Assignment 2 The Impact Of Educational Change And The Implications

Assignment 2 The Impact Of Educational Change And The Implications Assignment 2: The Impact Of Educational Change And The Implications For Your Teaching Practice â€" Assignment Example > AbstractAdult education in Australia continue to gain shape and momentum as the country’s adult population continues to blossom. Most adults in the country have been forced to balance the need to pursue post secondary education and work at the same time. This has led to the emergence of a new generation of learner known as “earner-learner” student. Majority of the students have therefore been forced to look for a learning approach that would lead to reduction of number of hours spent in learning institutions. In this regard, e-learning has offered a perfect platform for the Australian adult students to meet both their education and employment needs. It presents a whole new concept that promises to change the face of education system in the country. Key word: Adult education and e-learningIntroductionAustralia remains one of the countries in the world with attractive scenic beauty, vacation sports and well educated people. The population of the country is highly diversified d ue to high cases of cross-marriages. This diverse nature of the country’s population has over the years seen most citizens making numerous demands including the diversification of the education sector. There have been calls by the Australian citizens to the government and other stakeholders in the education sector to adopt new strategies on teaching and learning. One such area in the education sector that has attracted much interest is adult education. The adult education in Australia has increasingly become popular over the years. The increase has been influenced by various prevailing social, economic political factors in the country. Previous findings by past researchers have shown that the average life expectancy among the Australian people has increased over the years. For instance, due to improved lifestyles, most Australian citizens have been able to live longer. This has led to an increase in the numbers of adults in the country. Consequently, the demand for adult educati on has increased tremendously. According to Tennant and Morris (2001), 41% of Australian university students are adults aged 25 years and above with about 63% of the student population aged above 20 years. Even as the demand for adult education continues to increase Australia, there have been numerous emerging challenges. Researchers like Lipsitz (2003) have observed that the legal definition of who qualifies to be an adult student has been unclear. Another challenge has been the discomfort among the adult learners. Most adult learners find it uncomfortable to share the same learning environment with young students. Another school of though holds that appear to be out of practice with the requisite learning skills due to the break they have had from the forming learning system. This therefore affects their academic performance. In an argument by Tavangarian et al (2004), flexibility could be ranked as the top most challenge for an adult student within the formal learning environmen t. The proponents of this view observe that most adult students are tasked with the responsibility of attending to family and job matters while at the same time striving to attend to the demands of formal classes. This presents adult students with the challenge of divided attention thus affecting their academic performance.