Investigation On Learning Motivation Of Adult

Further education composes one important aspect of the whole education system. The exploration of the influencing factors and mechanisms of the further education by practical investigation will benefit greatly to its strategy and sustainable development. The thesis firstly reviewed the development of the learning motivation. Some scholars abroad such as Hull, Sheffield and Powell, consider social contact, society motivation, career development, social service, external expectation and interests as the six aspects of the learning motivation. However, the studies of Lingjun Meng, Wenqing Zhang, Jisheng Zhang, Shiming Tang and Chunjiao Liu show that the main motivations lies in pursuing higher degree, renewing knowledge and meeting the job requirement; Achieving career, fulfilling life and self-perfecting are also important aspects.To strength the investigation of learning motivation and its implication to the education policy, the thesis develops by conducting questionnaires on the basis of the existing results. The questionnaires include ten aspects, namely, pursuing knowledge, developing career, competition or promotion, social contact, family, academic degree, self-respect, self-expression and others. The questionnaires were handed out in several further education schools in GuangXi Province and the effective returning ones were analyzed according to different academic degree, origin, gender, age, income and career. Generally speaking, the top six motivations are: self-development, pursuing knowledge, social contact, family requirement, competition or promotion and career development. However there are some differences in the learning motivation in terms of different backgrounds: ① The higher the academic degree holders, the lower the intensity of the learning motivation in self-development, social contact, family requirement and degree pursuing. ② The students from town and villages show great motivation in Better Serving Society, however the students from cities pay more attention to the assessments from family and working company. ③The intensity of the motivations in female students in pursuing knowledge, self-development and social contact are apparently stronger than male students. ④With the increasing of age, the motivation intensity decreases in the aspects of self-development, career-development and competition or promotion. The students in the age of 40's to 50's pay more interests in educating children.⑤The motivation intensity in Better Serving Society, Avoid Failure in The Work and Better Educating Children decreases with the increasing of the income. Middle income class emphases more in promotion. ⑥ The intensity of motivation in pursuing knowledge is very strong in state-worker and free-lancer. Teachers pay more attention to career development and the free-lancer emphasis in developing enterprises and self-expressing.To sum up, adult students' learning motivation has some unique features, including wide variety of motivations, instability of the learning interests, and some motivation changeability. The social contact factor cannot be neglected and the pursing degree motivation is decreasing.The corresponding education policies were proposed based on the results, which includes 1. Strengthening the education in learning objective and setting up the correct view about the world and value; 2. Reforming education contents and improving education method; 3.Cultivating self-confidence and building up right attitude to the study.