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Profile of the Adult Learner

Excerpts from a white paper written by Domi Enders and Dr. Matthew Vaughan titled "Adult Learning Literature Review" and completed under the supervision of Dr. Brian Dashew in the Fall of 2018.

This section of the white paper seeks to present a portrait of adult learners (sometimes referred to as ‘non-traditional students’), including their peers at CUSPS. This variegated portrait draws upon industry data, academic research, and CUSPS student entry data from Fall 2017.

    Being a leader in higher education is going to mean being a leader in adult learning.

    Eduventures, 2008

    Adult students have many identities, and their motivations for enrolling in graduate programs are equally diverse. They may be attending full-time or part-time, working full-time as professionals, and may have other significant responsibilities outside of school. They may be in the process of acquiring English as a second language. In addition, they may struggle with digital or technological literacy. For any combination of these reasons, it is generally known that adult learners face unique challenges as students. These include work/life/study balance, time management, balancing classroom friendships with professional relationships, scheduling conflicts between work and school, cultural displacement, and academic readiness. For online students, there is also the challenge of transactional distance from other students and from the institution. It is important for educators, designers, and faculty to understand these challenges and to develop strategies to ensure they don’t become barriers to student success.

    Here are some findings you might find interesting:

    • 91% of CUSPS students enroll for career-related reasons (CUSPS survey data, 2017). In response to the question ‘Why are you pursuing this degree’?, our internal data shows that 40% seek to acquire new knowledge in their chosen field; 28% wish to advance their career; close to 7% would like to change their career; and 6% left this question blank (from which we might draw any number of inferences). How should these variations in career-related motives influence the design of our courses and student services?

    • Adult learners are highly motivated to learn, because “they have a clear vision of what they want to do after they graduate and are confident in obtaining their dream” (Wagschal, K., 1997, p.22).

    • Adult learners themselves are important resources for activating and incorporating rich experiences into the teaching material – making content more relevant. The education of adult learners, therefore, has to go beyond the transmission of knowledge from one person to the next, moving to helping persons to direct and manage their own learning.

    • Adults are competency-based learners wanting to apply new skills or knowledge to their circumstances: that is “they are task motivated” (Kenner and Weinerman, 2011, p.89).

    • Adults use their life experiences as a scaffolding for learning. They tend to learn more through discussion and problem solving than through passive listening.

    • Adult learners face unique challenges as students (Caschera, K., 2013). These can include work/life/study balance, time management, balancing classroom friendships with professional relationships, scheduling conflicts between work and school, cultural displacement, and academic readiness. For online students, there is also the challenge of transactional distance from other students and from the institution. Are we able to accommodate or address these challenges at SPS?

    • Our student population features a significant cross-cultural mix of students from around the world. 34% of our students are citizens of countries other than the US (of these, 65% are from the People’s Republic of China). This might well have something to say to our pedagogy and pedagogical sensibilities. What can we learn from non‐Western perspectives on teaching and learning?

    Having completed a first round of research on adult learners at CUSPS, organized it into digestible chunks, and analyzed a bit of data collected about our students has brought us to a new set of questions, including:

    • How should this research inform the design of our courses and course activities?

    • How else can we gain insights into what, why, and how students learn and develop as professionals at CUSPS?

    • What role could learning analytics, focus groups, and surveys play in helping us assess the quality of the student learning experience and the efficacy of our course designs, our support strategies, our education technology implementations?

    • Is it possible to evaluate student satisfaction with course design (vs. delivery)?

    • Are graduates achieving the career goaIs that bring them to seek further education at CUSPS?

    We hope these questions and others will be probed and discussed in various units of Academic Affairs throughout this academic year. 

    For more information about this research project, or to start a conversation on this topic, please contact Domi Enders or Matthew Vaughan.

    References

    1. Columbia University School of Professional Studies (2017). Student Profile Data, Fall 2017
    2. Kenner, C., and Weinerman, J. (2011) “Adult learning theory: Applications to Non-Traditional College Students.” Journal of College Reading and Learning. 41.2. pp. 87-96.
    3. Caschera, K. (2013). Three most significant challenges facing adult students. Retrieved from https://evolllution.com/opinions/significant-challenges-facing-adult-students/
    4. Wagschal, K. (1997). “I Became Clueless Teaching The GenXers.” Adult Learning, 8(4), 21-25

    Interested in Learning More?

    Explore the CUSPS Adult Learning Literature Review (October, 2018)