have been formulated essential principles of adult learning and conditioning of their realisation in the process of adult learning and continuing education, elaborated the concept of the system of adult education as a sphere of educational services, a prospective model of the development of adult education in Russia, a concept, a model and practical recommendations for implementation of the educational guidance service, a concept, a model and a sample curriculum of training of adult educators (andragogues) on the levels of BSc and MSc in Andragogy. Another enormous problem requiring and waiting for a large international researches and practical work is the training of adult educators. The obvious contradiction of actual education is that the andragogical principles and elements of the adult learning technology are largely utilised in the practice of adult and almost non-adult education all over the world but the training of adult educators is developed very scarcely. There are isolated examples of this training in some countries (USA, Canada, Slovene, Yugoslavia). Nowadays the training of adult educators is actively developing in Russia. �Andragogy� is included in an official list of training specialities provided in the higher education system. A group of Russian scientists headed by the author of these lines elaborated a standard of the andragogical training. This standard represents a set of determined skills, knowledges, abilities and qualities required from an andragogue and a minimum of training matters necessary and sufficient for an successful realisation of functions of an adult educator. On the base of this standard is now organised andragogical training courses in a number of higher education establishments, particularly in Moscow State Open Pedagogical University. For the purposes of the development of andragogical trainings are needed more large and internationally conceived researches in the fields of the theory, technology and psychology of adult learning, more scientifically based study programmes and teaching-aids materials. Now in Russia are organised a number of andragogical centres of different kind: andragogic departments at the higher education establishments, a Federal centre for the co-ordination and development of elaboration of teacher-aids materials for the adult educators� training, finally, an International centre of training and continuing training of teachers for the adult, continuos and higher education. All these initiatives need an international co-operation and support. We invite all interested researchers, research and educational centres, national and international organisations to participate in the developments of the andragogy and andragogical trainings. REFERENCES 1. Adult Education Research Trends in Central and Eastern European Countries. Research Project Report. (1994) Ed. By Z.Jelenc. Ljubljana, Slovene Adult Education Centre. 2. Bergevin P. (1967) A Philosophy for Adult Education. N.Y. 3. Bim-Bad B.M., Sokolova L.I., Zmeyov S.I. (1992) �Russia�.- In: Perspectives on Adult Education and Training in Europe. Ed. By P.Jarvis. Leicester, NIACE. 4. Boot R.L., Hodgson V.E. (1991) �Open Learning: Meaning and Experience�.- In: Beyond Distance Teaching Towards Open Learning. Ed. By Hodgson V.E. et al., Milton Keynes. 5. Havighurst R.J. (1972) Developmental Tasks and Education. N.Y. 6. Houle C.O. (1963) The Inquiring Mind. A Study of the Adult who Continues to Learn. Madison. 7. Jarvis P. (1983) Adult and Continuing Education. London. 8. Kidd J.R. 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