This paper presents some preliminary results of an exploratory study focused on adult learners conceptions of studying and learning in Higher Education (HE). The study emerges from the author’s experience of teaching and researching in HE, particularly in the field of lifelong education with non-traditional students, usually named adult learners or mature students, according to the current literature. 

In a wider context, contemporary changes at societal and educational level have contributed to the emergence of a lifelong learning society, where HE plays a major role. Consequently, there has been a rapid expansion of this sector in Europe over the last decades, following the widening political concern to widen the access of adults to HE, in parallel with the concerns of raising the level of qualifications in different European countries, as several studies have pointed out (Griffits, Kaldi & Pires, 2008; Alves & Pires, 2008; Pires, 2009, 2010, 2016; Schuetze & Sloey, 2000; Joengbloed & Vossenstein, 2016).

In the recent years, several studies have focused the participation of adult learners in HE, from the scope of a diversity of fields and theoretical perspectives (Griffits, Kaldi & Pires, 2008; Pires, 2009, 2010; Pearce, 2017; Stevens, 2014; Venazzi et al, 2018). Some studies have shown that attraction and engagement of the population of adult learners will not go far enough in truly developing the adult learner if doesn’t take into account their needs and desires(Stevens, 2014). For adult learners, studying in HE has different meanings than it does for younger students, but it can still be regarded as a transformational experience (Pearce, 2017).  Starting from the ideia that conceptions of learning are related to personal and contextual factors, Venazzi, Vettori and Pinto (2018), have studied how gender, academic area, and level of study can influence university students’ conceptions of learning. 

According to Bowden and Marton (2004), there are different students’ approaches to learning — a range that could go from a surface to a deeper approach —, depending on what the learners are focusing on, what they are trying to achieve and how they are going about it” (Bowden & Marton, 2004, p.8). It is crucial to acknowledge the role of students’ expectations towards learning, their individual projects, as well as the meaning they give to the context: “Student approaches to learning are also related to their project at university – on one hand, what kind of meaning studying there carries for them, what there conception of learning is and, on the other hand, their understanding of what the institution wants them to do and what view of learning its way of acting reflects” (ibid).

In order to understand more deeply students conceptions about learning and studying in HE we can use the critical lens of Freire's pedagogy, that affirms the impossibility of studying for the study's sake. According to Freire (1996), it is not possible to understand studying as a neutral activity: no one can be in the world, with the world and with others in a neutral way. Considering that teaching and learning are only moments of a greater process that is knowing, which is a dialectical process, Freire defends a critical understanding of education.

General research questions:

What are adult learners’ conceptions of studying and learning in Higher Education?

What contributions does Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy offer us to (re)think the meanings of studying and learning in higher education?

This is a qualitative and interpretative exploratory study (Bogdan & Biklen, 1994, Amado, 2014), focused on the analysis of HE students' conceptions of studying and learning. The study is developed with a specific group of students – adult learners, enrolled in a new master's degree, offered by a public HE institution in Portugal, started in the academic year of 2022/23. This is a master degree in the area of Education, with a study plan of 120 ECTS, and has a multidisciplinary nature, which crosses the areas of Education, Arts and social Inclusion. It was created “to respond to the need to train qualified professionals to intervene in social realities, cultural and artistic in this region, through a multipurpose professional profile with skills to understand, conceptualise, intervene, investigate, operationalise educational projects for populations of different age groups and in different facilities of a social, cultural and artistic nature.” (IPS-ESE, 2021). One of the main targets of the course was to meet the needs of professionals who were already working in these areas, namely by the design of an adequate study plan and by the creation of organisational and pedagogic conditions that could take into account the reality of adult students. The specific goals of the empirical study include 1) identification and analysis of adult learners’ characteristics (age, gender, nationality, local of birth, place of residence, level of education, professional experience, previous training and working life experience; 2) the analysis of their motivations to return to study in HE; 3) the analysis of the meaning attributed to studying in HE. Aligned with this goals, the preliminary data will be supported on the analysis of the aims and purposes of the master’s degree, using the official documents and the study plan; a socio-demographic characterisation of the participants (n=20), based on the analysis of their CV; the analysis of their motivation letters submitted at the time of application; and the students’ answers to an open question, raised at the beginning of the academic year, with the objective to collect students’ conceptions of studying in HE.

At a general level, we expect to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the current challenges faced by Higher Education, specifically related to widening access / participation of new publics — non-traditional students, such as adult learners — characterized by a diversity of educational and training trajectories, family and work responsibilities, labor market experience, knowledge and competences gained from experience, and often a strong professional identity. In a lifelong learning and education society, understanding and responding to the emerging needs of lifelong learners is crucial to H.E. institutions. Though findings can’ t be generalisable, due to the nature and questions of the ongoing research, the expected outcomes of this preliminary study will give us a better understanding of an specific reality and might constitute a relevant contribution for a critical discussion about adult learners in HE. Note: This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of the project «UIDB/04647/2020» of CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences of Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

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