UNIT FIVE: THE CURRICULUM OF ADULT AND NFE

5.1. Contents of Adult and NFE

 Curriculum is the base for the selection of contents and it decides on
the goals of education.
 The choice of ends or the goals and purposes of adult education are
the background for the choice of contents in adult education.
This implies that a wide range of curricular models, reflecting several
goals, purposes and orientations characterized adult education.
There are different models suggested by different scholars in the field.
Here are the five models that are accepted by most writers.

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Cont….
I. Information Model
• The model is derived from the goals and purposes of adult education.
• It aims at cultivating the intellect and focuses on academic contents of education.
• In this model, less regard is given to effective and skills learning.
• The role of the teacher is to make decisions on what students learn and to have a
complete control over students learning.
• It is a teacher-centered approach,
• where the content is expected to provide as complete information as possible by
leaving little or nothing for the learner to contribute.
• The student is a passive listener

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Cont…
II. Individual Self-Actualization Model
 In this model the focus of the content is on the learner’s individual experience,
goals, interests and beliefs.
 It gives less regard for a body of knowledge and more emphasis is given to
affective learning.
 The teacher in this model is expected to play the role of a facilitator helper and
partner.
 The student’s individual freedom and responsibility for his/her own learning is
highly valued.
The emphases or methods of learning in this model are experimentation and
discovery.
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III. Individual and Social Improvement Model
• This model of adult education pre-supposes a content which focuses on student
experience and action.
• The source of knowledge from this perspective is experience.
• Specific content becomes subordinated to the development of skills to evaluate
experience.
• The role of teachers in this model is to organize, stimulate and evaluate learning.
• The main role of the students is to do their own activities and studies.
• This model involves problem solving, project or activity as well as
experimental methodologies of learning.

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Cont….

IV. Organizational effectiveness Model

This model focuses on the presentation of structured content to change the
behavior, knowledge, attitudes or sensibilities of learners.

The contents in this model may include administrative or supervisory skills,

basic skills or technical information and others.

 The role of the teacher from this perspective is to present stimuli-judged

adequate knowledge to change behavior in a controlled environment.
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 The students are expected to acquire and develop the required competencies by
their organization.
The varieties of methods that exist in such practices are: lectures, conferences,
Seminars, Panel discussion, workshops, and case studies and so on.
V. Social Transformation and Development
 Within this model there are different views to curriculum.

• There is a view that most people acquire most of their knowledge outside the school
unconsciously. for instance, the only true content for adult education is that which emanates from
the learners.

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• In this perspective the role of the teacher and the student is assumed as
a “horizontal relationship”.

• Teachers and students both teach and learn simultaneously, becoming

participating and co-investigators in the dialogues.

•The methodical emphases in such type of model are those that

encounter dialogue as well as problem solving.
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• The content of adult education could theoretically be described in a variety of ways.

• This is because; adult education program has neither a single philosophy nor a single purpose around

which educators could agree.

• And of course adult education could be part of or integrated with some other programs be it

community development, agricultural extensions, skills training, health education or small business

development.

•At the same time, adult education by and large implies a freedom of choice in regard to what is learned
by the adult, and thus there is no limit to the curriculum of adult education.

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Contents of Adult Education in
Developed Countries Developing Countries

 Literacy
 General education
 Civic and Political Education
 Occupational Training
 Health and Family life
 Community Issues
 Agricultural Education
 Personal/Family Living
 Vocational Training
 Social life and Recreation
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5.2 Organization ad Selection of Courses
• What is course organization?

In any curriculum, contents should be structured in steps with increasing levels of achievement.

 Each level should have defined standards; so that learners can measure progress towards defined
goals.

 Curriculum organization is basically a matter of arranging component parts of the curriculum for
learners at a given time in a given level so as to obtain a desired effect.

 This implies that adult education programs should have a developmental orientation.

 Learners should be aware of their individual growth and personal development as they proceed
through a sequence of learning experiences.

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Cont…

Though there is a general understanding in that contents should be organized,

there is a wide variety of practice in the organization of courses.

 Because adult education is such diversified activity in terms of the

participants and their interests, sponsoring agencies, objectives, delivery
models, etc.,

 Some programs may be staff-dominated while others could be participant-

managed course programs.
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Cont…

• Frequently a course is organized and offered as an independent unit within

some larger program.
• The courses should be designed for use by individuals and by groups.

• They should be suitable for self-learning and also for use by reading groups
based in homes libraries, reading centers, learning centers and else where.

• There are advantages in consolidating several courses in to an integrated

program, rather than presenting them as a series of individual offerings.
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5.2.1.2 Criteria for curriculum Organization
• For any curriculum at any level there are four main criteria in organizing the
contents:

1. Continuity
Continuity is the planned arrangement of contents at successive levels each
time at an increased level of complexity.
 It deals with the vertical relationship of a course and to make contents
repeat at a given interval to achieve better retention of the some kinds of
skills and concepts.
 So the Adults expected to practice the skill again and again until the
expected objective is realized to be achieved.
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Cont…

2. Sequence
Sequencing is arranging the contents and materials into some sort of order
of succession.
 Even though sequence is related to continuity, it goes beyond it as it
increases the quantity of information to be acquired.
 In considering the sequence of contents for adult learners, their
accumulated experiences should be considered.
There are two types of sequencing; logical and psychological sequencing.
 The logical sequencing of content organization puts the content and materials in to some
sort of order of succession.
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Cont…
It has to start from what learners know to what they want and should know.
 It also means the chronological arrangement of events.
 This implies the arrangement of facts and ideas in a time sequence.
 In the logical sequencing degree of complexity should also be considered.
 Adults will be more interested to learn if contents start from simple and proceed to
complexity.
 The psychological sequence of contents refers to the arrangements of contents and
activities by giving more attention to the learning activities in relation to:
 the abilities,
interests,
aspirations and backgrounds of the learner rather than the course and content coverage.

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Cont…

3. Establishing Scope
• Scope means to decide what must be taught to learners at levels of the
education system which also includes adult education programs.
• It indicates the type of educational experiences that are believed by
curriculum planners to be appropriate for teaching learners at a
particular stage.
• Defining the scope of a curriculum is much more difficult for adult
education than that of the formal schools.

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4. Integrations
Integration of contents is the horizontal relationship of facts,
principles, concepts and activities.
 Integration focuses on helping learners to perceive the relatedness
between concepts and processes within the different courses and also
with the outside environment.
 Integration provides some kind of coherence to the content discussed
from course to course in a program.

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Curriculum planners and adult educators have to consider the following difference
while organizing contents and offering them to adult learners.
a) The adult learner is a volunteer; the school student attends school because it is compulsory at least for
a while.

b) The adult learner is self-elected; more often than not; he is a part- timer

c) The adult learner is more mature, experienced and can relate things better.

d) The adult leaner is highly motivated and earnest about his study.

e) The adult learner wants to be free and independent. He is autonomous.

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a) The adult leaner forgets more quickly than the young.

b) The adult leaner is hard to admit his errors.

c) To the young, time is an endless entity and can be wasted or spent;

d) The adult learner wishes to be compared with his own previous performance rather than with his classmates.

e) The adult learner has been out of school or never been to school.

f) The adult learner has much more responsibility than a school student-responsibility

g) The adult learner does not have the facilities and services that a regular student may have

h) Unlike the school child, the adult leaner brings to the learning process experiences of life; interests emotions, abilities,

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5.2.2 Selection of Courses
• Usually, there is a wide variety of possible contents to choose from, and the problem
is one of deciding which subjects would be best and will offer.
• Selecting of contents involves decision about what should be taught.
Principles of course selection in AE
1. Setting a tentative goal as to the number of courses to offer
2. Basing every program in a solid core of subjects
3. Presenting a more or less balanced variety of subjects
4. Setting subjects that are keeping with policies of sponsors and objectives of the
program
5. Offering subjects that will not duplicate or conflict with the programs of other
organization-
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6. Limiting courses to objectives that can be accomplished within limits
set by the nature of the program-
7. Delineating subject according to topical area of knowledge or
according to functional problems to be dealt with.
8. Balancing between courses that produce an income and courses that
require subsidy
9. Selecting subjects with sensitivity to seasonal interest and to current
developments in human affairs
10. Selecting courses according to policies by the program director

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5.3 Scheduling Courses
•After the selection is done consideration should be given on how to schedule the
courses. Some of the most important considerations in scheduling courses include.
•When should course meetings be held? Evening hours prove to be most convenient to the vast
majority of adults,

•Almost all downtown programs schedule their courses to start it at 6:00 or 6:30 p.m.

•Programs that take place in residential neighborhoods, on the other hand schedule most of their
classes to start at 7:30 or 8:00 p.m.

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• How long should the meeting last? The general practice ranges from
one to three hours, but the most common duration of class meetings
seems to be an hour and half. Several factors determine to decide the
best length of time.
 The element of fatigue must be considered in all cases.
What days of the week are best? The general experience seems to be
that the earlier days in the week are the most popular,
How frequently should classes meet? The most common practice is to
schedule class meetings once a week or twice a week.

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UNIT SIX: THE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ANFE

6.1. Types of Adult Education.

On this basis, four forms of NFE can be distinguished by referring to
their relationship with the formal school and college system.
1. Para-formal Education
 The term ‘para – formal education comes from Argentina,
 It has been applied as a term for educational activities in between the
formal programs that follow the highly-organized, structured and
full-time educational ladder and the array of loosely-structured, part-
time out-of-school provisions.
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Continue….
• Para-formal activities are often sponsored by the education authorities and
run parallel to the education system.

• Such programs include evening classes, official literacy and distance

education programs, private tutoring, and certain programs for street
children, and forms of vocational and technical training.
•Para-formal education programs have in the past been generally initiated and run by non-
government organization (NGOs), but currently the MoE involved to achieve E FA goals.

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 2. Popular Education
 this form of education is highly characterized, a learning-by-doing approach, high levels of
structural flexibility and constant pre-occupations to adapt the learning.
 Popular education is directly associated with a distinctly Latin-American movement that
emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to search for alternatives to human-capital-oriented forms of
non-formal adult education.

•A central component here has been awareness raising or the psychological pedagogy typically
is used to transform participants’ “perspectives on their social reality (La Belle, 1986).

• Raising Awareness------in socio-political issues, (social relations) and economic etc…

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Cont…

3. Personal Development
• This is defined as ‘education programs covering a range of learning practices
organized by cultural institutions that promote leisure-time activities’.
• It includes a market approach whereby different courses are sold either for direct
consumption or as human capital investment (Carr-Hill, 2001).
• highly individualized, more privatized and more ephemeral.
• Residential short courses, study visits, fitness centers, sports clubs, heritage centers
and self-therapy programs are the most typical types of personal development.
• Purpose
• To improve oneself and to struggle with one self and ones intimate relationships.

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 4. Professional and Vocational Training
• Covers all training out side the formal or non-formal forms of initial skills
training leading to recognized national diplomas.
• It includes;
on the job learning,
artisonal or informal sector apprenticeships,
agricultural or industrial extension services,
entrepreneurship development programs,
and all forms of in-service skills development, upgrading or re-skilling etc..
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 Forms of Adult Education

1. Life-Long Education
• The concept of life-long education becomes popular after the years
following World War II.
• It refers to education from the cradle to the grave, that is, life-long
learning;
• Life-long education is that formal school education is not enough and
learning does not stop at leaving school (for those who have been to
school).
• UNESCO popularized the concept;
• “integrated” so that it becomes life-long integrated education .
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Cont…
• The aim of life-long integrated education has to:-
Reinforce and improve the education of the young as well as offer
adults broad opportunities for self-renewal and social advancement.
Restricted neither to schooling for the young, nor for the adults.
Indicate that life-long education rejects age limits and the concepts of failure

Stress the assumption that individuals of equal intelligence and ability

may progress at varying rhythms.

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2. Recurrent Education----------routine, repeated
• Recurrent education was seen as a new strategy, radically changing the
school and colleges to the new insights of life-long education,
• Incorporating the formal and informal adult education agencies into
one single education system (Rogers, 1992).
• Recurrent Education was seen to be a matter of entitlement to education
especially to the needs of work.
• Recurrent educations was seen as strategy for implementing the whole
of life-long learning at child hood and adult stages by transforming the
educational system through political action.
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Cont…
3. Formal, Non-Formal and In-Formal Adult Education
3.1. Formal AE refers to;
Systematically arranged adult education programs, either a full-time
or a part-time basis.
Programs that are normally held within the walls of institutions
Programs where the teacher who knows the subject
Certain methods of teaching and certain types of institutions are
usually associated with formal adult education such as evening
classes.

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• The concept of non-formal education connotes “alternative to schooling’-hence the
term ‘out-of-school education’.
• The scope of non-formal education covers training and instruction outside the
formal education system.
• Informal adult education, learning tends to become unintentional and accidental
as adults engage in their daily routines,
characteristics of Informal education
Absence of any form of planning
Absence of stated goal or purpose
Learning program is accidental by nature
A life-long experience and

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4. Adult Basic Education
• Adult Basic Education is the first level of formal adult education.
• It includes Adult Literacy Education, often thought of as education in the 3Rs-
reading, writing and arithmetic.
• There are two aspects of functional literacy;
1. Work-oriented Functional Literacy-
 Teaching in the context of vocational knowledge and technical skills
2. Socio-Cultural Functional Literacy-
Teaching of literacy in a socio-cultural context, such as family life, sanitation,
nutrition, religion and civics.
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5. Continuing Education
• This is the second stage of formal adult education.
• Participants have had some formal educational background and desire to go further in
their learning.
• Among the very well-known type of continuing education are;
 offered by universities as extension’
 “extra moral studies”
• Such kind of education, if it is formal the contents would be examination of university
itself
• while their non-formal work may be vocational or liberal.

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 6. Needs-Related Adult Education

• Classified in to social and individual needs

starting from the social needs;

1. Basic Education Needs: Designed by religious and government agencies, to combat illiteracy,

2. Technical-Vocational Training Needs: To fit new manpower for employment and to upgrade them

3. Socio-economic Education Needs: Training of workers in economic, financial, technical and legal fields,

4. Ideological –political education Needs: Attempts to increase the ideological awareness and political maturity

5. Needs for Improving the Quality of Life: Includes matters of health, matters of environment, home decoration
etc.

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• Adult Education in terms of individual aspirations or competitiveness

 To acquire basic education as tools

 To acquire skills and techniques in chosen occupations to earn a living.

 To acquire skill necessary to take the best advantage of one’s physical,

community, civic and political environment.

 To attain self-fulfillment and release creativity.

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7. Methodically Identified Adult Education

•Methods are determined by one or the combination of;

 Fundamental philosophies of society

 Content

 Number of persons to be educated

6.3 Modes of Delivery for Adult Education

1. Methods of Delivery for Individuals

• Several formats are available for reaching adults with education.

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Apprenticeship/internship;
Correspondence study,
Counseling,
Independent study,
Multi-media learning packages,
Programmed instruction and
Computer assisted instruction as well as supervision.

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2. Modes of Delivery for Groups Learning
The ways for reaching adult learners in groups are also numerous:
•action project;
•clinics, institutes, workshops;
•clubs and organized groups;
•conferences and conventions;
•courses;- the most efficient and dominant unit for organizing most kinds of learning.
•demonstrations; showing and teaching simultaneously
•Exhibits: a stationary sequential display
•Fairs: a non-sequential mixture of exhibits and activities
•and festivals; a moving display.
•large meetings; trips and tours etc.

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3. Modes of Delivery for Mass Education
One of the most common approaches to deliver mass adult education involves community
development programs.
improving communities, solving community problems
Patterns of organization
 Provide and educative environment

 Practice democratic philosophy

 Exemplify change and growth

 Clearly set an organizational structure

 Provide a policy base-delineate the adult education function

 Provide for staff services –diverse management patterns in institutions of adult education

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•four basic features of an adult education organization:

1) Respect for personality.

2) Participation in decision making

3) Freedom of expression.

4) Mutually of responsibility in defining goals, planning and conducting

activities, and evaluating
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