Essay - Self-directed Learning: a Paradigm Shift in Analyzing Adult Motivation as...

Self-directed learning: A paradigm shift in analyzing adult motivation

***** the modern workplace continues to change with nearly breathtaking speed, and even social networking and personal connections are more apt to be created online than offline, it has *****come increasingly critical for *****s to make ***** basic, technical, and even high-level skills an important part of their ***** and professional lives, lest they be left behind on the wrong side of the digital divide. But adults ***** spending more hours at work, and this makes pursuing educational opportunities difficult when juggling the pressures of running a household, going ***** ***** full-time job, and maintaining a healthy life and work balance. One option is self-directed learning ***** adults, through part-time educational efforts, *****ten with a dist*****nce or ***** component. But past studies have suggested that the motivation to make the decision to participate in adult educational opp*****tunities can be highly variable and are affected by complex psychological, economic, and social factors. The degree to which such ***** come into play, remains highly controversial ***** the paradigm used to analyze adult motivation during new learning experiences invariably affects the prescriptions of how to ***** adult learning more accessible, how to increase adult motivation ***** continue in education, and how the ***** learner's classroom should ***** constructed.

Bender and Valent*****e (1990) ***** postulated a series of factors in *****ir Deterrents to Participation Scale (DPS) for adult education and labeled the main factors influencing motivation to embark upon education are: lack of confidence, lack ***** course relevance, time constraints, low personal priority, cost, and personal problems. Their analysis emphasizes the economic reasons individual ***** decide to ***** in adult education, consistent with an approach called a 'cost-benefit' analysis of decision-making and motivation. In a cost-benefit *****, it is *****ssumed *****: "Behavior is *****ward-looking and consistent over *****. Persons try to anticipate uncertain consequences of actions. Actions ***** constrained by income, time, imperfect memory and calculating capacities and o*****r limited resources and opp*****tunities. Time is the major constraint [***** non-participation]....individuals decide on their education, training, medical care, and other additions to knowledge and health by weighing the benefits and costs....Benefits include the cultural ***** other non-monetary gains along ***** improvement in earnings and occupations, whereas costs ***** the forgone value of the time spent on these investments" (S*****we 1998, p.13). Participati***** in ***** efforts occurs ***** the benefits of participation outweigh the costs. Of *****, someone might poorly weigh their prospective options, and ***** that making more money at a second job ***** a better use of their time than ***** back to school with the aim ***** getting a single, better-paying job in the long run. But this ***** model always assumes ***** people try ***** rationally weigh *****ir options, ***** that ***** removing obstacles, such as time (***** online learning) and personal problems (by providing on-site child***** for single m*****s), motivation to embark upon continued education will increase. It also assumes ***** the adult's level of motivation will stay relatively constant, in***** of