Adult learners' motivation clusters into four profiles combining autonomous and controlled regulation, replicating the structure expected from SDT research with younger students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2022: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? A two-step cluster analysis of 188 adult learners yielded a four-cluster solution matching SDT's proposed good-quality, high-quantity, low-quantity, and poor-quality motivation groups. → Ana Rothes 2017

Evidence¶

Ana Rothes 2017¶

Ana Rothes, Marina S. Lemos, and Teresa Gonçalves. (2017). Motivational Profiles of Adult Learners. Adult Education Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713616669588

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Cluster analysis (hierarchical Ward's method then k-means) of autonomous and controlled regulation scores from 188 Portuguese adult learners. The final solution "explained 69% of the total variance" and produced the four groups SDT predicts, with cluster sizes n = 26, 55, 41, and 66 as printed in the article.

"After the k-means procedure, the final solution of four clusters explained 69% of the total variance. The four final groups matched SDT's proposition and were as follows: (1) a group with low values of autonomous motivation and low values of controlled motivation"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Adult learners score much higher in autonomous than controlled regulation, with autonomous regulation mean 3.44 versus controlled 2.42 — related
• Controlled motivation showed no negative effects on the desirable outcomes measured, and no profile differences emerged in academic self-concept or teacher-reported engagement — related
• Adult learners' motivational profiles differ significantly in self-efficacy, learning strategies and behavioral engagement: the good-quality motivation group scores higher on all three, the high-quantity group on strategies and engagement only — related
• Autonomous regulation correlates positively with self-efficacy, learning strategies, and behavioral engagement, while controlled regulation shows no significant linear relations with these outcomes — related
• Students with good-quality or moderately positive profiles self-assessed more accurately after studying video modeling examples than students with poor-quality or moderately negative profiles — related
• Autonomous motivation types positively relate to school achievement while controlled types show weak negative or null relations — related
• Person-centered clustering of students on plausible values falls outside the valid use of PVs, while clustering sampling-frame units is valid — related
• Latent profile analysis of situation-specific motivation for studying video modeling examples yields four profiles: good-quality, moderately positive, moderately negative, and poor-quality — related