LEARNING FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IN FOLK HIGH SCHOOLS

Nowadays in the field of andragogy, there is a significant transition from learning as a merely cognitive phenomenon to a more comprehensive approach, defining learning as a process of whole person development. Thus this study has its focus on sharing the experience of good practice for promoting adults’ personal development at six folk high schools in Latvia and Denmark. Observations have taken place since June 2011 till December 2012. All in all fifty six days of formal and informal activities were transcribed as field notes within different subjects as Danish, Latvian, Pottery, Philosophy, Self-development, Music, Yoga, Diet class etc. Data analysis were provided by AQUAD 6.0 (Huber, 2003) using mix-methods approach, combining conceptual codes and open coding. Main results show, that the most appropriate pedagogical circumstances of learning for personal development are those, where adults can develop themselves through body, mind and emotional activity and where 1) person has been treated as a value him/herself, 2) person’s values are the main focus and 3) high-/democratic values fulfill study process.