Learning is about change: the change brought about by developing a new skill, understanding something new, changing an attitude.
As teachers, it is argued, we need to know how people behave under certain circumstances so that we can optimise their learning through the provision of conditions that make it as easy as possible.
I have now looked up the definitions of pedagogy and andragogy and have linked the words to the wikipedia definitions. Pedagogy literally means "to lead the child" and andragogy means "to lead the man or adult" based on the Greek derivation.
Having read the two definitions I am not sure now different these two words are in actuality other than referring to different stages in life. Andragogy talks about adults needing control over their learning and it being relevant, but my experience with my 11 year old child is that he also needs relevance ... and maybe teaching him something about history using an IT game is sufficient as it appeals to his sense of fun! There is reference to building on knowledge for adults - well surely we do that for children too ... build on their current knowledge of the world and facts by using real world examples. I am beginning to think that really there is perhaps not as much difference as I first thought. As teachers we need to take the students we have in front of us and adapt our teaching accordingly, whatever their age, ethnic background, religion or whatever. We need to draw on their experiences and give them guidance towards the goals set in the class ... these goals could be teacher or student lead depending on the type of course being taught!