Adult learners bring life experience to classroom

Adult education has grown in demand recently, meaning higher learning institutes have had increasing standards in adult accommodation.
Currently, there are two local institutions that cater to this demand: Seven Generations Education Institute and Confederation College.
Both schools have reported that among their adult students, many find themselves in situations where hard decisions and life-altering changes must be made.
But in the long run, there’s indications of overall success.
Sherri Oshawee, post-secondary education programs co-ordinator at Seven Generations, insisted this success mostly stems from the fact adults are very well-suited to the classroom environment.
“[Adults] come here with their life experience and it really enriches the classroom environment,” Oshawee said.
“When you can hear what has happened in someone’s life and how it related to the theory, it really makes the concept come alive.”
“With so many examples of life experiences being given, it really helps the instructors to find the correct materials to bring to the classroom instead of relying on the textbook,” echoed Laura Horton, director of post-secondary education programs at Seven Generations.
She stressed this makes their education more personalized—and much richer in the end.
Their experiences not only add to the environment, they actually make for an entirely different classroom situation.
“[Adults] are in a position where they are able to challenge the instructor with their knowledge, their life experience, and their work experience,” said Oshawee.
“They are just able to interact more with an instructor than someone fresh out of high school could.”
Oshawee reasoned someone fresh out of high school is in more of a receptive mode and, therefore, will take information more at face value. With adults, they tend to delve deeper into a concept and get a richer understanding.
Because of this teacher/student relationship, the instructors are challenged to bring a little bit more to the table.
But the main hindrance for an adult to reach this position is that they have difficulty getting started.
“When it comes to problems that adults face when returning to school, the biggest one I hear is people saying, ‘I’ve been out of it for so long that I don’t know if I remember how to do it,’” said Kathy Egan, support services officer at the Confederation College campus here.
Oshawee concurred adult students usually do have to go back and “brush off the cobwebs.”
Donna Perrault, a program co-ordinator and instructor at Seven Generations, also noted older students tend to not take notes as early in the course as those who are fresh out of high school because they just aren’t used to the environment.
However, even though the shift is the scariest part about moving forward, the staff at these institutions insist it can be done.
“The thing is I don’t see it as a barrier really because the older students seem to be more focused anyways because they are here for a reason,” explained Egan.
Between the push from employers for their employees to upgrade to adults wanting more out of life, more money, different employment, to re-train after an accident, or to realize a long-awaited dream, adults find a host of reasons to return to school—and all of them instill a new focus and a new goal in their minds.
“It took a little bit of re-training. I certainly had to think about how to make it all work in terms of planning and how to approach things,” noted JoAnne Formanek-Gustafson, 43, a recent graduate of Confederation College.
“For instance, if you’re doing an essay, you know you have to do your research and then do your drafting—everything required a lot more conscious thought than I was used to.
“But certainly I was much more focused when I knew what I wanted,” she enthused. “I could see the value in [what I was learning] and I don’t think as a teenager you can.
“You can imagine to some degree, but I don’t think you have the full sense of what the value of your learning is going to be.
“As an adult, I don’t think I can think of one thing I took in the program that I thought wasn’t useful to me because I could see how it was going to fit into the job—how it fit in with the real-world, even in my personal life,” she explained.
For most, adult education can be a changing and uplifting part of someone’s life. But for some, it is really hard to make that shift and to get over that stigma of being the oldest in the class.
But the great thing about adult education is that it never really has to end and there is always the opportunity to pick up where you left off.
Perrault recalled a memory she has with a past student who was 50 years old.
“She kept saying, ‘I don’t even know why I’m here! I’m too old for this stuff.’ We had to keep telling her and encouraging her that she could do it,” Perrault noted.
She added when this woman was offered the opportunity of going on in her studies, she had turned it down, claiming she just couldn’t do it anymore.
Perrault then said she recently received a phone call from this same woman, who said she was very sorry she did not go on in her education.
Perrault admitted she had found herself in the same situation. She initially had planned on joining the Master’s program but opted to sit out because she was too scared.
Fortunately, she is looking to apply in the near future because she doesn’t want to quit out of fear.
The biggest thing they all stressed is remembering why you are there and working towards the goal you had made for yourself.
Both institutes agreed it is focus that sets adult students apart. They have that added push to continue with their studies.
Bill Perrault, another program co-ordinator at Seven Generations, recalled a memory from when he was an adult learner.
“I was taking a class and I had just had back surgery. I wasn’t supposed to sit up, so I laid on the floor in the back of the class taking notes,” he laughed.
“You can’t let things get in the way,” he stressed. “You do what you need to do, but [the teachers] need your brains in the classroom to get what needs to be done done.”
Both schools also have had their share of students who were pregnant, new mothers, or even had their children during the course of the program.
Egan said she is so happy to see these mothers do what they need to do: have their child, take minimal time off, and then throw themselves right back into the flow of things—finishing what they started.
“When I think about my students, I think they are amazing,” Oshawee enthused.
“They have full-time jobs, full-time families, children, partners, and all of these responsibilities—a lot of them are community-oriented, as well—and they are amazing because they juggle all of that stuff and they still do their work.
“And they don’t do it in a half-hearted manner but they go all out—reading at night, studying, and getting their work done.
“I think of all of those students and what they all have on their plate . . . I think that it’s okay to be overwhelmed and have fears and concerns, but when I think of my students, I think that anyone can do it,” Oshawee stressed.
“The great thing is you only have to focus on one class at a time and one weekend at a time and one assignment at a time—just focus on that one small goal and work toward that bigger goal at the end,” she urged.
“It’s never too late. It’s never too late for anyone to enhance themselves.”
A recent study by Statistics Canada found 75 percent of those adults who wish to go back to school or receive training actually do seek out this education.
Only 25 percent choose not to participate for whatever reason; whether it be not having enough time, being too busy at work, having large family responsibilities, lack of employer support, or not having enough money.