Best Practice

Andragogy vs pedagogy: Which approach is best in the post-16 classroom?

Post-16 Pedagogy
Teachers are masters of pedagogy, but as students move into post-16 education, should we also move to considering the merits of andragogy? Debbie Tremble compares andragogical and pedagogical approaches in the key stage 5 classroom
Image: Adobe Stock -

The students who received their A level results in 2023 will perhaps be remembered as the Covid cohort the most disadvantaged – sitting exams at pre-pandemic standards yet having never taken a public examination before, not to mention having had two formative years of learning disrupted by the virus.

This has further compounded the disadvantage gap. As Professor Becky Francis, CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation has said: “We know gaps in outcomes between socio-economically disadvantaged pupils and their classmates grow as they progress through school which means they are at their widest when students enter post-16 education.” (EEF, 2023)

Furthermore, an Education Policy Institute report – Measuring the disadvantage gap 16-19 (Tucket et al, 2021) – found that “the gap in educational attainment between poorer students and their peers is substantial during the 16-19 education phase, with poorer students continuing to see far worse educational outcomes than their better off peers”.

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