Page 176 - rise 2017

Research have shown that adults learn best when they have full control over their learning, but
somehow this is not an easy task for the educators especially when they are dealing with creative
subjects, especially animation. It is a broad area and involves with subjective contents, thus involving
students to think beyond the norms and ‘outside the box’. Without careful guidance, these students could
go haywire and create something against our local moral and cultural values. With appropriate
andragogical approach, armed with moral and cultural support from the educators, it is forecasted that
these young adults can perform better in their studies. Knowles (1980) called upon educators to employ a
seven step process in order to implement and capitalize upon the assumptions of andragogy. According to
Kearsley (2010) [3] these steps included :
1. Creating a cooperative peer-to-peer learning climate.
2. Planning goals and objectives.
3. Mutually diagnosing learner needs and interests.
4. Helping learners to formulate learning objectives based on their needs and individual interests.
5. Designing sequential activities to achieve these objectives.
6. Carrying out the design to meet objectives with selected methods, materials, and resources.
7. Evaluating the quality of the learning experience for the learner that included reassessing needs for
continued learning.

Apart from that seven steps, Knowles also underlines four basic principles in androgogy and
adults’ learning:
1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job
or personal life.
4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.

Furthermore, in the area of animation especially, the students’ centred learning is an ideal
approach whether it is for children or for adults. And when it involves with young adults, definitely, these
steps above are very practical and beneficial to promote a healthy and productive learning environment.

Personal Androgogical Adaptation from Knowles Androgogy Approach
Apart from those seven approaches discussed above, there are other few things that are important to
ponder upon. Therefore, in this section, we shall highlight and suggest several essential components in
developing the perception of healthy animation teaching in the classroom:

1. Make Students Aware Of Their Roles In Shaping The Community As Well As The Industry
Most of the students taking animation courses in the higher learning institutions are young adults, whose
age ranges from 19 to mid 20s, they are known to be very energetic, eager, very ambitious and full of
crazy ideas. They love to experiment with new things. Technical side of the work like special effects and
hyperealistic rendering are the sort of things that interest them a lot. If they are given the chance, they
would try to stretch it to the limit. Even though this is a good thing, at this age, these young people are at
the most critical point. At this time, they are very easy to be influenced by anything they see around
them. This is the time when they want to do things that appear most interesting to them. Violence and sex
become the things that they adore. Their role in society is often neglected.
Being an educator, it is very interesting to see how students develop their skills and talents to
create something creative and fun to watch. Therefore, it is the role of the educators to guide these eager
young brains to the right direction. They can do creative things as long as they bear in mind that their
animation should have certain values that are acceptable to the community around them. Social issues
and moral values need to be addressed carefully and thoughtfully. If these appropriate values can be
promoted through animation, this would bring tremendous impact to our local animation industry.
After years of experience teaching animation in Malaysian university, it is found out that our
animation industry would have a better future if we carefully nurture these talents and at the same time
encourage them to venture on something new whilst preserving the fine culture that eastern people are
well known of. We seldom realise that these young students are actually open for criticism and they
definitely need guidance. Even though from the outside, they look very defensive about their ideas and