@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Educational Studies (EDST), Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "McKinnon, Donald Peter"@en ; dcterms:issued "2010-02-23T20:11:04Z"@en, "1977"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Doctor of Education - EdD"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """The purpose of this study was to apply the procedures developed in studying the adoption of innovations to participation in adult education in order to test the utility of the concept of adoption as a way of studying and explaining the phenomenon of participation in adult education. It was assumed that adult education is an innovation which may be diffused in a process analogous to new agricultural practices. The study was conducted in a census tract located in Surrey, British Columbia. An analytical survey and interview schedule was used to collect data from 100 housewives chosen at random for the sample. Two adoption models were used. Each represents the decision process with a series of steps or stages. To develop an adoption score based on the five-stage model, four questions assessed each stage. The adoption score for the four-stage model was obtained with five questions assessing each stage. Thus both adoption scores had a range of zero to twenty and for both models sub-scores could be tabulated for each stage. These adoption scores were used as dependent variables. A participation score based on the number of courses taken provided an additional dependent variable. Independent descriptive variables consisting of five personal characteristics and thirty-two motivational factors were used. The motivational factors, called goals and barriers, were rated by magnitude estimation. Fifty-eight per cent of the variance in the number of courses taken by respondents was explained by eight variables. Five of these used to assess adoption explained 48 per cent of the variance, two barriers explained six per cent, while one goal explained four per cent but none of the personal characteristics were selected. The study suggests that the decision to participate in adult education is not a simple one-step process in which an adult matches his needs and interests to a program that may be available. Rather, the four-stage model fits the phenomenon better than the five-stage model and indicates that decisions are achieved in stages. Although such phenomenon as repeated recycling through the process and time sequencing are unclear, the strategy of using an adoption model is promising. The study has practical implications. Knowledge of adult education was extensive and printed advertising was widely read except by those with little formal education. Attitudes toward adult education were generally favourable but could be improved. Although 57 per cent reported participation during the previous 4 years and 75 per cent reported considering activities which they did not attend, those with the least formal education seldom even considered adult education. Although the study indicates that the decision to participate is a process which takes place over time, and that the adoption of innovation strategy explains that process, it is not clear that adoption models are wholly adequate for that purpose. Further research applying decision models from other disciplines may explain participation in adult education with greater accuracy."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/20807?expand=metadata"@en ; skos:note "THE ADOPTION OF INNOVATIONS AS A MEASURE OF PARTICIPATION IN ADULT EDUCATION by DONALD PETER McKINNON B.Ed., Un i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1962 M.Ed., Univ e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION In the Faculty of Education (Adult Education) We accept t h i s t hesis as conforming r to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY. OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1977 c ) Donald Peter McKinnon, 1977 In presenting th i s thes is in pa r t i a l fu l f i lment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the Univers i ty of B r i t i s h Columbia, I agree that the L ibrary sha l l make it f ree ly ava i lab le for reference and study. I fur ther agree that permission for extensive copying of th i s thesis for scho lar ly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representat ives. It is understood that copying or pub l i ca t ion of th is thes is for f inanc ia l gain sha l l not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The Univers i ty of B r i t i s h Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date J u i . r ^ , 197? i i ABSTRACT The purpose of t h i s study was to apply the procedures developed i n studying the adoption of innovations to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i n order to test the u t i l i t y of the concept of adoption as a way of studying and explaining the phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education- It was assumed that adult education i s an innovation which may be d i f f u s e d i n a process analogous to new a g r i c u l t u r a l p r a c t i c e s . The study was conducted i n a census t r a c t located i n Surrey, B r i t i s h Columbia. An a n a l y t i c a l survey and interview schedule was used to c o l l e c t data from 100 housewives chosen at random for the sample. Two adoption models were used. Each represents the decision process with a ser i e s of steps or stages. To develop an adoption score based on the five-stage model, four questions assessed each stage. The adoption score for the four-stage model was obtained with f i v e questions assessing each stage. Thus both adoption scores had a range of zero to twenty and for both models sub-scores could be tabulated for each stage. These adoption scores were used as dependent va r i a b l e s . A p a r t i c i p a t i o n score based on the number of courses taken provided an a d d i t i o n a l dependent va r i a b l e . Independent d e s c r i p t i v e variables consisting of f i v e personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s and thirty-two motivational factors were used. The motiva-t i o n a l f a c t o r s , c a l l e d goals and b a r r i e r s , were rated by magnitude estimation. F i f t y - e i g h t per cent of the variance i n the number of courses taken by respondents was explained by eight v a r i a b l e s . Five of these used to assess adoption explained 48 per cent of the variance, two b a r r i e r s explained s i x per cent, while one goal explained four per cent but none of the personal i i i c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were selected. The study suggests that the decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education i s not a simple one-step process i n which an adult matches his needs and i n t e r e s t s to a program that may be a v a i l a b l e . Rather, the four-stage model f i t s the phenomenon better than the five-stage model and indicates that decisions are achieved i n stages. Although such phenomenon as repeated r e c y c l i n g through the process and time sequencing are unclear, the strategy of using an adoption model i s promising. The study has p r a c t i c a l implications. Knowledge of adult educa-tio n was extensive and printed a d v e r t i s i n g was widely read except by those with l i t t l e formal education. Attitudes toward adult education were generally favourable but could be improved. Although 57 per cent reported p a r t i c i p a t i o n during the previous 4 years and 75 per cent reported consider-ing a c t i v i t i e s which they did not attend, those with the l e a s t formal education seldom even considered adult education. Although the study indicates that the decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i s a process which takes place over time, and that the adoption of innovation strategy explains that process, i t i s not clear that adoption models are wholly adequate for that purpose. Further research applying decision models from other d i s c i p l i n e s may explain p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education with greater accuracy. i v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT i i LIST OF TABLES v i i LIST OF FIGURES i x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . x, CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 PURPOSE 1 HYPOTHESIS 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 2 ADULT EDUCATION AS AN INNOVATION . . _ 15 DEFINITION OF TERMS .''.V 19 II PROCEDURE 26 POPULATION 26 SAMPLE 29 DATA COLLECTION 29 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 30 ANALYSIS OF DATA 35 GENERAL APPROACH 37 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE 37 III COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL 44 STAGE SCORES 44 ADOPTION SCORE 59 ADOPTER CATEGORIES 60 UTILITY OF THE FIVE-STAGE, MODEL 62 V Page CHAPTER IV COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: THE FOUR-STAGE MODEL 64 STAGE SCORES 64 ADOPTION SCORE 83 ADOPTER CATEGORIES . 84 REJECTION ANALYSIS 86 UTILITY OF THE FOUR-STAGE MODEL 89 V CROSS-MODEL COMPARISONS 92 A COMPARISON OF THE ADOPTION VARIABLES 93 A COMPARISION OF STAGES 98 ADOPTION: ONE STEP OR SEVERAL 99 COMPARISON OF MODELS BY ADOPTION SCORES 107 VI ANALYSIS BY GOALS AND BARRIERS 110 MEASURING THE GOALS AND BARRIERS 110 ANALYSIS BY GOALS AND BARRIERS 115 EVALUATION OF GOALS AND BARRIERS 120 IMPORTANCE OF BARRIERS 129 BASIC HYPOTHESIS . 130 VII CONCLUSIONS 136 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 136 CONCLUSIONS 142 SUGGESTIONS FOR INCREASING PARTICIPATION 147 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS 152 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY 156 v i Page APPENDICES 159 A THE ADOPTION VARIABLES 160 B THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 171 C WHERE ADULTS ATTENDED 183 v i i LIST OF TABLES TABLE Page I Percentage D i s t r i b u t i o n By Age i n the Sample and i n the Census Tract 38 II Goals and Barri e r s Ranked by Geometric Means 40 III Goals Ranked by Geometric Means 41 IV Bar r i e r s Ranked by Geometric Means 42 V Correlations Between Variables Assessing the Five-Stage Adoption Model and the Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Respondents 47 VI Correlations Between the Stage Scores of the Five-Stage Adoption Model 58 VII Comparison of Actual and The o r e t i c a l D i s t r i b u t i o n s of the Sample by Adopter Categories for the Five-Stage Model 60 VIII Correlations Between Variables Assessing the Four-Stage Adoption Model and the Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Respondents 67 IX The\" Number of Subjects Stating B a r r i e r s as Reasons fo r Negative Decisions 74 X Correlations Between Knowledge Stage Variables and the Stage Scores 1 80 XI C o r r e l a t i o n Patterns Between the Persuasion Stage Variables 80 XII C o r r e l a t i o n Between the Persuasion Stage Variables and the Other Stage Scores 81 XIII Correlations Between Stage Scores 83 XIV Comparison of Actual and Theoretical D i s t r i b u t i o n s by Adopter Categories for the Four-Stage Model . '. . . . 85 XV A Comparison of Adopter Categories by Those Variables with S i g n i f i c a n t l y D i f f e r e n t Means 85 XVI A Comparision^of Rejection Model Categories by Variables with S i g n i f i c a n t l y D i f f e r e n t Means 87 v i i i TABLE Page XVII Variables i n the Five-Stage Model Correlated with the T o t a l Adoption Score of the Four-Stage Model 94 XVIII Variables Used i n the Four-Stage Model Correlated with the To t a l Adoption Score of the Five-Stage Model 95 XIX Correlations Between Variables Assessing Adoption and the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score 97 XX Correlations Between Four and Five-Stage Adoption Models by Stages 99 XXI Factors i n the Variables Used to Assess the Adoption Scores 101 XXII A Matching of the Adoption Variables Which Best Explain Variance i n the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score with the Adoption Stages 106 XXIII Means and Standard Deviations of Variables Used i n Motivational Analysis 119 XXIV Correlations Between the Motivational Ratio, the Adoption Scores and Selected Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . . 120 XXV Factors i n the Goals and Barr i e r s 123 XXVI The Geometric Means for Write-in B a r r i e r 126 XXVII Variables Which Best Explain Variance i n the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score -- A Test of the Basic Hypothesis . . . 133 XXVIII P a r t i a l Correlations of Variables which are S i g n i f i c a n t l y Correlated to the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score . . . 134 i x LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE Page 1 Map of the Sample Area 27 2 The Awareness Stage Variables 45 3 The Interest Stage Variables 48 4 The Evaluation Stage Variables 51 5 The T r i a l Stage Variables 52 6 The Adoption Stage Variables 54 7 The Knowledge Stage Variables 65 8 The Persuasion Stage Variables 69 9 The Decision Stage Variables 73 10 The Confirmation Stage Variables 76 11 The Rejection Model 87 12 Frequency D i s t r i b u t i o n s of the Scores f o r Both Adoption Models 109 13 Goals and Ba r r i e r s i n Ranked Order of Their Geometric Means 112 14 A Comparison of Goals and Ba r r i e r s by P l o t t i n g Geometric Means 113 15 A Comparison of the Geometric Means for the Goals and B a r r i e r s to the Standard Error of the Mean for Those Variables 114 16 A Comparision of the Five-Stage Adoption Score to the Motivational Ratio 117 17 A Comparison of the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score to the Motivational Ratio 118 18 D i s t r i b u t i o n of Variance i n the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score by Categories of Variables 132 X ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my appreciation for the help I received during the progress of t h i s study: To Professor Coolie Verner for help i n understanding the adoption process and for endless guidance i n the techniques of d i s s e r t a t i o n writing. To Dr. John C o l l i n s f o r what he taught me of s t a t i s t i c s , data processing and research design. To the other members of the committee for t h e i r c r i t i c i s m and encouragement. To Brenda Novakowski and Margaret Roxburgh for typing, e d i t i n g and numerous rev i s i o n s to the manuscript. To the s t a f f of the Community Education D i v i s i o n of the Surrey School Board who so often did my work while I was busy with t h i s study. But f i r s t and l a s t I wish to acknowledge my debt to Professor Coolie Verner, because without h i s firm d i r e c t i o n t h i s study might s t i l l be in progress. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n community adult education has been a matter of concern to both the f i e l d and the d i s c i p l i n e of adult education for a number of years. Numerous studies have investigated various aspects of p a r t i c i p a t i o n but thus far none have provided clues to change administrative practices so as to increase p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Nor has research led to the formulation of any t h e o r e t i c a l basis to c l a r i f y and explain the phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Thus, although an extensive body of fa c t s about p a r t i c i p a t i o n has accumulated, i t s t i l l remains something of an enigma. In many ways, the decision by an adult to p a r t i c i p a t e i n an educational program i s somewhat analogous to the acceptance of an innovation or a new p r a c t i c e so that the phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education might be more c l e a r l y explained by using the concept of adoption of innova- tions. An extensive body of research l i t e r a t u r e about the adoption of innovations has been accumulated but thus f a r none has studied p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education s p e c i f i c a l l y . PURPOSE The purpose of t h i s study i s to apply the procedures developed i n studying the adoption of innovations to assess the acceptance of adult educa-t i o n i n a community i n order to determine whether such procedures explain p a r t i c i p a t i o n better than do v a r i a b l e s based on motivation, personal charac-t e r i s t i c s , or a p a r t i c i p a t i o n versus non-participation dichotomy. 1 2 HYPOTHESIS The basic hypothesis of t h i s study i s : Variables from the Adoption Models account for more variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n rates i n Adult Education than do: (1) the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of respondents (2) the goals motivating respondents toward p a r t i c i p a t i o n or (3) motivational b a r r i e r s i n h i b i t i n g p a r t i c i p a t i o n . REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE i In order to achieve the purpose of t h i s study, i t w i l l be necessary to consider both the l i t e r a t u r e r e l a t i n g to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education and that r e l a t e d to the adoption of innovations. Obviously, a complete and d e t a i l e d review of both areas would contain material that i s l a r g e l y i r r e l e v a n t , therefore, t h i s review i s l i m i t e d to that l i t e r a t u r e which i s immediately applicable to the purpose of t h i s study. P a r t i c i p a t i o n The research l i t e r a t u r e about p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education can be grouped into four major categories r e f l e c t i n g the p a r t i c u l a r l e v e l s of the phenomenon that have been studied. Considerable data about p a r t i c i -pation has been accumulated i n each category but these have not led to any general t h e o r e t i c a l explanation of the phenomenon that i s s u f f i c i e n t to provide a structure for further research. Community Level Numerous studies have sought to assess the nature and extent of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n a community through surveys or p o l l s . In most cases, these have f a i l e d to provide an accurate measure of the amount of p a r t i c i -pation because of the d i f f i c u l t i e s i n assessing and recording a l l p a r t i c i -3 pation i n programs and a c t i v i t i e s . Adult education i s so wide-spread that only those programs conducted by the t r a d i t i o n a l educational i n s t i t u t i o n s can be studied r e a d i l y . Verner and Newberry\"*\" have pointed out the q u a l i t a t i v e differences i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n among the more v i s i b l e i n s t i t u t i o n a l programs such as pu b l i c schools, u n i v e r s i t y extension, or a g r i c u l t u r a l extension. They found that while each of the t r a d i t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s appeared to a t t r a c t a d i f f e r e n t segment of the population, a l l of them were \"educating the educated.\" 2 Johnstone and Rivera conducted a nation-wide p o l l i n the United States that provides the most recent and most complete analysis of the extent of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n a v a r i e t y of forms of adult education. They found that some 22 per cent of the adult population was involved i n some form of adult education during a twelve month period. C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Individuals A majority of the research studies reported have analysed the socio-economic c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of p a r t i c i p a n t s i n an e f f o r t to determine who i s involved i n adult education. Some studies have compared p a r t i c i p a n t s with non-participants i n an e f f o r t to i s o l a t e the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that d i f f e r e n t i a t e one from another. Other studies have compared pe r s i s t e n t attenders with drop-outs i n an attempt to determine the factors that may account f o r persistence or discontinuance. 3 Johnstone and Rivera summarized the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of those who p a r t i c i p a t e d : The adult p a r t i c i p a n t i s j u s t as often a woman as a man, i s v.; . t y p i c a l l y under f o r t y , has completed high school or more, enjoys an above-average income, works f u l l - t i m e and most 4 often i s i n a white-collar occupation, i s married and has c h i l d r e n , l i v e s i n an urbanized area but more l i k e l y i n a suburb than a large c i t y , and i s found i n a l l parts of the country, but more frequently i n the west than i n other regions. Among the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which have been found to d i f f e r e n t i a t e p a r t i c i p a n t s from non-participants, age and educational l e v e l are the variables most co n s i s t e n t l y reported as s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t . That 4 p a r t i c i p a t i o n decreases as age advances has been reported frequently and Johnstone and Rivera noted that \"... the rate f e l l from a high of 29 per cent among adults i n t h e i r l a t e twenties to 4 per cent among persons seventy and over.\"^ They also reported that the median age of those who p a r t i c i p a t e d was 36.5 years. It i s apparent that those who p a r t i c i p a t e a c t i v e l y i n adult education programs f a l l into the middle years and that neither younger nor older adults are proportionately represented. Further-more, there appears to be no noticeable d i f f e r e n c e i n t h i s regard between p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education programs and i n s o c i a l organizations. Educational l e v e l , as measured by years of school completed, has been found to be the s i n g l e most c r u c i a l v a r i a b l e d i f f e r e n t i a t i n g p a r t i c i p a n t s from non-participants with p a r t i c i p a n t s having a higher l e v e l of educational achievement.^ Programs conducted for adults by d i f f e r e n t i n s t i t u t i o n s tend to serve d i f f e r e n t groups i n the population with those attending evening classes i n the public schools tending to have les s education than those i n g u n i v e r s i t y extension programs. In general, adults with a higher educational l e v e l are more l i k e l y to seek a d d i t i o n a l education so that \"adult education 9 i s widening the gap between the educated and the educationally unprivileged.\" M a r i t a l status does not seem to be r e l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n except 5 i n scattered references. Although K a p l a n ^ reported that s i n g l e persons attended more frequently than married, that has not generally been substan-t i a t e d . Other socio-economic variables have been found to be related to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education at one time or another but none of these have appeared con s i s t e n t l y and cannot, therefore, be considered as c r u c i a l factors a f f e c t i n g p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Program C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s A number of factors under the control of an administrator of an adult educational program have been examined to determine i f they influence 12 p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Pattyson found that the day of the week on which a program 13 was held appeared to influence p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Verner and Neylan reported that the length of course affected p a r t i c i p a t i o n — p a r t i c u l a r l y persistence 14 of attendance. Lamoureux studied the cost of a program but found no s p e c i f i c r e l a t i o n s h i p to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n u n i v e r s i t y extension programs. For the most part, such s i t u a t i o n a l factors have not been studied s u f f i c i e n t l y to produce any v a l i d generalizations about t h e i r influence on p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Motivation Many studies i n adult education have sought to i d e n t i f y both the personal goals and the b a r r i e r s that might a f f e c t p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Goals are defined as \"the end-result toward which action, muscular or mental, i s d i r e c t e d . \" \" ^ The goals that may lead an adult to p a r t i c i p a t e i n continuing education programs have been i d e n t i f i e d i n a number of d i f f e r e n t 16 ways. Houle c l a s s i f i e d learners as goal-oriented, a c t i v i t y - o r i e n t e d , or learning-oriented while Havighurst\"^ postulated that p a r t i c i p a t i o n stemmed 6 from developmental tasks which adults encounter at every stage of l i f e . 18 Riesman suggests that p a r t i c i p a t i o n stems from whether adults are t r a d i -19 t i o n - d i r e c t e d , inner-directed or other-directed. Kretch l i s t s such goals as a f f i l i a t i o n , prestige, power or curiosity—among o t h e r s — a n d notes that although these are not d i r e c t l y measurable they can be i n f e r r e d from sub-20 j e c t i v e reports. Skinner warns that \"So-long as the inner event (needs) i s i n f e r r e d , i t i s i n no sense an explanation of the behaviour [ i . e . p a r t i -c i p a t i o n ] and adds nothing to a fun c t i o n a l account.\" Thus i n f e r r e d needs should not be used as pseudo-explanations for p a r t i c i p a t i o n r o l e s . In s p i t e of the t h e o r e t i c a l problems created by the concept of goals as motivating p a r t i c i p a t i o n , the e f f e c t of goals has been studied frequently. Johnstone and Rivera report that \"job-centered reasons lead younger adults to take courses, [but] the enrolment goals of older adults 21 are much l e s s pragmatic and u t i l i t a r i a n . \" Among these goals were general knowledge, s o c i a l contacts, get away from the d a i l y routine, spare-time i n t e r e s t s , s k i l l s to cope with everyday l i v i n g , and domestic s k i l l s . They report that goals vary with age and s o c i a l p o s i t i o n . 22 Boshier f a c t o r analysed goals and concluded that p a r t i c i p a n t s were motivated e i t h e r by a sense of deficiency or by a desire f o r growth. Either can lead to p a r t i c i p a t i o n and then to s a t i s f a c t i o n . In a s i m i l a r study, the goals were i d e n t i f i e d as the desire to know, to reach a personal goal, to reach a s o c i a l goal, to reach a r e l i g i o u s goal, to escape, to take 23 part i n a c t i v i t y and to comply with formal requirements. Unfortunately, these studies are done on populations of p a r t i c i p a n t s so that i s i s not possible to compare the goals of p a r t i c i p a n t s with those of non-participants. 7 Ba r r i e r s to p a r t i c i p a t i o n seem to have been studied l e s s frequently than goals. Johnstone and Rivera found that the most frequent b a r r i e r s were \" f i n a n c i a l (43 per cent), busy schedule (39 per cent) and a lack of 24 s u f f i c i e n t p h y s i c a l energy at the end of the day (37 per cent).\" They also found that women i d e n t i f i e d more b a r r i e r s than men and that older people were more l i k e l y to f e e l too old to learn or to f e e l that i t would be c h i l d i s h to e n r o l l i n a course. 25 McKinnon concluded that \"within the c e n t r a l c i t y [Vancouver] 26 distance i s a b a r r i e r to only a few p a r t i c i p a n t s \" , and Melton found that people who preferred to p a r t i c i p a t e at the u n i v e r s i t y would t r a v e l long distances to attend even though equivalent courses were a v a i l a b l e much closer i n the p u b l i c schools. Lack of money i s a long recognized b a r r i e r generally 27 discussed within the framework of socio-economic status or poverty. 28 Elimination of fees increased p a r t i c i p a t i o n on Indian Reserves, but a l i e n a -29 t i o n from the general society i s also a b a r r i e r to the poor, to Native 30 31 Indians and to the foreign born. Lack of appropriate communication reduces p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Anderson 32 and Niemi conclude that the poor receive adequate mass media information, which they ignore, and inadequate inter-personal communication which they would be more l i k e l y to follow. Close kinship t i e s on Indian Reserves are a b a r r i e r to p a r t i c i p a t i o n presumably because of competition for the p o t e n t i a l p a r t i c i p a n t ' s time and 33 energy. In general, however, a systematic study to the b a r r i e r s to enrolment has not been c a r r i e d out and c e r t a i n l y l i t t l e evidence i s a v a i l a b l e as to the r e l a t i v e importance of those b a r r i e r s . 8 Concept of Adoption Although the research on p a r t i c i p a t i o n has examined a number of factors a f f e c t i n g p a r t i c i p a t i o n , i t has not considered p a r t i c i p a t i o n as a decision process. Research into the adoption of innovations has studied the process involved i n reaching the decision to adopt and i t has analyzed those who adopt or r e j e c t an innovation so as to categorize them i n terms of t h e i r adoption behavior. The p a r t i c u l a r relevance of t h i s research to the phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n w i l l be reviewed with respect to the nature of an innovation, the stages i n the process of deciding whether or not to adopt, and the categories into which adults can be c l a s s i f i e d i n terms of t h e i r response to innovations. Innovation 34 Rogers notes that an innovation i s an object, p r a c t i c e , or idea that i s perceived as new by the i n d i v i d u a l or group to which i t i s presented. Such innovation may be the product of invention, of discovery, or of a new alignment of pre-existant ideas. In order to be an innovation for a p a r t i c u l a r i n d i v i d u a l or group i t must be previously unknown to them even though i t may have long been known to others. Thus, what i s an innovation for one group may be a t r a d i t i o n i n another. As object, an innovation may include such items as a new v a r i e t y of seed, a drug, a piece of machinery, or any s i m i l a r tangible object. As p r a c t i c e , an innovation may be a new mode of c u l t i v a t i o n , a new s u r g i c a l procedure, a new t e c h n i c a l s k i l l , or any s i m i l a r pattern of behavior not previously known. As idea, an innovation may include such things as b e l i e f s i n a supreme power, l i t e r a c y , or continuing education. 9 3 5 Barnett on the other hand, has conceived of innovations as configurations of behavior and recombinations of e x i s t i n g ideas i n which the r e l a t i o n s h i p established between an i n d i v i d u a l and the idea i s the c e n t r a l core of the innovation. Thus, the r e l a t i o n s h i p between the c h i l d and the school i s that of education so that the components c h i l d - s c h o o l -education form a configuration that was once an innovation i n our culture but i s now a well established p r a c t i c e . C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Innovations Innovations may be simple or complex. In general, simple inno-vations are accepted more r e a d i l y than are complex innovations. Thus, a farmer can accept a new v a r i e t y of seed but may f i n d i t d i f f i c u l t to a l t e r his farming practices which involve complex behavioral changes. In order 3 6 to explain i n greater d e t a i l the varying acceptance of innovations, Rogers proposed f i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of innovations that influence t h e i r acceptance and adoption. Relative advantage explains \"the degree to which an innovation i s 3 7 perceived as being better than the idea i t supersedes.\" Relative advan-tage was p o s i t i v e l y r e l a t e d to the rate of adoption of innovations , i n 6 7 * •> i- . , 3 8 per cent of the studxes reveiwed. Compatibility i s \"the degree to which an innovation i s perceived as consistent with e x i s t i n g values, past experiences, and needs of the 3 9 r e c e i v e r s . \" I t was p o s i t i v e l y r e l a t e d to adoption, i n 6 7 per cent of the cases. Complexity i s \"the degree to which an innovation i s perceived as 41 r e l a t i v e l y d i f f i c u l t to understand and use\" and i s r e l a t e d to adoption 10 i n 56 per cent of the studies. T r i a l a b i l i t y i s \"the degree to which an innovation may be A 3 experimented with on a l i m i t e d b a s i s \" t h i s was re l a t e d to adoption i n 44 69 per cent of the studies. Observability i s \"the degree to which the r e s u l t s of an innovation 45 are v i s i b l e to others.\" It was rela t e d to adoption i n 78 per cent of the studxes. Adopter Categories Members of a population exposed to an innovation w i l l respond to i t at v a r i a b l e rates so i t i s desirable to i d e n t i f y the various segments of 47 that population i n terms of t h e i r response to the innovation. This i s accomplished by computing an adoption score based on the stage i n the adoption process achieved by i n d i v i d u a l s at the time of the study. Rogers says that adoption scores have been found to follow a normal d i s t r i b u t i o n , and he suggests d i v i d i n g the population into categories using the normal curve and standard deviations, thus f i v e categories can be i d e n t i f i e d which r e f l e c t 48 the degree of response over time to an innovation. These are as follows: Innovators are those with an adoption score two or more standard deviations above the mean, and make up 2.6 per cent of a population. This group i s the f i r s t to accept an innovation and may be characterized as venturesome and w i l l i n g to take r i s k s . Early adopters have an adoption score between one and two standard deviations above the mean. This group consists of 13.5 per cent of the population studied. The early adopter i s respected by h i s peers, i s success-f u l , and he i s di s c r e t e i n accepting innovations. 11 Early majority comprise the 34 per cent of the population with an adoption score between the mean and one standard deviation above the mean. Rogers c a l l s t h i s group deliberate as they are w i l l i n g to accept new ideas, but not w i l l i n g to be the f i r s t . Late majority are the 34 per cent with adoption scores between the mean and one standard deviation below the mean. Rogers notes \"They can be persuaded of the u t i l i t y of new ideas, but the pressure of peers i s necessary to motivate adoption.\" Laggards are the 16 per cent with the lowest adoption score. They may have t r a d i t i o n a l points of view, be suspicious of innovations and are obviously reluctant to change t h e i r ways. Much of the research i n the adoption of innovation has described the differences between early adopters and l a t e adopters. Those differences 49 are summarized by Rogers and need not be repeated here i n d e t a i l . In general, e a r l i e r adopters are better educated, have higher s o c i a l status, use more sources of information, and i n many ways seem to resemble a p r o f i l e of p a r t i c i p a n t s i n adult education. Later adopters, on the other hand, tend to resemble those who do not p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education programs. Although i t i s tempting to assume that early adopters of one innovation w i l l be equally eager to adopt s i m i l a r innovations, \"The degree of acceptance of any one innovation was not an index to the acceptance of others.\"^^ Thus caution i s necessary i n making generalizations about the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of those i n d i f f e r e n t adopter categories. Rejection and Discontinuance Although the adoption of an innovation proposed i s assumed to 12 be the desirable outcome, many i n d i v i d u a l s may decide against i t . When an i n d i v i d u a l decides against adopting, t h i s decision i s termed a r e j e c t i o n . \" ^ When an i n d i v i d u a l who has adopted an innovation l a t e r decides to stop 52 53 using i t , t h i s i s i d e n t i f i e d as discontinuance. Rogers and Shoemaker c i t e two reasons for discontinuance: replacement of the innovation with another which i s more s a t i s f a c t o r y , and simple d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n . In any population, therefore, i t should be possible to divide adults into four groups on the basis of t h e i r d ecision about an innovation. F i r s t l y , would be those who were s t i l l i n the process of making a decision about an innovation; secondly, those who have decided to re j e c t the innova-t i o n ; t h i r d l y , those who have adopted and are using the innovation; and four t h l y , those who adopted the innovation i n i t i a l l y but l a t e r discontinued i t s use. It i s reasonable to suppose that there may be v a r i a t i o n s i n the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of people i n each of these four groups. No research i n adult education has analysed r e j e c t o r s or those who have not yet made a decision, but studies of drop-outs i n adult education are analogous to the study of discontinuance. Adoption Process The acceptance and adoption of an innovation i s not merely a simple act but rather involves a process consisting of several steps or stages through which an i n d i v i d u a l passes i n reaching a decision. Rogers defines t h i s as \"the mental process through which an i n d i v i d u a l passes from f i r s t knowledge of an innovation to a decision to adopt or r e j e c t and to confirmation of t h i s decision. In order to operationalize the adoption concept two models have 13 been developed. Each model proposes d i f f e r e n t stages for describing what i s e s s e n t i a l l y the same process. Five-Stage Adoption Model The t r a d i t i o n a l adoption model was developed i n 1955, and i d e n t i f i e s f i v e stages i n the process used i n reaching a decision. These stages are as follows 1. Awareness stage The i n d i v i d u a l learns of the existence of the new idea but lacks information about i t . 2. Interest stage The i n d i v i d u a l develops i n t e r e s t i n the innovation and seeks a d d i t i o n a l information about i t . 3. Evaluation stage The i n d i v i d u a l makes mental a p p l i c a t i o n of the new idea to hi s present and anticipated future s i t u a t i o n and decides whether or not to t r y i t . 4. T r i a l stage The i n d i v i d u a l a c t u a l l y applies the new idea on a small scale i n order to determine i t s u t i l i t y i n his own s i t u a t i o n . 5. Adoption stage The i n d i v i d u a l accepts and uses the new idea continuously so that i t i s integrated into h i s e x i s t i n g behavior. Some stages may be omitted by some i n d i v i d u a l s and the sequence of the stages followed may be alte r e d by others. Rejection may occur at any stage and the process may continue past adoption with such behaviors as seeking further information or discontinuance. 14 Although the five-stage model has been used extensively, i t has been c r i t i c i z e d f o r three d e f i c i e n c i e s . It assumes that the process always r e s u l t s i n adoption rather than i n r e j e c t i o n , i t assumes that the stages are followed i n order, and i t assumes that the process stops when adoption 56 occurs. In sp i t e of these c r i t i c i s m s , the five-stage model i s used i n t h i s study so that comparisons can be made to previous research. Four-Stage Adoption Model A four stage model was proposed i n 1971 \"to account for the major c r i t i c i s m s r a i s e d about the f i v e stage adoption model, to p r o f i t from recent researches on the process, and to be consistent with the learning process, theories of a t t i t u d e change, and general ideas about decision making.\" ^ 58 This model consists of the following stages or steps: 1. Knowledge The i n d i v i d u a l i s exposed to the innovation's existence and gains some understanding of how i t functions. 2. Persuasion The i n d i v i d u a l forms a favorable or unfavorable a t t i t u d e toward the innovation. 3. Decision The i n d i v i d u a l engages i n a c t i v i t i e s which lead to a decision to adopt or r e j e c t the innovation. 4. Confirmation The i n d i v i d u a l seeks reinforcement f o r the innovation-decision he has made, but he may reverse h i s previous decision i f exposed to c o n f l i c t i n g messages about the innovation. 15 ADULT EDUCATION AS AN INNOVATION Various research reports provide data relevant to one or more of the stages and t h i s supports the contention here that the adoption process i s r e l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. Knowledge of a program i s p o s i t i v e l y r e l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Johnstone and Rivera found that \"55 per cent said that they knew of at least one place where adults i n t h e i r community could go to receive i n s t r u c t i o n , 33 per cent did not know whether or not such resources are a v a i l a b l e , and 12 per cent said 59 there were no such places.\" They also found \"that public awareness of f a c i l i t i e s v a r i e s quite markedly with the type of subject under considera-t i o n \" ; that persons with more schooling were \"more knowledgeable about l o c a l f a c i l i t i e s \" ; that \"people without much education were more l i k e l y to know about courses i n secondary schools\"; and f i n a l l y that adults were more l i k e l y to know about i n s t r u c t i o n offered by large i n s t i t u t i o n s than about the 60 same courses run i n le s s prominent s e t t i n g s . \" Anderson and Niemi comment that disadvantaged adults are l i k e l y to become aware through mass media, but that they \"are r a r e l y , i f ever, induced to take ac t i o n \" by such messages. This explains i n part the low p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education by the poor. Lowenstein's comment that \"Knowledge that the i n d i v i d u a l has of educational resource should be assessed i n p r e d i c t i o n of future adult education p a r t i c i -pation seems obvious, however, with the exception of the study by Johnstone and Rivera, l i t t l e research i s a v a i l a b l e on what people i n a community know about adult education. The persuasion stage involves the formation of attitudes based, 63 i n part, on information obtained i n the Knowledge Stage. London found that people who placed a high value on education did not p a r t i c i p a t e i n 16 adult education a c t i v i t i e s s i g n i f i c a n t l y more frequently. Johnstone and 64 Rivera linked i n t e r e s t i n learning and a willingness to take a course. They found approximately seven out of ten adults were interested i n learning and thus were p o t e n t i a l adult education c l i e n t s ; however, those wanting to learn but not interested i n a course c l e a r l y require a change i n at t i t u d e i f they are to become p a r t i c i p a n t s . Older adults i d e n t i f i e d more b a r r i e r s which may in d i c a t e a more negative a t t i t u d e L o n d o n notes that adults \"lack a c l e a r i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of themselves as students,\" ^ w h i c h i s a s e l f -image problem and thus a t t i t u d e r e l a t e d . Jensen seems to grasp the basic problem \"Only as an adult educator develops strategy to overcome e x i s t i n g fears [ s u b s t i t u t e — t o change e x i s t i n g attitudes] w i l l adults conquer t h e i r 6 7 resistance to e n r o l l i n g i n educational a c t i v i t i e s . \" Although i t i s clear that a t t i t u d e s are rel a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n , i t i s unfortunately true, as Verner and Booth noted i n 1960, that attitudes are \"imperfectly understood and inadequately handled by adult educators.\" ^ The l i t e r a t u r e o f f e r s few clues as to how such a t t i t u d e change should take place except that, for the poor and possibly for a l l others, personal communication i s more success-69 f u l than printed or other mass media messages. There are a v a r i e t y of factors which may lead an adult toward a decision to adopt adult education. Rogers ^ investigated \"need for achievement which he defined as \"a s o c i a l value that emphasizes a desire f o r excellence i n order to a t t a i n a sense of personal accomplishment\" and found that the desire for achievement was rel a t e d to both farm and home innovativeness. For some adults, p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n an adult education program may r e s u l t from the acceptance of a current fad and as Linton notes, \" I t i s an observed 17 fact that c e r t a i n new elements of culture w i l l be eagerly accepted by groups when there are not d i s c e r n i b l e reasons of eit h e r u t i l i t y or p r e s t i g e . \" ^ On the other hand, Lionberger claims that \" D i s s a t i s f a c t i o n with the conditions as they e x i s t , followed by awareness of a l t e r n a t i v e s , i s pr e - r e q u i s i t e to , ,,72 change. Cognitive dissonance may explain why persons with inadequate formal education e n r o l l or consider e n r o l l i n g . \"Dissonance produces d i s -comfort [ i n the i n d i v i d u a l ] and correspondingly, there w i l l a r i s e pressures 73 to reduce or eliminate the dissonance.\" It may be that persons who believe that education i s important and also believe that t h e i r own educational l e v e l i s too low su f f e r dissonance. Thus dissonance reduction may be a factor i n t h e i r d ecision about p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n adult education. Since not a l l adults decide to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education, there may be variables re l a t e d to such negative decision. Two propositions are presented here. Since \"Behavior which i s followed by the withdrawal of 74 an aversive stimulus i s c a l l e d escape,\" perhaps many adults f e e l they have already escaped from books, teachers, and schools and may regard a l l kinds of education as adversive s t i m u l i therefore avoiding adult education a c t i v i -t i e s . Perhaps they f e e l they have escaped the drudgery experienced i n school i n t h e i r youth and associate adult education with that drudgery by the process of stimulus g e n e r a l i z a t i o n . ^ Thus the att i t u d e s and behavior they express toward adult education are s i m i l a r to the conditioned responses of t h e i r youth. The dif f e r e n c e , however, i s that youth education was compulsory, adulthood education i s voluntary and the predictable r e s u l t i s non-participa-t i o n . The second proposition i s that \"Habit probably plays an important r o l e ..76 i n resistance to new ideas. 18 In the confirmation stage the i n d i v i d u a l \"seeks reinforcement for the innovation-decision he had made.\"^ When reinforcement i s s u f f i c -i e n t l y strong, continued p a r t i c i p a t i o n tends to r e s u l t . When Johnstone 78 and Rivera asked p a r t i c i p a n t s how much they had benefited, 63 per cent said a great deal, 23 per cent said some, and only 13 per cent said not very much, which suggests that reinforcement occurred. Both Dickinson 79 80 and Verner and Verner and Neylan report that drop-outs are more frequent when courses were longer than ten sessions and when academic or vocational subjects were studied. Dickinson and Verner also reported that \"In general, the p e r s i s t e n t attenders were older, married housewives who had child r e n , 81 while the drop-outs were younger and usually s i n g l e . \" Adult education c l e a r l y f i t s the c r i t e r i a of an innovation noted by Rogers. In the suburban community that i s the l o c a l e f o r t h i s study, adult education was introduced i n the pu b l i c school system some 15 years ago and by other agencies and organizations since then. Consequently, the c r i t e r i o n of newness to the community i s s a t i s f i e d . In addition, i f an innovation i s conceived as a configuration as Barnett proposed, an adult becomes one constituent r e l a t e d by education to a second constituent (which may be any of several programming organizations) so that a configuration i s established which becomes a new r e l a t i o n s h i p that i s an innovation i n the culture. Thus, by eit h e r c r i t e r i o n , adult education can be properly consid-ered to be an innovation. The dynamics of adult education are such that i t lends i t s e l f to study and analysis i d e n t i c a l with that presently used i n studying other kinds of innovations. Adults i n a community w i l l vary from no awareness that adult education programs are a v a i l a b l e to continuous and sustained p a r t i c i p a t i o n . 19 Although the four-stage and five-stage models both measure the involvement of an i n d i v i d u a l with an innovation, they do so by using d i s t i n c t l y d i f f e r e n t assumptions. Because of t h i s , both models must be tested to determine the u t i l i t y of the concept i n studying p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. This r e s u l t s i n what, i n e f f e c t , are two separate studies that examine each model using v i r t u a l l y the same data and following i d e n t i c a l procedures with respect to the de t a i l e d analysis of the r e s u l t s . DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms have somewhat s p e c i a l i z e d meanings i n t h i s stiudy: A c t i v i t y - One i n s t r u c t i o n a l unit i n which an adult may e n r o l l such as a course, cl a s s or workshop. Adoption Models - Represent the various ways i n which the adoption process may be sub-divided into stages or into adopter categories. Adoption Scores - A measure of involvement with adult education from f i r s t knowledge to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The scores i n both the f i v e and four-stage models have a range of zero to twenty and are based on an equal number of items from each stage. Adopter Categories - C l a s s i f i c a t i o n into categories by adoption score that ind i c a t e the innovativeness of the respondent. This procedure uses a normal curve applied to the adoption scores of the respondents. Adoption Variables - The 33 items used to assess the 2 adoption scores. Twenty va r i a b l e s are used to assess each score but 7 variables are common to both. 20 Adult Education - \"Is a r e l a t i o n s h i p between an educational agent and a learner i n which the agent s e l e c t s , arranges and continuously d i r e c t s a sequence of progressive tasks that provide systematic experiences to achieve learning for those whose p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n such a c t i v i t i e s i s subsidiary and 82 supplementary to a primary productive r o l e i n society.\" In t h i s study the term adult education.is l i m i t e d to that provided by the l o c a l school d i s t r i c t and s i m i l a r organizations. B a r r i e r s - Factors which may make i t d i f f i c u l t or impossible to enrol i n adult education. Descriptive Variables - The 37 items used to assess the respondent and h i s motivation. Included are the 16 goals and the 16 b a r r i e r s rated by magnitude estimation. Also included are the following f i v e personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s ; m a r i t a l status, age, educational l e v e l as expressed i n years of school computed, attendance i n vocational t r a i n i n g and employment outside the home. These were used as independent v a r i a b l e s . Dropping-out - The behavior of f a i l i n g to complete an a c t i v i t y . Goals - Factors encouraging enrolment i n adult education. Housewife - The senior female i n the dwelling who thus has r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for the management of the household which she may share with the dominant male. Magnitude Estimation - The procedure used for deriving a r a t i o scale underlying the various items defined as goals and b a r r i e r s . Motivational Ratio - A s t a t i s t i c assessing motivation of an i n d i v i d u a l calculated by d i v i d i n g the natural logarithm of the geometric means of the ratings of the goals by the same s t a t i s t i c for the b a r r i e r s . Number Ratio - A s t a t i s t i c c alculated by d i v i d i n g the natural logarithm 21 of the number of goals reported by the same s t a t i s t i c f o r the b a r r i e r s . P a r t i c i p a t i o n - Attendance i n an adult education a c t i v i t y . P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score - The number of adult education a c t i v i t i e s i n which the respondent has taken part. The maximum score i s 15 which i s rated by up to 3 a c t i v i t i e s per year for the 5 year period preceding the interview. Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s - The f i v e variables which assess age, education, vocational t r a i n i n g , m a r i t a l status and employment. Stage Scores - The sum of the correct response to the questions used i n assessing each stage of the adoption process. 22 Chapter I FOOTNOTES 1. Coolie Verner and John Newberry, \"The Nature of Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n , \" Adult Education, 8: 208-222 (1958). 2. J.W.C. Johnstone and Ramon Rivera, Volunteers f or Learning. (Chicago, 1965). 3. Johnstone and Rivera, ap_. c i t . , p. 8. 4. Dean Goard and Gary Dickinson, The Influence of Education and Age on P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Rural Adult Education. REE Monograph 5 (Ottawa, 1971). p. 10; Abraham Kaplan, Socio-Economic Circumstances and Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n . (New York, 1943), p. 123; Gary Dickinson and Coolie Verner, Community Structure and P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education. (Ottawa, 1971), p. 10. 5. Johnstone and Rivera, o]3. c i t . , p. 10. 6. Verner and Newberry, op_. c i t . , pp. 1-2; Edmund.de S Brunner et. a l . , An Overview of Adult Education Research. (Chicago, 1959). pp. 98-114. 7. Goard and Dickinson, op_. c i t . , pp. 14-18; Johnstone and Rivera, op_. c i t . , p. 7; Gary Dickinson et. a l . , Adult Education i n B r i t i s h Columbia. (Vancouver, 1973), p. 38, Brunner, op_. c i t . , p. 103; Verner and Newberry, rjp_. c i t . , p. 12. 8. Brunner, op_. c i t . , p. 92. 9. Verner and Newberry, op. c i t . , p. 13. 10. Kaplan, OJJ. c i t . , p. 123. 11. Goard, op. c i t . , p. 10; Brunner, c>p_. c i t . , p. 106. 12. Jack Pattyson, \"The Influence of Certain Factors on Attendance i n Public School Adult Education Programs.\" Unpublished Ed.D. d i s s e r t a t i o n , F l o r i d a State University, 1961. 13. Coolie Verner and Margaret Neylan, \"Patterns of Attendance i n Adult Night School Courses.\" Canadian Education and Research Digest, 6: 230-240 (1966). 14. Marvin Lamoureux, \"Threshold P r i c i n g i n University Continuing Education.\" Unpublished Ed.D. d i s s e r t a t i o n , University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1975. 15. James Drever, A Dictionary of Psychology. (Harmondsworth, 1952), p. 108. 23 16. C y r i l Houle, The Enquiring Mind. (Madison, 1963), pp. 15-16. 17. Robert Havighurst, \"Changing Status and Roles During the Adult L i f e Cycle: Significance for Adults\" i n S o c i o l o g i c a l Backgrounds of Adult Education. Edited by Hobert W. Burns. Notes and Essays on Education f o r Adults No. 41 (Syracuse, 1964). 18. David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd. (New York, 1950). 19. David Kretch et. a l . , Individual i n Society. (New York, 1962), pp. 88-89. 20. B.F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior. (New York, 1953), pp. 143-144. 21. Johnstone and Rivera, O J J. c i t . , p. 11. 22. Roger Boshier, \"Motivational Orientations of Adult Education P a r t i c i p a n t s : A Factor A n a l y t i c a l Exploration of Houle's Typology,\" Adult Education 21: 3-26 (1971). 23. Paul Burgess, \"Reasons for Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Group Educational A c t i v i t i e s , \" Adult Education 22: 3-29 (1971). 24. Johnstone and Rivera, op. c i t . , p. 17. 25. Donald McKinnon, \"A Comparison of Distances Travelled to Urban Night School Centers.\" Unpublished M.Ed, t h e s i s , The University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966. 26. James Melton, \"The Influence of Course Locations on Distances Travelled by P a r t i c i p a n t s i n Urban Adult Evening Classes.\" Unpublished M.Ed, t h e s i s , The University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966. 27. Kaplan, O J J. c i t . , p. 22; Johnstone and Rivera, op_. c i t . , p. 17. 28. Adrian Blunt, \"The C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of P a r t i c i p a n t s i n an Indian Adult Education Program.\" Unpublished M.A. t h e s i s , The University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1972, p. 86. 29. D a r r e l l Anderson and John Niemi, Adult Education and the Disadvantaged Adult. (Syracuse, 1969), p. 15; Kaplan, ap_. c i t . , p. 126. 30. Blunt, op_. c i t . 31. Anderson and Niemi, op. c i t . , pp. 58-60. 32. Ibid. 33. Blunt, OJD. c i t . 34. Everett Rogers and Floyd Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations. (New York, 1971), p. 19. 24 35. H.G. Barnett, Innovation: The Basis of C u l t u r a l Change. (New York, 1953), pp. 181-224. 36. Rogers and Shoemaker, op_. c i t . , pp. 134-160. 37. Ibid., p. 138. 38. Ib i d . , p. 350. 39. Ibid., p. 145. 40. Ibid., p. 351. 41. Ibid., p. 154. 42. Ib i d . , p. 351. 43. Ibid., p. 155. 44. Ib i d . , p. 352. 45. Ibid., p. 155. 46. Ibid., p. 352. 47. Everett Rogers, D i f f u s i o n of Innovations. (New York, 1962), p. 148-192. 48. Rogers and Shoemaker, op_. c i t . , pp. 183-185. 49. Ibid., pp. 347-376. 50. Saxon Graham, \"Class and Conservatism i n the Adoption of Innovations,\" Human Relations, 9: 91-100 (1956). 51. Rogers, 1962, op_. c i t . , p. 19. 52. Ibid., pp. 88-89. 53. Rogers and Shoemaker, op_. c i t . , p. 116. 54. Ib i d . , p. 99. 55. Ibid., pp. 100-101. 56. I b i d . , p. 101. 57. Ibid., p. 103. 58. Ib i d . , p. 103. 59. Johnstone and Rivera, op_. c i t . , p. 16. 60. Ibid. 25 61. Anderson and Niemi, op_. c i t . , p. 62. 62. Susan Lowenstein, \"A Study of the Components of Future P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education Programs.\" Co-operative Extension Service, University of Nebraska, (Mimeographed and not dated), p. 9. 63. Jack London et. a l . , Adult Education and S o c i a l Class, (Berkeley, 1963), p. 146. 64. Johnstone and Rivera, op_. c i t . , pp, 14-15. 65. Ibid., p. 17. 66. Jack London, \"The Relevance of the Study of Sociology to Adult Education P r a c t i c e , \" i n Gale Jensen, A.A. L i v e r i g h t and Wilbur Hallenbeck, Adult Education, Outlines of an Emerging F i e l d of University•Study. (Chicago, 1964), p. 132. 67. Ibid ., p. 121. 68. Coolie Verner and Alan Booth, Adult Education. (Washington, 1964), p. 25. 69. Anderson and Niemi, op_. c i t . , p. 62. 70. Everett Rogers, Modernization Among Peasants. (New York, 1969), p. 243. 71. Ralph Linton, The Study of Man. (New York, 1936), p. 341. 72. Herbert Lionberger, Adoption of New Ideas and Pr a c t i c e s . (Ames, 1960), p. 33. 73. Leon Festinger, When Prophecy F a i l s . (New York, 1956), pp. 25-26. 74. Skinner, op_. c i t . , p. 171. 75. D.C. Fraser, Basic Concepts i n Modern Psychology (Cambridge, 1963), p. 11. 76. Joe Bohlen, \"Research Needed on Adoption Models\" i n D i f f u s i o n Research Needs. Uni v e r s i t y of Missouri, A g r i c u l t u r a l Experiment Station, (undated), p. 20. 77. Rogers and Shoemaker, rjp_. c i t . , p. 113. 78. Johnstone and Rivera, op_. c i t . p. 12. 79. Gary Dickinson and Coolie Verner, \"Attendance Patterns and Dropouts i n Night School Classes,\" Adult Education, 19: 24-33 (1967). 80. Verner and Neylan, op. c i t . 81. Dickinson and Verner, op_. c i t . , p. 33. 82. Coolie Verner, \" D e f i n i t i o n of Terms,\" i n Gale Jensen et. a l . op_. c i t . , p. 32. CHAPTER II PROCEDURE In order to f u l f i l the purpose of t h i s study, the a n a l y t i c a l survey method was selected with a structured interview schedule used to c o l l e c t data from a sample population. This procedure should provide the data to achieve three basic functions: 1. I t should describe the degree of acceptance of adult education i n a cornmunity, using the techniques developed for the measurement of the adoption of innovations. 2. It should explain v a r i a t i o n i n the acceptance of adult education through the analysis of selected independent v a r i a b l e s . 3. I t should provide the data necessary to estimate the construct v a l i d i t y of adoption as a measurement of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i n a community. Although t h i s i s b a s i c a l l y a t r a d i t i o n a l study of the adoption of innovations, the research technology developed for les s complex innovations must be adapted to f i t the nature and c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education as the innovation to be measured. These adaptations are explained i n d e t a i l below. POPULATION The community selected f o r t h i s study i s i n B r i t i s h Columbia Census Tract 186.\"'' This i s an area of approximately f i v e square miles located i n the north-west portion of the Mun i c i p a l i t y of Surrey i n B r i t i s h Columbia, Canada (Figure 1). The population i n t h i s census t r a c t has 26 27 FIGURE 1 Map of the Sample Area 28 increased from 4,200 i n 1956 to 13,210 i n 1971 and there are 3,334 dwellings of which 255 are multiple-dwelling units. In 1971 the mean value of the dwellings i n the t r a c t was $23,018 which i s s l i g h t l y lower than the $26,702 mean for a l l dwellings i n the M u n i c i p a l i t y of Surrey. The median t o t a l income per household was $9,479 which i s $800 higher than that for the Municipality. Of the 4,235'females over 15 years of age i n the census t r a c t , 35.5 per cent were i n the work force. These data i n d i c a t e that the population i n t h i s census t r a c t i s representative of the lower mainland of B r i t i s h Columbia. Thus, the r e s u l t s of t h i s study w i l l be applicable to s i m i l a r populations elsewhere but i t w i l l not n e c e s s a r i l y provide generalizations that are u n i v e r s a l l y applicable. In s e l e c t i n g t h i s p a r t i c u l a r census t r a c t , the f i v e t r a c t s closest to Queen E l i z a b e t h Senior Secondary School were examined. This school has been the p r i n c i p a l centre f o r adult education i n Surrey for 15 years. A comparison of the f i v e t r a c t s indicated that t r a c t 186 was t y p i c a l of the f i v e examined so i t was selected since the school was located within the t r a c t . The median distance from households within the t r a c t to the school i s approximately one mile. A Junior Secondary School with a large adult evening program i s j u s t outside the t r a c t boundary and Douglas Community College which also o f f e r s courses f o r adults i s within a mile of the t r a c t boundary. Other educational a c t i v i t i e s for adults are a v a i l a b l e within two miles i n the town of Whalley and an extensive adult education program i s operated by the New Westminster School D i s t r i c t within easy d r i v i n g distance. The t r a c t selected i s , therefore, a t y p i c a l r e s i d e n t i a l area with good access to, and a record of, p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. 29 SAMPLE A sample con s i s t i n g of 100 dwellings i n census t r a c t 186 was selected by a two stage area sampling procedure. In the f i r s t stage, maps were obtained from the municipal Engineering Department that showed the address and l o c a t i o n of every dwelling i n the t r a c t . Although a l l the maps were dated within two years of the study, several blocks included recent construction and appropriate additions were made to the maps. Every c i t y block or equivalent area was numbered. One hundred blocks were selected using a table of random number. In the second stage, each dwelling i n the blocks selected was numbered sequentially and one of these was chosen by using a table of random numbers. Alternate dwellings were i d e n t i f i e d and used when no response was received at the o r i g i n a l dwelling i n the sample. The census describes a dwelling as \"a s t r u c t u r a l l y separate set of l i v i n g quarters, with a private 2 entrance from outside or from a common h a l l or stairway i n s i d e the b u i l d i n g \" and t h i s d e f i n i t i o n was used for t h i s study. DATA COLLECTION The housewife resident i n the selected dwelling was interviewed by the author. A l l interviews were conducted i n September, October and November 1975. An i n i t i a l attempt to obtain an interview was made between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and when necessary because of no response, at l e a s t one follow-up v i s i t was made i n the evening. The interviewer explained the survey, presented l e t t e r s of introduction from the u n i v e r s i t y and the school d i s t r i c t , and asked for an interview. I f the p o t e n t i a l subject 30 was reluctant, further explanations were made, but care was taken not to prejudice the interview. Since encyclopedia salesmen had preceded the interviewer, many housewives were suspicious that the interviewer was also a salesman. The interviews were a l l conducted by the author.-INTERVIEW SCHEDULE An interview schedule was constructed s p e c i f i c a l l y f o r t h i s study. 3 This was modelled on schedules used i n t r a d i t i o n a l adoption research with modifications as required by the nature of the study. Measuring Adoption When measuring the acceptance and adoption of simple innovations such as a new item or p r a c t i c e , i t i s usually preferable to study several innovations simultaneously so as to a r r i v e at an adoption score for each respondent. Since p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i s a complex innovation and fundamentally d i f f e r e n t from a simple item or pr a c t i c e , i t was necessary to develop a scheme for measuring the acceptance of the innovation that was comparable to but not i d e n t i c a l with that used for measuring the acceptance of a simple innovation. The decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education was hypothesized to involve a process made up of a number of constituent steps that are comparable i f not i d e n t i c a l with the stages i n the adoption of innovations. To measure the progression through the stages leading to adoption i t was necessary to prepare a serie s of questions that would r e f l e c t the decision making process at each stage. The•responses to these questions were scored on a scale ranging from no response (zero) to a maximum of twenty for response to a l l questions. This score was based on the assumption that each stage i n the 31 adoption process was of equal importance. It i s c a l l e d the adoption score. Since t h i s study was dealing with a single complex innovation rather than with several simple innovations, several questions were devised to measure acceptance at each stage. In c o l l e c t i n g data for the five-stage adoption model, four questions were used to measure responses at each stage and f i v e questions were used for the four-stage model to insure that the scores achieved with either model would be comparable. The questions devised for each stage were prepared i n such a way as to e l i c i t a response that would be comparable i f not i d e n t i c a l to the response one would receive i n t r a d i t i o n a l adoption studies in v o l v i n g simple innovations. Five-Stage Model ( t o t a l of 20 p o i n t s ) : Awareness Stage (four p o i n t s ) : At t h i s stage i t was necessary to assess the degree to which the respondent was aware of adult education as an a c t i v i t y a v a i l a b l e i n the community. P o s i t i v e responses to these questions earned one point each: Do you know what adult education i s ? Do you know where classes are held? Do you know what i s taught? And do you know how adult education i s advertised? Interest Stage (four p o i n t s ) : At t h i s stage i t was necessary to determine i f an i n d i v i d u a l a c t i v e l y sought information, so the questions determined whether the respondent had made a teleph c a l l enquiring about adult education, written a l e t t e r seeking further information, talked with friends or others about the program, or read the advertising l i t e r a t u r e . 32 Evaluation Stage (four p o i n t s ) : At t h i s stage an i n d i v i d u a l considers whether or not adult education would be useful to him so questions sought to determine i f he had weighed the advantages or disadvantages of p a r t i c i p a t i n g , whether or not anyone had encouraged or discouraged him, or i f he had advised others to p a r t i c i p a t e . T r i a l Stage (four p o i n t s ) : At t h i s stage i t i s necessary to determine any s p e c i f i c behaviors that indicated a decision to p a r t i c i p a t e such as attending a program that was cancelled, attending and then dropping out, or attending and completing the course. In addition, respondents were asked d i r e c t l y i f they had enrolled on a t r i a l basis. Adoption Stage (four p o i n t s ) : The adoption of adult education was assessed by summing the number of years during which the subject p a r t i c i p a t e d between 1972 to 1975. At each stage the responses were summed to provide a score for that stage and the to t a l : s c o r e f or a l l stages formed the f i n a l adoption score which was used as the dependent v a r i a b l e i n the study. Four-Stage Model ( t o t a l 20 p o i n t s ) : The four-stage model u t i l i z e s seven of the questions from the five-stage model and t h i r t e e n a d d i t i o n a l questions not used i n the f i v e -stage model. Knowledge Stage ( f i v e p o i n t s ) : This stage i s assessed from the four awareness questions and one a d d i t i o n a l question on how to enrol. 33 Persuasion Stage ( f i v e p o i n t s ) : Five questions assessed the atti t u d e of the respondent toward f i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education as an innovation. The int e n t i o n was to assess the r e l a t i v e advantage, compatibility, complexity, t r i a l a b i l i t y , and o b s e r v a b i l i t y of adult education by using Likert-type scales. Decision Stage ( f i v e p o i n t s ) : To determine whether i n d i v i d u a l s had made decisions they were asked i f they had considered a s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y and then not attended, i f they had enrolled and then not attended, i f they had been involved i n a cancelled a c t i v i t y , i f they had been a drop-out and i f they had completed one or more adult education a c t i v i t i e s . Confirmation Stage ( f i v e p o i n t s ) : To assess the reaction of pa r t i c i p a n t s to adult education a c t i v i t i e s , respondents were asked i f they intended to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the future, i f they had had unpleasant experiences or i f they had experienced u n a n t i c i -pated consequences. Those who did not intend to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the future were asked i f they had been d i s s a t i s f i e d with t h e i r experiences and i f they used the time formerly spent on adult education f o r some other purpose. The responses to the questions i n the four-stage model were summed fo r each stage as i n the five-stage model and the scores for the four stages were summed to a r r i v e at an adoption score. By these procedures stage scores and adoption scores for both models can be compared and contrasted. Measuring P a r t i c i p a t i o n A p a r t i c i p a t i o n score was computed for each respondent. To compute 3 4 the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score the t o t a l number of a c t i v i t i e s engaged.in over a f i v e year period was used. Since the data used to assess the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score i s also used to assess the adoption scores, the two scores are not independent. Measuring Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s The review of the l i t e r a t u r e on p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education and on the adoption of innovations indicated that only c e r t a i n socio-economic c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s have so far been found to be r e l a t e d either to p a r t i c i p a t i o n or to adoption. For purposes of t h i s study, therefore, data were c o l l e c t e d r e l a t e d to f i v e personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that were deemed on the basis of the l i t e r a t u r e s u f f i c i e n t l y important including age, marital status, educa-t i o n a l l e v e l , vocational t r a i n i n g and employment. Measuring Motivation In an e f f o r t to get some assessment of the l e v e l of motivation to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education, the perception held by the respondent of goals f o r or b a r r i e r s to p a r t i c i p a t i o n were recorded. This was achieved by constructing a scale using the system of magnitude estimation developed by 4 Stevens and others to rate the goals and b a r r i e r s i d e n t i f i e d . The procedure was simply to ask people to assign numbers to each goal and b a r r i e r which were proportional to t h e i r subjective impressions of importance. The procedure followed x^ as modified from that suggested by Stevens. Respondents were given the sixteen goal cards, asked to read them, to select one which applied to them, to give that goal a number which i s easy to divide and multiply, and f i n a l l y to rate the remaining goals as a proportion of the f i r s t . The procedure was repeated f o r the b a r r i e r s . Lindsay 35 and Norman evaluate such a procedure favorably: \"After years of experience with magnitude estimation as a t o o l f o r measuring subjective experience, i t would appear to be a r e l i a b l e , robust method. I t i s simple and e f f e c t i v e . \" To analyze the respondents'.ratings the geometric means were standardized. To standardize each person's assessments, each assessment was m u l t i p l i e d by a common factor so that the i n d i v i d u a l mean for the 32 goals and b a r r i e r s was 100. Thus an i n d i v i d u a l ' s estimates of the importance of the 32 goals and b a r r i e r s r e l a t i v e to each other was unaffected. As a r e s u l t of these adjustments the geometric mean for each sin g l e respondent's own ratings becomes 100, but the ratings between respondents can be compared and contrasted, goal by goal and b a r r i e r by b a r r i e r . Both goals and b a r r i e r s may be o b j e c t i v e l y r e a l , expressed because they are the subjective evaluation of the respondent, or expressed because to do so i s s o c i a l l y acceptable. Although there i s no way of determining which of the three hypothesis i s true for any one response, i t seems j u s t i f i -able to assume that expressed goals tend to increase the p r o b a b i l i t y of p a r t i c i p a t i o n and expressed b a r r i e r s tend to decrease the p r o b a b i l i t y of p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Thus goals can be considered p o s i t i v e motivation and b a r r i e r s negative motivation. ANALYSIS OF DATA The data were coded, punched on cards, and processed at the Computer Centre at the U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia and then analyzed to describe involvement, to investigate v a r i a b i l i t y i n adoption scores and to estimate v a l i d i t y of the techniques. D i f f e r e n t a n a l y t i c a l processes were., used and d i f f e r e n t assumptions were made for each of the three functions. 36 Description of Involvement To describe involvement B i - v a r i a t e Contingency Tabulations (UBC MVTAB)^ and Parametric and Non-parametric Correlations and Tests of S i g n i -ficance (UBC CORN)^ were made. Since these s t a t i s t i c s deal with only two variables at a time, the c o r r e l a t i o n s reported should be considered of le s s e r importance than the more powerful m u l t i v a r i a t e procedures used i n subsequent sections. Variance i n Adoption Score To assess variance i n adoption scores, the Triangular Regression g Package (UBC TRIP) was run with the adoption score as the dependent va r i a b l e and the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , goals and b a r r i e r s as independent var i a b l e s . This was done for both the five-stage and four-stage models. To analyze the adopter categories and the r e j e c t i o n model the data 9 was processed using a Stepwise Discriminant Analysis (UBC BMD07M) . In a l l the procedures i n t h i s section the objective was to i s o l a t e independent variables r e l a t e d to involvement i n adult education. V a l i d i t y of Scores The v a l i d i t y of the scores and of single v a r i a b l e s within the scales can only be assessed i n d i r e c t l y . Factor Analysis (BMDP4M)\"^ was used to see i f the adoption variables would c l u s t e r into factors at a l l ; and whether these were analogous to the adoption stages. (TRIP)\"'\"''\" was used to indicate whether key v a r i a b l e s came .from each of the stages. Other i n d i c a t o r s of v a l i d i t y would test on the following assumptions: 1. That each question i n an adoption stage should be s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to every other question i n that stage. 37 2. Each stage score should be s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the other stage scores i n the model. 3. The adoption score i s best which has the most variance explained by the independent v a r i a b l e s . 4 . If factor analysis of adoption variables produces a factor analo-gous to a stage, that stage i s indicated to be more v a l i d . 5. If a v a r i a b l e from one adoption model i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the adoption score of the other adoption model, that v a r i a b l e gains c r e d i b i l i t y . Obviously t h i s test applied only to those v a r i a b l e s not used to assess both models. 6. If those v a r i a b l e s used i n the adoption scores which do not pre-clude adoption explain more variance i n the number of courses taken than do the goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , then adoption measures provide a better explanation of p a r t i c i p a -t i o n than do goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . GENERAL APPROACH The study i s an exploration of the u t i l i t y of techniques designed to analyze the adoption of innovations for the study of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. The two groups of dependent variables measure adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Since many var i a b l e s are used to measure both adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n , the research strategy becomes complex. The v a r i a b l e s used p r i m a r i l y as independent v a r i a b l e s were goals, b a r r i e r s and personal charac-t e r i s t i c s . CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE Data were c o l l e c t e d on f i v e personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the 38 respondents and on how they rated 16 goals and 16 b a r r i e r s to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . While these 37 variables functioned p r i m a r i l y as the independent d e s c r i p t i v e variables i n an e f f o r t to explain variance i n both adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores, they also describe the 100 housewives who were interviewed. Individual C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s M a r i t a l Status. Married women were i n the majority (88%), although two women were sin g l e and ten were either widowed, divorced or separated. Age. The age d i s t i b u t i o n of the sample does not d i f f e r s i g n i f i -cantly from that i n the census t r a c t (Table I ) . The mean age of the sample was 39.6 and the standard deviation 14.4 years. TABLE I Percentage D i s t r i b u t i o n By Age i n the Sample And i n the Census Tract Age Sample Tract 17-24 13 14 25-34 32 25 35-44 22 23 45-54 14 18 55-64 11 10 65 up 8 10 100% 100% x 2 = 2.34 df = 5 N.S.. Educational Level. The median educational l e v e l i s grade 11. Twenty-six per cent have les s than grade 9 and 9 per cent have attended u n i v e r s i t y but only 3 per cent have obtained degrees. 39 Vocational Training. T h i r t y - e i g h t per cent reported receiving t r a i n i n g r e l a t i n g d i r e c t l y to employment. Employment. Forty-two per cent were employed, two per cent were r e t i r e d and the remaining f i f t y - s i x per cent were not g a i n f u l l y employed. Goals and Barri e r s That goals o v e r a l l were rated more than twice as important as b a r r i e r s i s indicated since the geometric mean of the geometric means for the 16 goals i s 145 whereas the same s t a t i s t i c f o r b a r r i e r s to adoption i s only 63. If the goals and b a r r i e r s are ranked together i n descending order, the highest 14 geometric means are a l l goals (Table I I ) . The highest geome-t r i c mean, \"to improve my mind\", i s 7.23 times the lowest geometric mean which i s for the b a r r i e r \"I don't want to be a student.\" This should be interpreted to mean that improving one's mind was considered, on the average, to be more than seven times as important as the fear of being a student i n a classroom. The four highest ranked goals are learning oriented: \"to improve my mind\" ranked highest with a mean of 275; \"to learn job s k i l l s \" , \"to learn something new\" and \"to learn about a hobby\" were ranked next and ranged from 216 to 198 (Table I I I ) . The next s i x goals can perhaps be categorized as pr i m a r i l y s o c i a l \"to be with people\" ranked f i f t h at 186; \"to get a better job\", 184; \"to get the education I missed\", 168; \"to get a c e r t i f i c a t e \" , 144; \"to enjoy myself\", 141; \"to f i n d f r i e n d s \" , 127; and \"to learn to do volunteer work\", 125. \"To learn to be a better homemaker\" ranked twelfth at 125; \"to go to evening class and take other members of the family\" was 124 and \"to save money\" was s u r p r i s i n g l y low at 123. The only two goals with geometric means of less than 100 were \"to have a night out\", 78; and \"to escape from 40 TABLE II Goals and B a r r i e r s Ranked by Geometric Means Standardized Rank Geometric Mean Improve my mind 1 275.3 Improve my job s k i l l s 2 216.5 Learn something new 3 210.2 Hobby 4 198.6 Be with people 5 185.9 Get a better job 6 183.9 Get the education I missed 7 168.1 Get a c e r t i f i c a t e 8 144.2 To enjoy myself 9 141.2 To f i n d new f r i e n d 10 126.7 Learn to do volunteer work 11 125.7 To be a better homemaker 12 124.8 Take whole family 13 123.9 Save money 14 122.9 Too busy 15 109.5 Wrong time 16 96.2 Don't want to go alone 17 95.8 Other things 18 86.6 To have a night out 19 77.9 Not enough energy 20 77.4 Fees too high 21 66.6 Transportation 22 65.0 S t a r t i n g information 23 62.7 Too many problems 24 61.9 Distance 25 59.5 Information about where 26 59.3 To escape 27 56.9 Babysitting 28 51.8 No courses i n t e r e s t 29 46.7 Too old 30 44.0 Family 31 40.3 Don't want to be student 32 38.1 family\", 57. (The goals are i n rank order i n Table I I I and the exact wording on the cards i s i n the appendix). The b a r r i e r s to p a r t i c i p a t i o n ranked s u r p r i s i n g l y low. The b a r r i e r with the highest rank, \"I'm too busy and have no free time\" had a geometric 41 mean of 109 ranked f i f t e e n t h on the l i s t of 32 goals and b a r r i e r s combined . and was the only b a r r i e r with a geometric mean of over 100. \" A c t i v i t i e s always seem to be at the wrong time or on the wrong night\" ranked second among b a r r i e r s with a geometric mean of 96; \"fees too high\" was s i x t h at 66; \"I never seem to f i n d out about classes before they s t a r t \" ranked eighth; \"too far to go\" ranked tenth; \" I t i s d i f f i c u l t to f i n d out where the classes are, when they s t a r t , and how to enrol\" ranked eleventh (g.m. = 59.3); \"none of the a c t i v i t i e s i n t e r e s t me\" ranked th i r t e e n t h as a b a r r i e r at only 47; and don't want to be a student\" ranked l a s t with a geometric mean of only 38. Thus, although scheduling and high fees seem to be something of a problem, the other c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the a c t i v i t i e s were not considered to be important b a r r i e r s to adoption. TABLE III Goals Ranked by Geometric Means Rank Order Standardized Geometric Mean Improve my mind Job s k i l l s Learn something new Hobby Be with people Get a better job Get the education I missed Get a c e r t i f i c a t e Enjoy myself Find friends Learn to do volunteer work Learn homemaking \" Take family Save money Have a night out To escape 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 275.3 216.5 210.2 198.6 185.9 183.9 168.1 144.2 141.2 126.7 125.7 124.8 123.9 122.9 77.9 56.9 42 TABLE IV Barr i e r s Ranked by Geometric Means Standardized Rank Geometric Order Mean Too busy 1 109.5 Wrong time 2 96.2 Don't want to go alone 3 95.8 Other things 4 86.6 Not enough energy 5 77.4 Fees too high 6 66.6 Transportation 7 65.0 Sta r t i n g information 8 62.7 Too many problems 9 61.9 Distance 10 59.5 Information about where . 11 59.3 Babysitting 12 51.8 None i n t e r e s t 13 46.7 Too old 14 ' 44.0 Family would object 15 40.3 Student 16 38.1 Other b a r r i e r s are s i t u a t i o n a l or r e l a t e to the i n d i v i d u a l adult. As noted e a r l i e r \"too busy\" was the highest ranking b a r r i e r . The other s i t u a t i o n a l b a r r i e r s are ranked i n decreasing order as follows: \"Don't want to go alone\" ranked s u r p r i s i n g l y high as the t h i r d most important b a r r i e r (g.m. = 95), \"Other things I'd rather do\" ranked fourth (g.m. = 86); \"not enough energy\" ranked f i f t h (g.m. = 77); \" i t i s d i f f i c u l t to get transporta-t i o n \" ranked seventh (g.m. = 65); \"I'd l i k e to attend but there are just too many problems\" ranked ninth (g.m. = 62); \"b a b y s i t t i n g \" a s u r p r i s i n g l y low rank of twelfth (g.m. = 52); \"too o l d , \" perhaps a threshold b a r r i e r , but i t s geometric mean of only 44 ranked i t as the fourteenth most important b a r r i e r ; and worry about the family objecting did not rate much importance with a geometric mean of only 40. 43 Chapter II FOOTNOTES 1. Census of Canada: 1971, Catalogues 95-728 (CT-28A) and 95-758 (CT-28B) (Ottawa, 1971). 2. Ibid. 3. Coolie Verner and Frank M i l l e r d , Adult Education and the Adoption of Innovations by Orchardists i n the Okanagan Valley of B r i t i s h Columbia (Vancouver,1966); P a t r i c k Alleyne and Coolie Verner, Personal Contacts and the Adoption of Innovations.(Vancouver, 1969). 4. S.S. Stevens, \"A Metric f o r the S o c i a l Consensus,\" Science, 151: 530-541 (1966). 5. Peter H. Lindsay and Donald A. Norman, An Introduction to Psychology. (San Diego, 1972), p. 648. 6. James B j e r r i n g et. a l . , U.B.C. MVTAB: Mu l t i v a r i a t e Contingency Tabulations. (Vancouver, 1974). 7. Jason Halm, U.B.C. CORN: Parametric and Non-Parametric Correlations and Tests of Significance.(Vancouver, 1975). 8. James Bj e r r i n g and Paul Seagraves, U.B.C. TRIP: Triangular Regression Package. (Vancouver, 1974). 9. Jason Halm, U.B.C. BMD07M: Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. (Vancouver, 1975). 10. Jason Halm, U.B.C. BMDP4M, Factor Analysis. (Vancouver, 1974). 11. B i e r r i n g and Seagraves, 0p_. C i t . CHAPTER I I I COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL The five-stage adoption model i s the oldest model used to analyze the adoption of innovations. The f i v e stages i n the model w i l l be discussed f i r s t and t h i s w i l l be followed by an analysis of the population by the adoption score and by adopter categories. STAGE SCORES Each of the f i v e stages was assessed with four variables which formed a score f o r each stage. The re l a t i o n s h i p s of the stage scores to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and to the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sample are considered f i r s t , followed by an estimation of t h e i r u t i l i t y as measures of innovativeness. Awareness Stage An awareness that an adult education program existed i n the community was c l e a r l y the norm for the sample. The mean awareness stage score was 3.59 (standard deviation = .81) with a range from zero to four for those able to answer a l l questions (Figure 2). A l l but one respondent gave an adequate d e f i n i t i o n of adult education while seventy-nine per cent knew where a c t i v i t i e s were held. Knowledge of what could be learned through adult education a c t i v i t i e s was noted by 91 per cent, and a s i m i l a r percentage knew how adult education was advertised i n the community. That 74 per cent of the sample answered a l l four questions indicates a high l e v e l of awareness. 44 FIGURE 2 THE AWARENESS STAGE VARIABLES Do you know what Yes = 99 adult education is? No = 1 Do you know where Yes = 79 classes are held? No = 21 Do you know what Yes = 91 kinds of things are No = 9 taught? Do you know how adult Yes = 91 education i s adv e r t i - No = 9 sed i n Surrey? Awareness Stage Score (The-number responses) of yes D i s t r i b u t i o n Awareness Score Subjects 0 1 1 2 2 8 3 15 4 74 Total 100 Mean Score = 3. 59 Standard Deviation = 81 Five-stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 9.93 Standard Deviation = 3.73 46 The awareness stage score was re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .32**) (Table V). Among the components of the awareness stage score, knowledge of l o c a t i o n was re l a t e d to educational l e v e l (r = .27*) and to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .32**); knowledge of advertising was re l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .21*); and knowledge of the kinds of things taught through adult education was re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .21*). Thus, the more courses an adult had taken the more knowledge he had about adult education i n the community. The awareness stage score indicates that at least 75 per cent of the population i n the community i s aware of the existence of the adult education programs a v a i l a b l e but t h i s may not n e c e s s a r i l y be true i n other communities with le s s extensive programs. In the community studied, however, those with the l e a s t knowledge about the a v a i l a b i l i t y of adult education programs appear to be those with the l e a s t formal education and t h i s i s the group that might derive the greatest p o t e n t i a l benefit from the programs. C l e a r l y some of those most i n need of access to further education are not being reached by the e x i s t i n g methods of creating awareness. Interest Stage Not only i s awareness the norm but also some search for further information about adult education was reported by 96 per cent of the sample. Nearly h a l f (46%) of those interviewed reported having made a phone c a l l to enquire about adult education (Figure 3). There was a s i g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n -ship between the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and whether or not subjects had made * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .01 l e v e l of confidence. 47 TABLE V Correlations Between Variables Assessing The Five-Stage Adoption Model and Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Respondents Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s Items Assessing Adoption Voca-M a r i t a l Education t i o n a l Holds Status Age Level Training Job P a r t i c i p a -t i o n Score Number of Courses Attended Awareness Stage of d e f i n i t i o n of l o c a t i o n of v a r i e t y of a d v e r t i s i n g stage score Interest Stage phone enquiry l e t t e r enquiry talked to friends browsed i n ad v e r t i s i n g stage score Evaluation Stage thought about been encouraged been discouraged given advice stage score T r i a l Stage taken part on a t r i a l basis t r i a l score Adoption Stage stage score five-stage adoption score ,00 ,06 ,09 ,09 ,14 ,13 ,06 ,09 ,08 ,12 ,06 ,06 ,05 ,18 ,13 ,20* ,12 ,09 ,05 ,22* ,32** ,22* ,19 ,22* ,27 ,10 ,27 .17 ,21 ,14 ,11 ,15 ,22* ,46** , 32** ,02 ,19 , 31** ,07 ,25* , 27** , 33** ,00 ,19 ,00 ,00 ,09 ,00 ,02 ,00 ,18 .00 .06 .14 .18 08 ,10 ,20 ,17 ,14 ,16 ,32** ,21* ,21* , 32** , 44** ,11 ,15 ,21* , 41** . 27** .26* .03 .37** . 42** ,07 ,69** 89** ,76** * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .01 l e v e l of confidence. - Indicates too few subjects i n one or more c e l l s to c a l c u l a t e . Have you ever made a phone c a l l „ v . Yes = 46 to enquire about adult education? No = 54 Have you ever written a l e t t e r „ „ . . , Yes = ..8 enquiring about adult education No = 92 or correspondence? Have you ever talked to others v . 4. *u Y e s = 78 about the courses they are taking? No =22 Have you browsed through l i s t s of courses i n the same way you would No look through a catalogue? Yes = 91 9 FIGURE 3 THE INTEREST STAGE VARIABLES Interest Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n Interest Score 0 1 2 3 4 Total Mean Score Subj ects 4 16 88 37 5 100 = 2.23 Standard Deviation .92 Five-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 9.93 Standard Deviation = 3.73 00 49 a phone c a l l (r = .44**), but none of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were related to seeking further information by using the telephone. Eight per cent of the respondents had written l e t t e r s to enquire about a c t i v i t i e s but t h i s was not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated either to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score or to the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the p a r t i c i p a n t s . Ninety-one per cent reported browsing through adult education advertisements. This was re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .21*) but not to the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Most people (78%) reported t a l k i n g to t h i r d p a r t i e s about a c t i v i t i e s . Seventy-nine per cent of the p a r t i c i p a n t s reported discussing courses with others but 77 per cent of the non-participants also reported.such discussions. Apparently knowledge about adult education i s s u f f i c i e n t l y widespread i n the community so that p r i o r p a r t i c i p a t i o n does not seem to be an e s s e n t i a l pre-condition to discuss adult education. Neither the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score nor the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the subjects were rel a t e d to discussions about adult education programs. Browsing through printed advertising was the most popular method of getting further information, t a l k i n g to others was also frequent and almost h a l f used the phone but enquiries by mail were infrequent. Eighty per cent of the sample sought information through two or more channels. The mean i n t e r e s t stage score of 2.23 which has standard deviation of .92 i s r e l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .41**), and to education (r = .22*) but not to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Evaluation Stage The mean evaluation stage score was 2.08 with a standard deviation 50 of 1.01 (Figure 4). Considering the advantages and disadvantages of p a r t i c i p a t i n g i s reported by 86 per cent and t h i s i s rela t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .27**) and to educational l e v e l (r = .45**), but not to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Thus, those who consider the advantages and disadvantages of e n r o l l i n g i n adult education, take more courses and are better educated. Those who report being encouraged by others to p a r t i c i p a t e (49%) also tend to have a higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .26*) and to have more formal education (r = .32**). A much smaller proportion, (6%) report being discouraged from p a r t i c i p a t i n g . Being discouraged i s rela t e d neither to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score nor to any of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Giving advice to others about p a r t i c i p a t i n g was reported by 69 per cent. This was re l a t e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .37**) i n d i c a t i n g that those who gave advice tended to take more courses. Since only eight per cent of the sample have neither considered nor discussed adult education, i t i s clear that evaluating the d e s i r a b i l i t y of p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n adult education i s a behavior common to an overwhelming majority. T r i a l Stage When the interview schedule was prepared i t was assumed that the t r i a l stage was part of the adoption process for every p a r t i c i p a n t but now i t appears that of the items used to score t h i s stage a l l were i r r e l e v a n t . Responses to those three items i n d i c a t e that only one per cent enrolled i n a cla s s which was cancelled, 18 per cent dropped out of an a c t i v i t y and 51 per cent completed one or more a c t i v i t i e s (Figure 5). Of those who reported FIGURE 4 The Evaluation Stage Variables Have you taken time to think Yes = 86 about the advant-ages and disad- No = 14 vantages of adult education? Has anyone ever encouraged you to Yes = 49 take part i n adult No = 51 education? Has anyone ever discouraged you Yes = 6 from taking part i n adult education? 94 No = Have you given advice to others about taking part i n adult education? Yes No 69 31 Evaluation Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n Awareness Score Subj ects 0 8 1 18 2 37 3 32 4 5 Total 100 Mean Score = 2.08 Standard Deviation = 1.01 Five-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 9.93 Standard Deviation = 3.73 Have you ever taken Yes = 16 part i n adult No = 51 education on a t r i a l basis? N/A = 33 Have you ever enrolled only to Yes = 1 have the a c t i v i t y No = 99 cancelled? Have you taken part i n a c t i v i t i e s which Yes = 18 you did not com- No = 82 plete (drop out)? Have you attended and completed one or more a c t i v i t i e s ? Yes = 51 No = 49 FIGURE 5 The T r i a l Stage Variables T r i a l Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n T r i a l Score Subjects 0 42 1 32 2 22 3 4 4 0 Total 100 Mean Score • = .88 Standard Deviation = .89 Five-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stag e scores) Mean Score = 9.93 Standard Deviation = 3.73 Ln N> 53 p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education, only 16 (24%) reported taking part on a t r i a l basis. Since the interviewer not only asked about the t r i a l stage but also probed the response with further questions to ensure the accuracy of the response, i t seems c e r t a i n that three out of every four p a r t i c i p a n t s i n the sample did not think that they went through a t r i a l stage. Whether or not a p a r t i c i p a n t reports going through the t r i a l stage seems to be the c r u c i a l measure. Reporting a t r i a l stage, however, i s not r e l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .07) but i t i s rel a t e d to age (r= .37**). Adoption Stage An adoption stage score was computed by the amount of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s that occurred between 1972 and 1975 (Figure 6). The mean adoption stage score of 1.15 (standard deviation = 1.33) indicates a tendency for an adult to p a r t i c i p a t e s l i g h t l y more frequently than every fourth year. While 45 per cent p a r t i c i p a t e d during one year only, 16 per cent two years, 12 per cent three years and 6 per cent p a r t i c i p a t e d i n a l l 4 years studied. Since the average number of courses taken by p a r t i c i p a n t s i n any given year was 1.38 per year, most of those adults interviewed took only one course i n a given year. It should be noted that the p a r t i c i p a t i o n rate i s open to in t e r p r e -t a t i o n : i f those who took part i n one or more a c t i v i t i e s from 1972 to 1975 i s considered a p a r t i c i p a n t , the p a r t i c i p a t i o n rate i s 55 per cent but i f those who took part during the calendar year of the survey only are counted, the p a r t i c i p a t i o n rate i s only 21 per cent. Since the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and the adoption stage score are calculated from v a r i a t i o n s of the same data, the c o r r e l a t i o n between them i s Number of adult None = 77 education a c t i v i t i e s 1 = 16 attended during 1972 2 = 3 3 = 4 Number of adult None = 68 education a c t i v i t i e s 1 = 25 attended during 1973 2 = 4 3 = 3 Number of adult None = 65 education a c t i v i t i e s 1 = 20 attended during 1974 2 = 11 3 = 4 Number of adult None =76 education a c t i v i t i e s 1 = 21 attended during 1975 2 = 2 3 = 1 FIGURE 6 THE ADOPTION SCORE VARIABLES Adoption Stage Score (The number of years from 72 to 75 i n which subject attended one or more a c t i v i t i e s ) Adoption Stage Score Subjects 0 45 Five-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) 1 21 Mean Score =9.93 2 16 Standard Deviation = 3.73 3 12 4 6 Total 100 Mean Score = 1.15 Standard Deviation =1.33 55 high, but meaningless. As would be expected, the adoption stage score i s related to educational l e v e l (r = .28**), but not to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . V a l i d i t y of the Variables Since the d i s t r i b u t i o n of responses on many of the twenty items which make up the adoption score are skewed, a complete item-by-item 4 analysis for construct v a l i d i t y i s not p r a c t i c a l . It i s , however, possible to i d e n t i f y some items which are obviously not appropriate and to make the gross estimates necessary to determine which variables should be replaced i f a more sophisticated scale were to be developed. The four awareness questions were answered p o s i t i v e l y by 99, 79, 91 and 91 per cent re s p e c t i v e l y and the c o r r e l a t i o n matrix between the items i s not meaningful. Each item correlates p o s i t i v e l y at the .05 l e v e l with the five-stage adoption score which indicates i n t e r n a l consistency but obviously the f i r s t item, which was answered p o s i t i v e l y by 99 per cent, presents.an .impossible. s t a t i s t i c a l L p r o b l e m ^ . It would be easy to suggest that the questions were inappropriate because the r e s u l t s are so obviously skewed, and to suggest development items which require greater awareness to answer p o s i t i v e l y . The problem with t h i s suggestion i s that the population i s known to be i n a geographical area intensely served by adult education. In an area less w ell served the responses to the items used i n t h i s study might well be more nearly normally d i s t r i b u t e d . The scanty evidence of construct v a l i d i t y f o r the awareness items indicates that none of the items i s grossly inappropriate. In general the awareness variables seem to measure the construct c a l l e d awareness. 56 The i n t e r e s t items are better d i s t r i b u t e d than the awareness items. A l l four are s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to.the five-stage adoption score. Making phone enquiries and browsing through advertising areas are also s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score but w r i t i n g l e t t e r s of enquiry and t a l k i n g to friends are not. Although more sophisticated s t a t i -s t i c s are used to analyse these v a r i a b l e s i n Chapter V, i t seems that the items are a l l re l a t e d to adoption, although w r i t i n g a l e t t e r of enquiry i s infrequent. The evaluation stage seems to be represented by three v a l i d items but the fourth, having been discouraged by others from p a r t i c i p a t i n g , i s not r e l a t e d to e i t h e r the five-stage adoption score nor to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. In addition, being discouraged was reported by only s i x per cent, thus the responses are poorly d i s t r i b u t e d . The other three behaviors, thinking about advantages and disadvantages of adult education, having been encouraged to p a r t i c i p a t e by others and giving advice are s i g n i f i c a n t l y r e l a t e d to both the five-stage adoption score and the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. Thus a preliminary look at the four items used to scale the evaluation score indicates that three seem to be measuring the adoption process. The t r i a l stage procedures used i n t h i s study seem to have l i t t l e u t i l i t y . The responses to the d i r e c t question about p a r t i c i p a t i n g on a t r i a l basis were not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to either the five-stage adoption score nor the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. Only 24 per cent of p a r t i c i p a n t s reported a t r i a l . Both the small number reporting a t r i a l stage and the lack of r e l a t i o n s h i p between t r i a l and the adoption score and between t r i a l and the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score indicates that a t r i a l stage i s not a necessary part of 57 the process of the adoption of adult education. Nonetheless the d i r e c t question may assess t r i a l v a l i d l y . To complete the s c a l i n g of the t r i a l stage one point was given f o r each of the following behaviors: completing an a c t i v i t y , dropping out, and attending a class which was cancelled. Using these three items was based on the assumption, which now seems f a l s e , that a l l adopters go through a t r i a l stage. The v a l i d i t y of the t r i a l stage seems to revolve around two questions. F i r s t l y do the four items a c t u a l l y measure t r i a l ? The answer based on the data i n t h i s section indicates c l e a r l y that they do not. And secondly i s a t r i a l stage part of the adoption of adult education process? The answer seems to be yes, but only i n about every fourth case. Adoption stage i s scaled by enrolment. One point i s given for enrolment i n each of the four years p r i o r to the interview. S t a t i s t i c a l problems make i t awkward to estimate v a l i d i t y from c o r r e l a t i o n s but the process seems to have face v a l i d i t y . Surely f o r example, enrolment i n a l l four years i s greater involvement i n the adoption process than enrolment i n only one year. V a l i d i t y of the stages The r e l a t i o n s h i p s between the stage scores are a l l s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l of confidence which seems to indicate that the stages are i n t e r r e l a t e d (Table VI). This i s consistent with the hypothesis that a l l the stages are part of the same process. Unfortunately, the analysis of the t r i a l stage indicated that the response to the d i r e c t question \"Did you take part on a t r i a l b a s i s ? \" i s a more v a l i d measure of t r i a l than the t r i a l stage score. If the c o r r e l a t i o n s for the d i r e c t question are substituted for the stage 58 TABLE VI Correlations Between the Stage Scores of The Five-Stage Adoption Model Aw. Int. Eval. T r i a l Adoption Awareness 1.00 Interest .63** 1.00 Evaluation .45** .46** 1.00 T r i a l .33** .35** .36** 1.00 ( T r i a l Item) (.03) (.23) (.07) (.45)** (.04) Adoption .35** . 36** .45** .76** 1.00 Note - Figures shown i n brackets are for the va r i a b l e \"Did you take part on a t r i a l basis?\" which, as discussed e a r l i e r , i s a better measure of a t r i a l than i s the t r i a l stage score. score, then the t r i a l stage i s not correlated s i g n i f i c a n t l y to any of the other four stages. Several tendencies are apparent from the co r r e l a t i o n s between the stage scores. In general c o r r e l a t i o n s are higher between adjacent stages than between more dis t a n t stages. Although t h i s tendency could indicate a sequential e f f e c t , i t i s more l i k e l y that the v a r i a b l e s i n adjacent stages are more s i m i l a r . For example possessing information as assessed i n the awareness stage i s c l o s e l y r e l a t e d to seeking information i n the i n t e r e s t stage which i s adjacent. While adoption tends to be more c l o s e l y r e l a t e d to each successive stage, the further a respondent progresses through/ the stages, the more l i k e l y he i s to eventually adopt. 59 I t seems that the four of the stages give evidence of v a l i d l y measuring adoption. I t i s clear that the t r i a l stage was not well constructed i n the interview schedule and i n addition there i s some evidence that a t r i a l stage i s usually not part of the adoption process when that process i s applied to adult education. ADOPTION SCORE The mean adoption score for the five-stage model was 9.93 with a standard deviation of 3.73. In the range of scores 72 per cent scored between 7 and 14 while 17 per cent scored 6 or l e s s and 11 per cent scored 15 or more. The adoption score correlates s i g n i f i c a n t l y with age (r = -.22*) and educational l e v e l (r = .34**). These indicate that p a r t i c i p a t i o n declines s l i g h t l y as age increases but increases as educational l e v e l increases. In a stepwise regression analysis (U.B.C. TRIP)\"*\" the adoption score was the dependent v a r i a b l e and the goals, b a r r i e r s and personal chara-c t e r i s t i c s were the independent v a r i a b l e s . Two v a r i a b l e s , the educational l e v e l of the respondents and t h e i r desire to learn something new, explained 17.7 per cent of the variance i n the five-stage adoption score. Thus motiva-t i o n to learn and having more formal education seem to be the best predictors of involvement i n adult education. This f i n d i n g i s reported co n s i s t e n t l y throughout the study. Although, as reported e a r l i e r , the t r i a l - s t a g e i s not substantiated as a necessary stage i n adoption, and although some of the variables are not s i g n i f i c a n t l y r e l a t e d to the adoption process, the five-stage adoption score i s , nonetheless, a useful i n d i c a t o r of involvement i n adult education. 60 ADOPTER CATEGORIES Each respondent was given an adoption score that was based on the sum of the responses to 20 adoption questions. The respondents i n the sample were c l a s s i f i e d into adopter categories on the basis of the normal 2 curve'following the procedure recommended by Rogers. The lowest category has scores lower than minus one standard deviation from the mean while the highest category has scores above plus one standard deviation from the mean. The actual d i s t r i b u t i o n s used could not follow the normal curve exactly because the adoption score i s i n 20 d i s c r e t e steps but the d i s t r i b u t i o n used did not vary s i g n i f i c a n t l y from the normal curve (Table VII). Although the adopter categories imply a time of adoption, i n fa c t the adoption score used i n t h i s study measures involvement i n each of the stages. Thus the early adopters have the most involvement with the inno-vation and the laggards have the l e a s t . It i s possible that those with the most involvement i n adult education were the f i r s t to adopt, but the data i n t h i s study does not allow such a r e l a t i o n s h i p to be tested. TABLE VII Comparison of Actual and Theoretical D i s t r i b u t i o n s of The Sample by Adopter Categories for the Five-Stage Model Adopter Score Actual Number Observed Normal Curve Dis-t r i b u t i o n E a r l y Adopters (including innovators) Early Majority Late Majority Laggards 14-20 10-13 7-9 0-6 20 33 30 16 16 34 34 16 2 x = 1.5 df = 3 N.S. 6 1 A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to examine differences 3 between adopter categories (U.B.C. BMD07M). The independent variables included the f i v e personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , and the goals and b a r r i e r s . Of these 37 v a r i a b l e s , 4 had means that d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y among the adopter categories. Those i n the categories d i f f e r e d i n educational l e v e l , i n the desire to escape from housework, i n the desire to have enjoyment and fun, and i n the b e l i e f that the fees were too high. The four groups d i f f e r e d as follows: Early Adopters: had the most education (11.9 years); the highest desire to enjoy themselves (gm = 327); and wanted to escape from housework (gm = 156). Early Majority: has s l i g h t l y l e s s education (11.5 years); t h e i r desire to escape from housework was only moderately high (gm = 140); but both t h e i r desire to escape (gm = 60) and t h e i r concern for fees (gm = 61) were low. Late Majority: had the most concern for fees (gm = 113); the lowest r a t i n g for the goal of enjoying themselves (gm = 85) and l i t t l e d esire to escape housework (gm = 38). Laggards: had a moderate desire to enjoy themselves (gm = 130); the lowest education l e v e l (10.2 years) almost no concern about fees (gm = 20); or i n t e r e s t i n escaping (gm = 31.21). In general i t appears that those with the highest adoption scores have more education and a higher l e v e l motivation while those with the lowest scores have les s of each. I t should be noted however that t h i s tendency i s not consistent i n a l l categories. For example the l a t e majority express more 62 concern for the fees which may be an important or even a threshold b a r r i e r for that group. UTILITY OF THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL As i t was applied to adult education i n t h i s study, the five-stage adoption model was a useful t o o l for evaluating community p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The l e v e l s of awareness, i n t e r e s t , evaluation and adoption were r e a d i l y described i n a way that provided more in s i g h t than simply describing p a r t i -cipants and non-participants. The r e s u l t s from the t r i a l stage were les s s a t i s f a c t o r y . Analysis which compares the two adoption models i s presented i n Chapter V. Consideration of that chapter i s necessary before a f i n a l judge-ment can be made of the u t i l i t y of the five-stage procedures. 63 Chapter III FOOTNOTES James Bj e r r i n g and Paul Seagraves, U.B.C. TRIP: Triangular Regression Package. (Vancouver, 1974). Everett Rogers and F. Floyd Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations. (New York, 1971), p. 15. Jason Halm, U.B.C. BMD07M: Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. (Vancouver, 1975. Jum C. Nunnally, Psychometric Theory. (New York, 1967), pp. 82-87. CHAPTER IV COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: THE FOUR-STAGE MODEL Community involvement i n adult education i s again reported i n t h i s chapter but t h i s time by using the four-stage adoption model. Once i t became evident that the problems with the t r i a l stage impaired the five-stage model the four-stage model was studied more i n t e n s i v e l y . This model f a c i l i t a t e d conclusions which approached theory i n the middle range.\"'\" ADOPTION BY STAGE SCORES Four basic categories of questions were used to assess the stages: (1) Knowledge of a c t i v i t i e s , (2) a t t i t u d e toward the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education, (3) decisions made and (4) reactions to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Each category consisted of f i v e items to assess a stage. When the scores for the twenty items were summed t h i s formed the adoption score. Knowledge Stage The knowledge stage was assessed by f i v e questions that indicated a s p e c i f i c awareness about adult education (Figure 7). The mean knowledge score was 4.40 with a standard deviation of 1.06. This score indicates that on the average, the knowledge questions were answered c o r r e c t l y 88 per cent of the time. In f a c t , 67 per cent of the respondents were able to answer a l l f i v e knowledge questions c o r r e c t l y . Obviously, knowledge of adult education was widespread i n the sample area. Since the knowledge stage score correlated s i g n i f i c a n t l y with both educational l e v e l (r = .22*) and the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .36**), those who know most about adult education tended to have 64 Interview Questions Responses Do you know what adult education is? Yes = 99 No = 1 Do you know where classes are held? Yes = 79 No = 21 Do you know what kinds of things are taught? Yes No 91 9 Do you know how Yes = 91 adult education No = i s advertised? 9 Do you know how to enrol? Yes = 81 No = 19 FIGURE 7 THE KNOWLEDGE SCORE VARIABLES Knowledge Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n Score Subjects 0 1 1 2 Four-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score =11.29 Standard Deviation = -2't70 2 5 3 7 4 18 5 67 Total 100 Mean Score = 4.40 Standard Deviation = 1.06 ON 66 more formal education and to have taken part i n more a c t i v i t i e s (Table VIII). Only one respondent was unable to supply a \"satisfactory d e f i n i t i o n of adult education, although most tended to equate adult education with night school. Seventy-nine per cent of the sample knew where adult education programs were conducted, but only s i x per cent of those who had never p a r t i c i p a t e d knew where a c t i v i t i e s were held. The higher the l e v e l of formal education the more l i k e l y the subjects were to know where a c t i v i t i e s were held (r = .27*). Eighty-six per cent of those with a high school education or better knew the lo c a t i o n of a c t i v i t i e s compared to only 35 per cent of those with grade nine or l e s s . Although age did not corr e l a t e s i g n i f i c a n t l y with knowledge of where a c t i v i t i e s were held, of those under 24 years of age, only 69 per cent knew the l o c a t i o n of a c t i v i t i e s . No other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were s i g n i f i c a n t . Only nine per cent were unable to give the t i t l e of at le a s t one adult education course. Knowledge of what kinds of a c t i v i t i e s were offered was re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .21*) but to none of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . More than nine out of ten (91%) knew how adult education had been advertised i n Surrey. Most knew the brochure published j o i n t l y by the School D i s t r i c t , Douglas College and the Surrey Recreation Department which i s mailed to every household i n the census t r a c t three times each year. Adver-t i s i n g from other programs i n the lower mainland area seem to be less w ell known. Knowledge of advertising was not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , but those who knew about the advertising had a higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .21*). 67 TABLE VIII Correlations Between Variables Assessing The Four-Stage Adoption Model and Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Respondents Pa r t i p a -Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s t i o n Score Voca- (Number of M a r i t a l Education t i o n a l :• Holds courses Status Age Level Training Job attended) Knowledge Stage of d e f i n i t i o n - - - - - .07 of l o c a t i o n - .06 .27* .00 - . 32** of v a r i e t y .00 .09 .10 - - .21* of a d v e r t i s i n g .00 .08 .27* - - .21* of how to enrol .00 .12 .37** .00 - .31** stage score .14 -.09 .21* .19 .10 .36** Persuasion Stage r e l a t i v e advantage - -.04 .12 .17 - . 32** complexity - -.13 .46** .07 .20 . 30** convenience - -.35** .21 .07 - .56** o b s e r v a b i l i t y - .26* .09 .07 - .14 drop-out reaction - .06 -.19 .14 - .04 stage score .20 .12 .26* .11 .04 .23* Decision Stage p o s i t i v e .00 .20* .27* , .00 — .67 negative - • .02 .04 .00 - .20* stage score .17 -.16 .23* .05 .10 .46** Confirmation Stage behavioral i n t e n t i o n - . 45** .49** - - .53** d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n - .23 - - - .50 replacement - .34 - - - .49 unpleasant experiences - .04 .21 .00 - .49** unanticipated Consequences - .10 .07 .00 - .14 stage score .16 .00 . 2 9 * * ..00 .11 .52** * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at .01 l e v e l of confidence. - Indicates too few subjects i n one or more c e l l s to calculate c o r r e l a t i o n . 68 Although 81 per cent of those interviewed said they knew how to enrol, only 40 per cent of those who had never p a r t i c i p a t e d did know. The p a r t i c i p a t i o n score i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to knowledge of how to enrol (r = .31**). Educational l e v e l i s also re l a t e d to enrolment knowledge (r = .37**) and of the 26 per cent with grade 9 or l e s s , only two-thirds knew how to enrol. Thus knowledge of enrolment procedures i s lower among those with le s s education and among those who have never p a r t i c i p a t e d . Persuasion Stage At t h i s stage attitudes about adult education were measured by using a f i v e item L i k e r t type scale. The mean persuasion stage score was 4.26 with a standard deviation of .93 (Figure 8). Since one point on the score i s given for each item on which the subject has an opinion, the score indicates that the median respondent had opinions on four items. Having opinions was rela t e d to both educational l e v e l (r = .26*) and to p a r t i c i p a -t i o n scores (r = .23)*thus having a t t i t u d e s about adult education i s rela t e d to both previous p a r t i c i p a t i o n and to a higher l e v e l of formal education. None of the other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s are re l a t e d to having such a t t i t u d e s . Although i n d i c a t i n g e i t h e r a p o s i t i v e or negative a t t i t u d e on a L i k e r t item i s enough to rate one point on the persuasion stage score and consequently on the adoption score, the d i r e c t i o n of the attitudes reported were also recorded. In the following paragraphs, each of the f i v e L i k e r t items i s discussed i n d e t a i l . In each instance the response favorable to adult education i s rated f i v e , the unfavorable response rated one with the other three scores spread between. Three, of course, i s the neutral point i n d i c a t i n g no opinion. FIGURE 8 THE PERSUASION STAGE VARIABLES Questions and Responses Adult education i s better than trying to \" l ea rn on your own.\" SD = 1, 0 = 4, U = 4, A = 62, SA = 29 Taking part in adult education i s convenient. SD = 1, D = 30, U = 5, A = 58, SA = 6 Very l i t t l e \"red tape\" i s involved in enro l l ing in adult education a c t i v i t i e s . D-3, U=>19, A=62 , S A - 1 6 Nothing much i s lost i f you drop out from an adult education c lass. SD = 3, D = 28, U = 22, A = 45, SA = 2 Most people seem to know something about adult education in Surrey. SD = 0, D = 12, U = 24, A = 55, SA = 9 Persuasion Stage Score (The number other than of responses 'undecided') D is tr ibut ion Score Subjects 0 0 1 1 2 7 3 6 4 37 5 49 Total = = 100 Mean Score = 4.26 Standard Deviation = .93 Four-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 11.29 Standard Deviation = 2.70 70 Relative advantage i s the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of adult education indicated by b e l i e f that adult education i s better than t r y i n g to learn on your own. Ninety-one per cent either strongly agreed (29%) or agreed (62%) that adult education had such an advantage. None of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s was related to b e l i e f i n r e l a t i v e advantage, but those who rated r e l a t i v e advantage high tended to have a higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .32**). Thus experience i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s tends to increase the b e l i e f that adult education i s better than t r y i n g to learn on your own. Complexity i s the degree to which an innovation i s perceived as r e l a t i v e l y d i f f i c u l t to use and understand. To assess complexity, respond-ents were asked i f they thought \"a l o t of red tape i s involved i n e n r o l l i n g i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s . \" Strong agreement was taken to ind i c a t e an unfavorable a t t i t u d e . Three per cent agreed that there was red tape, nine-teen per cent had no opinion, sixty-two per cent disagreed and sixteen per cent strongly disagreed with the statement.. Thus a t o t a l of seventy-eight per cent thought .enrolling i n adult education, did. not involve red.tape. ';Those who thought adult education was free of \"red tape\" tend to have a higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .29**) and to have a higher education l e v e l (r = .46**). 2 Convenience i s not one of the. standard c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of innovations. The data were c o l l e c t e d by the item \"Taking part i n adult education i s convenient.\" Most (58%) agreed and an a d d i t i o n a l s i x per cent strongly agreed. Five per cent were undecided, t h i r t y per cent thought i t inconvenient and an a d d i t i o n a l one per cent f e l t strongly that i t i s incon-venient. People who think adult education i s convenient tend to have a 7 1 higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .56**). As age advances, there i s a tendency to view adult education as less convenient (r = -.35**). Observability i s the degree to which the r e s u l t s of an innovation 3 are v i s i b l e to others. To investigate t h i s characteristic, subjects were read the proposition \"Most people I ta l k to seem to know something about adult education i n Surrey.\" Nine per cent strongly agreed, f i f t y - f i v e per cent agreed, twenty-four per cent did not know, twelve per cent disagreed and none disagreed strongly. Agreement was s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated with age (r = .26*) i n d i c a t i n g that older people believe adult education i s known to others, but agreement did not corr e l a t e s i g n i f i c a n t l y to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s nor to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. Since learning i s not d i r e c t l y observable, i t should not be su r p r i s i n g that o b s e r v a b i l i t y i s not strongly related to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Drop-out reaction i s the term used to designate the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c i n i t i a l l y developed to measure \" t r i a l a b i l i t y . \" The statement used, \" I f you s t a r t an adult education a c t i v i t y and don't l i k e i t , nothing much i s l o s t 4 i f you q u i t \" did not seem to measure t r i a l a b i l i t y and was consequently re-named. Most repondents found the statement confusing and perhaps that confusion accounts i n part for the lack of c o r r e l a t i o n between the item and either the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the subjects or t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. Two per cent strongly agreed with the statement, f o r t y - f i v e per cent agreed, twenty-eight per cent disagreed, three per cent disagreed strongly and twenty-two per cent had no opinion. Many of those who disagreed expressed the b e l i e f that one should complete anything that one s t a r t s , thus at t i t u d e s not d i r e c t l y r e l a t e d to adult education influenced the responses. The item seems to be unrelated to adoption. It i s not s i g n i f i c a n t l y 72 correlated to eit h e r the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score or to the personal character-i s t i c s of the respondents. Decision Stage The decision stage was scaled on the basis of both p o s i t i v e decisions which led to p a r t i c i p a t i o n and negative decisions which did not. P o s i t i v e decisions were indicated by any involvement with adult education within f i v e years p r i o r to the interview. Some 51 per cent reported attending and completing one or more courses, 18 per cent reported dropping out, 1 per cent reported e n r o l l i n g i n a class which was cancelled, while none reported e n r o l l i n g but not attending (Figure 9). In a l l , 57 per cent reported a p o s i t i v e decision and such decisions are related to age (r = .20*) and to educational l e v e l (r = .27*). Respondents were asked i f they had considered s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t i e s and then not enrolled. I f they responded p o s i t i v e l y they were asked t h e i r reason f o r not e n r o l l i n g . Up to two such negative decisions were recorded for each respondent. Seventy-five per cent reported considering a t o t a l of 113 a c t i v i t i e s and subsequently deciding not to enrol. Those with a higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n score were more l i k e l y to make negative decisions but the c o r r e l a t i o n was not high (r = .20*). Since 57 per cent made p o s i t i v e decisions i n that they attended at le a s t one a c t i v i t y and since 75 per cent reported negative decisions i t i s cl e a r that some have made both p o s i t i v e and negative decisions. Since the reasons for negative decisions were e l i c i t e d before the subjects were asked to rate the b a r r i e r s , they provide an i n t e r e s t i n g comparison with the b a r r i e r s (Table IX). Although the subjective methods used preclude s t a t i s t i c a l a n a l y s i s , the following b a r r i e r s seem to gain Questions and Responses I Thought about some s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y Yes = ,75 and then decided No = .25 > not to attend. Enrolled but not Yes = .0 attended. No = 100 Enrolled but the Yes = a c t i v i t y was 1 cancelled. No = 99 Attended but did Yes = .18 not complete (drop out) one or. more No = 82 a c t i v i t i e s . Attended and completed one or more a c t i v i t i e s . Yes = 51 No = 49 FIGURE 9 THE DECISION STAGE VARIABLES Decision Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n Score Subjects 0 13 1 40 2 36 3 11 4 0 5 0 Total = 100 Mean Score = 1.45 Standard Deviation = .86 Four-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 11.29 Standard Deviation = 2.70 Co 74 c r e d i b i l i t y : \"too busy\", \" a c t i v i t i e s are at the wrong time\", \" c h i l d and family take p r i o r i t y \" , \"lack of motivation\", \"work related problems\" and \"transportation.\" TABLE IX The Number of Subjects Stating B a r r i e r s as Reasons For Negative Decisions Number of Subjects Giving Reasons for Negative Decision Card B a r r i e r s Don!:t want to go alone 0 No babysitter 0 Too busy 15 Too f ar to go 2 No energy 7 My family would object 1 Fees too high 5 Lack of knowledge re a c t i v i t i e s 3 None of the a c t i v i t i e s i n t e r e s t me 1 I'm too old 1 Other things I'd rather do 1 Too many problems 1 A c t i v i t i e s at wrong time 16 Don't want to be a student 0 Transportation 10 Write-in B a r r i e r s C h i l d and family r e l a t e d 10 Lack of motivation 8 Work rela t e d problems 6 Other a c t i v i t i e s have p r i o r i t y 0 Health 2 Inadequate a c t i v i t i e s 4 Lack of money 0 Weather 0 Miscellaneous None of b a r r i e r s 2 W i l l take i n future 18 75 Not a l l of the reasons for not e n r o l l i n g , however, were rel a t e d to b a r r i e r s . Eighteen subjects had considered a c t i v i t i e s which they planned to take i n the future. The frequency with which the \"plan to t a k e - i t i n „ the future\" response occurs i n an open question i s a further i n d i c a t i o n that the adoption of adult education i s a process which occurs over time. The mean decision score for the decision stage was 1.45 with a standard deviation of .86. This score i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y r e l a t e d to the educational l e v e l (r = .24*) but not to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Confirmation Stage The confirmation stage i s assessed by e l i c i t i n g the reaction of pa r t i c i p a n t s to t h e i r experiences i n attending adult education a c t i v i t i e s . The confirmation stage score records one point for having a behavioral inte n t i o n on future p a r t i c i p a t i o n , one point for replacing adult education with another a c t i v i t y , one for reporting an unpleasant experience and one for expressing an unanticipated consequence. Thus the confirmation score gives either a favorable or an unfavorable reaction equal r a t i n g ; that i s one point. The mean confirmation stage score was 1.78 with a standard deviation of .90 (Figure TO). The confirmation score i s related to educational l e v e l (r = .29**) but not to other personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Behavioral intentions were assessed by asking \"might you be interested i n taking part i n adult education i n the future.\" F i f t y - n i n e per cent said yes, 27 per cent were unsure and 14 per cent said no. The in t e n t i o n to p a r t i c i p a t e i s strongly re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .53**) which indicates that those who p a r t i c i p a t e most are most l i k e l y to express an i n t e n t i o n to take part i n the future. Those who have never p a r t i c i p a t e d FIGURE 10 THE CONFIRMATION STAGE VARIABLES Questions and Responses Are you interested Yes = 59 i n taking part i n DK = 27 adult education i n the future? No = 14 Were you dis-.'. • • Yes = 1 s a t i s f i e d with courses you took? No = 13 NA = 86 Instead of adult Yes = 6 education are you using the time for No = 8 something else? NA = 86 Have you had Yes = 18 unpleasant experi-ences with adult No = 49 education? NA = 33 Have there been unanticipated Yes = 25 consequences to No = 42 taking part i n adult education? NA = 33 Confirmation Stage Score (The number of yes responses) D i s t r i b u t i o n Score 0 1 2 3 4 5 Total = Mean Score Subj ects 22 48 21 8 1 0 100 = 1.7< Standard Deviation = .90 Four-Stage Adoption Score (The sum of the stage scores) Mean Score = 11.29 Standard Deviation = 2.70 ON 77 are equally divided among the three 'possible responses, while 80 per cent of those who have p a r t i c i p a t e d intend to enrol again. That the i n t e n t i o n to enrol increases with age (r = .45**) i s s u r p r i s i n g as i t appears to contradict e a r l i e r data on the r e l a t i o n s h i p of age to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . That 13 of the 14 respondents who do not plan to enrol have a grade nine or le s s education i s further evidence of the strong r e l a t i o n s h i p between formal educational l e v e l and involvement with adult education (r = .49**). D i s s a t i s f a c t i o n and Replacement were two reactions gathered from the 14 p a r t i c i p a n t s who did not intend to enrol i n the future. Only one of the 14 reported d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n with a c t i v i t i e s but s i x reported replacing adult education with other a c t i v i t i e s such as: sewing, two; employment rela t e d a c t i v i t i e s , three; and helping her soccer-playing son, one. Although replacement and d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n are outcomes of confirmation suggested by Rogers,~* the data i n t h i s study are too few to warrant s t a t i s t i c a l analysis and thus l i t t l e can be said of t h e o r e t i c a l relevance. Unpleasant experiences were reported by 18 respondents i n the sample. Poor i n s t r u c t o r s were mentioned by 12 but, s u r p r i s i n g l y , 11 of those 12 said they planned to enrol i n the future. Instructors were reported as i n s e n s i t i v e to i n d i v i d u a l needs and to pace i n s t r u c t i o n to s u i t only the most able students. Seven per cent of the sample complained about sloppy enrolment procedures, misrepresentation i n course advertising, course c a n c e l l a t i o n s , or general disorganization. Since administrators both employ teachers and organize a c t i v i t i e s , these complaints seem to be administratively c o n t r o l l a b l e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that can be altered. Unanticipated consequences a r i s i n g from p a r t i c i p a t i o n were reported by 25 per cent of the sample. Twenty-two per cent reported consequences that 78 generally indicated pleasure whereas three per cent reported unpleasant consequences. Since unpleasant experiences were also recorded i n the previous item the t o t a l number of complaints recorded i s 21 whereas 22 responses were complimentary. The unanticipated consequences were diverse. Four were pleased that they could learn more e a s i l y than they expected, two reported pleasure at meeting new f r i e n d s , three had compliments for i n s t r u c t o r s (as opposed to twelve who complained on an e a r l i e r item) and three l i k e d the way a c t i v i t i e s were organized. The remaining consequences were not e a s i l y categorized: one f e l t taking yoga helped her recover from a nervous breakdown, another f e l t a discussion group got her into a better \"head space\", one got a job for a f r i e n d , one now does a l l the sewing for her chi l d r e n , one saves money, and one woman met a doctor at a Spanish cl a s s and the doctor fixed her husband's elbow. One subject reported using the f i r s t a i d she learned i n an emergency, and one f e l t dejected a f t e r her pottery c l a s s was over because she no longer f e l t creative. Three u n a n t i c i -pated consequences were problems: one respondent found the pace of i n s t r u c t i o n too f a s t , one said her occupation i n t e r f e r e d and one disappointed wife had a husband who could not learn to dance. V a l i d i t y of Variables U t i l i z i n g c o r r e l a t i o n s i t i s possible to estimate whether the variables used i n the four-stage model are related to adoption. As was the case for a s i m i l a r discussion i n the previous chapter, the arguments used here are i n d i r e c t and circumstantial. Nonetheless, such an analysis e a s i l y i s o l a t e s those v a r i a bles which are grossly unrelated to adoption. In the following chapter, the two models are compared and a d d i t i o n a l arguments are 79 presented concerning the v a l i d i t y of various components of both models. Knowledge Stage. Most of the c o r r e l a t i o n s between the knowledge questions and the other three stage scores are s i g n i f i c a n t (Table X). Unfortunately, responses to the d e f i n i t i o n question were too badly skewed to give useful c o r r e l a t i o n s . Nonetheless, the other four items seem to be part of a consistent pattern of c o r r e l a t i o n s and none seem to be grossly or obviously unrelated to adoption. Persuasion Stage. Of the f i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which were used to scale the persuasion stage score, three seem v a l i d and two seem inappropriate. Relative advantage, complexity, and convenience are almost a l l s i g n i f i c a n t l y related to each other and to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (Table XI and XII). Their r e l a t i o n s h i p s to the other stage scores and the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score are mostly s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 l e v e l or very nearly so. Thus these three c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s seem to be re l a t e d to each other and to adoption. They seem to be very s a t i s f a c t o r y items except that convenience i s not one of the standard c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Relative advantage and complexity are thus the only two standard c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which seem to be v a l i d l y measured. Observability and drop-out reaction seem to be c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s unrelated to adoption. Observability i s not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to any of the other c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s nor to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score, but since i t i s r e l a t e d to the knowledge and confirmation stages i t may have minimal v a l i d i t y . In contrast to the other c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s drop-out reaction i s completely,unrelated to either the other four c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education or to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and thus seems to have no claim to v a l i d i t y . 80 TABLE X Correlations Between Knowledge Stage Variables And the Stage Scores Persuasion Decision Confirmation Knowledge Items Stage Score Stage Score Stage Score What i s adult education .14 .17 .02 Where are a c t i v i t i e s . 51** .39** .27** What i s taught . 24** .37** .18 How advertised .35** .21* .10 How to enrol . 41** .35** .30** Note - .That. \"What i s adult education?\" question was answered p o s i t i v e l y by 99 per cent of the respondents. - Exact wording of the variables i s i n the interview schedule i n the Appendix. * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. TABLE XI Corr e l a t i o n Patterns Between the Persuasion Stage Variables Relative Drop-out Advantage Convenience Complexity Observability Reaction Relative Advantage 1.00 Convenience .47** 1.00 Complexity .31 .63** 1.00 Observability ' -.05 -.01 .17 1.00 Drop-out Reaction -.17 -.06 .12 -.03 1.00 * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. 81 TABLE XII C o r r e l a t i o n Between the Persuasion Stage Variables And the Other Stage Scores Knowledge Confirmation P a r t i c i p a t i o n Persuasion Items Stage Score Stage Score Score Relative Advantage .21 .21 . 32** Convenience .40** .40** .56** Complexity .50** .20 .30** Observability .28* . 29** .14 Drop-out Reaction .00 -.12 .04 Note - The decision stage score co r r e l a t i o n s are not shown because of skewed d i s t r i b u t i o n s . * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. Decision Stage. Since four of the f i v e behaviors used to scale decisions involve p a r t i c i p a t i o n and since p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption are scaled by using many of the same va r i a b l e s , the v a l i d i t y of those four items are d i f f i c u l t to evaluate. An a d d i t i o n a l s t a t i s t i c a l problem i s that three of the four have very skewed d i s t r i b u t i o n s . Items with better d i s t r i b u t i o n would have been more useful. The f i f t h item i n the decision score rates negative decisions. Such decisions are re l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n (r = .20*), to the knowledge stage (r = .26**), to the: persuasion stage (r = .21*), but not to the confirm-ation stage (r = .04). Thus negative decision making seems to be re l a t e d to both p a r t i c i p a t i o n and,to adoption. In general three of the f i v e items i n the decision stage are s a t i s f a c t o r y , but those assessing e n r o l l i n g but not attending and e n r o l l i n g 82 i n a cancelled class are such infrequent behaviors as to be i r r e l e v a n t . Thus both the persuasion and decision stages are assessed with only three adequately v a l i d items. Although the goals and b a r r i e r s are used as independent variables i n t h i s study, they are l o g i c a l l y r e l a t e d to the decision stage. In developing better items to scale t h i s stage i t might be possible to incorporate the concept of goals and b a r r i e r s . The Confirmation Stage presents speeial_problems in: s c a l i n g , since, from a l o g i c a l point of view, only those who are adopters can have a confirmation stage score. To resolve t h i s problem four of the f i v e items were coded \"yes\" or \"no\" or \"not app l i c a b l e . \" This procedure e f f e c t i v e l y reduced the number of subjects from 100 to 67 for the two items on unanti-cipated consequences and unpleasant experiences and to 14 for the replacement and d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n items. As a r e s u l t the c o r r e l a t i o n s are d i f f i c u l t to i n t e r p r e t . The f i f t h item, behavioral i n t e n t i o n , was responded to by a l l subjects. I t now appears that t h i s l a s t item more l o g i c a l l y belongs i n the decision stage. Nonetheless, i t i s a good item since i t i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y c orrelated to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .53**) to the knowledge score (r = .27*) and to the decision score (r = .45**). Thus the behavioral in t e n t i o n item seems v a l i d . A l l i n a l l , the f i v e items used to scale the confirmation score do not give encouraging signs of construct v a l i d i t y . Perhaps t h i s i s because they do not d i r e c t l y measure reinforcement but they undoubtedly form a rough measure of involvement at the post enrolment period. C l e a r l y better items are needed i f a more v a l i d measure of the confirmation stage i s to be obtained. 83 Stage Scores. If stage scores are v a l i d i n the sense that they a l l measure adoption, involvement i n each stage should be related to involvement i n every other stage. The confirmation stage score seems to show the le a s t r e l a t i o n s h i p to the other stage scores but i n sp i t e of t h i s , a l l the c o r r e l a t i o n s ^ a r e ^ s i g h i f icanti'.at. the 005. level:and a l l , the co r r e l a t i o n s between the f i r s t three stages are s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l (Table XIII). The optimum t h e o r e t i c a l l e v e l of c o r r e l a t i o n between stage scores i s d i f f i c u l t to estimate but i n spite of the weakness of many of the i n d i v i d u a l v a r i a b l e s which make up the stage scores, there seems to be a consistent r e l a t i o n s h i p between the stages. This consistency gives c r e d i b i l i t y to the proposition that each of the stages i s v a l i d l y measuring the construct c a l l e d adoption. TABLE XIII Correlations Between Stage Scores Knowledge Persuasion Decision Confirmation Score Score Score Score Knowledge Score 1.00 Persuasion Score .50** 1.00 Decision Score .44** .31** 1.00 Confirmation Score .27** .21* .40** 1.00 * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. ADOPTION SCORE The mean adoption score for the model was 11.29 with a standard deviation of 2.70. Eighty-six per cent of the scores f e l l between 7 and 14, 84 while 6 per cent were 6 or le s s and 8 scored 15 or higher. The only personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c which correlated s i g n i f i c a n t l y with the adoption score was educational l e v e l (r = .35**) thus those with, more formal education tend to have more involvement i n adult education. In a regression analysis (UBC TRIP) the adoption score was defined as the dependent va r i a b l e and the independent variables were the goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Of those 37 independent v a r i a b l e s , three v a r i a b les explained 21.5 per cent of the variance i n the adoption score. Those variables were age, educational l e v e l and the desire to learn something new. This r e s u l t would seem to support two hypotheses: that the best educated are the most involved i n adult education and that adult education p a r t i c i p a t i o n tends to be r e i n f o r c i n g . Although the amount of variance explained by these two factors i s small, the r e s u l t s are consistent with those elsewhere i n the study. ADOPTER CATEGORIES , The sample was divided into four adopter categories using the same procedures applied to the five-stage model (Table XIV). >The adopter categories indicate the innovativeness of groups of i n d i v i d u a l s with the early adopters being the most innovative and laggards the l e a s t . As was the case with the five-stage model, innovativeness i n t h i s study i s measured by involvement i n the stages, not by the time of adoption. The only personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c on which the means for the adopter categories d i f f e r s i g n i f i c a n t l y was educational l e v e l (Table XV). Laggards averaged s l i g h t l y better than a grade ten education whereas Early Adopters averaged grade 11.8. Although the d i f f e r e n c e i s s i g n i f i c a n t only 85 at the .02 l e v e l the trend i s consistent: the more formal education the more innovative the adult. TABLE XIV Comparision of Actual and Theoretical D i s t r i b u t i o n s By Adopter Categories for the Four-Stage Model Adopter Score Actual D i s t r i b u t i o n Normal Curve D i s t r i b u t i o n Early Adopters (including Innovators) Early Majority Late Majority Laggards 14-20 12-13 9-11 0-8 22 34 25 19 16 34 34 16 = 5.19 df = 3 N.S. TABLE XV A Comparison of Adopter Categories by Those Variables With S i g n i f i c a n t l y D i f f e r e n t Means Late Early Early Grand Sig n i f i c a n c e Laggard Majority Majority Adopters Mean Level Education 10.2 10. 6 11.1 11.8 10.9 .02 To Escape 27.4 28. 3 134.7 62.6 56.9 .01 Learn Something New 96.9 167. 9 260.5 374.3 210.2 .01 Learn a Hobby 70.9 213. 3 289.6 243.8 198.6 .02 Have a Night Out 32.6 50. 3 113.6 152.2 77.9 .04 Other Things I'd Rather Do 70.8 33. 4 90.4 282.6 86.6 .00 86 The mean ratings of the goals given by those i n the various adopter categories d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y on four goals. Those whose adoption score placed them i n the early majority category showed the greatest i n t e r e s t i n \"escaping from housework and c h i l d r e n \" (gm = 135) whereas both the l a t e majority (gm = 28) and the laggards (gm = 27) show almost no i n t e r e s t i n getting away from the household chores. In the case of the other three goals, the r a t i n g i s roughly proportional to involvement i n that early adopters give high r a t i n g to \"learning something new\", to \"learning about a hobby\" and to \"having a night out.\" These goals are rated progressively lower by the early majority, l a t e majority and lowest for the laggards. The highest single r a t i n g (gm =274) i s given by the early adopters to the desire to \"learn something new.\" The lowest r a t i n g (gm = 27) i s given by laggards to the desire to \"escape from c h i l d r e n and housework.\" The b a r r i e r \"too many other things I'd rather do\" showed s i g n i f i -cantly d i f f e r e n t means for the groups. It seems to be the greatest problem to early adopters (gm = 282) but an average problem to the early majority (gm = 90) and laggards (gm = 71) while i t i s almost no problem at a l l to the l a t e majority (gm = 33). This suggests that the early adotpers are busy people who are attracted to adult education i n s p i t e of t h e i r other commitments. REJECTION ANALYSIS A multiple group discriminant analysis (BMD07M)^ was performed i n order to determine differences between three groups of subjects: those continuing i n the adoption process, those who have rejected and those i n the confirmation stage (Figure 11). None were c l a s s i f i e d as unaware of adult 87 FIGURE 11 The Rejection Model Subjects who have rejected N = 29 Unaware Subjects continuing i n Subjects i n the N = 0 the adoption ( i . e . i n Confirmation Stage knowledge, persuasion (adopters) or decision stages.) N = 56 N = 15 TABLE XVI A Comparison of Rejection Model Categories by Variables With S i g n i f i c a n t l y D i f f e r e n t Means Continuing Confirmation Grand Significance i n Stages Reject Stage Mean Level Per cent Married ^ 80% 90% 90% 88% .02 Education (Grade) 11.2 10.1 11.3 10.9 .00 To Escape (G) c 27.2 30.6 95.9 56.9 .01 To Learn (G) 141.8 123.8 305.4 210.2 .01 Night Out (G) 27.4 44.0 138.8 77.9 .00 To Be With People (G) 73.3 140.6 275.0 185.9 .04 Going Alone (B) 23.5 114.5 127.0 95.8 .01 Distance (B) 15.8 100.0 65.3 59.5 .01 Lack Energy (B) 24.3 123.2 82.8 77.4 .04 Too Old (B) 12.9 76.4 45.8 44.0 .02 Schedule (B) 28.1 99.9 131.5 96.2 .02 Transportation (B) 27.2 134.3 56.3 65.0 .05 Number of subjects 15 29 56 100 Approximate figures calculated from o r d i n a l c l a s s i f i c a t i o n s . S t a t i s t i c s used coded data. Approximate grade l e v e l s . S t a t i s t i c a l analysis used coded data. Approximate geometric means with grand mean of 100. S t a t i s t i c a l analysis used natural logs to better approximate a normal d i s t r i b u t i o n . ^ 88 education. Rejectors were those who had not reached the confirmation stage and did not express an i n t e r e s t i n p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n the future. The r e s u l t s of t h i s analysis of variance indicate s i g n i f i c a n t difference between the three groups of subjects on twelve variables (Table XVI). Subjects Continuing i n the Process The group continuing i n the process of adoption consistently have the lowest geometric means for both goals and b a r r i e r s i n those which have s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t means for the three groups. In other words, those progressing through the f i r s t three stages of the four-stage model tend to express le s s i n t e r e s t i n the goals and le s s concern for the b a r r i e r . They express l i t t l e i n t e r e s t i n escaping from ch i l d r e n and housework (gm = 27.2), i n having a night out (gm = 27.4), or i n being with other people (gm = 73.3). Although t h e i r i n t e r e s t i n learning seems s l i g h t l y higher than that of re j e c t o r s (141.8 to 123.8), i t i s less than ha l f that expressed by subjects i n the confirmation stage. Bar r i e r s which have s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t means for the three groups are also given a low r a t i n g by subjects continuing i n the process, of>:adoption. The geometric means are less than 30 for the following b a r r i e r s : \"Don't want to go alone\", \"Too f a r \" , \"I haven't enough energy\", I'm too old to le a r n \" and for \" A c t i v i t i e s seem to be scheduled at the wrong time.\" Subjects continuing i n the process have the same educational l e v e l as subjects i n the confirmation stage (11 years) which i s about one year more than the r e j e c t o r s . In general, subjects continuing i n the stages rate both goals and b a r r i e r s at low and often very low l e v e l s . Perhaps to those i n the f i r s t three stages of adopting adult education, the innovation does not seem important enough to either r e j e c t or adopt. 89 'Subjects Rejecting Rejectors share the low i n t e r e s t i n goals expressed by those continuing i n the process but rate the b a r r i e r s as highly as do the adopters. This seems to ind i c a t e that r e j e c t o r s have l i t t l e i n t e r e s t i n the benefits of adoption but a high estimate of the costs. That rejec t o r s have the lowest educational l e v e l i s consistent with other r e s u l t s . Subjects i n the Confirmation Stage That subjects i n the confirmation stage should rate the goals of adult education highly i s not s u r p r i s i n g , but that they should also rate the b a r r i e r s high i s puzzling. For example, scheduling i s rated as a problem by adopters (gm = 132) but not by subjects continuing i n the process (gm = 28). Even the r e j e c t o r s rate scheduling as only an average problem (gm = 100). In the main adopters rate both the benefits and the costs of adult education s l i g h t l y higher than do rejec t o r s or subjects continuing i n the stages. Since subjects i n the confirmation stage have p a r t i c i p a t e d i n adult education and since they tend to give b a r r i e r s a high r a t i n g , i t would seem that the b a r r i e r s are s u b s t a n t i a l but the goals are even more so, hence they decide i n favor of p a r t i c i p a t i n g . UTILITY OF THE FOUR-STAGE MODEL As modified to s u i t adult education, the four-stage adoption model was generally acceptable i n that the r e s u l t s were f a i r l y consistent. Neverther..:. -l e s s , i t was apparent that at l e a s t seven of the twenty items used to assess an adoption score were unrelated to adoption thus lacking construct v a l i d i t y and the remaining were not beyond c r i t i c i s m . In spite of t h i s problem, the model seems to provide an opportunity to look at p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult 9 0 education i n more d e t a i l than has been possible heretofore. > 91 Chapter IV FOOTNOTES 1. Robert Merton, S o c i a l Theory and S o c i a l Structure. (New York, 1968), pp. 50-51. 2. Everett Rogers and F. Floyd Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations. (New York, 1971), pp. 137-157. 3. Ibid. , p. 155. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. , p. 116. 6. James Bj e r r i n g and Paul Seagraves, U.B.C. TRIP: Triangular Regression Package. (Vancouver, 1974). 7. Jason Halm, U.B.C. BMD07M: Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. (Vancouver, 1975). 8. V i r g i n i a L. Saunders, Measurement and S t a t i s i t c s . (New York, 1958). CHAPTER V CROSS-MODEL COMPARISONS Since two adoption models are used to assess community involvement i n adult education, i t i s possible to examine the v a l i d i t y of the variables used to measure the stage achieved i n the adoption process, the stage scores and f i n a l l y the adoption scores by making s t a t i s t i c a l comparisions between a v a r i a b l e from one model and the adoption score from the other model. For example, the v a r i a b l e used to assess knowledge of how to enrol i n the four-stage model correlates s i g n i f i c a n t l y with the five-stage adoption score. Thus i t i s l o g i c a l to assume that knowledge of how to enrol i s a v a l i d measure of adoption. Such a l o g i c a l assumption i s based on the proposition that the adoption scores are reasonable and that both models accurately measure the same thing. Such evidence of v a l i d i t y i s c l e a r l y s e l f - c o r r o b o r a t i v e and can be aggregated with s i m i l a r evidence. Thus variables and scores which cons i s t e n t l y show s i g n i f i c a n t cross-model r e l a t i o n s h i p s are more l i k e l y to be v a l i d , whereas measures which do not show such r e l a t i o n s h i p s consistently are probably le s s v a l i d and therefore do not accurately measure that conceptuali-zation of the adoption process intended i n the research design. Although such s t a t i s t i c a l comparisons provide more evidence of construct v a l i d i t y than p r e d i c t i v e or convergent i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s , they do help c l a r i f y the e s s e n t i a l components of adoption. Although c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f f i c i e n t s have examined the cross-model question, a d d i t i o n a l analyzing with both factor and regression strategies has considered many variables simultaneously. These tests examine the variables used i n both models i n order to determine whether the adoption of adult 93 education occurs as a one-step or as a multi-stage decision process. A COMPARISON OF THE ADOPTION VARIABLES In comparing the variables used to assess each stage i n the f i v e -stage model with the four-stage adoption score not a l l of the 20 variables can be tested. Seven of these are common to both models at some stage while four v a r i a b l e s measure p a r t i c i p a t i o n d i r e c t l y and are thus an i n t e g r a l part of both adoption scores. This leaves nine variables which can be tested for s i g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n s h i p s with the adoption score from the other model. A s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f f i c i e n t between a va r i a b l e assessing the five-stage model and the four-stage adoption score indicates the b e l i e v a -b i l i t y of the former. 0n: that assumption t h e l f o l l o w i n g i v a r i a b l e s . seem to... ../ v a l i d l y measure adoption: making a phone enquiry, t a l k i n g to friends about adult education, browsing through adult education l i t e r a t u r e , thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of adult education, having been encouraged to p a r t i c i p a t e , and having given advice about adult education (Table XVII). Since three of these v a l i d v a r i a b l e s assess i n t e r e s t and another three assess evaluation, ;those two stages gain b e l i e v a b i l i t y from t h i s cross-model analysis. Although only one va r i a b l e from the t r i a l stage was analysed, i t was not s i g n i f i c a n t l y c o r r e l a t e d to the four-stage adoption score thus casting further doubt on the t r i a l stage. Since none of the variables from e i t h e r the awareness or the adoption stage could be compared to the four-stage adoption score, t h i s analysis neither substantiates nor detracts the v a l i d i t y of those stages or the v a r i a b l e s they contain. Of the variables used to a r r i v e at an adoption score i n the four-stage model, 13 can be correlated with the five-stage adoption score (Table : XVIII). 94 TABLE XVII Variables i n The Five-Stage Model Correlated With The Total Adoption Score of the Four-Stage Model Corr e l a t i o n C o e f f i c i e n t s With the Four^Stage Adoption Variables i n the Five-Stage Model Score Interest Stage - Phone enquiry .39** - Let t e r of enquiry .12 - Talk to friends about adult education .42** - Browsed through ad v e r t i s i n g .45** Evaluation Stage - Thought about advantages and disadvantages .52** - Been encouraged .35** - Been discouraged .07 - Given advice .52** T r i a l Stage - F i r s t a c t i v i t y taken on a t r i a l basis .06 * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. On the assumption that a s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f f i c i e n t indicates that the appropriate stage of adoption i s i n fact being assessed, the following variables gain construct v a l i d i t y : knowledge of how to enrol; the four a t t i t u d e variabl e s which measure r e l a t i v e advantage, convenience, complexity and o b s e r v a b i l i t y ; the i n t e n t i o n to enrol i n the future; and reporting unpleasant experiences. Five variables do not show s i m i l a r evidence of v a l i d i t y because t h e i r c o r r e l a t i o n s with the five-stage adoption score are not s i g n i f i c a n t : the a t t i t u d e about dropping out; reporting a negative decision, reporting d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n with a c t i v i t i e s , reporting replacement 95 TABEL XVIII Variables i n the Four-Stage Model Correlated With The.Total Adoption Score of the Five-Stage Model Correlation C o e f f i c i e n t s With the Five-Stage Adoption Variables i n the Four-Stage Model Score Knowledge Stage - Knowledge of how to enrol .53** \"Persuasion:'Stage - Relative advantage .38** - Convenience .50** - Complexity .44** - Drop-out reaction .01 - Observability .29** Decision Stage - Negative.decision .16 Confirmation Stage - Behavioral Intention re future enrolment .52** - D i s s a t i s f a c t i o n .52 - Replacement .07 - Unpleasant experiences .32** - Unanticipated consequences .20 * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. 96 of adult education with other a c t i v i t i e s and reporting unanticipated consequences from p a r t i c i p a t i n g . In general i t seems that.the confirmation stage has the least number of v a l i d v a r i a b l e s and that s i t u a t i o n i s consistent with the r e s u l t s reported e a r l i e r . If v a r i a b l e s which assess adoption are correlated with the p a r t i -c i p a t i o n score, i t i s possible to get a general impression of what a t t i t u d e s , communication pattern and fact s are u t i l i z e d by those adults who take part i n adult education. Obviously those adoption variables which measure p a r t i c i p a t i o n d i r e c t l y are excluded from t h i s a n a l ysis. The variables are l i s t e d i n decending order of t h e i r r e l a t i o n s h i p with the number of courses taken during the f i v e years, previous to the interviews. (Table XIX). The highest ranking v a r i a b l e , the b e l i e f that adult education i s convenient, in d i c a t e s the importance of s a t i s f i e d customers. That the use of telephones i s so c l o s e l y associated to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s perhaps i n d i c a t i v e of the formal nature of the adult education surveyed. Where classes are held and how to enrol seem to be the c r u c i a l information f o r p a r t i c i p a t i n g . Those who p a r t i c i p a t e tend to give advice but being discouraged from p a r t i c i p a t i n g does not s i g n i f i c a n t l y a f f e c t the rate at which people p a r t i c i p a t e . I t i s tempting to assume that the variables ranking high on the l i s t necessarily.: precede^enrolling i n a c t i v i t i e s but no. such .time sequencings can be implied from t h i s analysis. A more powerful test u t i l i z i n g regression analysis i s performed on the variables discussed here and i t i s reported l a t e r i n t h i s chapter. The u t i l i t y of the ranking reported here i s that i t includes a l l the v a r i a b l e s . 97 TABLE XIX Correlations Between Variables Assessing Adoption and the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score Rank Stage i n Which Variable C o r r e l a t i o n With P a r t i c i p a t i o n Order Variable Located Score 1 Adult education i s convenient Persuasion .556** 2 Future plans Confirmation .526** 3 Phone enquiry Interest .440** 4 Advice giving Evaluation .374** 5 Relative advantage Persuasion .317** 6 Where classes held Knowledge .316** 7 How to enrol Knowledge .309** 8 Adult education complex Persuasion .296** 9 Thought about advantages Evaluation .274** 10 Been encouraged Evaluation .255* 12 What i s taught Knowledge .231* 12 How advertised Knowledge .231* 12 Browsing i n adv e r t i s i n g Interest .231* 14 Negative decision Decision .204* 15 Talked to friends Interest .152 16 Observability Persuasion .139 17 Written enquiry Interest .118 18 Drop-out reaction Persuasion .042 19 Being discouraged Evaluation .028 •k Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l . ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l . 98 A COMPARISON OF STAGES Since the adoption scores used to assess involvement i n adult education are the sum of the stage scores, i t i s possible to get a better understanding by c o r r e l a t i n g the stage scores from pne adoption model with the stage scores of the other model (Table XX). The persuasion stage score of the four-stage model correlates s i g n i f i c a n t l y with a l l the stage scores i n the five-stage model. Thus having attitudes about adult education i s r e l a t e d to the awareness, i n t e r e s t , evaluation, t r i a l and adoption stages. Five s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n s indicates that the persuasion stage i s , i n part at l e a s t , measuring some of the same phenomena as are the various stage scores i n the five-stage model. If the stage scores from the five-stage model are v a l i d l y measuring adoption then i t follows that the persuasion stage was also v a l i d l y measuring adoption. The argument advanced for the persuasion stage score can-be duplicated for the confirmation stage score i n the four-stage model and for the i n t e r e s t and evaluation stage scores i n the five-stage model. For the remaining f i v e stage scores the s i t u a t i o n i s complicated by s t a t i s t i c a l considerations. The knowledge and awareness stage scores can not be corre-lated because four variables are common to both. The decision and adoption stage scores share variables with other stage scores. Since the t r i a l stage score i s , as noted e a r l i e r , assessed with inappropriate variables the s i g n i -f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n s with the other stage scores are misleading i n that they are based on data without construct v a l i d i t y . Thus, with the exception of the t r i a l stage score, there i s s t a t i s t i c a l evidence that a l l of the stage scores measure, i n part at l e a s t , the adoption process. 99 TABLE XX Correlations Between the Four and Five Stage Adoption Models By Stage Five-Stage Model Knowledge Persuasion Decision Confirmation Awareness N.A. .48** .42** .21** Interest .60** .44** .30** .29** Evaluation .48** . 41** .47** .38** T r i a l . 37** .21** N.A. .46** Adoption .39** .24* N.A. .56** N.A. So marked when the two stages include one or more of the same va r i a b l e s . * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. ADOPTION: ONE STEP OR SEVERAL The decision to adopt adult education may be more appropriately described as a process co n s i s t i n g of several stages rather than as a one-step decision. This can be examined more conclusively by dealing simultaneously with a large number of va r i a b l e s . The assumption i s that i f va r i a b l e s c l u s t e r into one predominant factor i n a factor analysis or i f the variables which best explain the variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n are derived from but one stage of the adoption process, then i t follows that the adoption of adult education may take place p r i m a r i l y as a one stage decision. On the other hand, i f the variables c l u s t e r into several factors of comparable weight and/or i f those which best explain variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n are derived from more than one stage, then the r e s u l t s would tend to confirm the 100 hypothesis that the adoption of adult education r e s u l t s from a decision process consisting of more than one stage or step. In such a case the weight of evidence would hold that a decision to adopt i s staged at l e a s t i n a person's mental processes although not n e c e s s a r i l y i n any p a r t i c u l a r time sequence. Factors i n Adoption Factor analysis was used to determine whether the variables used to a r r i v e at the adoption scores would c l u s t e r corrresponding with the adoption stages. Several technical d i f f i c u l t i e s were encountered i n the analysis. The variables used i n both the four and five-stage models were analyzed simultaneously but some variables were excluded from the analysis because they measured p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Since adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n are so c l o s e l y r e l a t e d such an exclusion seemed l o g i c a l l y necessary because the search was for factors leading to adoption rather than adoption i t s e l f . A further complication was encountered i n that 67 per cent of the respondents answered two of the confirmation stage questions and only 14 per cent answered two others. Thus i n order to have a sample of reasonable s i z e , the variables with a 67 per cent response were included while the 14 per cent response items were excluded. Eight factors were i d e n t i f i e d i n the analysis and these do not match the stages i n either the four or the five-stage models. Nonetheless, the factors can be s u b j e c t i v e l y matched with the stages i n a manner suggesting comparability between the factors and the stages (Table XXI). In and of themselves, the eight factors seem to form a decision pattern which i s s i m i l a r to but not i d e n t i c a l with both of the adoption models. Since the factors TABLE XXI Factors i n the Variables Used to Assess the Adoption Scores Adoption Stage Loading of Major Variable Assesses Stage Roughly Variance Summary of Five- Four- Equivalent to Factor Factor Explained Major Variables Variables Stage Stage Five-Stage Four-Stage 1 Learning Enough 18.3% Kinds of courses .805 1 1 Awareness and Knowledge to Adopt Thought advantages Know how to enrol Know where .802 .703 .618 3 1 1 1 Interest 2 Communication 9.5% Phone enquiry Talked to others Attended on t r i a l Given advice .780 .662 .492 .437 2 . 2 4 3 Interest and T r i a l Decision 3 Casual C u r i o s i t y 8.1% Browse advertising Ad.ed. convenient Negative decision .813 .545 - .345 1 1 2 Evaluation Persuasion 4 Atti t u d e Formation 7.7% Relative Advantage Convenience Observability .866 .464 - .490 2 2 1 Evaluation Persuasion 5 Negative Experiences 6.9% Been Discouraged Unpleasant Experiences Red tape e n r o l l i n g .850 .544 - .496 3 4 2 Adoption Confirmation 6 Tentative Action 6.4% Let t e r of enquiry Red tape e n r o l l i n g Negative Decision .859 .414 .404 2 2 3 Interest and T r i a l Decision 7 Planning f o r 5.7% Attend i n Future .806 4 Evaluation and Decision the Future Been encouraged .581 3 T r i a l 8 Concern f o r Consequences 5.3% Unanticipated Consequences Observability Drop-out reaction .787 .415 - .542 4 2 - 2 Adoption Confirmation 102 are ranked i n order of the amount of variance they explain, no time sequence i s implied nor does there seem to be any way of time-ordering the factors except that f a c t o r 1, -learning enough to adopt, would appear to be an obvious f i r s t step. Thus, although the f a c t o r analysis r a i s e s an important question r e l a t e d to the sequence of behavior involved i n adoption i t provides no clues to the answer. The f i r s t f a ctor \"learning enough to adopt\" explains 18.3 per cent of the variance and seems to be a threshold factor. If respondents know what kinds of a c t i v i t i e s are a v a i l a b l e , where they are held, how to enrol and the advantages of p a r t i c i p a t i o n , they would appear to be ready to move toward forming a t t i t u d e s and making decisions. This factor i s c l e a r l y comparable to both the awareness and knowledge stages. The second factor which involves communication about adult education explains 9.5 per cent of the variance. The communication most i n evidence i s o r a l : phoning and t a l k i n g . Attending on t r i a l i s also present and suggests that experience i n adult education on a t r i a l basis i s also a factor i n communication. This factor i s somewhat analogous to the i n t e r e s t stage. A kind..of casual c u r i o s i t y seems to characterize factor three which explains 8.1 per cent of the variance and involves browsing through advertising and thinking adult education would be a good idea (convenient), but not going so f a r as to consider or r e j e c t s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t i e s . This, too, appears re l a t e d to the information stage. Factor 4, the \"Attitude Formation\" f a c t o r , explains 7.7 per cent of the variance. As discussed e a r l i e r , the f i v e a t t i t u d e items were not e n t i r e l y s a t i s f a c t o r y . Relative Advantage, Convenience and Observability 103 are a t t r i b u t e s which c l u s t e r around the factor 4 a x i s as might be expected. Complexity, the a t t i t u d e toward red tape, i s more c l o s e l y associated with factor 6 and the attitu d e item about drop-outs i s associated with factor 8. Although these l a t t e r two of the f i v e a t t i t u d e items are absent from t h i s factor, they are the least r e l a t e d to adoption. Factor 5 involves being discouraged by others and having negative experiences and explains 6.9 per cent of the variance. Those with such experiences don't think that e n r o l l i n g involves red tape, thus people may consider t h e i r own and t h e i r friends unpleasant experiences but p a r t i c i p a t e i n s p i t e of them. Factor 6, which explains 6.4 per cent of the variance, seems to involve a behavioral syndrome not seen by adult education administrators. The respondent writes a l e t t e r •;or..thinks.-,abbutian;aGtivity7b'ut ;never-attends.; Although he does not think e n r o l l i n g involves red tape, he does not do so. Perhaps by going through these tentative actions he reduces the dissonance he may f e e l between the learning he has and would l i k e to have. For him, adult education provides a kind of psychic comfort i n the knowledge that the opportunity for further learning i s a v a i l a b l e even though he i s not impelled to engage i n i t . Factor 7 explains 5.7 per cent of the variance. The dominant items i n the factor are \"planning to take part i n a c t i v i t i e s i n the future\" and \"having been encouraged by others to do so.\" In a sense t h i s i s a companion to factor 5 as both are p r i m a r i l y cognitive. Factor 8 includes a tendency to report unanticipated consequences, a knowledge that others know about adult education and a concern for the cost 1 0 4 i f one drops out of adult education a c t i v i t i e s . It accounts for f i v e per cent of the variance. The absence of a si n g l e general factor (as seen i n the unrotated factor structure) argues against the hypothesis that adoption i s a s i n g l e -stage process. Although t h i s r e s u l t does not confirm the concept of sequential stages, i t indicates that stages do e x i s t . Matching the eight factors to the adoption stages i s subjective, but i t seems cl e a r that at l e a s t one factor can be matched to each of the stages i n both the four-stage and five-stage models (Table XXI). Whether t h i s matching of factors and stages i s evidence that the adoption of adult education can be assessed by e i t h e r of the two adoption models, or i s merely an i l l u s i o n , i s d i f f i c u l t to say. At the very l e a s t , however, t h i s analysis indicates that the adoption of adult education i s a decision process which can be reasonably described by stages rather than as a si n g l e act. Since 68 per cent of the variance i s explained by the eight factors i t seems reasonable to wonder whether these eight factors are more functional i n the study of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education than are the stages i n the four or five-stage model. The factor analysis does provide some c l a r i t y to these eight factors and since they have face v a l i d i t y they could be considered to form a reasonable model. I t should be noted, however, that the time sequencing i m p l i c i t i n the four and five-stage models i s missing from the eight f a c t o r s . It may w e l l be that the decision process for complex., innovations such as adult education does not tend to follow a;standard-time sequenced pattern but i s more i n d i v i d u a l i z e d and i d i o s y n c r a t i c than for the 105 simple innovations usually studied. Variance i n P a r t i c i p a t i o n A stepwise regression analysis was used to determine which of the v a r i a b l e s used to assess adoption best explained the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. The hypothesis tested was that the va r i a b l e s which best explain variance i n the number of courses taken should have been present i n assessing each of the adoption stages. I f , however, the variables which explained the most variance i n the number of courses taken were used to assess one or two of the stages, then doubt would be cast on the v a l i d i t y of those stages i n which none of the variables appeared. S i n c e - p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s the dependent v a r i a b l e , those adoption v a r i a b l e s which d i r e c t l y or i n d i r e c t l y defined p a r t i c i p a t i o n were eliminated from the analysis which meant including a l l the variables from the e a r l i e r stages and eliminating some of those from the l a t e r stages. In the stepwise regression analysis f i v e variables were i d e n t i f i e d which cumulatively explained 48 per cent of the variance i n the number of courses taken. Those variables include (1) knowledge of where a c t i v i t i e s are held (2) having made a phone enquiry (3) b e l i e f adult education i s convenient (4) having made a negative decision and (5) having the behavioral i n t e n t i o n of e n r o l l i n g i n the future. Since one of these f i v e v a r i a b l e s i s from each stage of the four-stage model, t h i s would seem to support the hypothesis (Table XXII). The f i f t h v a r i a b l e , whether the subject has made a phone c a l l , does not f i t d i r e c t l y into the four-stage model and may indicate a weakness i n that model i n that i t does not appear to assess communication. These f i v e v a r i a b l e s also f i t the five-stage model (Table XXII) as one TABLE XXII A Matching of the Adoption Variables Which Best Explain Variance In the Participation Score With the Adoption Stages Variable Order of Inclusion in equation R2 Normalized Coefficient Matching Stage Five-Stage Model Four-Stage Model 1. Knowledge of location (5) of adult education activity 2. Placing a phone enquiry (2) 3. Attitude that adult (2) education is convenient .48 ,36 .41 .20 ,24 -.25 Awareness—used to assess Knowledge—used to that stage Interest—used to assess that stage Equivalent to Evaluation but used to assess per-suasion assess that stage Does not match any one stage Persuasion—used to assess that stage 4. Decision not to enrol in (4) some specific activity 5. Behavioral Intention (1) .48 .25 .20 Equivalent to T r i a l but used to assess decision .33 Equivalent to Adoption but used to assess Confirmation Decision—used to assess that stage Confirmation—used to assess that stage o ON 107 va r i a b l e emerges from each stage. Although the argument used i n matching variables to stages i s subjective i n the five-stage model, i t i s quite clear that variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s rela t e d to a l l of the stages i n the four-stage model and to most i f not a l l of the stages i n the five-stage model. Thus, there i s further evidence that the decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i s a process which can be explained by stages. This analysis i s a powerful i n d i c a t i o n of the existence of a multi-stage decision process i n adopting adult education. In addition to i n d i c a t i n g that adoption takes place i n stages the regression analysis gives further evidence of the v a l i d i t y of the f i v e v a r i a b l e s which explain so much of the variance i n the number of courses taken. It should be noted that the variables explaining p a r t i c i p a t i o n are ranked i n order of the variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n which they explain and thus not i n any time order of occurence. COMPARISON OF MODELS BY ADOPTION SCORES A d e f i n i t i v e comparison, of the models by adoption scores i s d i f f i c u l t because 20 questions are used to scale each adoption score of which seven are common to both scales and therefore the two adoption scores are inherently r e l a t e d . Furthermore, at l e a s t s i x variables c l e a r l y overlap s t r u c t u r a l l y . Since three of these s i x variables are i n each model, both models contain seven common variables and three a d d i t i o n a l i n v a l i d v a r i a b l e s . In these circumstances a comparison of adoption scores f o r the two models must be approached with caution. That the d i s t r i b u t i o n of the two adoption scores should be so 108 s i m i l a r i s not su r p r i s i n g since 35 per-cent of the variables are common to both scales and thus the high c o r r e l a t i o n between them (r = .84) i s expected. The p a r t i c i p a t i o n score correlates to the five-stage adoption score (r = .76) at a higher c o e f f i c i e n t than i t does to the four-stage adoption score (r = .55), but t h i s i s due i n part to the fact that there are seven variables common to both the five-stage adoption score and to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score, but only three v a r i a b l e s are common to both the four-stage adoption score and to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. The adoption scores for both models are reasonably widely dispersed with a range of 0 to 20 and a mean score for the four-stage model i s 11.29 and for the five-stage model, 9.93. The respective standard deviations are 2.70 and 3.73. The frequency d i s t r i b u t i o n (Figure 12) shows the spread of the scores for the two scales. The d i s t r i b u t i o n of the scores and the lack of skewedness seemed to indic a t e a wide range of involvement with the innovation c a l l e d adult education. That such a range ex i s t s on both scores i s encouraging evidence that the adoption process does i n fact operate for adult education and that p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i s not the ei t h e r / o r dichotomy which has been assumed so often. FIGURE 12 Frequency D i s t r i b u t i o n s for Adoption Scores On Both the Four and Five-Stage Models CHAPTER VI ANALYSIS BY GOALS AND BARRIERS Goals are the motivational factors usually c a l l e d needs, and i f these goals can be shown to explain the variance i n adult education p a r t i c i p a t i o n i t would support the hypothesis that i n d i v i d u a l needs plus programming designed to meet those needs r e s u l t s i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The t r a d i t i o n a l assumption i s that an adult who has an educational need reads the program advertisements to f i n d an a c t i v i t y to meet his need and i f the b a r r i e r s are not too great, he enrols and thereby becomes a p a r t i c i p a n t . Although a number of factors may be involved, t h i s decision process i s considered to occur i n one step. MEASURING THE GOALS AND BARRIERS In designing t h i s study i t was assumed that each goal and b a r r i e r was applicable to a l l respondents who would, therefore, be able to give meaningful ratings to a l l goals and b a r r i e r s . While the interviews were being conducted i t became evident that for almost every respondent some were not applicable. When pressed for a r a t i n g , many responded with a r a t i n g of \"one\", others said \"zero\" and for s t i l l others the r a t i n g was l e f t blank. This unanticipated problem complicated the s t a t i s t i c a l a n a l y sis. For the motivational analysis 30 of the 100 interviews were rejected for either of two reasons: they did not use the same standard for judging both goals and b a r r i e r s ; or they had four or less ratings on either the goals or the b a r r i e r s . Although t h i s procedure made i t possible to analyze the remaining 70 interviews, i t compromised the randomness of the 110 I l l sample and eliminated pome legitimate \"one\" responses. When the geometric means were calculated f o r the ratings given to each goal and b a r r i e r and when those geometric means were placed i n rank order, there were two i n d i c a t i o n s that goals d i f f e r e d from b a r r i e r s . The more obvious i n d i c a t i o n was that of the 32 r a t i n g s , the highest 14 were a l l goals. Thus, i n general, adults consider the goals associated with p a r t i c i p a t i n g to be more important than are the b a r r i e r s to such p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The second i n d i c a t i o n was apparent when the geometric means were plotted against v a r i a b l e s placed i n rank order of those geometric means (Figure 13). A curve drawn through the goals i s obviously d i f f e r e n t from that drawn through the b a r r i e r s with the exception of the two lowest ranked goals which do not follow the pattern. Another i n d i c a t i o n that goals d i f f e r from b a r r i e r s i s apparent when the geometric means for the goals of each respondent i s plotted against the same s t a t i s t i c f o r the b a r r i e r s using unstandardized, r a t i n g s , i t i s clear that most respondents rated goals higher than b a r r i e r s and that those who rated the goals with large numbers also rated the b a r r i e r s with large numbers (Figure 14). In order to determine whether the ratings of the goals and b a r r i e r s f ollow the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c pattern for data c o l l e c t e d by magnitude estimation, the geometric means for each goal and b a r r i e r was plotted against an estimation of the standard e r r o r * of the same mean (Figure 15). In that p l o t the *Standard error of geometric mean = S.D. A r i t h . Mean N^3 GEOMETRIC MEANS OF RESPONSES ^ N £ o o O O o 1 ; — i 1 IMPROVE MY MIND IMPROVE JOB SKILL LEARN NEW THINGS • * HOBBY BE WITH PEOPLE GET.BETTER JOB GET MISSED EDUCATION GET CERTIFICATE ENJOY MYSELF ' FIND NEW FRIENDS LEARN VOLUNTEER WORK w g • * BE BETTER HOMEMAKER g J£ ' TAKE FAMILY * SAVE MONEY 0 ° TOO BUSY ° WRONG TIME O DON'T WANT TO GO ALONE ° OTHER THINGS TO DO * TO HAVE A NIGHT OUT ° NOT ENOUGH ENERGY O FEES TOO HIGH ° TRANSPORTATION ° LACK OF STARTING DATE ° TOO MANY PROBLEMS ° DISTANCE LACK OF \"WHERE\" INFORMATION TO ESCAPE FAMILY ETC. BABYSITTING NO COURSES INTEREST ME I AM TOO OLD ° FAMILY OBJECTIONS 0 DON'T WANT TO BE A STUDENT O» o o O 5 FIGURE 14 A COMPARISON OF GOALS AND BARRIERS BY PLOTTING GEOMETRIC MEANS Natural Logarithms of Geometric Means of Barriers 0 *» 4 Z 3 4 Natural Logarithms of Geometric Means of Goals FIGURE 15 A COMPARISON OF THE GEOMETRIC MEANS FOR THE GOALS AND BARRIERS TO THE STANDARD ERROR OF THE MEAN FOR THOSE VARIABLES Logarithm of Standard Error of Mean —, , 1 1 • 1 1 • • 1 — 3.B 4.0 4.Z 4.4 4.6 4.0 5~,0 S.Z S.4 Log of Geometric Means of Responses 115 g o a l s g e n e r a l l y f o l l o w a l i n e w i t h a g e n t l e s l o p e a n d t h e b a r r i e r s f o l l o w a l i n e w i t h a s t e e p e r s l o p e . B o t h s i t u a t i o n s i n d i c a t e t h a t v a r i a b i l i t y i n c r e a s e s w i t h t h e g e o m e t r i c m e a n s w h i c h i s e x p e c t e d i n m a g n i t u d e e s t i m a t i o n . T h u s i t s e e m s t h a t g o a l s a n d b a r r i e r s a r e d i f f e r e n t c l a s s e s o f p h e n o m e n o n . T h e s t e e p e r s l o p e o f t h e b a r r i e r s i s c o n s i s t e n t w i t h t h e h y p o t h e s i s t h a t b a r r i e r s t e n d t o r e a c h a c r i t i c a l o r t h r e s h o l d v a l u e m o r e q u i c k l y t h a n g o a l s . I f b a r r i e r s a r e m o r e l i k e l y t o a c t a s t h r e s h o l d s , t h a t r e s u l t i s c o n s i s t e n t w i t h t h e t e n d e n c y f o r b a r r i e r s t o b e s i g n i f i c a n t l y r e l a t e d t o b o t h a d o p t i o n a n d p a r t i c i p a t i o n s c o r e s w h e r e a s g o a l s a r e n o t . I n g e n e r a l t h i s p r o c e d u r e f o r m e a s u r i n g g o a l s a n d b a r r i e r s s e e m s p r o m i s i n g . F o r t h o s e v a r i a b l e s w h i c h r e s p o n d e n t s p e r c e i v e a s a p p l y i n g t o t h e m p e r s o n a l l y , t h e r e a r e i n d i c a t i o n s t h a t t h e y w e r e r a t e d o n r a t i o s c a l e s . I n s u c h c i r c u m s t a n c e s , t h e r a t i n g s h a v e e x c e l l e n t u t i l i t y i n t h a t t h e y h a v e b e e n s t a n d a r d i z e d s o t h a t c o m p a r i s o n s c a n b e m a d e b e t w e e n b o t h i n d i v i d u a l r a t i n g s a n d b e t w e e n g e o m e t r i c m e a n s . S u c h d a t a a r e i d e a l f o r a n a l y s i s . A N A L Y S I S B Y G O A L S A N D B A R R I E R S T h e c o n c e p t o f g o a l s a n d b a r r i e r s t o p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n a d u l t e d u c a t i o n w a s i n t r o d u c e d i n t h i s s t u d y i n a n e f f o r t t o d e t e r m i n e i f a n y v a r i a n c e t h a t m i g h t o c c u r b e t w e e n t h e a d o p t i o n a n d t h e p a r t i c i p a t i o n s c o r e s c o u l d b e a s c r i b e d t o m o t i v a t i o n a l f a c t o r s . M o t i v a t i o n a n d A d o p t i o n S i n c e g o a l s a n d b a r r i e r s a r e d i s t i n c t l y d i f f e r e n t f a c t o r s i t c a n b e h y p o t h e s i z e d t h a t t h o s e w h o a r e m o s t i n v o l v e d i n a d u l t e d u c a t i o n w o u l d c o n s i d e r g o a l s t o b e m o r e i m p o r t a n t t h a n b a r r i e r s . T o m e a s u r e t h e r e l a t i v e i m p o r t a n c e o f t h e t w o c a t e g o r i e s o f v a r i a b l e s a m o t i v a t i o n a l r a t i o 1 1 6 was calculated for each respondent by d i v i d i n g the geometric mean of h i s ratings of the goals by the geometric means of h i s r a t i n g of the b a r r i e r s . The actual c a l c u l a t i o n s u t i l i z e d natural logarithms and i n accordance with magnitude estimation procedures, these were used to p l o t the f i g u r e s . The motivational r a t i o f o r the 70 subjects included i n the a n a l y s i s had l i t t l e r e l a t i o n s h i p to other v a r i a b l e s (Table XXIII and XXIV). The actual r a t i o , 1.71, i n d i c a t e s that for r a t i n g s which are neither one, zero, nor blank, the r a t i n g s given goals was higher than for b a r r i e r s . The r a t i o i s not s i g n i f i c a n t l y r e l a t e d to age or to educational l e v e l but i t i s r e l a t e d to the number of b a r r i e r s rated which probably indicates the importance of the number of b a r r i e r s . The motivational r a t i o i s not related to either the adoption score or to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. When the natural logarithm of the motivational r a t i o was plotted against the Four-Stage Adoption score, those with low adoption scores seemed to d i f f e r l i t t l e from those with high adoption scores.(Figure 16). This i s consistent with other data i n that there i s a s l i g h t tendency for those with higher scores to have a higher motivational r a t i o , but again the tendency i s not strong (r = .10). When the natural logarithm of the motivational r a t i o was plotted against the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score, non-participants seem to have greater v a r i a b i l i t y than p a r t i c i p a n t s . (Figure 17). Those who have taken part i n si x or more a c t i v i t i e s during the past f,ive years have higher r a t i o s but since t h i s includes only s i x respondents the tendency i s not well established. In general the data can be interpreted'to substantiate the f i n d i n g that the motivational r a t i o i s not strongly r e l a t e d to the FIGURE 16 A COMPARISON OF Trffi FIVE-STAGE ADOPTION SCORE TO TIE MOTIVATIONAL RATIO +3 + 1 Motivational Ratio » * <° 7 & 9 to ii Five-Stage Adoption Score IZ 13 14 IS IG 17 FIGURE 17 A COMPARISON OF THE PARTICIPATION SCORE TO THE MOTIVATIONAL RATIO Motiva-tional Ratio 9 • Note: Two subjects A One subject • 4 6 ~ Participation Score 119 TABLE XXIII Means and Standard Deviations of Variables Used In Motivational Analysis (70 Observations) Variable Arithmetic Mean Standard Deviation Motivational Ratio 1.72 2.28 Number Ratio 1.41 .1.4.1 Number of Goals 1.3.10 2.87 Number of Barr i e r s 9.72 3.67 Age 38.3 13.8 Education 10.6 years 2.9 years Five-Stage Adoption Score 9.81 3.63 Four-Stage Adoption Score 11.18 2.80 P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score 1.68 2.29 p a r t i c i p a t i o n score (r = .09). In general then, the motivational r a t i o does not appear to have p r e d i c t i v e strength. Number Ratio Analysis The number r a t i o i s calculated f o r each respondent by d i v i d i n g the number of goals rated by the number of b a r r i e r s rated. This also u t i l i z e d logarithms. This r a t i o was calculated i n order to compare i t to the motiva-t i o n a l r a t i o and thus to determine whether the magnitude of the ratings was a better predictor than the number of ra t i n g s . The arithmetic mean of the number r a t i o s i s 1.41 i n d i c a t i n g that goals were more frequently rated than b a r r i e r s . Since the number r a t i o i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to both the four-stage adoption score (r = .25*) and the educational l e v e l of the respondents (r = .25*) while the motivational r a t i o do not corr e l a t e to 120 any of the variables studied i t would seem to be a better predictor than the motivational r a t i o (Table XXIV). Variance i n P a r t i c i p a t i o n A stepwise regression analysis i n which the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score, which assesses the number of courses taken, was the dependent variable. and the goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were the independent v a r i a b l e s , was made to determine whether a small number of goals or b a r r i e r s would explain a large percentage of the variance i n the number of courses taken. The analysis indicated that no such c l u s t e r of variables existed but that the desire to learn something new explained s i x per cent of the variance whereas the 36 other variables explained l e s s . Thus, the p o s s i b i l i t y of explaining variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n adequately by goals and b a r r i e r s seemed u n l i k e l y to unpromising. P r e d i c t i v e A b i l i t y In general the goals and b a r r i e r s explained l i t t l e of the variance i n eit h e r adoption or p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. Therefore the outlook f o r such research does not seem promising. EVALUATION OF GOALS AND BARRIERS The 16 goals and 16 b a r r i e r s were selected a f t e r a review of the l i t e r a t u r e , ^therefore i t was necessary to determine whether they were i n f a c t a c t u a l l y considered i n making a decision on whether or not to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education. TABLE XXIV Cor r e l a t i o n s Between the Motivational Ratio, The Adoption Scores And Selected Personal C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s Motiva-t i o n a l Ratio Number Ratio Number of Goals Number of B a r r i e r s Age Educa-t i o n F i ve-Stage Adoption Score Four-Stage Adoption Score P a r t i c i -pation Score Motivational Ratio 1.00 Number Ratio .01 1.00 Number of Goals .21 .16 1.00 Number of B a r r i e r s .24* -.78** . 43** 1.00 Age -.07 -.07 -.03 .08 1.00 Education .07 .25* -.05 -.16 -.32** 1.00 Five-Stage Adoption Score .05 .19 -.06 -.15 -.06 .29* 1.00 Four-Stage Adoption Score .10 .25* -.07 -.16 .14 .31 .83** 1.00 P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score .09 .14 -.02 -.15 -.17 .29* . 77** .58** 1.00 * Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .05 l e v e l of confidence. ** Indicates s i g n i f i c a n c e at the .01 l e v e l of confidence. 122 Factors Grouping Goals and B a r r i e r s A factor analysis of the 16 goals and 16 b a r r i e r s combined pro-duced s i x f a i r l y clear-cut factors which explains 68 per cent of the v a r i -ance i n the ratings (Table XXV). The f i r s t f a c t o r was l a b e l l e d Personal Ba r r i e r s and Situations and i t explains the most variance (37%). The v a r i a b l e s i n t h i s factor related to the i n d i v i d u a l and to the family. Family objections were loaded highest but shortages also characterize the l i s t . There seems to be a lack of transportation, information, b a b y s i t t i n g and energy. Fear of being a student, an i n a b i l i t y to f i n d i n t e r e s t i n g a c t i v i t i e s and the b e l i e f that one i s too old to benefit from learning were also associated with t h i s f a c t o r . A f i t t i n g summary for t h i s f a c t o r might be \"Too many problems.\" The second f a c t o r , Intra-personal Goals explains 14.1 per cent of the variance. Included are those v a r i a b l e s usually associated with enter-tainment: to have a night out, to f i n d f r i e n d s , to enjoy myself, to escape from housework. Included i n t h i s factor seem to be the items which are f e s t i v e and j o y f u l . Inter-personal Goals make up the t h i r d f a c t o r , and account for 5.9 per cent of the variance. While the f i r s t factor included reasons for not doing something, t h i s factor includes the things one should do: take the family to educational a c t i v i t i e s where they can take part simultaneously, to get the education missed i n youth, learn to do volunteer work and so on. The fourth factor i s Vocational Goals. Quite simply i t involves getting a better job, improving job s k i l l s and getting a c e r t i f i c a t e . In t h i s factor upward vocational m o b i l i t y i s the objective and adult education 123 TABLE XXV Factors in the Goals and Barriers Factor Variance Summary of Loadings of E x p l a i n e d M a j o r Factors Major Variables 1 Personal Barriers 37% My family would object .817 and Situations Can't get transportation .793 Don't want to be student .777 Don't get starting dates .748 Too many problems .731 Too far to go .730 Don't know where .711 No acti v i t i e s of interest .703 Too old .653 Can't get baby sitting .649 Not enough energy .626 Activities at wrong time .618 Fees too high .616 Don't want to go alone .537 Competing activities .435 2 Intra-personal Goals 14% To have night out .805 To find friends .720 To enjoy myself .710 To escape housework .685 Learn homemaking .672 To be with People .669 To save money .659 To learn something new .572 To learn a hobby .477 3 Inter-personal Goals .6.0% To take family out .754 To get missed education .732 To learn to be volunteer .713 To improve my mind .585 To get a certificate .554 To learn a hobby .537 To find friends .447 4 Vocational Goals 4.4% To get a better job .756 To improve job s k i l l s .751 To get a certificate .573 5 Competing Activities 3.7 Too busy .788 Other activities .412 6 Alienation .3.0 Too old ^ .494 No acti v i t i e s of interest .448 124 i s the means. A surprisingly small amount of variance, 4.4 per cent is associated with such vocational training. Factor 5 i s labelled Competing Act i v i t i e s . These are the a c t i v i t i e s which compete with adult education for the time and resources of the subjects. Their competition accounts for 3.7 per cent of the variance. The f i n a l factor i s labelled Alienation. Too old and not interested seem to be key words. Don't want to improve my mind and can't get babysitting are also associated with the factor which account for 3.3 per cent'of the variance. The factor analysis of the Goals and Barriers seems straightforward. The typical adult has many small problems which impede enrolment, but wants to participate for a variety of reasons. Since each factor tends to include either goals or barriers rather thanaa mixture of both, the assumption that goals are different from barriers i s substantiated. The three factors involving barriers explain a total of 44 per cent of the variance whereas the three factors involving goals explain only 24 per cent of the variance thus barriers seem more c r i t i c a l than goals which is consistent with other results. Although this does not provide conclusive evidence that the goals and barriers presented for rating are those considered by adults in deciding whether to participate, the factors have face v a l i d i t y and at the very least there is no indication that they are grossly lacking in construct validity. 125 Write-in Goals After rating the 16 study goals respondents were asked to identify any personal goals not included and to rate them. Seventeen such goals were identified by 15 respondents. The standardized geometric mean for the goals was 398 which means that they were considered to be almost four times as important as the average rating for study goals. Such high rating to goals which the respondents themselves identified is to be expected, thus any comparison between these and the study goals should be viewed with caution. Fourteen of the write-in goals were clustered into three categories with the remaining three goals considered as miscellaneous. The standardized geometric mean for the category containing the three work-related goals was highest (629.6). These included a back-up education i n case of a financial emergency, or learning new job s k i l l s . The second highest category (573) included five goals related to the family. These included a desire \"to learn so that I can teach my children\", \"to be able to talk to my children\", \"to help my children with their school work\",\"to get a better future for my children\" and \"to learn for the benefit of my family and friends.\" A third category included various, intellectual and cognitive interests and the standardized geometric mean was 240. \"To escape, getting into a rut\" was typical of these. The three miscellaneous goals had high scores and included \"Would go with a friend who needed a companion\" (g.m. = 500); \"to relax and get a change of atmosphere\" (g.m. = 253) and \"for exercise and fresh a i r \" (g.m. = 275). 126— Most of theseal7 w r i t e - i n goals are i n some way re l a t e d to the 16 study goals or as mirror images of b a r r i e r s . Perhaps the only w r i t e - i n goalsnot i n any way r e l a t e d to those included i n the study i s the desire c f women to teach and communicate with t h e i r c h i l d r e n . Thus the study goals seem to have had construct v a l i d i t y . Write-in B a r r i e r s Although the standardized geometric mean for the w r i t e - i n b a r r i e r s was lower than f o r goals (388 for goals and 318.15 for b a r r i e r s ) there were more than three times as many. Fifty-two b a r r i e r s were l i s t e d i n contrast to only 17 goals. These were organized into eight categories with.four not categorized and thus considered miscellaneous (Table XXVI) TABLE XXVI The Geometric Means f o r Write-in B a r r i e r s B a r r i e r N Standardized Geometric Mean Inadequate a c t i v i t i e s 3 932 Work-related problems 8 417 Lack of money 2 415 Health problems 5 390 Lack of motivation 10 350 Family comes f i r s t 12 241 Other a c t i v i t i e s more important 6 222 Weather 2 39 Miscellaneous - Don't drive a car 1 185 - Holidays are during c l a s s schedule 1 138 - Don't want to go when I don't know anyone 1 7800 - E n g l i s h not good enough to take part 1 320 To t a l 52 127 Although the geometric mean for responses to the study barrier \"None of the a c t i v i t i e s interest me\" was only 46.7, the geometric mean for the write-in responses relevant to inadequate programming was 932 or more than nine times the average response. One subject complained of a lack of activity for husbands and wives, a second said the courses were not always interesting and the third subject said that learning on her own was faster. Perhaps these responses indicate that a small number feel very strongly that programming is inadequate. None of the 16 study barriers anticipated the problem women have which result from earning an income. Of the eight write-in barriers related to work, five involved either swing shift or irregular hours; one subject said her new job kept her busy; one expressed the classic comment that she did not want to s i t in a class after a hard day's work; and one said that although she does participate, her husband's meetings interfere. The geometric mean for these eight barriers was 417. Lack of money was expressed by two respondents and for them i t was a problem four times as great as the average. Lack of money is closely related to the barrier \"fees too high\" which was presented to the subjects, but after reading and rating 32 times, i t is understandable that respondents should occasionally express barriers that duplicate those in the study. Health was expressed as a barrier by five subjects. Problems included pregnancy, hearing and old age. They rated their health problems from 224 to 1296 with a geometric mean of 390. For one person i n twenty, health may be a decisive barrier. Some form of low motivation was expressed by ten subjects. Three used the word lazy to describe themselves. The expression \"Don't get out and get started\" i s typical of the remainder. The geometric mean of these 128 ten barrier scores was 350, Describing oneself as lazy during an interview with a stranger requires a frankness that is not possible for everyone, thus low motivation may be an even more important variable than can be shown from the data. Although subjects were requested to rate a study barrier which stated \"My family would object\", 12 expressed additional family related barriers. The two following statements are typical: \"My children's act i v i t i e s come f i r s t \" and \"I'd rather spend my time with my family.\" A sick husband and an aged mother were also referred to as barriers. The geometric means for the 12 family-related write-in barriers was 240, almost six times as high as for the \"family would object\" barrier on the cards. In spite of the fact that one of the study barriers noted \"Too many other things I'd rather do\", six subjects expressed specific activities which they preferred to adult education. These preferences were for bingo, two subjects; and for bowling, bridge, craftwork and housework, one subject each. The geometric mean for these \"other a c t i v i t i e s \" was 222. Weather was expressed as a barrier to participation by two subjects but they rated i t as rather unimportant. The following four responses were not categorized: don't drive (g.m. = 185) ; my holidays are during adult education schedule (g.m. = 138); I'm worried that my English is not good enough (g.m. = 320); and I don't like to start when I don't know anyone (g.m. = 7800). The last was clearly a threshold barrier. The write-in goals and barriers provide a commentary on the 129 adequacy of the 32 which were presented to the subjects i n the study, but s t a t i s t i c a l comparisons between them and the w r i t e - i n v a r i a b l e s i s obviously impossible. I t appears from the v a r i e t y and number of w r i t e - i n b a r r i e r s that the study b a r r i e r s were l e s s complete than were the study goals. IMPORTANCE OF BARRIERS That b a r r i e r s tend to show more strength i n the various analyses than do goals, r a i s e s the question of the u t i l i t y of studying b a r r i e r s . While i t i s true that respondents c o n s i s t e n t l y rate goals higher i t i s also true that b a r r i e r s are us u a l l y more c l o s e l y r e l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption scores and when the goals and b a r r i e r s were fa c t o r analysed the b a r r i e r s explained almost twice as much variance as the goals. That subjects of f e r e d 52 w r i t e - i n b a r r i e r s but only 17 w r i t e - i n goals may only i n d i c a t e that the l i s t of goals was the more complete, but that so many respondents took time to provide so many a d d i t i o n a l w r i t e - i n b a r r i e r s may also i n d i c a t e the importance of b a r r i e r s . I f , however, b a r r i e r s are r e l a t i v e l y more important than goals why were they rated so much lower? The answer may be that respondents f e e l goals are p o s i t i v e and thus f e e l comfortable giving them high r a t i n g s . B a r r i e r s , i n contrast, seem negative and respondents may f e e l pressure from the interviewer and be conditioned by society i n general to rate these negative b a r r i e r s at a lower l e v e l . I f b a r r i e r s are a c t u a l l y more powerful predictors of p a r t i c i p a t i o n than goals and i f the goals used i n t h i s study are analogous to the needs discussed so frequently i n adult education, then needs assessment of in d i v i d u a l s or a community may not be the optimum strategy f o r increasing p a r t i c i p a t i o n . It may be necessary to analyse b a r r i e r s as w e l l . 130 BASIC HYPOTHESIS The basic hypothesis i s that \"adoption variables account for more variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n than motivation or personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . \" The variables used to assess adoption explain 48 per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score whereas the goals account for only 4 per cent, the b a r r i e r s f or 6 per cent and the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s for none at a l l y i e l d i n g a t o t a l of 58 per cent of a l l p a r t i c i p a t i o n variance accounted for (Figure 18). Forty-two per cent i s not accounted f o r . Although these ^results seem clear-cut, they need to be interpreted with caution, because p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption are not completely independent phenomena i n conceptual terms, even though i n operational terms they are independent. In a r r i v i n g at both adoption scores, v a r i a b l e s which measure p a r t i c i p a t i o n d i r e c t l y are included, but those variables were excluded from the regression analysis used to explain the variance (Table XXVII). In general, variables from early stages of the adoption process were included whereas those from the l a t e r stages were excluded. Thus i n the five-stage model, va r i a b l e s from the awareness, i n t e r e s t and evaluation stages were a l l included whereas a l l but one from the t r i a l and adoption stages were ex-cluded because they measure p a r t i c i p a t i o n . In the four-stage adoption model, variables from the knowledge and persuasion stages were a l l included and a l l but two from the decision and confirmation stages were excluded (Table XXVIII). In the main, those variables from the early stages of the adoption process predict 48 per cent of the variance i n the number of courses taken by respondents. Those who have taken the most courses are the most l i k e l y (1) to express the intention of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the future, (2) to have made a phone enquiry about a c t i v i t i e s , (3) to believe that adult education i s convenient, (4) to have decided not to e n r o l l i n s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t i e s and (5) to have given advice to others. 131 That b a r r i e r s selected i n the regression analysis explain more variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n than do goals i s consistent with findings e l s e -where. Having (1) too many problems and (2) having competing a c t i v i t i e s explains 6 per cent of the variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n , but the goal of saving money explains only four per cent. That the desire to learn some-thing new does not appear i n t h i s regression analysis i s s u r p r i s i n g and i s inconsistent with other r e s u l t s . None of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s explained enough variance to be included i n the regression equation. From e a r l i e r r e s u l t s the educational l e v e l of the respondents would seem to have been a l i k e l y s i g n i f i c a n t v a r i a b l e but i t was not so. Although using regression analysis to test the basic hypothesis indicated several s i g n i f i c a n t variables which were inconsistent with findings elsewhere, i n general the r e s u l t s were consistent: (1) adoption variables best explain variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n (48%) (2) goals are poor predictors of p a r t i c i p a t i o n (4%) (3) b a r r i e r s account for more variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n than do goals, 6 per cent by b a r r i e r s compared to only 4 per cent by goals, but b a r r i e r s are also poor predictors of p a r t i c i p a t i o n . (4) the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the respondents do not explain p a r t i c i p a t i o n to- any s i g n i f i c a n t degree. Thus there are strong i n d i c a t i o n s that involvement i n the adoption process i s more c l o s e l y r e l a t e d to p a r t i c i p a t i o n than are the motivations expressed by the respondents or are t h e i r personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . 132 FIGURE 18 DISTRIBUTION OF VARIANCE IN THE PARTICIPATION SCORE BY CATEGORIES OF VARIABLES Note:-In this analysis none of the variance i s explained by the Personal Characteristics of the respondents. TABLE XXVII Vari a b l e s Which Best Explain Variance In the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score - A Test of The Hypothesis Variable Order of Inclu s i o n i n Equation R 2 Normalized C o e f f i c i e n t F P r o b a b i l i t y Purpose of V a r i a b l e Behavioral Intention re future enrollment 1 24.7 .36 .000 Adoption v a r i a b l e Four-Stage Model Confirmation Stage Placing a phone enquiry 2 36.0 .25 .003 Adoption v a r i a b l e Five-Stage Model Interest Stage A t t i t u d e that Adult Education i s CONVENIENT 3 40.1 .26 .004 Adoption v a r i a b l e Four-Stage Model Persuasion Stage Deciding not to e n r o l l i n some s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y 4 44.8 .24 .002 Adoption v a r i a b l e Four-Stage Model Decision Stage Too many problems (Barrier) 5 48.3 .18 .021 B a r r i e r Competing a c t i v i t i e s i n t e r f e r with p a r t i c i p a t i o n (Barrier) 6 51.0 .34 .001 Ba r r i e r Goal of saving money 7 55.1 .30 .002 Goal Giving advice to others 8 57.9 .20 .020 Adoption v a r i a b l e Five-Stage Model Evaluation Stage Constant -5.1 .000 134 TABLE XXVIII P a r t i a l Correlations of Variables Which are S i g n i f i c a n t l y Correlated to the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score P a r t i a l V a r i able C o r r e l a t i o n F - P r o b a b i l i t y Knowledge of where .32 .003 Knowledge of kinds .21 .041 Knowledge of ad v e r t i s i n g .21 .041 Knowledge of how to e n r o l l .31 .003 Making a phone enquiry .44 .000 Browsing through a d v e r t i s i n g .21 .041 Thinking about advantages .27 .008 Having been encouraged .26 .014 Giving advice to others .37 .000 Be l i e v i n g Adult Education convenient .45 .000 Be l i e v i n g Adult Education free of red tape (Complexity) .26 .011 Intending to p a r t i c i p a t e i n future .50 .000 Educational l e v e l .24 .024 Goal of enjoying s e l f .21 .045 135 Chapter VI FOOTNOTES . Peter H. Lindsay, An Introduction to Psychology. (New York, 1973), p. 652. . S.S. Stevens, \"A Metric for Social Consensus.\" Science, 151:540 (1966). CHAPTER VII CONCLUSIONS The application of adoption research methodology to participation has made i t possible to measure involvement in adult education from a new perspective since adoption theory has not been used previously to assess participation. There seems l i t t l e doubt but that adults do accept adult education by stages, and to that extent i t indicates a new approach to a theory of participation. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS The Subjects^ One hundred interviews were completed with housewives residing in the census tract-containing the largest adult education centre in Surrey, British Columbia. The average age of the subjects was .40, eight were over 65, and 13 under 25. Just under half had a job, and two reported that they were retired. The formal educational level varied: 26 subjects reported less than grade nine, the median was grade 11, and only three per cent reported university degrees. Vocational training was reported by 38 per cent. Most (88%) were married; two per cent were single and the remainder were either widowed, separated or divorced. Goals and Barriers Respondents rated the importance to them of 16 goals and 16 barriers relevant to participation in adult education. Magnitude estimation procedures and a standardizing procedure made i t possible for each respondent to have a geometric mean of 100 for the 32 ratings. Thus geometric means for each of the goals and barriers could be calculated and compared. 136 1 3 7 The respondents rated goals as being twice as important to participation as were barriers. The goal \"To improve my mind\" received the highest rating. \"To improve job s k i l l s \" , \"To learn something new\" and \"To learn hobby s k i l l s \" were also rated high. Other goal ratings were scattered but \"To have a night out\" and \"To escape from housework\" were the lowest rated goals. The highest rated barrier was \"I'm too busy.\" \"Schedule problems\", \"Not wanting to go alone\", \"Conflicting a c t i v i t i e s : and \"Lack of energy\" were other barriers rated high. \"The fear of being a student\" ranked lowest as a barrier. Adoption Stages The involvement of the public in adult education was measured by u t i l i z i n g the theory and techniques developed to investigate the adoption of innovations. These techniques assume that the acceptance and use of an idea or practice results from a decision process which occurs by stages. The five stage adoption model is a step-by-step description of the process of adopting an innovation. When this model is applied to the adoption of adult education, the findings can be summarized as follows: Awareness Stage: Awareness of adult education is extensive in the area studied. Almost four in every five respondents (79%)knew where activities were held and 91 per cent knew at least one subject which was offered. Interest Stage: The printed advertising received by mail was the most used communication channel. 138 Ninety-one per cent reported browsing through such advertisements. Talking to friends about adult education was reported by 78 per cent, and 46 per cent reported making a telephone enquiry. A letter of enquiry was used by only eight per cent. Evaluation Stage: Some 86 per cent reported thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of adult education with more reported being encouraged (49%) than discouraged (6%). Most (69%) reported giving advice to friends or relatives. T r i a l Stage: Sixteen per cent reported that they attended their f i r s t adult education activity on a tentative basis with the intention of dropping out i f they did. not lik e i t . Thus, 72 per cent of the respondents who had participated in adult education indicated that they did not pass through a t r i a l stage. Adoption Stage: During the period 1972-1975, 55 per cent enrolled in one or more activities with one adult in four participating in any one year. Six per cent enrolled in at least one activity during a l l four years and could thus be considered persistent attenders. The adoption process is also described in a four-stage model proposed by Rogers in 1971, and the findings from each stage in this model provide a contrast to those of the earlier model. 139 Knowledge Stage: Knowledge about adult education was widely d i f f u s e d . Some 80 per cent knew where classes were held and how to enrol. More than 90 per cent had seen advertising and knew what was taught. Persuasion Stage: In general, the respondents indicated that they held favorable attitudes toward adult education. They thought i t was convenient, and preferable to attempting to learn on t h e i r own. Most believed they could enrol without much d i f f i c u l t y and that they could drop out of classes without much lo s s . Decision Stage: Three out of four subjects had thought about some s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y and then decided not to attend. Fifty-seVen per cent reported completing one or more courses within the previous f i v e years, and 18 per cent reported having dropped out of a cl a s s . Confirmation Stage: Some 50 per cent reported that they planned to enrol i n the future, while only 14 per cent reported that they d e f i n i t e l y did not and of these, s i x per cent reported doing something else i n the time formerly used f o r adult education. Unpleasant experiences i n adult education courses were reported by 18 per cent of the sample. Adoption Scores Respondents were assigned adoption scores which were derived from the scores i n the various stages of the adoption process. Thus the adoption score measures the degree of the involvement i n adult education and places 140 adults on a continuum between those who are unaware to those who p a r t i c i p a t e i n several adult education a c t i v i t i e s each year. These adoption scores were used p r i m a r i l y as dependent va r i a b l e s . The mean adoption score for the five-stage model was 9.93 (standard deviation = 3.73) and for the four-stage model - i t was 11.29 (standard deviation = 2.70). Since the range was zero to twenty and since the scores were reasonably well d i s t r i b u t e d , two useful o r d i n a l scales resulted. Adopter Categories The analysis of the population by adopter categories indicates that i n d i v i d u a l s i n each group can be characterized as follows: early adopters were the busiest, the best educated and had the most desire to learn and to enjoy themselves. The early majority d i f f e r from the early adopters i n that t h e i r i n t e r e s t s were pr i m a r i l y i n hobbies and i n being entertained. The l a t e majority have some i n t e r e s t s i n learning,a-hobby or something new but otherwise t h e i r motivation i s low and there i s some evidence that they consider the fees to be too high. F i n a l l y , the laggards have the le a s t education and the le a s t motivation to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education programs. P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education Fifty-seven per cent had enrolled i n one or more a c t i v i t i e s within the f i v e years p r i o r to the interview and 70 per cent had enrolled at some time during t h e i r adult l i f e . Because of the extensive opportunities a v a i l a b l e to residents of the t r a c t surveyed, these data may not be applicable elsewhere; nonetheless i n the t r a c t surveyed, only 30 per cent had never 141 taken part i n any adult education program. A p a r t i c i p a t i o n score was calculated by summing the number of courses taken during the period 1971-1975 i n c l u s i v e . Since up to three courses per year were included, the score ranged from zero to f i f t e e n . The mean score was 1.89 with a standard deviation of 2.47. The p a r t i c i p a t i o n score was used as a dependent v a r i a b l e i n some analyses. Variance i n the Adoption Scores The goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the respon-dents explained about one f i f t h of the variance i n adoption scores. When the five-stage adoption score i s the dependent v a r i a b l e i n a stepwise r e -gression analysis and the goals, b a r r i e r s and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the respondents are the independent v a r i a b l e s , educational l e v e l and the desire to learn something new are the two v a r i a b l e s which explained 18 per cent of the variance i n that adoption score. In a p a r a l l e l regression analysis with the four-stage model when that adoption score was the dependent v a r i a b l e , the age of the respondent, t h e i r educational l e v e l and t h e i r desire to learn something new explained 21 per cent of the variance i n the four-stage adoption score. Thus those who progress furthest through the adoption stages have the most formal education and the most desire to learn. It seems that those who receive the most education i n t h e i r youth are more l i k e l y to want to learn as adults, and are more l i k e l y to know about, to consider, and to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education. Variance i n the P a r t i c i p a t i o n Score In order to test the basic hypothesis, the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score was used as the dependent v a r i a b l e i n a regression analysis and the goals, b a r r i e r s , personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s and the 20 adoption v a r i a b l e s not 142 measuring p a r t i c i p a t i o n were the independent v a r i a b l e s . Eight independent variables explained 57.9 per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. Of that 57.9 per cent, 47.7 per cent was accounted for by adoption v a r i a b l e s , 4.1 per cent by goals, 6.1 per cent by b a r r i e r s and none of the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were selected. It i s clear that the adoption variables best explained p a r t i c i p a t i o n and i t i s important to note the f i v e adoption v a r i a b l e s are widely d i s t r i b u t e d throughout the adoption stages. CONCLUSIONS The p r i n c i p l e objective of t h i s study was to determine whether or not the research methodology developed to study the adoption of innova-tions was more suitable f or the study of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n community adult education programs than i s i n v e s t i g a t i n g the motivation and personal chara-c t e r i s t i c s of adults. Adult education studies have tended to assume that an adult compares his needs to the o f f e r i n g s i n an adult education program and chooses the most sui t a b l e a c t i v i t y which he then attends. Such a decision has been assumed by scholars and p r a c t i t i o n e r s to. occur e s s e n t i a l l y i n one step. In contrast, adoption research conceptualizes a ser i e s of steps or stages which occur over time. This study sought to determine either that the acceptance of adult education i s a one-step decision, i n which case the t r a d i t i o n a l ideas would be supported, or that acceptance takes place i n a seri e s of decisions i n which case the adoption of innovations model would be supported. 143 Adoption Process The various s t a t i s t i c a l analyses reported indicate that the acceptance of adult education i s a process that can be described as occurring i n stages. There are numerous in d i c a t i o n s that a v a l i d means of measuring the adoption of adult education could be developed, con-sequently, the methodology for assessing the adoption of innovation would appear to be s u i t a b l e to investigate p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. This was approached i n t h i s study by considering adult education to be a s i n g l e innovation and i n v e s t i g a t i n g each stage i n d e t a i l but, a l t e r n a t i v e l y , adult education could have been divided into a number of innovations following t r a d i t i o n a l methods of assessing an adoption score. The l a t t e r procedure may be worthy of i n v e s t i g a t i o n . Although adults who p a r t i c i p a t e seem to be involved i n the adoption stages, t h i s study has not attempted to e s t a b l i s h either the sequencing of the stages nor the timing of them. It i s unclear, for example, whether the persistent p a r t i c i p a n t obtains most of h i s knowledge before taking h i s f i r s t course, or whether he acquires knowledge throughout the process of attending or even thereafter. Even though t h i s study raises questions about the adoption of adult education which cannot be answered from the data a v a i l a b l e , i t has provided r e s u l t s which suggest that a multi-stage adoption process would provide a more accurate and d e t a i l e d analysis of the decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education. One-Step Model This study indicates that p a r t i c i p a t i o n r e s u l t s from a decision process which occurs i n more than one step or stage. Since the goals and 144 b a r r i e r s examined do not adequately explain the variance i n the p a r t i c i -pation score, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to argue that motivational factors, explain p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Nor does a single factor explain the variance i n p a r t i c i -pation. Thus, a model which assumes a one-step d e c i s i o n i n which an adult considers goals and b a r r i e r s while deciding among the a c t i v i t i e s a v a i l a b l e i s not substantiated by t h i s study. On the other hand, neither i s the evidence s u f f i c i e n t l y complete to r e j e c t such a model c a t e g o r i c a l l y . U t i l i t y of the Adoption Variables The u t i l i t y of the adoption variables has been assessed p r i m a r i l y on the basis of t h e i r r e l a t i o n s h i p to the adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. In addition, those variables which when taken together, explained 48 per cent of the variance on the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score were considered to be p a r t i c u l a r l y s a t i s f a c t o r y . On that basis the following subjective judgement has been made of the u t i l i t y of the variables as measured.* 1. Very s a t i s f a c t o r y variables - Knowledge of what i s taught - Making a phone enquiry - Attitude that adult education i s convenient - Deciding not to, attend a s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y - Intention to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the future - P a r t i c i p a t i o n during 1972 - P a r t i c i p a t i o n during 1973 - P a r t i c i p a t i o n during 1974 - P a r t i c i p a t i o n during 1975 * See Appendix A 145 Reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y variables - Knowledge of when a c t i v i t i e s are held - Knowledge of how a c t i v i t i e s are advertised - Browsing through advertising - Thinking about advantages and disadvantages of adult education - Being encouraged to enrol by others - Giving advice to others - Knowledge of how to enrol - Attitude that adult education has r e l a t i v e advantage - Attitude that adult education i s not complex - Dropping out of an a c t i v i t y - Completing an a c t i v i t y - Reporting unpleasant experiences with adult education Unsatisfactory - Knowledge of where a c t i v i t i e s were held - Writing a l e t t e r of enquiry - Talking to others about adult education - Being discouraged from e n r o l l i n g - A t t i t u d e that adult education i s observable i n the community Very unsatisfactory - Reporting f i r s t enrolment was a t r i a l - E n r o l l i n g but not attending - Attitude that dropping out does not involve loss to p a r t i c i -pant - E n r o l l i n g i n a class which was cancelled for lack of enr o l -ment 146 - Reporting d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n with a c t i v i t i e s - Reporting replacement of adult education with other a c t i v i t i e s - Reporting unanticipated consequences U t i l i t y of An Adoption Model Perhaps the greatest p o t e n t i a l of the adoption models i s the framework they o f f e r for unifying p a r t i c i p a t i o n research so that the rel a t i o n s h i p s between variables can be investigated systematically. I f the adoption model were to be used extensively, studies on any one element i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n need not be done i n i s o l a t i o n since a standardized adoption score could be a l i n k among studies. Basic Hypothesis The variables used i n t h i s study which assess the early adoption stages c l e a r l y explain v a r i a t i o n s i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n rates better than do the variables which asssess the motivation or the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the respondents. Thus i t seems that those who know about adult education, who express at t i t u d e s toward the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education, and report communicating about adult education are most l i k e l y to have high p a r t i c i p a t i o n rates. In contrast the r e s u l t s do not indic a t e strongly that those who p a r t i c i p a t e can be d i f f e r e n t i a t e d from those who do not on the basis of the ratings which they give to the goals f o r p a r t i c i p a t i n g or the b a r r i e r s they see i n h i b i t i n g such p a r t i c i p a t i o n . In the main, variance i n personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s do not seem to make i t possible to d i f f e r e n t i a t e between p a r t i c i p a n t s and non-participants except that i n some analysis p a r t i c i p a n t s seem to be better educated.. 147 When the adoption of innovation methodology i s applied to adult education, p a r t i c i p a t i o n by the adult i n courses or other a c t i v i t i e s i s the climax toward which the process b u i l d s . Thus measurements of the adoption process i n adult education can never be completely independent of p a r t i c i p a t i o n measures. The important difference i s that assessing an adoption score necessitates consideration of a decision process which may take long enough to measure i n years whereas assessing p a r t i c i p a t i o n involves simply recording the r e s u l t s , i f any, of that decision process. This study indicates that the studying of the ent i r e decision process by using adoption models i s a more powerful methodology than simply studying the r e s u l t s by using p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. SUGGESTIONS FOR INCREASING PARTICIPATION The a p p l i c a t i o n of the adoption model to the study of adult education has made i t possible to suggest administrative procedures which should r e s u l t i n both greater p a r t i c i p a t i o n and a broader c l i e n t e l e than was possible by viewing p a r t i c i p a t i o n uni-dimensionally. The t r a d i t i o n a l viewpoint of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s seldom stated e x p l i c i t l y but i t appears to assume that adults have learning needs that administrators should assess and then organize programs to match those needs. Although t h i s t r a d i t i o n a l strategy may appear to have been successful i n es t a b l i s h i n g adult education and although a few administrators have done much more than program, advertise and hope, t h i s study suggests that administrators, can i n i t i a t e actions appropriate to each stage i n the adoption process that w i l l lead to even greater p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The f o l l o w i n suggestions are matched to the appropriate stages. Adult educators seem to have been successful i n d i f f u s i n g knowledg 148 about what adult education i s , where i t i s held, what i s a v a i l a b l e , how to enrol and how to f i n d and use program advertisements. Mass Media, mostly p r i n t , have been used quite e f f e c t i v e l y for t h i s purpose and adult educators are therefore j u s t i f i e d i n b e l i e v i n g that t h e i r advertising has made almost every adult aware of adult education. The a t t i t u d e of the public toward adult education i s only s l i g h t l y favorable. Since attitudes tend to influence adoption, i t i s important that adults be encouraged to have more p o s i t i v e a t t i t u d e s . Improving attitudes involves more than simply improving public r e l a t i o n s . A genuine attempt must be made to a l t e r the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of a c t i v i t i e s so that there i s a better product to adopt. But even though programs may be improved, changing negative attitudes into p o s i t i v e a t t i t u d e s i s seldom achieved without inter-personal communication. Rather than changing att i t u d e s toward adult education i n general, i t w i l l be more e f f e c t i v e to improve attitudes toward the f i v e important c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adult education as an innovation. The r e s u l t s of th i s study suggest that improving attitudes toward the following f i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of adults should increase p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n any given program. Relative advantage r e l a t e s to the degree to which adult education i s better than alternate forms of learning such as s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning or f u l l - t i m e t r a i n i n g . Adults need to be aware of the greater e f f i c i e n c y that can r e s u l t from adult education over s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning and of the economic and s o c i a l advantages of part-time p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Although t h i s may be accomplished through the printed word with the better educated, other adults w i l l require more personal communication. The more personal the contact the more l i k e l y i t i s that a favorable a t t i t u d e change w i l l occur. 149 Compatibility r e l a t e s to the degree to which adult education i s consistent with e x i s t i n g values, experiences and needs. L i s t s of courses and t h e i r descriptions received i n advertisements are u n l i k e l y to convince the under-educated that adult education would f i t into t h e i r l i f e s t y l e . Community development or the community school concepts may be more e f f e c t i v e not only for the under-educatedr.no t':now::involvedibut also f o r those p a r t i c i p a t i n g on a l i m i t e d basis. T r i a l a b i l i t y r e l a t e s to the degree to which adult education may be t r i e d on a l i m i t e d basis without a high l e v e l of commitment. This could be met by advertising that the f i r s t session i s free and that fees would not be c o l l e c t e d immediately. Although t h i s would be inconsistent with present procedures, i t would give programs greater t r i a l a b i l i t y . Since t r a d i t i o n a l pattern of courses require a commitment many adults cannot or w i l l not make, a-variety.of program \"formats would increase the al t e r n a -t i v e s a v a i l a b l e so that those adults with l i t t l e or no experience ^ in. adult.: education could be introduced to i t . Observability r e l a t e s to the degree to which the r e s u l t s of the innovation are v i s i b l e . Since adult education takes place i n schools, colleges, churches and other f a c i l i t i e s which are pr i m a r i l y associated with a c t i v i t i e s other than adult education and since learning cannot be observed d i r e c t l y , the consequences of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i n a community can be almost i n v i s i b l e . Administrators of programs can arrange displays of c r a f t work by adult students. Newspaper a r t i c l e s describing a c t i v i t i e s can also ensure the increased v i s i b i l i t y of programs and of the r e s u l t s of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n them. Complexity i s the degree to which an innovation i s perceived as 150 d i f f i c u l t to understand and use. Complex p r e - r e g i s t r a t i o n or enrolment procedures make programs appear more complex and thus le s s acceptable to the less educated. C l e a r l y any e f f o r t to ease access to programs w i l l make them l e s s complex and should make them more accessible and acceptable to those adults not previously involved. Decisions about p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education programs offered by formal educational i n s t i t u t i o n s usually occur i n September, January or A p r i l , that i s immediately preceding the program s t a r t i n g dates. Thus the adult must reach a decision during a fixed and l i m i t e d time periodJ consequently, i f he i s unaware of that period, he may have to postpone his p a r t i c i p a t i o n for up to f i v e months. Undoubtedly many adults can adjust t h e i r learning requirements to such patterns, but those with le s s motivation and education are proabably le s s i n c l i n e d to do so. The r e s u l t s of t h i s study ind i c a t e that greater programming f l e x i b i l i t y would probably increase enrolments. Although the 32 goals and b a r r i e r s analyzed i n t h i s study have some influence on decisions to p a r t i c i p a t e , involvement i n the early stages of the adoption process have considerably more influence. Thus helping adults understand the process of adopting adult education would seem more f r u i t f u l than t r y i n g to convince them that the b a r r i e r s to p a r t i c i p a t i o n are minimal and that adult education w i l l f a c i l i t a t e the achievement of t h e i r goals. Adults obviously learn much about the advantages and disadvantages of adult education while they are p a r t i c i p a t i n g . Although excellent i n s t r u c t i o n occurs i n adult education programs, many i n s t r u c t o r s f a i l to u t i l i z e the best techniques for i n s t r u c t i n g adults. In-service t r a i n i n g f or p o t e n t i a l and active i n s t r u c t o r s would be h e l p f u l and administrators have a 1 5 1 r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to provide t h i s to ensure well organized learning experiences. Such experiences w i l l generate enthusiasm among pa r t i c i p a n t s which w i l l have an e f f e c t on both attitudes and on future decisions concerning p a r t i c i -pation. There i s always pressure on administrators to organize a c t i v i t e s , to advertise and to enrol an ever increasing number of adults. I t i s easy to assume that i f large numbers of p a r t i c i p a n t s are attracted, then the program must be meeting the needs or goals of adults. This cycle can go on i n d e f i n i t e l y and i s undoubtedly one reason for the pervasiveness of the \"organize, advertise and hope\" s t y l e of program planning. This study i n d i c a t e s , however, that improving at t i t u d e s of adults toward adult education, that easing the decision to enrol, and that ensuring the s a t i s f a c t i o n of those who p a r t i c i p a t e are a l l more l i k e l y strategies to ensure optimum enrolments than i s concentrating on improving printed advertising. None..of the suggestions made i n t h i s section are new, but the o v e r a l l approach i s . The basic strategy suggested i s to continue mass media adve r t i s i n g to ensure knowledge; to improve the product and promote i t through interpersonal communication so as to produce more favorable a t t i t u d e s ; to make i t easy for c l i e n t s to follow through on a decision to enrol; to make such a decision more a t t r a c t i v e than alternate behaviors; and f i n a l l y to ensure that those who p a r t i c i p a t e are anxious to re-enrol by organizing well i n s t r u c t e d and administered a c t i v i t i e s . If t h i s strategy i s followed, i t seems reasonable to expect greater p a r t i c i p a t i o n . I t i s not easy to follow these recommendations but i f appropriate action i s taken even on a piecemeal basis, more adults should learn to use adult education as the innovation which meets t h e i r requirements for learning. 152 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS The study of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education has been associated with the concept of needs. The needs met by adult education are assumed to be analogous to the t h i r s t f o r water. Since the t h i r s t f o r water can be quenched by providing water, i t seems l o g i c a l to assume that learning needs can be s a t i s f i e d by the provision of adult education so that a l l that i s required to ensure p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s programs that contain a c t i v i t i e s appropriate for the needs. When a program a t t r a c t s a large number of p a r t i c i p a n t s , i t i s almost impossible to r e s i s t the obvious conclusion that the program must be meeting the needs of those p a r t i c i p a n t s . This p a r s i -monious theory of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s so a t t r a c t i v e that i t i s seldom questioned. The equation that a need plus an appropriate a c t i v i t y equals p a r t i c i p a t i o n does not provide an adequate explanation of the phenomenon of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. Nor does i t provide a basis for any extensive analysis of the process involved i n deciding to p a r t i c i p a t e . Consequently, i t has not been possible to develop any fundamental theory of p a r t i c i p a t i o n that can integrate e x i s t i n g empirical evidence or provide a framework leading to the discovery of new facts about p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. Although t h i s study has not led to a general theory of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education i t has introduced the p o s s i b i l i t y f o r general theory development at a l e v e l beyond the simple needs-program explanation. Further-more, i t suggests that the search for a theory of p a r t i c i p a t i o n must extend beyond the simple attendance or not dichotomy and into the complex area of the acceptance and adoption of innovations for a more complete i n v e s t i g a t i o n and explanation of p a r t i c i p a t i o n . 153 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH If the adoption of innovations concept i s to be used to i n v e s t i -gate p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education, i t w i l l be necessary to develop a v a l i d and r e l i a b l e instrument for measuring adoption scores. Some of the required variables have been i s o l a t e d i n t h i s study but a d d i t i o n a l v a r i a b l e s need to be i d e n t i f i e d . In general, the four-stage seems to be more prom-i s i n g than the five-stage model. By factor a n a l y z i n g ; a l l the variables.: r e l a t e d to, but not d i r e c t l y measuring, participation,, i t might be possible to develop a more fu n c t i o n a l model. Although such a model might not be i d e n t i c a l with the adoption models, i t could account for those complexities of adult education which are unlike the r e l a t i v e l y simple innovations usually investigated by the adoption concept. Since the adoption of innovations concept i s one way of analysing the decision making process, and since i t appears to r e f l e c t the decision to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education, i t would be wise to t e s t d e c i s i o n models from other d i s c i p l i n e s to adult education. It i s e n t i r e l y possible that such models could be superior i n explaining variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n rates. In any case, further research with adoption models seems promising. It i s unclear, for example, whether the adoption stages are p r i m a r i l y sequen-t i a l or whether they occur simultaneously. It i s also unclear how adults cycle back into the process a f t e r each enrolment or how r e j e c t i o n and discon-tinuation function i n r e l a t i o n to p a r t i c i p a t i o n . One l i m i t a t i o n of t h i s research project was the conceptualization of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education was a si n g l e innovation. Thus p a r t i c i p a -t i o n i n a l l a c t i v i t i e s were assumed to be equal. That i s p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n ) 154 college courses was equated with p u b l i c school courses as was basket weaving with physics. I t might be useful to compare the adoption scores of those who p a r t i c i p a t e at d i f f e r e n t i n s t i t u t i o n s or those who take d i f f e r e n t categories of courses, or indeed those who study under d i f f e r e n t methods of i n s t r u c t i o n . Categorizing v a r i a b l e s into groups and as dependent or independent variables was unsatisfactory. To a large measure, the d i f f i c u l t y a r i s e s because p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s a narrow concept which i s an i n t e g r a l part of a broader concept c a l l e d adoption. Thus, i n some cases, the goals and b a r r i e r s seem comparable to the variables used to measure adoption. The extent to which t h i s problem a c t u a l l y e x i s t s can be investigated by factor analyzing appropriate variables from a l l categories and then comparing the factors so derived to the variables categories used i n the study. In general, the assumption that p a r t i c i p a t i o n can be described as a decision process seems j u s t i f i e d . Which decision model i s most suit a b l e , and how i t can be best applied seems worthwhile topics for further research. 155 Chapter VII FOOTNOTES 1. Everett Rogers and Floyd Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations. (New York, 1971), p. 103. 156 BIBLIOGRAPHY Alleyne, Patrick and Coolie Verner. Personal Contacts and the Adoption of Innovations. (Vancouver, 1969.) Anderson, D a r r e l l and John A. Niemi. Adult Education and the Disadvantaged Adult. (Syracuse, 1969.) Barnett, H.G. Innovation: The Basis of C u l t u r a l Change. (New York, 1953.) B i e r r i n g , James e t . a l . U.B.C. MVTAB: Mu l t i v a r i a t e Contingency Tabulations. (Vancouver, 1974.) B i e r r i n g , James and Paul Seagraves. U.B.C. TRIP: Triangular Regression Package. (Vancouver, 1974.) Blunt, Adrian. P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n an Indian Adult Education Program. (Vancouver, 1974.) Bohlen, Joe. \"Research Needed on Adoption Models\" i n D i f f u s i o n Research Needs. (University of Missouri, A g r i c u l t u r a l Experimental Station, undated.) Boshier, Roger. \"Motivational Orientations of Adult P a r t i c i p a n t s : A Factor A n a l y t i c a l Exploration of Houle's Typology.\" Adult Education 21:3-26,(1971.) Brunner, Edmund de S. e t . a l . An Overview of Adult Education Research. (Chicago, 1959.) Burgess, Paul. \"Reasons f o r Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Group Educational A c t i v i t i e s . \" Adult Education 22: 3-29,(1971.) Dickinson, Gary e t . a l . Adult Education i n B r i t i s h Columbia. (Vancouver, 1973.) Dickinson, Gary and Coolie Verner. \"Attendance Patterns and Dropouts i n Night School Classes.\" Adult Education, 19: 24-33,(1967.) Dickinson, Gary and Coolie Verner. Community Structure and P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education. REE Monograph 3. (Ottawa, 1971.) Drever, James. A Dictionary of Psychology. (Harmondsworth, 1952.) Festinger, Leon. When Prophesy Fails..(New York, 1956.) Fraser, D.C. Basic Concepts i n Modern Psychology. (Cambridge, 1963.) Goard, Dean and Gary Dickinson. The Influence of Education and Age on Pa r t i c i p a n t s In Rural Adult Education. REE Monograph 5. (Ottawa, 1971.) Graham, Saxon. \"Class Conservatism i n the Adoption of Innovations.\" Human Relations. 9: 91-100,(1956.) 157 Gu i l f o r d , J.P. and Benjamin Fruchter. Fundamental S t a t i s t i c s i n Psychology and Education. (New York, 1973.) Halm, Jason. U.B.C.: CORN: Parametric and Non-Parametric Correlations and Tests of Significance. (Vancouver, 1975.) Halm, Jason. U.B.C. BMD07M: Stepwise Discriminant Analysis. (Vancouver, 1975.) Halm, Jason. U.B.C. BMD0P4M: Factor Analysis. (Vancouver, 1974.) Havighurst, Robert. \"Changing Status and Roles during the Adult L i f e Cycle: Significance for Adults.\" i n S o c i o l o g i c a l Backgrounds of Adult Education. Edited by Herbert W. Burns. Notes and Essays on Education for Adults No. 41. (Syracuse, 1964.) Houle, CO. The Enquiring Mind. (Madison, 1961.) Johnstone, J.W.C. and R.J. Rivera, Volunteers for Learning. (Chicago, 1965.) Kahn, Robert L. and Charles F. Cannell. The Dynamics of Interviewing. (New York, 1959.) Kaplan, Abraham. Socio-Economic Circumstances and Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n . (New York, 1943.) Kretch, David e t . a l . Individual i n Society. (New York, 1962.) Lamoureux, Marvin. \"Threshold P r i c i n g i n University Continuing Education.\" Unpublished Ed.D. d i s s e r t a t i o n , U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1975. Lindsay, Peter H. and Donald A. Norman. An Introduction to Psychology. (San Diego, 1972.) Linton, Ralph. The Study of Man. (New York, 1936.) Lionberger, Herbert. Adoption of New Ideas and Pr a c t i c e s. (Ames, 1960.) London, Jack. \"The Relevance of the Study of Sociology to Adult Education P r a c t i c e . \" i n Gale Jensen, A.A. L i v e r i g h t , and Wilbur Hallenbeck, Adult Education, Outlines of an Emerging F i e l d of University Study. (Chicago, 1964.) Lowenstein, Susan. \"A Study of the Components of Future P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education Programs.\" (Co-operative Extension Services, Un i v e r s i t y of Nebraska, Mimeographed and not dated.) McKinnon, Donald. \"A Comparison of Distances Travelled to Urban Night School Centers.\" Unpublished M.Ed, th e s i s . The Univ e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966. 158 Melton, James. \"The Influence of Course Locations on Distances Travelled by P a r t i c i p a n t s i n Urban Adult Evening Classes.\" Unpublished M.Ed, thesis , The Univ e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966. Merton, Robert. S o c i a l Theory and So c i a l Structure. (New York, 1968.) Pattyson, Jack. \"The Influence of Certain Factors on Attendance i n Public School Adult Education Programs.\" Unpublished Ed.D. d i s s e r t a t i o n , F l o r i d a State University, 1961. P h i l l i p s , Bernard S. So c i a l Research Strategy and Ta c t i c s . (New York, 1971.) Riesman, David. The Lonely Crowd. (New York, 1950.) Rogers, E v e r e l l . D i f f u s i o n of Innovations. (New York, 1962.) Rogers, Everett. Modernization Among Peasants. (New York, 1969.) Roger, E v e r e l l and Floyd Shoemaker. Communication of Innovations. (New York, 1971.) Skinner, B.F. Science and Human Behavior. (New York, 1953.) Stevens, S.S. \"A Metric f o r the S o c i a l Consensus.\" Science 151: 430-541,(1966.) Verner, Coolie. \" D e f i n i t i o n of Terms\" i n Gale Jensen, A.A. L i v e r i g h t and Wilbur Hallenbeck, Adult Education, Outlines of an Emerging F i e l d of Unive r s i t y Study. (Chicago, 1964.) Verner, Coolie. Planning and Conducting a Survey: A Case Study. (Ottawa: Rural Development Branch, Department of Forestry and Rural Development, 1967.). Verner, Coolie and Alan Booth. Adult Education. (Washington, 1964.) Verner, Coolie and Frank M i l l e r d . Adult Education and the Adoption of Innovations by Orchardists i n the Okanagan Val l e y of B r i t i s h Columbia. (Vancouver, 1966.) Verner, Coolie and John A. Newberry J r . \"The Nature of Adult P a r t i c i p a t i o n . \" Adult Education, 81208-222,( 1958.) Verner, Coolie and Margaret Neylan. \"Patterns of Attendance i n Adult Night School Courses.\" Canadian Education and Research Digest. 6:230-240,(1966.) 159 THE APPENDICES The appendices are included p r i m a r i l y f o r the scholar interested i n the adoption of innovation research techniques and/or i n using magnitude estimation to assess v a r i a b l e s . APPENDIX A The Adoption Variables APPENDIX B The Interview Schedule APPENDIX C Where Adults Attended 160 APPENDIX A THE ADOPTION VARIABLES The appropriate strategy f o r developing an adoption score would have been to take about twenty variables to assess each stage. Unfortun-ate l y , t h i s was not so obvious when the interview schedule was prepared. Those va r i a b l e s which were used are assessed and c l a s s i f i e d i n t h i s appendix so as to provide guidance i n the preparation of a standardized four-stage adoption score. The variables used to assess the five-stage model are also c l a s s i f i e d since some of them might be included i n a future interview schedule. FIVE-STAGE MODEL Awareness Stage 1. What do you think adult education i s? Since 99 of the 100 respondents could give an adequate d e s c r i p t i o n of adult education t h i s item was unsatisfactory and should be replaced. 2. Do you know where such adult education classes are held i n Surrey? A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item which should be retained since i t i s r e l a t e d to adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. 3. Do you know what kind of things are taught? A very s a t i s f a c t o r y item since i t was one of the f i v e which explained 48 per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and since i t i s re l a t e d to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption scores. 4. Do you know how adult education i s advertised i n Surrey? 161 A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item since i t i s rel a t e d to the p a r t i c i -pation and adoption scores. Interest Stage 1. Have you ever made a phone c a l l to enquire about adult education? Since t h i s was one of the f i v e v a r i a b l e s which explained forty-eight per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and since i t i s strongly r e l a t e d to both the adoption scores i t can be rated as a very s a t i s f a c t o r y v a r i a b l e . 2. Have you ever written a l e t t e r enquiring about adult education or correspondence courses? Very few (8%) had written such l e t t e r s and such behavior was not rel a t e d to eit h e r p a r t i c i p a t i o n or the four-stage adoption score. This i s an unsatisfactory v a r i a b l e . 3. Have you ever talked with friends or acquaintances about the courses which they are taking? Such behavior i s r e l a t e d to adoption scores but since i t i s not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score i t seems unsatisfactory. Perhaps re-wording would be appropriate i n future studies. 4. Have you ever browsed through l i s t s of courses i n the same way you look at Eaton's catalogue? Since browsing i s r e l a t e d to both p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption scores, i t i s a reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item. Perhaps putting a time l i m i t would be desirable. 162 Evaluation Stage 1. Sometime during the past f i v e years have you taken time to think about the advantages and disadvantages of taking part i n adult education? Those who had done so had s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption scores, thus t h i s i s a reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item. 2. Has anyone ever encouraged you to take part i n adult education? Since h a l f (49%) reported being encouraged and since encouragement i s r e l a t e d to adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores, i t i s a reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y v a r i a b l e . 3. Has anyone discouraged you from taking part i n adult education? Since being discouraged i s not r e l a t e d to e i t h e r the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score, the adoption scores, nor the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the respondents and since i t occurred infrequently (6%), i t should be considered an unsatisfactory v a r i a b l e . Nonetheless, i t i s a l o g i c a l v a r i a b l e and should probably receive further consideration before dropping i t from a future adoption score. Perhaps i t should be re-worded. 4. Have you given advice to others about taking part i n adult education? Advice giving i s strongly re l a t e d to adoption scores and to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score i n d i c a t i n g that t h i s i s at least a reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y v a r i a b l e . T r i a l Stage 1. Have you ever taken part i n adult education on a t r i a l basis? (The interviewer probed the responses to ensure accuracy). 163 Only 24 per cent of 57 pa r t i c i p a n t s reported going through such a t r i a l stage and such a report was not related to either the adoption or p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. This was a revealing item but for assessing adoption i t was very unsatisfactory. 2. Have you ever enrolled i n a class which was cancelled for lack of enrolment? (Responses taken from table recording p a r t i c i p a t i o n ) . Reported by only one per cent and seems very unsatisfactory. 3. Have you ever dropped out of an a c t i v i t y ? (Responses taken from table recording p a r t i c i p a t i o n ) . Reported by 18 per cent of the respondents but considering the responses to the f i r s t v a r i a b l e i n t h i s stage, i t seems a very unsatisfacory item. 4. Have you ever completed an adult education a c t i v i t y ? (Responses taken from table recording p a r t i c i p a t i o n ) . The comments for the t h i r d question i n t h i s stage apply equally to t h i s very unsatisfactory question.. Note: The assessment of the t r i a l stage i n t h i s study i s compatible with the hypothesis that t r i a l i s not a necessary pre-condition for adoption. Under these circumstances assessing t r i a l i n a v a l i d manner may not be f e a s i b l e . Thus using the five-stage model to assess adult education does not seem p r a c t i c a l i f the goal i s to develop a standard-ized scale which i s both v a l i d and r e l i a b l e . Adoption Stage 1 to 4. The variables used to assess t h i s stage taken from the table recording p a r t i c i p a t i o n . The question was \"During the l a s t 164 f i v e years have you v o l u n t a r i l y attended any part-time a c t i v i t i e s l i k e those l i s t e d on t h i s card? (Card was shown l i s t i n g programs). One point on the adoption score was given for enrolment i n any year 1972 through 1975. Since t h i s procedure measures p a r t i c i p a t i o n d i r e c t l y and since i t also measures adoption d i r e c t l y , c o r r e l a t i o n s with the adoption and p a r t i c i -pation scores are l o g i c a l l y meaningless. Although s t a t i s t i c a l evidence i s lacking, there i s every l o g i c a l reason to believe that these four variables assess adoption s a t i s f a c t o r i l y . General Suggestions Developing a standardized adoption score for adult education based on the five-stage model does not seem promising. I t would be more useful to u t i l i z e some of the more s a t i s f a c t o r y variables i n that model and incor-porate them i n the four-stage model. FOUR-STAGE MODEL Knowledge Stage 1 to 4. The same items as i n the awareness stage of four-stage model. See comments there. 5. Do you know how to enrol i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s ? A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y question since the responses are s i g n i f i -cantly correlated with appropriate stage,.adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. 165 Persuasion Stage A l l f i v e items i n t h i s stage are scaled by the L i k e r t method. Respondents were handed a card l i s t i n g the f i v e responses. Each of the f i v e items was designed to assess an a t t i t u d e i n one of the f i v e character-i s t i c s of an innovation. Although the procedure seems promising, the design of the items proved le s s s a t i s f a c t o r y . 1. Adult education i s better than t r y i n g to \"learn on your own.\" A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item since i t i s strongly re l a t e d to the adoption and p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. Relationships with other a t t i t u d e items and stage scores also ind i c a t e v a l i d i t y . Learning on your own does seem to be the l o g i c a l other choice for the adult but only f i v e per cent indicated preference for s e l f directed i n s t r u c t i o n . It i s d i f f i c u l t to be c e r t a i n that t h i s item measures r e l a t i v e advantage. 2. Taking part i n adult education i s very inconvenient. Very s a t i s f a c t o r y i n that i t was one of the variables which, i n combination with four others, explains f o r t y - e i g h t per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. S i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n s indicate i t s r e l a t i o n -ship to adoption scores, stage scores and to other persuasion items i n a pattern i n d i c a t i n g that i t i s a v a l i d measure. But i t was designed to measure compat i b i l i t y and convenience i s only one element i n compatibility. Perhaps several items would be required to adequately assess compatibility. 3. A l o t of \"red tape\" i s involved i n e n r o l l i n g i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s . A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y item i n that responses are related to the adoptionrscores-,'.'the p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores and toistage .'scores.••• The assumption 1 6 6 i s that \"red tape\" i n e n r o l l i n g equals complexity and t h i s assumption, though d i f f i c u l t to substantiate s t a t i s t i c a l l y , seems reasonable. 4. If you s t a r t an adult education a c t i v i t y and don't l i k e i t , nothing i s l o s t i f you quit. A very unsatisfactory item for two reasons. Many respondents ei t h e r found i t d i f f i c u l t to understand or said that you should f i n i s h anything you s t a r t . The various c o r r e l a t i o n s are not s i g n i f i c a n t , probably because of the confusion over the meaning of the question. The item was designed to assess t r i a l a b i l i t y of adult education but i t c l e a r l y does not do so. Considering the lack of substantiation for a t r i a l stage, i t i s unclear whether an item could be so worded as to assess t r i a l a b i l i t y . It i s possible, of course, that the unrelatedness of the item i s i n part explained by the small number of respondents i n d i c a t i n g a t r i a l stage. If t h i s i s the explanation, then any item i n t r i a l a b i l i t y w i l l be i n v a l i d . 5. Most people I t a l k to seem to know something about adult education. An unsatisfactory item i n that i t i s r e l a t e d to the five-stage adoption score but not to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. Other s t a t i s t i c a l evidence indicates both s i g n i f i c a n t and non-significant r e l a t i o n s h i p s . The problem now appears to be the vague wording. The key words, \"something about\", seemed confusing. Note: Although three of the persuasion variables seem v a l i d , a l l f i v e d i s t r i b u t i o n s of responses were skewed. It would probably be necessary to develop a large number of a t t i t u d e items, incorporate them i n a study, and f a c t o r analyze the r e s u l t s before v a l i d and r e l i a b l e a t t i t u d e questions could be developed. The r e s u l t s of t h i s study indicate that 167 such an e f f o r t would be worthwhile. Decision Stage Of the f i v e items, the four which indicate p o s i t i v e decisions were scaled from the p a r t i c i p a t i o n table. The negative decision item was asked as a question. 1. E n r o l l i n g i n an a c t i v i t y and then not attending. This behavior was not reported by any respondent and i s obviously a very unsatisfactory v a r i a b l e . 2. E n r o l l i n g i n a cla s s which was cancelled for lack of enrolment. Since t h i s behavior was reported by only one respondent, i t i s also a very unsatisfactory v a r i a b l e . 3. Dropping out of an a c t i v i t y . Reported by 18 per cent but d i f f i c u l t to estimate the u t i l i t y of t h i s v a r i a b l e s t a t i s t i c a l l y . It seems reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y . 4. Completing one or more a c t i v i t i e s . Reported by 51 per cent but also d i f f i c u l t to estimate s t a t i s t i c a l l y . I t seems reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y . 5. During the past f i v e years have you thought s e r i o u s l y about some s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y and then decided not to attend? A very s a t i s f a c t o r y item because i t , i n combination with four other v a r i a b l e s , explained fo r t y - e i g h t per cent of the variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. S u r p r i s i n g l y , i t was not s i g n i f i c a n t l y correlated to the five-stage adoption score. Note: Although the negative decision question had u t i l i t y , the other four v a r i a b l e s now seem poorly designed. C l e a r l y a decision to take part 168 i n the future i s possible, but that behavior was e l i c i t e d only i n the persuasion stage questions which was c l e a r l y an error i n the design. The following items are rough suggestions for future assessment of the decision stage: 1. Number of a c t i v i t i e s completed during previous f i v e years. 2. Number of times subject has dropped out during previous f i v e years. 3. Intention to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the future. 4. Negative decision as used i n t h i s study. 5. How often do you make a decision about whether to attend or about which a c t i v i t i e s to attend. a) never b) infrequently c) once per year d) more than once per year Confirmation Stage 1. Do you think you might be interested i n taking part i n adult education i n the future? A very s a t i s f a c t o r y v a r i a b l e i n that i t i s one of the f i v e v a r i a b l e s best explaining variance i n the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score and i t correlates s i g n i f i -cantly with the adoption scores. Although t h i s v a r i a b l e measures adoption, i t i s not c l e a r that i t measures confirmation rather than decision. 2. Were you d i s s a t i s f i e d with the course? This item was administered only to those who had p a r t i c i p a t e d , but who did not plan to do so i n the future. As a r e s u l t , only 14 per cent were e l i g i b l e to respond. S t a t i s t i c a l analysis was thus about meaningless and the 169 v a r i a b l e i s therefore considered very unsatisfactory. In retrospect the item should have been coded so that a l l respondents could have been asked the question. 3. Instead of taking adult education are you using the time to do something else? As i n item 2, only 14 responses were e l i c i t e d . Although a c t i v i t i e s which compete with or replace adult education need to be investigated, t h i s v a r i a b l e was very unsatisfactory i n that i s was i n e f f e c t i v e i n doing so. 4. Have you had any unpleasant experiences with adult education? A reasonably s a t i s f a c t o r y v a r i a b l e i n that i t r e l a t e s to both p a r t i c i p a t i o n and adoption scores. Since the question was asked only of p a r t i c i p a n t s , only 67 per cent were able to respond and that created coding problems. 5. Have there been any unanticipated or s u r p r i s i n g advantages or disadvantages to taking part i n adult education? This question i s asking i n part for the same information as i n item 4 and i s unrelated to the p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. As i n item 4 i t was asked to only 67 per cent of the respondents. It i s rated as unsatisfactory. In general the confirmation variables suffered from being used to consider t h e o r e t i c a l propositions: unanticipated consequences, disenchantment and replacement. It would probably have been better to have included some of the following items which are more simple and d i r e c t : How would you rate i n s t r u c t i o n ? Have you had pleasant experiences? Have you had unpleasant experiences? Have you recommended courses you have taken to others? Is there enough v a r i e t y i n the course offerings? 170 Have you applied what you learned? DEVELOPING A STANDARDIZED SCORE Although the analysis of the data i n t h i s study engenders confidence that a standardized adoption score based on the four-stage model i s possible, i n s u f f i c i e n t data were c o l l e c t e d i n t h i s study-Respondents were assessed either one point or none on the 20 adoption v a r i a b l e s . Although that procedure was simple, i t resulted i n much l o s t data. For instance the strength and d i r e c t i o n of the persuasion responses were l o s t . In a future adoption study i t might be well to consider using ratings which included f r a c t i o n s or sc a l i n g techniques and thereby increase the accuracy of assessment. Whatever procedure i s followed, i t i s recommended that many more variables be assessed. In that way i n v a l i d v a r i a b l e s can be excluded and there w i l l s t i l l be enough v a l i d v a r i a b l e s remaining. That such a procedure was not followed i n t h i s study was a serious error i n design. 171 APPENDIX B THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE In order to provide more information the interview schedule has been annotated by the i n c l u s i o n r e s u l t s and by explanatory notes. 172 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1974 ADOPTION STUDY - ADULT EDUCATION SURREY ID - 1-3 Interview Number Card // 4=1 Respondent's Name: Address: Record of C a l l s : Date Time Result or Comments 1st 2nd 3rd 4 th Notes: 173 I'm doing an adult education survey and would l i k e to ask you some questions about part-time learning f o r adults. What do you think adult education i s ? Has d e f i n i t i o n | | 1 99% ; i Has not | | 2 1% i ANY PART-TIME ACTIVITIES WHERE THE MAIN GOAL IS LEARNING. Do you know where such adult classes are held i n Surrey? No O 1 21% Yes • 2 79% Do you know what kinds of things are taught? No • 1 9% Yes Q 2 91% Do you know how adult education i s advertised i n Surrey? No | | 1 9% Yes • 2 91% Do you know how to e n r o l l i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s ? No Q 1 19% Yes • 2 81% 174 We are interest e d to know i f you have ever t r i e d to f i n d out more about Adult Education courses and a c t i v i t i e s . For example: Have you ever made a phone c a l l to enquire about Adult Education? No 1 54% 10 Yes LZ] 2 46% Have you ever written a l e t t e r enquiring about Adult Education or correspondence courses? No 1 92% 11 Yes O 2 8% Have you ever talked with friends or acquaintances about the courses which they are taking? No Q 1 22% 12 Yes • 2 78% Have you browsed through l i s t s of courses i n the same way you would look at Eaton's catalogue? No tZI 1 9% 13 Yes • 2 91% What l i s t s ? 175 Sometime during the past 5 years, have you taken time to think about the advantages and disadvantages of taking part i n adult education? No O 1 14% 14 Yes • 2 86% Has anyone ever encouraged you to take part i n adult education? No O 1 51% 15 Yes • 2 49% Has anyone ever DISCOURAGED you to take part i n adult education? No • 1 94% 16 Yes • 2 6% Have you given advice to others about taking part i n adult education? No • 1 31% 17 I 1 Yes • 2 69% If yes Mostly encouraged | j Mostly discouraged | | During the past 5 years, have you thought s e r i o u s l y about attending some s p e c i f i c a c t i v i t y and then decided not to attend? No • 1 25% 18 Yes • 2 75% If yes can you r e c a l l the kind of a c t i v i t y A c t i v i t y #1 Kind Reason A c t i v i t y #2 Kind Reason 176 Relative Advantage Adult education i s better than t r y i n g to \"learn on your own.\" SA A U D SD 5 4 3 2 1 29% 62% 4% 4% 1% Compatibility Taking part i n adult education i s very inconvenient. SA A U D SD 1 2 3 4 5 1% 30% 5% 58% 6% Complexity A l o t of red tape i s involved i n e n r o l l i n g i n adult education a c t i v i t i e s . SA A U D SD 1.. 2 3 4 5 0% 3% 19% 62% 16% T r i a l a b i l i t y If you s t a r t an adult education a c t i v i t y and don't l i k e i t , nothing much i s l o s t i f you quit. 22 SA A U D SD 5 4 • 3 2 1 2% 45% 22% 28% 3% Observability Most people I t a l k to seem to know something about adult education i n Surrey. 23 SA A U D SD 5 4 3 2 1 9% 55% 24% 12% 0% Note: To f a c i l i t a t e answering the f i v e a t t i t u d e questions repondents were handed a card on which were printed the following f i v e responses— STRONGLY AGREE, AGREE, UNDECIDED OR DON'T KNOW, DISAGREE and STRONGLY DISAGREE. They were to read the statement and choose the most appropriate response. During the past 5 years, have you v o l u n t a r i l y attended any 177 part-time a c t i v i t i e s l i k e those l i s t e d on t h i s card. (White large card) Let housewife read No Q Yes • Do not take more than 3 a c t i v i t i e s i n any one year. I f more, take a c t i v i t i e s housewife thought most important Attendance C - Complete DO - Drop Out E - E n r o l l only P a r t i c i -pation Score X - Class cancel L i e d WHAT 1 1 WHERE i 1975 1 2 3 1974 1 2 3 1973 1 2 . 3 1972 1 2 3 1971 1 2 3 T o t a l Quantity Score Raw 25-26 Coded 27 178-Note: In order to ensure that the l i s t of a c t i v i t i e s recorded on the previous page was accurate, respondents were given a card to read on which was l i s t e d the following a c t i v i t i e s : NIGHT SCHOOL CLASSES DOUGLAS COLLEGE EXTENSION INDIVIDUAL LESSONS, PIANO, FLYING, ETC. CORRESPONDENCE COURSES ' ' BIBLE CLASS LABOR UNION COURSE Y.M.C.A. CENTENNIAL ART CENTRE CLASSES CAMP ALEXANDRA CLASSES SWIMMING OR SKATING LESSONS ETC. 179 Do you think you might be interes t e d i n taking part i n Adult Education i n the future? D e f i n i t e l y not Q 1 14% 29 Don't know • 2 27% D e f i n i t e l y yet LZ1 3 59% You do not plan to take further Adult Education? Were you d i s s a t i s f i e d with the course? i No • 1 13% 30 Uncertain Q 2 86% (not applicable) Yes • 3 1% *Specify i f yes Instead of taking Adult Education are you using the time to do something else? No D 1 8% 31 Yes O 2 6% (including more free time) (86% not applicable) l * I f yes, s p e c i f y a c t i v i t y 180 Have you had any unpleasant experiences with Adult Education? A poor teacher, trouble getting a fee refund, a cancelled c l a s s . No • 1 18% Yes • 2 49% N.A. 0 3 33% If yes, sp e c i f y Have there been any unanticipated or s u r p r i s i n g advantages or disadvantages to taking part i n Adult Education? No • 1 42% Yes • 2 25% N.A. • 3 33% If yes, speci f y Have you ever taken part i n adult education on a T r i a l Basis? No • 1 51% Yes • 2 16% N.A. • 3 33% 181 What i s your m a r i t a l status? Single Q 1 2% 35 Widowed, divorced |—| or separated '—' Married In what year were you born? YEAR 2 10% • 3 88% raw 36, 37 coded 38 Note: Ages 17-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-65 65-up 13% 32% 22% 14% 11% 8% What was the highest year you completed i n school? Less than 9 • 1 26% 9 - 1 0 • 2 17% 11 • 3 15% 12 - 13 • 4 33% Some U n i v e r s i t y • 5 6% Uni v e r s i t y Degree • 6 3% 39 Have you taken any f u l l - t i m e v o c a t i o n a l or job r e l a t e d t r a i n i n g since you l e f t high school? No D 1 62% 40 Yes • 2 38% S p e c i f i c kind of t r a i n i n g Are you employed outside the home? No • 1 56% Retired • 2 2% Yes • 3 42% 41 Magnitude Estimation Sheet GOALS 1 To get a CERTIFICATE 2 To get the EDUCATION I missed 3 To ENJOY myself 4 To ESCAPE from housework 5 To take the FAMILY 6 To f i n d new FRIENDS 7 To learn to be a better HOMEMAKER 8 To LEARN something new 9 To l e a r n a HOBBY 10 To get a better JOB 11 To improve my JOB SKILLS 12 To improve my MIND 13 To have a NIGHT OUT 14 With i n t e r e s t i n g PEOPLE 15 To SAVE money by lear n i n g to do things f o r myself 16 To l e a r n to do VOLUNTEER or community work BARRIERS 1 Don't want to go alone 2 D i f f i c u l t to get BABYSITTING 3 Too BUSY 4 | (DISTANCE) too f a r ,to go 5 |Not enough ENERGY 6 My FAMILY would object 7 (FEES too high 8 i (KNOWLEDGE) I never f i n d out about classes before they s t a r t 9 l i t i s d i f f i c u l t to f i n d out where the classes are, etc. 10 None INTEREST me 11 Too OLD to learn 12 Too many OTHER THINGS going on that I'd rather do 13 I'd l i k e to attend but there are j u s t too many PROBLEMS 14 A c t i v i t i e s always seem to be at the WRONG TIME, etc. 15 Don't want to be a STUDENT i n a cl a s s again 16 Can't always get TRANSPORTATION 183 APPENDIX C_ WHERE ADULTS ATTENDED Although one of the assumptions i n t h i s study i s that p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n an a c t i v i t y i s of equal value no matter where the subject attends i t i s in t e r e s t i n g to note where the courses were taken. The t a l l y of the 189 courses taken by the 100 respondents i s as follows: Surrey School D i s t r i c t Adult Education 63 Adult Education - Other School D i s t r i c t s 30 Recreation Departments 15 Community College 26 University Extension 3 Commercial (Private Enterprise) 23 YM-YWCA 8 Church 8 Labor 1 In-Service (Hospital) 5 Correspondence 3 Miscellaneous 4 189 Thus public school adult education accounts f o r hal f the courses, community colleges 14 per cent and priv a t e enterprise courses only 12 per cent. From the d i v e r s i t y of a c t i v i t i e s e l i c i t e d from the respondents, i t seems l i k e l y most part-time learning which took place over the f i v e year period was recorded. But at the very l e a s t i t i s c e r t a i n that t h i s study includes much more adult education than that provided by p u b l i c a l l y supported educational i n s t i t u t i o n s . "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0055953"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Administrative, Adult and Higher Education"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "The adoption of innovations as a measure of participation in adult education"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20807"@en .