The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of social media technologies like WhatsApp as a teaching method to be used by lecturers in the Adult and Community Education and Training sector that enables collaborative learning to support students in achieving academic success. This research specifically concentrates on how the power of social media plays a pivotal role in learning and acquiring skills. This study is aligned with Mishra and Koehler’s citation, that there is an interplay between pedagogy, content, and technology and the connections of these three domains for the adult educator (Reed, 2015).
The findings of this research discovered the barriers that affected academic success and how it has affected lecturers negatively and resulted in high dropout rates and failures among the student population. The study demonstrated a positive connection between academic achievement in the Adult Basic Education context and social media and the effectiveness of this social tool as a method of instruction. The findings revealed the positive implications that social media technologies like WhatsApp have in overcoming teaching and learning barriers.
Social media has revolutionized how people communicate, and it has most certainly significant implications for education (Mozee, 2012). This gives rise to the question of whether social media applications like WhatsApp have an impact on educational instruction in the Adult and Community Educational and Training [hereafter referred to as ACET or AET] classroom. These phenomena can only be studied within a theoretical framework and the theories this research will reflect are the Social Constructivist Theory and the Digital Divide Theory as this study unites two main areas: learning pedagogies and social media technologies. Social media is used like any other tool in the education praxis. This is where learning is a cognitive process for achieving knowledge while social media technologies are an enabler of the learning process, as this research will attempt to demonstrate.
Key words: Social Media; Adult Education; Whatsapp; Social Constructivist Theory, Digital Divide Theory, Learning Pedagogies; Teaching Methods, Collaborative Learning; Online Communication; Digital Literacy; Digital Technology; Mobile Learning; Mobile Chat Applications; Barriers to Learning, Social Networking Sites; Andragogy; Student; Barriers To Learning; Digital Teaching And Learning
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