Adult Literacy Practices and Associated Motivational Needs

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Self Determination Theory, Adult Literacy, Literacy Practices

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Several factors have been linked to positive adult literacy program outcomes, however many possible influential factors on program success have yet to be researched. On the other hand, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the three needs described by Self Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) as crucial for the existence of intrinsic motivation, have been linked to a variety of positive outcomes in many academic contexts with students of a variety of age groups. The current study used SDT as a framework with which to investigate predictors of adult literacy practices through assessment of these students� needs as learners. Three adult literacy tutoring students (ages 23, 56, and 59 years; all female ESL students) were surveyed with a structured interview about the support of the three needs described by SDT along with their literacy practices engaged in both during and outside of tutoring. Although all participants scored fairly similarly on the SDT scales, clear differences in the amounts, types, and frequencies of literacy practices suggested that future research may find variables such as age, length of time with current instructor, support of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, instructional material and activity relevance and the strength of teacher-student relationships to predict successful adult

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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