Factor Structure of the Adult Attitudes Toward Adult and Continuing Education Scale and its Capacityt O Predict Participation Behavior: Evidence for Adoption of a Revised Scale

Abstract

Although attitude is an important influence on the decision to participate, there are few instruments to assess attitude toward continuing education. Furthermore, there is little empirical information about the properties of the most widely known instrument, the Adult Attitude Toward Continuing Education Scale (AACES). This study subjects the AACES to a rigorous examination. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a three-dimensional structure of attitude with three factors, Enjoyment of Learning, Perceived Importance, and Intrinsic Value. A substantial number of the AACES items were judged extraneous, and a nine-item Revised Attitude Toward Continuing Education Scale (RAACES) was constructed. Through structural equation modeling, it was demonstrated that RAACES was conceptually sound, and each of its three dimensions of attitude was significantly related to participation behavior. The nine-item RAACES is recommended for use in future studies of attitudes and participation in adult education.

Understanding adult lifelong learning participation as a layered problem

“…Scholars like Bandura (1977) have been cited in the scholarly literature and Fishbein and Ajzen's (1980) model of Planned and Intended Behaviour has also been discussed by Courtney, demonstrating the need for adults to develop a positive attitude towards learning before an intention to participate will be formed. Blunt and Yang (2002) have also worked on a specific statistical scale intended to measure adults' attitudes towards continuing education. Further understanding of participation from an individual perspective has also been offered in Tennant (1997), an award winning work that discusses the work of a range of developmental psychologists such as Vaillant (1977) and Levinson (1986).…”

Attitude of Nurses towards Professional Development for Improved Service Delivery at the Jos University Teaching Hospital

“…Two instruments were used to evaluate the objectives: (1) Adopted Revised Adult Attitudes Toward Continuing Education Scale (Blunt & Yang, 2002) and, (2) Adopted Resistance to Change Scale (7). The Revised Adult Attitudes Toward Continuing Education Scale (8) scale tests adults' attitude towards continuing; it consists of 9 items grouped in 3 subscales namely: enjoyment of learning, perceived importance of adult education, intrinsic value.…”

“…The aim of professional development is largely to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve performance on the job, through knowledge and skills updates so as to increase productivity (2)(3)(4)(5). Other advantages ascribed to professional developments include competency in basic skills and expertise, as well as participation in decision-making.…”

What drives compliance? An application of the theory of planned behaviour to urban water restrictions using structural equation modelling

“…As emphasized earlier, social and psychological cognition models demonstrate that attitudes play an important predictive role in the individual's decision to comply with regulations (see, for instance, d 'Astous, Colbert, and Montpetit 2005;Peace, Galletta, and Thong 2003;Tonglet 2001). Accordingly, in the first part of the survey, respondents were asked to rate their agreement with a series of attitude statements on a 5-point Likert scale, following the approach of Hayes and Darkenwald (1990) and Blunt and Yang (2002).…”