Motivation in Adult Education: From Engagement to Performance

Prof. Philippe Carré

Université Paris X Nanterre, France

Abstract: This paper will focus on recent developments on the theme of adult motivation for education
and training. It is based on the results of a large empirical research project conducted in France be-
tween 1997-99

Introduction presentation of the theoretical model of motivation

The rationale for research into adult motivation for in adult education and summary of the main results
education and training in France rests firstly on the of the survey.
phenomenon of ever-growing demand for compe-
tence development (both for the workforce and the Presentation of the Theoretical Model
unemployed), faced with stagnating, sometimes Research Paradigms and Adult Motivation to Learn
dwindling public and private funding of training. On the theoretical side, this research project was
Caught in this double bind, trainers, HRD specia l- grounded in an interactive view of human motiva-
ists, managers and workers themselves have to find tion, considered as a “hypothetical construct used to
new ways of developing corporate knowledge and describe external and internal forces that explain the
skills without necessarily banking on formal, subs i- start, strength, direction and persistence of action”
dized training programs. Hence the success of such (Vallerand & Thill, 1993). According to this view,
concepts as informal learning, learning organiza- human motivation assessment must be regarded as a
tions, self-directed learning, work-based learning, “snapshot” of the relations that establish them-
etc. Hence also the increase in pressure on people’s selves, in a given context, at a given time, between
involvement in work performance and, conse- a person and her/his environment, or a part thereof.
quently, in to the self-management of their qualif i- This concept of motivation drives us away from
cations. Social and economic pressure on other theories that stress, in human action, the role
organizations thus “naturally” bring about questions of unique processes, whether they be an located
of individual motivation to work and to learn in a within the individual or within her/his environment.
more acute manner. For instance, conventional behavioral and socio-
Secondly, over the last 25 years, most of the new logical theories on the one hand, psychoanalytic and
practical developments in adult education have strictly cognitive theories on the other, draw a firm
taken for granted the fact that adults are necessarily line between the effects of external or internal proc-
“volunteers for learning”.. What might have been esses, to the point of understating the other side of
obvious in a different social and historical context the equation.
appears today as somewhat less sure, to say the The first phase of the research led us to examine
least. Moreover, as new approaches to learning de- research production around the themes of adult mo-
velop, more and more commitment is expected tivation to learn, participation in adult education,
from learners themselves if any result is to be hoped and adult learning. This led us to discard the long-
for. Thus, adults are more and more “mobilized” to standing paradigms of human motivation and action
engage in training, but not necessarily “motivated” mentioned above, and to concentrate on sociocog-
to learn. nitive psychology as the one research paradigm in
A “new educational deal” is this taking shape tune with our interactive view of the problem.
right before our eyes, which engages both research- Educational psychology has taught us for long
ers, experts and practitioners to have a second look that motivation is an indispensable ingredient of
at the field of motivation and action within the learning. But motivation theories, until fairly re-
realm of adult education and learning. cently, were of little help to understand and facili-
The present research was designed to face these tate adult learning especially in French research
issues in a theoretical and empirical mode. This pa- (Carré, 1997), with few, albeit noticeable excep-
per will focus on two main aspects of the research: tions (Nuttin, 1987). Today, with the development
of socio-cognitive theories of learning and motiva- stable characteristic of the person’s motivation for a
tion, mostly in Anglo-American-oriented literature given learning content. Motives have three major
(Bandura, 1997, Deci 1995, Weiner 1992, Valler- characteristics here : they are plural, changeable and
and et Thill, 1993), adult educators may draw upon contingent upon the individual’s life context.
a large, consistent, theoretically sound body of re-
search. A new vision of adult motivation for educa- Motivational Processes
tion and its impact on learning is thus slowly The second aspect of the theoretical model was di-
emerging. rectly drawn from our analysis of educational
In this research, with the theoretical backing psychology productions and their applicability
mentioned above, a model of adult motivation to to both our field and paradigm of research.
engage in training was developed around two main Three concepts have thus been identified to
components: a renewed pattern of motives, and a complete our model. Our theoretical construct
threefold vision of motivational processes. of adult motivation to engage in training was
established upon the combination of motives
The Pattern of Motives and the three following intertwined processes :
As regards motives, a combination of literature re-
view and empirical observation led us to the fol- • Perceived competence (or self-efficacy), based
lowing construct:. Adults motives for participating on Bandura’s sociocognitive view of human
in adult education seem to follow four major action (1997)
orientations, derived from Houle’s (1961) initial • Self-determination, based on Deci’s (1995)
vision and organized on two axes. conceptualization of motivation
• Project-formulation, as formalized in Nuttin’s
• Along a first axis, motives are orientated to- (1987) theory of human motivation, including
wards intrinsic versus extrinsic orientations perceived instrumentality of action.
(Deci, 1985)
• On a second axis, motives are orientated to- In order to put this model to the test, to produce
wards learning versus participating (in the first comparative results among a variety of adults about
case, a motive is geared towards the acquisition to engage in training, and to analyze the relations
of knowledge or skill; in the second case, a between motivation and performance in adult
motive is geared towards other objectives, such training, an empirical research was carried out in
as having a good time, making money, or es- three phases:
caping some boring activity …)
• Qualitative survey: 61 adults who were about to
The combination of these orientations and axes, start a training program were interviewed about
combined with empirical analysis of adult motives the nature of their engagement in the project.
to engage in training, produces 10 specific motives After a pre-test series of interviews, a panel was
which were labeled as follows. One is both intrinsic built, drawing on 7 different training situations.
and learning-oriented (“epistemic”); two are both Content analysis was carried out using a “dou-
intrinsic and participation-oriented (“social- ble-blind” approach. The initial model was
affective” and “hedonic”). Three are extrinsic and slightly modified and validated.
participation-oriented (“economic”, “derivative,” • Instrument design: a 143-item, Lickert-type in-
“prescribed”); two are extrinsic and learning- strument was designed, field tested and com-
oriented (“personal-operational”, “professional- pleted by 400 adults in two different training
operational”). Two are extrinsic and either partic i- contexts, leading to a significantly reduced sec-
pation – or learning-oriented (“vocational”, “iden- ond version (69 items) with satisfactory internal
tity-based”). validity (Carré et al., 2000).
It is worth underlining the fact that, within this • Quantitative survey: the second version of the
framework, motives form temporary patterns of instrument was then proposed to 2,500 adults in
motivation that cannot be assimilated to either per- 9 different contexts (completed in 99). Statisti-
manent dimensions of the self, or to lasting indexes cal analyses were carried out and results were
of an individual’s “rapport” to training, or even to a
 obtained in the following areas : technical training, cultural issues, management and
– Descriptive data: variations of various as- HRD.
pects of motivation according to socio- All in all, this panel of respondents presents a
demographic variables (age, gender, SPC, ac- marked closeness to the adult education population
tivity status, etc.) as a whole, representing a reasonable (albeit not
– Correlational analyses among different moti- strictly speaking representative) sample.
vational variables (motives, perception of
competence, self-determination, project for- Motive Analyses
mation) Comparative analyses (ranks 1 and 2) led to the
– Relation of initial motivation and final per- following conclusions: Declared motives were
formance in training. stronger for women than men almost everywhere,
especially in companies. Age had little effect on
Summary of the Main Results: motives, when organization was held constant.
Quantitative Survey Family status played a discrete, but interesting part
We shall briefly summarize the results of the re- in motive declaration, with respondents living
search under 5 headings: population profile, motive alone, without and even with children, declaring
analyses, motivation processes, performance, con- significantly higher motives than people living in a
clusions and implications for pedagogical practice couple.
and adult education research. Activity status (working / unemployed), level of
qualification, professional status, type of training,
Population Profile course duration and organization had noticeable and
The final version of the instrument was sent to 2500 combined effects on motives, resulting in a rather
adults who had just enrolled (and not yet began) clear cut distinction between two groups, as re-
training programs of various lengths, on different vealed by factor analysis.
topics, in various settings (public, semi-public, pr i- A first cluster grouped together older, mostly
vate), organizations (companies and training cen- working, more highly qualified respondents located
ters). 1548 questionnaires were returned, out of in companies, with higher professional statuses. The
which 1139 were fully completed and used for the most prevailing motive for this first category was
more refined statistical analyses. operational-professional, with all of the other mo-
The research population (n = 1548) was either tives ranking significantly lower. In strong contrast,
fully employed or unemployed, in one of the six the second cluster grouped together a younger, less
following organizations : 2 large industrial compa- well qualified, mostly unemployed category of peo-
nies (car-making and electrical production), a large ple enjoying lower professional status. This second
public transport authority, the largest training center group showed markedly superior motives for en-
in France, a university permanent education de- gaging training in all areas expect “operational pro-
partment, and a voluntary organization. The re- fessional”.
spondents were mostly male (62,7%), globally
younger than the French workforce as a whole Motivational Processes
(64,6% were 40 or under), lived in various family Available data at this time seem to point towards
conditions, with or without children, and had a the following conclusions: i
slightly lower level of education than the reference Perceived competence regarding training ap-
group in France. Professional status was distributed pears to be slightly superior in females than males,
as follows : 21,7% were manual workers, 28,5% (and largely so when in interaction with the organi-
white collar employees, 35,6% technicians / engi- zation) and to decrease gradually with age, with a
neers, 11,4% executives. Two thirds of this research slight recovery after age 50. Perceived competence
population were working at the time (35,1% were increases steadily with educational level and profes-
unemployed). The courses the respondents were sional status, but only in interaction with the or-
about to take varied in length from three to more ganization. Neither family status nor activity status
than 100 days, and were dedicated to one of the (working/unemployed) reveal any significant cor-
following 7 areas : vocational orientation, using relation with perceived competence.
computers, secretarial work, personal development,
 Self-determination varies significantly according ments; third, in one of the organizations, the span of
to organization, gender (with women slightly more the marks was so reduced that no significant differ-
self-determined in all organizations but one). Nei- ence could be established between the trainees in
ther age, family situation or educational level have terms of performance.
any effect on self-determination, whereas it varies All in all, further research into the link between
with activity status and professional status but only engagement motivation and learning outcomes is
when in interaction with the organization. Last, but clearly needed, the present research having failed to
not least, self-determination grows with course du- demonstrate either the presence or the absence of
ration, as a simple or combined effect with the or- such a link.
ganization.
The importance and instrumentality of training Conclusion and Implications
within the framework of a personal project appear Apart from the disappointing lack of results con-
linked with several variables: the organization (with cerning the supposed link between initial motiva-
companies ranking lower than training centers), tion and final performance, which clearly calls for
gender (with women more project-oriented than further research using standardized evaluation con-
men in 5 out of the 6 settings), age (although statis- ditions and instruments, this research has supple-
tically significant, the effect of age on project for- mented our knowledge of motivational phenomena
mation seems discrete and irregular), activity status in adults who engage in training on several grounds.
and family status, and course duration (very signif i-
cantly so, as one could have guessed). Analyses for • A complete, validated list of motives, organized
educational level, professional status and course du- according to two double orientations, has clari-
ration do not show marked simple effects on project fied our vision of the reasons adults have for
formation. enrolling into adult education courses ;
• A theoretical model of adult motivation for
Motivation and Performance education has been constructed on the basis of a
Very few significant results have been found re- renewed, sociocognitive vision, and validated
garding the link between adult motivation to engage through a series of 61 interviews ;
in training and final course results. 345 persons who • The model has been operationalized and a
had filled in the motivation questionnaire were valid, internally consistent instrument of moti-
evaluated at the end of the training and their results vational assessment was produced ;
correlated with initial motivation measurements. • The instrument was used in a large scale survey
Apart from one significant correlation between of 1548 adults who were about to start a train-
project formation and results in one organization, ing course, which allowed a series of analyses
the very few links established were mostly … to be carried out ;
negative, as if the more motivated one was at the • As a result of those, numerous differences have
onset of training, the worse training results tended been established between groups of adults as to
to be! On top of these rather disappointing results, the dynamics of engagement into training.
and even more surprisingly so, precious little sig- Apart from the effect of such sociodemographic
nificant influence of any of the socio-demographic variables as gender, age, professional status,
variables was found on training results. Conse- etc., a striking difference was shown between
quently, the research team re-analyzed the condi- two categories of adults in terms of their spe-
tions, criteria and marking systems that were used cific motivational set-ups.
in the evaluation procedures of the field survey and
concluded that beyond the classical vagueness of Results obtained in the present research as to
French evaluation procedures in most adult educa- differences in motive combination and motivational
tion situations, three more sources of bias had to be processes between adults who engage in training
taken into account. First, the evaluation criteria and courses could be duplicated and extended in differ-
marking procedures were considered generally in- ent settings, using the present methodology and in-
valid; second, in one of the organizations, the most strument with three possible different goals:
successful learners left in the middle of the course
to start a new job and were left out of the measure-
• Research: adult educational theory could bene- References
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adults go into training. Comparison of results control. New York : Freeman
obtained with similar procedures in a variety of Carré, P. (1997). Motivations et formation
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• Pedagogical practice: with the help of a simple Carre, P., Aubret, J., Chartier, D., Degallaix, C.,
key, trainers could offer the instrument at the Fenouillet, F.(2000). Motivations en formation
onset of new training programs and thus get a d’adultes: engagement et performance. Paris:
more precise, more conceptually sound vision Interface.
of their groups, than with conventional needs Deci, E. & Flaste, R. (1995). Why we do what we do
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could be used in self-diagnosis procedures to Vallerand, R. & Thill, E. (Dir.) (1993). Introduction
help adults decide on which training courses to à la psychologie de la motivation. Paris: Vigot.
join and to reflect on their dispositions to learn Weiner, B. (1992). Human motivation. London:
or … not to learn! Sage.

i
Complementary analyses were being carried out at
the time this document was being written. Defin i-
tive results on this section will be available by the
time of the AERC Conference.