The adjustment behaviours of mature-aged women returning to formal study

Robert H. Cantwell & Wendy Mulhearn

Faculty of Education

University of Newcastle

Paper presented at the AARE Conference, Brisbane, 1997

Seven mature-aged women from the University of Newcastle's enabling course (Open

Foundation Certificate) participated in the study. Measures of Approach to Learning

(Biggs, 1987) and Causal Attributions (Chan, 1994) were taken in the first and last weeks

of the semester. Two focus groups were also held at the beginning and end of semester.

Data revealed a general decline in deeper learning and increase in surface learning in

conjunction with a shift from personal control to self-blame for failure attributions.

These changes were reflected in the qualitative data, where the women revealed negative

feelings about time management, about a perceived competitive assessment regime, and

a sense of alienation from aspects of the learning environment (particularly feelings of

inadequacy and anxiety, as well as a fear of possible humiliation, in lectures).

Additionally, the women reported lowered self-efficacy sentiments and perceived lack

of family support as major reasons for a general feeling of loss of coping. The data is

seen as consistent with prior research into women's experiences in adult education (e.g.

Ancis & Phillips, 1996). Recommendations for change are outlined.

Introduction

The opening of universities to mature aged-student entry through participation in enabling

programmes has led to a significant increase in the numbers of mature-aged students undertaking

further study. To a large extent, these programmes have been successful with proportion of

mature-aged students now succeeding in degree programmes steadily increasing (Archer, Bourke

& Cantwell, 1996; Archer, Cantwell & Bourke, 1997; Richardson, 1994a; Scott, Burns &

Cooney, 1996). Yet despite the participation rates and success rates of many mature-aged entry

students in the university system, the process of re-entry, and the accommodation of the

imposing social, psychological and cultural changes often associated with re-entry, often makes

the passage problematic (Redding & Dowling, 1992; Simonete, 1997; West, 1995). In the

present study we follow a small cohort of returning mature-aged women as they undertake the

first semester of an enabling programme (the Open Foundation Course, or OFC) at the

University of Newcastle. Our purpose is to investigate the adjustments these women make to

the way they approach their learning and to how they attribute their feelings of success and

failure. In describing these changes, we make use of interview data collected at the beginning

and end of semester.

It is now quite widely accepted that students are typically biased to approach their learning either

with intentions to understand (a "deep" approach) or with intentions to reproduce (a "surface"

approach)(Biggs, 1993; Richardson, 1994a; Tait & Entwistle, 1996). Additionally, a third

approach linking effective study methods has also been variously identified in this literature (an

"achieving" approach). The specific manner in which these approaches manifest themselves has

been argued in the literature to be contextually derived. Aspects of the learning context (Meyer,

Parsons & Dunne, 1990), course structure (Roberts & Erdos, 1993), assessment regimes

(Beckwith, 1991), course experience (Volet & Chalmers, 1992), task attributes (Kirby &

Pedwell, 1991) and task intention (Marton & Saljo, 1976) for example, have all been

demonstrated to influence the way in which specific approaches are adopted over time and

situation. In other words, while a certain degree of stability in approaches to learning have been

identified in the literature (Biggs, 1993), it is also clear that the specific manifestation of these

approaches can vary with time and circumstance.

Research into the learning approaches of mature entry students have reasonably consistently

found that these students are more likely to adopt a deeper rather than more surface approach

to learning (Hayes, King & Richardson, 1997; Richardson, 1994a, 1994b; Sutherland, 1995).

There is some evidence of variations in the approaches to learning of mature aged students

across faculties and contexts, with specific differences between access students (e.g. OFC) and

mainstream mature aged students also identified (Hayes, King & Richardson, 1997). However,

these differences appear to be more of subtle emphasis rather than substantive degree. In the

present study we are interested in how the strength of the three primary approaches to learning

identified in the literature (in this instance, the surface, deep and achieving approaches as

indicated by Biggs' (1987) SPQ) alter over the semester. In particular, rather than focusing on

absolute scores for each scale, our interest lies in the relative changes within each scale - are the

students, on the basis of a semester's experience of an enabling programme, strengthening or

weakening endorsement of particular approaches to learning.

Given the possibility of change in reported approaches to learning over the semester, the second

issue addressed by the study is to gain insight into both the character of observed changes, and

to provide some aetiological and explanatory insights. In relation to the former, we investigated

the possibility of accompanying changes in the causal attributions for success and failure

reported by these women. Attribution theory is based strongly on the concept of self-efficacy

(Bandura, 1993; 1996) - the sense of competence that allows for persistence and risk taking in

academic and other learning contexts. Where experiences, and the interpretation of those

experiences, are positive, self efficacy is likely to be enhanced (Welch & West, 1995). Students

with higher levels of self-efficacy may be assumed to perceive the environment and their

relationship to that environment in controllable terms. That is, high self-efficacy is likely to be

associated with attributions of effort, strategy use and ability in the way individuals confront and

explain their learning behaviours (Youlden & Chan, 1994; Weiner, 1995). Chan (1994)

associates these kinds of attributions with a second-order construct of "personal control" over

learning. Students reflecting such personal control attributes may reasonably be expected to

both endorse a deeper approach to learning (Cholowski & Chan, 1992) and be more persistent

in the face of potential academic or other adversities. Lower-self efficacy individuals, on the

other hand, tend to react to potential adversity in less adaptive terms. For some students, lower

self-efficacy may be associated with an externalising of control beliefs, culminating in

attributional explanations of stable and uncontrollable influences such as fixed ability and luck

as the primary causes of behaviour. Chan (1994) associates these kinds of attributions with a

second-order construct of "learned helplessness". Students reflecting these attributions may

reasonably be associated with endorsement of a surface approach (Cholowski & Chan, 1992)

and with a lesser likelihood of persistence in the face of challenge or difficulty. For other

students, lower self-efficacy may be associated with more objectively controllable, but

nonetheless, subjectively uncontrolled factors linked to effort and strategy use. Chan (1994)

characterises these kinds of attributions as reflecting a "self-blame" for failure. Vispoel and

Austin (1993) suggest that interpretations of experiences in terms of "shame" and "guilt", which

may be reasonably associated with these attributions, often create negative expectations, and

may compound any sense of being able to cope (also Bandura, 1996; Weiner, 1995).

While observed changes in approaches to learning and attributional patterns may be informative

in and of themselves, we also suggest that how mature-aged students respond to the demands of

academic study, particularly those students in the initial stages of an enabling programme, will

influence both the form and direction of changes in approaches to learning and attributions, and

that these influences will significantly include an array of non-academic as well as academic

factors. In a recent study, for example, Wilson (1997) described an array of factors which

appeared to have significant influence on the adjustment of mature aged entry students to

university study and life, and, to a degree, the likelihood of completion. Wilson surveyed

seventy mature-aged students, and followed these up with ten in-depth interviews. For both

males and females in her sample, Wilson identified factors such as age-difference, isolation from

the social life of the university, different kinds of motivations, strain/support from domestic

lives, finance, the nature of institutional support and relationships with lecturers as variously

influencing the quality and degree of adjustment of the mature aged students. Similar findings

have also been reported by Scott, Burns and Cooney (1996), Henry and Basile (1994) and West

(1995). We examine these potential mediating influences below:

1. Age: There is some evidence that age is positively associated with academic

performance (e.g. Hoskins, Newstead & Dennis, 1997; Simonte, 1997), although other studies

suggest that effect of age may be better expressed in terms of a lack of disadvantage rather than

the presence of advantage over younger students (Richardson, 1994b; Trueman & Hartley,

1996). As a developmental phenomena, literature certainly points to changes which may be

more conducive to learning amongst older students (e.g. Ackerman, 1996; Levenson &

Crumpler, 1996), although a number of researchers, particularly those looking at the

development and educational experiences of women, have suggested significant qualifying

effects of specific life experiences on women's sense of self-agency and psychosocial

development (Ancis & Phillips, 1996; Carafella & Olsen, 1993; Strough, Berg & Sansone,

1996). Age then may best be viewed as an indeterminant influence on adjustment. Coincidental

effects of longer life experiences (both positive and negative) need also to be considered.

2. Isolation from university life: Wilson (1997) describes this influence mainly in terms

of the effect of physical isolation accompanying part-time enrolment and often distance from

the campus. It may well be the case, however, that newly re-entering mature-aged students

experience not only a sense of physical isolation, but because of many aspects in their

backgrounds, also experience a significant sense of cultural isolation as well. That is, as access

courses become more and more open to less traditional clientele (Collins & Penglase, 1991;

Hayes et al, 1997; Henry & Basile; 1994; Scott, Burns & Cooney, 1996), the possibility of

difficulty caused by cultural alienation may well be a factor in explaining adjustment and/or

performance. How these students, for example, internalise the academic demands for more

sophisticated epistemologies, language, and thinking than may have been characteristic of these

individuals prior to enrolment, may provide a source of adjustment stress. While the role of the

university of as a social context for the construction of new supportive relationships may be

important buttress against negative self-efficacy judgements (e.g. Carafella & Olsen, 1993), the

capacity to adjust to the new academic culture may well be an equally as compelling factor in

the overall adjustment of returning mature-aged students.

3. Motivations: A number of researchers (Carafella & Olsen, 1993; West, 1995; Wilson,

1997) have highlighted the central role of identity regeneration in explaining mature-aged

students motivation to return to study. Often this takes the form of highly instrumental job-related motivations (e.g. Henry & Basile, 1994), but in many cases, and particularly among

women, there is a strong desire to generate an identity beyond that which circumstances have

often prescribed. West (1995) makes reference to the marginalisation of women as a motivating

force for development. Often this is associated with a lessening of traditional family roles (e.g.

"empty nest"), but evidence also points to a significant role of relationship factors as underlying

the decision to re-enter. Tian (1996), for example, found divorce to be a powerful predictor of

the likelihood of women enrolling in higher education (cf. Henry & Basile, 1994). For such

women, motivation is most likely to be linked to a desire for enhanced self-agency and a

redirection of their locus of control inward (Mirriam & Yang, 1996). The implication of this

scenario is a greater likelihood of persistence, tempered however, by the inevitable self-doubt

that accompanies identity change.

4. Strain/support from domestic lives: For many mature-aged students, the experience

of university involves significant impositions on family life and relationships (Scott et al, 1996;

Tian, 1996; Wilson, 1997). Two aspects of domestic relationships stand out here. The first is

to do with time-management. Evidence suggests that particularly for women, the decision to re-enter often imposes extra rather than redistributed workloads in the domestic environment

(Wilson, 1997). For many women, inability to fully deal with both aspects of life creates the

potential for significant self-efficacy adjustment. The potential for "failure" in terms of both

domestic and academic life is clearly high. According to Carafella and Olsen (1993), the role

of relationships and their maintenance forms a significant part of women's agency beliefs and

through this, self-efficacy. How women adjust to these changed conditions, and how they

interpret these changes, may then play an important role in influencing the kinds of adjustment

responses to re-entry that ultimately emerge. A second area pertaining to domestic relationships

involves more psychological aspects associated with the attitude of both the immediate and

extended families to the woman's re-entry. There is evidence, for example, of a relationship

between the occupational status of the spouse and a preparedness to accept the mobility and

change implied by university education (Scott et al, 1996; Tian, 1996). Moreover, for many

women, the decision to re-enter often involves an active rebellion against sometimes quite long

histories of negative evaluations and the imposition of low occupational and educational

expectations (West, 1995). It is not a simple matter for such women to break with their own or

their family's psychological past. How such "breaks" are conducted and interpreted by both the

women and their families will inevitably impact upon the adjustment behaviours of re-entry.

5. Finance: For most mature-aged students, the costs of re-entry also included financial

issues. With the expansion of access programmes to increasingly include less affluent sector of

the community, it is unlikely that the majority of returnees will undertake university study under

conditions of financial independence. Consequently, many remain working, either full-time or

part-time. For a number of students, the financial burdens become a significant factor in non-completion (Richardson, 1994a; Scott et al, 1996). For those able to remain in the programmes,

the significant effects lie in the capacity to manage time and competing demands of work, family

and study. How well this is able to be achieved may again be reasoned to influence the efficacy

judgements of the students, and through this, the nature of change in both approaches to learning

and attributions.

6. Institutional support and relations with lecturers: One of the implications of the

increased enrolment of mature-aged students in the need for universities to become more flexible

in the modes of delivery. This applies not only to distance modes, but also to the

accommodation of the needs of mature-aged students, many of whom retain work-related

obligations (Collins & Penglase, 1991; Wilson, 1997). Similarly, the nature of student-lecturer

relationships needs also to accommodate greater flexibility in terms of assessment schedules,

attendance requirements and so forth (Wilson, 1997). For those students for whom competing

interests of family, work and study become oppressive, the likelihood of reducing the quality of

learning goals will be greater.

In summary, the study reported in this paper addresses the issue of the adjustment behaviours

of women returning to study through an enabling programme. We examine the possibility the

how these students approach their learning, and how they frame their attributions for the success

and/or failure of their study, will reflect subjective responses to the actual and perceived

demands of returning to tertiary study.

Method

Subjects

Subjects for this study were ten women undertaking part-time study in the Open Foundation

Course (OFC) at the University of Newcastle, an enabling course for mature aged students

intending to enter university study . All subjects were volunteers. Participation was restricted

to women who had not undertaken formal study for a minimum of five years. Complete data

was available for only seven of the women, with three participants withdrawing from the

programme during the first semester. This is consistent with the general withdrawal rate for the

OFC of 35% to 40% (Collins and Penglase, 1991, Archer, Bourke & Cantwell, 1996).

Materials

Approaches to Learning: The Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ, Biggs 1987b) is a 42 item

Likert-type instrument indicating tertiary students' strength of agreement with statements

indicative of Biggs' (1987a, 1993) surface deep and achieving approaches. Each scale consists

of 12 items, with six indicating motivational factors, and six indicating associated strategic

behaviours. A deep approach is indicated by agreement with statements such as I find that at

times studying gives me a feeling of deep satisfaction (motive), and I find that I have to do

enough work on a topic so that I can form my own point of view before I am satisfied (strategy).

A surface approach is indicated by agreement with statements such as Lecturers shouldn't expect

students to spend significant amounts of time studying material everyone knows won't be

examined (motive), and I learn some things by rote, going over and over them until I know them

by heart (strategy). An achieving approach is indicated by agreement with statements such as

I have a strong desire to excel in all my studies (motive), and I try to work consistently

throughout the term and review regularly when exams are close (strategy). As only seven

students were involved in the study, no estimation of the psychometric properties of the scales

were able to be conducted.

Attributional Beliefs: The Causal Attributional Scale (CAS, Chan, 1994) is a ten item Likert-type instrument designed to assess a student's tendency to attribute success and failure

experiences to effort, ability, strategy use and luck. Five of the items in the CAS describe

success experiences (e.g. Suppose you had won a scholarship from the university. It would most

likely be because ....), and five items describe failure experiences (e.g. Suppose you completed

a short story and everyone said it was no good. It was likely to be because...). For each item,

four responses reflecting effort, ability, strategy and luck attributions were provided. Students

were to indicate on a four-point scale how true they believed each reason for success or failure

was to them. Following Youlden and Chan (1994), responses to the four failure and four success

attributions were then combined to reflect three second-order constructs: a belief in personal

control, calculated by summing success attributions for effort, strategy and ability; a belief in

learned helplessness, calculated by summing success attributions to luck and failure attributions

to ability; and a belief in self-blame for failure, calculated by summing failure attributions to

effort and strategies. Again because of the sample size, no estimation of the psychometric

properties of the scales was possible.

In the present study interest was mainly in the nature of changes in reported approaches to

learning and causal attributions. For each of the three approach to learning scales (surface, deep

and achieving) and each of the causal attribution constructs (personal control, learned

helplessness and self-blame for failure), a scale change score was calculated by subtracting the

beginning of semester score from the end of semester score. A positive change score would then

indicate a strengthening of that particular orientation over the semester, while a negative change

score would indicate a weakening of that orientation over the semester. The scale change scores

for the approaches to learning scales are illustrated in Figure 1, while the scale change scores

for the causal attribution constructs are illustrated in Figure 2.

Procedures

Subjects were initially recruited from an OFC lecture group in the first week of semester.

Volunteers were given an envelope containing an information sheet and the SPQ and CAQ. In

the following week, the subjects returned the completed questionnaires, and attended the first

focus group session. This procedure was then repeated in the final week of lectures for the

semester.

The focus groups were conducted by the second author in a tutorial room prior to a lecture

attended by all participants. The focus groups were conducted using a semi-formal structure

based on key agenda items. The agenda was only varied to accommodate the contexts of the

discussions - from initial enrolment to completion of the semester. The agenda included reasons

for enrolling, reflections on progress, reflections on assignment and exam preparation,

reflections on time management and study, attitudes towards the course, lecturers and readings,

feelings and reactions to successes and failures, and reasons for their academic performance.

It should be noted that the second focus group was conducted prior to examinations. For

confidentiality reasons, examination performance information was unavailable to the

researchers.

Results: Individual Profiles of Change

We begin with individual profiles of change over the semester. Graphic representation of

changes in approaches to learning and causal attributions are included in Figures 1 and 2

respectively. These are available on request from the authors

"Susan":

Susan revealed dramatic changes in her reported approaches to learning and causal attributions

over the semester. Both the surface approach and learned helplessness attributions increased

over the semester, while both the achieving approach (particularly the achieving strategies) and

personal control attributions decreased.

Susan began the course competitively, seeking both success and recognition:

I think I would like a high mark. I always want to get first in something but

never quite make it. I like the recognition from others from being able to top

something, by being better than everyone else. I mean I've put the effort in so I

want someone else to know I've done well

At the same time, fear of failure was also clearly evident:

I would be very pleased with myself if I can manage to get a good pass at the end

of the year, but if I was to fail I would be devastated and angry with myself

The impression Susan gave was one of a fragile sense of self-competence, in part linked to her

prior experiences in adult education, but also significantly to relationship issues with her

husband:

I have been brought up in a situation where I have been told that I am dumber,

which knocked a bit of the confidence out of me. My husband, whenever he is

wrong, always seems to be able to come up with a logical reason why he didn't

have the right answer and it usually involves anything else but his intelligence.

I mean, it is always someone else's fault. But when I am proved wrong it really

affects my confidence, and that changes the way I view my ability and so I won't

be as keen next time to air my opinion and confirm people's suspicion of me as

an idiot

By the end of the semester, despite a maintenance of her interest in the course, and her ambition

to complete a degree, Susan had acknowledged a difficulty in coping, a difficulty that she

appeared to be interpreting as due to factors beyond her ability to control:

I felt at the start of the year if I really applied myself then I would do really well,

but I am finding doing well on an assignment is a little bit of a hit and miss type

of thing. I spent heaps of time and energy on one assignment and only got a

pass. Another assignment that I hardly spent any time on (due to other

commitments) I did really well on. I must have just fluked it and wrote what the

lecturer wanted to read.

The realisation that effort alone may be insufficient to produce academic success clearly left

Susan with a "crisis" of confidence. By turning apparent failure inward, her already fragile sense

of self-efficacy becomes compounded by a reduced expectancy of success, and increased

receptivity to any hint of negative evaluation. This is revealed in her responses to an upcoming

test, and in her reactions to public appraisal:

I haven't done a test yet, but our lecturer gave us a sample test sheet the other

day and I nearly cried - I thought there is no way that I am going to get through

this.

My husband is still quite supportive, but the other day I asked him to proof read

an assignment for grammatical errors and he giggled all the way through it

which really hurt my feelings and lowered the confidence that I had built.

I contributed one day and got a really negative response from the lecturer. Now

I had done considerable previous study in this subject and so I felt I knew what

I was talking about, but it was thrown back in my face by the lecturer in front of

everyone so now I am very careful about what I say if I say anything at all.

Why Susan's shift towards an increasingly maladaptive learning profile? Three factors seem to

be important: a naive conception of what it "takes" to succeed at university ("effort" alone may

be enough) combined with deficient study skills and a fragile sense of self-competence. It is not

surprising then that Susan should increasingly interpret her learning experiences as reflecting

a loss of personal control and an increase in perceptions of learned helplessness.

"Kay"

Kay's changes in profile perhaps reflected the underlying ambiguity of her judgements of her

own self-competence. The semester saw Kay report increases in her score on both the surface

and deep approaches to learning, matched also by increases in attributions for both learned

helplessness and self-blame for failure. Kay had attempted this programme in previous years.

As before, however, she found the interplay between her ambitions and her capacity to cope in

conflict. Early in the semester, she expressed a strong desire for self-improvement:

I have always worked in factories, offices or as a cleaner and I have generally

wanted to be something a little better so I could have more confidence in myself

.... Really it's a self-recognition thing for me. I want to prove it to myself

Like Susan, however, there was from the outset a fragility in the confidence needed to attain the

goal of successful study. In this context, support from within and outside of the course are

crucial. Kay appeared to have little direct support from her husband - a situation which

undoubtedly created a tension between ambition and self-efficacy:

Well unfortunately I don't have my parents nearby for the support I am sure they

could give, so when I decided to return to education I turned to my husband for

support. And the result of that is that we are now separated and I am using my

maiden name as no qualification of mine is going to have my husband's name on

it .... He has shown me no support and has instead ridiculed me for attempting

it, a dumb person like myself ...

It was not surprising, then, that from the beginning Kay should also express strong fears of

negative appraisal in the classroom environment:

I find that if I get something wrong it really affects my confidence. So like

"Susan" I decided I'm not going to air my opinion and confirm people's

suspicion of me as an idiot

By the end of semester, the situation had not altered greatly. Kay was still aiming to achieve (on

the one hand suggesting that she would probably finish up at the end of the course, while at the

same time still expressing a desire to become a teacher and be a really good and compassionate

teacher), but still acknowledging the tension between self-doubt and coping with all the

extraneous demands of life. Family-related issues were clearly still a major source of tension:

Everything my husband can do to stop me from getting here he does. he doesn't

help at all around the house. I find that we are not really suited and fighting

takes up the little energy I have left for study

I am not really coping with four kids. I just can't find the time for my studies.

because I have four kids it's just so hard to find a quiet time .... And when I do

get quiet time I am too tired to think about uni work

The effects of these pressures are seen in a number of aspects of her study: in time management,

in her inability to develop functional and compensatory learning strategies, and in reactions to

potential or actual failure. When asked whether she followed up extra readings, Kay was quite

cynical:

Unless it's absolutely necessary I do not have the time or energy to be concerned

with extra readings. I mean I know it would probably mean that I would get a

better pass, but I am trying to survive with the workload I have now let alone

doing additional non-compulsory readings - Come on!

Such pressures illustrate the combination of a reduced functional goal consistent with more

surface learning and attributions of self-blame. Yet Kay also retained elements of the deep

approach, albeit tempered by the fragility of confidence manifested in ability doubts. On the one

hand, Kay readily identifies difficulty in some of the basic (and assumed) skills of study:

I find it hard to prepare for a test because I really don't trust my lecture notes -

it's virtually left up to you to take your own notes in the lectures and I am never

sure what is important and how to write it down so that it is correct and I can

understand it ...

On the other hand, Kay's underlying self-questioning of her own abilities still appear to temper

any sense of achievement she may have experienced:

... Some of the people in the class seem knowledgeable and then here I am

catching maybe 60-70% of what is being presented. I wonder what they are

doing in this class - they know as much as the lecturer. I am struggling with this

little bridging course so I think I will complete this year and that is all.

"Lilly"

The most apparent change in Lilly's profile involved a reported reduction in both deep and

achieving scores over the semester, combined with smaller increases in both surface learning and

attributions of self-blame. Lilly entered the programme with similar tensions to those faced by

Kay. She expressed a strong desire for self-improvement (crystallised by the end of semester

into a desire to study psychology), which, like Kay, appeared to emerge from a long history of

actual or perceived failure:

I have got my Year 10 Certificate and failed everything. I don't show it to many

people. I probably could have gone further. It wasn't that I didn't want to, it

was because I was always made to feel too dumb because my sisters did so much

better than me. So I am here to prove to myself that I am not stupid

Although divorced, like both Susan and Kay, there were issues of family responsibilities as well

as a perceived lack of family support for Lilly to contend with. Like Kay, these pressures

seemed to produce an underlying tension between ambition and self-doubt:

Well my parents are like "Julie's" in that they don't really believe or accept that

I want to or will get a university education. I was at a party once and there was

a group of young successful stockbrokers, friends of the family, and I said in

passing that one looked all right, and my mother turned round and said "Oh

Lilly'!. I don't think they would be interested in someone like you. They would

want someone with a university education, a little bit intelligent". And that got

me thinking "Well if I do want to attract a better class of man then I do need to

be better educated"...

Lilly's expectations of the course seem then to revolve around a form of identity regeneration.

The desire for growth was clearly there - but ambivalence in defining goals was also apparent:

If I failed at the end of the year I would be devastated for a start but it would be

because I didn't try hard enough. But I am hoping that with the effort I am

willing to put in that I will at least get a pass

By end of semester, Lilly's profile had altered, with a significant lowering of both the deep and

achieving scores. While maintaining her desire to go further, Lilly became increasingly aware

of the difficulties she was facing in trying to keep up with the work load. Both ineffective study

methods combined with family pressures appeared as the main reasons behind her seemingly

decreasing capacity to cope:

When you are getting back into something you haven't done for seventeen years

then it would be easier to do one [subject] at a time. I'm never sure how much

time I should spend on this subject or how much time I should on the other

subject, this assignment due, that assignment due. I don't know how I should be

dividing my time and so I usually end up wasting time worrying about that, and

this is probably why I'm not doing as well as I would like. I probably should

spend more time on my studies, but unless you can find me a baby sitter, house

cleaner, chef, tutor for my children, who will work for nothing then it really isn't

a possibility.

While Lilly to a large extent reflects the disorganised study methods typical of the lower

achieving approach, her shift towards a more surface bias does not mean a lack of awareness of

the deeper attributes of learning - only that in her circumstances they have become a luxury:

... I feel more comfortable either pre-reading or re-reading what was discussed

and presented in class. But I don't spend enough time on doing this simply

because I don't get the time. I don't have enough time to get through what I have

done.

For Lilly, the shift towards surface learning and self-blame attributions appear as a fall-back

position from her beginning of semester hope that effort will produce success:

My first two assignments I got a distinction, but for the next one I got a six out

of ten, and so for the next one I thought "oh stuff! I may as well start failing"

and handed in a half-finished assignment. It's a different type of strain than full-time work and it seems I am more tired now - more than ever

"Anne"

Anne reported only minor changes in profile over the semester, marked primarily by increasing

attributions of self-blame for failure. Unfortunately Anne did not contribute greatly to the

discussions, so there was little interpretative data available. Her motivations for undertaking the

course, like many of the others, was linked to self-improvement - both instrumentally in terms

of obtaining a more satisfying career option, and intrinsically in terms of self-growth.

Throughout both interviews, Anne maintained a strong sense of satisfaction both with the

programme and with her own efforts and achievements. Like Lilly and a number of others,

however, Anne realised her achievements had been tempered by time management difficulties

Being a single mother of two I devote as much time as I can to my studies.

However it is not as much as I would like.

"Julie"

Julie's case represents one of the more interesting interpretations of the measures of individual

differences used in this study. Julie began as a surface predominant learner, and strengthened

that bias over the semester. At the same time, her atrributional patterns shifted dramatically,

with a large fall in attributions of personal control and an increase in attributions of self-blame.

Julies initial motivations parallelled many of the other women - the desire for both personal and

career growth. Like Susan and Kay, Julie began with self-doubts derived from her personal

history, but retained a sense of determination to prove her own worth by succeeding:

My friends are really supportive and think its great, and my two sisters are good

as well. But my parents really haven't accepted that I am capable of going to

university. I was always the less brighter one in the family and that's just the way

it is. And when I told them that I was coming to university, Mum said that you're

not really at university "Julie", you are just doing your HSC. And I feel that

they are a little pissed off and think that I am wasting my time, and in the end I

thought "Well stuff ya!". That's why I want to try and do really well so that I can

prove them wrong.

Despite the determination, Julie nonetheless presented even in the early stages with learning

behaviours that were likely to place her at risk:

I will just be happy with a pass. I've always just been happy plodding along in

the middle. I often think that I should probably have not gone out on the

weekend, but I always end up just doing the minimum.

This notion of minimalism - a key part of a surface approach - remained throughout the

semester. Two aspects of learning appeared to be the consistent driving forces of Julie's

learning behaviours - ineffective strategy management combined with a naive epistemology.

Both are reflected in the following comment:

I'm never sure how much time I should be spending on each subject, how much

on the other. I don't know how to manage my study time. And with my

assignments I mean if I need something that is fact than it shouldn't really matter

what my measly opinion is, so why do I need to include it in my assignment?

What do I know that they don't already?

It is ironic that Julie recognised these deficiencies quite early, and in anticipation of future

problems undertook a study skills programme. Despite this, the epistemological assumptions

of university study were never really captured:

...the History assignment I just got back (I got six out of ten) - I mean I probably

should have spent more time on it than I did but the comment I got was that I

should be stating my opinion. But I did an essay writing course before starting,

and one of the things they said in that course was that you should not let your

own opinion come into it. I am finding this really hard, particularly in history -

I mean if I read something then to me that is fact and it shouldn't really matter

what my measly opinion is.

Despite the apparent surface nature of Julie's learning, she is aware of the relationship between

effortful behaviours and more successful learning - it is just that she does not see herself as

having the necessary time nor volitional disposition to invest that amount of effort.

Consequently, and logically, her attributional patterns increasingly reflect a shift from personal

control to self-blame attributions:

I find that it is hard to read because everything is over theorised. What forms

two chapters could be written in two paragraphs. But I must admit you can

always tell the people that have done the suggested readings. They will ask a

question or participate in discussion in the lecture, usually about something I

have never even heard of. I think to myself that next week I am going to do the

suggested readings. But next week comes and you still haven't done the

readings. I have always just been happy doing the minimum. If I can get

through without doing them then I will.

"Wanda"

Wanda began the course motivated in part by a desire to move towards a more fulfilling life-style, but also with a somewhat idealistic conception of "making a contribution". Not

surprisingly, then, Wanda's initial profile revealed a relatively strong deep bias. By the end of

the semester, much of this idealism had gone, tempered both by time management concerns and

by a growing realisation of the nature and demands of university study. Consistent with a deep

approach, Wanda had, quite early in the semester, come to identify something different about

the epistemologies involved in her course work:

I find it difficult to form your own opinion. You know you read something and

you're not to take that person's view as gospel and you are to try to have your

own opinion, or have an argument that is of your thought. I think it is having the

confidence in your thought. Also, when I read something I find that I agree with

them and think "Oh yeh, they're right", and I believe what I read. I think they're

right because they have written a book. It's hard when for so long I wasn't

allowed to have my own opinion.

This realisation of the complexity of knowledge confronted appeared to establish in Wanda a

tension between achieving in the deeper sense and surviving the demands of completing the

course. Asked whether she would prefer a high mark "without understanding" or a low mark

"with understanding", she responded:

The high mark, because that's the way that society works. I have got three small

children and I am here to make life easier for us, so a good result will improve

my chances of gaining a better job, better paid and security. And so my time is

limited so any strategy whether it be rote learning or not I am willing to use to

get through and get a good pass.

By the end of semester, Wanda had become much more pragmatic. On the one hand, she knew

that she had become more educated, and that the university experience was different to the

school experience:

My other subject is History, and I have learned more in History in the last few

months than I did for my whole schooling career. I mean I thought it was

Captain Cook that sailed into Botany Bay on Australia Day and fought with the

Aborigines. I mean Cook wasn't even there - it was Captain Arthur Phillip. I

had never even heard of him before this course. I know it's different now than

at school. I mean, I want to be here but didn't want to be at school...

On the other hand, repeating the sentiments expressed earlier in the semester, Wanda also saw

that pragmatic demands would get in the way of a purely "deep" approach:

It would be good to do the readings, but my time is limited and so any strategy

whether it be rote learning or not I am willing to use it to get through.

Understanding a subject would be good, but achieving a high mark would be

better. It's just the way society works.

"Beth"

Of all the women involved in the study, Beth's change of profile was perhaps the most adaptive.

While the magnitude of the changes were moderate, Beth remained the only participant to record

a drop in both the surface approach and learned helpless attributions.

Like many of the other women, Beth entered the programme with goals of both personal

development and a history of self-doubt. Much of this related to family relationships:

I finally realised that I am capable of achieving something that he had always led

me to believe I couldn't do. So during my personal development course I left

him. I discovered that the reason there was conflict in my marriage was due to

the fact that I tried to express an opinion or just have an opinion. So now in

relation to my family attitudes everyone is in shock that I am now starting at

university, and they keep trying to talk me out of it as they see me wasting my

time and are worried how it will affect me if I fail. Like they say " Beth' at

university!". I was never bright enough to come to university.

Beth's reactions to the possibilities of failure have been constructive - she has clearly

personalised her learning. When asked how she whether she would prefer a lower mark with

understanding, or a higher mark without understanding, she chose to understand:

The low mark, because if I felt I could understand something well it would boost

my confidence so much. If I got 90 or so through a fluke or luck, that would not

boost my confidence as I would be living a lie .... really, if I failed a subject I

wouldn't feel as though I had failed as a person. I mean I tried, gave it a shot,

and that's all I would expect of myself. Just coming back week after week is an

achievement in itself.

Despite the "healthiness" of this approach, Beth still exhibited extreme anxiety when confronted

with essays and assignments:

I have been so stressed out. The Social Enquiry essay we have just done I think

was OK but the Australian History one I just got myself so stressed out that I

couldn't do it. I asked for an extension and handed it in this morning, but it is

still only half complete. I have just got to learn to overcome this stress that I

experience just trying to complete an assignment...

How did she cope with this anxiety in a way that prevented her from reducing the quality of her

learning goals and attributions? Her first constructive response to anxiety was to undertake a

study skills course, to "help me with basic skills". Even more constructively, Beth has defined

her goals in terms of personal development rather than purely in terms of graded academic

achievement. So while the concept of potential failure remains part of the equation, Beth is able

to contextualise this as part of the process of personal and academic growth:

I am still having a great deal of difficulty with my anxiety and stress with the

course. I put so much into it that the thought of failure is something I think is

working against me. You see I get so worked up I end up in a state and so

usually I have to go to bed and try to do the assignment the next day. It's silly,

but I think I am getting better at coping. I know I have improved since the last

time we spoke. I have been getting help with the study skills unit. So really what

I think I am trying to say is that what I want to achieve out of this year is a pass,

but even if I don't get that then it would still not be a waste of a year if I can

learn to cope with the stress of study and definitely improved myself. Even if I

don't pass I will have something - albeit very small, but something.

Discussion

The study sought to investigate changes in the adjustment behaviours of mature-aged women

returning to formal study in an enabling programme. These changes were characterised in terms

of shifts in emphases in both approaches to learning and causal attributions. Interview data

provided qualitative support for the patterns of change observed in measures of individual

differences. As a generalisation, there was a shift among these women towards an increasingly

maladaptive response to the environment into which they had entered. Most of the women had

recorded increases in both surface learning and self-blame attributions, and most had indicated

a declining endorsement of both the deep and achieving approaches, and a decreasing belief in

personal control attributions. At surface value, this does create a somewhat distressing picture

in terms of the success or otherwise of the access programme. However, examination of the

interview data does provide some qualification to this picture, although it clearly does not

ameliorate the possibility of characterising most of these women as being "at risk" in terms of

successful completion (Note performance data was unavailable).

In what ways can this picture be qualified? The most predominant impression emerging from

the data is motivational. With the exception of perhaps Julie, all students seem to retain the

initial motivation of self-improvement. The difficulties experienced , significant as they were,

were clearly not being internalised as innate ability deficits. The women were perceiving that

their personal goals remained valid, but that the process of enacting those goals was becoming

problematic. hence the attributions shift towards self-blame, not learned helplessness, and hence

the approaches shift towards surface-like learning rather than the more optimal deeper learning.

Most of the women were aware of this shift, but saw it as a functional rather than intellectual

response. In many ways, their adjustments were highly metacognitive - they seemed to stand

back from their situation and reassess what was possible rather than ideal. Conceptually, this

behaviour is reminiscent of Cantwell and Biggs' (1988) "reduction hypothesis", in which certain

aspects of learning goals are seen to be systematically reduced in order that other, subjectively

more important goals may still be reasonably attained. Even for Beth, the most constructive in

terms of adjustment behaviours, ultimate academic failure would not diminish the value of other

more subjectively important goals:

So really what I think I am trying to say is that what I want to achieve out of this

year is a pass. But even if I don't get that then it still won't be a waste of a year

if I can learn to cope with the stress of study and definitely improved myself. .

Even if I don't pass I know I will have something - albeit very small, but

something.

Despite this, however, there were dimensions within the interview data clearly pointing towards

the eventual adoption of the less functional profiles. Paramount here were three factors: identity

regeneration, flawed or incomplete understandings of the nature and skills required for university

study, and the linking of time-management with domestic issues. For each of these women the

initial motivations were about identity regeneration, about changing significant aspects of their

identity and self-concept. For most of these women, the identity issues were inextricably linked

to long histories of marginalisation and, in some cases, abuse. Even in the face of all the

difficulties reported in the interviews, the sense of agency underlying their decisions to re-enter

was not lost. Ironically, this focus on identity regeneration seemed to underlie many of the

difficulties subsequently faced. As a vehicle for self-growth, the "idea" of university study was

very appealing to these women, but it was a vehicle about which little in reality was known.

All entered with naive conceptions of knowledge and of the process of university learning; all

presented with deficient or inappropriate study strategies and time-management techniques, and

all transferred existing self-doubts into an extreme sensitivity to perceived negative evaluations.

At the same time, these perceptions, deficiencies and misconceptions held by the women are

precisely that: perceptions, deficiencies and misconceptions. They are not ability attributes, they

are, however, as Garner (1987) has termed it, examples of "flawed metacognition". As such,

these are clearly remediable. Given that the structure of the OFC does not include a formal

"orientation to university learning programme", but rather relies on the availability of other

student support programmes within the university, it would seem a reasonable inference to

promote the formalising of such a programme within the OFC itself. For these women,

information about self, about strategies, and about management just might provide the necessary

support required to prevent the kinds of drifts in learning profile that the exigencies of adult

learning seem to develop.

Is this to say that the OFC programme as an enabling course has failed these women? The

evidence would not indicate this, despite the emerging visibility of some structural deficits. By

their own testimony, these women have indicated enormous benefits being accrued from their

presence in the course. All women appeared to experience a significant growth in personal

identity and insight, and even where academic objectives were perhaps not being achieved, other

indications of positive change were being acknowledged

For Susan:

... it (Sociology) has changed my attitudes to a lot of things, the way I look at the

world and really had made me think. The ways humans behave and the reasons

for that behaviour are clearer and you are more tolerant I think of other people's

situations. This course has really got me thinking about a lot of important issues

For Julie:

It has really helped me get out of a rut that I have been in for a few years. It has

activated my mind and even now before I have finished I feel there are so many

more opportunities available that perhaps there were before but I couldn't see

them. I am confident I think because I am enjoying learning - something that

certainly didn't happen at school.

For Kay:

It had opened my eyes a lot. I can see why my husband treats me the way he does

at times and why my kids do what they do, and not only that, by society generally.

It has really got me thinking.

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