Adult learner or mature learner (UK) (sometimes also called adult student, returning Adult, adult returner, and student) is a term used to describe any person socially accepted as an adult who is in a learning process, whether it is formal education

Adult education

Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...

, informal learning

Informal learning

Informal learning is one of three forms of learning defined by the OECD. The other two are formal and non-formal learning. Informal learning occurs in a variety of places, such as at home, work, and through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society. For many learners this...

, or corporate-sponsored learning.

Adult learners are considered distinct from child learners due primarily to the work of Malcolm Knowles

Malcolm Knowles

Malcolm Shepherd Knowles was an American Adult Educator, famous for the adoption of the theory of Andragogy—initially a term coined by the German teacher Alexander Kapp...

, who developed the principle of Andragogy

Andragogy

Andragogy consists of learning strategies focused on adults. It is often interpreted as the process of engaging adult learners with the structure of learning experience. The term ‘andragogy’ has been used in different times and countries with various connotations. Nowadays there exist mainly three...

.

Criteria

In the US, adult learners fall into the category of nontraditional students, whom the National Center for Education Statistics

National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...

 defines as meeting at least one of the following seven criteria:

• Delays enrollment (does not enter postsecondary education in the same calendar year that he or she finished high school).
• Attends part time for at least part of the academic year.
• Works full time (35 hours or more per week) while enrolled.
• Is considered financially independent for purposes of determining eligibility for financial aid.
• Has dependents other than a spouse
  Marriage
  Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
  
   (usually children, but sometimes others).
• Is a single parent (either not married or married but separated and has dependents).
• Does not have a high school diploma
  High school diploma
  A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
  
   (completed high school with a GED or other high school completion certificate or did not finish high school).

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 in higher education

Adult learners seem to be overtaking traditional students 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 postsecondary students were age 25 or older 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.

Special characteristics of adult learners

Adult learners are diverse in regards to the following variables:

• Variable: Given the wide variety of learning experiences, adult learners are a diverse student population
• Motivation: Adult learners require either external or internal motivation to learn
• Physiological: The physical aspects of aging can impact the learner (i.e. hearing, vision, energy, and health
• Psychosocial: Characteristics including cognitive, personality, and socioeconomic factors impact an adult's ability to learn

Opposed to a child, adult learners typically have more life experience. When confronted with new knowledge or an experience, adult learners construe new meaning based on their life experience.

Adult learner expectations

Adults learn best when the following requirements are met:

• Purposeful learning
• Involved with other adult learners
• Build upon past knowledge, skills, and experience
• Adults share past learning with each other
• Individuals learn in an environment of respect

Further reading

• Brookfield, S.D. (1991). Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning: A Comprehensive Analysis of Principles and Effective Practices. 2nd edition. Jossey-Bass.
• Crimaldi, Laura, "Older residents follow Pathway to college", Boston Herald
  Boston Herald
  The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
  
  , Sunday, January 4, 2009. About students successes in the College Pathways program at ABCD Learning Works in Boston
  Boston
  Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
  
  , Massachusetts.
• Drury, V., Francis, K., & Chapman, Y. (2009) Mature learners becoming Registered Nurses – a grounded theory model. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing. 26(2), 39-45. Journal impact factor 2009: 0.592
• Drury, V., Francis, K., & Chapman, Y., (2008). The crusade – a metaphorical explication of the journey made by rural mature female undergraduate nursing students. Rural and Remote Health. 8:978 Available from: http://www.rrh.org.au. Open access journal.
• Drury, V., Francis, K., & Chapman, Y., (2008). Taking the first step. Singapore Nursing Journal. 35(1), 4-11
• Drury, V., Francis, K., & Chapman, Y., (2008). Letting go: a grounded theory of how mature-aged undergraduate students disengage from university. Nurse Education Today, 28, 783-789. Journal impact factor 2009: 0.702
• Galbraith, M.W. (2004). Adult learning methods: a guide for effective instruction. 3rd edition. Krieger Publishing.
• Rogers, Alan, "Non-formal Education: Flexible Schooling Or Participatory Education?", Springer, 2005. ISBN 0-387-24636-3

External links

• WorldWideLearn.com: Adult Learners and New Traditions in Higher Education
• National Center for Education Statistics
• BBC Adult Learning Portal with websites including Skillswise and raw