adlt 101 introduction to adult education · 2018-08-29 · •adult learners and adult education...

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017

ADLT 101

Introduction to Adult

Education

Session 2 – Purposes & Motivation for Adult Education

Lecturer: Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney

Contact Information: [email protected]/[email protected]

Session Overview

Goals and Objectives

At the end of the session, the student will

• Understand the reasons for adult engagement in a

learning activity.

• Understand the characteristics of an adult learner.

• Identify gaps and challenges facing adult learners and

ways to address them.

• Be able to identify learnable moments and look for

learning materials that address them.

Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE Slide 2

Session Outline


• Introduction

• General and specific Purposes of Adult Education

• Motivations for Adult Education

• Typologies of Motivational Orientation

• Barriers to Adult Education

• Adult Learning Principles

• Conclusion

• References

Reading List

• This week, complete the following tasks:

• Log onto the UG Sakai LMS course site:

http://sakai.ug.edu.gh/XXXXXXXXX

• Read Chapter 2 of Recommended Text- Introduction to Adult

Education - Kwapong & Aggor (2012). Foundation of Adult Educ.

In Africa. -Nafukho et al. (2005)

• Watch the Videos for Session 2 – Purposes and motivation for

Adult Education

• Review Lecture Slides: Session 2 – Purpose of Adult Education

• Visit the Chat Room and discuss the Forum question for Session 2

• Complete the Individual Assignment for Session 2


Introduction

• Adult education activities all over the world have

widened to cover areas hitherto not considered as

such.

• New ideas that promote the expansion of adult

education have also emerged to serve the purpose of

Adult Education (Kwapong & Aggor, 2012).

The question to ask is: What are purposes?

• Purposes are the basic reasons for doing something.


Introduction (Contd.)

• Adult learners and adult education agencies have some reasons for their actions.

• The reasons do not remain ideas only but they are translated into practices in the field.

• The reasons why adult education programmes take place have to do with personal development and the use of leisure profitably.

• In this era of information age and advanced technology, change is in a fast pace, hence, adult learners who are mostly worker, need to constantly update themselves to meet changes taking place at their workplaces.


General & Specific Purposes of

Adult Education

• The main purpose of adult education is to equip

individuals to play their roles in society in a better

way.

• Adults, through adult education activities, acquire

relevant knowledge, develop helpful skills, form

better attitudes and gain better understanding.

• These lead to changes in their life.

• Some permanent changes also lead to better life for

adults and their communities.


General Purposes of Adult Education (Contd.)

• Socialization is one purpose of adult education e.g. initiating a chief into his role.

• Adapting to change is another purpose of adult education e.g. in the colonial days, adults were taught to conform to the changed situation of the colonial authority.

• To enable individuals cultivate their intellect to bring about e.g. promotion at workplace.

• To bring about development in the society e.g. citizens equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to contribute to their society.

• To democratise access to education e.g. missionaries who came to Africa organised adult education classes to enable adults learn to read the Bible to gain salvation.


Specific Purposes of Adult

Education

• The specific purposes of adult education

include:

To facilitate change in a changing society.

To support and maintain a good social order.

To promote productivity.

To enhance personal growth.

Heder (in Merriam and Cunningham, 1989).


Motivations for Adult Education

• Motivation refers to the enthusiasm, drive, energy or reason for doing something.

• There are varying motivations for adults to participate in adult education activities.

• Adults have varying needs for participating in adult education programmes.

• They include personal and community needs.

• Research has shown that it is those who already have some education that participate more in adult education.


Motivations for Adult Education

(Contd.)

• Those who have power and money participate more in adult education programmes than the less educated and the poor (Percival, cited in Kwapong & Aggor, 2012).

• Those with less than secondary school education, low incomes, the unemployed, the elderly and those with other socio-economic disadvantages tend to have lower participation rates.

• Lack of ability to pay the relevant fees and lack of awareness about the opportunities, among others, are the determining factors of motivation to participate in learning activities.


Motivated Adult Learners


Typologies of Motivational

Orientations

The needs of adult learners vary and that also informs their motivation towards learning.

Adult learners can therefore be categorised into:

• Goal-oriented learners

• Activity-oriented learners

• Learning-oriented learners


Learner-Oriented Learning


Activity-Oriented Learners


Group of Adult Learners in a

Classroom Learning Setting


Typologies of Motivational

Orientations (Contd.)

• Goal-oriented learners are motivated to participate in education programmes because they have a goal to achieve. Such learners participate to get a qualification to get a job, or get promoted in their current jobs.

• Activity-oriented learners are those who want to do something productive with their time. Such adults learn primarily for the sake of the activity itself. Such learners find satisfaction in being engaged rather than being idle. People find satisfaction in a learning group to escape loneliness or boredom, escaping from an unhappy home etc.

• Learning-oriented learners study for its own sake. Such adults have a great desire to accumulate knowledge, and to grow through learning. They seek knowledge for its own sake.


Barriers to Participation

• Just as some adults have motivations that lead them to participate in education programmes, there are other adults population who are unable to do so.

• Barriers to some adults from participating in educational programmes include situational, institutional and dispositional.

Situational barriers

• These are barriers or perceived barriers that arise from the adult learners’ situation.

• Such barriers relate to the cost of the programme, cost of tuition, books, facility user fees for lighting, library use as well as accommodation.

• Domestic or home responsibilities, distance, travel time and bad roads could also serve as barriers.


Barriers to Participation

Institutional barriers

• Practices and procedures adopted by institutions also

discourage participation e.g. certificate requirement

for entrance.

• If the institution runs adult education programme on

full-time basis it prevent some workers from

participating in the programme.

• Adult learners do not have the time to participate in

programmes that take a time.


Barriers to Participation (Contd.)

Dispositional barriers.

Disposition is how one feels about oneself.

• Learners’ feelings about themselves sometimes discourage participation.

• The attitude and self-perception of the adult learner make them to participate or not. Negative attitudes and self-perceptions discourage participation.

• Adults who feel too old to learn would not participate in adult education programmes.

• Adults whose academic records were not too good when they were young would not feel confident to go back to school and be disgraced once more.

• Some adults are simply tired of schooling.


Adult Learning Principles

Malcolm S. Knowles, the father of Andragogy, defines andragogy as: the art and science of helping adult learn. He designed and developed the six adult learning principles out of the five assumptions he put in.

Adults learn best when:

• They understand why something is important to know or do,

• The learner’s self-concept as a self-directed person or the freedom to learn in their own way,

• The role of the learner’s experiences or learning is experiential,


Adult Learning Principles (Contd.)

• Readiness or the time is right for

them to learn,

• Orientation to learning, and

• Motivation to learn or the process is

positive and encouraging.


Conclusion

• The interest and needs of adult learners are many and

varied, hence many adult learners are to be

encouraged, supported, motivated and enticed to

learn.

• Such supports will go a long way to make Ghana

become part of the learning society.

• That will, ultimately, impact positively on the

individual growth and overall development of Ghana.


References

Indabawa, S. & Mpofu, S. (2006). African perspective of adult learning – The social

context of adult learning in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education.

Pages 82 - 88.

Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). African perspective of adult learning -

Foundations of adult education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for

Education. Pages 58 - 73.

Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). African perspective of adult learning -

Foundations of adult education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for

Education. Pages 76 - 77.

Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern practice of adult Education: From pedagogy to

andragogy. New York: Adult Education Company. – 27.


adlt 101 introduction to adult education · 2018-08-29 · •adult learners and adult education...

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