ANDRAGOGY AND ESP: FROM A SURVEY IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO EMPLOYMENT PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Today's students have evolved towards "digital natives" as the role of the media has long turned into a means of instruction and has been highly used in blended learning especially in the study of foreign languages. After having conducted a study with students from two Romanian universities, the present paper analyses in depth how and why (employed) students use a personalized approach as a means to absorb information from ESP classes while working by using a plethora of technological tools. As expected, students differentiate between the purposes of the media used as they have constructed special social media networks addressed only to education purposes as opposed to their personal lives. The employment motivation for the young category of students versus the more senior ones revealed the fact that they need to be prepared for the domestic and the European workforce market from a multidisciplinary point of view.

Headnote

Abstract: Today's students have evolved towards "digital natives" as the role of the media has long turned into a means of instruction and has been highly used in blended learning especially in the study of foreign languages. After having conducted a study with students from two Romanian universities, the present paper analyses in depth how and why (employed) students use a personalized approach as a means to absorb information from ESP classes while working by using a plethora of technological tools. As expected, students differentiate between the purposes of the media used as they have constructed special social media networks addressed only to education purposes as opposed to their personal lives. The employment motivation for the young category of students versus the more senior ones revealed the fact that they need to be prepared for the domestic and the European workforce market from a multidisciplinary point of view.

Keywords: andragogy; ESP; social media; survey; adult learning.

1.ESP and andragogy - a mix of English language teaching and adult education

ESP (English for Specific Purposes further referred to as ESP) debut dates back to the 1970s when it brought a new perspective on teaching English. As teaching foreign languages has always been related to using listening activities and watching videos as means of instruction, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is highly related to hands-on experience of the future profession. In this sense, the challenge for the instructor is to support the student in combining his/her class activity with his/her professional life, as well as electronic networks he/she is part of for the learning purposes. Moreover, it became more and more obvious that English had quite different usage in different life fields - medicine using different terminology than economics or technology - we notice the shift in teaching English as moving from teaching grammar rather to teaching English as it is used in real life situations according to Tom Hutchinson1 with a stress on communication. Hutchison also highlights the idea that this change is directed towards the learner and his/her needs rather than the educator and Malcolm Knowles introduces the idea of adult education - as further detailed in the following theoretical framework.

1.1. English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

ESP has benefitted from theories about research practice such as those elaborated by John Malcolm Swales and his CARS (Create a Research Space) model2, devising research as an academic competitive concept. This model was complemented by Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St John who focused on emerging trends in ESP theory and practice3. They looked at ESP as a distinct methodology, examining 5 key roles of the academic practitioner: teacher, course designer and instructor, collaborator, researcher and evaluator. According to the two authors, ESP was from the very start designed to meet the needs of learners while understanding the complex roles of a teacher who provides, in addition to delivery of instruction, the tasks of cooperating with students, engaging in research work with other academics and design and delivery of testing materials. In her informative study on their connections and differentiations, Helen Basturkmen presents a comprehensive overview, highlighting demands and effectiveness for learners and teachers4. Basturkmen's contribution continues the pragmatic approach vis-a-vis ESP, detailing the main stages of ESP education: needs analysis, investigation of specialist discourse and curriculum planning, providing ESP course developments case studies as examples of practice which support a coherent and logical approach for higher education practitioners. According to Paul Brett, language learning based on a wide variety of multimedia tools maximizes communication and self-directed instruction, supporting learners in being exposed to diverse and innovatively used sources5. For Brett, the use of multimedia in ESPbased contexts determines learners adjust their behaviour, namely that they "negotiate" their own relation to language acquisition and that it serves instant feedback opportunities to instructors. Furthermore, Yu Fen Yang looks at how autonomy is expressed in relation to student behaviour, and refers to a "self-directed process" in which "students develop the ability to identify their own learning needs and explore available resources" to meet established aims6. According to Yang, ESP benefits from onsite and online delivery, his study case detailing the learning flow in which students stepped from individual assignment to online workshop and online community learning. For learners exposed to such an environment, the correlation between learner autonomy, self-directed learning, and ESP highlights the role of ESP in enhancing autonomy.

1.2 Andragogy - which is first: the individual or society?

In 1960s, Malcolm Knowles introduces andragogy - a new approach to teaching and learning for adult education with a focus on the learner. When initially presented in 1968, his theory comprised four core assumptions which, by 1998, evolved into a series of six, currently standing for the principles of andragogy - the means and methodology of teaching adults. Thus, Knowles differentiates adult education from child education in terms of need, self-direction, prior experience, readiness to learn, life-centred orientation, internal motivation7. Nevertheless, in our endeavour, we shall refer to the four basic core principles designed by Knowles as we believe that the two extra concepts later added are selfincluded: needs in motivation and self-directness in performance development. Thus, andragogy basically follows two directions: core of principles and process design8 or how adult education can be successfully achieved. Holton et all states that "these core principles of adult learning are believed to enable those designing and conducting adult learning to design more effective learning processes for adults"9.

Nevertheless, as it is student-oriented, the concept advanced by Knowles has a series of opponents who criticize the individualistic nature of an adult's formation. André P. Grace10 and later Pratt11 remark the lack of compliance with society and its contribution to society development and change but Holton is correct when he asserts that andragogy is grounded in humanism and pragmatism with a focus solely on the individual's personal development "with the self-actualization of the individual" and knowledge acquired through "personal experience rather than from formal authority"12. However, andragogy is not a universal panacea but a set of concepts whose purpose is to establish a model of adult education with application in any field involving adult learners - such as higher education, human resources, knowledge management or company development and it should not be regarded as a "one size fits all13 and it can therefore be associated with any of the above-mentioned theories and philosophies14. As a result of the ideological debate on adult learning and education philosophies, Knowles reviews his theory and admits that adult education has, indeed, an undeniable contribution to social development.

At the same time, Knowles' theory is somehow in compliance with the 2001 European Commission document because Knowles highlights the adult's desire to take classes as deriving from an inner conviction regarding its benefits for his/her development, while the European Commission document establishes what employees ought to do to develop more, thus "imposing" a sort of development. At the same time, the document establishes a lifelong learning strategy for the EU citizens, with the purpose of sustaining the European economy via national economies as part of the common European market15 together with the strategy regarding the European Language Framework and ESP in higher education as a means of accommodating students and adult learners with terminologies specific to their field.

Beder follows Knowles when he states: "adult literacy education is characterized by a number of elements: a focus on meaning rather than the conveyance of factual information; involvement of learners in decision making rather than placing control solely in the hands of teachers; instruction based on learners' experience rather than standardized, predetermined curricula; and helping learners transform their lives and society rather than merely code and decode text"16. Earlier, in 1989, Beder analysed the motifs of adult change as part of the social change: "The need to comprehend changes in expected role behaviour and to change accordingly has been the basic purpose behind much of the adult education that developed within the women's movement. It has also been a propelling force behind parent education and in many continuing professional education programs in fields such as medicine, law and nursing"17.

However, Merriam and Brockett also observe "the changes in adult education", stating that: "the question of professionalization is something of a paradox for the development of adult education. On one hand, there is a belief that professionalization is essential to moving the field from a marginal status (whether real or perceived) to one that wields more influence in society. At the same time, some very basic concerns must be addressed about adult education becoming so absorbed with the elements of professionalization that this process will ultimately produce a narrowly defined mainstream that excludes many of the diverse voices of those people who engage in its practice"18. The approach to adult learning and education can be made, therefore, from different perspectives which are oriented either towards personal or societal development. The second part of our paper is concerned with adult education following andragogy principles as defined by Knowles where we analyse the results of the survey addressing employed students from different forms of enrolment: full attendance, low attendance, and distance learning.

2.Survey design and administration

As we live in a society under an ongoing change, practice-oriented and still recovering after the financial crisis of 2008, more and more students get employed, this being obvious in the two targeted institutions - University of Bucharest and Bucharest University of Economic Studies - which we believe is a general practice in other Romanian universities as well. For our study, participating students come from different specializations: business, marketing and tourism as well as letters, law and sciences. Taking into consideration the issue of employment while studying, we have tried to find out how they manage to balance their study programme with their work. Even if the forms of enrolment are designed accordingly, some students prefer to fully attend classes, while others prefer low attendance or distance learning. Under these circumstances, our survey explores how/if students manage to attend classes and what they do in case work overcomes their studies. At the same time, we have designed the questionnaire also thinking in terms of digital proficiency and how students use technology to complement their studies in case of absence generated by professional workload. In addition, the purpose of the survey was also to develop communication with the students in an attempt to help them and understand their needs, facilitating our connection with the local labour market and its demands.

As a result, the questionnaire was planned to cover three parts: demographic questions about age, gender, social status; the second part includes general issues about affiliation, type of enrolment and specialization, while the third part consists of specific questions in relation to the principles expressed by Knowles. The 23 questions addressing the specific andragogy characteristics were drawn in terms of the need to know, self-direction, prior experience, readiness to learn, life-centredness and internal motivation being complemented by the important steps: preparation, climate, mutual planning, objectives, learning plans, help and evaluation, almost all of them being taken in conjunction with the learner. The questionnaire has also addressed the issue of learning modern languages in high demand on the labour market, which cover but are not limited to English, French, and German. As ESP instruction attempts to combine traditional face-to-fact contact with blended learning media, the survey also looked at technology literacy and how familiar students are with virtual environments both in class and outside the education environment, touching issues regarding technology-enhanced teaching and learning environment. For this, we have designed a series of 8 questions which refer to the types of devices used in the instruction process, the software, technological tools, mobile applications, platforms and any other technology useful in the process, which were developed with the support of NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. The questionnaire was open for two weeks, from 19 January till 2 February 2017 when we gathered 214 responses which came to confirm our working hypotheses: firstly, there is an increasing number of students interested to get professional experience while they study; secondly, they are more and more confident about the digital learning environment, and thirdly, they are motivated and look at education based on practical outcomes for their future career.

3.Data findings

Teaching ESP to adults is a process involving different approaches since adults are in different stages of their lives when education has for them different perceptions, purposes and derives from diverse individual needs. The instructor is thus seen as a mediator between the student and the conveyed knowledge. According to Knowles, this type of education is oriented more towards the means of instruction as it is based extensively on the previous experience of students, because students "valued knowledge gained from experience rather than from formal authority"19. Knowles also describes the instructor7 s role in the classroom by making a clear difference between types of teaching in higher education: "an ideological pedagogue would want to keep me dependent on a teacher, whereas a true andragogue would like to do everything possible to provide me with whatever foundational content I would need and then encourage me to take increasing initiative in the process of further inquiry"20.

We believe that the study offers a broad perspective of the present day situation - at least at the University of Bucharest and the Bucharest University of Economic Studies - and how instructors should - if they do not already do - adjust and upgrade their teaching methods as an answer to the demands of the labour market. So, the first part of the questionnaire therefore addressed demographic questions about age, gender and social status. We have noticed that 70% of our respondents are female while 30% are male with age ranging from below 25 (80%) to over 25 (14%) and over 35 (5%). As we can notice, the profile of the average respondent is female aged below 25.

The second part of the questionnaire has referred to English proficiency and covered general issues regarding employment and form of enrolment. A high number of students attend the two state universities, with only 2.5% attending private universities and 2.5% attending both private and state, with a percent of 70% studying economics (business, tourism, marketing), 10% letters (European Studies), 5% law and 15% natural sciences (chemistry). A huge percent of respondents (96%) use English, seconded by a percent of 15% who use German or French at an advanced level. When asked if willing to improve their language skills, half of respondents referred to English, with 73% of the respondents willing to improve their speaking skills, 25% focused on reading, 33% on listening and only 11% on writing skills.

From their current employment perspective, 36% of the respondents have answered that they have a part-time job while 64% work full time. Regarding the form or enrolment, 70% of the students are enrolled in full attendance while 18% are enrolled in low attendance and 4% in distance learning. When asked if foreign language development is seen as related to their present or future career path in an English-speaking environment, a high majority confirms our initial hypothesis: 68,7% declare this is a clear benefit, followed by 21,5% who think it might support their promotion, while only 9,8% think that it would bring no significant difference.

Thinking about the core principles advanced by Knowles, we have noticed that the answers varied according to age. While younger respondents aged below 25 (59%) motivated their need to attend a certain academic specialization as a result of the desire to study an area of interest more, they were followed by those who ticked the option regarding the need to obtain a diploma (25%) while 8% of the respondents answered that they work in the field but do not have the theoretical background to understand the process and 8% mentioned other reasons.

Need is also related to motivation as it explains the willingness of young adults to attend a university, or any other form of education meant to meet their needs. Knowles explains this need in his analysis: "People become ready to learn something when they experience a need to learn in order to cope more satisfyingly with real life tasks or problems" (44). In the following question regarding motivation, 52% of the respondents answered that they feel really motivated to attend the study programme while 16.5 said they are unmotivated. The unmotivated respondents argued their answers by stating that the study programme failed to meet their needs. At the same time, respondents have answered that they manage to attend all classes in spite of work overload (36.3%), while 60% said that they manage with some difficulty. These answers show that motivation is a strong reason for students to attend classes as education is seen as a fundamental stage for career path. Most of the respondents whose answers refer to attending classes after work are those enrolled in low attendance and have classes scheduled between 4.30 and 9 pm. Also, a relatively small percentage of respondents participate in distance learning programmes and they have face-to-face English classes once a month while homework and course support are uploaded on the open source platform where they can access them. Communication with the course instructor is facilitated via the platform and there is constant interaction and feedback between the instructor and students. At the same time, students working abroad prefer to enrol in this type of education as it helps them in their endeavour to fulfil their education needs (the open source platform is used at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies while at the University of Bucharest EasyClass is available).

In case of absence the respondents showed that they compensate by asking their colleagues for course support in a very high percentage - 86% - while 16.5% said they read the materials online. The respondents seem to be very interested in keeping up with classes in case of non-attendance. Part of their motivation was the perspective of a better job. Thus, 69% of the respondents have said that they strongly believe in the prospects of a better job while 22% believe that they could get promoted while 9% have answered that this would make no difference for their future career.

In terms of experience, the respondents generally think that previous experience has a very important role for their personal development. Thus, 51% believe that experience is very important while 44% believe it is generally important, and only 5% find it unimportant. Knowles explains adult learners' experience in the education process as follows: "As people grow and develop, they accumulate an increasing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasingly rich resource for learning - for themselves and for the others. Furthermore, people attach more meaning to learnings they gain from experience than those they acquire passively"21. Thus, for the answers regarding their experience in another university (for those who attend two study programmes), 30% of respondents have said that it was useful as they already have a learning style which helps them learn faster, while 44% think they learn new skills which add up to previous experience, followed by 27% who state that it was not so useful as they had studied something totally different. Such a point of view is offered by respondents aged over 35 or between 25-35 who currently attend a second university and are enrolled in the low attendance classes plus distance learning students who are also enrolled in a second university.

For their relation to life experience and current studies, 67% of respondents have said it was very useful as they understand everything and make logical connections between bits of information, while 32% find it somehow difficult as they do not associate the new information with previous experience. At the same time, respondents felt, in their attitude to learning, that their efforts to attend university and be employed at the same time pay off. Thus, when answering questions regarding this issue, 79% have noted that they are self-driven and feel their progress and that their knowledge is extended. 84% percent refer to a sense of professional development as studies help in their career, while 31% think of the benefits after obtaining the diploma. Also, 72% have declared that they feel that their socializing skills are improved while 56% said that they have a feeling of belonging to a community of people with similar interests, attitudes and skills, while 51% said it was a great opportunity to meet new people and exchange work experience with them while 10% said it facilitated the means to find a new job as they were recommended.

In what concerns self-directedness, respondents answer that they are able to set their own goals, obtain and analyse results in a percentage of 57% while 28% say they had limited independence, and only 10% felt they have no independence due to institutional factors. The core principles stated by Knowles correlate the perception of students towards their academic learning environment, where their self-direction, motivation, experience are represented as top reasons for selecting a certain type of instruction and specialization. Knowles states: "The characteristics of teacher-directed and self-directed learning should be viewed as on a continuum, rather than dichotomous [...] If self-directed learners recognize that there are occasions on which they will need to be taught, they will enter into those taught-learning situations in a searching, probing frame of mind and will exploit them as resources for learning without losing their self-directedness"22. The graph below illustrates the relevance of Knowles' principles for a student's' personal and professional development. (1)

Regarding the educational climate setting, students feel that it is a collaborative environment for them and instructors. Technology is also integrated in the university life. As numerous students work, their access to course support and information is often found on the open access university platform which is easily accessed via laptop, smartphone, tablets or any electronic devices with an internet connection. Thus, an average number of 76% of the respondents are very familiar with technology, the most used devices in the instruction process are laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. In the university, there are teacher computers and overhead projectors. There are multimedia language labs, audio cassettes, DVDs, CDs, video cassettes useful in the instruction process. At the same time, the most used applications in the learning process are Facebook, WhatsApp, Google forms, Google and Yahoo accounts which enable students to share information among themselves by creating groups for each class and stay in touch with the instructors in order to have immediate feedback regarding assignments, tasks and other essential information.

Integrating technology in the academic - the blended learning approach - is also useful as students have access to information at all times (86%), while some find it not so useful as they cannot access information on the platform due to technical difficulties Mihaes et all state that "the responses to the questionnaire have shown us that students endorse a change from the traditional ESP courses to more modern teaching methods which make use of the new technologies. Among the benefits of the computer-mediated ESP class, one can enumerate off-campus access to materials, completion of assignments that encourage independent learning, further practice of models discussed in class, in-class access to a large variety of online resources, and, last but not least, an overall more active and complex learning experience"23.

Kintu et all bring forward opinions to a certain extent similar to those formulated by Knowles referring to student education being a result of inner motivation and satisfaction and Kintu adds technology as part of the individual learning. In Kintu's viewpoint: "Self-regulatory skills of time management lead to better performance and learners' ability to structure the physical learning environment leads to efficiency in e-learning and blended learning environments"24. Still, we would argue that performance can be derived out of pleasure given by the technology-friendly environment and appropriation of familiar tool aimed at facilitating teaching and learning. At the same time, as we are part of the highly competitive and technology-enhanced society, it is a must to be technology wise and make the best use and practice in the instruction process thus preparing students for the present and future technology use skills.

Regarding the qualitative questions, respondents declared that: the most valuable experiences they had in the last 2 years were at the university - 40% - while 60% were in other different situations such as workshops, summer camps, language schools, festivals, webinars, face-toface meetings, personal development courses, laboratories, law practices, museums, summer festivals or other art-related environments. What made them important were: experience itself, interaction with other people, meeting native speakers, the trainer, the subject, and the environment. The subjects of such events were related to marketing, tourism, management, human resources development, chemistry, criminal law, computer science, lab experiments, B2B, marketing strategies, and online marketing. As we can notice, prior experience helps students in their endeavour for personal development. In what concerns their needs, including foreign language instruction, students provided an extensive list factors impacting their current performance: more time allocated to study; the opportunity of intensive classes; clear-set goals; more conversational English; or a higher number of English classes compared to the present case. Their reaction to this open question includes a mix of two specific elements: respondents are aware of their own role in the learning process and the resources needed to reach constant progress, but they also refer to aspects which are at the decision of their university.

Also, these types of extracurricular activities have proved beneficial for students as they have learned to communicate, manage responsebilities, take goals seriously, meet deadlines, develop critical thinking, and become independent successful entrepreneurs. In terms of purpose and benefits, the students have answered in a 35.5% percent that at the beginning of classes it was relatively clear what they wanted to achieve. 25.2% have stated that it was very clear what they wanted to achieve and 21.5% said that when they answered, it was not very clear what their goal was but meanwhile they formed a better image. Only 22% have mentioned that their objective remained unclear after starting the study programme.

Regarding the evaluation of their knowledge, students have answered as follows: 42.1% have mentioned that evaluation methods have partially managed to assess their real goals while 25.2% have said that they do not realize of evaluation methods were in compliance with their real progress. The rest of the students have stated that the evaluation methods partially or completely failed to evaluate their knowledge. Thus, we can observe that the students undertaking the questionnaire have quite a big picture of their goals and field of study and also that they feel their progress is correctly evaluated.

When asked to mention further comments and opinions, some students declined the final comment, or suggested that they are satisfied with the current context, while some of them launched various proposals related to the present curricula and type of delivery: "A great thing that could be done is to make groups based on the English level. That way the ones that don't know wouldn't feel bad for it and would have a nice and smooth environment to do it. On the other hand, the ones that have a high level could achieve more"25; oral presentations could be useful for learning English; more English courses. Some suggest using games in language acquisition.

4.Conclusions

The study conducted aimed at analysing the adult education environment according to the core principles formulated by Knowles. We have discovered that the average student is rather young, employed, with a good command of English (enrolled in study programmes with ESP as foreign language) and relatively tech-savvy. At the same time, all respondents are keen to improve their language skills, the majority being satisfied with the study programme and ESP while a high number feel they are independent and value the academic climate setting and over 66% appreciate the combination of work and study for their future career.

At the same time the study revealed how important the evaluation methods and the choice of the study programme are for their future development thus consolidating their trust and confidence especially when the curricula is complemented with extra activities which make the students become responsible adults and take things seriously.

Regarding technology, most respondents appreciate that although they have a good level of confidence in using PCs/laptops and smartphones in foreign languages or other subjects, they would though like to improve their use of virtual environments, multimedia labs, blogs and wikis. A significant majority uses social media and mobile apps for both personal and professional use while the answers from the open questions indicate that they would like more practical activities to be part of their programme, improve their time management, engage more in verbal tasks, combining fun with academic curricula; they also mention public speaking opportunities, conversation during English classes and over 85% indicate use of technology.

As a conclusion, the study case confirms the working hypotheses adopted by the research team in terms of motivation, self-direction, readiness to learn and skills development and the mix of study with work experience as students are getting more interested in professional experience while still attending university and this highlights the importance of making the difference between pedagogy and andragogy in the instruction process for adult education in general and ESP in our case, with a focus on adapting the adult learners' instructional strategies as suitable to meet both their needs and those of national and international labour markets as well as the European Language Framework.

Footnote

1 Tom Hutchinson, Alan Waters, English for Specific Purposes. A learning centred approach. Cambridge: CUP, 1991, p. 6.

2 John Malcolm Swales, Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1991, pp. 140-145.

3 Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St John, Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: CUP, 1st edition, 1998, pp. 20-31.

4 Helen Basturkmen, Developing Courses in English for Specific Purposes, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 3-13.

5 Paul Brett, "Integrating multimedia into the Business English Curriculum: a case study" in English for Specific Purposes, Volume 19, Issue 3, 1 September 2001: pp. 269-290.

6 Yu Fen Yang, "Self-directed Learning to Develop Autonomy in an Online ESP Community. Interactive Learning Environments" in Interactive Learning Environments, Taylor & Francis, 24 (7), 2016, pp. 1629-1646.

7 Malcolm S. Knowles, The Modern Practice of Adult Education. From pedagogy to andragogy. Revised and updated. New York: Cambridge, 1980, pp. 43- 44.

8 Ibidem.

9 Elwood F. Holton, Richard A. Swanson, Sharon S. Naquin, "Andragogy in Practice: Clarifying the Andragogical Model of Adult Learning" in Performance Improvement Quarterly, 14 (1), 2001, pp. 118-143

10 André P. Grace, "Striking a critical pose: Andragogy-Missing links, missing values" in International Journal of Lifelong Education. 1996, 15 (5), 1996, pp. 238-392.

11 Daniel D. Pratt, "Andragogy after twenty-five years" in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. 57-An Update On Adult Learning Theory, 1993, p. 21

12 Elwood F. Holton, Richard A. Swanson, Sharon S. Naquin, "Andragogy in Practice: Clarifying the Andragogical Model of Adult Learning" in Performance Improvement Quarterly, 14 (1), 2001, p. 119.

13 Ibidem, p. 129.

14 André P. Grace, "Striking a critical pose: Andragogy-Missing links, missing values" in International Journal of Lifelong Education. 1996, 15 (5), 1996, p. 239.

15 European Commission, 2011, "Making a European area of Lifelong Learning a Reality". http://viaa.gov.lv/files/free/48/748/pol_10_com_en.pdf. Accessed on January 10, 2017.

16 Hal Beder, Patsy Medina, "Classroom Dynamics in Adult Literacy Education" in National Centre for The Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, Boston, MA: NCSALL-R18, 2001, p. 25.

17 Hal Beder, "Purposes and Philosophies of Adult Education", in Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 1st edition, 1989, p. 39.

18 Sharan B. Merriam, Ralph G. Brockett, The Profession and Practice of Adult Education: An Introduction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997, p. 5.

19 Malcolm S. Knowles, Elwood F. Holton III, Richard A. Swanson, The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Development, 8th edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2015, p. 74.

20 Malcolm S. Knowles, "Andragogy Revisited" in Adult Education Quarterly, 29 (4), 1979, pp. 52-53.

21 Malcolm S. Knowles, The Modern Practice of Adult Education. From pedagogy to andragogy. Revised and updated. New York: Cambridge, 1980, p. 44.

22 Malcolm S. Knowles, Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982, p. 81.

23 Lorena C. Mihaes et all, "Towards a computer-mediated ESP class" in eLearning and software for education, eLearning Vision 2020, 12th International Conference on Elearning. "CAROL I" National Defence University Publishing House, 2016, pp. 168-69.

24 Mugenyi J. Kintu, Chang Zhu, E. Kagambe E., "Blended learning effectiveness: the relationship between student characteristics, design features and outcomes" in International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14 (7), 2017. https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/artides/10.1186/s41239-0170043-4. Accessed on 9 February 2017.

25 Online study conducted with the students of the University of Bucharest and Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 2017.

References

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Beder, H., (1989), "Purposes and Philosophies of Adult Education", in Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers. 1st edition.

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