Barriers in Adult Learning - Essay Example

?Barriers to adult learning opportunities in the setting Introduction Going back to the setting for continuing an education that was prematurely interrupted has become a more and more crucial part of combating the declining economy of recent years. Adult learners are seeking to continue their education for a variety of reasons, although most of those reasons are defined by socio-economic factors that have put them in the position of having to educate their way into a better work situation with better remuneration. In acting on this need, the adult learner will find that there are obstacles to going back to school, some of which will be anticipated, but others which will create a surprising result. While real life obstacles of a financial variety, including childcare issues and spousal resistance may come into conflict with ambitions, the unexpected feeling of being aged out and inappropriate to the social setting may have more impact than expected. The following study is intended to critically evaluate the literature in order to assess the problems that adult learners will face when going back to school. Through secondary research review, the project will provide contest for the nature of the phenomenon of the adult learner, thus creating a discourse on the identity issues that will result from the choice to go back to school after an absence in between which life has taken place. 1.1 Background The barriers that exist to adult learning can be defined by a great number of categories, through aspects of social classifications, medical classifications, and through aspects of cognitive development as it affects age. Issues of class, race, gender and disability can contribute to problems that might arise as those issues in combination with generational gaps can create issues that many students will not have to address. The number of ways in which an adult learner will be affected in a classroom setting can equal the number of ways in which the adult learner diverts from the socialization of the common, age specific learner in a university setting. According to Podsen (2002: 18) there are four specific areas that will affect an adult learner: Adults are self-directing and desire to be in charge of their learning, including the content time and effort. Adults’ prior life experiences play a key role in their learning activities, and they rely on these experiences as a resource from which they can learn new things. Adults have distinctive learning styles, with their routines and strategies for processing information already established. Adults pass through various developmental stages, and this impacts the types and methods of learning in which they will engage. However, these advantages have their disadvantaged counterparts, creating barriers that are designed through the social status of an adult over a young adult who is still within the framework of the support of a family. As an adult learner, the support system that is in place for most young adults will more than likely not be relevant to the adutl learner with more years of life experience. While learning will be easier under many course objectives, financial pressures, home life stressors, lack of parental support, and child care necessities will complicate the process. With a developed life experience ‘portfolio’ lying underneath the experiences of an adult, the pressures that can distract for the efforts towards achievement provide a different framed experience in a learning institution than that of a young adult learner. Additionally, the social structure of a learning institution is constructed to support the socialization of young adults, thus leaving older students out of an important aspect of university life. Therefore, the pressures on an adult learner are far different than those of a young adult learner, creating a diverted atmosphere than the one that has been created by the university. 1.2 Research Questions The following research questions have been used to frame the discussion of adult learners in a university setting in order to provide structure and context to the information that has been collected. 1. What are the primary factors that create differences between adult learners and learners who have continued their education from childhood into young adulthood without a break in attendance? 2. What are the advantages to being an adult learner? 3. What are the disadvantages to being an adult learner? 4. How does cognitive development relate to adult learning capacities? 5. How do social identifiers and experience relate to adult learning capacities? 6. What recommendations can be made towards defining a better experience for adult learners in the university setting? Through the focused discussions of these topics, patterns will emerge that provide for context in which the adult learner engages in obstacles and advantages in returning to an educational experience after an absence. Hypotheses Null Hypothesis: Adult learners will experience unique issues that provide a different experience in learner to that of the young adult learner who has had no break in his or her academic career. Alternative Hypothesis: An adult learner experiences no more or less obstacles and advantages than the average young adult learner who has had no break in his or her academic career. 1.3 Key Terms Andragogy: The defined process in which adult learners approach learning. The study of the way in which adult learners learn, and strategies that support their efforts. Pedagogy: Strategies and theories that are developed for child learning. Adult Learner: For the purposes of this study, an adult learner will be a student who has taken a break within their academic career and has returned to continue their education in the university setting. Young Adult Learner: For the purposes of this study, a young adult learner will be defined by a student who has had no break in his or her academic career. 1.4 Summary The nature of a returning adult learning experience is one of recapturing a lost portion of their academic career, while at the same time experiencing a disconnection from the experience due to gaps that are defined by socially driven issues, the first of which is age. This study has been devoted to learning about the ways in which returning adults learners are different than young adult learners, and how those differences create advantages and challenges that make the university experience different within the framework of an adult learning experience. The research was conducted by looking at the relative literature in order to provide a framework for a discussion. The methodology will be discussed, and then the study will move forward towards developing an understanding of answers to the research questions that have framed the study through a discussion and conclusion. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Introduction The topic of andragogy was introduced by Malcolm Knowles in the early 1970s as defining differences in the way that children learn next to those ways in which adults learn. According to Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (2005: 1), the topic of andragogy has been defined as “a set of guidelines (Merriam, 1993), a philosophy (Pratt, 1993), a set of assumptions (Brookefield, 1986), and a theory (Knowles, 1989)”. However, the intention of the study of andragogy is to differentiate between a child learner and an adult learner in order to respect the appreciatable differences and provide context for learning strategies aimed at assisting the adult learner. Not all researches believe that there are differences between child learning and adult learning. Derbyshire (1993: 328) suggests that “the distinction between andragogy and pedagogy is spurious and based upon assumptions that are tenable”. The nature of pedagogy versus andragogy may lie within the type of learner rather than the age of the learner, thus meaning that “Andragogy relies on the learner engaging in self-directed learning” (Neary 2002: 65). This means that the type of learning may be defined by the type of learner, the teenager being engaged by independent means of learning, where the adult learner becomes more successful through pedagogical learning strategies. However, the discussion of strategies of learning as defined by age does not engage the other problems that an adult learner will have over a young adult learner. While the debate over pedagogy/andragogy has provided a framework for learning strategies in which age is related to learning style, and while those differences can be as far from age related as is actualized maturity, the nature of life experience is that it will develop in one direction or another, thus changing the experience of an adult learner from that of a young adult learner. Even though life experiences will differ greatly from one learner to the other, the effect that they have on returning to learning institution will remain divergent from those experienced by a young adult learner. 2.2 Advantages to Adult Learners Podsen (2002: 16) states that “teaching adults requires the utilization of a process model rather than a content approach”. Adults will learn through their own self-driven motivations that are developed through self-directed processes that provide context for the information that is being learned. Children need to be lead to the information, the teacher controlling the learning frameworks in order to provide content that has yet to be relevant to much of the real life context of the child. Because much of what an adult learner experiences in the classroom is in context to experiences in life, the information can sometimes be more easily learned (See Appendix 1). According to Milligan (1995: 22) the “key elements of andragogy might be summarized as thus: facilitation of adult learning that can best be achieved through a student-centered approach that, in a developmental manner, enhances the student’s self concept, promotes autonomy, self-direction and critical thinking, reflects on experience, and involves the learner in the diagnosis, planning, enaction, and evaluation of their own learning needs”. The adult learner is centralized on the learning process, thus a responsibility for learning provides a deeper experience of the event. The child learner is more often centered on pleasing the authority figure, the learning happens as a consequence of that desire to please. Therefore, strictly from a standpoint of learning, it appears that the adult learning has the advantage over pedagogical learning strategies. 2.3 Disadvantages to Adult Learners The expectations of an adult learner in a classroom setting will be that they have developed the skills to learn through self-directed, independent learning. However, despite the division that is made through age issues between pedagogy and andragogy, age is not necessarily the dividing line between the way in which people learn. According to Jarvis (1995: 91), a better way of thinking about the study of adult learning strategies is to eliminate age from the equation and study “a human theory of learning not a theory of ‘child learning’, adult learning’ or ‘elderly learning’”. Although this theory has not had a great deal of acceptance, because of the broad usage of terms and the inability to create much in the ways of definitions, Knowles has re-examined his position and stated that “some pedagogical assumptions are realistic for adults in some situations and some andragogical assumptions are realistic for children in some situations “ (Jarvis 1995: 91). Thus, the beginnings of the issues that adult learners will experience begins with assumptions about the way in which to approach learning from the point of view of instructors who make assumptions about andragogy. However, despite the appearance of andragogical advantages and the problems that can come from learners who do not have the skills of the average adult learner, there are far more difficult issues that can impede the progress of an adult learner. Podsen (2002: 20) lists the following barriers to adult learning issues. They include: Concurrent role responsibilities (family, career, social, political commitments). Lack of time and/or money Lack of childcare Scheduling problems Transportation problems Insufficient confidence Having to learn, if mandated, but not interested or ready When the necessity for continued education is presented, the nature of the adult learner is to find a way around such obstacles. However, it does not negate the impact and importance of these problems. The ability to navigate these particular obstacles is dependent upon the resources that are available to provide for solutions that are viable and sustainable. However, beyond these rudimentary problems that have tangible solutions that can be implemented, there are social issues that affect the ability of an adult learner. 2.4 Social Issues that affect Adult Learners Sheared and Sissel (2001: 264) confront the theories of Knowles for not addressing the social issues that are involved in education by stating that “He also failed to focus on learning in community as a social engagement where history, culture and politics matter in processes of making meaning and planning action as reflective, informed activities”. In studying the nature of anthology, Knowles failed to include the space of educational learning in his discussion. Sheared and Sissel (2001: 265) continue their discourse on the nature of adult learning through discovering the concept of disenfranchisement as the learner must re-engage into a society within which they have essentially aged out. Sheared and Sissel (2001: 265) state that “politics of disenfranchisement work to deny us individual expressive spaces and they exclude us from participation in debate and decision making in education and society”. The space in which education takes place is a space in which a culture is developed, one that is defined by demographics that work to create a community. When someone from outside of the demographics comes into the setting, integration can be difficult, creating problems in the educational space, and disparities in the experiences that are offered from one group to another. On the other hand, however, the nature of the adult learner is defined by being anchored in such a way that a young adult learner is typically not fastened in life. Fogarty and Pete (2004: 27) suggest that “Adults’ readiness to learn is anchored to developmental tasks that are necessary for their social roles”. In other words, the social center of the adult learner’s world will be the home setting, where this might not be true for the average young adult learner. Where the social setting of university will be the center of the social world of the young adult learner, the home life takes center stage for the adult learner. Therefore, the locus of philosophical center of the learner might be influenced by the nature of his social center. This can change the lesson that is learned within the classroom, creating a space where different learners are coming to an understanding of different things. It can be thought of this way. The adult learner hears a piece of knowledge and relates it to what has happened in their experience, where a young adult learner will learn a piece of knowledge that they must retain in order to utilize it later in life when it becomes more relevant. With the social space being different, the way the information is absorbed can be very different, and the way in which it is related and connectivity to other knowledge is established will be very different. 2.5 Gender Class and Age According to Sarkodie - Mensah (2000: 88) “the mature, reentry student must not only construct an identity for him or herself within an institution that caters to the ‘traditional student’ and assumes him or her to be the typical ‘adult learner’, but the mature student must also battle the other identity constructs at work in his or her life”. The formation of identity is a mixture of elements that provide context for experiences that are related through roles within culture. A university creates a new culture in which to find a role. As the many different aspects of life, gender, race, class, etc. that make up the social identity come into play within this new setting, struggling with being an outsider to the process may create problems identifying with the new role as a student. Sarkodie-Mensah (2000:88) states that “once in the academic setting, and upon facing evidence of the ’traditional student’ discourse, the adult student must grapple with feelings of conflict and discontinuity in his or her attempts to fashion an identity out of the discourse with which he/she may identify”. Issues of preconceived identities as they affect the learning experience can be appreciated through the example of foreign nationals as they attempt to integrate into educational situations. According to Gboku, Lekoko and McClellan (2007: xii) when considering adult learning strategies for foreign nationals, in this case, African based identities, they must “consider the subject of programme development for adult learners in African contexts”. This is because the way in which one culture approaches education is far different from another. This can be related to the work of Knowles on androgogy as he is an American coming from the cultural ;educational system of the United States, which is different than that of the United Kingdom. In taking the analogy further, the social construction of an adult life is very different than that of a young adult who has yet to integrate into working and domestic adult society, thus the identity and culture is very different. Therefore, sliding an adult learner into a university culture is like bringing a foreign national into a new location. The cultural connectivity will be tenuous and difficult to establish, thus creating a gap in the nature of learning within the institution. 2.6 The need for adult learning strategies Adult learning is not just about providing university level educations later in life. Illiteracy is a serious problem in the United Kingdom. According to A Fresh Start (2011) “Something like one adult in five in this country is not functionally literate and far more people have problems with numeracy”. This represents over 7 million English citizens who have a need for additional education in order to allow them communicative access to the greater community. The project, chaired by Sir Claus Moser, calls for a national strategy for ending illiteracy. However, this indicates that educational lacks are occurring previous to adulthood, suggesting that learning strategies need improvement at the first level of educational experience. 2.6 Summary Two levels of learning have been identified in relation to the topic. Pedagogy is a level of understanding about the way in which a child learns and the strategies that are implemented to address the strengths and limitations of the child learner, where andragogy addresses those of the adult learner. The adult learner has the advantage of both experience and motivation to create a self-directed learning situation, which is a bit different than that of the young adult who is continuing their education. 3. Methodology 3.1 Introduction For the purposes of this study, a literature is being used to frame the nature of the discussion. The literature that has been used has been discovered through internet searches of Google Books and relevant academic databases in order to provide current information to inform the work. The literature review will provide context for answering the questions that have been presented, thus supporting an understanding of the ways in which the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis have been supported. 3.1. Secondary Research This study has been conducted through a review of current literature in order to provide the best overall understanding of the research questions. Through the use of previously studied academic literature, the study can find answers to the questions through positions that academic scholars have drawn due to study of the topic and relatable topics, in question. Within this framed experience, the nature of the study will be defined by secondary information that has been developed through multiple disciplines. In looking at the problem through previous research that represents a multitude of disciplines, conclusions can be drawn that approach answering the framing questions of the study. 3.2 Theoretical Approach The secondary research has been investigated for common themes and ideas the emerge, thus creating a critical overview of the problem. In researching the secondary literature, theories on humanistic approaches were used in order to frame the discussion. Through the “humanistic approaches to theory and research, centering our discussion on beliefs about human nature, the goal of theory, the development of theory, the focus of research, and the research methods used”, the literature was searched for meaning within the experiences that were developed by academic researchers (Dainton and Zelley 2005: 22). 3.3 Summary In order to create a critical overview of the topic, the literature was overviewed and searched for relevant content that emerged through similar thematic concepts. Through the meanings that could be developed through a humanistic approach to the experiences of adult learning, the nature of the phenomenon have been developed into a theory that is aimed to support the null hypothesis. 4. Discussion The topic of barriers to education for adult learners is a personal topic that this researcher has developed through personal experience. Coming into a university setting provides a new environment in which the sense of self is challenged as the young contribute to the classroom in a different way than do the older participants. The nature of how concepts are absorbed is very different, thus the nature of the knowledge is ‘boiled in a different stew’ so to speak. There is much about life that will contribute to the nature of learning, thus the adult learner has an advantage over the young adult learners who are in the process of having a continuous education. The idea of how an adult learner will be self-directed in comparison to a young adult learner is tenuous. Some young adult learners will be self-directed, but others will still be stuck in lower level educations philosophies and expect that the tutor will provide content and that the context is immaterial to the knowledge as it will be put in context later in life. Some adult learners never learned how to participate in education, therefore their level of andragogy is not going to meet the standards that theorists have put forth (see Appendix 1). Regardless of the kind of learner that the adult can become within the setting, the social aspects of being part of a university setting provides a discord within the identity, thus making the experience slightly off for the adult learner. This is most likely because the university educational space is intended for a specific age group, thus the social aspect, the identity roles, and the nature of socialization at that university level is not intended for a student who has married, had children, held a full time long term job, or left the educational setting for a period of time. This disparity between the experience levels of young adult learners and adult learners provides a contextual difference in the way in which knowledge is addressed, thus creating issues that can become barriers between students and the event of learning. Social identities and roles are hard to define and since participation in classroom activities is vital for properly gaining the elements of the education that is required, this can create a large barrier between the student and the education. Bibliography A Fresh Start (2011). Improving literacy and numeracy. A Fresh Start. Retrieved from http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/mosergroup/ Darbyshire, P. (October 1993). In defense of pedagogy: A critic of the notion of andragogy. Nursing Education Today. Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 328-335. Dainton, Marianne, and Elaine D. Zelley. 2005. Applying communication theory for professional life: a practical introduction. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. Fogarty, Robin, and Brian M. Pete. 2004. The adult learner: some things we know. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Gboku, M. L. S., Rebecca Nthogo Lekoko, and Mark McClellan. 2007. Developing programmes for adult learners in Africa. Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. Jarvis, Peter. (1995). Adult and continuing education: Theory and practice. London: Routledge. Knowles, Malcolm S., Elwood F. Holton, and Richard A. Swanson. (2005). The adult learner: the definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Burlington, MA [etc.]: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann. Merriam, S. B. and Caffarella, R. S. (1991)Learning in Adulthood. A comprehensive guide, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Milligan, F. (1994) In defense of andragogy. Nursing Education Today. Vol. 15, pp. 22-27. Neary, Mary. 2002. Curriculum studies in post-compulsory and adult education: a study guide for teachers and student teachers. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Podsen, India. (2002). Teacher retention: what is your weakest link? Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education. Sarkodie - Mensah, Kwasi. (2000). Reference services for the adult learner: Challenging issues for the traditional and technological era. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Sheared, Vanessa, and Peggy A. Sissel. 2001. Making space: merging theory and practice in adult education. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Appendix 1 Comparison Between Children and Adult Learning Characteristics Assumptions Children Adults Learner’s Concept Dependent Independent - Self-directed Learner’s Experience Limited in resource learning Rich in resource learning Learner’s Readiness Based on physical, mental, and social development Based on need Relevancy Later Application Immediate Application Curriculum Subject centered, teacher directed Problem centered, collaborative, informal, respective to job Planning By the teacher Mutual between facilitator and adult Determination of needs By the teacher Mutual and self-diagnosis Lesson Design Sequenced in terms of subject matter, content-focused Sequenced in terms of needs, problem -focused Activities Transmittal of information and skills Experiential techniques, realistic and authentic to what is required on the job Evaluation By the teacher Mutual with self-monitoring and action planning follow-up Read More