Sources of Educational Funds as Motivators for Participating in Adult Secondary Education

Abstract

The purposes of this study were two-fold. First, to determine which, if any, attribute variables differentiated significantly be tween adult students who paid their own educational expenses and students whose expenses were paid by a public agency. Sec ond, to determine which educational goals, when controlled by significant test variables, differentiated between the two groups of adult students as motivational reasons for participating in adult secondary education. Employing the tabular multivariate analysis procedure it was found that agency-paid adult students were more likely to rate the educational goals higher in importance than self-paid students. This finding is contradictory to the popularly held belief of adult secondary school staff that agency-paid students do not hold these educational goals high in importance. It was concluded that the Needs-Social System-Satisfaction model of adult participation may be inappropriate for explaining the high rating responses of agency-paid students on the educa tional goals when compared to the expressed belief of public school administrators that these students are unmotivated to study and learn.