The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the persistence of adult students in online undergraduate courses at the community college level. Quantitative analysis of survey results from 476 students enrolled in on-line courses at two community colleges indicate that desire to complete the degree, previous experience in on-line courses and assignment completion are the strongest predictors of course completion. The findings from this research also provide the basis for making recommendations for future research and improving policy and practice. Finally, the results of this study suggest the basis for developing new models for understanding persistence in on-line courses.

Australia has a long history of accepting unmatriculated, return-to-study and equity group mature age learners into undergraduate courses. Universities enrol mature age students on the basis of, for example, their equity background, prior learning, work experiences, scores on a mature age entrance test, or results in an alternative entry program. This study examined the nature and outcomes of four alternative entry programs (AEPs) to higher education for mature age learners (21 years plus). Alternative entry programs provide mature age students with a way to explore their academic aptitude for, and confidence to, study. Prior to this research there was a lack of knowledge regarding the characteristics and outcomes of AEPs for mature age students. In addition, there was no study that examined a series of AEPs to show the relationship between AEP characteristics and learner outcomes. The inquiry addresses this shortfall. The project takes a qualitative case study approach. It provides a way of understanding the uniqueness, particularities and complexities of four AEPs for Australian resident mature age learners. The inquiry indicates implications of current policy and practices. Also it considers ways to advance program characteristics and outcomes.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-283) and index.

Canada welcomes and supports refugees from all over the world. However, they encounter many struggles that force them to with withdraw from their English language classes. This Narrative Inquiry explores the lived experiences of two adult refugee students who could not continue with their English classes due to the hardships they encountered. Through research conversations I document their experiences in two narrative accounts, and read across them to find common threads. These common struggles include financial strains, employment, childcare, isolation and mental health. The findings point to the importance of further supporting refugee students in different ways. My recommendations are that ESL teachers develop lessons that include settlement, support services, and Canadian culture information. English language programs need to incorporate support services with professionals trained in ESL, and the different levels of government need to be part of the discussion on how to provide stronger supports through childcare, employment and information accessibility. / February 2016

This essay examines whether a group of adult students of upper secondary school level are instrumentally and/or integratively motivated to learn English as a foreign language. The study also examines if there are any similarities/differences between the students in the different motivation categories classroom experience. This essay is based on a quantitative questionnaire. The questionnaire was answered by adult students who were studying English 5 at upper secondary level in Sweden. The results show that some of the students were instrumentally motivated by factors such as their desire to enter university or get a good job. They were also motivated by the notion that the English language is useful when working abroad. Furthermore, some of the students were integratively motivated by factors such as their desire to develop their language skills so they would be able to use them abroad when travelling. Some of the students, however, were both instrumentally and integratively motivated and the key factors which motivated them were combinations of instrumental and integrative elements. The instrumentally and the integratively motivated students’ classroom experiences were overall positive where the teachers were described in a positive light. The students who were both instrumentally and integratively motivated, however, were less positive than the other students regarding their classroom experiences and their descriptions of their teachers.

M.Ed. / Despite the many changes socially and politically in our country, particularly in the educational sphere, large numbers of learners in further education still face disadvantages like a legacy of inferior education and studying in a language other that their primary language, all of which impact on their learning. Recent literature on the experiences of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) learner’s experiences of learning in language other than their primary language identifies a number of problems that impact negatively on students’ performance and learning. The research explores the experiences of ABET learners, learning in a language other than their primary language in order to interprete and arrive at an informed understanding of such experiences. The research strategy in this study is grounded within the interpretative paradigm as the aim is to understand how participants make sense of their realities. i.e. how students make sense of their experiences from their own perspectives. For the purposes of the study, a sample of ABET learners were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used to select participants from diverse languages to serve as “information-rich cases”. Semi- structured interviews aimed at encouraging the respondent’ to engage in conversation intended to elicit respondents’ construction were conducted. The data were analysed using the constant comperative method of data analysis. The main findings of the research is that the ABET learners experience problems when taught in a language which is not their primary language. They feared that they ran a greater risk of labelled as underachievers. They also cited that they have difficulty in manipulating the language in an academic situation. The choice of teacher pedagogy and pace of teaching which exaccebates difficulty in using English was also mentioned by the learners. Another challenge was that they find it easy to use the language in informal context, but struggle with the level of sophistication required for an academic level. There is a need for closer links to be made between learners’ life experiences and lesson content and structure. The curriculum must address the real experiences that adult learners bring with them into the classroom and offer to learners the conceptual tools which they need to make sense of and interprete their experiences in the society. Awareness of students’ experiences could enable educators to exceed guidelines for creating an environment which fosters language learning and to choose relevant course materials and select appropriate teaching methods as well as introduce measures to redress the impact of the legacy of inferior schooling in order to enhance quality learning. / Mrs. N.F. Petersen

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Over the past several decades, research that explored various teaching-and-learning contexts has provided valuable insights into teacher-learner interactional practices in second language classrooms. Many of these practices focus on learners’ language accuracy by targeting the correct answer, a worthy but perhaps insufficient goal; an additional teacher responsibility is to encourage learners to build on their understanding by reasoning through that correct answer. This current study adds to previous research by examining how one experienced teacher and her adult ESL students in a community language program in the U.S. engage in a particular type of interactive, collaborative work on understanding that moves beyond what is correct to why it is correct, which I call “digging.” Based on a conversation analytic examination of 15 hours of video-recorded classroom interaction, the findings showcase two complementary types of teacher-led digging that are preceded by a critical “pre-digging” phase, during which the teacher redirects learners’ attention and constitutes a group that will work together as a collective. The first type of digging zooms in on one particular language issue which the teacher frames as a language challenge for the group and works collaboratively with the collective toward resolving it. The second type of digging, by contrast, zooms out from a specific language issue to a larger pattern in either the learners’ native languages or the target language, English. In both types of digging, exploratory talk and various scaffolding techniques are employed to promote participation and learner agency. The findings contribute to the literature on classroom interaction by specifying, in fine-grained detail, the how-to of these teacher interactional practices during whole group work on understanding which involves the intricate work of every gaze, every gesture, every posture shift, every utterance, and every second of silence. Such specifications also enrich teacher educators’ pedagogical content knowledge by providing them a common language to talk about, and illuminate the complexity of, teaching as they guide students to “see” such complexity.

Mattering involves feeling as though oneself belongs in a community and tends to influence one’s college experience. The issue of mattering has been explored in social psychology and education literature. Such research has sought to understand the transitions and necessary role changes of college students. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of studies on perceived mattering within one specific college student population—student veterans and active service members (SV/ASM). Higher learning institutions have expressed concerns about the academic progress of the SV/ASM population upon transitioning into college. However, no previous studies have examined the relationship between SV/ASM’s sense of mattering and their academic success. As such, the purpose of this study was twofold. First, it attempted to develop a mattering scale in order to examine SV/ASM mattering. Second, it explored the predictive ability of perceived mattering variables to SV/ASM’s academic success, as measured by their cumulative grade point average (GPA). The Mattering Scales for Adult Students in Higher Education (MHE) was used in this quantitative study with demographic questions. A sample of 129 SV/ASM enrolled at a research-based university in the midwestern region of the United States was used in this survey. An exploratory factor analysis was applied to operationalize the construct of mattering from MHE in order to investigate the SV/ASM’s feelings of mattering regarding the higher education environment. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine the effects of the mattering variables from MHE on the SV/ASM’s GPA. This study found that four mattering dimensions in the higher education environment could be employed to measure SV/ASM’s sense of mattering: peers, faculty, advising, and administration. The findings revealed that the SV/ASM generally have a neutral sense of mattering to their non-military peers and the university’s administration, while expressing a positive sense of mattering to their faculty members and advisors. The findings also indicated that peers and administration may impact SV/ASM’s academic success. Therefore, higher learning institutions should strive to provide tailored administration and positive peer interactions for SV/ASM in order to promote their overall academic success in higher education.

Different opinions exist about the use of phonetic alphabet symbols in teaching English pronunciation to second language learners. Some authors and researchers believe phonetic symbols can benefit students in many ways; others consider this tool hardly recommendable. However, little empirical research has been done to find out what ESL teachers think about the use of this linguistic tool. Thus, via an online survey this study sought to identify ESL teachers' attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols in teaching ESL pronunciation. A total of 120 teachers took the survey and most of them were experienced in teaching pronunciation to adult ESL students. The analyses of qualitative data identified a contradiction between experienced teachers' opinions and what they practiced in class. On the one side, the teachers had predominantly positive attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols, and about 80% of them agreed that it was a valuable use of class time. Despite this, many teachers (n=40) did not report using phonetic symbols in their teaching. In addition, though the teachers pointed out enabling student independent learning as the main reason to teach phonetic symbols, only three participants reported that they used phonetic symbols for this purpose. The results of the study suggest that ESL teachers' lack of training in teaching phonetic symbols to ESL students can be one of the main factors causing this contradiction.