Degrees of Learning: Researching Adult Students and Lecturers Perspectives on Teaching

Research, Teaching and Learning: making connections in the education of adultsPapers from the 28th Annual SCUTREAConference

Degrees of learning: researching adult students’ and lecturers’ perspectives on teaching and learning in university

Barbara Merrill, University of Warwick, UK

Introduction

Adults entering university have to learn and adapt to a new social situation. Mature students generally begin university life with high expectations of what learning, and more specifically, a university degree can do to their lives in relation to personal development and employment. A university education and the role of being a student are experiences that also need to be demystified. Adult students have to present the self in lectures and seminars and quickly learn the student role:

We can, and I think must, look upon human life as chiefly a vast interpretive process in which people singly and collectively, guide themselves by defining objects, events and situations which they encounter (Blumer, 1956: 686).

In developing the learner role a workable definition of the situation is created whereby new norms, values and behaviours are internalised while at the same time acting upon a new social world to shape an adult student career:

Actions do not thus simply follow from the norms and the role expectations associated with a particular group, but upon the interpretations made by actors of their experience within their world (Urry, 1970: 360).

Adult students do not act in a vacuum. Lecturers and, to a lesser extent, younger students impact upon their learning. While how adults learn is well documented (Knowles, 1984, Brookfield, 1986) little is known about the interaction of adult students and lecturers in the learning situation of a university. This paper, using a case study of the University of Warwick, examines the learning and teaching experiences of adult students and lecturers. Part-time, full-time and 2+2 students were included in this study (2+2 degrees are aimed specifically at adults). Lecturers in the following departments were interviewed: Biological Sciences, Arts Education, Law and Sociology.

In making sense of the adult students’ learning and lecturers ‘ teaching experiences and interaction in the ‘classroom’ I draw upon the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism; in particular the work of Goffman and Becker. Using this perspective provides an analytical framework in which the dynamics of structure and agency can be discussed and examined.

The Learning Experience: Lectures, Seminars and Assessment

Participants arrived at Warwick with preconceived ideas about teaching styles at university. For those whose educational experience was limited to initial schooling there was, therefore, an assumption that teaching would resemble the didactic and formal approaches used in schools. ‘When I first came I thought it was going to be like school - teacher tells you what you do and you do it’ (Helen). For a minority it was a shock to discover that they were not going to be spoon-fed. They had to learn to become independent in their learning approaches:

At first getting use to a lecture/seminar environment was very strange. The education I had I was really spoon-fed and its such a transition to come into a university environment and its sort of well there’s a question, go off and just do it (Jenny).

Participants were asked about their attitudes towards lectures and seminars, and to what extent these aided learning. Attitudes varied as to whether or not lectures or seminars were preferred. The critical factor pivoted on the teaching skills of the lecturer rather than the different teaching contexts of lectures and seminars. For 2+2 students the situation was different as they compared lecture and seminar styles between the FE college and university.

Initially the first concern with lectures was to demystify and decode the academic discourse used in all disciplines. For example, ‘I wondered what on earth I was doing here because of the language used but I persevered and now I enjoy it’. Another student declared that listening to lectures was like ‘being on another planet at first’. Once this obstacle had been overcome lectures were generally viewed useful as a tool and framework for guiding one’s own learning. Getting use to learning through lectures and seminars was part of the socialisation process of becoming a student. Becker and Strauss’s ( 1956, 1970) work on adult socialisation provides a useful comparison for understanding how adults adapt to institutional settings:

The person, as (s)he moves in and out of a variety of social situations, learns the requirements of continuing in each situation and of success in it. If (s)he has a strong desire to continue, the ability to assess accurately what is required, the individual turns himself into the kind of person the situation demands (Becker and Strauss, 1970: 279).

Goffman’s (1961) study, ‘Asylums’ offers greater insight as he identifies two stages to the processes of dealing with institutional life: primary and secondary adjustment. Although it is looking at inmates in a total institution the conceptual framework is applicable to the mature students in this study. On entering Warwick they had to ‘learn the ropes’ of being a learner. This is primary adjustment. Once this had been acquired the adult students, in a similar way to the inmates in Asylums, used their new knowledge to manipulate the system to their advantage, such as getting seminar times changed. Goffman describes this as:

...secondary adjustments, defining these as any habitual arrangement by which a member of an organization employs unauthorized means, or obtains unauthorized ends, or both, thus getting round the organization’s assumptions as to what he should do and get and hence what he should be (Goffman, 1961: 172).

Many students adopted an instrumental approach to lectures: they clarified the issues and provided a coherent structure for essay writing and material for examinations. In particular they provide a valuable introduction to a new topic.

For part-time students obtaining concise information for essays and examinations was an important objective of lectures, as time is a critical factor. One person explained that ‘some lectures are dynamic and I come out of them feeling really good’. However, not all participants shared favourable opinions about lectures. Some were critical of the ability of some lecturers to teach. In critiquing lecturers’ teaching styles they were indirectly presenting their perspectives on what constitutes good pedagogy for adult students:

Some lectures are not very well structured and delivered. It creates a sense of confusion and anxiety because you do not understand what the lecturer is trying to explain (Lynne).

The quality of a lecture, therefore, ‘varies tremendously depending on who the tutors are, quite horrifyingly so’ as some lecturers were deemed to be ‘more competent’ than others. Participants also held a mixture of positive and negative attitudes about seminars. Again the quality of seminars varied according to the skill of the lecturer:

If the tutor is sensitive and responsive to the educational needs of students, seminars are very fertile in intellectual stimulation. Sometimes tutors indulge themselves in seminars in their favoured ways, values and ideas and they clock watch if they have not prepared and it shows (Stephen).

Several preferred seminars to lectures because they are interactive. However, common complaints included the fact that the topic discussed in a seminar did not always relate to the lecture and was, therefore, interpreted as not being relevant. This was particularly the case if the tutor who leads the seminar is different from the person who gave the lecture. Tutors were also criticised for ‘going off at a tangent’ or a ‘waste of time’ in that discussions meandered rather than adhering to a clear structure:

Sometimes you can come in and you need not have bothered. Sometimes you can come in and they can be really good and you can get a lot of notes. You need good notes for revision. Sometimes they are just waffle (Dalvinder).

Inconsistency in the delivery of lectures and seminars was a common theme echoed by participants. Seminars, however, provide an important social space for mature students to interact with lecturers and younger students. Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical approach is relevant here, as seminars offer a stage for adult students to present the self to others.

Studying: Writing Essays and Assessment

Note-taking was something that had to be learnt quickly:

My daughter is at university and the way she works she is prepared for it all through the system and it is much easier but it just is not for me. I just have to keep working at it. It is very long winded. Since I started I have got myself more organised and I have got better and my marks seem to reflect it. But I have got to work at it (Peter).

Writing their first essay was an anxious time for many participants. Most admitted that the quality of their first essay was poor. Paul explained: ‘it was knowing what they wanted and the way they wanted it written’. Anxiety centred around the uncertainty of not knowing what level of work was expected for a degree. Some lecturers consciously gave more support and constructive feedback to adults when marking essays. ‘I might be more tolerant and constructive in one’s comments - less scathing in the light of circumstances, experiences and where people are coming from... They need structure for development’ (Sociology).

Attitudes towards assessment evoked contradictory thoughts. Assessment at Warwick is a mixture of assessed assignments and examinations. A strong dislike of examinations as a form of assessment was expressed by most participants because they produced feelings of fear, anxiety, exhaustion and nervousness (Bourner et al 1991). All felt that they under-performed in examinations. Sitting in an examination hall also brought back memories of schooldays:

I am scared stiff quite frankly sitting there at an exam because I have not done it for years. That is one area where I would have liked a pre-run, a mock exam That would be beneficial. I did not achieve what I thought was my potential because of my lack of skill in doing a written exam (Adam).

Yet at the same time a pragmatic approach was taken. Several wanted examinations to be included as part of the assessment procedure as they were less time-consuming than assignments:

The snag with assessments is that you can go on for ever trying to make sure that they are perfect. You will only end up with a few more marks for three or four more hours work. It is very complicated really. I think on the whole I prefer assessments but there is a tendency to do just the work for assessments and not worry about the rest of your work (Jean).

These comments echo some of the dilemmas adults experienced with their studies. On entering Warwick they had preconceived ideas of what studying would be like at a university. The reality did not always match their ideals. The adult students were eager to learn, to widen and expand their knowledge base. They wanted to read as widely as possible to study a topic in depth. They also wanted to spend time perfecting assignments. Participants discovered that the pace of ten week terms is hectic and does not allow time for all the books on a reading list to be read. Reading widely simply put pressure on the workload. At the beginning of their student career many found this difficult to come to terms with as it contradicted their image of studying at university:

You have not got enough time to, perhaps, do as much reading as you would like. The workload is so heavy that you have to try and balance it out. When you get to the interesting stuff, if it does not relate to your essay you feel that you have been wasting your time reading it. You have to concentrate on things that are just to do with your essay (Hyacinth).

To survive, participants had to change their attitudes towards learning. For example, some chose not to write class essays:

Lectures and seminars are much easier this year as I am able to rationalise the workload more. You get brutal and say to lecturers ‘I am sorry but I am not doing that class essay. It is my final year and I want to concentrate on my finals’. You take more responsibility (Joyce).

Over the period of their study the adult student culture matured. Collectively adults learnt how to cope with the system: fewer topics were chosen for revision, less books were read. Passing examinations and being successful with assignments became the prime goal of studying, rather than pursuing knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Realism replaced idealism. Using Goffman’s conceptual framework they were exhibiting signs of secondary adjustment to the institution.

This pattern of behaviour was noted in a study on the culture of medical students. ‘Students reason from their definition of the situation: if there is more to do than can be done in the time available, we can solve the problem by taking short cuts’ (Becker et al, 1961: 117). In doing so the : ‘group reaches a consensus on how to deal with much of what is problematical in its environment’ (Becker et al , 1961: 135).

Bringing Life Experiences to Learning

Adult educationalists (Knowles, 1990, Brookfield, 1996) stress that what differentiates adult learners from other learners is the life experiences they bring to the learning situation. Social science and humanities subjects are popular with adults because the discourse is conducive to inclusion of life experiences. Essays and, particularly seminars, enable participants to give expression to life experiences. The areas of life from which experiences were discussed in the public arena of seminars differed according to gender. The women, for example, as noted by Edwards (1993) discussed family lives, bringing up children, and gender experiences in sociology and law seminars. In contrast, men refrained from discussing their private lives; the public world of work, however, was acceptable.

Mature students are not homogeneous. The younger adults in their early twenties criticised older students for drawing on their life experiences too much in seminars. One common theme, however, was that academic study enabled both the women and the men to reflect upon past life experiences more theoretically and critically:

Studying sociology has made me look more critically. Your experiences are put into theory. Maybe that was the factor for me, being able to do that more than the younger students and also with being Asian and being a woman. I have got so much knowledge of my own personal life to think about - even issues which relate to my parents (Dalvinder).

Sociology lecturers also discussed the fit between adults choosing sociology as a subject to study and life experiences. ‘ I think it is autobiographical for adults to do sociology’.

Teaching Mature Students: Lecturers’ Perspectives

Departments are not culturally homogeneous and this study revealed diversity across the departmental system. For Becher (1989) the behaviour of departments is closely linked to the nature of the academic discipline.

Certain departments, such as Sociology and Law, at Warwick are more favourable and supportive towards teaching adults than others, such as Biological Sciences. As learning is the focus of adult student life the characteristics of a department play an influential role in determining the quality of undergraduate student life (Becker and Geer, 1961).

Lecturers were asked if they enjoyed teaching adults. With only one or two exceptions all were positive. Reasons given shared a commonality across the four departments studied. Words such as highly motivated, enthusiastic and committed featured frequently.

Teaching methods in the ‘old’ universities tend to be traditional and didactic. Lecturers were asked if they had modified their teaching styles as a result of having mature students in their groups. Most had not. ‘Teaching adults does not change my teaching style. I do not see why they should need different methods’ (Biological Sciences). Those that reflected upon their teaching were predominantly in the Sociology Department:

I have moved towards group work and accessible seminar discussion teaching. My aim is to make these courses accessible and useful to adults who may not have been in an educational environment for many years (Sociology).

Another Sociology lecturer elaborated that adults bring to the attention of lecturers what constitutes good teaching practice.

Seminars are arenas where the presence of mature students is welcomed by many lecturers. Mature students’ voices help seminars to become interactive and dynamic. An Arts Education lecturer complained that she finds it difficult to get a response from younger students while ‘mature students realise that talking is part of the learning process’. For her, teaching mixed groups of younger and mature students has become problematical as it feels like she is teaching two distinct groups. Adults inform lecturers if they do not understand what is being discussed in a seminar or, as an arts education lecturer explained, ‘they give me feedback about my teaching’.

One sociology lecturer had to adjust his teaching approach in seminars to take into account the vociferousness of the mature students as they dominate the verbal space: