NCSALL Home > Connecting Practice, Policy & Research > Training Materials > Adult Student Persistence > Sample Activity

This page is located at: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=932

Sample Activity

Adult Student Persistence

7. Four Supports for Adult Student Persistence (25 minutes)

• Point out that, in the reading Supporting the Persistence of Adult Basic Education Students the authors identify four supports for persistence, based on their own research and on other research about this issue.

• Make the following points about the NCSALL Adult Persistence Study:

  -- The study asked students who were currently enrolled in programs not only about their barriers but also about their supports to persistence.

  -- The report describes what the students identified as their most important supports and barriers to persistence.
  

• Post the newsprint Definition of Persistence.

Definition of Persistence
Adults staying in programs for as long as they can, engaging in self-directed study when they must drop out of their programs, and returning to a program as soon as the demands of their lives allow.

• Review the Adult Student Persistence Study’s definition of persistence. Ask participants to comment on the ways this definition of persistence is similar to or different than the ones they use.

• Post the newsprint Four Supports for Student Persistence.

Four Supports for Student Persistence

• Management of the positive and negative forces that help and hinder persistence
• Establishment of a goal by the learner
• Self efficacy
• Progress toward reaching a goal

• Point out that one support – management of the positive and negative forces – was addressed in the last activity. In this next activity the study circle group will discuss the remaining three supports.

• Divide participants into three groups (or do as a whole group if your group is small). Instruct Group One to review and discuss “self-efficacy,” Group Two: “establishment of a goal,” and Group Three: “progress toward reaching a goal.” Ask each group to review the description of their assigned support on pages 38-39 of the reading.

• Post the newsprint Discussing Supports for Learner Persistence and allow 10 minutes for the groups to discuss the questions and summarize their discussions on newsprint.

Discussing Supports for Student Persistence

• What is your opinion about the importance of this support for student persistence?
• How would you help students achieve a sense of self-efficacy?

OR

• How would you help a student establish a meaningful goal?

OR

• How do you help students see their own progress in ways that are meaningful to them?

•  After 10 minutes, reconvene the whole group. Give each group a few minutes to report back a summary of their discussion. Then facilitate a seven-minute discussion, continuing to use the newsprint as a guide for the whole group.