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The Journey into Higher Education

The Journey into Higher Education. Liz Hoult National Teaching Fellow. Supporting the Transition into Higher Education for Mature Learners. ‘Non-traditional’ learners ‘Non-traditional’ backgrounds ‘Non-traditional’ routes. Who are the ‘non-traditional’ students?. Class Age Gender

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The Journey into Higher Education

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  1. The Journey into Higher Education Liz Hoult National Teaching Fellow

  2. Supporting the Transition into Higher Education for Mature Learners ‘Non-traditional’ learners ‘Non-traditional’ backgrounds ‘Non-traditional’ routes

  3. Who are the ‘non-traditional’ students? • Class • Age • Gender Defined by lack – ‘dis-identification’

  4. Mature Learners • Those aged 40 and over made up just 1.9% of the students accepted on undergraduate courses in 2004 (7,251 of 377,544 students) • The student complaints ombudsman (the Office of the Independent Adjudicator) revealed (June, 2005) that students over 40 are by far the most likely to turn to the watchdog with a grievance

  5. Educational Capital • Bourdieu (1989) sees class as being based on a model of capital: • Economic capital • Cultural capital • Social capital • Symbolic capital

  6. Challenges Facing Mature Learners • Practical concerns (access and support) Transitions • Local to regional • Internal to external • Domestic or professional to academic • Caring position to a critical one • School-aged learner to adult learner

  7. Educating Rita Transition to HE Why is Rita successful? • Her own resilience and resourcefulness • Her relationship with Frank • The institution

  8. How might the e- portfolio help Rita? • Internal resourcefulness and strength (provides a space for the student to articulate her resilience) • Her intrinsic motivation (a writing space to consider and record motivation) • Her relationship with Frank (informal, personal on-line support) • Both teacher and learner share an optimistic approach to her learning (action plans and clear path of learning)

  9. How might an e-portfolio help Rita? • Her understanding of meta-learning (provides learning styles and skills analysis tools) • She finds herself through learning (audits validate identity and previous knowledge) • Secure learning environment (secure, collaborative environment in which to practise)

  10. What are the challenges facing e-learning specialists? Perception that e-learning is an exclusive, expert interest because of: • Technical discourse • Perceived associations with youth • Perceived associations with masculinity • Uncertainty about the boundaries between public and private spheres

  11. Inter-generational experiences of higher education Who are the ‘new students’? Who are the ‘traditional students’?

  12. Youth, Age and e-learning • What is information technology for? • Who uses it most? • Who could most benefit from it?

  13. The generation gap • In UK and US the trend is towards more non-traditional students • “The implication is that campus populations today are quite different from those in the days when college and university decision makers were students.” Oblinger, D., (2003)

  14. Generations • Boomers – key experiences Vietnam, Watergate, space race, civil rights movement • Generation X – Chernobyl, fall of Berlin Wall, emergence of AIDs, Tiananmen Square • Millennials – born in or after 1982 – new technologies intrinsic to their life experiences

  15. Information-age mind-set • Computers aren’t technology (“To them the computer is not a technology – it is an assumed part of life”) • Internet is better than television • Reality is no longer real • Doing is more important than knowing • Typing is preferred to handwriting • Zero tolerance of delay • Consumer and creator are blurring (Frand, J., 2000)

  16. Implications for non-traditional learners • Patience supports deep level learning • Writing by hand – slows down use of technology • Knowledge is privileged and can be accessed in stages • This is much closer to the pedagogical/andragogical processes embedded in universities

  17. Building Capital • Mature learners bring with them enormous amounts of experience • Challenge is to harness that experience • Audit is a tool to do that • PETAL – personal information (including interests) • Education • Work history (paid and unpaid) • Action plans • Skills (including managing one’s own learning)

  18. Conclusions and Suggestions for Today • E-learning resources can be enormously liberating for mature students. • We need to consider the implications of the meanings that learners and potential learners will have constructed concerning e-learning. • The chain of audits can help learners construct a learning identity that can convert life experience into ‘capital’

  19. References Bourdieu, P., (1989) ‘Social Space and Symbolic Power’ Sociological Theory, 7, 14-25 Frand, J., 2000)‘The Information Age Mindset: Changes in Students an Implications for Higher Education,’ EDUCASE Review 35 no.5 (September/October) 15 – 24 Oblinger, D. (2003) ‘Boomers, Gen-Exers, Millennials’ EDUCASE Review, July/August 37-47

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