An adult learner (North America) or mature learner (UK) (sometimes also called adult student, returning adult, adult returner, and student) is a person who is 25 years and up who is involved in forms of learning.
Adult learners are considered distinct from child and adolescent learners due primarily to the work of Malcolm Knowles, who developed the principle of Andragogy.
In the US, adult learners fall into the category of nontraditional students, whom the National Center for Education Statistics defines as meeting at least one of the following seven criteria:
It should be noted that not all non-traditional students are adult learners, as the term refers to the brain development of the person, but adult learners are considered non-traditional students.
In the UK, a student is normally classified as a mature student if he or she is an (undergraduate) student who is at least 25+ years old at the start of his or her course, or in the Irish case on the first of January of the year of entry, and usually having been away from school for at least two years. The normal entry requirements for school-leavers wishing to start an undergraduate degree are often not applied to mature students.
Adult learners seem to be overtaking traditional college students in the age range of 18-22 in the higher education arena. The NCES noted in a 2002 study that nearly three quarters of American undergraduate students met one of the above characteristics for classification as a nontraditional student; of those, 46% were so defined because of delayed enrollment. In 2008, 36 percent of post secondary students were age 25 or older (Adult Learners) and 47 percent were independent students.
More than half of nontraditional students enroll in two-year institutions, and the more nontraditional they get (i.e. the more characteristics of the above list they display), the more likely they are to consider themselves working adults first and students second. According to WorldWideLearn.com, which cites research by educational journal Recruitment & Retention in Higher Education, the average adult learner is a 35-year-old, married, middle-class Caucasian mother.
Studies in the UK have explored the ways in which classed, gendered and relational positionings can conflict with adult learners' education trajectory; often contributing to their withdrawal from academia.
One challenge in higher education is to understand how older adults identify themselves. Older adults want mobility and connections with family, education, work, and community. Therefore colleges and universities need to know how adults picture themselves in terms of work, learning, and social connections. Over the last decade colleges and universities have created more programs that help older adults train for new careers, participate in community service, and learn while in retirement. However, many institutions are not following suit which stuns the vast opportunities for both higher education and society to act upon older adults’ shifting identities. It is stated that older adults are and are not identified by colleges and universities from a survey by the American Council on Education. For example, more than 40 percent of institutions that responded reported that they did not identify older adult students for purposes of outreach, programs and services, or financial aid. Likewise, the primary reasons of identification were related to noncredit programming specifically for older adults, and tuition waivers mandated by state statue, institutional policy, or both. The survey also asked questions about programs and services. Results were mixed; one institution focused specifically in older adult educations, many indicated they did not identify older adults as a student population, and some that served few to no older adults. The mixed responses highlight the range of older adults as well as a lack of awareness to older adults’ lifelong learning participation.
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