The LINCS Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC) for Region 2 has offered a 3-part webinar/study circle series this summer, Supporting Adult Student Motivation, for practitioners in LINCS Region 2. The three topics for the series include:
- Self-Efficacy
- Goal Setting and Expectations
- The Learning Environment
This series is based on research reported in the National Academy of Sciences’ recent publication, Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Options for Practice and Research. (This publication is available via free download from this site: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13242). Chapter 5 (Motivation, Engagement, and Persistence) from that publication integrates findings from several disciplines including psychology, anthropology, and sociology. The authors offer recommendations on how to support adult learners’ persistence and put forth the following Design Principles:
Design Principles from Research on Motivation, Engagement, and Learning
• Develop self-efficacy and perceptions of competency.
• Help learners set appropriate and valuable learning goals.
• Set expectations about the amount of effort and practice required to develop literacy skills.
• Help learners develop feelings of control and autonomy.
• Foster interest and develop beliefs about the value of literacy tasks.
• Help learners monitor progress and regulate their behavior toward goal attainment.
• Teach students to make adaptive attributions for successes and failures.
• Provide learners with opportunities for success while providing optimal challenges to develop proficiencies.
• Foster social relationships and interactions known to affect learning.
• Use classroom structures and select texts and materials to help learners identify with learning and literacy tasks that counter past negative experiences with schooling.
• Assist with removing barriers to participation and practice to ensure that learners have the motivating experience of making progress.
• Give learners access to knowledgeable and skilled teachers and appropriately designed materials.
As you review this list, which of these have you found helpful in your programs and classrooms? Are there specific activities that you have used that relate to these principles?
Over the next several weeks, I will share a summary of the 3 webinars and include highlights as well as questions and issued posed by participants who took part in the webinars. To continue this important discussion, I invite you to share the work you have done in your programs and classrooms to support adult learner engagement, motivation, and persistence. I look forward to hearing from you!
Gail Cope
SME, LINCS Program Management Group