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Do These 5 Things Challenge You?
Top 5 Challenges of Adult Students
In researching the challenges facing adult education, I came across some really boring articles written by people who had apparently never met an adult student in their lives. They did, however, know lots of big words, and I was extremely impressed, let me tell you. You can Google it for yourself (though I don’t recommend wasting the time), but in the meantime, I offer you my own take on the challenges facing adult education.
These are compiled by me, based on my own experience as both an adult student and a college teacher with a majority of non-traditional students in my classes. I’ve taught and taken both in-class and online courses, so both will be included in my observations of the Top 5 Challenges of Adult Education.
Adult Learners Struggle With…
1. Family life. I have more students miss class due to children’s illness than their own illnesses. Then, of course, there’s the challenge of finding time to study with kids at home, spending money and time that the family needs, and childcare for small kids. That’s not even to mention court dates to fight custody or child support battles. Family life is demanding on the best of days, and everything else takes a back seat to it, so it can be hard for adult students to do their best in their college classes.
2. Work. Adults go back to school to get better jobs and become better providers for their families. But in the meantime, bills still have to be paid. It’s not always easy to balance employers’ needs and professors’ demands, in addition to family life and childcare. Both bosses and professors think they should be the student’s priority, and the student has to figure out how to make it all work and make everyone happy. It can be done, but it’s definitely a challenge.
3. Computer literacy/access. This is a huge issue for older students—and by older I mean “of the generation who didn’t grow up with cell phones.” It can even be an issue for online students, who often feel that just because they have mastered email they have the technological skills to take an online class. That’s not necessarily true. Add in things like PowerPoint, Blackboard, and formatting papers, adult students can be easily overwhelmed. Many older students don’t even have computers at home, or if they do, they only know how to do a few things on them. This is an issue that schools must pay closer attention to, because technology in the classroom isn’t going away.
4. Transportation/gas prices. Most adult students do not live on campus. They live off campus—sometimes far off campus—with their families or roommates. That means they have to travel to get to classes on campus. Next to children’s illnesses, car trouble is the next most frequent reason I hear for students missing class. And with gas prices climbing, driving to campus is becoming even more of a challenge. Of course, taking classes online can take care of this problem, if that’s an option, but in the meantime, most students do their best to schedule all their classes on the same days to minimize driving.
5. Time lapse. I always say I have two types of students at my community college: adults and 13th graders. 13th graders are fresh from high school and treat college like it’s just the next grade level. Adults usually haven’t been students in a while, and their skills of academic reading, writing, analyzing, and studying are sometimes rusty. I think this makes them good students—they know they’re behind the 8-ball and usually work really hard to stay on top of things. They often bring a hard-won work ethic to classes that the 13th graders lack, but they do have to spend some time re-learning how to be a student.
Obviously adult students can and do rise to these challenges every day. Many of my best students are balancing exactly these challenges, but are driven by their commitment to make it work. If you are in school or considering going back, don’t be discouraged. It is challenging to be an adult student, but you can do it.
Did I miss some of the significant challenges of being an adult student? Leave a comment and let me know!
More posts by Kathy Teel »
Author: KathyTeel
Kathy Teel is a freelance writer and editor, and a part time college professor. She lives in Missouri with her husband (another professor), their kids (a high schooler, middle schooler, and grade schooler), and three dogs. Check our her company's website at www.teelwriting.com.
3 Comments
Great article! As a 30-something college student myself, I can say it’s definitely a challenge finding the balance between work, school, and home. Another interesting aspect of being an adult student is when your professor is your age or even younger. Every now and then there will be another adult student in my class who thinks, “hey, I can talk to this guy like a peer during class because we’re in the same age group and he really gets where I’m coming from.” And meanwhile I’m thinking, “Please shut up, I didn’t pay $xxx per credit hour to listen to your opinions and comments for three hours as you constantly interrupt the lecture because you think that being the same age as the professor somehow means the two of you are alone in here… I’m trying to learn!!” Or they are younger than you, and even though they clearly have expertise in the specific subject, it’s hard to take them seriously when they start talking about the world and you’re thinking, “Oh please, you’re just a puppy!!” Sigh…
I was often that professor who was younger than most of my students. Fortunately, they had frequent proof that I was very good at what I taught, so they were mostly willing to learn from me.
I’ve also been the youngest student in the class, in my Master’s program–sometimes by 20 or 30 years. At the time, it was irritating to have others look at me with that, “You’re just a puppy” attitude, but with a little age on me, I can see how inexperienced I was then.
I was also extremely idealistic and enthusiastic, and even though that can be annoying, I think the loss of it is something worth mourning.
pls help me answer this question,problems facing ADULT EDUCATION and their enhancement