Essay: Main concern for Adult Learners who are returning to Higher Education

“Research is creating new knowledge.”
-Neil Armstrong.
Summary
This research report adopted a qualitative approach to collect data of concerns faced by adult learners who are returning to higher education. The very strength of qualitative conversation is its investigational detail. The researchers used open ended questions in an interview process to collect data and with the use of thematic analysis, identify themes within the results, leading to knowledge of the main concern.
Introduction
Over the past 20 years, student numbers have almost doubled. However, the number of mature students in both full and part time courses have declined drastically.
Dropping by more than 60% since 2010, a very concerning problem was evident.
At the start of their studies, an individual is considered a mature student if they are aged 21 or over. 22 years is the average age a student finishes their studies. Moreover, when starting their courses, mature students aged over 40 is at a low percentage of just 10%.
(Butcher, 2017). It is considered that the preferred way of referring to students in today’s society is as learners.
A piece of research was produced to gain knowledge and determine the main concern for adult learners when returning to higher education.
The natural part of being alive is the process of learning. The learning of new skills and making new outlooks to problems is natural and essentially fulfilling (Rogers, 2001).
Essential contrasts among adult and children learners include the way that most, however not all, adults may be presumed to have well-developed language and subjective capacities, which can be utilised favourably in teaching (Shaughnessy, 1977). Adults likewise, carry with them plenty of experience, which again can be developed to improve learning. Adult learners are additionally compelled to achieve specific educational outcomes, particularly those that are promptly relevant to their lives (Kerr, 1995).
However, adults’ past experience may result in presumptions and thoughts that go about as a barrier to their progress (Russell, 1999). In a general way, they are likely to have anxieties and fears associated with the education settings (Schweterman & Corey, 1989). Advancement in technology, the writing of essays their age gap away from education are examples of some barriers some may suffer from.
Literature Review
Helen Sabell (2017) stated that there are six concerns adult learners face when returning to study. Each are separated by a title name: Employment, Affordability, Age, Learning Advances, Employer Perceptions and Burning Out. Underneath said concerns, descriptions are stated involving information that may not be known by future learners. However, in addition, Sabell also notes information that gives awareness of how to address and overcome said concerns. ‘I’m too old to study’ shows ones age as a negative barrier. Whereas, ‘age is their greatest advantage,’ attains a positive quality and illustrates their experiences of the world and their knowledge gained from the importance of learning. This piece of research is dated from 2017 and is considered relevant and fairly up to date. Also, the source reference of this article is from The College for Adult Learning, reassuringly confidence is given in that the knowledge and information published is creditable, as it’s from an educational setting.
According to Caschera (2013), the three biggest challenges facing adult learners are balancing school and life, accessibility and costs. The realisation of how time management is essential when deciding to enter or re-enter education is evident in all aspects of living. ‘The Balancing Act’ is detrimental to the success of progression, but many adult learners have family and work obligations. Furthermore, these ‘additional responsibilities can lead to stress and frustration for adult learners.’ It is then considered that accessibility is linked to time commitments and therefore attendance to classes may become more difficult during the regular course timetable, as employment and childcare may cause conflict. In turn, reluctance in the pursuit of higher education may occur. The long-term cost of higher education can also have a major impact on adult learners living situations.
However, knowledge of these concerns is being addressed by many educational institutes, resulting in more flexible options being made.
Moreover, positive information is given first and then the concerns are then listed after, giving the backward impression that the concerns are the dominant issues. Concerns therefore may not have occurred to some adult learners and still may not have any effect on further studies.
This piece of literature is written by London Council for Adult Education Co-chairperson and can therefore be assumed valid. However, 2013 is time restricted when it comes to society adaptions, making the information less noteworthy.
According to Bishop-Clark (cited by Milheim, 2005) the awareness of the most apparent problems adult students has included their overall discomfort , different orientations towards their professors, having different learning styles and holding hostility between age groups.
Personal life barriers, financial responsibilities and different learning styles are known as the wide variety of characteristics in adult learners, compared to a traditional student.
However, these barriers can be overcome by the aid of the educational institution and the course tutors, as it’s their responsibility to do so by any means. Thus, resulting in the learner feeling comfortable and welcomed when they return to the classroom.
The disadvantage of this journal article is the date it was published. Consequently, 2005 is outdated in terms with the adaptation movements of modern technologies, bearing witness to limited evidence of change.
From reviewing these 3 literature pieces, the similarities are evident in that the main concern is not established.
Discussion and the development of research questions were created following these to make the main concern confirmedly known. From this discovery, the researchers created an open titled question to ask individuals who they knew were thinking about going back into studying higher education.
Method
Design research
Devised by part of a group created by four researchers, 5 questions were prepared to find out what the main concern was to adult learners who were returning to higher education. All questions were operationalised in the making of the interviews being conducted in the same manner. Moreover, making them internally consistent and valid for ease of direct comparison of the achieved results.
While all methods were available, interviews were chosen for use as they are the most effective for opinions to be given, helping create in depth qualitative data being gathered and supported.
When gathering information for a study, researchers frequently use questionnaires on the grounds that they are more financially variable, time-productive and simple to assess objectively. Disregarding these advantages, questionnaires have numerous insufficiencies.
In addition, participants generally complete questionnaires without assistance from the researcher, making it difficult to know whether the participant understands the questions being asked, social desirability may occur here, giving false responses. When carrying out the interview however, the participant can ask for clarification if they don’t understand a question.
All things considered, researchers regularly use interviews over questionnaires, as close interactive meetings can give more detailed data about the participants answers, allowing researchers to collect non-verbal data.
Conduct and Participants
Choice of setting for the structured interview was in a controlled environment. Researcher and chosen participant were present only. Each researcher asked one participant that was known to them. There were no exclusion criteria present.
With the purpose of writing up transcript word for word, considerations to ethics was evident in the recording of the interview process, as permission was asked for and given prior.
The researchers ensured participants were fully aware of the purpose of the research and understood their rights. It was designed for these to be read out at the start of the interviews, explaining that participation is voluntary and that they are free to refuse to answer any questions and may withdraw from the interview at any time. Likewise, deletion of the interview recordings after the data was analysed was made known for their protection.
Results
Q1. Do you have family or outside responsibilities?
It was found that the 2 participants have different family lives. Participant 1 has no children and participant 2 has three.
Q2. How long have you been out of education and why is now your chosen time to return or thinking of returning?
Different amount of time separates each of the participants in how long each has been away from education. Participant 1 has been out for 5 years and participant 2 has been in and out of education during the last year.
Q3. Have you looked in depth at your chosen area of study and do you feel you are able to manage the workload and time management that is needed?
Knowledge was known to participant 2 who has studied previous in the chosen area of study and is aware of the workload it requires. However unaware of the course details, participant 1 has concerns over the workload. Time management is highly apparent to be a concern as participant 2 has family commitments and participant 1 has an active social life which will create difficulties for studying.
Q4. Are you able to financially support yourself and if so, by what means? Also, did the cost of your chosen course hinder your decision in anyway?
Neither of the participants have concerns when it comes to the cost of their chosen areas of study, as both participants have jobs. Moreover, participant 1 has previous application success from student finance giving positive support.
Q5. Do you adapt well to new environments and to new peers?
Having jobs in the public sector, the participants both have well developed people skills and are ok when in new environments.
Discussion
The primary information collected during the researchers direct observations of participants, being the production of interview transcripts is un-biased, as the researcher collected it themselves, giving them more control in the data being original.
Nonetheless, participants may have unknowingly held back information or might have given answers that they thought would give the known researcher what they wanted and/or needed to hear. On the other hand, some answers were not as detailed, this could have been due to withholding information due to the knowing of each other.
The data was reported in the language of the participant and was analysed by themes from the description given.
When using thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), several themes were identified:
Theme 1- Both participants have jobs and can financially support themselves.
Theme 2- Both are concerned with their time management.
Theme 3- No problems were mentioned from either, when adapting to new peers or environments.
Theme 4- Both have active family and social lives, making the workload a concern for both.
The main concern was identified as time management and workload based on the summary of the similarities and differences from both interviews.
Additional support of this result can be found in the wider reading journal articles published by Burston (2017), Anderson et al (2017) and Graham (2015).
In accordance with the literature review articles, each acknowledged the main concern of time management but considered it was not the primary concern.
Furthermore, by not using a leading title question, the research data was considered non-subjective, which in regard made strength in providing qualitative data accessible.
Then again, the word ‘concern’ wasn’t suggestible in each question, therefore not focused upon to influence answers. This made the advantage of forming a conclusion more viable.
However, by carrying out the interviews, advantages of using open questions resulted in rich and detailed data being collected.
What is more, differences arose within the result similarly. Participant 1 has no in-depth knowledge of the course only brief information known. Whereas participant 2 has previous experience from starting the course prior, therefore knowledge is apparent.
Weaknesses in the research was evident by the barrier that was found in relation to gathering results from each researcher, evident by only 2 interviews being conducted, transcribed and provided for thematic analysis within the time period.
What’s more, made the results limited and refutes the validity of them as more data could have been analysed and used to narrow down the themes.
Results were also different in the area of the age difference of the participants. More life experience was evident from one participant than the other.
The interviews were conducted before the adult learners had started to study. This gives weakness to procedure because the participants were asked for knowledge of concerns provided by the open questions, of which were unknown to them. Results would’ve been very different as actual knowledge would be known and not assumed.
Conclusion
The reasoning for using an open question in the foundation of this report was to get an overall view of what concerns the participants had without leading them to biased answers.
The strategy of the procedure was to give light to the discovery of what the main concern is for adult learners when returning to higher education, while taking into account all aspects of life obligations.
Reference list
Anderson, A., Johnston, B., & McDonald, A. (2014). Patterns of learning in a sample of adult returners to education, Journal of Further and Higher Education. 38(4), pp. 536-552.
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British Psychological Society (n.d.) ‘Ethical principles for conducting research with human participants’. Retrieved from: http://bps.org.uk/ documents/code/pdf.
Burston, M. A. (2017) I work and don’t have time fir that theory stuff: time poverty and higher education, Journal of Further and Higher Education. 41(4), pp. 516-529.
Butcher, J. (2017). There has been a massive drop in the number of mature students studying at UK universities. Retrieved from: http://theconversation.com/there-has-been-a-massive-drop-in-the-number-of-mature-students-studying-at-uk-universities-83180.
Caschera, K. (2013). Three Most Significant Challenges Facing Adult Students. Retrieved from: https://evolllutiom.com/opinions/significant-challenges-facing-adult-students/
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Appendices
Question 1
Do you have any family or outside responsibilities? Can you elaborate?
Question 2
How long have you been out of education and why is now your chosen time to return?
Question 3
Have you looked in depth at your chosen area of study and do you feel you are able to manage the workload and time needed?
Question 4
Are you able to financially able to support yourself? If so, by what means? Also, did the cost of this course hinder your decision in anyway?
Question 5
Do you adapt well to new environments and new peers?