adult education within the uk

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Placement Report, Examining the Adult Education System within the UK.

19/04/2013

James Moring

James Moring 09331141

Table of Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................2

Adult Education Currently within the UK................................................................3

Literature Review..................................................................................................4

Primary Research..................................................................................................7

Choice of placement........................................................................................7

Location of placement.....................................................................................7

Developing the questions................................................................................7

Participants.....................................................................................................8

Ethics...............................................................................................................8

Findings................................................................................................................. 9

Discussion............................................................................................................10

Results attained............................................................................................10

Limitations and further research...................................................................11

Links with Existing research..........................................................................11

Conclusion...........................................................................................................12

References...........................................................................................................12

Appendix A..........................................................................................................16

Enthusiasm Awareness Index........................................................................16

2


Introduction

This report will look into adult education within the UK, it shall be broken up into

a number of sections; firstly, the current way in which adult education is

undertaken within the UK shall be outlined, as well as current plans in place by

the government to further adult education; secondly a review and analysis of

research and supporting literature regarding adult education shall be carried out;

after this, the primary research which was carried out in the area of adult

education by this paper shall be described and the findings shall be presented;

Finally this report will discuss both primary findings and compare them with

existing research, which lead to the proposal for advanced curriculum

development.

Adult Education Currently within the UK

Currently within the UK more than a third of adults living in social class five

households were classified as having lower literacy skills, this is in contrast to

those adults living in social class one households were roughly four times more

likely than those in social class five households, to reach Level 2 or above in the

literacy test (Department of Education, 2009). The Skills for Life survey was

commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, this survey was

conducted between June 2002 and May 2003. Around one in six of the

respondents (16 per cent, or 5.2 million 16-65 year olds) were classified as

having lower level literacy skills, being barely if able to read and write.

The government has tried numerous times to increase the amount of adults in

education, with the government putting in large amounts of money in an attempt

to promote informal learning in England (BBC, 2009). The plans which the

government do seem to have made a difference as well, with the amount of

adults within the UK who are in education having increased in recent years; the

BBC (2010) found that 21% were involved in learning; this is up from a low in

2009 of 18%. This shows that there is a definitive aim the government has for

getting adults into education, and to try to reduce the quite startling figures of

illiteracy within the UK and England specifically.

Currently in England and the UK there are a number of different ways an adult

can get back into education, there are commonly thought of three forms of adult

3


learning, these are; self-directed, organized instruction, and degree-credit

(Patricia, 1981). For those wishing to study a degree-credit there is the Access to

Higher Education Diploma (Access to Higher Education, 2013), this is a

qualification which prepares students to study at a University, and is something

Universities themselves will look for in those that do not have any other

qualifications, such as GCSEs and A-Levels. Alternatively if an adult does not

want to go into University and just wishes to increase their knowledge in one

area, or attain a GCSE missed previously, then there are a number of different

companies which offer this, examples of self-directed learning include ICS (ICS,

2013) and Learn Direct (Learn Direct, 2013). Finally, as an adult looking for an

organized instruction one could go back to school or college, there are a number

of different colleges where adults can go to attend classes and retake their

GCSEs or A-levels. In Northampton; the area this paper will specifically be looking

at, as well as researching in, examples of colleges where adult classes take place

include Northampton College, Tresham College and Bosworth Independent, to

name but a few.

Literature Review

There have been many different academics who have reviewed the area of adult

education; a number of these academic views shall be identified to look into

adult education itself as well as looking at adult learners themselves.

Leanne, Brian, Katherine and Aliki (2012) carried out research on the

effectiveness of adult education; they asked multiple groups of people heavily

involved in adult education, including those experiencing it firsthand “how adult

education helps adults meet the demands of the 21st Century?” their results

showed that due to the “responsive and dynamic programs” that are available

for adults, it allows them (the learner) to develop the confidence to stand in the

face of “complexity and ambiguity”, by allowing the adult learners to develop the

confidence in themselves as well as the skills to be able to deal with all situations

life could present them with. This research showed not only what academics and

politicians view adult education as, but delved deeply into how those who are

fully involved within adult education itself view it.

4


There has been other researchers who have looked into why people go back into

learning as adults, Knowles (1970:44) states that people become ready to learn

something when they experience a need to learn it, in order to cope more

effectively with real-life tasks or problems. He also states that learners see

education as "a process of developing increased competence to achieve their full

potential in life." From Knowles's research it is clear to see that he believes the

reason adults go back to education it not for themselves, or for the sake of just

going back, but going back specifically to develop set competences so that they

can cope better with a real-life issue. It is interesting to see that research carried

out in 1970, as well as the research carried out by Leanne, Brian, Katherine

and Aliki in 2012 shows that across 42 years of adult education the reasons

behind why adults go back into education remains the same, this reason may not

be what was hoped by the government and the National Institute of Adult

Continuing Education (NIACE, 2013) who aim to encourage all adults to engage

in learning of all kinds, for the sake of learning as well as to improve themselves

in specific areas, the Department for Employment and Learning defines their aim

towards lifelong learning as wanting to "Create a culture where continued

lifelong learning is the normal pattern." (Department for Employment and

Learning, 2005). Whatever the reasons adults are going back into education

what is clear and encouraging to see, is that there are multiple methods for

adults to enter education, whether that be working on it at home in their spare

time, or attending classes at a local college and more adults are taking this

opportunity to further themselves and help their careers.

Other research into the area of adult learners can then be broken down into the

three different forms of adult learning previously identified by Patricia (1981);

self-directed, organized instruction, and degree-credit. For the purposes of this

paper the main areas that shall be considered from this point forward will be the

self-directed, so those studying in their own time, and organized instruction,

those studying in structured lessons.

When looking into self-directed study Huang (2002) looked into the relationship

that was needed to be build between the learner and the educator, and how

distance learning requires a unique relationship, very different to that

relationship of teacher a student within a conventional classroom. From previous

research Huang carried out in 2000, it is clear that since the human race has

moved into the information technological era, the improvements in computers,

the internet and many other advances that has happened over the recent years

5


has allowed the creation of this new way to learn and this new self-directed

method of education has truly exploded into our everyday lives. Brey (1988)

carried out a study on students who study from home, it was identified that the

students were predominantly older, most, 80%, are already employed, most

have dependants at home and at some point in their lives their previous

education had been interrupted. From Brey's research it can also be seen that

the majority, 60%, were female and it was identified that these students found it

difficult to attend lessons because of the demands of their job and their own

personal schedules.

However this is not to say that with the information and technological age upon

us there are not significant issues which can be caused with wholly online

courses, there has been significant research carried out into the levels of

plagiarism by adult learners who study solely online, and whilst the exact

percentages of cheating and specifically plagiarism prevalence, vary widely from

3 to 98 percent for (Crown and Spiller, 1998; Ercegovac and Richardson, 2004;

Lathrop and Foss, 2000; Whitley, 1998). The specific issues surrounding

plagiarism have been clearly identified by a number of different academics, and

there have been some who have looked further into the causes as well as the

solutions to cheating Jocoy and DiBiase, (2006) identified that if plagiarism

instruction; that is not to say how to plagiarise, but what it is and how to avoid it,

was incorporated into individual courses the levels could potentially be halved.

Despite this research however, online courses still mainly rely on the honesty

and truthfulness of their students a very large amount.

When looking at the above research regarding self-directed study and then

compare this with the research carried out on organized instructional study there

are a few very key differences.

There seems to be a considerable amount of information missing from the last

10-20 years, as most the research on organized instructional study seem to have

been carried out in the 1980's or 90's. This is most likely due to the technological

advancements made which have lead to the drastic increase in self-directed

learning. The research that is existing looks into small quantities of students,

Scala (1996) looked at 60 for example, and it showed that the gender and

employment status of the students provided to be the most important sources of

difference and the exploration of how the curriculum can make a large impact on

the performance of the students.

6


Primary Research

Choice of placement

When looking at the research that this paper has carried out into adult learning it

is clear that there is a significant gap in recent research surround those adults

who still wish to learn in a classroom in a more structured environment, when

this is considered alongside the need to gather information from participants,

and the low response rates of online questionnaires; research carried out into

this showed that only 17.1% of all those sent a questionnaire online would

respond (Sax, Gilmartin and Bryant, 2003), a local college which offers evening

classes for those adults who wish to go back to school and gain some

qualifications was chosen.

Location of placement

Tresham College in Northamptonshire was chosen to be the ideal location for this

study to be carried out in. Tresham offers a wide range of different qualifications

to over 10,000 full and part time students, many of the qualifications previously

identified as being useful for adults looking to improve their work prospects or

who are looking to further their own education, these include GCSEs, A levels,

Access to Higher Education, as well as a number of more vocational courses such

as hair dressing, motorsport and a number of others (Tresham, 2013).

Developing the questions

Having decided to undertake a placement within Tresham College, with focus on

looking at the organized instruction education received and perceived by adults

a questionnaire needed to be put together so that useful information could be

ascertained from the placement. By looking at the precious research in the area

it is clear that there is a difference in the kind of students that partake in self-

directed study to those who attend the organized instruction, therefore it been

decided that to measure the enthusiasm of the adult students who attend the

classes, the aim of this will be to identify how enthusiastic they are regarding

their study and how that relates to the expected levels of enthusiasm. To

measure their enthusiasm for their lessons, the “Enthusiastic Awareness Index”

(Sanders and Gosenpud, 1986) shall be used to measure the enthusiasm of the

7


pupils (Appendix A). The advantage of using this method is one participant can

be viewed each session, allowing for very accurate measurements to be taken of

their actions, equally by the research marking their movements and actions, and

no student knowing which one will be viewed in that day, it should allow for

unbiased very accurate results to be taken, finally by not having the students

mark themselves this removes the students temptation to lie or over exaggerate

to make themselves seem more enthusiastic than they actually are. This is

important as the content in the curriculum for the work which the students

undertake should be interesting enough that it keeps those students enthusiastic

about the course, especially considering adult learners are there generally at

their own expense and in their own time. However with online courses becoming

more and more popular, the curriculum which is provided by the colleges who

provide the education should set itself aside from the others and truly be of

interest to those studying.

Participants

The participants who shall be used within this study shall be the adults who are

currently enrolled upon a Maths GCSE class which takes place in the evenings at

Tresham College. They will all be over the age of 18, however no actual age shall

be requested from them, there will be no other identifiable details needed from

them, the only piece of information requested shall the their gender, this will

allow for this paper to contrast other research surround gender differences within

adult education. There will be 10 participants, 7 male and 3 female, as this is the

class percentage.

Ethics

This research posed no threat to the well being of anyone who took part, it

conformed to the University of Northampton's ethical guidelines, and all of the

participants will be fully informed that they will be watched and if they are

unhappy to take part in this study then their results would be omitted and

ignored from this study. No identifiable personal details were requested so

anonymity and privacy were kept by all participants and nothing that could trace

each person's questions to themselves was taken.

8


Findings

From the 10 participants who took part it can be seen that the mean enthusiasm

score attained was 23.6, this is classified as "appreciative of the gods" however,

this only just classifies, it should also be noted that not a single student was

classified as being "inspired by the gods" and three of the students fell into the

category of "inspired by morpheus" showing very low levels of enthusiasm within

the class. Below is a graphical representation of their total scores.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Participent number

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Total Scores

Total

A full breakdown of the participants scores are below:

Participant number1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

eye contact 2 3 5 4 6 1 3 6 4 2facial

expression3 5 6 5 6 2 2 5 3 3

Gestures 3 3 5 4 5 2 3 5 4 3Body

Movement1 4 3 3 4 3 2 5 4 4

Word Selection 1 3 2 2 3 2 2 4 3 2

9


Vocal Delivery 2 2 3 2 3 1 1 5 4 4Energy 2 4 6 4 6 2 2 6 4 3Total 14 24 30 24 33 13 15 36 26 21

The blue columns are representing the males scores, whilst the pink represent

the females scores within the Enthusiasm Awareness Scale.

Discussion

Firstly, in this section the results collected from the primary research carried out

shall be examined, looking into what the findings mean, and what the

importance of this is within education; secondly the limitations of this study shall

be addresses along with suggestions as to how this research could be taken

further; finally this paper will discuss the comparisons from the primary research

carried out with the existing research identified within the literature review and

from this there can be a proposal for future curriculum development.

Results attained

From the results attained by this primary research carried out, it is clear to see

that the levels of enthusiasm with the classroom were low. This means one of

three things; either the teacher was unable to make the content of the class

interesting to the students, the students themselves did not really want to be

there, or the content itself was uninspiring. Given that all 10 of the students who

attended the classes were their out of their own choice and their own cost, the

students themselves would most likely want to attend, and want to get their

qualification, therefore it is the belief of this paper that there would be only 1 of

2 reasons therefore that the students themselves were so unenthusiastic, the

teacher, or the content.

It should also be noted that out of the only 3 women who were present the two

highest scores for enthusiasm were attained by the women, this shows that

there is a significant lack in male enthusiasm within the class.

10


Limitations and further research

There are a number of limitations that this study had to conform to, and there

are a large amount of extra areas this research could be taken in the future,

firstly the sample size that was able to be examined was small, only 10 pupils, it

would be more beneficial if more the 50 pupils could be analyzed over a longer

period to see what their levels of enthusiasm are. Equally this research was only

able to look into one subject area, Maths, in future studies it would be ideal if

multiple subject areas be examined so that a more rounded view can be said

about all adults in all areas of education, compared with the small group within a

single maths class that this study was able to gain access to.

Furthermore when looking at the sample collected, there was only access to a

single class, which itself contained only 3 women, ideally it would be significantly

beneficial to look across all subjects and preferably multiple colleges to identify

the true gender proportions of adults within education.

Links with Existing research

The primary research carried out by this paper can be compared with existing

research providing some interesting comparisons between self-directed and

organized instructional learning. The data collected firstly showed a very large

gender difference between those who study using self-directed methods and

those within colleges, It shows that males makeup 70% of all pupils categorized

as being within a organized instruction method of learning, where as they only

make up 40% of the self-directed group according to the research carried out by

Brey (1988). From this it is important to look at the curriculum offered, both by

self-directed study and by the organized instruction colleges, there are many

different ways in which people learn, generally when looked at closely there is

also a gender difference between male and female learners, especially with

regards to the VAK learning styles (Lynn, 1989). It is therefore important to note

the different types of students who would apply and take part in different types

of learning as an adult, the curriculum in place can be more adjusted to suite the

masses rather than left as a standard, thus engaging with more of the pupils and

increasing not only enthusiasm but also results.

11


Conclusion

It is clear from the research carried out by this paper that even with a low

sample it is clear to see that there is a significant difference between male and

female enthusiasm within the class, and regardless of gender the mean for the

entire class was very low, this shows a significant lack in enthusiasm for the

subject and for the work they are doing, despite the students themselves being

there voluntarily. There is clearly more work that can be done in this area,

however from looking at the small sample which this study was able to collect

and work with, what can be said is that the curriculum in place currently used by

the colleges is more female centric, and given the larger proportion of males in

the class is something which should be changed to allow those that do opt to re-

attend classes are not alienated or unenthusiastic about the subjects they are

working on.

References

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available from http://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/home/explanation.asp [accessed

10/03/2013]

12

http://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/home/explanation.asp


BBC, (2009) Renewed Push for Adult Education, online, available from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7958945.stm [accessed 11/03/2013]

BBC, (2010) Slight Rise in UK adult learners, survey suggests, online, available

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10108062 [accessed 11/03/2013]

Brey, R., (1988) Expanding the classroom through technology: meeting the

mission of community colleges, Technical and Junior College Journal 58 (4) 225-

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Crown, D. F., and Spiller, M. S. (1998). Learning from the Literature on Collegiate

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Open and Distance Learning Vol 7, No 1

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14

http://www.niace.org.uk/about-us

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http://www.icslearn.co.uk/qualifications/gcses.aspx


Patricia, C., K., (1981) Adults as Learners. Increasing Participation and

Facilitating Learning. Jossey-Bass, Inc., San Francisco

Sanders, P. Gosenpud, J. (1986). Perceived instructor enthusiasm and student

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review. Research in Higher Education, 39(3), 235 – 274.

Appendix A

Enthusiasm Awareness Index

15

http://www.tresham.ac.uk/courses


16

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