Challenges facing adult learners: a case study of postgraduate students /Azelin Mohamed Noor (original) (raw)

This case study investigates the challenges of adult learners as they seek a master’s degree course. Adapting the conceptual framework of Cross (1981), Hillage & Aston, (2001) and Mackeracher, Suart & Potter (2006), three main challenges were discussed; physical and material / situational, structural and attitudinal. Two instruments; diaries and interviews were utilized to uncover the challenges of three adult learners. Twenty varieties of challenges emerged from the data collected. All three categories of challenges were found as well as academic challenges. Although not fully generalizable, this study presents some interesting and constructive information. The challenges are the lack of support, health, multiple-conflicting responsibilities, job commitments, the lack of time, financial constraint, guilt, distance to be travelled, being unmarried, the lack of concentration, the lack of confidence, the lack of motivation, the lack of appropriate provisions, inappropriate schedules, ...