The effects of collaborative planning on adult learners

• Main Author: McGee, Gayle
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25173

Convential adult education folklore holds that learners involved in the program planning process will be more satisfied with and will learn more during an educational event than those not consulted. This was an experimental study where "collaboration" was an independent variable and "attitudes" and "behaviour" were dependent (or outcome) variables. Twenty-three participants were randomly assigned to treatment (10) and control (13) groups. Prior to a CUSO pre-orientation course held during one weekend in May of 1984, the treatment group "collaborated" and thus helped the planner design the weekend's activities. The control group was not consulted but merely instructed to "show-up" for the course. The independent variable, "collaboration", was based on assertions derived from Knowles' definition of andragogy and Gibbs' ideas concerning "trust". Participants' attitudes towards the course were measured by having them rate the learning activities and logistics of the weekend. They also completed three semantic differential scales which had previously been shown to have high face validity and to be relevant to the three concepts (AS A DEVELOPMENT AGENCY CUSO IS ... ; AS A CUSO VOLUNTEER I AM ... ; AS A PREORIENTATION THIS WEEKEND WAS ). Prior to examining differences between the treatment and control groups, the semantic differential data were factor analysed to provide criteria for scale scoring. Ratings of CUSO IS broke into three factors which accounted for 68 percent of the variance; ratings of I AM broke into four factors accounting for 70.2 percent of variance; those of WEEKEND WAS broke into four factors accounting for 80.2 percent of the variance. Four participant "behaviours" were also measured. Three behaviours were manifested during the course, the other concerned "follow-up" activities to be done after the course. Next, mean scores for each of the dependent (attitude and behaviour) variables were calculated. Semantic differential scale scores were calculated by summing over scales that comprised each factor. After applying a series of t-tests, it was concluded that there were no significant differences between any of the "attitudes" expressed by the treatment and control groups. But there were differences in their behaviour. Those who collaborated in the planning of the weekend retreat took on significantly more volunteer roles during the weekend (.05 level), and significantly more follow-up activities than did those who weren't involved in the planning. A number of reasons for the differences between the "attitude" and "behaviour" measures were discussed, including the nature of the participants as well as the treatment and measurement procedures. It was concluded that the attitude measures were not correlated with behaviours and that future research in this area should look more closely at behaviour, preferably through multi-factoral designs. === Education, Faculty of === Educational Studies (EDST), Department of === Graduate