Browsing by Subject "adult learner"

This dissertation explores the experience of adults looking for career specific further training and higher education. This is intended to help understand adult education experiences and support successful adult learning. The theoretical framework for the research is founded on the complexity of multifaceted identities that adults will have developed over their lives and their ability to change identities according to situational contexts. The research also uses theories on constructivism in adult learning, the narrative nature of learning and human development, and individuality of human development due to psychosocial developments and career specific experiences. Fundamental research questions built on the view that expressions of individual identity reflect adult development and learning processes. The research uses a narrative approach. The material was collected from semi-structured one-to-one interviews. Participants were selected from adult attendants at a privately run entrepreneurship course in the autumn of 2013 (N=28). The accounts and personal stories recounted during the interview process have been analysed using narrative methods. Studying the interpretation of identity allows the research to highlight participants' career and life-experiences and to contextualise them within individuals' age and skill sets. The analysis highlights a connection between continuities in individual successes and high quality of learning. The discussion also addresses how self-evaluation of experiences, such as failure, or personal views of social nonconformity can be linked to more general learning experiences among adults or even to issues faced with adult learners' identity development. The individual interpretations of success and learning covered by this research emphasize the fundamental question of how adult learners can be supported during significant and unique life cycle changes that are concurrent with lifelong learning. These findings have further implication on understanding how individuals as learners and e-learners might develop positive self-images and view themselves as active agents in any learning environment.