Goals and Self-efficacy in Persistence

Step 1: Read the related research

Review the article that you read in Helping Adults Persist:

"Helping Adults Persist: Four Supports." (Opens new browser window. Close it to return.)
John Comings, Andrea Parella, and Lisa Soricon, Focus on Basics, Volume 4, Issue A, March 2000.

Summary:
This article provides a summary of NCSALL's Adult Student Persistence Study in which researchers interviewed 150 Pre-GED students in New England at the beginning of their participation in ABE programs and again after four months of study. In this study, persistence is defined as adults staying in programs as long as possible, engaging in self-directed study when they are not able to attend class, and returning to the program when possible. Researchers identify four supports to persistence—awareness of and management of positive or negative forces that help or hinder persistence, self-efficacy, establishment of goals by students, and progress toward reaching a goal. The authors argue that it is necessary to reconceptualize adult learners as long-term clients who use a wide range of services including, but not limited to, ABE programs.

• What strategies have you used successful to promote mastery experiences and vicarious experiences? How have you addressed psychological and emotional states and provided social persuasion?

Go to Step 2