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Placement Report, Examining
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the Adult Education System
within the UK.

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/2013

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James Moring

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James Moring

09331141

Table of Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................2
Adult Education Currently within the UK.......................................................3
Literature Review......................................................................................4
Primary Research......................................................................................7
Choice of placement.............................................................................7
Location of placement...........................................................................7
Developing the questions......................................................................7
Participants.........................................................................................8
Ethics.................................................................................................8
Findings...................................................................................................9
Discussion..............................................................................................10
Results attained.................................................................................10
Limitations and further research...........................................................11
Links with Existing research.................................................................11
Conclusion..............................................................................................12
References..............................................................................................12
Appendix A.............................................................................................16
Enthusiasm Awareness Index...............................................................16

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Introduction
This report will look into adult education within the UK, it shall be broken up into
a number of sections; firstly, the current way in which adult education is
undertaken within the UK shall be outlined, as well as current plans in place by
the government to further adult education; secondly a review and analysis of
research and supporting literature regarding adult education shall be carried out;
after this, the primary research which was carried out in the area of adult
education by this paper shall be described and the findings shall be presented;
Finally this report will discuss both primary findings and compare them with
existing

research,

which

lead

to

the

proposal

for

advanced

curriculum

development.

Adult Education Currently within the UK

Currently within the UK more than a third of adults living in social class five
households were classified as having lower literacy skills, this is in contrast to
those adults living in social class one households were roughly four times more
likely than those in social class five households, to reach Level 2 or above in the
literacy test (Department of Education, 2009). The Skills for Life survey was
commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, this survey was
conducted between June 2002 and May 2003. Around one in six of the
respondents (16 per cent, or 5.2 million 16-65 year olds) were classified as
having lower level literacy skills, being barely if able to read and write.
The government has tried numerous times to increase the amount of adults in
education, with the government putting in large amounts of money in an
attempt to promote informal learning in England (BBC, 2009). The plans which
the government do seem to have made a difference as well, with the amount of
adults within the UK who are in education having increased in recent years; the
BBC (2010) found that 21% were involved in learning; this is up from a low in
2009 of 18%. This shows that there is a definitive aim the government has for
getting adults into education, and to try to reduce the quite startling figures of
illiteracy within the UK and England specifically.

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Currently in England and the UK there are a number of different ways an adult
can get back into education, there are commonly thought of three forms of adult
learning, these are; self-directed, organized instruction, and degree-credit
(Patricia, 1981). For those wishing to study a degree-credit there is the Access
to Higher Education Diploma (Access to Higher Education, 2013), this is a
qualification which prepares students to study at a University, and is something
Universities themselves will look for in those that do not have any other
qualifications, such as GCSEs and A-Levels. Alternatively if an adult does not
want to go into University and just wishes to increase their knowledge in one
area, or attain a GCSE missed previously, then there are a number of different
companies which offer this, examples of self-directed learning include ICS (ICS,
2013) and Learn Direct (Learn Direct, 2013). Finally, as an adult looking for an
organized instruction one could go back to school or college, there are a number
of different colleges where adults can go to attend classes and retake their
GCSEs or A-levels. In Northampton; the area this paper will specifically be
looking at, as well as researching in, examples of colleges where adult classes
take place include Northampton College, Tresham College and Bosworth
Independent, to name but a few.

Literature Review
There have been many different academics who have reviewed the area of adult
education; a number of these academic views shall be identified to look into
adult education itself as well as looking at adult learners themselves.
Leanne,

Brian,

Katherine

and Aliki

(2012)

carried

out

research

on

the

effectiveness of adult education; they asked multiple groups of people heavily

involved in adult education, including those experiencing it firsthand how adult
education helps adults meet the demands of the 21 st Century? their results
showed that due to the responsive and dynamic programs that are available
for adults, it allows them (the learner) to develop the confidence to stand in the
face of complexity and ambiguity, by allowing the adult learners to develop the
confidence in themselves as well as the skills to be able to deal with all
situations life could present them with. This research showed not only what
4

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academics and politicians view adult education as, but delved deeply into how
those who are fully involved within adult education itself view it.
There has been other researchers who have looked into why people go back into
learning as adults, Knowles (1970:44) states that people become ready to learn
something when they experience a need to learn it, in order to cope more
effectively with real-life tasks or problems. He also states that learners see
education as "a process of developing increased competence to achieve their full
potential in life." From Knowles's research it is clear to see that he believes the
reason adults go back to education it not for themselves, or for the sake of just
going back, but going back specifically to develop set competences so that they
can cope better with a real-life issue. It is interesting to see that research carried
out in 1970, as well as the research carried out by Leanne, Brian, Katherine
and Aliki in 2012 shows that across 42 years of adult education the reasons
behind why adults go back into education remains the same, this reason may
not be what was hoped by the government and the National Institute of Adult
Continuing Education (NIACE, 2013) who aim to encourage all adults to engage
in learning of all kinds, for the sake of learning as well as to improve themselves
in specific areas, the Department for Employment and Learning defines their aim
towards lifelong learning as wanting to "Create a culture where continued
lifelong learning is the normal pattern." (Department for Employment and
Learning, 2005). Whatever the reasons adults are going back into education
what is clear and encouraging to see, is that there are multiple methods for
adults to enter education, whether that be working on it at home in their spare
time, or attending classes at a local college and more adults are taking this
opportunity to further themselves and help their careers.
Other research into the area of adult learners can then be broken down into the
three different forms of adult learning previously identified by Patricia (1981);
self-directed, organized instruction, and degree-credit. For the purposes of this
paper the main areas that shall be considered from this point forward will be the
self-directed, so those studying in their own time, and organized instruction,
those studying in structured lessons.
When looking into self-directed study Huang (2002) looked into the relationship
that was needed to be build between the learner and the educator, and how
distance

learning

requires

a unique

relationship, very

different

to

that
5

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relationship of teacher a student within a conventional classroom. From previous

research Huang carried out in 2000, it is clear that since the human race has
moved into the information technological era, the improvements in computers,
the internet and many other advances that has happened over the recent years
has allowed the creation of this new way to learn and this new self-directed
method of education has truly exploded into our everyday lives. Brey (1988)
carried out a study on students who study from home, it was identified that the
students were predominantly older, most, 80%, are already employed, most
have dependants at home and at some point in their lives their previous
education had been interrupted. From Brey's research it can also be seen that
the majority, 60%, were female and it was identified that these students found it
difficult to attend lessons because of the demands of their job and their own
personal schedules.
However this is not to say that with the information and technological age upon
us there are not significant issues which can be caused with wholly online
courses, there has been significant research carried out into the levels of
plagiarism by adult learners who study solely online, and whilst the exact
percentages of cheating and specifically plagiarism prevalence, vary widely from
3 to 98 percent for (Crown and Spiller, 1998; Ercegovac and Richardson, 2004;
Lathrop and Foss, 2000; Whitley, 1998). The specific issues surrounding
plagiarism have been clearly identified by a number of different academics, and
there have been some who have looked further into the causes as well as the
solutions to cheating Jocoy and DiBiase, (2006) identified that if plagiarism
instruction; that is not to say how to plagiarise, but what it is and how to avoid
it, was incorporated into individual courses the levels could potentially be halved.
Despite this research however, online courses still mainly rely on the honesty
and truthfulness of their students a very large amount.
When looking at the above research regarding self-directed study and then
compare this with the research carried out on organized instructional study there
are a few very key differences.
There seems to be a considerable amount of information missing from the last
10-20 years, as most the research on organized instructional study seem to
have been carried out in the 1980's or 90's. This is most likely due to the
technological advancements made which have lead to the drastic increase in
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self-directed learning. The research that is existing looks into small quantities of
students, Scala (1996) looked at 60 for example, and it showed that the gender
and employment status of the students provided to be the most important
sources of difference and the exploration of how the curriculum can make a large
impact on the performance of the students.

Primary Research
Choice of placement
When looking at the research that this paper has carried out into adult learning
it is clear that there is a significant gap in recent research surround those adults
who still wish to learn in a classroom in a more structured environment, when
this is considered alongside the need to gather information from participants,
and the low response rates of online questionnaires; research carried out into
this showed that only 17.1% of all those sent a questionnaire online would
respond (Sax, Gilmartin and Bryant, 2003), a local college which offers evening
classes for those adults who wish to go back to school and gain some
qualifications was chosen.
Location of placement
Tresham College in Northamptonshire was chosen to be the ideal location for this
study to be carried out in. Tresham offers a wide range of different qualifications
to over 10,000 full and part time students, many of the qualifications previously
identified as being useful for adults looking to improve their work prospects or
who are looking to further their own education, these include GCSEs, A levels,
Access to Higher Education, as well as a number of more vocational courses such
as hair dressing, motorsport and a number of others (Tresham, 2013).
Developing the questions
Having decided to undertake a placement within Tresham College, with focus on
looking at the organized instruction education received and perceived by adults a
questionnaire needed to be put together so that useful information could be
ascertained from the placement. By looking at the precious research in the area
it is clear that there is a difference in the kind of students that partake in self7

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directed study to those who attend the organized instruction, therefore it been
decided that to measure the enthusiasm of the adult students who attend the
classes, the aim of this will be to identify how enthusiastic they are regarding
their study and how that relates to the expected levels of enthusiasm. To
measure their enthusiasm for their lessons, the Enthusiastic Awareness Index
(Sanders and Gosenpud, 1986) shall be used to measure the enthusiasm of the
pupils (Appendix A). The advantage of using this method is one participant can
be viewed each session, allowing for very accurate measurements to be taken of
their actions, equally by the research marking their movements and actions, and
no student knowing which one will be viewed in that day, it should allow for
unbiased very accurate results to be taken, finally by not having the students
mark themselves this removes the students temptation to lie or over exaggerate
to make themselves seem more enthusiastic than they actually are. This is
important as the content in the curriculum for the work which the students
undertake should be interesting enough that it keeps those students enthusiastic
about the course, especially considering adult learners are there generally at
their own expense and in their own time. However with online courses becoming
more and more popular, the curriculum which is provided by the colleges who
provide the education should set itself aside from the others and truly be of
interest to those studying.
Participants
The participants who shall be used within this study shall be the adults who are
currently enrolled upon a Maths GCSE class which takes place in the evenings at
Tresham College. They will all be over the age of 18, however no actual age shall
be requested from them, there will be no other identifiable details needed from
them, the only piece of information requested shall the their gender, this will
allow for this paper to contrast other research surround gender differences
within adult education. There will be 10 participants, 7 male and 3 female, as
this is the class percentage.
Ethics
This research posed no threat to the well being of anyone who took part, it
conformed to the University of Northampton's ethical guidelines, and all of the
participants will be fully informed that they will be watched and if they are
8

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unhappy to take part in this study then their results would be omitted and
ignored from this study. No identifiable personal details were requested so
anonymity and privacy were kept by all participants and nothing that could trace
each person's questions to themselves was taken.

Findings
From the 10 participants who took part it can be seen that the mean enthusiasm
score attained was 23.6, this is classified as "appreciative of the gods" however,
this only just classifies, it should also be noted that not a single student was
classified as being "inspired by the gods" and three of the students fell into the
category of "inspired by morpheus" showing very low levels of enthusiasm within
the class. Below is a graphical representation of their total scores.

Total Scores
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

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09331141

A full breakdown of the participants scores are below:

eye contact
facial
expression
Gestures
Body
Movement
Word
Selection
Vocal
Delivery
Energy
Total

1
2

2
3

3
5

Participant number
4
5
6
7
4
6
1
3

2
14

4
24

6
30

4
24

6
33

2
13

2
15

6
36

4
26

3
21

8
6

9
4

10
2

The blue columns are representing the males scores, whilst the pink represent
the females scores within the Enthusiasm Awareness Scale.

Discussion
Firstly, in this section the results collected from the primary research carried out
shall be examined, looking into what the findings mean, and what the
importance of this is within education; secondly the limitations of this study shall
be addresses along with suggestions as to how this research could be taken
further; finally this paper will discuss the comparisons from the primary research
carried out with the existing research identified within the literature review and
from this there can be a proposal for future curriculum development.

10

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09331141

Results attained
From the results attained by this primary research carried out, it is clear to see
that the levels of enthusiasm with the classroom were low. This means one of
three things; either the teacher was unable to make the content of the class
interesting to the students, the students themselves did not really want to be
there, or the content itself was uninspiring. Given that all 10 of the students who
attended the classes were their out of their own choice and their own cost, the
students themselves would most likely want to attend, and want to get their
qualification, therefore it is the belief of this paper that there would be only 1 of
2 reasons therefore that the students themselves were so unenthusiastic, the
teacher, or the content.
It should also be noted that out of the only 3 women who were present the two
highest scores for enthusiasm were attained by the women, this shows that
there is a significant lack in male enthusiasm within the class.
Limitations and further research
There are a number of limitations that this study had to conform to, and there
are a large amount of extra areas this research could be taken in the future,
firstly the sample size that was able to be examined was small, only 10 pupils, it
would be more beneficial if more the 50 pupils could be analyzed over a longer
period to see what their levels of enthusiasm are. Equally this research was only
able to look into one subject area, Maths, in future studies it would be ideal if
multiple subject areas be examined so that a more rounded view can be said
about all adults in all areas of education, compared with the small group within a
single maths class that this study was able to gain access to.
Furthermore when looking at the sample collected, there was only access to a
single class, which itself contained only 3 women, ideally it would be significantly
beneficial to look across all subjects and preferably multiple colleges to identify
the true gender proportions of adults within education.
Links with Existing research
The primary research carried out by this paper can be compared with existing
research providing some interesting comparisons between self-directed and
organized instructional learning. The data collected firstly showed a very large
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gender difference between those who study using self-directed methods and
those within colleges, It shows that males makeup 70% of all pupils categorized
as being within a organized instruction method of learning, where as they only
make up 40% of the self-directed group according to the research carried out by
Brey (1988). From this it is important to look at the curriculum offered, both by
self-directed study and by the organized instruction colleges, there are many
different ways in which people learn, generally when looked at closely there is
also a gender difference between male and female learners, especially with
regards to the VAK learning styles (Lynn, 1989). It is therefore important to note
the different types of students who would apply and take part in different types
of learning as an adult, the curriculum in place can be more adjusted to suite the
masses rather than left as a standard, thus engaging with more of the pupils and
increasing not only enthusiasm but also results.

Conclusion
It is clear from the research carried out by this paper that even with a low
sample it is clear to see that there is a significant difference between male and
female enthusiasm within the class, and regardless of gender the mean for the
entire class was very low, this shows a significant lack in enthusiasm for the
subject and for the work they are doing, despite the students themselves being
there voluntarily. There is clearly more work that can be done in this area,
however from looking at the small sample which this study was able to collect
and work with, what can be said is that the curriculum in place currently used by
the colleges is more female centric, and given the larger proportion of males in
the class is something which should be changed to allow those that do opt to reattend classes are not alienated or unenthusiastic about the subjects they are
working on.

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References
Access to Higher Education, (2013) What is Access to Higher Education?, online
available from http://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/home/explanation.asp [accessed
10/03/2013]

BBC, (2009) Renewed Push for Adult Education, online, available from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7958945.stm [accessed 11/03/2013]

BBC, (2010) Slight Rise in UK adult learners, survey suggests, online, available
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10108062 [accessed 11/03/2013]

Brey, R., (1988) Expanding the classroom through technology: meeting the
mission of community colleges, Technical and Junior College Journal 58 (4) 225240

Crown, D. F., and Spiller, M. S. (1998). Learning from the Literature on Collegiate
Cheating: A review of empirical research. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(6), 683
700.

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Department of Education, (2009) Illiteracy amongst Children and Adults, online

available

from

http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/foi/disclosuresaboutchildrenyoungpeoplef
amilies/a0065050/illiteracy-amongst-children-and-adults [accessed 10/03/2013]

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available

from

http://www.delni.gov.uk/index/publications/pubs-further-

education/fe-lifelong-learning.htm [accessed 10/03/2013]

Ercegovac, Z., and Richardson, J. (2004). Academic Dishonesty, Plagiarism

Included, in the Digital Age: A literature review. College & Research Libraries,
65(4), 301 318.

Huang,

H.,

(2000)

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technologies

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Educational Technology, Vol 40, No 4, 41-46

Huang, H., (2002) Toward constructivism for adult learners in online learning
environments, British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol 33, No 1, 27-37

ICS,

(2013)

GCSEs,

online

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http://www.icslearn.co.uk/qualifications/gcses.aspx [accessed 07/03/2013]

Jocoy, C., and DiBiase, D., (2006) Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online: A case
study in detection and remediation, The International Review of Research in
Open and Distance Learning Vol 7, No 1

Knowles, M., S., (1970) The Modern Practice Of Adult Education, From Pedagogy
to Andragogy, Cambridge, Adult Education Prentice Hall Regents, Englewood
Cliffs, N) 07632

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Lathrop, A., and Foss, K. (2000). Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the
Internet Era: A wake-up call. Englewood, CO.: Libraries Unlimited.

Leanne, D., Brian, H., Katherine, D., L., Aliki, N., (2012) Envisioning an Adult
Learning Graduate Program for the Early 21st Century: A Developmental Action
Inquiry Study Adult Learning, v23 n3 p103-110

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Direct,

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Patricia, C., K., (1981) Adults as Learners. Increasing Participation and

Facilitating Learning. Jossey-Bass, Inc., San Francisco

Sanders, P. Gosenpud, J. (1986). Perceived instructor enthusiasm and student

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EXPERIENCES OF OLDER ADULTS IN AN UNDERGRADUATE CLASSROOM
Educational Gerontology Volume 22, Issue 8, pages 747 - 773
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(2013)

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Whitley, B. (1998). Factors Associated with Cheating Among College Students: A

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Appendix A
Enthusiasm Awareness Index

16