• Dispositional factors – also referred to as learner-inherent (Fagan, 1991) or attitudinal factors – relate to learners' perceptions of their ability to seek out, register in, attend and successfully complete learning activities. These factors include, but are not limited to:
  • Self-confidence
  • Attitudes about the benefits of learning
  • Attitudes about self that may adversely affect learning.
  • Prior negative experiences in learning activities.
  • Perceptions learners hold about the attitudes of administrators and instructors.
  • Feelings of being isolated within a learning community.
  • Health and fitness conditions that adversely affect ability to learn.
• Academic factors include skills essential to successful learning. The importance of these factors is based on whether the skills were ever learned; and if learned, the learner's current skill level in light of the elapsed time since last used. These skills include, but are not limited to:
  • Literacy skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking
  • Numeracy skills.
  • Computer skills.
  • Skills in accessing information.
  • Attention and memory skills.
  • Critical and reflective thinking skills.
  • Skills in writing essays, examinations and tests.

In the literature, some factors, such as childcare, financial support and transportation services, are classified as both situational and institutional barriers depending on the source of the problem. For example, financial support is situational when the adult learner does not have access to sufficient funds to pay for all aspects of the learning activities; and institutional when admission and registration fees are high, learners are required to pay for additional resources (e.g., computers), institutions provide no flexible means to pay for learning activities, or governments have inflexible mechanisms to provide financial support to adult learners in need. Finances can also become an attitudinal barrier when the individual learner must balance out the cost of attending learning activities against the anticipated benefits. For some learners, the benefits of participating may never be high enough to outweigh the costs.

1.2 Elements of a responsive educational system

In a 2003 publication, Judith Potter and Chris Ferguson used these four sets of barrier-related factors to identify five elements essential to the provision of a lifelong learning culture within an institution: recognition, support, flexibility, accessibility and availability. To these elements we would add relevancy and respect based on the work of Roby Kidd (1960, 1973). These seven elements are not mutually exclusive and have considerable impact on each other.