Adult Education

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Adults in the College Setting: Deciding To Develop Skills

John H. Clarke
Adult Education Quarterly 1980 30: 92
DOI: 10.1177/074171368003000203
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ADULTS IN THE COLLEGE SETTING: DECIDING TO DEVELOP SKILLS

JOHN

H. CLARKE

ABSTRACT

Survey of Study Habits and Attitude Scores, age variables, and the decision to participate in
remediation were examined among 261 academically deficient college freshmen. Analysis of
variance revealed that older students scored higher than younger groups on three of four SSHA
subscales (p .001). Chi Square test of independence showed that the choice to attend remediation activities was associated with high SSHA scores among members of the oldest group of participants and low SSHA scores among members of the youngest group (p .007). Discussion focused on the need to study further possible implications of age and attitude differences among
remedial

participants.

the last decade, students increasingly have returned to formal

on college campuses after extensive exposure to adult roles and
responsibilities. Adult students on college campuses, unlike adult students in
non-traditional settings, enter an established preserve of the young, a place
where late adolescents receive &dquo;preparation&dquo; for adult roles. Adults returning
from experience with motherhood, employment or military service (or
divorce, unemployment and civilian repatriation) do not need the same kind
of &dquo;preparation&dquo; that adolescents need, particularly if the mode of instruction
restricts their sense of autonomy. How do traits of character that distinguish
adults from adolescents affect their ability to benefit from the college

During

education

experience?
In several books and articles Malcolm Knowles (12) has identified the differences between adult and adolescent learners, pressing for &dquo;andragogy,&dquo;
which overturns most of the premises of pedagogy on which college instruction is built. K. Patricia Cross (9) has called for adult education programming
that responds to the needs and special skills of the adult learner. Cyril Houle
(11) has drawn a picture of the older student that emphasizes self direction
and energetic pursuit of highly individual goals. But the effort of colleges to
attract older students (16) may be drawing adults into an alien and hostile environment where their talents for expression and self development may not be
allowed to flourish.
As suggested in the research of Morstain and Smart (17), much of the
motivation of adult learners may be inherently remedial. That is, adults may
return to college to eliminate deficiencies in their educational experience that
have reduced the range of choice in adult life. Returning students may be
11

JOHN H.

CLARKE is Associate Director of the Instructional

of Vermont.

92

Development Center,

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The

University

93

retreating now in order to advance later. But in returning to college, adult

students may be activating feelings of powerlessness and other negative
perceptions that Zahn (20) (21) has linked to failure and attrition and which
may help explain the link that Astin (2) found between age and college
withdrawal. Deficiencies in prior schooling may contribute heavily to the inclination toward failure or attrition (1).
Positive and negative forces apparently weigh strongly on adults returning
to formal schooling. They may be moved to reduce the force of educational
deficiency in their lives, but the presence of the deficiency itself may undercut
their efforts to improve. Returning students may be distinguished from the
normal adult population by level of motivation, but the decision to seek
remedial help itself has been linked with low levels of self-acceptance and a
self-derogating attitude (19). The present study aimed to test the proposition
that underprepared college students of different ages would view their deficiencies differently and take different steps in coping with the adjustment to
college life: How does the self-appraisal of adult and adolescent students in
college affect their willingness to directly confront their deficiencies through
remediation?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Roger Boshier (3) (4) has developed a useful model for appraising the
adults ability to participate successfully in education. Boshiers theory suggests that older students who are motivated by deficiencies and perceive intraself incongruence and incongruence with the learning environment (which
can
be mediated by interactions of social, psychological and subenvironmental variables) incline toward non-participation. Conversely, older
students experiencing congruence within the self and within the environment
(mediated by social, psychological and subenvironmental factors) incline
toward persistence in learning. Broadly, then, the congruence our incongruence with the self and environment largely determines participation
and dropout in continuing education.
Success for the older student would thus depend upon the goodness of fit
(3:278) between psychological variables and institutional variables. Congruence with the self and with the learning environment would allow the individual to act positively in behalf of his own growth. Incongruence would impel an individual to accentuate his deficiencies and move toward selfrejection. Boshier argues (3:261) that social variables themselves (age, marital
status,

educational

background)

as

catalogued by numerous investigators (11)

would not in themselves trigger non-participation. Instead, participation

and non-participation would follow the individuals manifestation of congruence or incongruence with his past and present self and with the environment for learning.

(7)

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94
RATIONALE

In developing the present study, we reasoned that students with distinct

deficiencies in their preparation might be identified in a college freshman
class and, that, when confronted by evidence of deficiency, some would actively seek remediation while others would avoid remediation and try to survive alone. We saw the decision to participate voluntarily in remedial programs as a &dquo;growth decision,&dquo; suggesting both a realistic appraisal of the self
and of the college setting. The rejection of help was seen as a correlate of selfrejection, suggesting tenuous self-regard and suspicion of the college environment. By employing a measure for congruence between the self and the college setting, we hoped to identify relationships between self/other congruence
and the decision to engage in remediation.
We also reasoned that older skills-deficient students might differ from
adolescent skills-deficient students in their perceptions of self/other congruence. Older college students, who take a non-conventional route through
adult experience back to a college campus, may be differently motivated from
adolescents, who follow a traditional track from high school to college. Differences in motivation associated with age among skills-deficient college
freshmen might contribute to the decision to improve academic survival skills

through remediation.
The study aimed to test two hypotheses:
1) Older returning students would differ
students in

measures

from adolescent, traditional,

of self/other congruence;

2) Age-related congruence

would be associated with

participation

in

remediation.

METHODOLOGY

entering freshmen at an urban non-residential Eastern university

required to attend an eight hour orientation day that included testing,
advising, registration and enrollment in remedial activities if testing scores
suggested skills deficiency. The 261 (c.25%) persons who scored lowest on
The Academic Skills Self Assessment Survey (8) or whose writing samples were
found deficient by a team of English instructors received special advising,
following which each was enrolled in a non-credit remedial course or assigned
a tutor. Although all the skills-deficient students were led to recognize their
academic problems through advising and all received a confirmation letter
All 1200

were

from the Deans Office, the students also

voluntary.
special programs
For purposes of this study, the

were

told that attendance

at

the

was

as

actual class

participation

in

at

decision to attend remediation was defined

least one hour of instruction. Approximately

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95

half the students (139) identified as skills-deficient actually attended the

remedial activity in which they had enrolled during orientation.
The skills-deficient students were divided by age into three groups. The
first group (n= 148) consisted of adolescents between 17 and 19 years of age,
with a mean and mode in the 18 year range. These students were assumed to
represent the traditional college clientele. The second group (n = 40) consisted of young adults 20-22 years of age, with a mean and mode age of 21.
These students were assumed to represent a mix of students returning from
adult experience and students who had simply postponed by a year or two
their college entrance. The third group (n= 73) consisted of adult returning
students 23 years old or more, with a mean age of 26 and a mode of 23. This
group, whose oldest members were 65, was assumed to represent the population of educationally deficient adult students in the college setting.
The Brown/Holtzman Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA) was
used to derive measures of congruence with the college setting (6). The SSHA
is a paper and pencil, self-reporting instrument which generates four separate
scales. The first two scales, Delay Avoidance (1) and Work Methods (2),
reflect the students perception of his own habits of study. Generally, they can
be said to represent personal assessments of adequacy in the face of academic
tasks, related to Boshiers conception of intra-self congruence (3:258-259).
Students enrolling in college with a negative appraisal of their own habits of
performance face intra-self incongruence. The third and fourth SSHA scales,
Attitudes toward Teachers (3) and Attitudes toward Education (4) reflect a
students appraisal of the people (3) and purposes (4) of higher education.
Generally, these scales may represent the degree to which students perceive
congruence between themselves and the settings in which they have decided to
study, related to Boshiers conception of self/other congruence (3:256-257).
The Composite SSHA score (Study Orientation) consists of the four subscale
measures and may reflect the integration of intra-self and self/other congruence. The composite score may reflect the general level of congruence between the individual and the college environment.
Without any measures of ability, the SSHA composite score has been found
to have a .40 correlation with college achievement (5). Combined with a
measure of ability, correlations with grade point average approximate .70
(13). Positive relationships also appear between SSHA scores and personality
measures, like the California Personality Inventory (18). Consequently, the
SSHA has been used widely in studies of college students to measure the contribution of motivation to academic performance.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

the hypothesis that SSHA scores would vary by age and the decision
attend, four separate factorial analyses of variance (3 X 2) were performed

To
to

test

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96

the subscales of the SSHA, with age and the decision to attend as the independent variables. Age was categorized in three levels, 19 and younger,
20-22, and 23 and older. To test for differences in age and attitude among
participants in remediation, a Chi Square test of independence was
employed, with Study Orientation in two levels (median split) and age again
in three levels.
A summary of the analyses of variance for the four subscales of the SSHA,
with age in three levels and the decision to participate in two levels (yes/no), is
presented in Table 1.
on

TABLE 1

ANALYSES OF VARIANCE (3 x 2)-SSHA SUBSCALES BY AGE

AND THE DECISION TO PARTICIPATE IN REMEDIAL ACTIVITY

On three of the SSHA subscales, Delay Avoidance, Teacher Approval and

Education Approval, there were significant differences between age groups
(p .001). Surprisingly, however, there were no differences in attitudes or
study habits between those who chose to participate and those who did not,
nor were there differences
among those who decided on remediation from different age groups. SSHA subscale means for different age groups are
presented in Table 2.

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97

TABLE 2
MEANS COMPARED BY AGE FOR SSHA SUBSCALES

tests were applied to the significant main effects

scale. Middle group and older students scored
Avoidance
(Scheffe) Delay
than
the
On the Teacher Approval
higher
younger group (F= 14.78; p<.O1).
scale, older students scored higher than younger students (F= 12.61; p<.01),
but no difference appeared with respect to the middle group. On the Education Approval scale, older students scored higher than younger students
but no
(F= 24.61 p <.05) and middle group students (F= 2.48; p<.05),
further differences appeared. On the Work Methods scale, no significant differences appeared. To discover whether students of different ages who actually chose to participate would exhibit different Orientations to Study (SSHA
Cumulative scale), a Chi Square test of independence was performed, with
the sample composed of the 139 students who actually participated in
remediation divided in three age groups. The results are presented in Table
3.

Multiple comparison

TABLE 3
SSHA CUMULATIVE SCALE (STUDY ORIENTATION)
CHI SQUARE WITH HIGH AND LOW ORIENTATION AND
THREE AGE GROUPS OF REMEDIAL PARTICIPANTS

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98

p<.007, participating older students were characterized by high

Orientation scores while participating younger students were
characterized by low Study Orientation scores. No differences appeared with
respect to middle group students.
In summary, as reflected in the SSHA subscale means (Table 2), older
students returned to the college setting (1) more resolved than younger
students to avoid delaying in academic tasks (2) more approving of the role
and purpose of teachers (3) and more approving of the purposes and
established processes of higher education than the group of younger students
who enrolled in college immediately after completing high school study.
However, the decision to develop skills through remediation was not
associated with variance on any of the subscales, nor was there an interaction
between age and the decision to participate in remediation on the subscales.
When the students who decided to participate in remediation were studied
(Table 3), returning adult students with high levels of study orientation and
adolescent students with low levels of orientation to study were found in
remediation. No differences in participation rate appeared in the mixed age
group. Adult and adolescent students apparently chose to develop their skills
through remediation with different orientations to the tasks they faced in
With

Study

college.
DISCUSSION

The adult group of skills-deficient students entered the university setting

with a more aggressive stance toward academic tasks, a more positive outlook
on their education than younger students. Although this study found differences in perception associated directly with student age, some of those differences may distinguish returning adult students from their peers who stayed
at home as well as from adolescent college students (7) (9) (13). Nevertheless,
the adult student returning to traditional education may possess an advantageous outlook on the college experience. Further study may establish the
degree to which age-related attitudes may partially compensate for skills deficiency among adults.
For adult subjects in this study, the decision to attend remedial activities
followed a positive appraisal of the self in the college environment. For
adolescent students, remedial participation followed a negative selfappraisal. Adult students apparently tended to see remediation as a logical,
positive and opportune solution to their study problems. Adolescent students
apparently tended to see remediation as an inopportune, unfortunate and
negative burden imposed by an indifferent institution. Perhaps these adult
students returned to the college campus empowered by their adult experience
to use the institution positively in their own behalf. Perhaps the adolescent

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99

students entered

college still frustrated by high school experience and interested in protecting themselves from what they perceived as further victimization and degradation. While the adult students seemed to see their
skills-deficiency as a challenge, adolescent students seemed to see it as an extension of prior failure.
In general, these findings seem to support Boshiers congruence model (3).
In his terms, and Maslows (14), the adult students were better prepared to
use the growth opportunities provided by the college than adolescent
students. Adolescent students were prepared to see remediation as a
preliminary form of rejection by the college, consistent with their own apparent self-rejection (17). Faced with evidence of skills deficiency, adult
students appeared to see remedial opportunities as congruent with their wish
to grow within a formal instituion. Younger students appeared to see their
skills deficiency and remediation as further evidence of their inadequacy and
incongruence with college study. Further research may reveal whether personal congruence and the availability of remediation differently affect risk of
failure among skills-deficient students of different ages.

REFERENCES

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Boshier, Roger. "Educational Participation and Dropout: A Theoretical
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10. Dickinson, Gary. "Alienation Among Rural Adults of Low Educational

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