Research Priorities in Adult Populations: Motivation, Math, and Job Corps

• In Event: Current Trends in Adult Education Research and Their Implications for Policy, Practice, and Science

Abstract

Purpose: This presentation will highlight research opportunities in two topical areas, motivation and mathematics, and an under-studied population, participants in the nation’s Job Corp settings

Perspective(s): Motivation is critical in understanding the efficacy of interventions targeting adults. Without the motivation to persist, adult learners are unlike to complete. In fact, most programs have an attrition of 40 to 60% in the first 6 weeks. Thus, students seldom have an opportunity to realize significant gains, and researchers have difficulty “testing” their interventions’ efficacy.

Mathematics is especially difficult both for the adults struggling to learn it and researchers wishing to improve performance. Historically, students’ performance on the General Educational Development (GED) tests was lowest in mathematics, making it the greatest barrier to their completing high school. However, little is known about how best to instruct struggling adults.

Job Corp offers a unique setting to explore these issues. The Job Corp population includes individuals ages 16 to 24, which includes the modal age and median age range of traditional adult education programs. Yet, Job Corps programs are generally residential and, thus, provide setting advantages for research focused on adolescents and adults.

Methods: We developed a hypothetical model of relationships or “paths” between mathematics and motivation and related subskills cited well-established, child-based research. Drawing from that literature, the presentation outlines relevant research strategies for the population with a focus on motivation and mathematics.

Data: Our data come from 202 Job Corps participants. Students in Job Corp programs are all educationally and/or economically disadvantaged students, most of whom enter without a high school diploma. Job Corp settings 85% residential, and students attend classes for usually less than a year. The instructional time is split between academics (e.g., GED completion) and career and technical education (CTE), and classes are composed of students at different ability levels and at different stages of progress in their CTE curriculum.

Results: Math instruction and addressing motivation are critical elements for adult education in general and specifically to students attending Job Corps because academics and their CTE program components are connected. Our research indicates Job Corps students have approximately 6th-grade level math skills and that certain components of the Job Corp program may affect motivation and, hence, completion. The sample’s average CASAS Math score (M = 220.3, SD = 11) was roughly equivalent to 6th grade and would be classified as Low-Intermediate Adult Basic Education, meaning that they can reliably perform activities such as using the four basic math operations with up to 3-digit whole numbers, identify and use basic mathematical symbols, and read simple charts and figures (e.g., payroll stubs).

Significance: Our results suggest these students need targeted math interventions and would benefit from motivational supports that could be inherent to Job Corps. Low-achieving and performing adults confront numerous challenges. The consequences influence employment, community, and social integration. The research we have outlined contributes to a significant improvement in these areas of adults’ engagement in community, family, and employment settings.

Author

• Daryl F. Mellard, The University of Kansas