Current Issues in Education > Volume 6, 2003 > Number 17

Citation Information

Ponton, M. K., & J. M., Hall (2003, October 13). The relationship between postsecondary education and personal initiative for adult learners. Current Issues in Education [On-line], 6(17). Available: http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume6/number17/

The Relationship Between Postsecondary Education and Personal Initiative for Adult Learners

Michael K. Ponton
Regent University

J. Michael Hall
Arkansas State University-Jonesboro

Abstract

A widely held ideal in educational institutions is that participation in the curriculum assists in the development of learning skills, both academic and cognitive, that facilitate lifelong learning. Ponton and Carr (2000) have suggested that essential to lifelong learning is the ability of learners to exhibit personal initiative in their learning. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether any differences existed between three groups of adults, as defined by their highest level of academic achievement, in the personal initiative they exhibited in autonomous learning activities. The three levels of academic achievement were high school diploma, bachelor's degree, and graduate/professional degree. The results indicate that there is no statistical difference in the personal initiative exhibited by adults in their learning as a function of education level thereby suggesting that higher education may not be the facilitator of lifelong learning as it often intends, or purports, to be.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References

Introduction

Ponton, Carr, and Confessore (2000) have theorized that autonomous learning is an agentive activity (human agency refers to a person's ability to act intentionally) in which the conative factors of desire, initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence are manifest. This assertion is based upon the previous work of Confessore (1991) in which he suggested that persons who satisfy their learning needs via self-directed activities exhibit these factors in their learning endeavors. Ponton and Carr (2002) later argued that personal initiative is a conative factor because autonomous learning is an intentional activity that is neither accidental nor compulsory. Note that the term "conative" is used in connection with agency because "conation refers to his [i.e., the agent's] behavioral intentions" (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, p. 12) and subsequent intentional activity.

Until recently, personal initiative has been studied and defined within the context of the work environment. Frese, Kring, Soose, and Zempel (1996), Frese, Fay, Hilburger, Leng, and Tag (1997), and Frohman (1997) studied the subordinate worker while Ghiselli (1971) studied the manager. Outside the work environment, Hoehne (1990) studied the cultural influence on the exhibition of initiative in various countries throughout the world. The more recent work of Hoehne (1990), Frese et al. (1996), and Frohman (1997) suggested that personal initiative can be viewed as a behavioral syndrome, i.e., a collection of co-occurring behaviors. Ponton (1999) concluded that the behaviors of importance within the context of autonomous learning are goal-directedness, action-orientation, persistence in overcoming obstacles, active-approach to problem solving, and self-startedness. Ponton (1999, 2002) conducted a principal component analysis on the data associated with the measurement of these five behaviors that supported the content validity of these factors. The following descriptions of these five behaviors are consistent with Ponton (1999).

Goal-directedness refers to the behavior of a learner establishing learning goals and then working to accomplish these goals. Motivation is induced through a comparison between current and future desired states and the anticipated self-satisfaction that will occur when challenging goals are accomplished (Bandura, 1997). Action-orientation describes the behavior of translating learning intentions quickly into learning activities. Persistence refers to the behavior of continued participation in learning activities despite the presence of impediments. When obstacles do arise that impede one's desired learning, an active-approach to problem solving describes the behavior of the learner developing solutions to these problems and not waiting on others to develop solution strategies. Self-startedness is the behavior of the learner beginning, either initially or after a period of inactivity, an intended learning activity. Detailed descriptions of these five behaviors are presented in Ponton (1999).

Astin (1985) provides a "talent development view of excellence" (p. 60) that suggests an institution of higher education should be judged based upon its ability to alter the lives of students by enhancing their cognitive and affective development. Mentkowski and Associates (2000) suggest that students may exercise this ability themselves when the postsecondary curriculum develops in them the skills and strategies necessary for lifelong learning. As Candy (1991) states, "the development of personal autonomy is almost universally proclaimed as a goal of education" (p. 119) where the importance of developing learner autonomy to facilitate lifelong learning is affirmed by Bandura (1997) who states:

Development of capabilities for self-directedness enables individuals not only to continue their intellectual growth beyond their formal education but to advance the nature and quality of their life pursuits. Changing realities are placing a premium on the capability for self-directed learning throughout the life span. (p. 227)

Thus, the motivation behind the present study was to determine if higher education is fostering a graduate's ability to exhibit personal initiative in autonomous learning activities.

Methods

Ponton (1999) developed the Inventory of Learner Initiative (ILI) to measure an adult's intention to exhibit personal initiative in autonomous learning activities. The intention of an adult to exhibit the five behaviors of goal-directedness, action-orientation, persistence in overcoming obstacles, active-approach to problem solving, and self-startedness are assessed. Since 1999, the ILI has undergone three distinct stages of development to arrive at its present 44-item form (Ponton, 2002). The ILI has been argued as being construct, face, and content valid as well as externally and internally reliable (Ponton, 1999; Ponton, 2002; Ponton & Carr, 2002). (External reliability generally refers to test-retest reliability while internal reliability refers to internal consistency.) Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the ILI is 0.96 (Ponton, 2002, p. 22).

The data from research performed on 351 American working adults (30 years of age and older) are presented. These adults participated in a larger cross-sectional research effort directed by Gary J. Confessore (The George Washington University) on North American, Western European, and East Asian adults from which the presented results are derived. Because the analysis was based upon determining whether any statistical difference exists between the ILI scores of adults with a high school diploma (or GED), bachelor's degree, or graduate/ professional degree, 30 years of age was used as the minimum age for data reduction. In this manner, the attempt is to ascertain the differences as a function of formal education rather than as a function of opportunity (i.e., adults who are exceedingly young will not have had the opportunity to participate in postsecondary education). Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Results

Educational level refers to the self-reported highest level of formal academic achievement. Three levels are presented: (a) high school diploma or GED (variable: EDLEVEL = 1); (b) bachelor's degree (EDLEVEL = 2); and (c) graduate/professional degree (EDLEVEL = 3). Table 1 presents the frequency for each educational level and the descriptive statistics associated with age. The average age is shown to increase with educational level.

Table 1. Frequency and age of respondents.

Table 2 presents the gender distribution of the respondents. Females greatly outnumbered the males for the first and second educational levels while the gender frequencies were approximately equal for the third level.

Table 2. Frequency by gender.

The descriptive statistics associated with the total ILI score (i.e., a combination of all five behavioral factor subscores) are presented in Table 3; Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests of normality with significance levels, skewness and kurtosis descriptive statistics are presented in Table 4. Each of the 44 items on the ILI ranged from 0 (never) to 10 (always) in 0.25 increments (computer coded); thus, the maximum possible score for the ILI is 440 while the minimum is zero. As a point estimate, the average ILI score for the first educational level exceeds the other two groups while the second level has the lowest average score. Based upon the significance levels presented in Table 4, the data are assumed to be normal.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for ILI scores.

Table 4. Distribution characteristics of the ILI scores.

To determine whether any statistical difference exists between mean ILI scores when grouped by educational level, a one-way analysis of variance was performed. Because of the unequal sample sizes per educational level (see Table 3), the Levene statistic was computed to determine whether the assumption of homogeneity of variance was tenable (unequal sample sizes with unequal variances can affect the ANOVA F test; see Hinkle, Wiersma, & Jurs, 1998). The results of the Levene test (p = 0.133) suggest that the null hypothesis of homogeneity of variance between educational levels cannot be rejected.

Using the null hypothesis of no difference between groups and an = 0.05, the results presented in Table 5 indicate an inability to reject the null hypothesis (p = 0.250) of no difference between the mean ILI scores of the three educational levels. Thus, no statistical differences exist between mean ILI score and highest level of education attained.

Because of the disparate cell sizes, a weighted least squares was performed using a general linear model approach. The results of this procedure yielded an adjusted F = 1.15 (p = 0.319) thereby further supporting the conclusions using Table 5. In addition, nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis analysis yielded ² = 4.28 (p = 0.118) again supporting the no difference conclusion.

Table 5. One-way ANOVA for mean ILI score with EDLEVEL as the independent variable.

An additional analysis was performed to determine the effects of gender on ILI scores. Because a two-way ANOVA using gender and education level as independent variables would result in an order of magnitude difference in sample sizes (see Table 2), an independent t-test was performed to test the null hypothesis of no difference between mean ILI score as a function of gender. Table 6 presents the descriptive statistics and Table 7 the results of the t-test-the Levene test (p = 0.447) suggests homogeneity of variance as a function of gender. These results suggest that females exhibit greater levels of personal initiative in their learning as compared to males (p < 0.01). This result is particularly interesting because of the sample surveyed, 56.1% of the females and 25.8% of the males were at the lowest educational level thereby suggesting that females scored higher than males despite their aggregate lower educational attainment.

Table 6. ILI scores as a function of gender.

Table 7. Results of the independent t-test for ILI scores as a function of gender.

Discussion

If a postsecondary education facilitated in the development of lifelong learners, then the graduates would be better prepared than entering students to exhibit personal initiative in their autonomous learning activities. The results presented suggest that this may not be the case. Of course a cross-sectional study does not fully address the effect of an intervention (such as undergraduate or graduate school) in that self-selection could play a role-i.e., perhaps only those persons who exhibit lower levels of personal initiative choose to enter undergraduate school and the effects of the intervention may, in fact, increase personal initiative skills but not to the level of those who have chosen not to enter postsecondary education. However, due to the personal and social rewards associated with academic degrees, the self-selection argument based upon present levels of personal initiative ability is presumed to be weak.

Therefore, if one assumes that the scores provided are representative of the populations associated with the three groups and discounts the self-selection argument, then completing a degree does not result in an increase in one's ability to exhibit personal initiative in autonomous learning. In fact, females displayed higher mean levels of autonomous learning as compared to males even though 56.1% of the female respondents were at the lowest studied educational level versus 25.8% of the male respondents. This has serious implications with respect to the efficacy with which higher education pedagogy (not necessarily curricula) fosters a learner's ability to accomplish desired levels of learning outside of the structured educational environment. Further research is of course suggested to make the causal argument tenable where such research should incorporate a true experimental design in a longitudinal study. However, as a foundational study, the present investigation suggests that a college/university education may be failing to develop lifelong learning skills in excess of the skills developed through the high school level where it is presently assumed that the exhibition of personal initiative is essential to lifelong learning.

Conclusion

The development of lifelong learners is an often-used phrase in the mission statements of many institutions of higher education. Such a goal is not argued against; in fact, in our present world of expanding knowledge this goal may be the defining purpose of an undergraduate/graduate education. Using foundational knowledge, learning skills, and cognitive strategies, lifelong learners are able to learn what they want when they want thereby enabling themselves to fulfill aspirations and interests to personal levels of achievement.

Unfortunately, the limited results of the present study suggest that postsecondary institutions may not be meeting this mission. Marked increases in personal initiative tendencies (within the context of autonomous learning activities) as a function of increasing levels of formal academic achievement is not evident. This result suggests that while instructional strategies may have been developed with the express purpose of content transmission, such strategies are doing a questionable job in developing autonomous learners. The present assertion is that more should be done to emphasize the latter even if it results in a short-term cost to the former. Lifelong learning is a long-term aspiration with long-term benefits and the excellence of higher education should be measured by its impact on the entire life of the participant.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Drs. Gary J. Confessore and Eunmi Park of The George Washington University for their assistance in acquiring the data analyzed for the present investigation.

Authors

Michael K. Ponton is a Professor of Education in the School of Education at Regent University. His research interests include autonomous learning, personal initiative, self-efficacy, and higher education administration. Dr. Ponton can be reached via e-mail at michpon@regent.edu.

J. Michael Hall is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. His research interests include the effects of self-efficacy on the performance of mathematics students. Dr. Hall can be reached via e-mail at mhall@csm.astate.edu.

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