Motives and beliefs of learners enrolled in adult education

Abstract

The present study intended to identify adult learners’ motives for enrollment, and to assess their self-determination, self- efficacy beliefs and academic self-concept in a sample of 310 adult learners attending three different types of courses (short courses; long, vocational courses; long, nonvocational courses), as well as relating these constructs to each other and assess differences according to background variables. Autonomous regulation showed a strong, positive relationship with the epistemic motive and moderate, positive relationships with self-efficacy and academic self-concept. Although learners scored high in both intrinsic and extrinsic motives, group mean comparisons revealed that some characteristics like lower qualifications, unemployment and being a male showed a stronger connection to an extrinsic orientation. These results are in line with SDT predictions about the quality of motivation and suggest that learners with the former characteristics could be more at risk of failure and drop-out. Overall this study highlights the relevance of examining motivational variables in adult learners. Considering the relatively scarce research in the field, future research should further investigate adult learners’ motivational profiles and how they relate to achievement.