Student Participation and Instructor Gender in the Mixed-Age College Classroom

In 1991 over 38% of all U.S. college students, and nearly 42% of female U.S. college students, were age 25 or older.According to projections, by 1998 the number of nontraditional (age 25 or older) U.S. college students will rise to almost 46% (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995, p. 178-179).The Education Resources Institute (1996) reported that the percentage of college students age 40 or over grew from 5.5% of the total enrollment in 1970 to 11.2% in 1993, making this group the fastest-growing age category during that period.Clearly, nontraditional students will continue to be an increasingly significant part of the college classroom.Despite their significance, nontraditional college students have been largely ignored in investigations of classroom discussion.Much of the debate has centered around the issue of student gender in the college classroom with little consideration to the impact of student age on classroom participation.The Education Resources Institute (1996) report described the typical 40 and over student as a white female who attends a community college part-time and works thirty or more hours per week.Thus, as Howard, Short, and Clark (1996) suggested, due to their different life experiences, nontraditional students' definition of the situation in the college classroom is likely to differ considerably from that of traditional students.These differences contribute to the greater willingness of nontraditional students to participate in classroom discussion.Because Howard, Short, and Clark's (1996) sample of 13 introductory level courses were taught almost exclusively (12 of 13 courses) by fe-