Missing Figures
New Teaching Methods for an Untraditional Audience
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
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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:
(Wolfgang and Dowling, 5)
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
It is a real challenge for researchers in this area, who know how higher education works inside and out, to put themselves in the shoes of students who, not unreasonably given their environment, appear astoundingly clueless at times. This lack of information is important when thinking about dropout rates and about time-to-degree. Paying for the Party provides a good reminder of how it feels not to understand the institution very
Adult students applying to college is more common than faculty thinks. Colleges are seeing more adults returning to college to complete a degree that they began when they were younger. The adult student is working longer in life and needs to keep up with their competition which is a younger group and better-qualified. The younger employee is technical savvy and has graduated from college with new ideas to share in the workforce. The research that will be included in this paper will focus on the conceptual framework.
Finding out early which type of student you are will help you out in the long run. Traditional students tend to be more productive in school when it comes to doing work and actual attendance. They keep up on homework better and have less distractions, so they also tend to have a higher graduation rate then none traditional students. Additional students will have a higher stress rate from school induce stress than a nontraditional student. "However, the traditional students reported actually attending class more often, as well as worrying about school performance more often".(HENLEY, January 1998). Nontraditional students on the other hand tend to be affected less by school induced stressed and more by their problems outside of school. For example
In a May 2003 persuasive article published by USA Today titled “College isn’t for Everyone”, the author W.J. Reeves states “about 15 million people in America are enrolled in college.” This is a staggering amount considering the fact that many people are in college for all the wrong reasons. About half of the Americans enrolled in college are there because they feel they owe it to their families. Only a small number of Americans in college actually feel it is necessary for successful lives. In this article, Reeves recollects on his experiences as a college English professor at an institution in New York. He speaks of how he believes that many students truly do not want to be in college. You can tell this by his stories of tardiness,
With today’s changing world and the economy the way it is, it is not uncommon for people of all ages to enter the college setting. In fact, two-thirds of students entering the college setting are classified non-traditional (Brown, 2007). Bill (2003) found that there was an 11% increase of non-traditional student enrollment from 1991-1998 displaying 35% in 91 and 46% in 1998. These numbers have since increased according to Jacobson & Harris (2008) showing that half to 75% of undergraduates consist of the non-traditional student sitting the reasons for reentering the college setting to be economic. What exactly defines a non-traditional student and what services may they need in comparison to the traditional student.
Seniors have a tendency of taking their last year of high school for granted. They do not realize that the relaxed classes and fun filled weekends with their best friends will all soon come to a devastating end. They have applied for college, bought miniature refrigerators, and sent in their housing applications, but none of them have really thought about college in the way that they should. When asked about college most high school seniors image the huge parties, attractive people, and freedom; however, college is much more than that and, in a way, much less. College and high school are completely different when it comes to a student’s actual lifestyle, but they have many of the same traits that most high school seniors do not see coming.
According to Lundberg (2003), “adult students are one of the most rapidly growing segments of today’s college student population, making up approximately 40% of all college students” (665).
Though there are many reasons why students end up in college, Bird demonstrates by using logos that a contributing factor of this is high school graduates feeling obligated to go simply because it is what society deems as the accepted next step in life. Bird states, “A great majority of our nine million college students are not in school because they want to be or because they want to learn. They are there because it has become the thing to do…” (par. 1). To back up her claim, she quotes a sociologist who says, “Nowadays, you don’t have to have a reason for going to college; it’s an
Many college professors find it very important to have parents, students and current instructors aware of the expectations for the upcoming student. By informing students,
Non-traditional students of color are often faced with obstacles that make life that much more challenging as compared to traditional students. Rendon (1994) labeled “non traditional students as those that attend affordable community colleges and minority serving institutions, and traditional students are those whose families have a history of college attendance, come from middle and upper class families, and typically feel confident about attending college”
Mature students’ involvement in higher education is life enhancing and vital to social mobility, but current changes to higher education fees and adult skills strategy represent a substantial risk to forthcoming partaking. This research aims at exploring the challenges faced by mature students to access higher education and the motivating factors that helps them to pursue or resume their academic studies. Whatever the motive, going to higher education as a mature student can be very gratifying, not least because it tends to be a bigger enterprise later in life and consequently the wish to excel is often heightened.
Many colleges and universities throughout the United States and several other countries face a common problem. Student retention is a growing problem across the nation for all ethnic groups and all ages. Each individual who chooses to drop out of school has their own personal reasons as to why they do. However, many drops out can be completely avoided. When students drop out they are not clearly thinking about how it’s going to affect their future, the future of their children and even grandchildren. Although there are several reasons as to why students drop out of school, we will be exploring a few as it relates to why student retention is a growing problem.
Yet still take the initiative every day to get up and work on school work and for some of the millions of students go into a campus! But what truly drives a college student to want to learn? Is it the need for a batter paying job? Is it to benefit your family? Or to maybe just tell yourself “ Hey I did this!” I think it could be all three but when it comes to most high school students getting overwhelmed with the things that are going on in their home lives and bring it to school when they should be paying attention. “High schoolers dropping out can be attributable to the social climate, particularly those elements dealing with student participation and the severity of the problem environment.” (Pittman, Haughwout, December 1987) As we age we realize that college is going to be required of us at some point so why not do it now. We as college students psych ourselves up for this awesome experience, to find that it is stressful and way harder than we thought college was going to be, we learned in high school. So, we go into everything blind thinking one way to find that it is another. But no matter what gets in some of our way we keep going knocking out one class at a
A non-traditional student, as defined by the Buffalo State College 1999-2000 Catalog is a person who waits one full year to attend college after graduating high school or one that decides to attend college after his or her twenty-third birthday. Statistics show that the majority of non-traditional students are employed. Many have children to look after. Many non-traditional students have jobs that would normally interfere with
Students: including those studying from full-time to part-time, locally or by distance, from high to low socio-economic backgrounds and of varying ages