Barriers to participation in adult learning Essay

Barriers to participation in adult learning - Essay Example 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 a spects 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 routi nes 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