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From Joel Friederich's DE ENGL 391 class:
It is becoming more and more common to see older students, or nontraditional students (ages 24 and above), entering college campuses. "Nontraditional" students now make up 36% of the college population (Justice and Dornan, 1). Although some question older students ability to perform in a college setting, research has proven that nontraditional students actually perform better than the traditional students (18-22 year olds).
The significant differences between the traditional and nontraditional student has prompted the question whether institutions need to alter their teaching methods to fit the needs of the nontraditional student. As the population of 23+ years old continues to grow in colleges and universities, many feel that the current methods are not intellectually challenging enough for these older students. Much of the data collected in research concludes that the institutions must respond to these differences in motivation and learning. Which means the faculty might soon be challenged to develop more comprehension-based approaches, which will use strategies to explain and apply the course material (Justice and Dornan, 7).
This paper will review the unique characteristics nontraditional students possess, compared with traditional students. By pointing out factors such as motivation, coping skills, and learning styles, this paper will illustrate the differences nontraditional students possess for achieving their college education, and why it is important for higher education to alter current teaching methods. These characteristics will illustrate why it is important for universities to change current teaching methods to create an adequate learning atmosphere for nontraditional students.
“Adults in their twenties, thirties, and forties, and older have enrolled in increasing numbers in higher education institutions as the number of traditional students have declined,” (Wolfgang and Dowling, 1). The increasing numbers of these students raises a question of what the nontraditional students actual motivations are for going back to college. In an experiment conducted by Wolfgang and Dowling, data collected from “The Education Participation Scale, or EPS” suggests that older students are primarily motivated by cognitive factors (3). Unlike traditional students, the nontraditional students seem to have a drive for knowledge. In this survey, Wolfgang and Dowling reported that nontraditional students were more likely to answer questions such as: “To learn just for the sake of learning,” and “To seek knowledge for its own sake.” According to this research, the need for escape and stimulation, were another huge reason for attendance. The traditional student however, seems to be focused on attendance for social relationships, external expectations (e.g. family members), and for professional advancement (Wolfgang and Dowling, 3). Table 1 illustrates the statistical analysis of each factor between the traditional and nontraditional student.
TABLE 1:
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Another important aspect for the attendance of nontraditional students is the factors affecting their attendance. This can include things such as distance of the college, college tuition, and the type of college preferred. It seems as though older students prefer colleges closer to their home, somewhat lower in tuition, and 2 year public institutions (Munday, 10-11). “It is proposed by some researchers and educators that adult learners are intimidated by the youth-dominated environments of senior colleges, and along with the appealing cost, geographical convenience, and nurturing environments found at community colleges, adult students often choose community colleges to enter or re-enter the academic waters,” (Canlan, 8). None of these factors were suggested to pertain to family income though. Nontraditional students who have equivalent incomes as traditional student’s incomes, merely preferred these factors upon attending. However, these factors are not the only ones that nontraditional students base their decisions on. Many of them do attend four-year colleges also, as seen in Table 2, and are not subject to this stereotype.
TABLE 2:
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Making up a large number of the college population, it is clear that nontraditional students are not mirror images of traditional students. Their motivation for attending college reflects more of a cognitive drive, and most nontraditional students prefer a certain type of college. In contrast, the traditional student has more of a social drive and has random preferences for attending a college or university. A student’s motivation to attend college plays a major role on the university. “The significant difference in motivation reported in scores of adult students on the motivational factor of cognitive interest and their lower scores on social relationships and external expectations should have some practical implications for the administrators and program planners in higher education institutions who are seeking improved ways to serve nontraditional adult students,” (Wolfgang and Dowling, 6). Nontraditional students' motivations are the key when choosing the institution that best reflects their own personal approach to studying and learning (Wolfgang and Dowling, 6). This is why it is so important for teaching methods to reflect this new type of student. Not only will it benefit the college, but it will help the older student to learn on a basis more suitable for him or her.
Many nontraditional students are carrying out many roles in their lives besides their role of a full/part-time student. Many have families, and careers that add to the stress of going to college. The traditional student’s main focus is the classroom which may create less stress in their day-to-day lives. These extra roles can bring upon much stress on an individual, and make it harder to achieve their academic goals. It is a fact that, “Stress and academic performance are omnipresent issues in college students’ lives,” (Morris, Brooks, and May, 1). These two distinct lives that traditional and nontraditional students live, suggest that they may also use different coping styles to preserve this stress. It has been suggested that coping styles may also have effects on student’s academic performance and achievement goals. In previous experiments researchers Santiago-Rivera, Berstein, and Gard (1995) found that students who viewed achievement as important see more events as challenging, thus using a more task-oriented style of coping that reduces their stress levels. Since nontraditional students generally have multiple roles in life, they tend to display less academic stress. Nontraditional students also tend to be more satisfied with their academic performances. Studies have confirmed that the traditional student spend more time worrying about their performance. Based on research obtained by Morris, Brooks, and May (2003), results conclude that nontraditional students portray an advanced learning goal orientation, task-oriented coping skills, and higher GPA’s (3). The multiple roles in their lives are projected to be a leading cause of these skills, and/or their overall maturity they continue to gain throughout their lives. These skills contribute to their success in school (Morris, Brooks, and May, 3). The traditional student’s success is not hindered by these differences, but it works as an advantage to older students to be able to cope with these stresses and not let them affect their academics. With this in mind, new teaching styles could stem off this fact. Since the adult student can cope with stress, teaching methods should reflect this capability, possibly adding on to what is traditionally expected of students in the classroom. An example of this may include teachers sticking by assigned due dates, and not making exceptions to late work (except in extreme emergencies). This simple change might help the older student by using a more task-oriented approach as they use in their day-to-day lives that are run by deadlines.
“Cognitive developmental changes in adulthood might also be expected to influence the academic performance of older students,” (qtd. In Justice and Dornan, 1). It seems that prior education and their real life situations have influenced nontraditional students. These main factors are what contribute to the differences in older students “metacognitive knowledge” and “abilities”. Older students seem to portray a more “comprehension-focused” way of learning, whereas traditional students are more “assessment-focused”. Basically the nontraditional student applies a deeper learning approach, and they aim to comprehend the material instead of merely recalling the information (Justice and Dornan, 2). “Adult students are atypical in their approaches to classroom learning,” (Carlan, 8). The nontraditional students thirst for learning is what blooms into success. Research supports the accusation that adult students outperform younger ones, especially in Education and Psychology fields (Carlan, 8). Their use of “hyperprocessing” and “generation of constructive information” are a mature approach to understanding and combining groups of information (Justice and Dornan, 5). “In fact, adult students generally exhibit approaches to learning that are more desirable than those of younger students in the sense that they are more compatible with the avowed aims and objectives of institutions of higher education,” (Richardson and King, 16). Traditional students however, have more external reasons for attending college. They gear their learning skills toward a more “rote recall” system (Justice and Dornan, 2). This type of learning strategy does not aim at fully understanding the material, and could be one of the reasons that they do not retain as much information as older students do. According to Justice and Dornan, the results found in their research on metacognitive differences, indicates that nontraditional and traditional students learning processes differ in very important ways. These differences provide evidence that teaching methods need to be changed to reflect these enormous differences. According to this factor, universities need to reevaluate these methods and use a comprehension-focused approach to learning (Justice and Dornan, 7).
Learning increases when students play an active participant in class lectures (Howard and Henney, 7). Participation is the key to helping a student understand the course material. By not including your opinion or question, a student may miss out or not understand a key concept from the lecture. Traditional and nontraditional students are extreme opposites when it comes to participation. Traditional students seem to be timid when it comes to participating in discussions. Jay R. Howard and Amanda L. Henney (1998) found that, “Traditional students were significantly more likely than nontraditional to cite concerns about feeling unintelligent to the instructor or other students, the possibility that other students would not respect their point of view, and the possibility that their comments might negatively affect their grade,” (7). Much of this fear comes from the lack of preparation (i.e. readings, homework, etc…) for the class. “Kember and Gow (1994) found that students who participate in classroom discussion learn more than those who do not,” (Howard and Henney, 7). Participation can help create critical thinking skills. In contrast to traditional students, nontraditional students tend to play an active part in discussions. Their tendency to do so is usually because they want clarification, they have something to contribute, they learn from it, or they simply enjoy it. In an interview reported by Howard and Henney (1998) one nontraditional student stated that, “
[Students who participate in discussion are]…learning to share their ideas and listen to other people verbalizes their ideas. The more I participate, the more I get out of a class. If I just listen I don’t get near as much out,” (6).
This attitude indirectly ends up being a huge factor in their academic success. This participation leads the student to get a clear meaning of the subject matter, and can even be used to clear up any misunderstandings they may have had. Some researchers suggest including participation as part of a course grade. They suggest that, “If we begin our courses by making it clear that these classroom norms, which students have come to expect and find comfortable and which allow them to remain passive observers, do not apply in our courses, then we have a starting point for change,” (Howard and Henney, 8-9).
In conclusion, nontraditional students are enrolling into colleges and universities at an increasing rate. Factors such as motivations for attendance, coping skill, learning skills, and participation are a few unique characteristics that make nontraditional students so different from their younger counterparts. These unique factors work together to help the nontraditional student perform, in many cases, better than traditional students. “Increase enrollment of adults in college the past 20 years has stimulated research comparing traditional- and nontraditional-age students./ To provide effective classroom instruction and appropriate learning assessment, it is important to understand the motivations, learning styles, and strategies of adult students,” (Justice and Dornan, 1). If educators are interested in changing teaching methods to fit that of nontraditional students, then they must feel that the nontraditional student has something more to offer. Although it is obvious institutions may need to alter their teaching methods, institutions are far from changing anytime soon. When the changes are made, they should be methods that are capable of reaching both audiences.
Works Cited
Brazziel, William F. “Forecasting Older Student Enrollment: A Cohort and Participation Rate Model.” The Journal of Higher Education. Mar.-Apr. 1987, vol. 58. JSTOR. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library>.
Carlan, Phillip E. “Adult Students and Community College Beginnings: Examining the Efficacy of Performance Stereotypes on a University Campus.” College Student Journal. Jun. 2001. LookSmart’s FindArticles. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.findarticles.com>.
Howard, Jay R., and Amanda L. Henry. “Student Participation and Instructor Gender in the Mixed-Age College Classroom.” The Source of Higher Education. Aug 1998, vol. 69. Education Abstract. 23 Mar. 2004.< http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library>.
Justice, Elaine M., and Teresa M. Dornan. “Metacognitive Differences Between Traditional-Age and Nontraditional-Age College Students.” Adult Education Quarterly. May 2001, vol. 51. Education Abstract. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library>.
Morris, Emily A., Peggy R. Brooks, and James L. May. “The Relationship Between Achievement Goal Orientation and Coping Style: Traditional vs. Nontraditional College Students.” Mar. 2003. LookSmart’s FindArticles. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.findarticles.com>.
Munday, Leo A. “College Access for Nontraditional Students.” The Journal of Higher Education. Nov.-Dec. 1976, vol. 47. JSTOR. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library>.
Richardson, John T. E., and Estelle King. “Adult Students in Higher Education: Burden or Boom?” The Journal of Higher Education. Jan.-Feb. 1998, vol. 69. JSTOR. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library.>
Wolfgang, Mary E., and William D. Dowling. “Differences in Motivation of Adult and Younger Undergraduates.” The Journal of higher Education. Nov.-Dec. 1981, vol. 52. JSTOR. 23 Mar. 2004. <http://www.asia.umuc.edu/library>.