Understanding motivation and persistence

A literature review prepared for the European Commission, published in 2014 and entitled Improving basic skills in adulthood: Participation and Motivation, focuses not only on “getting learners through the door”, i.e. motivating adults to participate in courses (whether in classrooms, workplaces or elsewhere) that may improve their basic skills, but also on retention and persistence, i.e. keeping learners coming back to courses they have enrolled on or maintaining their learning journey over a number of years. 

The concepts of retention and persistence are very important because adults face many hindrances when attempting to complete courses they have engaged in and are subject to life changes that are likely to interrupt their learning pathway unless provision is extremely flexible. Persistence is a major factor in ensuring the efficiency of basic skills provision.

Experience from several successful basic skills programs provide documentation for principles that can ensure that learning provision creates the necessary conditions for learner motivation and persistence.


Learner-centred

Learner-centred approaches to teaching foster motivation and persistence, because they allow learners to cooperate in decisions that concern their learning journey.  

Tailored to learner needs

Relevance is a basic principle in adult learning. Learning provision needs to be tailored to the learners’ needs in terms of level but needs also to be contextualised to their individual situations and adapted to the learner’s goals, motivations and interests.

Embedded
When adult literacy and numeracy provision is embedded in subjects that are of interest to the learner and in line with their goals this makes learning relevant and purposeful – learners can see directly how what they are learning will benefit them in the future.


Further reading (optional)

Improving basic skills in adulthood: Participation and Motivation

  • Read chapter 1 on the theoretical considerations to motivation and persistence (pp. 3-4)

  • Read chapter 2 on motivating adults to participate in courses (pp. 5-8)

  • Read chapter 3 on learner persistence and retention (pp. 9-10)