Adult Learners Ages 40-50

More adults are going back to college and learning new things, and these adults have different challenges than younger students. For example, many of them have been working, have become parents, or have delayed their college entrance by at least one year. A large group of these students are still under 40, but increasingly greater numbers of students aged 40-50 are entering the classrooms at colleges, some for the first time. Some of these individuals have also come from other colleges, since many of these students will attend more than one college in their lifetimes and cycle between various colleges taking classes that they need for a particular job without obtaining any kind of degree. One of the most important things about these adult learners is their persistence in continuing to obtain higher education when, where, and how they can. This persistence pays off for some, but many also become discouraged and do not obtain credit in the classes that they want or need to take (Donaldson & Graham, 1999).

This particular article focuses on persistence as well, as it is one of the most important components of adult learners. They remain in college because they are persistent enough to continue to work through their schooling, but they have needs and challenges that are very different from the younger college crowd. Unfortunately, when most researchers look at student persistence, they look at it in terms of younger students, and the adult learners are often ignored. The difficulties that many adult learners face include spouses that do not think they need to return to college, bad study habits, mixed feelings about college from poor experiences early on, child-care issues, financial problems, and a lack of faith in their own abilities. Because of this, they have different needs and these needs should be addressed by both college faculty and the researchers that study these students (Justice & Dorman, 2001).

Works Cited

Donaldson, J.F., & Graham, S.W. (1999). A model of college outcomes for adults. Adult Education Quarterly, 50, 24-40.

Justice, E.M., & Dorman, T.M. (2001). Metacognitive differences between traditional-age and nontraditional-age college students. Adult Education Quarterly, 51, 236-249.