bird adults contemplating university study at a distance

Abstract
This study identifies and explores a range of themes, issues and questions that commonly confront adults contemplating enrolment in university, and why they persist. The study focuses particularly on issues facing prospective adult distance education learners. From a range of interviews, six themes were identified including fears, motivation, support from home, academic preparedness, suitability of programs, and identity change.
It is argued that the more effective we become at information provision, guidance and preparation of adult pre-entry open and distance learners, the more likely students will experience a smooth transition to study, thus improving both student satisfaction and retention rates. Successful intervention with prospective distance education learners at this early point should aim to assist the process of informed decision making, which could result equally in an individual deciding not to pursue university study. The findings in this study should be particularly useful for those academics, course advisors, student counsellors, teachers in preparatory programs, and university information and support officers, and others who provide adult distance students, with pre-enrolment information and advice.

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/130/210

mijn notes:

• lange lijst met factoren die een rol spelen bij het succes van volwassenen studenten in het hoger onderwijs, bijv. predisposition and readiness for independent learning, impact of previous educational encounters, access to and confidence with computers
• er zijn interviews gedaan, eerst open daarna op bepaalde thema's die uit de eerste interviews kwamen. hieruit kwamen zes thema's: fears, motivation to succeed, support from home, academic preparedness, suitability of programs, identity change
• they key theme is that of motivation
• er staat een rijtje aanbevelingen die counsellors kan bespreken met toekomstige studenten

kasworm adult meaning making in the undergraduate classroom

This study explores adult undergraduate beliefs about their construction of knowledge in the classroom and the relationships between such knowledge and their adult roles outside the classroom. Five belief structures, called “knowledge voices,” were delineated from interviews with 90 adult students. These belief structures included the entry voice, the outside voice, the cynical
voice, the straddling voice, and the inclusion voice. Each of these five knowledge voices suggests a particular construction of the adult student learning world, perceptions of knowledge, and understandings of relationships between the collegiate classroom and the adult learners’worlds of work, family, self, and community.

https://eplace.han.nl/personal/lnde/Private%20Documents/dissertatie/literatuur/adultmeaningmaking.pdf

mijn notes

• er is eigenlijk weinig bekend over wat adult learners anders maakt.
• more complex and varied backgrounds of life experiences and prior knowledge and
  skills; complex educational histories; wide-ranging maturity levels, motivations,
  and attitudes; and limited time, resources, and access for collegiate engagement
  (Apps, 1981; Cross, 1981; Knowles, 1969).
• adult learning was viewed to be a self-regulatory process of struggling with the conflict between personal models of
  the world and discrepant new insights, constructing new representations and models
  of reality as a human meaning-making venture with culturally developed tools and
  symbols, and further negotiating such meaning through cooperative social activity,
  discourse, and debate. (p. ix)
• zeer relevant stuk om naast mijn vragenlijst te gebruiken. gaat meer in op de menselijke kant
• vijf voices hoe studenten betekenis gaven aan hun classroom learning: entry voiced, outside voice, cynical voice, straddling voice en inclusion voice (zie tabel 1).
• deze vijf stemmen zijn interessant. ze geven de manier waarop studenten hun opleiding ervaren en impliceren ook waarvoor ze wel en niet openstaan. het zou mooi zijn als ik deze kan combineren met mijn vragenlijst.
• zeker een aanrader.