EDAH COMPREHENSIVE EXAM

Below you will find some guidelines for preparing for the comprehensive exams.
First, are some general tips that will help you prepare for the exams. Next you will
find some sample questions with some suggestions for approaches to answering
the questions.

Tips for Taking the Test

• Be sure you study before the exam. You may find it helpful to form a study group with
other students also taking the exam. Review your notes and readings from all your
coursework, but focus particularly on the core courses. Many times you will find content
from other classes will help add breadth to your answers.

• On the day of the test, relax! Don't stress. Begin with a positive attitude.

• Read the questions carefully and be sure to focus on the questions asked.

• Be sure that you read the entire question so that you are sure of its meaning and intent.
You might even state your interpretation of the question at the opening so that the exam
readers know how you have interpreted it.

• This is very important: You are required to respond to all three questions. Failure to
provide plausible answers to all three questions will result in a failure for the exam.

• Work from an outline. This will add immeasurably to the readability of your response and
permit you to consider what points you want to address.

• The comprehensive exams require thinking more than "memory." Be sure to provide
support for your response. You should be able to demonstrate understudying of ideas,
concepts, and the perspectives of different scholars in the field.

• The comprehensive exams require you to integrate your knowledge. The questions do
not focus on a single course but rather require you to use what you learn from all of your
courses.

• Many of the questions require some practical application of your knowledge.

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• Watch your paragraph structure. Each paragraph should be introduced by a main idea;
that idea should be addressed in the paragraph; and finally the idea should be concluded
in the last sentence.

• Allow yourself some time to revise your essay, at which time you should check for
spelling errors and sentence structure.

Sample Questions

Below you will find sample questions that generally reflect the type of questions you may see on
your comprehensive exam. In addition you will see some general approaches for responding to
these questions. Although you will not see these questions on the comprehensive exam, the
suggested approaches will be useful to you in responding to the exam you receive.

Sample Question 1

You are the Director of Training for a small manufacturing firm and are responsible for providing
mandated safety training to all line manufacturing personnel. Since you are a staff of one, you have
contracted for an outside consultant to do a workshop on the latest government requirements. You have
observed the first of ten sessions she is to deliver and it is apparent that though she is a subject matter
expert, she does not have an adult education background. Her straight lecture style has caused many of
the participants to fall asleep or to tune her out. As an adult educator, given what you know about
learner types and about principles of teaching adults what concrete examples will you give her for
making future sessions more appropriate to all the learner types present?

Guidelines for answering this question:

It is always a good idea to turn the question into part of your first sentence and to summarize what you
are going to say in your answer.

Example: As the Director of Training, I would meet privately with the consultant and share with her
information about Houle’s learner types, learning styles and Knowles’ concept of andragogy. I would
discuss with her how these concepts might be used to effectively involve all the learner types in her
workshops.

Discussing learner types might be approached by referring to Houle’s work in the Inquiring Mind. The
three learner types of learning, activity, and goal oriented could be listed and explained with examples of
how the consultant could incorporate techniques that would reach each type. For the learning oriented,
she might provide extra assignments outside of class that could be shared with the group upon
completion. Learning oriented types would also like an extensive bibliography for further reading on the
topics. For the goal oriented, she might ask why they were attending the workshop and what they hoped
to get out of it. Then she should make sure that she assists them in achieving their goals for the
program. For the activity oriented, she might use group discussions and team projects to address their
interest in social interaction.

Another possibility would be to approach learner types from the perspective of learning styles. This
might be discussed in regard to visual, auditory, verbal and kinesthetic learning styles. Suggestions could
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be made as to the techniques that would reach each type. For the visual learner, videotapes and visual
displays would be useful. For the auditory learner, participating in discussions, debates and class
presentations would be helpful. For the kinesthetic learner, hands-on approaches such as having the
participants practice or demonstrate their new skills using appropriate classroom materials would be
effective. For the verbal learner, oral presentations might be included.

In regard to the principles of adult learning, discuss Knowles’ concept of andragogy. Include his
assumptions about adult learners: movement toward being self-directed, experience as a resource for
learning, readiness to learn related to the development tasks of his or her social role, change in time
perspective from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application, more problem centered
than subject centered, and motivated by internal factors rather than external ones. Discuss how the
consultant could use strategies that relate to these assumptions such as using safety problems from the
participants’ experiences as examples or for case studies.

Close by summarizing your answer, much like you did in the introduction.

Sample Question 2

Through your course work you have been introduced to a number of educators, who articulate
their position on education, with respect to such issues as purposes of education, the learner,
the content or subject of study, and methods and processes for education. Among the authors
you have studied, which one stands out as offering the most valuable perspective on these
issues to contemporary higher education? What about the author's position leads you to say
this? In developing your response, consider this author with respect to some of the other
authors you have studied. In what way has this author offered a "value added" component to or
built upon the contributions of some the others.

Guidelines for your response

This question should connect you to the course, Critical Literature in Adult and Higher
Education, and the way the material of the course was organized according to the five major
questions or issues that education grapples with. It invites you to consider the authors you have
studied, and to identify the one who, in your view, has most contributed to your understanding
and/or your view of education. The question asks you to consider the following:
a) What are the author¹s major ideas?
b) What themes did he/she address?
c) What position did the author take with respect to some or all of the five
questions‹purposes, learners, etc.?
d) In what way are these ideas important (a valuable perspective) to adult and higher
education, or what are their implications for educational practice?

Having done that, you can now draw from other sources, and consider the
following:
e) What have been the views of one or two other authors you have studied (in this case in
Critical Literature or in some of your other courses)?
f) How have these other authors supported or added to the work of this initial author?
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g) What position did they take concerning some of the five issues (purposes, learner, etc.)
and how have they contributed to education?
h) And finally, you could articulate what you have gained from these authors concerning
your own perspective on the issues that concern education.

Some suggestions for addressing the questions

1. In your introductory paragraph you should include a clear statement of the problem you are
discussing. If you are taking a position on the problem, this should be stated early in the
essay, for example, after you have introduced the problem, you could say, "I will argue that
the author whose perspective is most valuable to education is Ortega y Gasset." Then the
rest of the essay allows you to describe the basis of your position (what about the author
brings you to take this position).

2. Your essay should close with a concluding statement that relates in some way to your
original problem and that brings closure to your essay.

3. Take the position that this exam is your opportunity to express your views concerning the
issues facing adult and higher education. Also, assume that there are many ways to
approach a problem. You will not know everything there is to say about a problem, but you
do know will probably be pretty good, so work with these strengths.

Sample Question 3

In higher education, as well as in society at large, there is a great deal of discussion of

affirmative action, both conceptually and operationally. Assume that you have just begun a term
as a regent of a large, public research university that is debating the question of whether or not
to continue its affirmative action program. What is your understanding of this matter? What
would be your position on this issue? On what is your position based? If you would favor a
change, what would that be, and why?

Elements that might be considered in answering:

1. History of affirmative action in higher education

Brown vs. Wichita Board of Education
Bakke
Evolution of affirmative action policies
Hopwood
California/Washington state referendums

2. Philosophical determination of an individual position on affirmative action

Favor – playing field is not level, other factors
Oppose – playing field is level, other factors
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3. Alternatives
Continue affirmative action
Eliminate affirmative action
Await legal resolution
Determine public opinion
Change affirmative action in ways such as:
• percentage admission
• economic determination
• school scores
• other?

Sample Question 4

For the following research problem, I want you to state the research methodology. You do not
need to describe the statistical procedures you would use, but you must include the following:
(1) identify the type of research methodology you would employ (experimental, ex post facto,
phenomenological, or historical); (2) comment on the research design, including your sampling
technique, how you will be gathering the data, what or who you will be observing, and the
limitations of all data gathering mechanisms, (3) identify all extraneous variables for which you
must control, and (4) state the limitations of your research approach.

What are the factors related to high achievement at IBM? Who are
these high achievers, and what social, organizational, or
psychological variables are related to their above-average
achievements?

Tips for Answering This Question.

This is a good example of a practical research question. Essentially, what you are asked to
address is the methodology you will use to get an answer to the posed research question.

The first item that you should address is whether the quantitative or qualitative approach (or
even a combination of both) will be appropriate in getting at the answers to the research
question. It will be very helpful if you explain exactly why it is that you picked the qualitative, the
quantitative, or both. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of your choice pertaining to
the above research question. For example, if you decided to use the quantitative research
methodology (in this case the ex post facto design) write about the reasons you chose this
method over the others. Then describe the relevant independent variables and co-variates you
are likely to examine and explain all the strategies you will employ to enhance internal validity of
the study.

One the other hand, if you decided to use a qualitative methodology (perhaps in this case a
phenomenological approach), explain the reasons for your choice and describe how you will go
about gathering your data, ways you will use to establish data trustworthiness, and strategies
you will use to analyze the data.
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Remember that this exam question asks you to comment on several other items – sampling,
how data will be collected, and validity issues. Sampling has a different meaning for
quantitative and qualitative researches. Explain how you will approach the sampling issue,
either from a qualitative or quantitative research viewpoint. Data collection is done differently as
well in quantitative and qualitative approaches. Describe how you will do yours and the
complexities, and limitations you will likely face. The concept of validity is also different in the
two approaches. Internal validity in quantitative is usually done by research design (the
adoption of a control group for example, or the use of Solomon 3 or 4 group design) or by the
use of inferential statistics (such as ANCOVA, partial correlation, or multiple regression). You
should explain the types of internal validity problems you will likely face in your methodology
and then determine how you will resolve these problems.

In the case of qualitative research, validity is also important but is handled differently. If this is
your choice of methodology in this study, you will need to explain how you will check for data
trustworthiness through triangulation and how conclusions will be generated.