AFRICAN AMERICANS
This entry provides a summary of issues related to African Americans. It begins with a brief overview of the history and geographical distribution of African Americans in the United States. This is followed by brief descriptions of attitudes affecting African Americans, including their attitudes toward the majority culture, religion and politics, racial identity, and African Americans in society. Next is a summary of the schooling experiences of, and educational outcomes for, African Americans and an overview of some of the major explanations for the achievement patterns of African American students. Despite decades of educational research, African Americans continue to have achievement levels that are substantially below their White and East Asian counterparts, on average, and this achievement gap has been the subject of consider-able research in the field of educational psychology.
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African Americans in the United States
At 12.3% of the population, African Americans are the second largest minority group in the United States, behind Hispanics who make up 12.5% of the U.S. population. Also commonly referred to as Black Americans, African Americans are still the single largest racial minority group in the country. Many Black biracial individuals and foreign-born Blacks also self-identify as African American. However, both of these groups are quite small, constituting less than 1% and 5% of the Black population, respectively. Black immigrants to the United States are from three primary regions: the Caribbean, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa.
In the early 1600s, some of the first Africans were brought to the United States as indentured servants. However, by the mid-1600s, the status of Africans in the United States had been changed to slaves. By the end of the legal slave trade in 1808, more than 500,000 Africans had been brought into the United States, primarily to work on the plantations in the southern states. Until the Great African American Migration (1910-1920), 90% of the African American population lived in the South, and less than 25% lived in urban areas. This early 20th-century migration of African Americans eventually yielded settlement patterns that are reflected in the United States today, with substantial concentrations of African Americans in the urban centers of the northeastern and midwestern United States.
The South still has the largest concentration of African Americans in the country, with more than 50% of the Black population. Nonetheless, African Americans constitute less than 20% of the South's population. African Americans make up about 11 % of the populations in the Northeast and Midwest and about 5% of the population in the West. The top 10 residential areas for African Americans include the following metropolitan areas, in descending order: New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Houston, Baltimore, and Dallas. Although there have been declines in segregation over the past three dec-ades, African Americans still live in highly segregated neighborhoods, and the metropolitan areas with the largest concentrations of African Americans also have the highest levels of residential segregation. Affluent African Americans also live in areas with high levels of residential segregation, and children experience the highest segregation levels at home and in school.
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Attitudes Affecting African Americans
African Americans report a substantial amount of mistrust of Whites, and a majority of African Americans report experiencing racial discrimination at least once a year. African Americans report marked mistrust of the police and are more likely than other ethnic groups to believe in conspiracy theories. Thus, many African Americans believe that the majority culture does not want positive outcomes for their group. The increasing numbers of legal challenges to affirmative action, alongside media accounts of police brutality, reports of discrimination in housing and bank loans, and concerns about the disenfranchise-ment of Black voters in recent national elections, are seen as providing support for this hypothesis.
There is some evidence that African Americans' beliefs are not wholly without merit. Although overt negative attitudes toward African Americans have decreased in the broader society, recent research suggests that racist attitudes have become more covert over time and that aversive (unconscious) racism still plays a major role in the lives of African Americans. Thus, although fewer than 5% of Americans endorse negative stereotypes of African Americans, social psy-chology research reveals differential responses to African Americans in several circumstances. For example, in bystander intervention studies, individuals respond equally to Whites and Blacks when an emergency occurs only if they are the only witness; they are less likely to assist Blacks when there are multiple witnesses. Also, people report the same number of negative characteristics for Whites and Blacks but report significantly more positive characteristics for Whites. Similarly, in evaluating job candidates, Black and White candidates with comparable weak and moderate skills are rated equally, but White candidates with strong skills are rated substantially higher than Black candidates with equally strong skills.
African American racial identity attitudes have also received considerable research scrutiny. Black racial identity was first conceptualized as a stage theory, with African Americans moving from an anti-Black stage to a pro-Black stage, with concomitant increases in self-concept. Recent theorizing conceives of Black racial identity as consisting of a set of multidimensional attitudes. Studies have provided support for several Black racial identity attitudes, including low salience attitudes, high salience attitudes, pro-Black attitudes, anti-Black attitudes, anti-White attitudes, and multicultural attitudes. Recently, researchers have demonstrated generalizable racial identity profiles in the population, although it is not yet clear how these will affect functioning. Several scholars have suggested that in the social context of the United States, many African Americans will have some minimal level of negative attitudes toward Whites.
Religion continues to play a major role in African American life, and the church has been one of the most important forces in the African American community. Estimates indicate that there are more than 60,000 Black churches in the United States, and African Americans have considerable membership numbers in several Christian and Islamic denominations. From a religious point of view, African Americans are generally conservative. However, on the political spectrum, African Americans are generally aligned with the Democratic Party. Initially strong supporters of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party after the American Civil War, African American political allegiance shifted as the Republicans compromised with southern states on issues of civil rights. For much of the past 30 years, more than 80% of African American voters have been affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the 109th Congress included 43 African Americans (1 senator and 42 representatives), all of whom were Democrats.
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EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
Showing posts with label Psychology Degree Online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psychology Degree Online. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Online Education And College Degree, part 8.
ADULT LEARNING
Adult learning is a complex phenomenon. Although there are many commonalities between how adults and children learn, development and change that take place across the life span play a definite role in understanding why adults learn, as well as how they learn. In educational psychology, an understanding of adult learning and the adult learner is crucial to a commitment to lifelong learning. Major challenges facing those who work with and study adult learners include questions about the extent to which knowledge is discovered or constructed and where one locates oneself in terms of focusing on individual and social aspects of online education.
History
In the early 1900s, the psychology of adulthood and aging received scant attention, largely due to the strong influence of psychologists such as John Watson, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget, whose work emphasized the view that adulthood could be understood as simply an extension of development or learning in the early years of life. However, as psychologists such as Erik Erikson, G. Stanley Hall, Charlotte Biihler, and Sidney Pressey began to extend their theories and research to address the adult years, a greater understanding of the psychology of adulthood began to emerge.
Probably the first major study of adult learning was published by E. L. Thorndike and his colleagues in the 1928 book Adult Learning. As a seminal effort to provide empirical evidence related to learning in adulthood, these authors concluded that learning ability peaks at about age 45, rather than age 20 as previously believed. This study set in motion an effort to understand adult learning ability; this effort has continued to grow over nearly eight decades. Today, most of the research and writing on adult learning come from three fields: psychology, adult education, and gerontology. The field of psychology has offered a necessary, though not sufficient, foundation for understanding adult learning. Adult education and gerontology, through their professional literature, have also made important contributions to learning in adulthood. Although there is some overlap across these areas, each field brings a different framework and importance to the understanding of earning online degree.
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Participation in Adult Learning
One of the most extensively studied areas of online education relates to the nature of participation in adult learning. This involves three questions: Who participates in online education? Why do adults engage in learning? What are some of the factors that deter or limit adults from participating in learning? Online course and college degree. In 1965, William Johnstone and Ramon Rivera reported on a major national study of adult learning participation and found that 22% of all adults in the United States participated in some form of learning activity during the previous year.
Beginning in 1969, the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics began to collect data about participation in adult education. These studies have been conducted every several years and have offered insight into some major trends. Unfortunately, because different data collection procedures and definitions were used at different times, direct comparison across studies is not feasible. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify certain trends in participation. Earn college degree online.
Data from 2000-2001 indicate that 46% of all adults participated in some form of adult education activity during the previous 12 months. This compares with participation rates of 40.2% in 1995 and 33% in 1991. In terms of demographic breakdown, those in the 41-to-50 age group had the highest participation rate (55%), followed by the 16-to-30 and 31-to-40 age groups (53% each). Female participants outnumbered males (49%-43%), and in terms of race/ethnicity, Whites had the highest participation rate (47%), followed rather closely by African Americans (43%) and Hispanics (42%). As might be expected, those with higher educational attainment and income levels also had the highest participation rates. Finally, people who were employed during the previous 12 months had over twice as high a participation rate as those unemployed during the same period (54% compared with 25%).
The way in which participation is defined has an impact on the actual rates of participation. In the data cited in the previous paragraph, participation was defined as some form of online education bachelor degree online class. However, in the early 1970s, Allen Tough used a structured interview process to assess involvement of adults across the entire range of learning activities. In doing so, Tough found that as many as 90% of the participants in his study engaged in some form of learning activity over the previous year. Even more important is that he found the vast majority of learning projects (68%) were planned by the learners themselves, as opposed to a teacher/instructor, tutor, or nonhuman resource such as technology. Tough used the metaphor of an iceberg to illustrate what he found: Most adult learning lies beneath the surface and is not easily visible to those who only study participation in organized courses or other activities. This finding played a key role in stimulating research on self-directed learning, which became one of the most widely studied topics in the adult education literature of the last decades of the 20th century.
To a large degree, participation in adult learning is linked to life transitions. These transitions often serve as "triggers" for adults to recognize that learning can help them negotiate such transitions. In today's world, job-related transitions (e.g., job loss, promotion, new responsibilities, retirement) are the most frequently identified reasons for participation. Other examples of transitions that can trigger the need for learning include family issues like marriage, divorce, and parenthood; health issues such as wellness, coping with a life-threatening illness, or being diagnosed with a chronic condition; enrichment opportunities such as leisure, art, or religion/spirituality.
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One particularly influential study is Cyril Houle's The Inquiring Mind, which was originally published in 1961. Houle interviewed 22 adults deemed to be active learners and from these interviews, he identified a typology of orientations toward learning. Goal-oriented learners viewed learning as instrumental to achieving some other purpose; in other words, learning was seen as a means to another end. Activity-oriented learners sought out learning activities for their social value, as a way to meet new people and socialize. Learning-oriented adults were identified as those who engaged in learning for its own sake.
Many factors can serve as barriers or deterrents to participation in getting degree online. These have been conceptualized according to several different categories. In essence, the major factors that limit participation are (a) reasons linked to the life circumstances of adults, which are often outside the control of the person, such as lack of time, money, transportation, and family responsibilities; (b) reasons related to institutional policies and practices that limit participation, such as scheduling of classes, information about offerings, limited offerings, and policies that discriminate directly or indirectly against adult learners; and (c) reasons related to attitudes and values of learners, such as low self-concept, fear of failure, negative past experiences, and lack of interest. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Gordon Darkenwald and his colleagues, Craig Scanlon, Thomas Valentine, and Elisabeth Hayes, reported on the development of several forms of the Deterrents to Participation Scale. This instrument has made it possible to isolate and identify many of the factors that contribute to nonparticipation in adult learning.
EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
Adult learning is a complex phenomenon. Although there are many commonalities between how adults and children learn, development and change that take place across the life span play a definite role in understanding why adults learn, as well as how they learn. In educational psychology, an understanding of adult learning and the adult learner is crucial to a commitment to lifelong learning. Major challenges facing those who work with and study adult learners include questions about the extent to which knowledge is discovered or constructed and where one locates oneself in terms of focusing on individual and social aspects of online education.
History
In the early 1900s, the psychology of adulthood and aging received scant attention, largely due to the strong influence of psychologists such as John Watson, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget, whose work emphasized the view that adulthood could be understood as simply an extension of development or learning in the early years of life. However, as psychologists such as Erik Erikson, G. Stanley Hall, Charlotte Biihler, and Sidney Pressey began to extend their theories and research to address the adult years, a greater understanding of the psychology of adulthood began to emerge.
Probably the first major study of adult learning was published by E. L. Thorndike and his colleagues in the 1928 book Adult Learning. As a seminal effort to provide empirical evidence related to learning in adulthood, these authors concluded that learning ability peaks at about age 45, rather than age 20 as previously believed. This study set in motion an effort to understand adult learning ability; this effort has continued to grow over nearly eight decades. Today, most of the research and writing on adult learning come from three fields: psychology, adult education, and gerontology. The field of psychology has offered a necessary, though not sufficient, foundation for understanding adult learning. Adult education and gerontology, through their professional literature, have also made important contributions to learning in adulthood. Although there is some overlap across these areas, each field brings a different framework and importance to the understanding of earning online degree.
Tags: Teaching Degree Online, Doctorate Degree Online, Degree Online Program, Student Loans Online Degree, Online History Degree, Rn Degree Online, University Of Phoenix Online Degree, Psychology Degree Online, Online Theology Degree, Online Music Degree, Degree Fake Online, Law Degree Online, Music Degree Online.
Participation in Adult Learning
One of the most extensively studied areas of online education relates to the nature of participation in adult learning. This involves three questions: Who participates in online education? Why do adults engage in learning? What are some of the factors that deter or limit adults from participating in learning? Online course and college degree. In 1965, William Johnstone and Ramon Rivera reported on a major national study of adult learning participation and found that 22% of all adults in the United States participated in some form of learning activity during the previous year.
Beginning in 1969, the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics began to collect data about participation in adult education. These studies have been conducted every several years and have offered insight into some major trends. Unfortunately, because different data collection procedures and definitions were used at different times, direct comparison across studies is not feasible. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify certain trends in participation. Earn college degree online.
Data from 2000-2001 indicate that 46% of all adults participated in some form of adult education activity during the previous 12 months. This compares with participation rates of 40.2% in 1995 and 33% in 1991. In terms of demographic breakdown, those in the 41-to-50 age group had the highest participation rate (55%), followed by the 16-to-30 and 31-to-40 age groups (53% each). Female participants outnumbered males (49%-43%), and in terms of race/ethnicity, Whites had the highest participation rate (47%), followed rather closely by African Americans (43%) and Hispanics (42%). As might be expected, those with higher educational attainment and income levels also had the highest participation rates. Finally, people who were employed during the previous 12 months had over twice as high a participation rate as those unemployed during the same period (54% compared with 25%).
The way in which participation is defined has an impact on the actual rates of participation. In the data cited in the previous paragraph, participation was defined as some form of online education bachelor degree online class. However, in the early 1970s, Allen Tough used a structured interview process to assess involvement of adults across the entire range of learning activities. In doing so, Tough found that as many as 90% of the participants in his study engaged in some form of learning activity over the previous year. Even more important is that he found the vast majority of learning projects (68%) were planned by the learners themselves, as opposed to a teacher/instructor, tutor, or nonhuman resource such as technology. Tough used the metaphor of an iceberg to illustrate what he found: Most adult learning lies beneath the surface and is not easily visible to those who only study participation in organized courses or other activities. This finding played a key role in stimulating research on self-directed learning, which became one of the most widely studied topics in the adult education literature of the last decades of the 20th century.
To a large degree, participation in adult learning is linked to life transitions. These transitions often serve as "triggers" for adults to recognize that learning can help them negotiate such transitions. In today's world, job-related transitions (e.g., job loss, promotion, new responsibilities, retirement) are the most frequently identified reasons for participation. Other examples of transitions that can trigger the need for learning include family issues like marriage, divorce, and parenthood; health issues such as wellness, coping with a life-threatening illness, or being diagnosed with a chronic condition; enrichment opportunities such as leisure, art, or religion/spirituality.
Tags: Online College Bachelor Degree, Online College Degree Distance Education, Online Course And College Degree, Pharmacy Degree Online, School Online College Degree Distance Education, College Degree Learning Online Program, Masters Degree Graduate Accredited Online College Programs, Online Accredited Law College Degree, Online Colleges College Degree, Earn A College Degree Online, Accredited College Degree Education Online, North Carolina Online Degree College, Online College Life Experience Degree, Online Masters Degrees.
One particularly influential study is Cyril Houle's The Inquiring Mind, which was originally published in 1961. Houle interviewed 22 adults deemed to be active learners and from these interviews, he identified a typology of orientations toward learning. Goal-oriented learners viewed learning as instrumental to achieving some other purpose; in other words, learning was seen as a means to another end. Activity-oriented learners sought out learning activities for their social value, as a way to meet new people and socialize. Learning-oriented adults were identified as those who engaged in learning for its own sake.
Many factors can serve as barriers or deterrents to participation in getting degree online. These have been conceptualized according to several different categories. In essence, the major factors that limit participation are (a) reasons linked to the life circumstances of adults, which are often outside the control of the person, such as lack of time, money, transportation, and family responsibilities; (b) reasons related to institutional policies and practices that limit participation, such as scheduling of classes, information about offerings, limited offerings, and policies that discriminate directly or indirectly against adult learners; and (c) reasons related to attitudes and values of learners, such as low self-concept, fear of failure, negative past experiences, and lack of interest. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Gordon Darkenwald and his colleagues, Craig Scanlon, Thomas Valentine, and Elisabeth Hayes, reported on the development of several forms of the Deterrents to Participation Scale. This instrument has made it possible to isolate and identify many of the factors that contribute to nonparticipation in adult learning.
EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
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