The returning undergraduate learner: Navigating the traditional college classroom

This qualitative approach to the study of returning undergraduate learners is viewed through the narratives of three women who have decided to complete the requirements for the Baccalaureate Degree at a traditional four-year university, during the day. At the time of this study, the three women ranged in age from 28 to 44 and each had a history of starting and stopping collegiate studies. This research chronicles their experiences during two semesters in a preservice teacher education course where traditional-aged students were in the majority. Their interactions with their instructors were specifically examined. This study was guided by the question: How do returning students move through the traditional undergraduate classroom? I examined the expectations of the returning students and of their instructors, the discourses that the students brought to the classroom, and each of the students' experiences with the traditional aged students in their classrooms. Classroom discourse practices---ways of talking, acting, interacting, valuing, and believing---were examined in order to gain a better understanding of learning and teaching in the traditional undergraduate classroom. This study provides insight into how these three women met the challenge of this environment. I have identified coping techniques, or navigational practices, derived from the life experiences of the returning undergraduates, and I have examined them in order to understand how the returning undergraduate students used these practices to learn and move through the traditional college classroom. I have also uncovered learning conflicts between the returning undergraduates and their instructors and have discussed ways of implementing practices that may minimise their effect. These findings raise the importance of one-on-one teacher/student conferences in the traditional college classroom. They also suggest that using the experiences of returning undergraduate learners as text, in order to support discussions, would enhance the development of all students in the class, and aid in developing empathetic teachers so that they might develop empathetic learners.