ADLT 101 Introduction to Adult Education Session 2 Purposes & - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education

2014/2015 – 2016/2017

ADLT 101 Introduction to Adult Education

Session 2 – Purposes & Motivation for Adult Education Lecturer: Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney Contact Information: kbiney@ug.edu.gh/ikkbiney@yahoo.co.uk

Session Overview

Goals and Objectives

At the end of the session, the student will

• Understand the reasons for adult engagement in a

learning activity.

• Understand the characteristics of an adult learner.
• Identify gaps and challenges facing adult learners and

ways to address them.

• Be able to identify learnable moments and look for

learning materials that address them.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 2

Session Outline

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 3

• Introduction
• General and specific Purposes of Adult Education
• Motivations for Adult Education
• Typologies of Motivational Orientation
• Barriers to Adult Education
• Adult Learning Principles
• Conclusion
• References

Reading List

• This week, complete the following tasks:
• Log onto the UG Sakai LMS course site:

http://sakai.ug.edu.gh/XXXXXXXXX

• Read Chapter 2 of Recommended Text- Introduction to Adult

Education - Kwapong & Aggor (2012). Foundation of Adult Educ. In Africa. -Nafukho et al. (2005)

• Watch the Videos for Session 2 – Purposes and motivation for

Adult Education

• Review Lecture Slides: Session 2 – Purpose of Adult Education
• Visit the Chat Room and discuss the Forum question for Session 2
• Complete the Individual Assignment for Session 2
• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 4

Introduction

• Adult education activities all over the world have

widened to cover areas hitherto not considered as such.

• New ideas that promote the expansion of adult

education have also emerged to serve the purpose of Adult Education (Kwapong & Aggor, 2012). The question to ask is: What are purposes?

• Purposes are the basic reasons for doing something.
• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 5

Introduction (Contd.)

• Adult learners and adult education agencies have some

reasons for their actions.

• The reasons do not remain ideas only but they are

translated into practices in the field.

• The reasons why adult education programmes take place

have to do with personal development and the use of leisure profitably.

• In this era of information age and advanced technology,

change is in a fast pace, hence, adult learners who are mostly worker, need to constantly update themselves to meet changes taking place at their workplaces.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 6

General & Specific Purposes of Adult Education

• The main purpose of adult education is to equip

individuals to play their roles in society in a better way.

• Adults, through adult education activities, acquire

relevant knowledge, develop helpful skills, form better attitudes and gain better understanding.

• These lead to changes in their life.
• Some permanent changes also lead to better life for

adults and their communities.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 7

General Purposes of Adult Education (Contd.)

• Socialization is one purpose of adult education e.g. initiating a

chief into his role.

• Adapting to change is another purpose of adult education

e.g. in the colonial days, adults were taught to conform to the changed situation of the colonial authority.

• To enable individuals cultivate their intellect to bring about

e.g. promotion at workplace.

• To bring about development in the society e.g. citizens

equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to contribute to their society.

• To democratise access to education e.g. missionaries who

came to Africa organised adult education classes to enable adults learn to read the Bible to gain salvation.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 8

Specific Purposes of Adult Education

• The specific purposes of adult education

include: To facilitate change in a changing society. To support and maintain a good social order. To promote productivity. To enhance personal growth. Heder (in Merriam and Cunningham, 1989).

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 9

Motivations for Adult Education

• Motivation refers to the enthusiasm, drive, energy or

reason for doing something.

• There are varying motivations for adults to participate

in adult education activities.

• Adults have varying needs for participating in adult

education programmes.

• They include personal and community needs.
• Research has shown that it is those who already have

some education that participate more in adult education.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 10

Motivations for Adult Education (Contd.)

• Those who have power and money participate more in

adult education programmes than the less educated and the poor (Percival, cited in Kwapong & Aggor, 2012).

• Those with less than secondary school education, low

incomes, the unemployed, the elderly and those with

• ther socio-economic disadvantages tend to have lower

participation rates.

• Lack of ability to pay the relevant fees and lack of

awareness about the opportunities, among others, are the determining factors of motivation to participate in learning activities.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 11

Motivated Adult Learners

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 12

Typologies of Motivational Orientations

The needs of adult learners vary and that also informs their motivation towards learning. Adult learners can therefore be categorised into:

• Goal-oriented learners
• Activity-oriented learners
• Learning-oriented learners
• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 13

Learner-Oriented Learning

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 14

Activity-Oriented Learners

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 15

Group of Adult Learners in a Classroom Learning Setting

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

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Typologies of Motivational Orientations (Contd.)

• Goal-oriented learners are motivated to participate in

education programmes because they have a goal to achieve. Such learners participate to get a qualification to get a job, or get promoted in their current jobs.

• Activity-oriented learners are those who want to do

something productive with their time. Such adults learn primarily for the sake of the activity itself. Such learners find satisfaction in being engaged rather than being idle. People find satisfaction in a learning group to escape loneliness or boredom, escaping from an unhappy home etc.

• Learning-oriented learners study for its own sake. Such

adults have a great desire to accumulate knowledge, and to grow through learning. They seek knowledge for its own sake.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 17

Barriers to Participation

• Just as some adults have motivations that lead them to participate in

education programmes, there are other adults population who are unable to do so.

• Barriers to some adults from participating in educational

programmes include situational, institutional and dispositional. Situational barriers

• These are barriers or perceived barriers that arise from the adult

learners’ situation.

• Such barriers relate to the cost of the programme, cost of tuition,

books, facility user fees for lighting, library use as well as accommodation.

• Domestic or home responsibilities, distance, travel time and bad

roads could also serve as barriers.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 18

Barriers to Participation

Institutional barriers

• Practices and procedures adopted by institutions also

discourage participation e.g. certificate requirement for entrance.

• If the institution runs adult education programme on

full-time basis it prevent some workers from participating in the programme.

• Adult learners do not have the time to participate in

programmes that take a time.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 19

Barriers to Participation (Contd.)

Dispositional barriers.

Disposition is how one feels about oneself.

• Learners’ feelings about themselves sometimes discourage

participation.

• The attitude and self-perception of the adult learner make them

to participate or not. Negative attitudes and self-perceptions discourage participation.

• Adults who feel too old to learn would not participate in adult

education programmes.

• Adults whose academic records were not too good when they

were young would not feel confident to go back to school and be disgraced once more.

• Some adults are simply tired of schooling.
• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 20

Adult Learning Principles

Malcolm S. Knowles, the father of Andragogy, defines andragogy as: the art and science of helping adult

• learn. He designed and developed the

six adult learning principles out of the five assumptions he put in. Adults learn best when:

• They understand why something

is important to know or do,

• The learner’s self-concept as a

self-directed person

• r

the freedom to learn in their own way,

• The

role

• f

the learner’s experiences

• r

learning is experiential,

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 21

Adult Learning Principles (Contd.)

• Readiness or the time is right for

them to learn,

• Orientation to learning, and
• Motivation to learn or the process is

positive and encouraging.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 22

Conclusion

• The interest and needs of adult learners are many and

varied, hence many adult learners are to be encouraged, supported, motivated and enticed to learn.

• Such supports will go a long way to make Ghana

become part of the learning society.

• That will, ultimately, impact positively on the

individual growth and overall development of Ghana.

• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 23

References

Indabawa, S. & Mpofu, S. (2006). African perspective of adult learning – The social context of adult learning in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education. Pages 82 - 88. Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). African perspective of adult learning - Foundations of adult education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for

• Education. Pages 58 - 73.

Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). African perspective of adult learning - Foundations of adult education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for

• Education. Pages 76 - 77.

Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern practice of adult Education: From pedagogy to

• andragogy. New York: Adult Education Company. Page 24 – 27.
• Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE

Slide 24