| Summary: | 博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 公民教育與活動領導學系 === 96 === The purpose of this study was to explore the persistence process of adult students at the division of continuing education in an institute of technology in Taipei Metropolitan area and to formulate preliminary theoretical model of adult student persistence. The research questions included: 1) What were the considerations (motivation and psychology, situation, support) of adult students before attending the continuing education program? 2) What were their experiences in the college campus ? 3) What were the external factors outside the institution that affected the adult student persistence? 4) What was the preliminary theoretical model of adult student persistence?
The qualitative method of semi-structure in-depth interview was used for the research. The participants came from one institute of technology in Taipei Metropolitan Area. Twelve students aged above 25 years old, according to their academic major, age, gender and marital status, were purposively chosen for the study. The trustworthiness was established by developing trust relationship with participants, and using of prolonged engagements, peer debriefing, triangulation, member check, negative cases analysis, thick description, and self-reflectivity.
The findings of this research are as follows:
1.The considerations of adult students before attending the continuing education program are “participate motivation and psychological status,” “situation” and “support,” and the “participate motivation and psychological status “ is influenced by “situation” and “support.”
2.The college campus experiences of adult students include：
A) Returning to school has a great impact on their lives, which are both “crisis” and “growth opportunity.”
B) Both peer relationships and academic learning experiences are the key factors for their persistence.
C) The design of the campus learning environment neglects the needs of adult students, which affecting their feelings and commitments to the institution.
3. The external factors outside the institution that influence on adult students’ learning are：
A) The unpredictable external events impact their learning, and the coping possibilities and methods affect adult student persistence.
B) Unfriendly working environment impacts their learning.
C) Because of the family responsibilities, the support from spouse and families are important factor for mothering students.
4. Based on the findings of the research, a preliminary theoretical model of adult student persistence is formulated.
The model includes three stages which are termed as “preparing to move in learning,” “moving through learning” and ”persistence.” The stage of “preparing to move in learning” includes three elements. The first element is “participate motivation and psychological status,” which includes: participate motivation and psychological status. The second element is “situation,” which are timing, the employer’s attitude, institution location, and the selection of academic major. The third element is “support,” which includes: families, friends and employers. As the arrow indicates “participate motivation and psychological status “is influenced by “situation” and “support.” These three elements are independent variables, and affect “self” and “external factors” in the “moving through learning” stage.
The stage of “moving through learning” includes five elements: “campus environment,” “self,” “external factors,” “academic learning experiences” and “social networks on campus”. These five elements can be divided into two levels of mediation variables. The first level of mediation variables includes: the “campus environment,” “self” and the “external factors”. The second level of mediation variables includes: the “academic learning experiences” and the “social networks on campus.” Interaction exists between the “academic learning experiences” and the “social networks on campus.” The first level of mediation variables affects the second level of mediation variables. The second level of mediation variables affects “learning outcomes” in the stage of “persistence.”
The stage of “persistence” includes one element and named “learning outcomes.” The “learning outcomes” of the adult students affect their determination to persist or leave the institution. The learning outcomes are: grade performance, personal growth, professional skills and the quality of social networks on campus. In addition, the arrow indicates the first level of mediation variable “external factors” outside the institution affect adult students’ determination to persist.
Based on the results and findings of this research, recommendations for practice and further research are presented.
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