book study(DUE 2 HOURS)

Hello, there are a Book Study assignment.

Please read doc.1 carefully first.

Then read the book ” Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn “, chapter 3 and chapter 4, and follow the step for doc.1 how to write it.

Due on after 2hours!!!!

If you have any question and problem please contact me immediately.

Biweekly book study

Based on the study of Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn.

Activities:

1. For the assigned chapter(s) of Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn write a journal entry. For each book study include:

i. three key learnings (for each learning, indicate which chapter it is from)

ii. state how each learning relates to the course content (that is, use of language, enhancing motivation, program planning, and counselling approaches) and informs your approach to nutrition counselling/education.

Grading

Three key learnings	3 pts
Statement of how each learning relates to course content	2 pts
0.1 for each type of error in spelling, grammar, punctuation, not using first person	(up to -2 pts)

As these are journal entries, you may use more informal language than if you were writing a research paper. You must use first person when describing your learning.

For each Book Study, you will review two chapters at a time and write about your three key learnings. This is not three key learnings from each chapter, but rather three key learnings from the set of chapters you read. For example, when you read Chapters 1 and 2, you may choose to discuss one key learning from Chapter 1, and two from Chapter 2 (or vice versa). Both chapters you read should be discussed. It is likely you will have more than three key learnings; students often comment they could write about more than three for each chapter! For the sake of being concise please keep it to three per book study.

Chapter 3: Characteristics of a Motivating Instructor (this is a long chapter, give yourself plenty of time)

Chapter 4: What Motivates Adults to Learn

Things to consider

· In Chapter 3, the five pillars of expertise, empathy, enthusiasm, caring, and cultural responsiveness are discussed; how, if at all, do these pillars have relevance for nutrition communications?

· What is the relevance of “Do I know what I don’t know?” to nutrition communicators

· Experts have more experience than their clients – how can nutrition communicators bridge this divide?

· Listening is most important – what does this mean for nutrition communicators?

· How you say something is more important than what you say for adult learners – what does this mean for nutrition communicators?

· What can you do, as a nutrition communicator, if you encounter the ‘destroyers of enthusiasm discussed in Chapter 3?

· Towards the end of the chapter the authors indicate that teachers of adults should do three things: create safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environments; engage the motivation of all learners; relate course content and learning to the social concerns of learners and the broader concerns of society. Is this asking too much of nutrition communicators?

· In Chapter 4, the authors discuss what motivates adults to learn, and indicate early on that educators need to both help adults be both successful and willing learners.

· What are some actions nutrition communicators can take to help adults be successful learners?

· What are some actions nutrition communicators can take help adults be willing learners?

· How can nutrition communicators promote a feeling of safety?

· The authors indicate that threat of any kind causes people to look for ways to be safe – how might nutrition communicators be perceived as a threat?

· How do we, perhaps in counseling or in group sessions, address client meaning to

· enhance motivation?

· What is the Motivational Framework for Cultural Responsiveness, and how might this be relevant for nutrition communications

Formatting/Spelling/Grammar

All assignments require a cover page. Any paper-based assignments with hard copies required are to be stapled in the upper left corner (-1 point for not stapling).

Attend to:

1. 12 font (used consistently throughout, and the same font used throughout).

2. Double space.

3. 2.5 cm (1”) margins.

4. Include your name, student number, date, course #, and my name on title pages.

5. Include a title that is descriptive of the content of your assignment (not “Assignment #1”).

6. Use headers and subheaders per APA formatting to organize your writing.

7. Number all pages.

8. Use APA style (6th edition) for references, in-text citations, quotations, etc.:

· double space references in reference list

· no extra spaces between references

· no extra space between paragraphs

9. Do not use fancy embellishments or borders to make your work look pretty.

10. Write out all numbers less than 10; use numerals for numbers greater or equal to 10.

11. Use Canadian spelling, not American (counselling, not counseling; favour, not favor).

12. Do use the Oxford comma.

13. Ensure agreement of subject and verb (when using singular/plural).

14. Use first person when describing your perspective.

15. Watch spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This is a communications class, and these things impact the quality and clarity of your work.

NUTR 3713: Introduction to Communications (Winter 2016)

16. When discussing research, get in the habit of making the authors the subject of your sentence as much as possible. For example: “Campbell Bligh (2017), proposed that…” vs. “A(n) study/article showed…(Campbell Bligh 2017)”. The author or authors are the ones who tell us things; the article you read is the vehicle for that message, and the study is what the author did. It is fine to start a paragraph with something like “There is a large body of research to support…”, so long as you then elaborate with what specific authors have said within this body of research.

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 iii
Enhancing
Adult
Motivation
to Learn
A Comprehensive Guide for
Teaching All Adults
Third Edition

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 vi

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 i
Enhancing Adult Motivation
to Learn

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 ii
Raymond J. Wlodkowski

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 iii
Enhancing
Adult
Motivation
to Learn
A Comprehensive Guide for
Teaching All Adults
Third Edition

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 iv
Copyright  2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-Bass
A Wiley Imprint
989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise,
except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without
either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the
appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers,
MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to
the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at
www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further
information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is
read.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best
efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the
accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or
extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained
herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where
appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other
commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other
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Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-
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Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears
in print may not be available in electronic books.
Chapter One epigraph from The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter by Vivian G. Paley.
Copyright  1990 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by permission of
Harvard University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wlodkowski, Raymond J.
Enhancing adult motivation to learn : a comprehensive guide for teaching all adults /
Raymond J. Wlodkowski. — 3rd ed.
p. cm. — (The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7879-9520-1 (cloth)
1. Motivation in adult education. I. Title.
LC5219.W53 2008
374.001′ 9 — dc22
2007049555
Printed in the United States of America
third edition
HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 v
The Jossey-Bass
Higher and Adult Education Series

Wlodkowski ffirs 3 02/04/08 vi

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Contents
Preface ix
The Author xvii
1. Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 1
2. Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect
Motivation to Learn 31
3. Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating
Instructor 49
4. What Motivates Adults to Learn 95
5. Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 125
6. Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes
toward Learning 171
7. Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 225
8. Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 309
9. Building Motivational Strategies into
Instructional Designs 377
Epilogue: Ethical Considerations for an Instructor
of Adults 435
vii

Wlodkowski ftoc 3 02/04/08 viii
viii Contents
Appendix: Observation Guide for Culturally Responsive
Teaching and Learning (Adult Version) 439
Margery B. Ginsberg
References 445
Name Index 483
Subject Index 491

Wlodkowski fpref 3 02/04/08 ix
Preface
When I wrote the last edition of this book, the question that
guided its conception was, How can instructors help all adults to
learn? If we consider only age, income, and ethnicity and race, we
have had societal changes in the last ten years that have expanded
this challenge significantly. Demographic trends and immigration
have increased the diversity of adults throughout postsecondary
and workforce education. More adult learners than ever before are
English-language learners. The number of younger nontraditional
learners and older adult learners in formal educational settings is the
highest it has ever been in the history of this country. Among these
learners are higher proportions of low-income students as well.
Although the enrollment rates for Latino and African American
adult learners in two- and four-year colleges have grown, fewer
than a quarter of those who enroll complete their degrees.
The increased linguistic and cultural diversity make teaching
adults today more exciting than ever before. We have more to
learn from each other and more ways to do it better. Our potential
as instructors has evolved with greater knowledge in multicultural
studies, cognitive and biological sciences, assessment practices,
online learning, use of the Internet, and the opportunity to use
brain-imaging technology to study learning as it happens.
We continue to have a responsibility to create learning envi-
ronments that sustain the integrity of all learners as they attain
ix

Wlodkowski fpref 3 02/04/08 x
x Preface
relevant educational success. I am convinced that in conjunction
with educational policies that promote the common good, a pow-
erful means to helping all adults learn is to go to the source, to
the energy — to human motivation. All adults want to make sense
of their world, to find meaning, and to be effective at what they
value — this is what fuels their motivation to learn. The key to
effective instruction is to evoke and encourage the natural inclina-
tion in all adults, whatever their background or socialization, to be
competent in matters they hold to be important.
As in the last edition, the model in this book for teaching
and planning instruction focuses on how to continually enhance
intrinsic motivation among all learners as part of the instructional
process. Dr. Margery Ginsberg and I developed the Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching in 1994. It is based
on the principle that learning and motivation are inseparable
from culture. For over a decade, the framework has been applied
nationally and internationally with productive learning outcomes.
The Third Edition of Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn is
designed to be a practical and immediately usable resource for
faculty, trainers, educators, and staff developers whose primary task
is instructing adults in universities and community colleges, in pro-
fessional and industrial settings, and in community organizations.
This book will also be very useful to part-time as well as full-time
faculty and administrators.
As in the earlier editions, deepening learner motivation and
helping adults want to learn are the major topics throughout this
text. Within the last few years, the number of books about teaching
adults seems to have doubled, but this is the only volume focusing
on motivation as a constant positive influence during learning. In
the chapters that follow, you will learn how to teach or train in
ways that make the enhancement of intrinsic motivation an essential
part of adult learning. Four chapters describe in detail sixty tested
strategies for eliciting and encouraging learner motivation. You can

Wlodkowski fpref 3 02/04/08 xi
Preface xi
choose the strategies that best apply to your content and learning
situation.
Among the important additions are insights and examples from
the past nine years of application of the motivational framework
and the strategies introduced in the previous edition. With appli-
cations ranging from postsecondary education to communications
technology, in cities from Toronto to Tokyo, ideas advocated in
this book have been tried and tested. The results have not been
excellent every single time. Through correspondence and on-site
visits, I have learned the framework’s limitations and advan-
tages and gained a more nuanced understanding of what can be
accomplished when teaching is focused on strengthening intrinsic
motivation during learning.
What is most exciting to me about this new edition is the
integration of a neuroscientific understanding of motivation and
learning within an instructional model responsive to linguistically
and culturally different adult learners. The research emerging from
a biological perspective of learning is used to provide insight and
confirm educational practices grounded in knowledge about adult
education, the social sciences, and multicultural studies. We are at
the beginning of a reciprocal relationship among adult education,
biology, and cognitive science, and each has much to learn from
the other (Fischer and others, 2007).
This edition has greatly benefited from instructors who use this
book as a text for their courses. Their experience and suggestions
continue to guide its development. As requested, there are more
practical examples and case studies to illustrate the motivational
framework and its strategies. In this edition, the sections relating
to feedback, self-regulation, and transfer of learning are also more
substantive than in earlier editions.
Any instructor who has searched for a straightforward, true-to-
life, and useful book on how to enhance adult motivation for learn-
ing should find this book helpful. Because the focus of the book is

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xii Preface
on motivation and instruction, it does not discuss philosophy, cur-
riculum, or policy in depth. However, there are references to allow
interested readers to pursue further study in most of these areas.
This book is mainly about face-to-face instruction. It can be used
for online learning because the motivational framework and most
of the strategies are applicable to this format. I have worked with
many instructional designers for online learning, and an example
of their instructional plans is included in the Chapter Nine.
Some promises to you the reader:
• A minimal amount of jargon. With the growth of tech-
nology in adult education and a neuroscientific perspec-
tive as part of this edition, I have had to work hard to
keep this commitment.
• A little bit of humor. It’s still great to have some fun
while you’re learning.
• Many examples. Instructors and learners continue to
ask for more.
• A practical and consistent way to design instruction that can
enhance adult motivation to learn any content or skill. This
is my professional raison d’etre. I have co-taught courses
in disciplines as removed from my background as dye-casting
and electronics to continue to extend this commitment.
• Motivation theory and methods positively supported by
my own experience Instructors have appreciated this
characteristic of the book. Nonetheless, please keep
in mind that my experience is not unlimited.
• A way to teach that respects the integrity of every learner This
promise is a lifelong work in progress. And I do have
mishaps, faux pas, and mistakes. I continue to video-
tape my teaching to see if I do as I advocate: to make
the learner’s history, experience, and perspective an

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Preface xiii
essential consideration that permeates this approach to
instruction.
Overview of the Contents
This book focuses on the most important ideas and information
to make effective instruction a consistent motivational process
that enables optimal learning for culturally diverse adults and their
instructors. Chapter One offers a neuroscientific understanding of
motivation and learning with discussion and definitions of the
physiology of the brain. It also explores the intersection of cultural
relevance, adult learning, intrinsic motivation, and neuroscientific
understanding, concluding with a view of how instruction can be
a path to improving educational success for all adults.
Chapter Two addresses the characteristics of adult learners,
with particular attention to age, culture, and memory. There are
overviews of different orientations to adult intelligences including
multiple intelligences, practical intelligence, and emotional intel-
ligence. The last part of the chapter offers a rationale for using a
macrocultural approach to adult instruction and learning.
Chapter Three discusses the core characteristics — expertise,
empathy, enthusiasm, clarity, and cultural responsiveness — that
are necessary for a person to be a motivating instructor. The
chapter outlines performance criteria for each characteristic so
that you can comprehend, assess, and learn the behaviors that are
prerequisites to enhancing learner motivation. It concludes with
Paulo Freire’s conception of critical consciousness as a guide to
creating a learning environment that contributes to the common
good of society.
Chapter Four introduces the four conditions — inclusion, atti-
tude, meaning, and competence — that substantially enhance adult
motivation to learn. These motivational conditions are dynami-
cally integrated into the Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching, a model of motivational theory in action.

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xiv Preface
This model is also an organizational aid for designing instruction.
The framework provides guiding questions for creating instruction
that elicits diverse adults’ motivation to learn throughout a course
or training session.
Chapters Five through Eight provide the central content of this
book. Each chapter provides comprehensive treatment of one of
the motivational conditions: inclusion is covered in Chapter Five,
attitude in Chapter Six, meaning in Chapter Seven, and compe-
tence in Chapter Eight. These chapters describe in pragmatic terms
how each motivational condition can positively influence learning
among culturally diverse adults. They also describe and exemplify
a total of sixty specific motivational strategies to engender each
of the motivational conditions. Where applicable, I discuss each
strategy in terms of its cultural relevance, neuroscientific support,
and how it relates to adult learners. In most instances the strategies
are referenced to further readings that provide research findings
and examples of their use in educational settings.
Chapter Nine summarizes the previous chapters with an out-
line of all the motivational strategies and their specific purposes.
In addition, it explains two ways to use the Motivational Frame-
work for instructional planning, the superimposed method and the
source method. The chapter also provides five real-life examples
of instructional planning with discussions of how each plan has
been designed, using the framework and motivational strategies
from the book. With a discussion of the growing literature on
self-directed learning and self-regulated learning, this concluding
chapter presents useful suggestions for increasing the capacity for
lifelong learning among adults. The book ends with an epilogue
addressing the ethical responsibility of being an effective instructor
of adults.

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Preface xv
Acknowledgments
This edition has benefited from the insightful suggestions of
instructors, trainers, and students who have read and used this book.
Although they have had faith in its merits, they have also spoken
to its flaws. I am particularly grateful to David Brightman, senior
editor of the Higher and Adult Education Series at Jossey-Bass,
for his continuing support of this project and for his enormous
patience and guidance. I also want to express my appreciation to
Erin Null, editorial assistant at Jossey-Bass, for her responsiveness
and care, which contributed to the ease of completing this work.
In addition, I want to thank my friends and colleagues at Regis
University, George Brown College, and Edgewood College, where
I could apply these ideas in earnest and with the benefit of their
good will and support. Finally, I wish to thank Margery, Matthew,
and Dan for continuing to bring light to my eyes and warmth to
my soul throughout this and many other adventures.
Raymond J. Wlodkowski
Seattle, Washington
December 2007

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Wlodkowski flast 3 02/04/08 xvii
The Author
Raymond J. Wlodkowski is Professor Emeritus at Regis University,
Denver, where he was formerly director of the Center for the Study
of Accelerated Learning and executive director and founding mem-
ber of the Commission for Accelerated Programs. He is a licensed
psychologist who has taught at universities in Denver, Detroit, Mil-
waukee, and Seattle. His work encompasses adult motivation and
learning, cultural diversity, and professional development. He lives
in Seattle and conducts seminars for colleges and organizations
throughout North America.
Wlodkowski received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from
Wayne State University and has authored numerous articles,
chapters, and books. Among them are Enhancing Adult Motiva-
tion to Learn (Jossey-Bass, 1985), the first edition of which received
the Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature; and Diversity and
Motivation (Jossey-Bass, 1995), which he coauthored with Margery
Ginsberg. Three of his books have been translated into Spanish,
Japanese, and Chinese. Wlodkowski has also worked extensively
in video production. He is the author of six professional devel-
opment programs, including Motivation to Learn, winner of the
Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communica-
tions for the best training and development program in 199l. He
has received the Award for Outstanding Research from the Adult
Higher Education Alliance, the Award for Teaching Excellence
from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and the Faculty
Merit Award for Excellence from Antioch University, Seattle.
xvii

Wlodkowski flast 3 02/04/08 xviii

Wlodkowski flast 3 02/04/08 xix
Enhancing Adult Motivation
to Learn

Wlodkowski flast 3 02/04/08 xx

1
Understanding Motivation
for Adult Learners
None of us are to be found in sets of tasks or lists of
attributes; we can be known only in the unfolding of
our unique stories within the context of everyday
events.
Vivian Gussin Paley
Like the national economy, human motivation is a topic thatpeople know is important, continuously discuss, and would like
to predict. We want to know why people do what they do. But
just as tomorrow’s inflationary trend seems beyond our influence
and understanding, so too do the causes of human behavior evade
any simple explanation or prescription. We have invented a word
to label this elusive topic — motivation. Its definition varies among
scholars depending on their discipline and orientation. Most social
scientists see motivation as a concept that explains why people
think and behave as they do (Weiner, 1992). Many philosophers
and religious thinkers have a similar understanding of motivation
but use metaphysical assumptions to explain its dynamics.
Today, discoveries in the neurosciences offer a biological basis
for what motivation is. Although this understanding is very far from
complete, what we know about the working of the brain can enrich
1

2 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and integrate fields as disparate as psychology and philosophy. From
a biological perspective, motivation is a process that ‘‘determines
how much energy and attention the brain and body assign to a
given stimulus — whether it’s a thought coming in or a situation
that confronts one’’ (Ratey, 2001, p. 247). Motivation binds
emotion to action. It creates as well as guides purposeful behavior
involving many systems and structures within the brain and body
(Ratey, 2001).
Motivation is basic to our survival. It is the natural human
process for directing energy to accomplish a goal. What makes
motivation somewhat mysterious is that we cannot see it or touch it
or precisely measure it. We have to infer it from what people say and
do. We look for signs — effort, perseverance, completion — and we
listen for words: ‘‘I want to . . .,’’ ‘‘We will . . .,’’ ‘‘You watch, I’ll give
it my best!’’ Because perceiving motivation is, at best, uncertain,
there are different opinions about what motivation really is.
As educators, we know that understanding why people behave
as they do is vitally important to helping them learn. We also know
that culture, the deeply learned mix of language, beliefs, values,
and behaviors that pervades every aspect of our lives, significantly
influences our motivation. What we learn within our cultural
groups shapes the physical networks and systems throughout our
brains to make us unique individuals and culturally diverse people.
Social scientists regard the cognitive processes as inherently cul-
tural (Rogoff and Chavajay, 1995). The language we use to think,
the way we travel through our thoughts, and how we communicate
cannot be separated from cultural practices and cultural context.
Even experiencing a feeling as a particular emotion, such as sadness
or joy or jealousy, is likely to have been conceptually learned in the
cultural context of our families and peers as we developed during
childhood and adolescence (Barret, 2005).
Roland Tharp (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988) tells the story of
an adult education English class in which the Hmong students
themselves would supply a known personal context for fictional

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 3
examples. When the teacher used a fictional Hmong name during
language practice, the students invariably stopped the lesson to
check with one another about who this person might be in the
Hmong community. With a sense of humor, these adults brought,
as all adults do, their personal experience to the classroom. We are
the history of our lives, and our motivation is inseparable from our
learning, which is inseparable from our cultural experience.
Being motivated means being purposeful. We use attention,
concentration, imagination, passion, and other processes to pursue
goals, such as learning a particular subject or completing a degree.
How we arrive at our goals and how processes such as our passion
for a subject take shape are, to some extent, culturally bound to
what we have learned in our families and communities.
Seeing human motivation as purposeful allows us to create a
knowledge base about effective ways to help adults begin learning,
make choices about and give direction to their learning, sustain
learning, and complete learning. Thus, we are dealing with issues
of motivation when we as instructors ask such questions as, What
can I do to help these learners get started? and, What can I do
to encourage them to put more effort into their learning? and,
How can I create a relevant learning activity? However, because
of the impact of culture on their motivation, the way we answer
these questions will likely vary related to the different cultural
backgrounds of the learners.
Although there have been attempts to organize and simplify
the research knowledge regarding motivation to learn (Brophy,
2004; Stipek, 2002), instructors lack the resources and educational
models to consistently and sensitively influence the motivation of
linguistically and culturally different adult learners (Guy, 2005).
Both culturally responsive teaching (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg,
1995) and neuroscientific understanding of adult learning (Johnson
and Taylor, 2006) are recent areas of inquiry and practice in
adult education. As a result, instructors still tend to rely on their
experience, intuition, common sense, and trial and error. Because

4 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
intuition and common sense are often based on tacit knowledge,
unarticulated understanding, and skills operating at a level below
full consciousness and learned within our cultural groups, such
knowledge can mislead us. Regrettably, some instructors in cultur-
ally diverse settings still grade for participation and believe students
should speak directly about personal or uncomfortable topics in
front of their peers. These teachers are not mean-spirited or rigid.
More likely, they are pragmatic. In general, they believe they get
more learner participation by grading for it, and they do not have
an effective alternative. And most important, such an approach
does not conflict with their values.
Without a model of culturally responsive instruction with
which to organize and assess their motivational practices, instruc-
tors cannot easily refine their teaching. What they learn about
motivation from experience on the job and from formal courses
is often fragmented and only partially relevant to the increasing
diversity in their classrooms and training sessions. However, there
are a significant number of well-researched ideas and findings that
can be applied to learning situations according to motivation prin-
ciples. The following chapters thoroughly discuss many of these
motivational strategies and present a method to organize and apply
them in a manner sensitive to linguistic and cultural differences.
As we will see, current neuroscientific principles and research offer
considerable support for this model and its related ideas.
Why Motivation Is Important
We know motivation is important because throughout our lives
we have all seen the motivated person surpass the less-motivated
person in performance and outcome even though both have sim-
ilar capability and the same opportunity. We know this from our
experience and observation. We know this as we know a rock is
hard and water is wet. We do not need reams of research findings to
establish this reality for us. When we do consult research, we find

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 5
that it generally supports our life experience regarding motivation.
To put it quite simply, when there is no motivation to learn, there
is no learning (Walberg and Uguroglu, 1980). In reality, motiva-
tion is not an either-or condition, but when motivation to learn is
very low, we can generally assume that potential learning will be
diminished.
Although there have been research studies of adult motiva-
tion to participate in adult education programs (Deshler, 1996;
Benseman, 2005), no major research studies thoroughly examine
the relationship between adult motivation and learning. If we define
motivation to learn as the tendency to find learning activities mean-
ingful and worthwhile and to benefit from them — to try to make
sense of the information available, relate this information to prior
knowledge, and attempt to gain the knowledge and skills the activ-
ity develops (Brophy, 2004) — the best analyses of the relationship
of motivation to learning continue to be found in youth education.
In this field of research, there is substantial evidence that motiva-
tion is consistently positively related to educational achievement.
Uguroglu and Walberg (1979) performed a benchmark analysis
of 232 correlations of motivation and academic learning reported in
forty studies with a combined sample size of approximately 637,000
students in first through twelfth grades. They found that 98 percent
of the correlations between motivation and academic achievement
were positive. We can reasonably assume that if motivation bears
such a consistent relationship to learning for students as old as
eighteen years of age, it probably has a similar relationship to adult
learning. In support of this assumption, these researchers found
that the relationship between motivation and learning increased
with the age of the students and the highest correlations were in
the twelfth grade.
Perhaps scholars of adult education have been reluctant to
examine the relationship between learning and motivation because
the bond seems so obvious. As researchers have found (Pintrich,
1991), people motivated to learn are more likely to do things

6 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
they believe will help them learn. They attend more carefully to
instruction. They rehearse material in order to remember it. They
take notes to improve their subsequent studying. They reflect on
how well they understand what they are learning and are more
likely to ask for help when they are uncertain. One needs little
understanding of psychology to realize that this array of activities
contributes to learning. In a study of adult learners in an urban uni-
versity, researchers found that when adults perceived their courses
as supportive of intrinsic motivation, they were likely to receive
higher grades (Wlodkowski, Mauldin, and Gahn, 2001).
Motivation is important not only because it apparently improves
learning but also because it mediates learning and is a consequence
of learning as well. Psychologically and biologically, motivation and
learning are inseparable (Zull, 2002). Instructors have long known
that when learners are motivated during the learning process,
things go more smoothly, communication flows, anxiety decreases,
and creativity and learning are more apparent. Instruction with
motivated learners can actually be joyful and exciting, especially
for the instructor. Learners who complete a learning experience
feeling motivated about what they have learned seem more likely
to have a continuing interest in and to use what they have learned.
It is also logical to assume that the more numerous their motivating
learning experiences in a particular subject, the more probable it is
that people will become lifelong learners of that subject.
To maintain a realistic perspective, however, we need to
acknowledge that although some degree of motivation is nec-
essary for learning, other factors — personal skill and quality of
instruction, for example — are also necessary for learning to occur.
If the learning tasks are well beyond their current skills or prior
knowledge, people will not be able to accomplish them, no matter
how motivated they are. In fact, at a certain point these manda-
tory learning factors, including motivation, are insufficient. For
example, if learners are involved in a genuinely challenging subject
for which they have the necessary capabilities, a point will come

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 7
at which further progress will require effort (motivation), whether
in the form of extra practice or increased study time, to make
further progress. Conversely, outstanding effort can be limited by
the learner’s capabilities or by the quality of instruction. Sports
are a common example for the limits of capabilities. Many athletes
make tremendous strides in a particular sport because of exemplary
effort but finally reach a level of competition at which their coor-
dination or speed is insufficient for further progress. An example
of the influence of the quality of instruction is a learner who has
the capability and motivation to do well in math but is limited
by an obtuse textbook with culturally irrelevant examples and an
instructor who is unavailable for individual assistance. It is unwise
to romanticize or expect too much of motivation. Such a view can
limit our resourcefulness and increase our frustration.
One of the indicators of motivation that we most commonly
rely on as instructors is effort (Plaut and Markus, 2005). People
work longer and with more intensity when they are motivated
than when they are not (especially if there are obstacles). Moti-
vated learners care more and concentrate better while they expend
effort, and they are more cooperative. They are therefore more
psychologically open to the learning material and better able to
process information. It is much easier to understand what you want
to understand. As Freud (1955, p. 435) said, ‘‘One cannot explain
things to unfriendly people.’’
However, it is important to remember that one’s cultural
background can influence perceptions of effort. For example, when
researchers asked what percentage of intelligence is due to natural
ability and what percentage to effort, the average percentage due to
effort reported by European Americans was 36 percent while Asian
Americans reported 45 percent (Heine and others, 2001). Because
we may vary to the extent that we recognize effort, as instructors
we need to be vigilant about seeing it because motivated learners
probably get more spontaneous encouragement and assistance from
instructors than unmotivated learners do. We are usually more

8 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
willing to give our best effort when we know our learners are
giving their best effort, an important reciprocity that can affect an
entire class.
A Neuroscientific Understanding of Motivation
and Learning
What happens biologically when we are motivated to learn? The
neurosciences have confronted this question directly and provide
remarkable information about what happens within our brains and
bodies when we are learning. Although much of this knowledge
comes from laboratory studies and work with children (Merriam,
Caffarella, and Baumgartner, 2007), much has been learned about
the basic structures of the brain and nervous system that provides
a biological understanding of motivation and learning. Although
this information is not definitive and has not been extensively
researched in terms of what happens when adults learn, there is
enough agreement in the field of neuroscience about basic struc-
tures and processes such as neuronal networks and the function of
neurotransmitters to inform teaching in adult education (Johnson
and Taylor, 2006).
This book aims to provide a primary understanding of this fun-
damental research and to use its findings to add support and insight
for those ideas that are within the realm of sound adult instructional
practice. Ultimately, our ideas about adult learning will need to be
considered in terms of their consistency with biological research
about learning. We need not make a scientific model preeminent
in adult education (Belzer and St. Clair, 2005), but we can use it
to strengthen and enrich our work.
An Overview of the Brain
At its most basic level, learning is a biological function, and
the brain is most responsible for this process. At this moment your
brain is engaged in seeing letters on this page, assembling them

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 9
into words, connecting those words with meaning, and forming
thoughts while it also blocks out distracting sounds like the air
conditioning, noises from the outside, and other people talking.
Your brain is doing not only all this, but it is also probably sup-
pressing your attention to various odors, sights, and sensations, as
well as a few memories and your thoughts about what you might
do next after reading this passage. Your brain is also regulating
your breathing, blood pressure, and body temperature. And most of
the functions just mentioned are happening without any conscious
awareness on your part! The brain can do these many different
things simultaneously because it is so complex, possibly the most
complex object known to us.
Neurons
Recent estimates are that the adult brain has about 100 billion
neurons (Bloom, Nelson, and Lazerson, 2001). As illustrated in
Figure 1.1, neurons have a cell body, a single long branch known
as an axon, and multiple shorter branches called dendrites. The
junction where signals pass from one neuron to another is called
a synapse (see Figures 1.1 and 1.2). Current brain research supports
Synapse Dendrites
Axon
Figure 1.1. Two Neurons Connecting
Source: Jensen, 2005. Used with permission.

10 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
the idea that most learning and development occurs in the brain
through the process of strengthening and weakening synaptic
connections. Because each neuron may have anywhere from one to
ten thousand synaptic connections, the number of different patterns
of possible connections in the brain is about forty quadrillion, a
staggering number, literally beyond my comprehension.
Although there are other cells within the brain, such as glia
cells, the neurons are the basic functional cells that appear to
control learning. They encode, store, and retrieve information
as well as influence all aspects of human behavior (Squire and
Kandel, 2000). Neurons act like tiny batteries sending chemical
and electrical signals that create processes to integrate and generate
information (Jensen, 2005). The threshold for firing at the synapse
is determined by the amount of chemicals (called neurotransmitters)
released onto the receiving neurons (Bloom, Nelson, and Lazerson,
2001). At the synapse, these chemicals either excite the receiving
neurons and cause them to fire, or inhibit them from firing, or
Electrical impulse
Synaptic gap
Axon
terminal
Neuro-
transmitters
Receptors on
the dendrite
Figure 1.2. The Synapse
Source: Jensen, 2005. Used with permission.

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 11
modify their excitability. Examples of common neurotransmitters
are dopamine and epinephrine, which are involved in affecting our
emotions and mood.
At the most basic level, the extent to which a neuron is active
depends on the mass of its dendritic and axonal systems and its
overall chemical reactions. The total of all the neurotransmitters
arriving from all the dendrites to a neuron’s cell body at any moment
determines whether it will fire. When we learn something, such
as a new word or the name of a new acquaintance, connections
containing that information are made between neurons. Through
practice and repetition we strengthen the connections and ‘‘learn.’’
Neuroscientists have a cliché: ‘‘Neurons that fire together wire
together.’’ When we learn something, we are building networks of
neurons that represent what we are learning. According to Zull
(2002, p. 99), ‘‘It seems that every fact we know, every idea we
understand, and every action we take has the form of a network of
neurons in our brain.’’ The brain is constructed so that a smaller
unit of knowledge, such as visual recognition of the number 3,
is likely to be located in a smaller network of neurons. Small
networks are connected with other small and large networks to
resemble a forest of neuronal networks with tens of thousands of
synaptic connections. Just imagine the possible connections one
might have to the number 3! All of these connections are neuronal
networks (also called circuits) and are apparently dormant before
we think of the number 3, but active when we remember it (see
Figure 1.3).
From a neuroscientific viewpoint, at the micro level, learning
is long-lasting change in existing neuronal networks. When adults
learn, they build on or modify networks that have been created
through previous learning and experience. These networks are the
adult learners’ prior knowledge. This is an essential fact that we
will return to frequently, both as it pertains to adults’ everyday
learning and to their cultural perspectives.
An instructor cannot remove the neuronal networks that exist
in an adult learner’s brain (Zull, 2002). They are a physical entity.

12 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
That is why, as instructors, we cannot simply explain something
away, especially if it is a deeply held attitude or belief. Literally,
another neuronal network has to take the place of the current
attitude or belief. That biological development takes repetition,
practice, and time. Probably new dendrites must grow and new
synaptic connections must form and fire repeatedly. A logical
explanation or well-constructed argument usually does not have
the biological impact to cause the physical changes in a learner’s
brain that need to occur for a real alteration in the learner’s attitude
or belief. If a learner is ready to change a particular belief or attitude,
an instructor’s explanation may be more persuasive and change
can occur. In this case, the learner has developed the neuronal
networks through previous learning and experience which need
only minimal development or stimulation (our explanation) to
Simple network
Complex network
Figure 1.3. Neuronal Networks
Source: Jensen, 2006. Used with permission.

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 13
change the attitude or belief. However, in most instances, Robert
Mager’s aphorism holds true: ‘‘Exhortation is used more and
accomplishes less than almost any behavior-changing tool known’’
(1968, p. 39).
New learning may be able to lessen the use of and even replace
particular neuronal networks. Neuronal networks do weaken and
die with disuse (Zull, 2002). For all learning, the most pragmatic
approach to instruction is to find ways to connect and build on
learners’ prior knowledge, to begin with what they already know
and biologically assemble with them the new knowledge or skill
by connecting the established networks and the new networks. A
biological approach to learning requires us to find out what adult
learners understand and can do, to see such information as a foun-
dation and a map for what we design for the instructional process.
The road to masterful teaching takes a compassionate route.
Brain Structures
With the development of neuropsychological tools such as
positron-emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can study which brain
activities are regulated by which brain structures. Both of these
instruments are based on the principle that the part of the brain
that is most active during a task needs the most oxygen (Bloom,
Nelson, and Lazerson, 2001). Although these tools can scan the
brain and represent areas high in metabolic activity, they are
an indirect assessment of brain structures and their relationship
to human action. Based largely on these forms of neuroimaging
research and neurosurgery, neuroscientists have categorized areas of
the brain and nervous system, aligning them with particular aspects
of human functioning and behavior. According to this scheme, the
cerebral cortex — the outermost layer of the brain, which is respon-
sible for all forms of conscious activity — can be divided into four
lobes that each carry out a set of actions (see Figure 1.4).

14 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• The frontal lobe. Located in the area of the forehead;
often called the executive; enables us to sustain
attention, make plans, solve problems, and form
judgments.
• The parietal lobe. Located at the top back portion of the
head; enables us to locate ourselves in space and process
sensory functions, such as messages from the skin and
muscles related to movement.
• The temporal lobes. Located above and around the
ears; enable us to hear, speak, and connect visual areas
to language areas, enabling us to see or hear what
we read.
• The occipital lobe. Located at the back of the head;
enables us to see and is involved in the process of
attaching emotions to memories and dreams.
Frontal
Temporal
Parietal
O
cc
ip
ita
l
Figure 1.4. Main Areas of the Human Brain
Source: Jensen, 2005. Used with permission.

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 15
The middle of the brain, also known as the limbic system or
limbic region (see Figure 1.5), represents about a fifth of the brain,
and is extremely important in helping us to feel what we feel about
our lives and the world. The limbic system is a group of brain
structures that regulate our emotions, those feelings that indicate
our motivation about anything. These six are among the most
important structures of the limbic system:
• The amygdala. A vigilant monitor that gives mean-
ing to human experience on an immediate level. It
reacts to experiences before we consciously understand
them, especially those that appear threatening or dan-
gerous (LeDoux, 1996). In situations of uncertainty, it
primes the brain to be alert and tuned to subtle cues
for further possible action (Compton, 2003).
Cingulate
gyrus
Thalamus
Hippocampus
Spinal
cord
Amygdala
Hypothalamus
Septum
Frontal
lobe
Figure 1.5. The Major Structures Forming the Limbic Region of the
Brain
Source: Bloom, Nelson, and Lazerson, 2001. Used with permission.

16 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• The thalamus. A relay station for almost all sensory
information (Bloom, Nelson, and Lazerson, 2001).
• The hypothalamus. Influences and regulates hormone
secretion. Because it monitors information from the
autonomic nervous system, it affects appetite, sleep,
sexuality, and emotions (Bloom, Nelson, and Lazerson,
2001).
• The hippocampus. Helps to form long-term explicit
(conscious) memories. Although it does not store mem-
ories, it integrates new memories with other memories,
a function very important to learning (Zull, 2002).
• The cingulate gyrus. Encircles the other structures of the
limbic system and appears to mediate communication
between them and the cerebral cortex (Bloom, Nelson,
and Lazerson, 2001).
• The septum. Appears to facilitate the release and
binding of dopamine, the neurotransmitter primarily
involved in creating positive moods and emotions. It
plays a role in maintaining and altering motivation
(Zull, 2002).
Although identifying these structures of the brain gives us a
basic vocabulary for discussing adult learning and motivation, we
need to remember that the brain is part of a nervous system that
extends to every part of the body. There is strong connectivity
within the brain and between the brain and the rest of the nervous
system. The brain works so well because its individual structures
are so efficiently interdependent.
This broader understanding of the connection between the
brain and the central nervous system can lead to some confusion.
In conventional usage, the neursoscientific literature does not
distinguish between neuronal networks and neural networks. When

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 17
it does make a distinction, neuronal networks are usually discussed
in relation to brain functioning, whereas neural networks are more
often discussed in relation to the central nervous system, which
includes the brain, the spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous
system. As I use these two similar terms in this book, I will follow
this distinction.
Our current knowledge of the central nervous system is still
inadequate to explain with specific certainty how the brain oper-
ates. The brain’s dynamism also makes it an elusive subject for
study. As Jensen writes (2005, p. 11), ‘‘Whether you are 2 or 92,
your brain is a cauldron of changing chemicals, electrical activ-
ity, cell growth, cell death, connectivity, and change.’’ For these
reasons we need to use our knowledge of the brain judiciously to
discuss learning and motivation. Before we carry out any instruc-
tional ideas based on neuroscience, we need to understand how
well they are integrated and consistent with our current models,
research, and practice in adult education.
A Neuroscientific Perspective of Motivation
Merging a neuroscientific understanding of motivation with cur-
rent knowledge from psychology and education creates ideas that
are richer, more nuanced, more complex, and, fortunately, quite
promising. The brain has evolved over millions of years as the
major organ for ensuring human survival. In evolutionary terms,
the neocortex, the part of the brain fundamental to thinking, ana-
lyzing, and planning, is considered young because it has evolved
within only the last five to ten million years (Zull, 2002). As
human beings, we want to learn because learning is our means for
survival. Knowing what to fear and what to desire is essential to
our future. We use cognition to maintain control and to generally
navigate away from fear and toward pleasure.
The brain has an inherent inclination for knowing what it
wants. In human terms, that means relevance (Ahissar and others,
1992). We are compelled to pay attention to things that matter to

18 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
us. Every moment of our lives is a competition among our senses
to perceive what matters most. Our emotions usually tell us this,
often before we can reflect upon the situation and especially when
we feel threatened. What matters is defined through our cultural
perspectives which carry language, values, norms, and perceptual
frameworks to interpret the world we live in.
As we experience our world, events that are accompanied by
feelings receive preferential processing in the brain (Christianson,
1992). Because they are salient for survival, emotions add impor-
tance to our thoughts and experiences. Structures in the brain
and their related neurotransmitters convey these emotions to us
moment by moment. For example, the neurotransmitter dopamine
is usually connected with feelings of pleasure and elation, and
norepinephrine seems to induce a state of arousal.
Although emotions capture our attention, we spend most of
our waking hours in mind-body states that are made up of sen-
sations (for example, hunger and fatigue), emotions (joy and
anger), and thoughts (optimism and concentration) that combine
and recombine simultaneously (Damasio, 1999). These mind-body
states are made up of millions of neurons in complex web-like
signaling systems that represent our behavior. They are quickly
shifting neuronal networks that involve multiple structures of the
brain. Jensen (2005) draws an apt analogy when he compares their
operation to the dynamic atmospheric patterns we call weather.
From a neuroscientific perspective, when we are doing something,
these mind-body states represent our motivation. We are likely to
identify them by the emotion or mood most obvious to us at the
moment, such as ‘‘I’m getting bored with reading this textbook.’’
Although our mind-body state may seem stable as we proceed with
a task, in reality it is in a state of flux, diminishing, strength-
ening, or changing into another state. On the single page of a
book or in the span of five minutes in a course, we may go from
feeling inspired, to feeling frustrated, to feeling creative, and then
inspired again.

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 19
The theories of intrinsic motivation fit very well with a
neuroscientific understanding of motivation. As defined by Ryan
and Deci (2000, p. 16), ‘‘intrinsic motivation is entailed whenever
people behave for the satisfaction inherent in the behavior itself.’’
For example, people read a novel because they find it inherently
interesting. Behavior that people find intrinsically satisfying prob-
ably conforms to what their brains are physiologically disposed to
want and induces or is compatible with a positive mind-body state.
We know from psychological research that it is part of human
nature to be curious, to be active, to make meaning from experi-
ence, and to be effective at what we value (Lambert and McCombs,
1998). These are primary sources of motivation that reside in all
of us, across all cultures. When adults can see that what they are
learning makes sense and is important according to their values and
perspective, their motivation emerges. Such circumstances elicit
intrinsic motivation and probably facilitate a mind-body state con-
ducive to learning. Intrinsic motivation is evoked; it is a physical
energy aroused by an environment that connects with what is
culturally relevant to people.
A neuroscientific understanding of intrinsic motivation con-
firms that we need to create learning environments that access
what biologically motivates adults from within. In addition, intrin-
sic motivation is probably more emotionally salient and varied than
it was originally conceived to be. We feel many different emotions
while learning, and they may not all be consistently positive. As
instructors, we need to pay close attention to the emotions of
adult learners and construct with them a learning environment
that supports the optimal expression of their emotions in service of
their learning. This topic will be addressed throughout this book.
Although Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of intrinsic motivation and
flow (1997) directly addresses the importance of feedback in learn-
ing, a neuroscientific perspective also emphasizes that feedback
is essential to the human need for survival. For how the brain
operates, this means the feeling of being in control. Feedback

20 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
about one’s learning and behavior significantly contributes to one’s
sense of control and is vital to intrinsic motivation and improving
learning (Zull, 2002). Extensive coverage of strategies to enhance
feedback is found in Chapter Eight.
The Intersection of Cultural Relevance, Intrinsic
Motivation, and Neuroscientific Understanding
In 1996, Brookfield emphasized the need for a culturally relevant
perspective of adult learning: ‘‘The differences of class, culture,
ethnicity, personality, cognitive style, learning patterns, life expe-
riences, and gender among adults are far more significant than the
fact that they are not children or adolescents’’ (p. 379). Today,
the cultural context is recognized as an essential consideration for
defining as well as facilitating adult learning (Merriam, Caffarella,
and Baumgartner, 2007). Theories of intrinsic motivation respect
the influence of culture on learning. They include the understand-
ing that the learner’s perspective, language, values, and ways of
knowing must be considered in order to foster adult motivation to
learn (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). When adults care about
what they are learning and know they are becoming more effective
at what they value by means of that learning, their intrinsic moti-
vation surfaces like a cork rising through water. The instructor can
feel it when the learning environment has stimulated the adults’
neurophysiological propensity to provide energy for what matters!
Intrinsic motivation is governed to a large extent by emotions,
which in turn are socialized through culture. Emotions influence
task engagement, the visible outcome of learner motivation. For
example, one person working at a task feels frustrated and stops; a
second person working at the task feels joy and continues; and yet
another person, with a different set of cultural beliefs, feels frus-
trated at the task but continues with increased determination. The
response to the task — frustration, joy, or determination — may
differ across cultures because cultures differ in their definitions

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 21
of novelty, hazard, opportunity, and gratification and in their
definitions of appropriate responses (Kitayama and Markus, 1994).
Thus, a person’s response to a learning activity reflects his or her
culture.
From this viewpoint, culturally responsive teaching is necessary
if we are to teach all adults effectively. Even though the learn-
ers’ internal logic may not coincide with our own, it is present
nonetheless. To be effective we must understand that perspective.
Rather than trying to figure out what to ‘‘do to’’ learners, we should
‘‘work with’’ them to elicit their intrinsic motivation. Through rela-
tionships and teaching strategies, we access their prior knowledge
(existing systems of neuronal networks), as expressed through their
cultural perspectives, in order to build bridges between what adult
learners know and their new learning. Seeing adults as unique and
active, we emphasize communication and respect, realizing that
through understanding and sharing our resources we create greater
energy for learning. When it is working, excellent teaching and
learning is like breathing together.
Emotion, Memory, and Intrinsic Motivation
Research in the neurosciences and the field of intrinsic motivation
indicates that emotions are critical to learning. Not only do emo-
tions largely determine what we pay attention to and help us to
be aware of our mind-body states, they also affect what we remem-
ber. We are much more likely to remember things that engage us
emotionally. It appears that the more powerful the feeling that
accompanies an experience, the more lasting the memory.
Long-term memory, durable neuronal networks, seems to be
strongly affected by emotions. We know now that long-term
memory is not a permanent trace or print of a past event. It
works dynamically, reassembling feelings and information from
our past into our present understanding. For example, during
stressful experiences, hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol

22 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
are released. They heighten alertness and mobilize parts of the
nervous system responsible for movement. They also enhance
memory for the experience (LeDoux, 1996; Abercombrie and
others, 2003). These hormones are likely to have been present
while some of our strongest memories — such as those of births,
deaths, and romances — were being made. These chemicals help
to create a system of sounds, images, and locations represented by
neural networks that are activated and reintegrated among various
structures of the brain when they are stimulated by an experience
or object such as a question, a person’s face, or a particular
song (Shimamura, 2002). In the moment, we recall a memory,
unaware that thousands of neurons have fired in a particular pattern
involving multiple locations in our brain and nervous system.
The biological process of how emotions affect memory is
complex and our understanding is incomplete. However, we are
reasonably certain that moderate stress and positive emotions such
as satisfaction, joy, and feeling creative help us to retain what we
are learning and to reassemble what we have learned when we
need to recall it (Zull, 2002). Emotions also give texture to events
and help us to understand them. Because neurotransmitters such as
dopamine that are associated with pleasurable emotions tend to be
released in situations of moderate challenge and excitement, we as
instructors can create lessons that encourage these emotions and
consequently better memory for what is being learned.
In theories of intrinsic motivation, emotions are critical to
learning as well. Optimal emotional states for learning, such as
flow, have been extensively studied and documented across and
within cultures (Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).
When people are in flow — whether at work, play, or while learn-
ing in a course — they feel totally involved, immersed in a seemingly
effortless performance, fully alive, and without self-consciousness
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Often while being in flow, people report
feelings of joy, happiness, creativity, and capability. Emotionally,

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 23
intrinsic motivation is not static and does not remain constant
during learning or work. Flow is one of the most positive states
of intrinsic motivation. During this time we are fully absorbed,
emotionally positive, and very focused. In other intrinsically moti-
vating situations we may be less consistently involved, only mildly
interested, and, at times, feel a bit worn or fatigued. Emotions are
labile, neurophysiologically undergoing chemical and biological
change. A mere distraction, such as the noise of construction work
outside the classroom, can disrupt our concentration. The processes
of reading, writing, listening, and problem solving undulate with
varying degrees of stimulation and appeal whatever their source.
My experience as a teacher and a learner is that intrinsic moti-
vation often fluctuates during a learning activity. Overall, I may
judge my involvement as intrinsically motivated but with periods
when I am bored or disinterested. For an entire learning experi-
ence, it might be more accurate to gauge my intrinsic motivation
along a scale from mildly intrinsically motivated to deeply intrin-
sically motivated or in flow. However, such a measure does not
register all the possible emotions that I may have felt during the
learning activity, such as interest, wonder, and worry. Also, I know
from experience that the degree of value that adults have for an
activity affects their perception of how motivating that activity
is. For example, writing, at times, can be frustrating and tedious.
My value for it is obviously strong and there are periods when I
seem to be anesthetized from the tedium. But moment to moment,
it is my emotions that tell me the degree of my intrinsic moti-
vation for the task at hand. Given the physiology and dynamics
of brain functioning, an understanding of intrinsic motivation as
a supple phenomenon is fitting. Eventually, intrinsic motivation
will probably be more accurately measured by an instrument that
has the capacity to measure intensity as a thermometer determines
temperature. Beyond brain functioning, this instrument will also
need to be sensitive to differing emotional states.

24 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Underserved and Diverse Adult Learners
in Postsecondary Education
As a field of study and advocacy, adult education has been a force for
increasing adults’ access to and success in postsecondary education.
Through political action, literacy efforts, and program develop-
ment, adult educators have contributed to increasing the number
of adults who have earned professional certification and degrees
in two-year and four-year colleges. Partially but significantly due
to these efforts, nearly 40 percent of all college students today are
adults 25 years and older (National Center for Education Statistics,
2002). Programs responsive to the needs and development of adult
learners abound in industry, business, and college. If current trends
continue, more than 50 percent of all adults between 25 and 55
will be involved in some form of adult education by 2010 (Cook
and King, 2004).
However, success in higher education for historically under-
represented groups (African Americans, Latinos, and Native
Americans) and low-income adults continues to be a serious con-
cern. In 2002, 29 percent of all 25- to 29-year-olds had completed
four or more years of college. For whites, the percentage was nearly
36 percent; for African Americans, 18 percent; and for Latinos,
slightly less than 9 percent. Although there has been improvement
since 1974 for each racial/ethnic group, the improvement parallels
the current disproportionate rates of progress. While the Latinos
who completed four or more years of college increased 3 percent
and African Americans increased 10 percent, whites increased
nearly 14 percent during the same period (Mortenson, 2003).
Research indicates that family income is a major factor affecting
college graduation. Forty percent of adult undergraduates, roughly
2.5 million people, have annual incomes less than $25,000 (Cook
and King, 2004). In 1995–96, among low-income adults who were
pursuing either a bachelor’s or associate degree, only 7 percent
achieved a bachelor’s degree and 8 percent an associate’s degree

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 25
within the next six years. In this same time period, 42 percent of
traditional-age students (18- to 24-year-olds) who were pursuing a
bachelor’s degree accomplished their goal (Cook and King, 2004).
The competing demands of family and work as well as educational
challenges due to insufficient academic preparation likely combine
to lessen the chances of success in college for many low-income
adults. With 70 percent of current jobs requiring some form
of postsecondary education (Carnevale and Desrochers, 1999),
low-income adults are ensnared in low-wage occupations with little
prospect of moving themselves or their families out of poverty.
Historically underrepresented groups and low-income adults
are underserved students, lacking the accessibility and support,
financial as well as academic, to be successful in postsecondary
education. This situation is a critical issue for adult educators. In
2002, 50 percent of people living in poverty in the United States
were African American or Hispanic (U.S. Department of Labor,
2003). Their economic status is undeniably due to their lack of
education beyond high school and their historic underrepresenta-
tion in higher education. As adult educators, we have a moral and
professional obligation to render postsecondary education accessi-
ble and successful for all adults. In my opinion, this mandate applies
as well to trainers in business and industry, where educating adults
is an enterprise that matches or exceeds postsecondary education
in financing and resource allocation.
Improving higher education and making it more equitable is far
more than an altruistic venture. The nation needs to remain com-
petitive with skilled and effective workers in a global marketplace
(Friedman, 2005). At the time of this writing, we are in the midst
of the largest immigration in the history of this country. Between
1991 and 2001 approximately 10.2 million people immigrated
to the United States (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2006).
Today, this trend continues. In addition, there is an estimated
population of 12 million undocumented workers residing in the
United States. Such demographics emphasize the need for adult

26 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
educators and trainers to make higher education and advanced
training accessible and successful for all adults.
Postsecondary education benefits the United States citizenry
as well as the individual. Higher levels of education correlate
with higher incomes, better health, and lower levels of mortality
(Lleras-Muney, 2002). Education is associated with lower rates
of crime, fewer illegitimate births, and less dependency on wel-
fare benefits (Lochner and Moretti, 200l; Wolfe and Zuvekas,
1995). According to the U.S. Department of Education (1998),
college-educated adults (85 percent) are more likely to vote than
high school graduates (72 percent) and high school dropouts
(50 percent). From their review of postsecondary education and
employment, Anthony Carnevale and Donna Desrochers conclude
(2004, p. 33), ‘‘Adults who are not equipped with the levels of
knowledge and skill necessary to get, and keep, good jobs are
denied full inclusion and tend to drop out of the mainstream
culture, polity, and economy.’’
Among the greatest losses for our society when underserved
adult students are not present in our college programs are their
cultural perspectives and aesthetics. As microcosms of the broader
society, college courses often implicitly and explicitly perpetu-
ate stereotypes and larger systems of inequality — for example,
conspicuous consumption without consideration of the common
good. Adult students from underrepresented economic backgrounds
and ethnic or racial groups can offer ideas, language, examples, and
frames of reference that can help majority groups examine ways
in which they may unknowingly use dominant beliefs and values
that inhibit the welfare of others. For example, individual freedoms
may favor the more privileged. And how government monies are
allocated is a topic likely to be more informed by adults from
different income groups.
In general, diversity as a broad category including race, class,
gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, and
other significant differences is central to education as preparation

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 27
to live and work within a global economy with many different
people. In fact, research with traditional-age college students indi-
cates that when they are exposed in their courses to diverse perspec-
tives through interaction with students different from themselves,
they develop more complex thinking skills and learn more (Gurin
and others, 2002). My personal experience with adult students
supports this finding. For a more equitable and effective pluralis-
tic society, we need to learn with diverse adults. For the future,
diversity in adult education is an imperative and an opportunity.
Instruction as a Path to Improving Educational
Success among All Adults
Efforts to increase the success of adult learners in higher education
offer promising policies and insights. They include financial assis-
tance, especially to low-income adults (Cook and King, 2005;
Choitz and Widom, 2003); stronger student support services
including academic advising, personal counseling, tutoring, and
remediation (Purnell and Blank, 2004; Flint and Associates, 1999);
a commitment to adult learners with a focus on meeting their needs
(Cook and King, 2005; Flint and Associates, 1999); and faculty
and instruction responsive to adult learners (Cook and King, 2005;
Flint and Associates, 1999; Grubb and Associates, 1999). Many of
the studies cited in this paragraph were conducted at community
colleges, where the majority of adult learners in postsecondary edu-
cation are enrolled. However, the largest number of adult learners,
approximately 61 million, participate in work-related courses and
training (Paulson and Boeke, 2006). Unless specifically referenced
to higher education, all instructional methods, principles, and
models suggested in this text apply to this population as well.
No single policy, program, or response significantly raises the
persistence and degree completion of adult learners (Cook and
King, 2005; Flint and Associates, 1999). What is required is a
systemwide effort to improve a range of elements from financial

28 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
assistance to instruction. Three books and reports that outline,
discuss, and offer examples of these elements and how they might be
implemented are Best Practices in Adult Learning: A Self-Evaluation
Workbook for Colleges and Universities (Flint, Zakos, and Frey,
2002), Improving Lives through Higher Education: Campus Programs
and Policies for Low-Income Adults (Cook and King, 2005), and
Promoting Student Success in Community College and Beyond (Brock
and LeBlanc, 2005).
The focus of this book is on how instructors, teaching, and
learning environments can enhance the motivation of all adults
to learn. Researchers have found that improvements in instruction
can contribute to increased student persistence and success (Grubb
and Associates, 1999; Kuh and others, 2005). Their suggestions
include more active learning, greater relevance of subject matter
to students’ lives, and higher levels of student engagement. Best
practices for adult learners in postsecondary institutions include
the same three suggestions as well as inclusive learning environ-
ments, use of the language of learners and their communities, and
assessment of learner competence through performance outcomes
(Flint, Zakos, and Frey, 2002).
Thus, we can see some convergence between the recommen-
dations from research to improve adult success in college and the
literature about best practices for adult learners. This gives us
more confidence about what we need to do in the area of instruc-
tion to enhance adult learning and motivation. The Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching (Wlodkowski and
Ginsberg, 1995), which forms the major focus of this book (see
Chapter Four), systematically includes these instructional practices
as an integral aspect of instructional design and teaching. Factors
of this motivational framework have been significantly associ-
ated with higher grade point averages (Wlodkowski, Mauldin, and
Gahn, 2001) and higher performance (Wlodkowski and Stiller,
2005) among adult learners. This framework can serve as an effec-
tive guide for educators and trainers as we plan and carry out our

Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners 29
instruction with adult learners. A strength of this model is that it
recognizes that human motivation is inseparable from culture and
at the same time understandable as energy resulting from biological
processes largely within the brain. This approach to teaching allows
for a useful integration of these two important sources of pedagogical
knowledge. In the next chapter we will deepen our understanding
of motivation to learn as it relates to culture and adult development.

2
Understanding How Aging and Culture
Affect Motivation to Learn
The afternoon knows what the morning never
suspected.
Swedish proverb
Released from comparison with youth, ‘‘old’’ can be hip, pow-erful, and aesthetic. Old is rhythm and blues. Old is marching
with Martin Luther King Jr. Old is hearing a scratchy vinyl record of
Edith Piaf singing lyrics of love and loss and knowing from your own
life she is telling the truth many times over. Old is Michelangelo’s
David. Old is the Kama Sutra. And old is the Taj Mahal. As James
Hillman writes (1999, p. 42), ‘‘When ‘old’ gains its definition only
by pairing, it loses its value. In a culture that has only identified
with ‘new’ . . . ‘old’ gets the short end of the comparative stick, and
it becomes ever more difficult to imagine oldness as a phenomenon
apart from the lazy simplicities of conventional wisdom.’’
In fact, the word old derives from an Indo-European root that
means ‘‘to nourish.’’ In medieval times, old meant ‘‘fully nourished
or matured.’’ Not that old is better than young or new; old is its
own thing — certain to be humbled by aging and death but also to
be affirmed for the character, perspective, and vitality it can offer
to life among all ages. Old is the nurturance of grandparents, the
31

32 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
guidance of mentors, and the stories carried through our families
that give us an identity and a sense of connection with all living
things. As we will see in this chapter, older adults are a rapidly
growing group among adult learners, and their characteristics and
needs enrich and challenge adult education.
Characteristics of Adult Learners
It is a bit frustrating but understandable that in the field of adult
education there is no agreement on the definition of adult (Paulson
and Boeke, 2006). The term is culturally and historically relative.
Some cultures regard puberty as entry into adulthood, whereas
others use legal codes to permit and promote adult behavior. In
the United States, people can vote at eighteen but cannot drink
until twenty-one and, in particular instances, can be tried in
court as adults at fourteen. In conventional terms, being an adult is
often associated with having some kind of major life responsibility,
such as full-time work or dependents.
Chronologically, adults can be divided into three groups:
younger adults (18 to 24 years old), working-age adults (25 to
64 years old), and older adults (65 and older). Most students
attending traditional colleges where they board and are enrolled
full time are younger adults. However, most research and theory
in the field of adult education pertains to working-age adults,
who are assumed to work at least part time while going to
school. As the number of older adults continues to grow, they
are also of increasing interest in adult education. In the 2000
U.S. Census, older adults accounted for 12 percent of the total
population.
Today, 73 percent of all college students can be identified as
nontraditional learners (National Center for Education Statistics,
2002). They possess one or more of the following characteristics:
delayed enrollment into postsecondary education, part-time atten-
dance, financial independence, full-time job, dependents other

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 33
than a spouse, being a single parent, and having a nonstandard
high school diploma. Most of these nontraditional students are
working-age adults, but some are young adults or older adults.
Although nontraditional students are considered at greater risk of
failing to complete a degree, nearly one-third of them succeed.
Maybe what is actually at risk are the generalizations made about
them.
The focus of this book is on working-age adults, nontraditional
college students, and older adults. Unless specifically stated other-
wise, all strategies, principles, and models proposed in this text can
be applied to them.
Women make up the majority (approximately 65 percent) of
adult college students 25 and older. They compose approximately
65 percent of this population (Aslanian, 2001). Three reasons
primarily explain why they outnumber men: (1) there are more
women than men in the general U.S. population 25 and older;
(2) more women view education as a path to success; and (3)
women today have more opportunity to go to college than pre-
vious generations due to changes in role expectations and family
support.
Among students 25 and older, approximately 12 percent are
ethnic or racial minorities (Aslanian, 2001). This adult minority
population is much smaller than the overall minority population
in higher education (approximately 30 percent), especially in com-
munity colleges. According to the National Center for Education
Statistics (2001), 39 percent of African American, 54 percent
of Hispanic, 47 percent of American Indian, and 38 percent of
Asian American and Pacific Islander postsecondary students attend
community colleges. In some community colleges in large urban
areas and in the West and Southwest United States, minority stu-
dents have become a majority. As Berta Vigil Laden has observed
(2004), ‘‘The term minority is being replaced with the more descrip-
tive terms racially diverse and emerging majority to convey more fully
these students’ presence in institutions of higher education.’’ Many

34 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
of these community college students are 25 and older or are younger
adults with characteristics of working-age adults such as full-time
jobs and dependents. We are witnessing a cultural transformation
whose beginning is most strongly felt in community colleges. All
these groups of adult learners share a common goal: they want to use
the knowledge and skills they acquire to enhance their careers or
professional opportunities — for better jobs, higher salaries, coveted
promotions, or simply staying competitive (Aslanian, 2001).
Another national trend is the increasing number of older
adults working full time and participating in adult learning.
Over 2 million adults 65 and older participate in work-related
courses and training (O’Donnell, 2005). Not only does learn-
ing add purpose to life for many older adults, it also appears to
improve their health (Campbell, 2006). Researchers from mul-
tiple disciplines concur that learning is essential to a satisfying
later life (Manheimer, 2002). Learning during older adulthood
appears to be related to better physical vitality and cognitive
functioning.
Prior postsecondary education may increase older adults’ desire
for learning. Some scholars believe education is addictive and that
the more education people have had, the more they will want,
especially in later life (Mehrotra, 2003). Postsecondary education
may establish a desire for intellectual activities such as reading,
reflecting, and problem solving. Continuing these pursuits sus-
tains brain-cell growth and higher cognitive functioning among
older adults (Diamond, 2001). In this respect, college-edu-
cated older adults may be more likely to value learning for its own
sake (Purdie and Boulton-Lewis, 2003). Because they often are in a
position to choose what they learn, older adults are more likely to
find learning intrinsically motivating. The Gerontological Society
of America has confirmed the understanding that aging is about
adding life to years, not years to life. As adult educators, we can
help make this self-fulfilling prophecy come true.

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 35
Specific Effects of Aging
We have described the benefits of learning for older adults. The
potential for a satisfying and vital life seems greater than ever
before. But there are also many myths and stereotypes about older
people, frequently negative ones. Let’s take a closer look.
It was once thought that aging was a barrier to learning. This
seems less so than ever before. Improved sanitation, nutrition,
hygiene, and advances in medical drugs and treatments have
increased life expectancy in most industrialized countries. As of
2006, the average life expectancy in the United States was 77.8
years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Since the early 1990s, it has been
documented that people remain more active and feel physically
better for longer in their older years (Smolak, 1993). Adults
over 85 are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population
(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). With
the vitality projected by popular icons like Gloria Steinem and
B. B. King, even 70 no longer seems old. (This seems ever so true
as I enter my early sixties.)
There are significant culturally related differences as people age.
For example, women live longer than men (U.S. Census Bureau,
2006). To put this generalization in perspective, between the ages
of 65 and 74, there are 83 men for every 100 women; among
people over 85, there are only 46 men for every 100 women. As
we grow older, women eventually outnumber men by more than
two to one. In addition, there is far less ethnic or racial diversity
among older adults. The percentage of the U.S. population that
is non-Hispanic White increases with age from 79 percent of
people between 55 and 64 years of age to 87 percent of those who
are 85 and over. This decrease indicates some of the disparities
in income, living environments, disease exposure, and available
medical care between the majority population of this country and
its racial/ethnic minorities.

36 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Although racial/ethnic inequalities persist, becoming older does
not mean automatic physical, emotional, or mental deterioration,
and the effects of aging differ from person to person. As people
reach their 40s and 50s, they undergo changes in vision, cardiovas-
cular and respiratory functioning, reproductive potential (among
women), and muscular and skeletal resilience (Bee and Bjorkland,
2004). Beginning slowly, this decline usually accelerates as peo-
ple enter their 70s. Compensation can offset this deterioration.
Eyeglasses, hearing aids, medications, increased illumination, and
increased time for learning are some of the ways to equalize learning
opportunities for older adults.
Central Nervous System, Vision, and Hearing
According to longitudinal studies, most normal, healthy adults can
be efficient and effective learners well into old age (Schaie, 2005).
Although considerable individual differences exist, the intellectual
capacity to learn declines only modestly until most people are in
their 80s. Variables that reduce the risk of intellectual decline
among older adults are absence of chronic diseases, a favorable liv-
ing environment, an active lifestyle, a partner with high cognitive
functioning, satisfaction with one’s life, and continued involve-
ment with learning (Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner, 2007;
Campbell, 2006).
Because of research on the aging brain, aging is no longer seen as
inevitably leading to brain damage and decline. Aging is now seen
as a much more complex phenomenon: through reorganization
and plasticity the brain can sustain a productive and happy life
far into the older years (Reuter-Lorenz and Lustig, 2005). There is
evidence that the brains of adults in their 70s and 80s continue to
produce new neurons for cognition (Prickaerts and others, 2004).
The combination of physical exercise, stimulating environments,
and continued learning appears to be able to increase brain cell
growth and connections throughout life (Willis, 2006).

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 37
Older learners may require more time to learn new things
because, on the average, their reaction time is slower than that
of younger learners (Schaie and Willis, 2002). This is due to
changes in the central nervous system. However, individual older
adults differ substantially in this regard, and the type of task
makes a significant difference as well. For example, putting a
puzzle together or hitting a button to respond to the identification
of a symbol is far different from creating an effective business
plan or providing legal advice about a real problem. Speed of
response by itself should not prevent anyone from learning what
he or she wants to learn. Allowing older adults to control the
pace of educational experiences and their exposure to educational
materials is an excellent strategy to accommodate any decrease in
reaction time.
Some people believe that because of the decline in vision,
reading is a serious problem for older adults. However, in the
absence of disease or serious impairment, the normal physical
changes of the eyes can be accommodated through the use of
eyeglasses and brighter light. Older adults do have more difficulty
rapidly processing visual information and should be allowed more
time and control for extracting information from printed mate-
rials, computer screens, photographs, films, and other screen pro-
jections (Pesce and others, 2005).
The decline in hearing has also been well researched (Bee and
Bjorkland, 2004). Hearing difficulty affects more than 25 percent
of adults over the age of 65, and more than 50 percent of males
over the age of 75. In addition to hearing loss, as people become
older they may also develop a ‘‘translation’’ problem. Rapid speech
is more difficult for older adults to decipher. In addition, adults over
50 usually have some impairment in discerning very soft sounds
and high-pitched sounds. Attending to the acoustic environment
and moderating the speed of presentation and verbal delivery can
help older adults adjust for this sensory loss.

38 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Intellectual Functioning
As a psychologist, I am among those who no longer regard
intelligence as a unitary property. Rather, intelligence seems to
make more sense and be a much more useful concept when
understood as consisting of multiple factors or a number of differ-
ent intelligences. Standardized intelligence measures such as the
WAIS-III or earlier WAIS-R are very academically oriented rather
than being sensitive to an adult’s capacity to solve real-life prob-
lems. Their narrow framework, cultural bias, and low correlation
with work performance caution against using these standardized
intelligence tests to make decisions about most adults (Tennant,
2005).
Multiple Intelligences
If we understand intelligence as the ability to solve problems or to
fashion products that are valued by one’s culture or community,
we realize intelligence cannot be conceptualized apart from the
context in which people live. There is always an interaction
between individuals’ biological proclivities and the opportunities
in their culture for learning. Thus there exist multiple ways to be
capable and to demonstrate intelligence.
According to Howard Gardner (Checkley, 1997) people have
the capacity for at least eight intelligences (see Table 2.1). Individ-
uals differ in the strength of these intelligences. Some perform best
when asked to manipulate symbols of various sorts (linguistic and
logical-mathematical intelligences), whereas others are better able
to demonstrate their understanding through a hands-on approach
(spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences). Rather than possess-
ing a single intelligence, people have a profile of intelligences that
combine to complete different tasks. This means that tools and
techniques are part of one’s intelligence and its use. The Inupiat
hunter who must discern sea, stars, and ice from a small boat on
the Arctic Ocean meets an intellectual challenge as profound in its
own way as that faced by a systems analyst deciphering the federal

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 39
Table 2.1. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence Example Core Components
Linguistic Novelist,
journalist
Sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and
meanings of words; sensitivity to the
different functions of written and spoken
language
Logical-
mathematical
Scientist,
accountant
Sensitivity to and capacity to discern
logical and numerical patterns; ability to
handle long chains of inductive and
deductive reasoning
Musical Composer,
guitarist
Abilities to produce and appreciate
rhythm, tone, pitch, and timbre;
appreciation of the forms of musical
expressiveness
Spatial Designer,
navigator
Capacities to perceive the visual-spatial
world accurately and to perform
transformations on one’s initial
perceptions and mental images
Bodily-
kinesthetic
Athlete,
actor
Abilities to know and control one’s body
movements and to handle objects
skillfully
Interpersonal Therapist,
politician
Capacities to discern and respond
appropriately to the moods,
temperaments, motivations, and desires
of other people
Intrapersonal Philosopher,
spiritual
leader
Access to one’s own feelings and inner
states of being with the ability to
discriminate among them and draw on
them to guide behavior; knowledge of
one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires,
and intelligences
Naturalist Botanist,
Farmer
Capacity to recognize and classify plants,
animals, and minerals, including grass,
all varieties of flora and fauna, and rocks
Source: Adapted from Viens and Kallenbach, 2004; Checkley, 1997.

40 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
budget at a computer terminal. The crucial question, then, is not,
How intelligent is one? but, How is one intelligent?
Practical Intelligence
Day in and day out, what is called practical intelligence may be for
most people the paramount intelligence during the adult years.
Tennant and Pogson describe practical intelligence as that which
emphasizes ‘‘practice as opposed to theory, direct usefulness as
opposed to intellectual curiosity, . . . and commonplace, every-
day action or thought with immediate, visible consequences . . .
it seeks to do, to move, to achieve something outside of itself,
and works toward that purpose’’ (1995, p. 42). When applied
in a particular domain, practical intelligence is often referred to
as expertise. As such, practical intelligence is often based on prior
experience. In their particular area of expertise, most experts
show quick, economic problem solving and superior memory
(Chi, Glaser, and Farr, 1988).
Robert Sternberg (1997) is a leading scholar and researcher
in the area of practical intelligence, which he views as what
most people call common sense. According to him, being suc-
cessfully intelligent involves thinking analytically, creatively, and
practically and choosing effectively how and when to use these
abilities. The main component of practical intelligence is tacit
knowledge — ‘‘knowledge that reflects the practical ability to learn
from experience and to apply that knowledge in the pursuit of
personally valued goals’’ (Sternberg and others, 2000, p. 104).
Practical intelligence is a promising area of research for adult educa-
tion. Understanding this ability may help people to develop greater
capacity for effective performance in their careers and avocations.
Emotional Intelligence
In 1995, Daniel Goleman joined the forum about multiple intel-
ligences with his advocacy for emotional intelligence. Although
his conceptualization is quite similar to Gardner’s descriptions of

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 41
interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence (see Table 2.1), it is
based on the intellectual model proposed by Salovey and Mayer
(1990). According to Goleman (1995), to be successful in life one
must sensitively use the five domains of emotional intelligence:
knowing one’s emotions, managing one’s emotions, motivating
oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relation-
ships. Recent neuroscientific findings (see pages 17–20 in Chapter
One) have given Goleman’s ideas additional support. In addition,
researchers who have studied emotional intelligence in the work-
place have found it to be a promising construct (McEnrue and
Groves, 2006).
An integration of current research and theory suggests that
intellectual capacity during adulthood is a combination of genetic
expression, experience, and knowledge that displays continued
growth and highest potential in culturally relevant, real-life situa-
tions. As adult educators, we can explore these rich ideas about the
human intellect and use them to enhance our educational prac-
tices, but with a constant critical understanding. The construct of
intelligence has a history of being oversold.
Memory
Memory has received a good deal of attention by researchers in
learning. Working memory, the initial processing and storing of
information that occurs within approximately five to thirty sec-
onds, becomes more problematic as adults age (Bee and Bjorkland,
2004). A common example is increasing difficulty remember-
ing several new names just after being introduced at a party.
Generalizing about long-term memory, the capacity for retain-
ing information for minutes or years, is complicated. As people
get older, they have more problems transferring (encoding) infor-
mation into long-term memory. They also have more difficulty
retrieving memories. But storage of encoded memories is fairly con-
stant as people age (Hoyer and Roodin, 2003). Older adults appear
to process information more slowly, especially when it is complex.

42 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
They also seem less inclined to seriously consider material they
see as irrelevant or confusing (Bee and Bjorkland, 2004). When
information is learned well, and new material is integrated with
prior knowledge, older adults remember and use this knowledge
into old age.
Age differences in memory are far less dramatic when material
is familiar and meaningful. Retention of factual knowledge such as
vocabulary or news events shows little if any decline from young
adulthood through old age (Hoyer and Roodin, 2003). Generally,
older learners are likely to have the most problems with initial learn-
ing and subsequent recall when learning activities are fast paced,
complex, or unusual. They usually are not as efficient as younger
adults in acquiring, organizing, and recalling new information.
In Adults as Learners, Pat Cross (1981) has made several practical
suggestions for helping older adults with memorization: (1) present
new information in ways that are meaningful and relevant; (2)
include aids such as mnemonics, advance organizers, and checklists
to help older adults organize and relate new material to prior
knowledge; (3) present at a pace that permits mastery in order
to strengthen long-term memory; (4) present one idea at a time
and minimize competing intellectual demands; and (5) summarize
frequently to facilitate organization and retention. To this list I
would add (6) encourage taking notes on any items of interest and
(7) facilitate the application of the new information to relevant
issues and problems as soon as possible.
Many other instructional suggestions can be made in relation to
characteristics of adult development. They are distributed through-
out this book in relationship to specific motivational strategies.
Participation
Earlier in this book, we indirectly addressed the topic of participa-
tion in Chapter One’s discussion of the accessibility and retention
of underserved adult learners in postsecondary education. In
a broader sense, participation — undertaking learning projects,

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 43
courses, and programs — has a long history of research in adult
education. Carol Aslanian’s research (2001) provides insights on
this topic for both continuing and postsecondary education. Her
findings indicate that adult participation is usually due to a life tran-
sition that motivates the person to want to learn. The decision to
participate in learning at a particular time is triggered by a specific
life event. Given a choice among seven possible life transitions, 85
percent of the adults in her study named a career transition such
as changing or advancing their careers. For 71 percent, the specific
triggers also related to career events such as seeing a job downsized
or having to use a computer for the first time. In seeking education,
adults in her study looked primarily for quality (program, faculty,
course, degree) and convenience (location, schedule, length of
time to complete program) as criteria for selection. In general, life
transitions and triggers vary culturally.
From a sociological viewpoint, unequal access to wealth and
power is the foremost explanation for some adults’ lower edu-
cational aspirations (Deshler, 1996). There is little doubt that
such social factors as unemployment, schooling, home background,
government support for or neglect of education, and provision of
education in languages other than English powerfully affect the
consideration of formal learning for adults. The third edition of this
book addresses ways to foster inclusion in learning environments
and support adult learners’ participation, because their motivation
is frequently more vulnerable than that of younger learners.
Cultural Diversity and a Macrocultural Perspective
The impact of culture on the human perspective is formed by a
complex interaction: we each construct our own reality by inter-
preting the external world on the basis of our unique experiences
with it and our beliefs about those experiences. Neuroscience offers
biological support for this remarkable intricacy. As Zull notes,
‘‘The diversity of individual brains is infinite’’ (2002, p. 248). In

44 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
adult education, research on cultural diversity usually focuses on
age, gender, race, ethnicity, and income relative to access to and
success in higher education.
As noted earlier, this information is extremely important, espe-
cially for program and policy decisions. In the classroom and
distance learning we need to go further than statistics and gener-
alizations about cultural groups to respond to cultural diversity; we
need to see adults as individuals with complex identities, personal
histories, and unique living contexts. For example, a person is not
just older or just African American or just female; she is older,
African American, and female. This example is still too simple
because it does not include her religious/spiritual beliefs, sexual
orientation, income status, or profession, among other possible cul-
tural characteristics. Culturally, a person has a variety of identities
that are woven into a personal history and lived in an individual
context. As Trina Gabriel advises in an article about Gen Xers of
color (2003, p. 25), ‘‘There is no one way for members of various
racial or ethnic groups to view the manner in which race or eth-
nicity affects their lives.’’ And there is no one way for an instructor
to view adult learners based on the obvious aspects of their culture.
The foremost challenge of education and training, at every level
and in every venue, is to create equitable and successful learning
environments for all learners. Realistically accomplishing this goal
means respecting the cultural integrity of every learner while
enhancing every learner’s motivation and learning. Responding to
the intricacy of every individual’s multiple cultural identities and
the cultural diversity found throughout education and training,
Margery Ginsberg and I developed a macrocultural pedagogical
model, the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive
Teaching (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). This framework is
fully discussed and exemplified in Chapter Four. It is built on
principles that apply within and across cultures. Instead of using
a microcultural perspective that, for example, identifies a speci-
fic ethnic group and prescribes particular approaches to teaching

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 45
according to assumed characteristics of that specific ethnic group,
our pedagogy emerges from literature on and experience with
creating a more pluralistic approach to teaching that can elicit the
intrinsic motivation of all learners.
Our emphasis is on creating a convergence of multiple ideas
and methods from which teachers and learners may choose in order
to support the diverse perspectives and values of adult learners.
Our reservation about microcultural models is that a pedagogy that
may work well with one ethnic or racial group may not be effec-
tive with another group. However, microcultural approaches to
teaching offer effective complementary models for teaching adults
(Guy, 2005). They can be used in tandem with the Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Culturally respon-
sive teaching is characterized by respect for diversity; engagement
of the motivation of all learners; creation of a safe, inclusive, and
respectful learning environment; teaching practices that cross dis-
ciplines and cultures; integration of culturally responsive practices
into all subject areas; and the promotion of justice and equity in
society (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995; Phuntsog, 1999).
Location of Responsibility for Learning
The ‘‘carrot and stick’’ remains the most popular metaphor for
motivation in this society. It is constantly used by the media,
offered as an analytical tool by political pundits, and referenced
by educators. For learning, the emphasis is on the use of extrinsic
rewards such as grades, eligibility, and money. When learners do
not respond to these incentives, they are often seen as responsible
for their lack of motivation. They are likely to be described as
lacking ambition, initiative, or self-direction. The question many
instructors ask is, How do I motivate them? as though the adult
learners are inert. Such a question implies that these learners
are inferior, somehow less able and certainly less powerful than
the instructor. They need motivation! This attitude dims the

46 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
instructor’s awareness of the learners’ own determination and
tends to keep them dependent and in need of further help.
Instructors who use an intrinsic and macrocultural approach to
motivation consider the learners’ perspective fundamental. ‘‘Seek
first to understand’’ is our watchword. We can then see that
some learners’ socialization may not accommodate rewards such as
grades and test scores. The question, How might this learning
environment and system of incentives diminish the motivation of
some learners? is a viable means to finding clues for improving
the learning situation. We know there is an interaction between
learner motivation and the dynamics of the setting for learning, and
we must take the responsibility to foster an optimal environment
for everyone. Crucial to educational equity is the understanding
that the most favorable conditions for learning vary among people.
Because learning is the human act of making meaning from expe-
rience, involving all learners requires us to be aware of how they
make sense of their world and how they interpret their learning
environment.
Two Critical Assumptions for Helping Adults Want
to Learn
A construct as broad and as complex as motivation invites con-
troversy and argumentation. One of the most likely causes of
misunderstanding is the receiver’s uncertainty about the assump-
tions of the sender of the message. It is this lack of clarity, rather
than a lack of logic, that increases the likelihood of disagreement.
I offer the following assumptions so that you can better understand
why I have chosen the ideas for instruction that follow. These
assumptions form a substantial part of the foundation and rationale
for the approaches advocated in this book.
The first assumption is that if something can be learned, it can
be learned in a motivating manner. People must be motivated to
some degree to formally learn anything, even if the result of that

Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn 47
motivation is merely paying attention. Our brain continuously
selects the most relevant information from the enormous amount
of stimuli constantly affecting us. Most often our brain is disre-
garding irrelevant information. In the lower part of the brain, the
reticular activating system (RAS) filters all incoming information.
Through this process, our brain selects, often without our conscious
awareness, what to pay attention to and what to ignore (Willis,
2006). Before adults can learn anything, someone or something
has to gain their attention.
As instructors, once we have someone’s attention, we can use a
myriad of possible influences to sustain that attention and develop
interest. In a perverse way, commercial advertising is a testimony
to the human ability to make anything attractive and appealing.
If something is worth an instructional effort, there should be some
degree of worth to the material. It must meet some kind of valid
need, or there would be no reason for making it the purpose
of instruction. Finding that need, affirming it, and engagingly
developing it through instructional processes that are culturally
responsive are challenges, without a doubt, but not impossible ones.
The second assumption is that every instructional plan also needs
to be a motivational plan. More often than not, the variables that int-
erfere with and complicate learning are human variables — people’s
needs, emotions, impulses, attitudes, expectations, irrationalities,
beliefs, and values. Not surprisingly, these are motivational vari-
ables as well. Most subject matter is rather stable and controllable.
Often it has a logical structure and sequence. Finding an instruc-
tional design format for most subject matter is relatively easy
(Morrison, Ross, and Kemp, 2006). There are many to choose
from, but most do not adequately address the human and cul-
tural variables just mentioned. However, motivational theories are
vitally concerned with these variables and offer many methods
and principles to deal with them (Elliot and Dweck, 2005). The
challenge, then, is to integrate these methods and principles with
instruction into a cohesive framework.

48 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Many instructors do try to make their teaching motivationally
appealing, but they usually rely on intuition and decisions made
while teaching. Their difficulties arise when learner motivation
seems to be low or diminishing. They have no formal plan for
solving problems and often lack exact methods to revise, refine,
or build on (see Chapter Nine). Without such formal plans and
methods, instructors may feel helpless, hopeless, and prone to blame
the learners themselves. When they turn to books on motiva-
tion, the vast array of competing and conflicting theories often
leaves them only more confused. There is very little guidance to
ensure consistent application, especially in working with diverse
adult learners. A plan can remind us of what to do and when to
do it and show us where we might possibly flex and adjust along
the way. If we have no plan to enhance learner motivation, our
efforts too often depend on trial and error and lack cohesion and
continuity.
The research and literature on motivation has many con-
structive suggestions for instructors; however, without a method
of planning for those suggestions, instructors will probably apply
them inconsistently. This book offers a method of planning so that
instructors may be inspired to reflect on and to act on Csikszentmi-
halyi’s challenging realization that ‘‘it is how we choose what we
do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum
of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling
a work of art’’ (1997, p. 13).

Wlodkowski c03 3 02/05/08 49
3
Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating
Instructor
Even virtue itself, all perfect as it is, requires to be
enspirited by passion; for duties are coldly performed,
which are but philosophically fulfilled.
Anna Jameson
Consider for a moment a motivating instructor who helpedyou as an adult to genuinely want to learn, who was able to
influence you to go beyond another course finished, another credit
earned. See that person, and remember what learning was like with
that individual. Pleasant? Exciting? Startling? Absorbing? There
are many possible reactions but seldom the ordinary. Most of us
have had at least one such instructor. And every one of us has the
potential to be such an instructor to other adults. Let’s start with
the basics.
Motivating instructors are not entirely magical. They are
unique; they do have their own style and strengths. But research,
observation, and common sense all point to essential elements that
are the foundation of their instruction. These core characteristics
can be learned, controlled, and planned for by anyone who instructs
adults. I see them as the five pillars on which rests what we as
instructors have to offer adults. If we lack any one of them, we will
49

Wlodkowski c03 3 02/05/08 50
50 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
be less capable of responding effectively to the many complexities
that can strain an instructional relationship with adults.
These five pillars are expertise, empathy, enthusiasm, clarity,
and cultural responsiveness. Our most advantageous approach as
instructors is to see these pillars as skills and not as abstractions or
personality traits. They can be learned, and they can be improved
upon through practice and effort.
Instruction is a pragmatic art, a craft. We create, compose, and
perform for the benefit of learners. Every professional artist has a
practice regimen, and fundamentals make up a considerable portion
of it. Just as exercise is an inherent part of the lives of fine dancers,
and daily practice is a continual ritual for outstanding musicians,
so too are these basic elements the foundation for motivating
instruction. If we use them steadily and strive always to refine
them, they can be developed and enriched. They are achievable.
Expertise: The Power of Knowledge and Preparation
The pillar of expertise has many different names. Some people
prefer to call it substance, knowledge, or competence (Shulman,
1987). Expertise has been identified as part of practical intelligence
which can be learned (Sternberg and others, 2000; Grotzer and
Perkins, 2000). Whatever the name, a useful definition of expertise
for those of us who instruct adults boils down to three parts: (1)
we know something beneficial for adults, (2) we know it well, and
(3) we are prepared to convey or construct it with adults through an
instructional process. Adhering to these three criteria will render
our expertise most effective.
1. We Know Something Beneficial for Adults
Watch a group of uninterested adults in any kind of learning
activity — an in-service training session, a lecture, a business sem-
inar. (You have probably been a participant, at least a few times,
in such a dreary experience yourself.) Their voices aren’t shouting,

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 51
but their minds and bodies are: ‘‘Don’t waste my time.’’ ‘‘Who
are you kidding?’’ ‘‘I wish I could get out of here!’’ ‘‘I don’t need
this.’’ It’s almost palpable. As learners, adults are demanding, and
rightfully so.
An instructor of adults is quite unlike a teacher of children
or adolescents. This person is an adult among adults. He or she
cannot count on the advantages of age, experience, and size for
extra leverage or added influence as an elementary school teacher
might. Many adults will have had experiences that far surpass
those of their instructor. As a group, they have out-traveled,
out-parented, out-worked, and out-lived any of us as individual
instructors. Collectively, they have had more lovers, changed more
jobs, survived more accidents, moved more households, faced more
debts, achieved more successes, and overcome more failures. It is
unlikely that we can simply impress them with our title, whether it
is trainer or professor.
Also, most adults come to learn for a definite reason. They
are pragmatic learners. They want their learning to help them
solve problems, build new skills, advance in their jobs, make more
friends — in general, to do, produce, or decide something that is of
real value to them. The dominant question adult learners have for
any instructor is, Can you really help me?
We begin to answer this question by determining whether we
indeed have something beneficial to offer adult learners. We have
to ask ourselves, What do I know that this group can understand,
use, or apply that will help them? Answering this question with
relevant concrete examples of the knowledge, skills, or awareness
that we can offer this group is the first step in avoiding the
classic mistake that many so-called experts make when instruct-
ing adults — thinking that simply knowing a lot about a subject
is enough to teach it effectively. Colleges abound with knowl-
edgeable professors who teach quite poorly. In many instances,
they have not considered what students might know and be
able to contribute. They have not taken the step of connecting

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52 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
their knowledge to the daily needs and lives of their students.
For this reason, there is no bridge to common understanding or
means to construct knowledge collectively. As we saw in Chapter
One, the neural networks that represent the prior knowledge of
the learners remain unstimulated and unavailable for new growth
and connection.
When we instruct a group for a lengthy period, we eventually
become quite naked: our words and actions peel away the camou-
flage of our academic degrees and experience to reveal to learners
whether what we know really makes a difference. Connecting our
expertise to learners’ perspectives and prior knowledge, before we
begin to instruct, builds our confidence that we do have something
of value to share and that time is on our side.
2. We Know Our Subject Well
There is no substitute for thoroughly knowing our topic. Nothing
beats it. Whatever experience, reading, reviewing, or practice it
takes, its payoff far outweighs its cost.
By asking yourself the questions that follow, you can determine
whether you know something well enough to be able to instruct
adults.
1. Do I really understand what I am going to teach? Can I explain it
to myself in my own words?
2. Can I give more than one good example of what I am teaching?
A story, a joke, a fact, a piece of research, an analogy — there
are many types of examples. The main thing is to have more
than one. This demonstrates the depth and breadth of your
understanding and increases your ability to reach learners for
whom a single example would not have enough explanatory
power.
3. Can I personally demonstrate the skill (if you are teaching a
skill)? Being able to do so gives you real credibility, in your

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 53
own eyes and in the eyes of others. If you are not able to
demonstrate the skill, or if this is inappropriate, are there
models, films, or videotapes that can do the job?
4. Do I know the limits and consequences of what I am teaching?
If, for instance, you are explaining a managerial technique, do
you know what types of employees it may not work with or
under what conditions it would be unwise to use it? What are
its effects on production and morale? Does it entail any per-
sonal risk for the manager? Your consideration of possible lim-
its and consequences reveals the sensibility of your expertise.
5. Do I know how to bridge what I am teaching to the world of the
learners — their prior knowledge, experience, interests, and con-
cerns? Do I know where and how to let what they know
inform what I know? If you do not, your knowledge may be
irrelevant or misapplied.
6. Do I know what I don’t know? Where are the boundaries of
my own knowledge and skill? How far am I from the cut-
ting edge of my discipline? To be aware of your limits is a
very intelligent modesty. Adults don’t expect instructors to
know everything, but they do want an honest appraisal of
the usefulness of what they are learning because they may
apply so much of it. Instructors who know their own fron-
tiers can better qualify and temper their instruction. Learners
are therefore less likely to become disillusioned or to misap-
ply what they have learned, and instructor and learner alike
can better see the direction of future needed learning.
Knowing our subject matter well enhances our confidence,
flexibility, and creativity as instructors. We may still have learners
who are difficult to reach, but our fund of knowledge will not
be what fails us. We can count on it. We can also be more
open to questions and new directions that may come from our
learners. When a person has really mastered a concept or a skill,

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54 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
he can be playful with it. Spontaneity and improvisation are more
possible for the competent. Consummate artists and scientists base
their experiments on knowledge. Deep understanding of a subject
transforms mere information into useable knowledge (Donovan,
Bransford, and Pellegrino, 1999).
3. We Are Prepared to Convey or Construct Knowledge with
Adults through an Instructional Process
The emphasis of this criterion is on the immediate planning and
organization of instruction and materials for a lesson or learning
activity — the intensive preparation just before the instructional
moment. Brilliant and scholarly people at the zenith of their
professions are notorious for poorly prepared instruction. Albert
Einstein was known for burying his head in his notes, with his
words haltingly emerging in a monotone through his mustache. It
is difficult to imagine, but some people actually engaged in small
talk while he lectured.
Being well prepared for instruction shows in two essential ways:
we have a relaxed familiarity with our materials, and we can look at
our learners most of the time. We can actually have a conversation
with them. This makes them participants in moment-to-moment
communication with us rather than a cardboard audience of faces.
If we are tied to our notes, if we cannot put our manuals down,
if we do not know what the next step is, our chances of being
motivating instructors are nil.
Vital instruction flows. There has to be a union between the
instructor and the learners so that both parties feel part of a
single process. Effective instructors set the stage for this fluid enter-
prise by knowing their material well enough to read learner cues
and to change qualities of voice, emphasis, and direction in re-
sponse to signs of interest, insight, and possible boredom. Learners
feel that an instructor who does this is talking with them rather
than at them, because the instructor’s responsiveness to them is so

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 55
apparent. They can see these reactions in the instructor’s eyes
and facial expressions. Questions and give-and-take between the
instructor and the learners seem integrated into the stream of
the lesson. Like an expert navigator on a familiar ship, the instruc-
tor who has the touch and feel of the material can sail a steady
course in any sea.
The immediate preparation for motivating instruction is what-
ever it takes for us to feel confident that we will spend most
of the instruction time being with the learners and being able
to talk with them. For the experienced instructor, this prepara-
tion may be a few moments of quiet reflection; for the novice,
it may entail hours of review, rehearsal, and organization. The
range is wide. Notes, index cards, outlines, textual materials, and
PowerPoint are appropriate to use as long as they don’t stul-
tify our thinking, reduce complicated ideas to bullet points, or
inhibit our interaction with our learners (Keller, 2003). If any
section of our material seems insurmountable (occasionally this
will happen to even the best of instructors), we can make sure
our learners can at least look with us. Visual aids, media tech-
nology, and handouts are some possibilities. For online learning,
teleconferencing, video streaming, and other rapidly developing
communication technologies facilitate face-to-face involvement
with the instructor.
Any significant achievement demands readiness. Speakers col-
lect their thoughts. Actors reflect on their roles. Athletes visualize
their goals. As motivating instructors, we also need to prepare for
our quest to involve learners. The time we spend mobilizing our
knowledge and abilities just prior to instruction is probably the
final step of our preparation. How we feel about the instruction we
are about to begin will carry over to how we feel when we meet our
learners. The commitment to readiness enhances our confidence,
an emotion that gives us excellent access to our best talents and
stored memories (Zull, 2002).

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56 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Empathy: The Power of Understanding
and Compassion
Blanca, a woman in her mid-thirties, decides to take a communica-
tions course in the extension program at her local college. For the last
six years she has committed herself to the role of homemaker. Now
that her children are older and more independent, she is considering
college or full-time employment. This course will be the first step. Her
friends have encouraged her to take a basic communications class
because it would be a reasonable but not too difficult introduction to
current educational practices as well as a means to gain some useful
skills for the job market. She is motivated.
The class meets once a week in the evening for two and a half
hours. At the first class session, the instructor introduces himself,
has the students introduce themselves to one another, and lists the
requirements for the course — reading the textbook and four assigned
articles, passing a midsemester and a final exam, and writing a term
paper. He mentions that he is a tough marker and a real stickler for
the use of appropriate English grammar in student papers. After a
number of questions from the class regarding these requirements,
he dismisses them early so that the students can get a head start on
their required reading for the next week. Blanca is a bit intimidated
but determined.
At the second class session, the instructor lectures on the history
of communications theory and outlines a number of research studies
that demonstrate the significant effect of different communication
innovations. Blanca is impressed by her instructor’s knowledge but
finds her interest waning. The third class session is a lecture on
postmodernism and the politics of media influence.
Blanca decides to drop the course and get a percentage
of her tuition back before it’s too late for any compensation.
When her friends ask her why she didn’t finish the course, she
looks at them with a perplexed expression and replies, ‘‘It just didn’t

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 57
seem like something I needed right now. The course was about
communication, but it wasn’t what I expected.’’
There are a number of different ways to look at this scenario.
One way might be to consider what Blanca could have done to
have helped herself in the course or to have avoided this particular
course altogether. Perhaps she should have been more careful in
selecting the class; she should have found out more about both the
instructor and the course content before she signed up for it. She
also might have talked with the instructor and made her needs and
expectations clearer to him.
From another vantage point, we could say that the instructor
should have taken some time to get to know his students, to
gauge their feelings, and to find out what their personal goals
and expectations were. Then he could have modified his course
objectives and content accordingly. No matter where we place
the responsibility, the same core issue remains: adults’ goals and
expectations for what they are taught will powerfully influence
how they motivationally respond to what they are taught. In
general, the better their goals and expectations are met by what
and how they learn, the more likely they are to be motivated to
learn.
As mentioned earlier, most adults come to learning activities
for specific reasons. These reasons are based on what they think
they need or want. These desires translate into personally relevant
goals (Ford, 1992). These goals may be more knowledge, new skills,
certification of some type, social interaction, or simply relief from
boredom. However, if the content or process of instruction does
not in some way meet these goals, the learning will have very little
meaning for adults. If the learning process does not seem to fulfill
any of their personal goals, adults will eventually and inevitably
conclude: ‘‘This is a waste of time.’’
In this book I often use the terms goals and personal goals
for what is sometimes referred to as needs. This choice of words

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58 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
reflects most motivational theorists’ shift away from need as a
productive explanation of human behavior (Brophy, 2004). Bio-
logically, human beings are naturally active. They will explore
their environment without an unmet need to drive their behavior.
Need theory provides only limited understanding of motivation to
learn. There is little empirical support for Abraham Maslow’s hier-
archy of needs (1970), other than physiological and safety needs,
across different cultures (Whaba and Bridwell, 1976; Pintrich and
Schunk, 1996). People do need to feel physically well and person-
ally safe before they can commit to learning. From an evolutionary
and a biological view, these human reactions are facts of life. The
language of goals allows us to see adults as active agents responsible
for fulfilling their lives based on the interaction of their biology
and the purposes and values learned through their culture.
Instructors of adults face the challenge of seeing the learners’
world and what they want from it as the learners see it. Adults learn
largely in response to their own goals and perceptions, not those
of their instructors. Empathy is the skill that allows instructors to
meet this formidable requirement for motivating instruction. As
a discipline, adult education seems to universally recognize the
importance of empathy in teaching adults (Rossiter, 2006).
For centuries, writers and spiritual leaders across the world
have used words like compassion, consideration, and understanding to
convey how essential empathy is for life on earth (Goleman, 2007;
Hays, 2001). Carl Rogers, an advocate for empathy in teaching,
defined empathy as ‘‘the ability to understand the student’s reactions
from the inside, a sensitive awareness of the way the process of
education and learning seem to the student’’ (1969, p. 111). Daniel
Goleman describes empathy as ‘‘the ability to know how another
feels’’ (1995, p. 96). He believes it is the essential people skill.
As instructors we are wise not to confuse empathy with pro-
jection. Alfie Kohn explains the distinction: ‘‘There is a world of
difference — the difference between your world and my world to
be exact — between imagining yourself in someone else’s situation

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 59
and imagining her in her situation. It is the difference between
asking what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes and what it is
like to have that person’s feet’’ (1990, p. 112).
For instructors of adults, the pillar of empathy has three parts:
(1) we have a realistic understanding of the learners’ goals, per-
spectives, and expectations for what is being learned; (2) we have
adapted our instruction to the learners’ levels of experience and
skill development; and (3) we continuously consider the learn-
ers’ perspectives and feelings. These three criteria will help us
know when we have reached the level of empathy necessary for
motivating instruction.
1. We Have a Realistic Understanding of the Learners’ Goals,
Perspectives, and Expectations for What Is Being Learned
As a process, comprehending the learners’ goals, perspectives,
and expectations involves an, swering two important questions:
How do I best find out what the learners’ goals, perspectives, and
expectations are? and, When do I know I realistically understand
the learners’ goals, perspectives, and expectations?
Rosemary Caffarella (2002) describes widely used methods for
gathering information about adult learners and generating ideas
for their educational programs. Table 3.1 summarizes these meth-
ods for finding out about learners prior to the learning experience.
In recent years, Appreciative Inquiry (Watkins and Mohr,
2001) has emerged as a counterparadigm to conventional ideas for
initiating change and learning. Rather than identifying problems
and using a critical perspective to understand what to change in an
organization, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) focuses on the generative
forces in a system and asks, What are the things we appreciate and
want to increase? David Cooperrider (1990) proposes that positive
concepts such as ideals and vision have a heliotropic effect. They
energize and guide people toward the realization of an ideal, just
as plants grow in the direction of a light source. A clear common

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60 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 3.1. Methods for Gathering Information about Learners’
Goals, Perspectives, and Expectations
Method Description Guideline
1. Experience or
observation
Spending time with
learners in their
community, work, or
learning settings — if
possible, during activities
related to the learning
experience.
Learners observed should
represent the gender and
ethnic or racial
composition of the
learning group. Focus on
critical activities or
events.
2. Written
surveys
Using paper-and-pencil
and online formats to
gather opinions,
attitudes, needs, goals,
strengths, preferences,
concerns, and
perceptions.
Consider the potentially
limited reading and
writing proficiencies of
learners. Some English-
language learners may
have difficulty with this
format.
3. Interviews Talking with people in
person, by phone, or
online.
Pretest interview
questions with a
representative group. Use
random sampling or a
focus group of people
who represent the larger
group and are
knowledgeable and
forthcoming about issues
and goals.
4. Group sessions
and forums
Identifying, analyzing,
and using
narratives — stories and
folklore as well as stated
problems — to
understand learners’
ideas, concerns, issues,
and goals.
Group members should
represent the larger
group. Sessions can
include brainstorming,
focus group, and general
group discussion.

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 61
Table 3.1. (Continued)
Method Description Guideline
5. Job and task
analysis
(probably most
applicable in
workshops and
training)
Analyzing and assessing
the tasks, activities, and
procedures related to the
learning goals as
performed on the job or
in professional settings.
Relevance of information
and prerequisite skills is
essential for training.
Collected information
has to be valid. A variety
of data-collecting
methods can be used:
checklists, observation,
work records, interviews,
and reviews of technical
assessments and
publications.
6. Tests Assessing learners’
knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and values
significantly related to
the learning goals.
Measures should be
valid, reliable, and
relevant; should be
conducted long enough
before the learning
experience so that
instruction plans can be
adjusted.
7. Printed and
computer-
generated
materials
Analyzing information
from reports, manuals,
newsletters, media, Web
sites, and evaluation
studies to better
understand the learning
group’s context and
proficiencies.
Documents and media
should be up-to-date and
relevant.
8. Conversations
with colleagues,
friends, or family
Engaging in informal
discussions to gain
insights and ideas about
how to design your
course or training.
Record ideas and check
them regularly to expand
the creativity and
effectiveness of the
learning experience.

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62 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 3.1. (Continued)
Method Description Guideline
9. Performance
and product
reviews
Assessing relevance of
skills, processes, and
products of the learning
group.
Use credible assessment
sources such as subject
experts, competent
professionals, and valid
rating scales.
Source: Adapted from Caffarella, 2002, pp. 120–121.
image within an organization can generate substantial energy and
guidance for focused, creative action.
An AI perspective is based on these assumptions (Watkins and
Mohr, 2001):
• In an organization, the way things are is a social con-
struction that can be changed.
• In any situation, a group can find seeds of excellence to
build on.
• Excellence is found through looking for examples and
sharing stories by members within an organization.
• As an organization creates images of excellence, its sys-
tem will move toward that image.
The basic AI process for solving problems, creating change, and
realizing what to learn may be outlined this way (Watkins and
Mohr, 2001):
• The group looks at their experience in the area in
which they want to improve by exploring (telling sto-
ries about) the times when things were going well —
when members of the group felt joyful, excited, and
successful.

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 63
• As these stories are told and recorded, the group collec-
tively creates a description for what it wants, an image
of its ideal.
• The group can go out and ask others how they have
effectively dealt with a similar situation.
• The group shares its images, discovers the images that
others hold, and ‘‘re-creates’’ a more successful and
creative future throughout the organization.
At this time AI is a philosophy, a process, and a movement
in organizational development and education. I have participated
in the AI process only once. I was involved because of my role as
research faculty in an undergraduate program responsible for about
six thousand working-adult students. The initial sessions of the
AI process were very enjoyable and productive — story telling and
images of our desired goals and relationships were very motivating.
Eventually, as we continued over three semesters to work toward
the goals that resulted from the AI process, political will and perse-
verance emerged as necessary for real change to occur. Because our
work was voluntary, these qualities became difficult to sustain over
time. Although most of our goals were not accomplished, we did
establish an online tutoring program for the entire undergraduate
program, a significant achievement within our school. AI Practi-
tioner, a newsletter available online, can provide much more detail
about this approach to organizational change and adult learning.
However you find out what the learners’ goals, perspectives, and
expectations are, it is usually a good idea to talk with the learners
about the information you have collected. This is probably best
done at the beginning of the learning experience when attitudes
are most likely to be developing. Such commentary and related
dialogue can enhance your communication with the learners and
give them a deeper understanding of the care that is going into the
creation of their learning experience.

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64 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
There is no final answer to the second question, When do
I know I realistically understand the learners’ goals, perspectives,
and expectations? In my experience as a teacher, instruction
is nearly always a work in progress, a living composition. The
learning objectives we take into a classroom are our vision of
what we wish to accomplish. But the learners in that room have
their own vision and related goals. Remaining flexible, being
open to learners’ input, and in some instances, creating learning
goals with them are ways to keep our composition vital and
relevant. This approach is especially important when the learning
group is culturally different from us. Taking some time in the
beginning of a course to hear comments and suggestions from
learners regarding the course objectives shows our respect for the
learners and their experience and perspective. However, unless
this is an exceptional situation — for example, a visiting teaching
assignment, a crisis workshop, or a Freirean problem-posing — the
objectives we have set for our course or module should include
most of the goals and concerns that our learners bring with them to
the first meeting. By making the effort to understand learners prior
to the first instructional meeting, we are more likely to face only
moderately refining our instructional plan rather than seriously
revising it.
Another type of expectation that is crucial for us to under-
stand is what the adult learner anticipates in the way of course
requirements. Learners bring strongly felt expectations with them
about what and how much we ask them to do. In our learners’
eyes, our fairness and our humanity will significantly depend on
how our requirements measure up against their expectations. Usu-
ally, the issue for adult learners is time. All course and training
requirements take some time to do, whether they involve reading,
writing, practice, or problem solving. Many studies have found time
constraints to be a major obstacle to participation in adult edu-
cation (Wlodkowski, Mauldin, and Campbell, 2002). Sometimes
instructors think that learners want fewer requirements because

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 65
they want the easy way out. I think it is much more helpful
to see requirements in terms of the time they demand and to
recognize that adult learners want to make sure they have enough
time to fully demonstrate their real capabilities. The issue is not
‘‘give me a break.’’ It’s ‘‘let’s make sure I really have a chance to
learn and to become good at what I know.’’ We need to under-
stand the type of learners we have and the amount of time they
can realistically afford before we create our course and training
requirements.
2. We Have Adapted Our Instruction to the Learners’ Levels
of Experience and Skill Development
Have you ever been in a course or training program where you
didn’t have the skills or background necessary to do what you
were asked to do? Were you ever in such a program and couldn’t
leave it? Maybe it was in the military, in secondary school, or
worse yet, in something you volunteered for. It’s a special kind
of misery — a mixture of fear, embarrassment, and infuriation.
If there’s no hope of learning, we usually try to get out of the
situation. Our motivation is to escape, and when that’s not possible,
at best to endure and to avoid becoming depressed.
As instructors, we don’t want to make people fail. In terms
of empathy, this means giving learners things to do that are within
their reach. If we give them assignments that are too easy or
for which they have had too much experience, they will be
bored and disinterested. We must strike a delicate balance. The
instructional goal is to match the learning process, whether it be
materials, activities, assignments, or discussions, to the abilities
and experience of our learners. We don’t want to assign books our
learners cannot read or to expect them to be very interested in
things they have done many times.
If we are unfamiliar with our learners or if our subject matter
is rapidly changing, we may want to use diagnostic or forma-
tive evaluation procedures to better understand their capabilities

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66 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and experiences related to our subject area. We can use inter-
views, paper-and-pencil tests, simulations, exercises, or whatever
helps us know what our learners can or cannot do relative to
what we are offering them. The purpose of these assignments
is not to categorize learners but to help us create instructional
procedures for better adult motivation and learning. Even among
professional athletes, coaches begin training camps with exercises
and tests that are basically diagnostic. They know from years
of hard-earned experience that you cannot take anyone from
anywhere unless you start somewhere near where they are. Scaf-
folding (see Strategy 15 in Chapter Six) is an excellent method
for adapting instruction to learners’ levels of experience and skill
development.
3. We Continuously Consider the Learners’ Perspectives
and Feelings
More than ever before, technology and the media are bringing
education across vast distances and to widely different cultures.
Online learning, accelerated courses, and teleconferencing are
common delivery systems in training and postsecondary education.
Paradoxically, the technology and efficiency of these learning
formats only deepens our awareness of how important it is for adult
learners to know we instructors care about them and understand
them as individual human beings (Wlodkowski and Kasworm,
2003).
Hand in hand with this sensibility is Saint-Exupéry’s marvelous
maxim, ‘‘What is essential is invisible to the eye’’ (1943, p. 70).
Countless important things go on between an instructor and a
learner during instruction that no single human sense, no global
standardized test, no amazing electronic equipment will ever pick
up. In some ways, I wish this were not so. To some extent, this
‘‘invisibility’’ makes incomplete all the ideas and strategies found in
this book. And yet anyone who has ever really been an instructor
knows that Saint-Exupéry’s maxim is true. That is why empathy is

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 67
as much an attitude as a skill. It is a constant desire to know what
our learners are living and experiencing with us as they know and
feel it.
Of the skills necessary for empathy, listening is most important.
It is the single most powerful transaction that occurs between us and
another person that conveys our acceptance of his humanity. The
way we listen tells the learner more than anything else does how
much consideration we are really giving him. Do we understand?
Do we cut him off? Do we look over his shoulder? Do we change
the subject? Do we really know what he is feeling?
When we listen for understanding, learners are more likely to feel
understood and respected, making it safer for them to listen to us
(Mills, 1995). Listening for understanding is valuable in teaching
because it avoids judging people according to a conceptual frame-
work of our own devising and allows us to become fascinated with
how things look to learners. We can be genuinely intrigued by how
learners make meaning out of ideas and experience. Such respectful
interest can elicit deeper dialogue and mutual understanding.
If we can also attune our responses to learners, we have a chance
to connect with them emotionally (Goleman, 1995). Attunement
occurs tacitly and involves tone of voice, body language, and words
conveying to the listener a reciprocal understanding of his or her
feelings. A mother does this with an infant when she responds to
the child’s squeals of delight with a gentle shake, a smile, and a
higher-pitched voice expressing glee. An instructor does this with
a learner when she responds to a student’s frustration with a know-
ing nod, a furrowed brow, and words communicating a willingness
to listen further.
Validation may also be important. Sometimes learners need to
know that we can accept how they are feeling given what they
have experienced or how they understand the world: ‘‘I see you’re
upset; having lived through the kind of discrimination you’ve just
described probably doesn’t leave much choice in the matter. I
appreciate the conviction it took to tell us about this. Thank you.’’

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68 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Listening for understanding, attunement, and validation are
skills that help convey empathy. To use these skills effectively
takes practice. They can best be learned and rehearsed during
encounters that are not stressful; they will then be more accessible
to you during the emotional heat of conflict or controversy.
Empathy is not simply an altruistic notion. It’s a dynamic
process, involving people’s ability to express their thoughts and
feelings to each other in ways that often change the relationship
and, most important, continue the relationship. Combined with
expertise, empathy makes the instructor a more caring person in
the eyes of the learner.
Whenever an instructor can contribute to fulfilling the goals of
a learner, especially in a compassionate manner, the learner can
identify with the instructor. The learner may begin to take on some
of the attitudes and behaviors of the instructor, literally to act in
some ways like the instructor. We identify to some degree with
almost any leader who significantly meets our needs, whether it is a
parent, a political figure, or an instructor. This process is part of the
reason we often feel a profound sorrow when such a person dies.
A neighborhood organizer, a former coach — any leader important
to us can have this effect on us. We have not just lost someone who
meant something to us; we have lost a part of ourselves as well.
Identification allows each of us as motivating instructors to
leave a legacy. And enthusiasm for our subject can be a noble
inheritance.
Enthusiasm: The Power of Commitment
and Expressiveness
To instill an awareness of the importance of enthusiasm in an
instructor, I often ask people in my courses and workshops to
remember a motivating teacher they have had as an adult: someone
who taught in a way that evoked their passion for what they were
learning and gave value to it. (You may wish to follow along

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 69
with me.) I ask them to say the teacher’s name; to see the teacher’s
face; to remember what it was like to be in that course, workshop,
or seminar; and to remember the feeling they would have as they
came into the class and as they left it. After they have had a chance
to share their recollections among themselves, I ask them to raise
their hands if the teacher they remembered was enthusiastic about
what she was teaching them. If I were to count all the people who
did not raise their hands in the thirty years I’ve done this activity,
there would be less than forty individuals. With groups as large as
five hundred people, it is the norm to have a unanimous show of
hands.
I think I inadvertently realized the importance of enthusiasm as
a characteristic of teachers when I was a sophomore in high school.
Struggling to learn geometry and feeling the steady diminishment
of my will and effort, I remember the day the teacher came in with
a cart full of plastic circles, squares, and triangles. As usual, she
looked listless, dispirited, and withdrawn, qualities her teaching
reflected as constants. Bob, the boy next to me whose career in
geometry was headed in the same direction as mine, dryly observed
as he nodded toward her, ‘‘See what geometry can do to you.’’ That
was it! To my fifteen-year-old brain, he was right. We could suffer
the same fate. Though we both did poorly in geometry, we never
felt bad about it. It’s unavoidable: we are what we teach. And every
learner knows it.
The word enthusiasm originates from the Greek noun
enthousiasmos, which in turn comes from the Greek verb
enthousiazein, meaning ‘‘to be inspired or possessed by a god.’’
Other dictionary meanings include ‘‘strong excitement’’ and ‘‘feel-
ing on behalf of a cause or subject.’’ In discussing instruction, I
prefer a definition that includes the person’s inner feelings as they
are expressed in outward behavior.
Enthusiastic instructors are people who care about and value
their subject matter. They teach it in a manner that expresses those
feelings with the intent to encourage similar feelings in the learner.

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70 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Emotion, energy, and expressiveness are outwardly visible in their
instruction.
If we care about our instructional topic, we will be naturally
inclined to be expressive about it. If we do not care about our
subject, we will find it more difficult to produce feelings and
gestures. We might be able to act out or invent such expressions for
a particular occasion but to maintain such zeal would be laborious.
Without a source of inspiration, it is difficult to be inspirational.
The goal of encouraging in the learner our value for our subject
matter is important as well. This goal motivates us to have rapport
with our students and to express our feelings in a way that engages
our learners to share in our enthusiasm. Otherwise, we could
become so involved in our own emotions that we might teach for
our own benefit rather than for the benefit of our learners. Arrogant
instructors often display this shortsightedness.
In educational research, enthusiasm has long been linked
to increased learner motivation and achievement. According to
Cruickshank and his associates (1980), all other things being
equal, a teacher who presents materials with appropriate gestures
and expressiveness will have students who achieve better on tests
than will the teacher who does not gesture, reads in a monotone,
and generally behaves in an unenthusiastic manner. The eminent
researcher Nathaniel Gage (1979) has suggested that enthusiasm
is a ‘‘generic’’ teaching behavior that is useful at all levels of
education, in all subject areas, and for all types of students.
Enthusiastic instruction has a powerful influence on the moti-
vation of learners for reasons both psychological and biological.
One of the foremost psychological reasons is that instructors are
advocates. We are ‘‘pleading the cause’’ of our subject to adults.
Some of us lobby for math or technical skills, others for training
programs or general education. Whatever the subject, the message
is basically the same: ‘‘Learn it. It’s worth it.’’ Whenever adults
are urged to believe something, they perform a keen intuitive scan
of the advocate, asking in effect, ‘‘What will believing in this

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 71
do for me?’’ If we cannot show by our presence, energy, and con-
viction that this subject has made a positive difference for us, the
learner is forewarned. If we appear bored, listless, and uninvolved
with what we are asking the adult to learn, his response will be, ‘‘If
that’s what knowing this does for you, by all means, keep it away
from me.’’ That is survival. No one wants to invest in something
that has not done its own advocate any good. This inherent wis-
dom makes enthusiasm a necessity for motivating instruction. For
adult learners, how instructors say it will take priority over what in-
structors say.
Enthusiastic instructors are potent models (Feldman, 1997).
Numerous studies have demonstrated that when we focus on other
people, we embody their emotions (Niedenthal and others, 2005).
As a result, the emotional states of observers correspond to those
of the people they are watching. For example, in one study (Hsee
and others, 1990) as students watched another student describe
one of the happiest or saddest events in her life, they embodied the
emotional expressions of the student they viewed and felt similar
feelings. Related research indicates that when people feel pain, the
same pain-related neurons are activated in observers of the painful
condition (Hutchinson and others, 1999). From an evolutionary
perspective, human beings are likely to feel the emotions of other
human beings because it enhances their communication with them
and therefore their survival in a social world.
When adults see an instructor as expert and empathic, they
tend to imitate the instructor’s emotions and attitudes toward the
subject. If expertise is missing, the spirited instructor can simply be
dismissed as foolish. Without personal proficiency and compassion
for learners, the zealous instructor may appear more a person to
be avoided than a person to be admired. Learners can see that a
knowledgeable, caring instructor’s enthusiasm about the subject is
the natural emotional outcome of justified commitment. Because
of their biology and pragmatism, adult learners can be inspired by
such instructors.

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72 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
In addition, enthusiastic instructors are constantly producing
stimulation by the way they act. They tend to be authentically
engaged and may often use exclamations like ‘‘Wow!’’ ‘‘Cool!’’
‘‘Incredible!’’ ‘‘Who could imagine?’’ They may be corny sometimes,
but learners are more likely to pay attention to and understand what
enthusiastic instructors say and demonstrate. Greater alertness pro-
duces better learning, which makes future stimulation more likely
and rewarding. And on it goes. Thus a constant self-perpetuating
chain of events is established. It is no wonder learners ‘‘can’t wait’’
for the next course session with an inspiring instructor.
The pillar of enthusiasm has two basic criteria: (1) we value
what we teach for ourselves as well as for the learner, and (2) we
display our commitment with appropriate degrees of emotion and
expressiveness. Attending to these two criteria will not only give
us some indication of our enthusiasm but also help us sustain it in
our instruction.
1. We Value What We Teach for Ourselves as Well as for the
Learner
Our own interest in our subject is probably the surest indicator that
we value it. Do we devote time to understanding it better? Are we
active members of organizations that specialize in our discipline?
Do we follow and learn from the best practitioners in our field? Do
we read the magazines, journals, and newsletters in our subject area?
What is our area of specialty? Almost every artist, professional,
and scholar has one, unique thing she knows or does better than
most others in her field — a genuine source of pride. Be it the local
chef who creates a celebrated entrée or the Nobel laureate who
engages in esoteric research, people who value their work usually
develop a particular aspect of their skill or knowledge. It’s our way
of personalizing and showing appreciation for what we do. Our
specialty transforms us: we are not merely an ordinary practitioner
in the field but a vital contributor to our subject — a person who

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 73
adds a singular insight or style to the realm of our work. Enthusiastic
instructors distinguish themselves by knowing they possess such
exceptional pursuits. Just as we might know of some exotic faraway
island, we have discovered something out of the ordinary to share
with our learners.
Understanding the effects of what we teach helps us care about
our subject area. Knowing that our learners will experience a
‘‘first’’ with us can be a powerful influence on our enthusiasm. The
first time I ever read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets was with a
teacher. The first time I ever used a computer was at a workshop
under the guidance of an instructor. The first time I ever learned
how to prepare my own media displays was with a trainer. The
list is very long and very important to me. Please consider the
first-time experiences and skills you bring to learners. They form
an inventory to be savored.
2. We Display Our Commitment with Appropriate Degrees
of Emotion and Expressiveness
Displaying our commitment to our subject matter is the exhilarating
quality that makes instruction enthusiastic. In some ways, we are
like cheerleaders. We root for what we believe in.
Allowing ourselves to have feelings about what we teach is the
key. Here are some examples: getting excited about new concepts,
skills, materials, and future events related to our subject; showing
wonder about discoveries and insights that emerge from learners;
and sincerely expressing emotions as we are learning with our stu-
dents: ‘‘I feel frustrated by these problems myself,’’ ‘‘I became sad as
I read this essay,’’ or ‘‘I’m happy to see the progress you’re making.’’
A little bit of dramatization may help as well. Whatever the
actor in us will allow is a good rule of thumb. We can tell
interesting stories about what we teach; role-play our subject
matter (by becoming historical figures, delivering quotations and
speeches, simulating characters in problems, and so forth); and use

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74 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
the arts and media, such as music, slide shows, and film excerpts,
to demonstrate and accentuate our subject matter.
Showing our interest in the world as it relates to what we
teach is another attractive way to display our enthusiasm. It not
only vividly demonstrates our commitment but also broadens the
importance of our subject matter. We can bring in articles and
newspaper clippings about current events that relate to what we
teach; take field trips; invite guest speakers who work in areas
related to our subject matter; self-disclose interesting personal
experiences we have had as we learn about our field; and share new
learning that we might be carrying on at the moment. Be cautious
about using these last two ideas, however. Being too extreme with
them could be interpreted as being self-centered, which would be
more harmful than helpful with adult learners.
Although emotional involvement, dramatization, and showing
interest are ways to display our enthusiasm, how do we really know
if our instruction expresses this quality? The following are five
indicators commonly found in instruments designed to measure
teacher enthusiasm (Larkins and others, 1985):
1. Speaking with some variation in tone, pitch, volume, and
speed
2. Gesturing with arms and hands
3. Moving about the room to illustrate points and to respond to
questions
4. Making varied, emotive facial expressions as called for
5. Displaying energy and vitality
How people express and perceive enthusiasm varies across
cultures. Currently, there is no instrument to measure teacher
enthusiasm that is both precise and culturally sensitive. Nor is
there an ideal model for enthusiastic teaching. A flamboyant,

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 75
dynamic speaker who might do well at a corporate training seminar
might be stylistically ill suited for a rural school board meeting.
However, the five behaviors in the preceding list are excellent
indicators to consider when assessing your enthusiasm while teach-
ing. If possible, you might videotape a few of your instructional
experiences and evaluate your use of the five behaviors, taking into
account your subject area, the learners you normally teach, and
the behaviors of an instructor who successfully enhances the moti-
vation of similar learners. That would provide a sensitive context
for your self-assessment and a model for comparison. If you prefer,
you might ask a respected colleague to observe you teaching and to
give you feedback about your enthusiasm using the five categories
as focal points for discussion. I favor the latter approach, especially
if it is reciprocal, because I have found the discussion that results
from these observations to be enormously informative.
As instructors, we are sometimes faced with solving the prob-
lem of loss of enthusiasm. Over the years I have found six potential
destroyers of enthusiasm. Whether you are a novice or a more expe-
rienced instructor of adults, you may find the following descriptions
of these hazards beneficial.
1. Satiation. You seem to be doing the same thing over and
over again. The feeling is one of boredom. There is nothing fresh
or new in your instruction. You feel you may be in a rut, and
B. B. King’s anthem is far too clear to you: ‘‘The thrill is gone.’’
One of the best antidotes for this condition is change. Change the
content, process, environment, or population of your instructional
situation. Ask yourself which aspect of your instruction would
benefit from an alteration and take the necessary steps. We know
from systems theory that one significant change in a system can
change everything else. This principle may be positively applicable
to your situation. However, in more extreme situations, satiation
can be the signal for the need to consider another work setting or
another job.

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76 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
2. Stress. You feel burned out, psychologically drained, and
physically near exhaustion. Perhaps you are somewhat depressed as
well. Instruction is taking too much out of you. If this is the case,
make up your mind to control the stress and not let it control you.
Stress does kill. There are myriad books and programs that offer
realistic assistance. Contact your professional organization, local
health department, or physician for appropriate references.
3. Lack of success. You are just not getting the job done.
You feel some degree of incompetence. Maybe your learners are
not learning well enough, or they seem poorly motivated, or
they are not applying what they learn. There may even be dis-
cipline problems and personality conflicts between you and the
learners. To a large extent, this book is devoted to resolving
these issues. An additional intervention would be to discuss the
matter with a respected and trusted colleague. Consult with some-
one. Almost all professionals do so when problems come up in
their work. Doctors, lawyers, therapists, and managers readily and
wisely seek the counsel of fellow practitioners to resolve the many
dilemmas common to anyone who provides a service to human
beings.
4. Loss of purpose. The ultimate values for which you instruct
adults seem vague and distant, possibly forgotten. You no longer
feel the pride you once had in your craft. Instruction has become
an ordinary, mundane task. You’re surviving but not feeling pride
in your work. This malady is familiar to almost everyone who does
something frequently for long periods of time. It is often a form of
taking one’s occupation for granted. Some combination of distance,
reflection, and the company of other enthusiastic practitioners can
often be helpful. Vacations, conferences, conventions, and retreats
are some means for self-renewal.
5. Living in the past. You are having an attack of the good-old-
days bug. The learners aren’t as good as they used to be. The
instructional conditions have deteriorated. You see things as they

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 77
once were. You see things as they are now. You feel depressed.
You tell yourself things will not get better. You feel even more
depressed. This can lead to cynicism. And if you associate with
other cynics, feeding off one another’s hopelessness can produce
an endless cycle. Break this pattern by seeing your situation as you
would like it to be. Allow yourself to imagine how it can happen.
Begin to take the necessary steps. Associate with others who are
willing to work toward these goals with you. Using processes from
Appreciative Inquiry described earlier in this chapter may be quite
helpful in this situation.
6. Plateauing. Your instruction may be effective, but you no
longer believe you can get better. You feel stagnant. Personal
and professional growth on the job seems dead-ended. There is
very little challenge to your work. You feel resigned rather than
committed. If you cannot leave this situation, you may feel trapped.
Whether you go or not, the more beneficial alternative is the same:
create another challenge for yourself. This means setting a concrete
goal in your professional life for which the outcome is not certain.
There will be some risk of failure, but that is where the exhilaration
comes from. Your challenge could be to raise your instructional
goals, try a new training process, or become a mentor to a less
experienced instructor. Whatever it is, make it only a moderate
risk, meaning that the odds for success are clearly in your favor.
Then plan for the challenge and act on it. The results will speak
for themselves.
Clarity: The Power of Organization and Language
You are a trainee in a special program your employer has devel-
oped. You are attending your first training seminar to gain the
appropriate skills for your new position. It is the first hour of
the session, and things seem to be going smoothly. Materials have
been passed out. The leader has introduced himself. He seems well

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78 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
qualified, experienced, and enthusiastic. In fact, he has just told you
that one of the most important prerequisites for success in your new
job will be a positive attitude toward your colleagues.
A trainee raises her hand and asks, ‘‘I’ve often heard how
important a positive attitude is. But what does that really mean?
I think where I get confused is just understanding what an attitude is.
Could you tell me what that word means?’’
You had not considered it before, but you now realize you are
not too sure what an attitude is either. The instructor waits a moment
and begins his answer. ‘‘Well, ah . . . an attitude is, um . . . sort of like
a way of looking at something or maybe thinking about what you see,
or feeling a certain way, so that you end up . . . no, let me say, act, uh
. . . better yet . . . judge the situation and that makes you behave in a
certain way. Like, if you don’t like someone, you won’t talk to them.
Or . . . if you respect something, you’ll take better care of it.’’
The instructor moves on. You are confused, and you notice by
the expressions on their faces that most of your peers seem to be
feeling the same way, too. Trainee motivation has seriously slipped
in the seminar. You feel a bit worried that you will not be able to
understand this instructor.
Adult learners endure this situation all too frequently. They
have expert, well-intentioned, enthusiastic instructors who do not
communicate clearly. In the example just cited, the instructor
could have said, ‘‘An attitude is the combination of a perception
with a judgment that results in an emotion that influences our
behavior. For example, you see a neighbor at a party. You like
this person. You feel happy to see him. You decide to walk over
and say hello.’’ At the very least, the instructor should have asked
the trainee if she needed more explanation or examples. This
would have allowed for further clarification and might have saved
the day.
No matter how expert, empathic, and enthusiastic an instructor
is, the fourth pillar — instructional clarity — is still necessary for

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 79
motivating instruction. People seldom learn what they cannot
understand. Worse yet is to have an instructor who seems to know
and care about the subject but cannot explain it.
Instructional clarity is teaching something in a manner that
is easy for learners to understand and that is organized so
that they can smoothly follow and participate in the intended
lesson or program. But there is a catch — what may be easy for
one person to understand may not be so for another. There
is a dynamic between what the instructor does and what the
learner brings to the instructional situation. This is the inter-
action between the instructor’s language and teaching format
and the learner’s language and experience. Neuroscientifically, we
are talking about the bridge from what the instructor knows to
the prior knowledge of the learners. Clarity is achieved when the
instructor provides a way for the flow of his knowledge to firmly
connect with the neuronal networks of the learners. Like cars
rolling along a suspension bridge to a network of highways on the
other side of a river, the instructor’s information rapidly moves
into and connects with the stored memories of the learners (Willis,
2006).
For an illustration of how easily this interaction can break
down, suppose that an instructor uses an example with which some
learners are unfamiliar. Perhaps he refers to a hat trick in the sport
of hockey. One learner in the group has never seen a hockey game,
and another is learning English and cannot make sense of the
phrase. Rather than being enlightened, both learners are confused
by the example. Adult learners can become frustrated when they
know from their experience that they have the capability to learn
but find the instructor’s language or methods vague and confusing.
Often increasing this tension is their real need for new learning to
perform their jobs or advance in their careers.
Many studies confirm that instructional clarity is positively
associated with learning (Land, 1987; McKeachie, 1997). Berliner
(1988) found that expert teachers, effective teachers who have

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80 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
developed fluid and often masterful solutions to common class-
room problems, are extremely well organized and thoughtful
about teaching procedures. Instructional designers have focused
on how instructors can organize knowledge so that learn-
ers acquire it and integrate it with their prior knowledge
(Morrison, Ross, and Kemp, 2006). Educators in multicultural
and linguistic studies have also researched how instructors can use
communication skills to promote the learning and participation
of English-language learners (Kinsella, 1993; Samovar, Porter, and
McDaniel, 2005).
It is difficult to prescribe what an instructor should do to
guarantee instructional clarity. Significant research continues in
this area, and much evidence is still coming in. However, two
performance standards are worth considering: (1) we plan and
conduct instruction so that all learners can follow and understand,
and (2) we provide a way for learners to comprehend what has
been taught if it is not initially clear. Using these two guide-
lines can help us establish and develop instructional clarity for
learners.
1. We Plan and Conduct Instruction So That All Learners Can
Follow and Understand
This guideline emphasizes organization and language. Organization
is the logical connection and orderly relationship between each
part of our instructional process. Do we provide a good map — that
is, can learners follow us from one learning destination to the next?
Do we emphasize the most important concepts and skills, just as a
road map highlights the larger cities?
Beyond good outlining, planning for instructional clarity inclu-
des the following:
• Anticipating problems learners will have with the
material and having relevant examples and activi-
ties ready to deepen their understanding.

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 81
• Creating the best graphics, examples, analogies, and
stories to make ideas easier to understand. (Much more
information about this idea is found in Chapters Six
and Seven.)
• Including checkpoints in the form of questions or
problems to make sure learners are understanding and
following the lesson.
• Knowing the learning objective and preparing a clear
introduction to the lesson so that students know what
they will be learning.
• Considering the use of advance organizers and visual
tools. These are graphics, examples, questions, activi-
ties, and diagrams that support understanding of new
information. They direct learners’ attention to what is
important in the coming material, highlight the rela-
tionships of the ideas to be presented, and remind
learners of relevant information or experience. (For
extensive discussion and examples, see Chapter
Seven.)
• Rehearsing directions for such learning activities as
simulations, case studies, and role playing so that learn-
ers will be clear about how to do the activities and
can experience their maximum benefits.
During instruction, we can also enhance clarity by using
explanatory links — such words as if , then, because, and there-
fore — that tie ideas together and make them easier to learn
(Berliner, 1987). Consider the difference in clarity when an instruc-
tor says, ‘‘Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Some historians question
his greatness as a president,’’ as opposed to, ‘‘Some historians ques-
tion Thomas Jefferson’s greatness as a president because he owned
slaves.’’

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82 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
When we signal transitions from one major topic to another,
we help learners follow along. Such phrases as the next step, the
second phase, and now we turn to . . . tell learners that we are
changing the focus of our discussion.
Most important is to use words, descriptions, and examples that
are familiar to learners. If we are talking about a pattern and refer to
it as a configuration, we are more likely to be understood than if we
call it a gestalt or a harmonic. In general, the main goal is to avoid
being obscure.
Obvious from this discussion is the importance of language.
Comprehension for English-language learners can be extremely
challenging because so much advanced learning is abstract and
context-reduced, lacking real objects, visual images, and the social
clues (such as facial expressions and feedback from others) one
might have during a conversation. Kinsella (1993) offers helpful
suggestions for increasing clarity for English-language learners
during instruction:
• Pair less proficient English users with sensitive peers
who can clarify concepts, vocabulary, and instructions
in the primary language.
• Increase wait time (by three to nine seconds) after pos-
ing a question to allow adequate time for the learner
to process the question effectively and formulate a
thoughtful response.
• Make corrections indirectly by mirroring in correct
form what the learner has said. For example, suppose
a student says, ‘‘Many immigrants in Seattle from
Southeast Asia.’’ You can repeat, ‘‘Yes, many of
the immigrants in Seattle come from Southeast
Asia.’’
• Use these conversational checks regularly in class dis-
cussions, lectures, and small-group work:

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 83
Confirmation
checks
‘‘Is this what you are saying?’’
‘‘So you believe that . . .’’
Clarification
requests
‘‘Will you explain your viewpoint
so that I can be sure I understand?’’
Comprehension
checks
‘‘Is my use of language
understandable to you?’’
Interrupting ‘‘Excuse me, . . .’’
‘‘Sorry for interrupting. . .’’
• Write as legibly as possible on the board or media, keep-
ing in mind that students from some countries may be
unfamiliar with cursive writing.
• Allow students to record classes for repeated listen-
ing to comprehend and retain information.
• Modify your normal conversational style to make your
delivery as comprehensible as possible: speak slightly
slower, enunciate clearly, limit idiomatic expressions,
and pause adequately at the end of statements to allow
time for learners to clarify their thoughts and to take
notes.
• Relate information to assigned readings whenever pos-
sible and give the precise place (page numbers) in the
text or selection so that learners can later find the infor-
mation for study and review.
• Allow learners to compare notes near the end of class
or training and to ask you any questions they could not
answer among themselves.
2. We Provide a Way for Learners to Comprehend What Has
Been Taught if It Is Not Initially Clear
We can meet this criterion in many different ways, depending on
how and what we teach. The range of possibilities spans reviewing

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84 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
difficult material to announcing office hours for learners who want
personal help.
The Instructional Clarity Checklist in Exhibit 3.1 is a way
of surveying these many options. It is also a means of obtain-
ing learner feedback to tell us how clearly learners understand
us. Statements that relate directly to guideline 2 (‘‘We provide
a way for learners to comprehend what has been taught if it is
not initially clear’’) are preceded by an X. Statements relating to
guideline 1 (‘‘We plan and conduct instruction so that all learners
can follow and understand’’) are preceded by an O. The Instruc-
tional Clarity Checklist is a concrete way to better understand
how clear our instruction really is. If we videotape ourselves dur-
ing instruction, we can use this checklist to assess the clarity of
our instruction while we actually see and hear ourselves interact
with learners.
Cultural Responsiveness: The Power of Respect
and Social Responsibility
Think of someone who respects you, someone who easily comes
to mind and about whose respect you have little doubt. I have
two notions about this person. The first is that he or she very
seldom, if ever, threatens you in order to make you do something.
The second is that your opinion matters to this person. Your way
of understanding things can influence this person, especially the
way he or she treats you. These two notions do not amount to a
philosophical treatise on respect, but to most of us in our daily lives,
they are how we know whether or not we are respected. They are
particularly valid in a learning environment, and they demonstrate
why respect is essential to the motivation of adults. Without
respect, the reason someone does something for another is fear,
obedience, ignorance, lust, or love; with the possible exception
of love, these causes are best avoided in most adult learning
environments.

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 85
Exhibit 3.1 Instructional Clarity Checklist
This checklist is designed primarily for learners to complete, but it
can also be adapted to become a self-informing survey. In its present
form, it can be given to learners for their feedback on your instruction.
This will tell you from their point of view what you do well and what
you may need to do to improve the clarity of your instruction.
Instructions: after each statement, place a check mark under the
category that most accurately applies to it.
As our instructor, you: All of
the time
Most of
the time
Some
of the
time
Never Doesn’t
apply
© 1. Explain things
simply.
© 2. Give explanations
we understand.
© 3. Teach at a pace
that is not too fast and not
too slow.
© 4. Stay with the topic
until we understand.
× 5. Try to find out
when we don’t
understand and then
repeat things.
© 6. Show graphics,
diagrams, and examples
to help us understand.
© 7. Describe the work
to be done and how to
do it.
× 8. Ask if we know
what to do and how to
do it.
× 9. Repeat things
when we don’t
understand.

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86 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
© 10. Explain something
and then use an example
to illustrate it.
× 11. Explain something
and then stop so we can
ask questions.
© 12. Prepare us for
what we will be doing
next.
© 13. Use words and
examples familiar to us.
× 14. Repeat things that
are hard to understand.
© 15. Use examples
and explain them until we
understand.
© 16. Explain something
and then stop so we can
think about it.
© 17. Show us how to
do the work.
© 18. Explain the
assignment and the
materials we need to do it.
© 19. Stress difficult
points.
© 20. Show examples
of how to do course work
and assignments.
× 21. Give us enough
time for practice.
× 22. Answer our
questions.
× 23. Ask questions to
find out if we understand.
× 24. Go over difficult
assignments until we
understand how to do
them.
Source: Adapted from Gephart, Strother, and Duckett, 1981, p. 4.

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 87
As part of the fifth pillar — cultural responsiveness — I stress
respect for diversity, an understanding that people are different as a
result of history, socialization, and experience as well as biology.
Thus, it is normal for learners to have different perspectives, and
all of them have a right to instruction that accommodates their
diversity.
Social responsibility, the second essential quality of cultural
responsiveness, emerges from this respect for diversity. If we agree
that all people matter, we must ask the question, What is my
teaching ultimately connected to beyond myself and my students?
I vitally believe in the interdependence of all people and things.
Motivation does not occur in a vacuum. It is energy with a
consequence. This understanding obliges me to see my work in the
context of an ideal for social justice, because I know better than
most that people’s motivation to learn is released by a vision of a
hopeful future. That means I seek to foster effective learning for all
learners with attention to the collective good of society. How I do
this may differ or at times conflict with others who have the same
intent, whether they are learners, colleagues, or people I do not
personally know. Therefore, the following guidelines for cultural
responsiveness are both necessary and relevant: (1) we create a
safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment; (2) we engage
the motivation of all learners; and (3) we relate course content
and learning to the social concerns of learners and the broader
concerns of society.
1. We Create a Safe, Inclusive, and Respectful Learning
Environment
In a safe learning environment, there is little risk of learners’ suffer-
ing any form of personal embarrassment because of self-disclosure,
lack of knowledge, a personal opinion, or a hostile or arrogant
social environment. We can go a long way toward developing this
kind of security by assuming a nonblameful and realistically hopeful
view of people and their capacity to change.

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88 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Blame is a classic trap, one in which our normal instincts disable
us. When a problem or disagreement emerges, we often seek to
assign responsibility. In so doing, we may find fault or label a
person, often without validity or empathy. Blaming can create
a cycle of reciprocally hostile attitudes and actions that damages
relationships among people, especially culturally different people
(Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). As ugly as it is to say it, blaming
is usually some version of, ‘‘Oh, since that’s the way you see it, your
welfare no longer matters to me.’’
Rather than blame, we instructors can model and support
increased understanding and mutual problem solving and exploit
these opportunities for further learning. Beverly Daniel Tatum
(1992) offered an excellent example of doing this in her course the
Psychology of Racism. She explicitly taught with the assumption
that because prejudice was inherent in her students’ environments
when they were children, they could not be blamed for what they
had intentionally or unintentionally been taught. Nonetheless,
they all had a responsibility to interrupt the cycle of oppression
and needed to realize that understanding and unlearning prejudice
may be a lifelong process. She acknowledged that students may not
all be at the same point in the process and should have mutual
respect for each other, regardless of where they perceive each
other to be. Her excellent book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting
Together in the Cafeteria? (2003), extends this understanding to
people’s identity and personal development, offering constructive
ways to talk about race and difference that are applicable not only
to adolescents but to adults as well.
Ridding a learning environment of blame does not mean that
we give up our critical reasoning or avoid facing the truth as we
understand it. It does mean realizing that a different viewpoint
can give us information that leads to shared understanding and a
clearer path for communication; that although I may see things
differently than you do, I do not withdraw my respect for you.
A realistically hopeful view of people is not a mask to cover

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 89
problems or difficulties. We do not ignore human suffering. But
we do pay attention to opportunity, give the benefit of the doubt,
expect learners to do well, and allow ourselves to find joy in the
process of working toward the solutions to problems.
The modus operandi of an instructor who wants to foster a
safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment is to share
the construction of knowledge. This is not a method as much
as it is a value and a way of being. It means encouraging all
learners to understand their own creation of meaning and to accept
the integrity of their own thinking (Oldfather, 1992; Rogoff and
Chavajay, 1995). From history to physics, knowledge changes and
varies. This realization requires us to be responsive to each learner’s
oral, written, and artistic self-expression. Accordingly, we invite
the ideas, feelings, and concerns of every learner in the community,
placing exploration of differences at center stage rather than in the
shadows.
From this perspective, the learner’s voice is critical (Lather,
1991). Truth is a process of construction in which the learner
participates (Gilligan, 1982; Belenky and others, 1986). A
learner must trust her own thinking if she is to be intrinsically
motivated. How many times have we heard an instructor say,
‘‘Those people just don’t like to think’’? Well, if we are the learners
and it isn’t our own thinking, and if we can’t say that we see things
differently without fear of rejection or threat, then such thinking
is unlikely to be very appealing. Telling and hearing our stories is
essential to human nature. Stories are compelling because they are
one of the foremost ways our brains make sense of things (Cozolino
and Sprokay, 2006). To know we are using our own minds to
transcend what we know, to play with ideas, and to realize clearly
what was once vastly incommunicable can be ecstasy.
When learners know that the having and sharing of ideas
is a sincerely respected norm in the learning environment, they
will be more likely to expose their thinking. In fact, it is one
of the few ways they can come to realize that there are multiple

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90 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
viewpoints on any issue and to appreciate how others also use
the process of construction for their own learning and grasp of
truth. Nevertheless, under the safest of circumstances, because
of prior learning and experience, adults from dominant groups are
more likely to feel safer than adults from marginalized groups. As
instructors we still need to ask who is probably going to feel safer or
less safe and what are the contexts we need to develop and shift so
that everyone has an opportunity to express themselves (Tisdell,
1998; Sinacore and Enns, 2005).
2. We Engage the Motivation of All Learners
In any course or training, it’s pretty easy to absolve ourselves of
responsibility for the lack of motivation of some students. Now
and then I even hear the excuse, ‘‘They have a right to fail.’’ This
implies that strenuous efforts to encourage learning among resistant
students may deny them their freedom of choice and constitutional
legacy. However, my most common experience has been that most
instructors of adults are sometimes frustrated, confused, or at a loss
as to what to do about learners who seem reluctant to learn or, more
often, reluctant to do enough to learn what the instructor would
consider satisfactory. Some of us resolve this issue by teaching to
a certain segment of the class: those adults who most easily learn
with us, leaving the rest to the hands of fate. Yet we need to
be aware there is clear evidence that those learners left at the
roadside of adult education are generally culturally different from
their instructors, income level being one of the most dominant
dissimilarities (Cook and King, 2004).
If we accept that students become intrinsically motivated when
they can see that what they are learning makes sense and is
important to them, we are required as instructors to be respectful
of our students’ culture, perspectives, concerns, and interests. Our
finding salient ways to include these compelling aspects of their
lives in the creation of a learning environment or a lesson is
essential to engaging the motivation of all learners. With this

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 91
awareness, we strive to create the educational experience with
our learners, interpreting and deepening the meaning we share
together. I understand this goal to be an ideal and possibly a
never-ending, unfulfilled challenge. But I also believe that to act
as though I can reach this ideal is both responsible and wise. I offer
the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
(introduced in Chapter Four) as the most realistic means I have
found to consistently meet this challenge.
3. We Relate Course Content and Learning to the Social
Concerns of Learners and the Broader Concerns of Society
Education is inextricably connected to society. It directly con-
tributes to the construction of the individual and society. We are
what we learn to be. People and society are developed in one direc-
tion or another through education (Shor, 1993). Ethics and politics
are inherent in the instructor-learner relationship (authoritarian
or democratic), in readings chosen for the syllabus (those left in
and those left out), and in the process of learning (for example,
which questions get asked and answered, and how deeply are they
probed). Because people cannot escape the pervasive human need
to invest meaning in their world and must have a hopeful future to
feel a deep motivation to learn (Courtney, 1991), the connection
of our instruction to broader social concerns that affect how people
live, work, and survive is inescapable. As instructors we have a
social responsibility to promote equity and justice.
With the growth of cultural diversity and the numbers of his-
torically underrepresented students in adult education, the model
of cultural competence has emerged. This set of processes may enable
instructors to be more equitable and effective with students from a
variety of cultures. Practitioners from a variety of fields including
medicine, counseling, and education believe that cultural com-
petence includes the following three critical elements (Chiu and
Hong, 2005):

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92 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
1. Self-understanding and awareness of one’s own cultural values
and biases
2. Specific knowledge about the history, perspectives, and val-
ues of the various cultural groups one is working with
3. Adapting one’s behaviors and skills to conduct appropriate
and successful interactions with culturally different people
Although these competencies make sense and are desirable,
cultures are so complex and interactions so nuanced that being
competent to teach culturally different adults is not a static set of
skills that one can master, but an evolving process of learning, a
fine goal to continuously strive toward and one that needs to be
accompanied by an awareness of one’s own limitations. Substantial
research supports this generalization (Chiu and Hong, 2005), but
my life as a teacher is the strongest voice for this caution.
Living authentic experiences with culturally different groups,
participating in events that take us into culturally diverse homes
and neighborhoods, and being open to encounters that allow
us to learn the values and practices of other people promote
intercultural understanding and empathy, qualities that contribute
to cultural competence (Ancis and Ali, 2005). Chapter Nine
focuses on the first element of cultural competence, self-understand-
ing, as a self-assessment for applying the Motivational Framework
for Culturally Responsive Teaching. The second element, specific
knowledge about the culturally different group, is generally addressed
in this chapter under the section discussing empathy. Ideas for
the third element, adapting one’s behavior and skills for successful
interactions, are found in this chapter in the discussions of clarity
and cultural responsiveness and in all the sections of this book that
address the essential condition of inclusion.
I have found Paulo Freire’s conception of a critical consciousness
(1970) to be an invaluable guide to creating a learning environment
in which the integrity of all learners is effectively supported and
where learning seems likely to contribute to the common good of

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Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor 93
society — to inform as well as to transform us. Instructors with a
critical consciousness reflect the following qualities (Shor, 1993):
• Power awareness. Approaching our instruction and
content with an understanding that society is con-
structed by organized groups; realizing who has power
and how power is structured and used in society, espe-
cially as it influences learners in the course. Closely
related is positionality, sensitivity to how qualities of
identity such as privilege, class, and gender of both
instructors and learners can affect the learning pro-
cess and whose world views and ‘‘truths’’ dominate the
learning environment (Sinacore and Enns, 2005).
• Critical literacy. Using analytic habits of thinking, read-
ing, writing, and discussing that go beneath surface
impressions, traditional myths, opinions, and clichés;
understanding the social contexts and consequences of
any subject matter; being willing to probe for the deeper
meaning of an event, reading, statement, image, or sit-
uation, and applying the meaning found to one’s own as
well as the learners’ situation.
• Desocialization. Recognizing and challenging prejudi-
cial myths, values, behaviors, and language, especially
those learned in mass culture, such as class bias and
excessive consumerism.
• Self-education. Using learning opportunities to ini-
tiate constructive social change, ideas, and projects;
for example, using action research in a course to inform
a local paper, corporation, or community organiza-
tion about discovered abuses or inequities.
In this chapter, we examined and discussed the five pillars of
motivating instruction — expertise, empathy, enthusiasm, clarity,

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94 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and cultural responsiveness. They are five necessary, interdepen-
dent, and vital building blocks. They form a strong foundation,
but they are not a complete structure. We could not consider the
material that follows in this book without first acknowledging these
core characteristics. In presenting the motivational strategies in
this book, I am strongly urging the instructor who uses them to do
so in a manner that is expert, empathic, enthusiastic, clear, and
culturally responsive. Under these circumstances, the strategies are
more likely to be both respectful and effective with adult learners.

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4
What Motivates Adults to Learn
What sets the world in motion is the interplay of
differences, their attraction and repulsion. Life is
plurality, death is uniformity.
Octavio Paz
As a discipline, motivation is a teeming ocean. A powerfullyinfluential and wide-ranging area of study in the social sci-
ences, motivation at its core deals with why people behave as they do.
But in terms of scholarly agreement and tightly controlled bound-
aries of application, motivation swarms with abundant and rich
and often dissimilar ideas. Theoretical assumptions that human
beings are rational, materialistic, pragmatic, individualistic, and
self-directed coexist with views of human beings as irrational, spiri-
tual, altruistic, communal, and other-directed (Gergen and others,
1996).
This state of affairs has been brought about by the complexity
of human behavior, our awareness of the influence of biological
and social processes on any human endeavor, and the realization
that claims for knowledge in the human domain are relative to the
culture in which they are spawned. Regarding motivation, learning,
and instruction, the ideas in this book are largely constructivist and
linked to evolving neuroscientific research. From the constructivist
95

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96 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
viewpoint, people actively construct their own knowledge and learn
through their interaction with and support from other people and
objects in the world (Bruning and others, 2004). Underlying this
interaction are the processes of the brain and central nervous
system. To better understand motivation and learning requires us
to perceive a person’s thinking and emotions as inseparable from
each other and from the social context in which the activity takes
place. For example, would I have these thoughts (writing clearly
about adult motivation) and feelings (mild anxiety — maybe I
won’t) if I were not in front of a personal computer swamped by
research journals and texts and aware of my history as a teacher
of adults? It seems unlikely that I would. However, I am still an
individual with my own thoughts, guided by personal interests and
goals. I live as a socially and culturally constructed being with an
individual identity in a biologically functioning body. Amazingly,
these ways of being human exist at the same time.
In general, ideas from neuroscience and constructivism are
compatible with intrinsic motivation’s tenets that human beings
are curious and active, make meaning from experience, and desire
to be effective at what they value (McCombs and Whisler, 1997).
For example, what adults find relevant, that which interests them
and matters most to their brains, is directly related to their individ-
ual values, which are social constructions. As we proceed to describe
the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
(Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995) and its related conditions and
strategies, I will weave these congruent ideas throughout the
discussion, based largely on their salience and most often from
the perspective of intrinsic motivation.
What Is Adult about Adult Motivation to Learn
Responsibility is the cornerstone of adult motivation. Almost all
cultures hold adults more responsible for their actions than they
do children. For adults this is an inescapable fact. This deep social

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value for responsibility is why competence, being effective at what
one values, looms so large and so consistently as a force for learning
among adults.
Although there is no unified comprehensive theory of adult
learning, certain concepts are especially insightful for teaching
adults. In his discussion of andragogy (adult learning as it dif-
fers from how children and adolescents learn), Malcolm Knowles
provided two assumptions that add to our understanding of adult
motivation: (1) ‘‘Adults have a self-concept of being responsible
for their own lives . . . [and] develop a deep psychological need to
be seen and treated by others as being capable of self-direction’’
and (2) ‘‘Adults become ready to learn those things they need
to know or . . . to cope effectively with their real-life situations’’
(1989, pp. 83–84). These two assumptions continue to reflect the
social norms of the majority society in the United States, a largely
individualistic and pragmatic culture. Most employers and educa-
tional institutions value and reward self-directed competence. Most
adults are socialized with these values. These cultural conventions
account for one of the most widely accepted generalizations in
adult education: adults are highly pragmatic learners.
Research consistently supports Knowles’s second assumption:
adults choose vocational and practical education that leads to
knowledge about how to do something more often than they
choose any other form of learning (Aslanian, 2001). The largest
category of continuing education globally is directed toward upgrad-
ing job-related knowledge and skills (Mott, 2006; Schied, 2006).
Adults have a strong need to apply what they have learned and to
be competent in that application, and institutions and employers
have a pressing need for more knowledgeable and skilled workers.
The reciprocal needs of adults and employers interact with eco-
nomics to produce a powerful demand for learning that increases
personal and professional competence.
Adults by social definition, economic need, and institutional
expectation are responsible people who seek to enhance their lives

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98 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
through learning that develops their competence. The usefulness of
what is learned generally is a greater influence on adults’ motivation
to learn than its intellectual value. The second major characteristic
that distinguishes adults’ motivation to learn is their accumulated
experience and learning. The sum of adults’ personal knowledge and
acculturation influences what they regard as useful, relevant, and
interesting to learn. Neuroscientifically, prior knowledge deter-
mines what matters and to what adult brains are attuned to pay
attention to and concentrate on (Zull, 2006).
One might say that prior knowledge and experience are equally
important influences for the motivation of children and it’s true.
However, how previous experience and learning affect what adults
and children find interesting to learn and how they act with that
information differs. Maturity of brain development makes the differ-
ence. Neurologist and middle school teacher Judy Willis explains,
‘‘The prefrontal cortex is the last part of the brain to mature.
This brain region is the center for emotional stability, moral rea-
soning, judgment, and executive functions such as concentration,
planning, delayed gratification, and prioritizing. Because of fluc-
tuations in the developing prefrontal cortex, teens might have
difficulty communicating ideas and feelings, making wise decisions,
or establishing consistent self identities’’ (2006, p. 67).
The prefrontal cortex may not be completely developed until
a person is between 25 and 30 years old (Gogtay and others,
2004). The neurons in the frontal lobe form rules from learned
experiences (Wallis, Anderson, and Miller, 2001); this is where
we create large holistic views of what the world is, what we want
to do about it, and in what direction we want to go (Zull, 2002).
A fully developed prefrontal cortex with a well-integrated set of
life experiences probably contributes to what is conventionally
described as maturity — the ability to make responsible decisions
on a regular basis with consideration of their consequences for the
welfare of others as well as oneself.

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Experientially, adults generally differ from children quanti-
tatively; they have more experience by virtue of being older.
Qualitatively, adults have had more time and seen the benefits
and outcomes of a greater variety of experiences. Neurologically,
their brains are more developed and capable of judging, planning,
and making decisions about their experiences in a manner that
is more integrated, stable, reflective, and future oriented. This
constellation of characteristics probably makes the value of what
adults learn more important to them. Recent research indicates
that adult college students (28 and older) have a greater intrinsic
goal orientation academically than college students 21 or younger
(Bye, Pushkar, and Conway, 2007). This finding may reflect adults’
greater desire to learn for a sense of accomplishment, effectiveness,
and value for what is being learned. It may be that the worth
of what is learned is more important to fostering their intrinsic
motivation than it is for younger students. What these differences
in experience mean motivationally is that adults are more likely
than children to have these characteristics:
• To use relevance (what matters rather than what is
playful or stimulating) as the ultimate criteria for sus-
taining their interest
• To be more critical and more self-assured about their
judgment of the value of what they are learning
• To be reluctant to learn what they cannot endorse by
virtue of its value, usefulness, or contribution to their
goals
• To be sensitive to and require respect from their teach-
ers as a condition for learning
• To want to actively test what they are learning in real
work and life settings

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100 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• To want to use their experience and prior learning as
consciously and as directly as possible while
learning
• To want to integrate new learning with their life roles
as parents, workers, and so forth
There are other differences between children and adults in
terms of their motivation to learn, but research, theory, and my
own history as a teacher confirm that the influences of responsibility
and experience are the most notable. Like the roots of a tree, they
may not always be obvious, but when it comes to enhancing adult
motivation, they are needed to sustain and support everything we
do as instructors.
Integrated Levels of Adult Motivation
Adults want to be successful learners. This goal is a constant
influence on them, because success directly or indirectly indicates
their competence. If adults have a problem experiencing success or
even expecting success, their motivation for learning will usually decline.
Although the meaning of success for adults may vary depending on
socialization (for example, success may be individual recognition or
collective family pride), adults pay keen attention to indicators of
success while they are learning (Mordkowitz and Ginsburg, 1987).
Adult motivation can operate on integrated levels, with mul-
tiple feelings and thoughts occurring simultaneously. The most
basic integrated level for instructors to take notice of is success +
volition. For their motivation to be sustained, adults need to feel
willing as well as successful in the learning activity. There is almost
no limit to the number of specific reasons why an adult might
want to learn something, but unless there is a willful intention
to learn, motivation is likely to wane as time goes on. That is
because it is difficult for an adult to feel responsible unless she has
willingly done something to be accountable for. There will be more

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discussion about volition when we focus on attitude later in this
chapter. At the very minimum, instructors who want to enhance
adult motivation need to plan how to help adults to be successful
and willing learners.
A higher level of motivational integration is success + volition +
value. At this level, the adult learner does not necessarily find
the learning activity pleasurable or exciting but does take the
activity seriously, finds it meaningful and worthwhile, and tries to
get the intended benefit from it (Brophy, 2004). Adults feel much
better when they have successfully learned something they wanted
to learn and that they value. This separates superficial learning
from relevant learning and provides the learning process with the
potential to be intrinsically motivating.
The highest level of this progression is success + volition + value +
enjoyment. Simply put, at this level the adult has experienced
learning as pleasurable and intrinsically motivating. To help adults
successfully learn what they value and want to learn in an enjoyable
manner is the sine qua non of adult instruction and neurological
access. I have never found an adult to be dissatisfied with instruction
that engenders this level of emotional integration. It is the kind
of teaching that receives awards and is long remembered and
appreciated. I do not state this as an incentive for you but as
the exposition of a reality. Instructors who teach in this manner
are truly masterful because they have made the difficult desirable.
Adults want to be joyful in the pursuit of valued learning, especially
in the realms of life where competence is cherished but formidable
to obtain. And for instructors who want adults to successfully learn
with a reasonable amount of effort, such teaching is the most
challenging and rewarding route to follow.
In order to accomplish this kind of teaching or training,
Dr. Margery Ginsberg and I developed the Motivational Framework
for Culturally Responsive Teaching (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg,
1995) to guide instructional planning as well as to provide a way to
instruct that is intrinsically motivating for diverse adults in formal

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102 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
learning situations. The rest of this chapter describes the essential
conditions that make up the framework, offers an overview of the
framework, and concludes by applying this model to an actual
instructional situation.
Theories and research in the social sciences and multicultural
studies, and more recently in the neurosciences, have indicated at
least four motivational conditions that can substantially enhance
adult motivation to learn — inclusion, attitude, meaning, and
competence.
How Inclusion Fosters Involvement
Inclusion is the awareness of adults that they are part of a learning
environment in which they and their instructor are respected by
and connected to one another. Social climate creates a sense of
inclusion. Ideally, learners realize that they can consider different,
possibly opposing, perspectives as part of their learning experience.
At the same time, there is a mutually accepted, common culture
within the learning group and some degree of harmony or commu-
nity. The atmosphere encourages learners to feel safe, capable, and
accepted.
Mentioned but rarely defined, respect seldom appears in the
indexes of most psychology and adult education textbooks.
Nonetheless, its importance to human beings is irrefutable. To
be free of undue threat and to have our perspective matter in issues
of social exchange are critical to our well-being and learning. Pam
Hays (2001) notes that in helping interactions, respect is as or
more important than rapport in many cultures, including Latino,
African American, Asian, Arab, and European American. Fear
of threat or humiliation hinders adults from being forthcoming
with their perceptions of their own reality. Neuroscientists recog-
nize fear as a universal emotion and as a response that is deeply
ingrained in the human brain (Perry, 2006; Ratey, 2001). Threat
of any kind causes people to focus on ways to be safe. We look

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 103
for information and behavior to respond to the threat. We are
not interested in the new or nuanced. We want the familiar and
comforting. In such circumstances, an instructor does not find out
learners’ understanding of the world or their true ideas. If there
is no meaningful dialogue and if no relevant action is possible,
learners become less motivated, as well they must.
Connectedness in a learning group is perceived as a sense of
belonging for each individual and an awareness that each one cares
for others and is cared for. There is a shared understanding among
group members that they will support each other’s well-being. In
such an environment, people feel trust and an emotional bond
with at least a few others; because of this, there exists a spirit
of tolerance and loyalty that allows for a measure of uncertainty
and dissent. When the attribute of connectedness is joined with
respect, it creates a climate in a learning group that invites adults
to access their experience, to reflect, to engage in dialogue, and
to allow their histories to give meaning to particular academic
or professional knowledge — all of which enhance motivation
to learn.
With a sense of inclusion, most adults can publicly bring their
narratives to their learning experiences. Telling and hearing our
stories is essential to human nature. It is the way we make sense
of things and carry our knowledge forward. Sharing stories is
truth telling across generations. When stories are well told they
contain unpredictability and engender emotions in the teller and
the listener. These qualities enhance neuronal network integration
and long-term memory (Cozolino and Sprokay, 2006). Like music,
stories can seamlessly carry us into different cultures where we can
identify and empathize with people who initially may seem quite
different.
With stories, adults can personalize knowledge — use their own
language, metaphors, experiences, or history to make sense of
what they are learning (Belenky and others, 1986). When adults
are encouraged by the learning atmosphere to use their own

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social and cultural consciousness, they can construct the cognitive
connections that make knowledge relevant and under their per-
sonal control (Vygotsky, 1978).
Aside from research (Poplin and Weeres, 1992) and our com-
mon sense, which both tell us that learners who feel alienated
achieve less than those who do not, consider your own experience
of being a minority. On those infrequent occasions when I have
been, even if it’s not a matter of ethnicity but simply having
a different point of view, I remember struggling to make myself
heard and understood as I wanted to be understood. My anxiety
was usually palpable. I also remember those occasions when the
instructor created an atmosphere that allowed my differences to
be respectfully heard. I spoke more easily, learned more, and was
certainly more open to learning more. Unless we are the ones
discounted, we are often unaware of how motivationally debilitat-
ing feeling excluded can be. Ask any group of adults about their
motivation in a course where they felt excluded. Their answers
are searing.
The foundation of any learning experience resides in the nature
of the instructor and learner relationships. On a moment-to-
moment basis, probably nothing is quite as powerful. We are social
beings, and our feelings of inclusion or exclusion are enduring and
irrepressible.
How Attitudes Influence Behavior
In general, an attitude is a combination of information, beliefs,
values, and emotions that results in a learned tendency to respond
favorably or unfavorably toward particular people, groups, ideas,
events, or objects (Samovar and Porter, 2005; Scherer, 2005).
For example, an accountant is required by her company to take
an in-service training course. A colleague who has already taken
the training tells her that the instructor is authoritarian and arro-
gant. The accountant believes her friend and finds herself a little

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anxious as she anticipates the new training. At her first training
session, the instructor matter-of-factly discusses the course and its
requirements. The accountant judges the instructor’s neutral style
to be cold and hostile. She now resents the mandatory training.
This accountant has combined information and emotions into a
predisposition to respond unfavorably to a person and an event. If
the accountant’s colleague had told her the instructor was helpful
and caring, her response might have been different.
Attitudes powerfully affect human behavior and learning
because they help people make sense of their world and give
cues as to what behavior will be most helpful in dealing with
that world. If someone is going to be hostile toward us, it is in
our best interest to be careful of that person. Attitudes help us
feel safe around things that are initially unknown to us. Attitudes
also help us anticipate and cope with recurrent events. They give
us guidelines and allow us to make our actions more automatic,
making life simpler and freeing us to cope with the unexpected
and more stressful elements of daily living.
Although attitudes can be influenced by a variety of situa-
tional factors such as strong needs, drugs, or illness, they are largely
learned, frequently in a cultural context. Culture helps to shape our
attitudes through such processes as experience, direct instruction,
identification, and role behavior, as in parent-child communica-
tions. Because attitudes are learned, they can also be modified and
changed. New experiences constantly affect our attitudes, making
them shift, intensify, weaken, or reverse. As with any concept, the
brain eliminates or prunes the neurons that represent the dimin-
ishing attitude by secreting an enzyme, calpain, that causes the
neurons to self-destruct (Willis, 2006). Unless deeply ingrained
and very well learned, attitudes may fade or seemingly disappear
because they have not been used or supported through further
learning. People, the media, and life in general constantly impinge
on them. Attitudes can be personally helpful, as in the case of a
positive expectancy for success, or they can be personally harmful,

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106 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
as in the case of an intense fear of failure. Our attitudes constantly
influence our behavior and learning.
In unpredictable situations, our attitudes are very active, because
they help us feel more secure. As an instructor of adults, you can be
assured that students’ attitudes will be an active influence on their
motivation to learn from the moment instruction begins. Adult
learners will immediately make judgments about you, the particular
subject, the learning situation, and their personal expectancy for
success. They really can’t do otherwise. Beyond knowing that their
attitudes are a constant influence on their motivation and learning,
we cannot make broad generalizations about particular groups of
adults with respect to learning in formal education and training
programs.
However, with respect to participating in adult education pro-
grams, there has been considerable research on attitudes in the last
four decades. According to these studies, women, and people with
more education, and people with moderate to high incomes tend
to hold positive attitudes toward adult education (Blunt, 2005).
However, their attitudes are, at best, only moderate predictors of
their decision to participate.
Two of the most important criteria for developing a positive
attitude among adult learners are relevance and volition. Irrelevant
learning is likely to annoy or frustrate us. We not only find
such learning unimportant or strange but also implicitly know we
are probably doing it because of someone else’s domination or
control. Our brains resist adaptation to senseless tasks (Ahissar
and others, 1992), and this knowledge tends to trigger or foster
a negative attitude that is sustained both psychologically and
biologically. If we had some degree of choice or more input in the
learning situation, we would alter its irrelevant aspects to better
accommodate our perspectives and values.
Personal relevance is not simply familiarity with learning based
on the learners’ prior experience. Because of media saturation,
people can be familiar with a particular television program or

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magazine yet find it totally irrelevant. People perceive personal
relevance when learning is connected to who they are, what they
care about, and how they perceive and know.
In an inclusive and relevant learning environment, learners
can act from their most vital selves and their curiosity can emerge.
They want to make sense of things and seek out challenges
that are appropriate to their capacities and values. This leads to
what human beings experience as interest, the emotional nutrient
for a continuing positive attitude toward learning. When we feel
interested, we have to make choices about what to do to follow that
interest. Such volition may be willed by the learner or determined
in collaboration with the instructor. Or it may be suggested or
directed by the instructor but endorsed by the learner because such
guidance adheres to socially approved standards. For example, in
some East Asian societies people frequently identify with choices
made for them by significant others (Chirkov and others, 2003).
This orientation may come from familial, religious, or other cultural
beliefs about collective values.
For the processes of learning — thinking, practicing, reading,
revising, studying, and other similar activities — to be desirable
and genuinely enjoyable, adults must see themselves as personally
endorsing their learning because they have chosen it or they see
themselves as pursuing a valued or collective goal. Global history
and social science merge to support this observation: people always
struggle against oppressive control and strive to determine their
own lives in order to express their deepest beliefs and values.
Learning is no exception.
How Meaning Sustains Involvement
According to Jack Mezirow, ‘‘a defining condition of being human
is that we have to understand the meaning of our experience’’
(1997, p. 5). Making, understanding, and changing meaning are
fundamental aspects of adult development that continuously take

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place in a sociocultural context (Gilligan, 1982; Tennant and
Pogson, 1995). But what is meaning from a motivational perspec-
tive? In relationship to learning, what is the meaning of meaning
itself?
There are a number of ways to unravel this concept. From a
neurological perspective, when the brain receives new informa-
tion, it searches existing neural networks to find a place for the
information to ‘‘fit.’’ If there is a connection, the new information
makes sense. Prior knowledge, what we already know, allows us
to understand the new information. However, to have meaning
the new information has to be relevant, somehow connected to
something that matters to us (Sousa, 2006). For example, if an
adolescent received information about early retirement planning,
it might make sense but not matter. To a working adult the same
information would be more likely to be important and, therefore,
not only make sense but be meaningful as well.
Another way to understand meaning is to see it as an increase
in the complexity of an experience as that experience relates to our
values or purposes. Adults create meaning through ‘‘their cultural,
symbolic, and spiritual experience, as well as through the cognitive’’
(Tisdell, 2003, p. 42). This meaning may be beyond articulation.
Emotion, art, and spirituality are essential to human experience
and incontestably have meaning but it may not be expressible in
words. For example, as I grow older, the meaning of friendship
increases in conceptual complexity (different types and qualities
of friendship) as well as in emotional and spiritual impressions I
cannot easily describe in words.
Deep meaning implies that the experience or idea that is increas-
ing in complexity is connected to an important goal or ultimate
purpose, such as insuring the safety of one’s family or finding
a vocation in life. As the philosopher Susanne Langer (1942)
posited, there is a human need to find significance. Across many
cultures, achieving purpose appears fundamental to a satisfying life
(Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). When we assist

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 109
learners in the realization of what is truly important in their world,
they access more passionate feelings and can become absorbed in
learning. Emotions both give meaning and influence behavior. If,
for example, learners become troubled when they discover that
certain tax laws create economic inequities, the complexity of
their understanding has increased, and they may now find their
agitation propelling them toward further reading about tax laws
and legislation.
We can also understand meaning as the ordering of information
that gives identity and clarity, as when we say that the word
castle means ‘‘a large fortified residence’’ or when we recognize our
telephone number in a listing. This kind of meaning embraces facts,
procedures, and behaviors and contributes to our awareness of how
things relate, operate, or are defined, but it doesn’t deeply touch
our psyche. A good deal of professional information falls under
this description. Such information builds on prior knowledge and
we can make sense of it, but it seems only slightly relevant and
easily can become boring and unavailable for long-term memory.
By recasting this information in a context of goals, concerns, and
problems relevant to adults, instructors can infuse it with deeper
meaning. Even the word castle takes on deeper meaning when adults
can relate it to personal travel, memorable films and literature, and
possible archetypes from fantasy and history. Fortunately, a number
of motivational strategies can enhance the meaning of less relevant
information by stimulating the memory, curiosity, and insight of
learners. We will discuss these at length in Chapter Seven.
Though adults may feel included and have a positive atti-
tude, their involvement will diminish if they cannot find learning
meaningful. By making the learners’ goals, interests, and cultural
perspectives the context of challenging and engaging learning
experiences, instructors can secure their continuing participation.
If they are challenged, adults will learn more about something
they care about. If they are engaged, they will actively pursue
this knowledge. A challenging learning experience in an engaging

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110 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
format about a relevant topic is intrinsically motivating because it
increases conscious (and neural) connections to important adult
purposes. Meaning is at the core of motivation and learning for
adults because it is where their ideas and emotions join to fulfill
their personal, cultural, and spiritual commitments.
How Competence Builds Confidence
Competence theory (White, 1959) assumes people naturally strive
for effective interactions with their world. We are genetically
predisposed to explore, perceive, think about, manipulate, and
change our surroundings to promote an effective interaction with
our environment. Practicing newly developing skills and mas-
tering challenging tasks engender positive emotions, feelings of
efficacy that are evident even in early infancy. Researchers have
demonstrated that babies as young as eight weeks old can learn
particular responses to manipulate their environment. In one such
study (Watson and Ramey, 1972), infants were placed in cribs
with a mobile above their heads. By turning their heads to the
right, they activated an electrical apparatus in their pillows, causing
the mobile to move. These children not only learned to ‘‘move’’ the
mobile but also displayed more positive emotions (smiling, coo-
ing) than did the infants for whom the mobile’s movement was
controlled by the experimenter.
This innate disposition to be competent is so strong that we will
risk danger and pain to accomplish a more able relationship with
our environment. Consider the one-year-old who repeatedly falls
while attempting to walk and, although still crying from a recent
tumble, strives to get up and go at it again. Or the adult who, on
gaining proficiency at one level of skiing, swimming, climbing, or
running, ‘‘naturally’’ moves on to the next level, often putting body
or being in jeopardy. The history of the human race is a continuous
catalogue of bold scientists and adventurers who have relentlessly
reached out to explore their world. We humans are active creatures
who want to have a part in shaping the course of our lives.

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 111
As adults, we most frequently view competence as the desire
to be effective at what we value. Our socialization and culture
largely determine what we think is worth accomplishing (Plaut
and Markus, 2005). As we move from childhood to adulthood, our
feeling competent increasingly involves social input. Parents and
teachers and schools and jobs, the unavoidable stuff of growing up,
increasingly replace independent play and toys.
Because awareness of competence is such a powerful influence
on human behavior, adults who are learning and can feel their
progress are usually well motivated to continue their efforts in a
similar direction. Because adults enter educational programs with
a strong need to apply what they have learned to the real world,
they are continually attentive to how effectively they are learning.
They know their families, jobs, and communities will be the arenas
in which they test this new learning. Therefore, they are more
motivated when the circumstances under which they assess their
competence are authentic and reflect their actual lives.
In formal learning situations, adults feel competent when they
know they have attained a specified degree of knowledge or a
level of performance that is acceptable by personal standards,
social standards, or both. This sense of competence usually comes
when adults have had a chance to apply or practice what they
are learning. When they have evidence through feedback of how
well they are learning and can make internal statements such as
‘‘I really understand this’’ or ‘‘I am doing this proficiently,’’ adults
experience feelings of efficacy and intrinsic motivation because
they are competently performing an activity that leads to a valued
goal. This experience of effectiveness affirms their innate need
to relate adequately to their environment. Biologically, active
testing of learning increases neural activity across the brain. This
trial-and-error process includes our prediction of the expected
outcome which is confirmed or disconfirmed through feedback and
drives the learning process forward, activating pleasure structures
in the brain as we proceed (Schultz and Dickinson, 2000; Poldrack
and others, 2001).

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112 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
The process and the goal are reciprocal — one gives meaning
to the other. If someone wants to learn how to use a computer
because it is a valued skill, his awareness of how valuable
computer skills are will evoke his motivation as he makes progress
in learning computer skills. However, the gained competence, the
progress itself, is likely to increase the value of the goal, making
computer skills more valuable; the person could eventually enter
a career that was before unimaginable (perhaps prompting that
common existential question, How did I get here?).
When people know with some degree of certainty that they are
adept at what they are learning, they feel confident. This confi-
dence comes from knowing that they have intentionally become
proficient. Their self-confidence emanates from such internal state-
ments as ‘‘I know this well’’ or ‘‘I will be able to do this again.’’
The relationship between competence and self-confidence is
mutually enhancing. Competence allows a person to become more
confident, which provides emotional support for an effort to learn
new skills and knowledge. Competent achievement of this new
learning further buttresses confidence, which again supports and
motivates more extensive learning. This can result in a spiraling
dynamic of competence and confidence growing in continued
support of each other. To feel assured that one’s talents and effort
can lead to new learning and achievement is a powerful and
lasting motivational resource. It is also the mark of a true expert
or champion in any field. Instructors can help adults learn to be
confident by establishing conditions that engender competence. It
is a wonderful gift.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching
We have seen how important and complex the relationship of
motivation and culture is to adult learning. Instructors need a
model of teaching and learning that respects the inseparability of

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 113
In
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on
Attitude
E
st
a
b
lis
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ng
Developing
Learner’s
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at the
Moment
Engendering
E
nh
a
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Figure 4.1. The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive
Teaching
Source: Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995, p. 29. Used with permission.
motivation and culture and integrates the emerging knowledge
from neuroscience. The Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching provides this understanding (Wlodkowski
and Ginsberg, 1995). It dynamically combines the essential moti-
vational conditions that are intrinsically motivating for diverse
adults (see Figure 4.1). It provides a structure for planning and
applying a rich array of motivational strategies. Each of its major
conditions is supported by theories aligned with intrinsic motiva-
tion. Each condition’s powerful influence on learner motivation
is also substantiated by research from the social sciences and
neurosciences.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teach-
ing is respectful of different cultures and capable of creating a

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114 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
common culture that all learners in the learning situation can
accept. It is a holistic and systemic representation of four intersect-
ing motivational conditions that teachers and learners can create
or enhance. The four essential conditions are these:
1. Establishing inclusion: creating a learning atmosphere in which
learners and teachers feel respected and connected to one
another
2. Developing attitude: creating a favorable disposition toward the
learning experience through personal relevance and volition
3. Enhancing meaning: creating challenging and engaging learn-
ing experiences that include learners’ perspectives and values
4. Engendering competence: creating an understanding that learn-
ers are effective in learning something they value
People experience emotions and motivational influences as
a very rapid (in milliseconds) integration of intersecting pro-
cesses occurring both consciously and unconsciously (Winkielman,
Berridge, and Wilbarger, 2005). You meet a friend you have not
seen for many years. As you embrace your friend, many emo-
tions rush through you — joy, sorrow, love, perhaps regret. In that
moment, your perceptions of your friend intersect with a history of
past events recalled in your mind. A number of feelings arise from
this dynamic network. How many of them affect you at this or any
given moment? No one really knows.
From Buddha to Bateson, scholars and thinkers have understood
life and learning to be multidetermined. As we have discussed
earlier, researchers view cognition and emotion as neurophysiologic
processes, occurring either individually or socially, that integrate
the mind, the body, the activity, and the ingredients of the setting
in a complex interactive manner (Lave, 1997; Scherer, 2005).
Meeting your friend alone in an airport might be a very different
emotional experience from meeting her in her home with her

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 115
family present. Human beings frequently act without deliberation.
Our perception and action arise together, each contributing to the
co-construction of the other. Much of the time we compose our lives
in the moment.
Realizing how complex adult motivation and learning are
requires us to plan carefully for instruction. Because the four
motivational conditions work in concert and exert their influence
on adult learning in the moment as well as over time, we need
to be intentional about how we establish and coordinate these
conditions when we plan or design a lesson.
Motivational planning works best when it is integrated through-
out the entire lesson. All the examples of instructional design or
planning are anchored in theories and strategies that support adult
intrinsic motivation to learn. Planning carefully with adult moti-
vation in mind not only helps us to be more effective instructors,
it avoids a serious pitfall common to teaching: blaming learners
for being unresponsive to instruction. When instructors design
a lesson without the enhancement of learner motivation as a
consideration threaded throughout its composition, they do not
have a motivationally based plan to analyze for possible solutions
to motivational difficulties that arise during instruction. Without
a motivationally oriented instructional plan, the problem may seem
unsolvable. As instructors, we are likely to become frustrated and
more prone to place responsibility for this state of affairs on the
learners themselves. Speaking from my own experience, I know
how difficult it is to be openly self-critical. Defense mechanisms
like rationalization and projection act to protect our egos. Planning
instruction with motivation in mind helps us to keep our attention
on the emotions of adults while they are learning, on how we
are proceeding through the designed lesson, on how we instruct,
and what we can do about that instruction when it is not as vital
as we would like it to be. This kind of focusing diminishes our
tendency to blame, which is a common reaction to problems that
seem unsolvable.

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116 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Applying the Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching
Let us take a look at the Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching in terms of the teaching-learning process.
Because most instructional plans have specific learning objectives,
they tend to be linear and prescriptive: instructors sequence learn-
ing events over time and predetermine the order in which concepts
and skills are taught and when they are practiced and applied.
Although human motivation does not always follow an orderly
path, we can plan ways to evoke it throughout a learning sequence.
In fact, because of motivation’s emotional base and natural insta-
bility, we need to painstakingly plan the milieu and learning
activities to enhance adult motivation, especially when we face a
time-limited learning period. For projects, self-directed learning,
and situational learning (as in the case of problem posing), we may
not be so bound to a formal plan.
The most basic way to begin is to transform the framework’s
four motivational conditions into questions to use as guidelines for
selecting motivational strategies and related learning activities to
include in the design of your instructional plan:
1. Establishing inclusion: How do we create or affirm a learning
atmosphere in which we feel respected by and connected to
one another? (Best to plan for the beginning of the
lesson.)
2. Developing attitude: How do we create or affirm a favorable
disposition toward learning through personal relevance and
learner volition? (Best to plan for the beginning of the
lesson.)
3. Enhancing meaning: How do we create engaging and chal-
lenging learning experiences that include learners’ perspec-
tives and values? (Best to plan throughout the lesson.)

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 117
4. Engendering competence: How do we create or affirm an under-
standing that learners have effectively learned something they
value and perceive as authentic to their real world? (Best to
plan, when possible, throughout the lesson and, in general, at
the ending of the lesson.)
Let us look at an actual episode of teaching in which the
instructor uses the motivational framework and these questions
to compose an instructional plan. In this example, the teacher is
conducting the first two-hour session of an introductory course in
research.
The class takes place on Saturday morning. There are twenty adult
learners ranging in age from twenty-five to fifty-five. Most hold full-time
jobs. Most are women. Most are first-generation college students.
A few are students of color. The instructor knows from previous
experience that many of these students view research as abstract,
irrelevant, and oppressive learning. Her instructional objective is as
follows: students will devise an in-class investigation and develop
their own positive perspectives toward active research. Using the
four motivational conditions and their related questions, the instructor
creates the sequence of learning activities found in Table 4.1.
Let’s look at the narrative for this teaching episode.
The teacher explains that much research is conducted collabo-
ratively. The course will model this approach as well. For a beginning
activity, she randomly assigns learners to small groups and encour-
ages them to discuss any previous experiences they may have had
doing research and their expectations and concerns for the course
(strategy: collaborative learning). Each group then shares its experi-
ences, expectations, and concerns as the teacher records them on
the overhead. In this manner, she is able to understand her students’
perspectives and to increase their connection to one another and
herself (motivational condition: establishing inclusion).

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118 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 4.1. Instructional Plan Based on the Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Motivational
Condition and
Question
Motivational
Strategy
Learning Activity
Establishing inclusion:
How do we create or
affirm a learning
atmosphere in which
we feel respected by
and connected to
one another?
(beginning)
Collaborative
learning
Randomly form small
groups in which
learners exchange
concerns, experiences,
and expectations they
have about research.
List them.
Developing attitude:
How do we create or
affirm a favorable
disposition toward
learning through
personal relevance
and volition?
(beginning)
Relevant learning
goals
Ask learners to choose
something they want
to research among
themselves.
Enhancing meaning:
How do we create
engaging and
challenging learning
experiences that
include learner
perspectives and
values? (throughout)
Critical
questioning and
predicting
Form research teams to
devise a set of
questions to ask in
order to make
predictions. Record
questions and
predictions.
Engendering
competence: How do
we create or affirm an
understanding that
learners have
effectively learned
something they value
and perceive as
authentic to their real
world? (ending)
Self-assessment After the predictions
have been verified, ask
learners to create their
own statements about
what they learned
about research from
this process.

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 119
The teacher explains that most people are researchers much of
the time. She asks the students what they would like to research
among themselves (strategy: relevant learning goal). After a lively
discussion, the class decides to investigate and predict the amount of
sleep some members of the class had the previous night. By having
students choose the research topic, this strategy engages adult
volition, increases the relevance of the activity, and contributes to the
emergence of a favorable disposition toward the course (motivational
condition: developing attitude). The students are learning in a way
that includes their experiences and perspectives.
Five students volunteer to serve as subjects, and the other stu-
dents form research teams. Each team develops a set of observations
and a set of questions to ask the volunteers, but no one may ask
them how many hours of sleep they had the night before. After they
ask their questions, team members confer and each team ranks
the five volunteers in order of the amount of sleep each had, from the
most to the least (strategy: critical questioning and predicting). When
the volunteers reveal the amount of time they slept, the students
discover that no research team was correct in ranking more than
three volunteers. The students discuss why this outcome may have
occurred and consider questions that might have increased their
accuracy, such as, ‘‘How much coffee did you drink before you came
to class?’’ The questioning, testing of ideas, feedback, and predicting
heighten the engagement, challenge, and complexity of this learning
for the students (motivational condition: enhancing meaning).
After the discussion, the teacher asks the students to write a
series of statements about what this activity has taught them about
research (strategy: self-assessment). Students then break into small
groups to exchange their insights. Their comments include such
statements as, ‘‘Research is more a method than an answer,’’
and, ‘‘Thus far, I enjoy research more than I thought I would.’’
Self-assessment helps the students extract from this experience a
new understanding they value (motivational condition: engendering
competence).

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120 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
This snapshot of teaching illustrates how the four motivational
conditions constantly influence and interact with one another.
Without establishing inclusion (small groups to discuss concerns
and experiences) and developing attitude (students choosing a rele-
vant research goal), the enhancement of meaning (research teams
devising questions and predictions) might not occur with equal
ease and energy, and the self-assessment to engender competence
(what students learned from their perspective) might have a dismal
outcome. Overall, the total learning experience encourages equi-
table participation, provides the beginning of an inclusive history
for the students, and enhances their learning about research.
In this class session, the strategies and their related activities
work together holistically as well as systemically. Removing any
one of the four strategies and the motivational condition it evokes
would likely affect the entire experience. For example, would the
students’ attitude be as positive if the teacher arbitrarily gave them
the task of researching sleep among themselves? Probably not, and
this mistake would likely decrease the research teams’ efforts to
devise questions.
From a neurophysiological view, when the instructor establishes
inclusion by having small groups of students discuss their experi-
ences with research, she is facilitating a safe and relaxed climate,
an optimal situation for brain functioning. In such a comfortable
atmosphere, the amygdala can enhance the passage of information
through the students’ limbic systems and into their brain centers
for higher cognition and executive processing. When she asks the
students to choose a relevant research topic to develop attitude,
she positively heightens their emotional state by stimulating their
interest. Feelings of interest improve their brains’ active processing
and memory for the events and ideas that are occurring. When
she enhances meaning by challenging the students to make predic-
tions, she further stimulates their positive emotional state. Feelings
of involvement and playfulness deepen the students’ neural trans-
port of information and their complex thinking. This processing

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 121
is more likely to lead to both retention and new learning. The
opportunity for self-assessment to engender competence promotes
feedback and reflection activating the frontal lobe of the brain and
the cingulate gyrus. These structures promote emotion and more
complex neural connections across the brain. This activity drives
the learning process to further test student predictions, resulting
in more feedback, more pleasurable neural stimulation, and the
greater possibility of long-term memory for what has occurred.
One of the values of the Motivational Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching is that it is not only a model of motivation in
action but also an organizational aid for designing instruction. By
continually attending to the four motivational conditions and their
related questions, the instructor can select motivational strategies
from a wide array of theories and literature to apply throughout
a learning unit. The teacher translates these strategies into a set
of sequenced learning activities that continuously evoke adult
motivation and facilitate learning.
Table 4.1 is an example of a fully planned lesson in which the
learning activities are derived from and aligned with motivational
strategies. To use this framework, pedagogical alignment — the
coordination of approaches to teaching that ensures maximum
consistent effect — is critical. The more harmonious the elements
of the instructional design, the more likely they are to sustain
intrinsic motivation. That’s why a single strategy — collaborative
learning or self-assessment, for example — is unlikely to evoke
intrinsic motivation. It is the mutual influence of a combination of
strategies based on the motivational conditions that elicits intrinsic
motivation.
As Table 4.1 shows, there are four sequenced motivational
strategies, each based on one of the four motivational condi-
tions. Each strategy has been translated into a learning activity.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
allows for as many strategies as the instructor believes are needed
to complete an instructional plan. The instructor’s knowledge

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122 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
of the learners’ motivation and culture, the subject matter, the
setting, the technology available, and the time constraints will
determine the nature of and quantity of the motivational strategies.
This motivational framework provides a holistic design that uses a
psychological and neuroscientific understanding of learning, a time
orientation for planning, and a culturally responsive approach to
teaching to foster intrinsic motivation from the beginning to the
end of an instructional unit.
For projects and extended learning sessions, such as problem
solving or self-directed learning, the sequence of strategies may not
include all four motivational conditions. For example, inclusion
and attitude may have been established earlier through previous
work, advising, or prerequisite classes. These conditions may need
less cultivation, and the conditions of meaning and competence
may be most important to foster. Chapter Nine specifically deals
with how to compose motivating lessons and uses five extensive
case examples to illustrate effective instructional designs.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teach-
ing is the foundation for a pedagogy that crosses disciplines and
cultures to respectfully engage all learners. Its purpose is to foster
intrinsic motivation with the understanding that human motiva-
tion is inseparable from culture. The four motivational conditions
of the framework are congruent with recent neuroscientific studies
indicating how people are motivated to learn. The framework is a
means to create compelling learning experiences in which adults
can maintain their integrity as they attain relevant educational
success.
Each of the next four chapters focuses on an essential motiva-
tional condition and its specific motivational strategies, including
examples of related learning activities. These strategies are realis-
tic teaching methods. They are deliberate instructor actions that
enhance a person’s motivation to learn. The strategy contributes to

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What Motivates Adults to Learn 123
stimulating or creating a motivational condition: a mental and emotional
state in which the learner desires knowledge and skill and puts
forth energy to engage learning — the thinking, practicing, and
so forth.
Your understanding of these strategies and how to use them
can significantly increase the creativity, skill, and impact of your
instructional planning. That the strategies primarily stress what you
can do does not mean that adult learners bear no responsibility for
their own motivation or are dependent on you for feeling motivated
while learning. The purpose of this book is to respectfully evoke,
support, and enhance the motivation to learn that all adults
possess by virtue of their own humanity and to make you a valuable
resource and vital partner in their realization of a motivating
learning experience.

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5
Establishing Inclusion among
Adult Learners
When a system of oppression has become
institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be
oppressive.
Florynce Kennedy
When we are teaching, exclusion is usually an indirect act, anomission of opportunity or of someone’s voice. We’re usually
not mean-spirited but, more likely, unaware that a perspective is
missing, that a biased myth has been perpetuated, or that we aren’t
covering topics of concern to certain adults. In fact, most adult
learners, usually those who have been socialized to accommodate
our method of instruction, may like our course or training. Things
seem pretty pleasant. Why go looking for trouble?
We need to be mindful about our instruction because, as Adri-
enne Rich has so eloquently said, ‘‘There is no way of measuring the
damage to a society when a whole texture of humanity is kept from
realizing its own power’’ (1984). When it comes to the perspective
of this book, I believe that enabling people to realize their own
power relates to our obligation to create an equitable opportunity
to be motivated to learn as well as to have the right to an equitable
education. The two are inseparable. To begin, I believe we have to
125

126 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
be vigilant about the patterns we see in our courses and training.
Are some people left out? Do particular income groups or ethnic
groups do less well than others? Who among the adults we teach or
train are the people whose motivation to learn is not emerging or
seems diminished? How might we be responsible for or contribute
to these trends?
My experience is that teaching or training begins with relation-
ships, respectful relationships. For most adults, the first sense of
the quality of the teacher-student relationship is a feeling, some-
times quite vague, of inclusion or exclusion. Upon awareness of
exclusion, adult learners will begin to lose their enthusiasm and
motivation. If you’d like to appreciate this tendency by working
directly with adults themselves, try the exercise called ‘‘Marginal-
ity and Mattering’’ (Frederick, 1997). Ask adults to remember
a moment in the recent past (a week to a month) when they
felt marginal, excluded, or discounted — ‘‘the only one like me in
a group, not understood or, perhaps, unaccepted.’’ Ask them to
reflect on this and then to pair off and discuss the following ques-
tions: How did you know? How did you feel? How did you behave?
Then ask them to remember a moment when they felt that they
mattered, were included, or were regarded as important to a group.
Ask them to pair off again to discuss the same three questions. Ask
the adults to reflect on both situations and to discuss the patterns
of thinking, feeling, and behaving that emerged, the influence of
those patterns on their motivation and enthusiasm, and how the
changes in motivation and enthusiasm might relate to learning
and teaching. As this exercise will demonstrate, our motivation
is constantly influenced by our acute awareness of the degree of
our inclusion in a learning environment. When we don’t feel safe,
complex information is often blocked from passage to higher cor-
tical functioning and memory storage, which slows learning and
increases our frustration, aggression, or withdrawal.
Feelings of cultural isolation often cause adult motivation to
learn to deteriorate. In a course or training seminar, a sense

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 127
of community with which all learners can identify establishes
the foundation for inclusion. Our challenge as instructors is to
create a successful learning environment for all learners that (1)
respects different cultures and (2) maintains a common culture
that all learners can accept. We are fortunate, because adults are
community-forming beings. Our capacity to create social coherence
is always there (Gardner, 1990). We need community to find
security, identity, shared values, and people who care about us
and about whom we care. As more and more adults sandwich
their education between work and family, an adult education
setting may provide one of the few opportunities to experience
community and a sense of belonging. But mere contact with those
different from us does little to enhance intercultural appreciation.
Mutual respect and appreciation evolve from the nature of our
contact. The norms we set as instructors and the strategies we
use to teach will largely determine the quality of social exchange
among our learners. Those norms should be supportive of equity,
collaboration, and the expression of each learner’s perspective
(Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). It simply makes sense to set a
tone in which learners can come together in friendly, caring, and
respectful ways.
The strategies that follow contribute to establishing a climate of
respect. In this atmosphere, intrinsic motivation is more likely to
emerge because learners can voice the things that matter to them.
Their well-being is more assured. They can begin to develop trust.
Neurologically, we have prepared for a relaxed and alert social
environment. Relevant learning is possible.
These strategies also enable learners to feel connected to one
another. This feeling of connection draws forth learners’ motiva-
tion because their social needs are met. Feeling included, people are
freer to risk the mistakes true learning involves as well as to share
their resources and strengths. Before we discuss these strategies, we
need to look at some of the dimensions of nonverbal communica-
tion across cultures that are often critical to effective intercultural

128 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
communication. Your understanding of these important and exten-
sively researched dimensions should increase your capacity to
sensitively apply the strategies to establish inclusion. To describe
these dimensions, I have followed the approach of Peter Andersen
and Hua Wang (2006, pp. 250–266) that addresses this topic.
Understanding Dimensions of Intercultural
Nonverbal Communication
Today contact between people from various cultures continues
to increase. International migration is at an all-time high. The
amount of intercultural contact in today’s world is unprecedented,
making the study of intercultural communication more important
than ever.
Two of the most fundamental nonverbal differences in inter-
cultural communication involve space and time. Time frames of
cultures may differ so dramatically that if only these differences
existed, intercultural misunderstandings could still be consider-
able. In general, time tends to be viewed in the United States
as a commodity that can be wasted, spent, saved, managed, and
used wisely (Andersen, 1999). Other cultures may have a more
relational understanding of time. In traditional cultures and in
many cultures in developing countries, time moves to the rhythms
of nature, the day, the seasons, the year. Human inventions like
seconds, minutes, and hours may have no real meaning.
Research has documented that cultures differ substantially in
their use of personal space, the distances they maintain, and their
regard for territory (Gudykunst and Kim, 1992). Considerable
intercultural differences have been reported in people’s kinesic
behavior (Goldin-Meadow, 2003), including their facial expres-
sions, body movements, gestures, and conversational regulators.
Stories abound in the intercultural literature of gestures that signal
endearment or warmth in one culture but are obscene or insulting
in another. Differences in kinesic behavior come into play in a

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 129
learning environment; they can determine how one gets the floor
in conversation, shows deference or respect, indicates agreement
or disagreement and approval or disapproval. For the teacher, these
norms of participation may seem obvious and their derivation
from European American norms of conduct unimportant, but to a
learner from another culture, such expectations may be alienating
or exhausting (because of the relentless anxiety of determining how
to behave appropriately), especially if learners are directly called
on to recite and are graded for oral participation in class.
Along with genetics, culture is the most enduring, powerful,
and invisible shaper of our communication behavior. Research has
shown that cultures can be located along several dimensions that
help explain intercultural differences in nonverbal communication.
Most of the adult learners we teach will probably not be interna-
tional students; however, they will often have ethnic backgrounds
and histories of immigration that make the dimensions discussed
in the sections that follow informative for our work.
Immediacy
Immediacy behaviors are actions that simultaneously communi-
cate warmth, closeness, and availability for communication and
approach rather than avoidance (Andersen, 1998). Examples of
immediacy behaviors are smiling, touching, making eye contact,
being at closer distances, and using more vocal animation. Some
scholars have labeled these behaviors expressive (Patterson, 1983).
Cultures that display considerable interpersonal closeness or imme-
diacy have been labeled contact cultures, because people in these
cultures stand closer and touch more (Hall, 1966). People in
low-contact cultures tend to stand farther apart and touch less.
It is interesting that high-contact cultures are generally located
in warmer countries, and low-contact cultures in cooler climates.
Considerable research has shown that high-contact (more expres-
sive and immediate) cultures are found in most Arab countries, the
Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia,

130 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and virtually all of Latin America (Jones, 1994). Moderate- to
low-contact (less expressive and immediate) cultures are found
in much of Northern Europe and among white Anglo-Saxons in
the United States (Remland, 2000). Compared to the rest of the
world, East Asia and countries such as China, Japan, and Korea
are low-contact cultures that rarely touch in public (McDaniel and
Andersen, 1998). In general, these findings are painted with a fairly
broad brush and subject to a wide span of individual variation.
Individualism–Collectivism
One of the most fundamental dimensions along which cultures
differ is their degree of individualism or collectivism. The main
cultures of Europe, Australia, and North America north of the
Rio Grande tend to be individualistic. The main cultures of Latin
America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands tend to be col-
lectivist. Individualists are oriented toward achieving personal
goals, by themselves, for purposes of pleasure, autonomy, and
self-fulfillment. Collectivists are oriented toward achieving group
goals, by the group, for the purposes of group well-being, relation-
ships, togetherness, and the common good. Collectivist cultures
from Asia are likely to emphasize harmony among people and
between people and nature (Andersen and others, 2002).
The United States is considered to be a highly individualistic
country (Hofstede, 1980). Although written more than twenty
years ago, the outlook described in Habits of the Heart appears to
remain dominant: ‘‘Anything that would violate our right to think
for ourselves, judge for ourselves, make our own decisions, live
our lives as we see fit, is not only morally wrong, it is sacrilegious’’
(Bellah and others, 1985, p. 142). Many people in the United States
find it difficult to relate to cultures in which interdependence may
be the basis of a sense of self. Although individualism has been
argued to be the backbone of democracy, it has also been considered
to contribute to crime, alienation, loneliness, and narcissism in U.S.
society.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 131
Different ethnic groups in the United States vary along the
dimensions of individualism and collectivism. For example, African
Americans tend to be more individualistic, whereas Mexican Amer-
icans tend to place more emphasis on group and relational solidarity
(Hecht, Andersen, and Ribeau, 1989).
The degree to which a culture is individualistic or collectivistic
affects adult communication and nonverbal behavior. People from
individualistic cultures are more remote and distant proximally.
People from collectivist cultures tend to work, play, live, and sleep
in closer proximity to one another. Lustig and Koester maintain
that ‘‘people from individualistic cultures are more likely than those
from collectivist cultures to use confrontational strategies when
dealing with interpersonal problems; those with a collectivist ori-
entation are likely to use avoidance, third party intermediaries, or
other face saving techniques’’ (1999, p. 123). People in collectivist
cultures may suppress both positive and negative emotional displays
that are contrary to the mood of the group, because maintaining the
group is a primary value (Andersen, 1999). Individualistic cultures
encourage people to express emotions because individual freedom
is a paramount value. In the United States, flirting, small talk, smil-
ing, and initial acquaintance appear to be more important than in
collectivist countries, where the social network is more fixed and
less reliant on individual initiative. Collectively oriented people
tend to value compliance with social norms above the individual
pursuit of happiness.
Gender
The gender orientation of a culture has a major impact on role
and communication behavior, including occupational status, dress
codes, the types of expressions permitted to each sex, the inter-
actions permitted with strangers or acquaintances of the opposite
sex, and all aspects of interpersonal relationship between men and
women. As conceptualized here, the gender dimension refers to
the rigidity of gender rules (Hofstede, 1980). In less rigid cultures,

132 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
both men and women can express more diverse, less stereotyped
sex-role behaviors. Today, Saudi Arabia would be an example of
a country with more rigid gender roles, and the United States a
country with less rigid gender rules. Research suggests that less
rigid cultures evoke patterns of behavior that result in more social
competence, success, and intellectual development for both men
and women (Andersen, 1999).
Power Distance
Another fundamental dimension of intercultural communication
is power distance. Power distance, the degree to which power,
prestige, and wealth are unequally distributed in a culture, has
been measured in a number of cultures using the Power Distance
Index (PDI), developed by Hofstede (1980). In cultures with high
PDI scores, power and influence are concentrated in the hands
of a few rather than more distributed throughout the population.
Most African, Asian, and Latin American countries have high
PDI scores. The United States is lower than the median in power
distance. Cultures differ in terms of how status is acquired. In many
countries, such as India, class or caste determines one’s status. In
the United States, power and status are typically determined by
money and material acquisition (Andersen and Bowman, 1999).
Emotional displays tend to be related to status in cultures with
high power distance: for example, in high power-distance cultures,
people are usually expected to show only positive emotions to
high-status others. The relatively easy smiles of many Asians
may be a culturally inculcated effort to lessen tension with those
perceived as higher-status individuals; efforts to smooth social
relations are considered appropriate to a culture with a high PDI.
For many Asian students, modesty and deference in the presence
of their instructors are what their culture expects. Vocal cues are
also affected by power distance. A loud voice in a high-PDI culture
may be offensive to higher-status members.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 133
Context
The last dimension of intercultural communication that we will
discuss is context. A high-context (HC) communication is a
message in which most of the information is either in the physical
context or internalized in the person. Very little is in the coded,
explicit part of the message (Hall, 1976). Lifelong friends often
use HC messages that can be nearly impossible for an outsider
to understand. A gesture, a smile, or a glance provides meaning
that doesn’t need to be articulated. Low-context (LC) messages,
such as a legal brief or a computer language, are just the opposite.
Most of the information is in explicit code and must be elaborated
and highly specific. Very little of the communication is taken for
granted (Hall, 1984; Andersen, 1999).
The lower-context cultures are found in Switzerland, Germany,
Scandinavia, Canada, and the United States (Gudykunst and Kim,
1992). These cultures are highly verbal and pay much attention
to specifics and details. The higher-context cultures are found
in Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea (Hall, 1984; Lustig
and Koester, 1999). Strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, these
cultures place a high value on silence, on less emotional expression,
and on unspoken, nonverbal parts of communication (McDaniel
and Andersen, 1998). American Indian cultures with migratory
roots in East Asia are like these cultures in their use of HC
communication.
Communication is quite different in HC and LC cultures, and
frequently people from one culture will misattribute the causes for
the behavior of people from the other group (Andersen and others,
2002). People from LC cultures may be perceived as excessively
talkative, belaboring the obvious, and redundant. People from HC
cultures may be perceived as secretive, sneaky, and mysterious.
People from HC cultures are particularly affected by contextual
cues. Facial expressions, tensions, movements, speed of interaction,
location of interaction, and other ‘‘subtleties’’ may have meaning

134 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for people from HC cultures but not be noticed by people from LC
cultures.
Perhaps, like me, you appreciate how daunting it is to under-
stand someone from another culture. You may also be joyful about
the number of possible ways there are to be human. I benefit (not
without anxiety) from knowing that my teaching is shaded by a
persona that is more rigidly masculine than I like, fairly expressive
with a median PDI, analytically low context, and leaning leftward
toward collectivism. This kind of self-awareness makes me more
mindful of nonverbal communication and gives me a better chance
to provide instruction compatible with the norms of learners from
other cultures. By being conscious of these tendencies, I believe
I’m less likely to impose them on others as expected behaviors.
Continuing to be sensitive to cultural differences helps me to select
educational practices that accommodate the communication styles
of those adults whose socialization has been unlike my own. The
following discussion of the motivational strategies will continue
to emphasize intercultural understanding as a means for effective
instruction.
Engendering a Feeling of Connection among Adults
As discussed in Chapter Three, the core characteristics of empathy
and cultural responsiveness significantly influence the degree to
which we engender a feeling of connection among adults. Increas-
ing our awareness of what we have in common and instilling a sense
of mutual care are essential. A good place to begin preparing our-
selves is to consider the learners we expect to be teaching and our
own positionality in the group — that is, the cultural group identities
we have that may influence our own outlook as well as how these
learners will look upon us (Johnson-Bailey and Cervero, 1997).
The more visible identities are race, gender, age, and physical

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 135
ability or disability, but our identities also include ethnicity, class,
and sexual orientation as well as the cultural variations discussed
in the preceding sections.
For example, when I teach an extension course, I need to realize
that being an older male, middle-class, Polish-American academic
gives me a certain perspective that may be quite different from
that of the younger African American, working-class women who
are some of the students in my course. I have had very different
experiences regarding such issues as health, education, safety, and
economic security. If I merely follow personal opinions and familiar
routines, I may give an advantage to one group of students over
another in the topics I choose, in the time or opportunity students
have to speak, and in the feedback I give. Indeed, for certain
groups of students, I may not have the ‘‘expertise’’ in matters of
personal psychology and social relations I think I have. Yet if I
think only of these sorts of things or believe that I must know
every detail, I can feel overwhelmed and immobilized. I want also
to hold in my mind the large strands of life that I and all my
students share: the mutual desire for good health, education, and
security; the emotions of sorrow, joy, and love; the experiences
of family, death, birth, and illness; and the reason we all came
together — to learn. That desire, my awareness of difference and
common ground, and the knowledge that I can flex and plan make
me realistically enthusiastic. And I know where I can begin. I like
to start with introductions. This is the time to positively engage
the adult learners’ limbic systems, to create a relaxed and alert
emotional state where prior knowledge is readily available, and
people are open to learning and connecting with each other.
Here and in the following chapters are motivational strategies
that embody the Motivational Framework for Culturally Respon-
sive Teaching. A motivational strategy is a deliberate teacher
action or instructional process that is likely to enhance motivation
to learn among adults. Please note that I have numbered the strate-
gies consecutively for organizational purposes, not to indicate an

136 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
order of preference or a particular sequence to follow. The selection
of each strategy you use will depend on your philosophy, situation,
and goals.
Strategy 1: Allow for Introductions
Introduce yourself. This is definitely for the first meeting of the
group and seems quite obvious, but it is amazing how many instruc-
tors fail to extend this common courtesy. Say a few things about
who you are, where you’re from, why you’re conducting the course
or training session, and by all means, welcome the group. I find it
particularly beneficial when I can mention something I sincerely
appreciate. It could be about the group, its history or locale, our
purpose, or other possibilities that make the situation distinct or
special. This really shouldn’t take more than five to ten minutes.
It is also a good idea to give the learners a chance to intro-
duce themselves as well. This emphasizes their importance and
your interest in them as people. It also helps people start to learn
each other’s names (name tents are a valuable supplement to this
strategy) and significantly reduces the tension so often present at
the beginning of courses and training sessions. Scores of books
have been written describing different exercises for helping people
get acquainted in new social situations (Johnson and Johnson,
2006). My particular favorite among such methods is multidimen-
sional sharing, the next strategy I describe.
Strategy 2: Provide an Opportunity for Multidimensional Sharing
Although similar in style, introductory course activities for multidi-
mensional sharing differ from most icebreakers. They tend to be less
game-like and intrusive. They also provide insight or new learning
relevant to the topic or subject being taught. For example, ‘‘Decades
and Diversity,’’ an activity described later in this section, is used to
demonstrate the influence of age and popular culture on adult norms
and perspectives for an adult development course that I teach.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 137
For adults from cultures that value modesty, introductory
activities that require self-disclosure or the sharing of deeper emo-
tions may seem contrived and psychologically invasive. I remember
a teaching workshop where a well-meaning trainer asked us as part
of the introductory activity to ‘‘share about one person who loves
us.’’ Rather than encouraging connection, this request tended to
stall the development of mutual care among us.
Opportunities for multidimensional sharing are those occasions
— ranging from introductory exercises to personal anecdotes to
classroom celebrations — when people have a better chance to see
one another as complete, evolving human beings who have mutual
needs, emotions, and experiences (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg,
1995). These opportunities give a human face to a course or train-
ing, break down biases and stereotypes, and provide experiences in
which we may see ourselves in another person’s world.
There are many ways to provide opportunities for multi-
dimensional sharing, depending on the history, makeup, and
purpose of the group. Informal ways include potluck meals, recrea-
tional activities, drinks after class, and picnics. For introductory
course activities, anything that gets people to relax and to laugh
together or helps them learn each other’s names deserves our seri-
ous attention. Here are two introductory activities I have often
used.
Learners usually need some time to think before they begin
this activity, which can be a small- or large-group process. The
group members each introduce themselves and recommend one
thing they have read (such as an article, story, or book) or seen
(such as a TV program, film, video, or real-life experience) or
heard (such as a speech, CD, or song) that has had a strong and
positive influence on them. They each conclude by stating the
reasons for recommending their choice. After everyone has made a
recommendation, the instructor leads a whole-group discussion of
the relationship of culture to the group’s recommendations as well
as their rationales.

138 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
The second activity, which I learned from Margery Ginsberg,
is called ‘‘Decades and Diversity.’’ People in the group divide
themselves into smaller groups according to the decade in which
they graduated (or would have) from high school (the sixties,
seventies, eighties, and so on). Each decade group brainstorms
a list of items in three to five areas of experience at that time:
popular music, clothing styles, major historical events, weekend
social opportunities (What did you usually do on a Saturday night?),
and standards (What was considered significant immoral behavior
for you as an adolescent — something forbidden by your family?).
Then each group reports on its list. The activity concludes with a
discussion by the members of the entire group about their insights,
the possible meanings of the lists, and the process they engaged in.
These discussions illuminate the powerful influence of age and the
accompanying culture at the time of adolescent socialization.
These activities are most inclusive and motivating when they
validate the experiences of the adults involved and establish
feelings of affiliation with you and with other learners. The more
natural and appropriate such opportunities feel, the more likely a
genuine sense of community can evolve.
Strategy 3: Concretely Indicate Your Cooperative Intentions to Help
Adults Learn
Almost everyone who has something new to learn is vulnerable
to a nagging fear — what if I really try and I can’t learn it? Adults
commonly experience this fear, because so much of what they
must learn will directly influence their job performance or family
relations. For instructors to let learners know at the outset that
there is a concrete means of assistance available will help learners
reduce their fear and save face. Be it announcing our availability
during office hours or at breaks in a workshop, arranging online
tutorial assistance, or creating a procedure whereby learners who
are having difficulty can use special materials or aids — essentially,
our message is, ‘‘As instructor and learner, we are partners in

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 139
solving your learning problems. I want to help you, and it’s OK
to seek help.’’ We are telling the learners that their vulnerability
will be safeguarded and that they will have a nonjudgmental and
interested response to their requests for assistance (Hill, 2004).
With this strategy, we offer immediate evidence that we do care
about the people who learn with us.
Strategy 4: Share Something of Value with Your Adult Learners
The next time you hear a professional speaker, whether it is at
a banquet or a conference, keep track of how much time elapses
before that person tells a joke or a humorous anecdote. It will
probably be less than three minutes, and it will happen about four
out of every five times. Professional speakers know the value of
sharing humor. It does far more than break the tension between
speaker and audience. It says: If you can laugh with me, you
can listen to me. You can identify with me. You can see I am a
human being and that I have emotions too. All sharing has this
potential — to break down stereotypes and to allow the learners
to experience our common humanity without self-consciousness.
Humor is a very efficient means to this end. It also tells the learners
that there are at least times when we do not take ourselves too
seriously, that we have some perspective on life, and that the way we
teach will allow for the vitality of laughter in the learning process.
Another type of effective sharing is to relate a credible intense
experience. This may be trouble we have had on the job, a difficult
learning experience, a crisis within our family, an unexpected
surprise, an accident — something that tells the learners that we
have mutual concerns and a shared reality. This form of sharing
should relate to the topic at hand, or it will seem forced. I some-
times tell about problems I have had with apathetic learners. I
know most of my audience has had similar problems, and this gives
me a chance to share what I have learned from these dilemmas.
This type of sharing is also a two-way street. Seeing the concerned
faces in the audience increases my identification with them as well.

140 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Sharing your involvement with the subject matter — problems,
discoveries, research, or new learning — is a way to show your
enthusiasm as well as your humanity. Adults are interested in
seeing how their investment in the subject they are studying might
pay off for them. When we share our involvement with the topic,
we model this potential for them and reveal something about our
real selves as well.
Another powerful form of sharing is to give adult learners our
individual attention. When we do, we are committing one of our
most valuable assets as instructors to our learners — our time. Being
available to learners before, during, and after class directly tells
them we care about them. Also, one-to-one contact creates a more
personal and spontaneous interaction.
In general, sharing something about our real selves, when done
tactfully and appropriately, gives adult learners a chance to see us
beyond the image of an instructor. Most people are a bit surprised
when they see their teachers in everyday settings like supermarkets,
shopping centers, and theaters. Part of this surprise is due to
novelty, but part is also due to how dramatically set apart most
learning environments seem from the real world. By judiciously
self-disclosing our reactions to common experiences — television
shows, sporting events, travel, maybe even a little trouble we’ve
had with life along the way — we give adult learners a chance
to identify positively with us and become more receptive to our
instruction (Jourard, 1964; Hill, 2004).
Strategy 5: Use Collaborative and Cooperative Learning
Although there are a wide variety of collaborative learning methods,
most emphasize the learners’ exploration and interpretation of
course material to an equal or greater extent than the instructor’s
explication of it. When everyone participates, working with a part-
ner or in small groups, generating questions and facing challenges
together, collaborative processes energize group activity. Instruc-
tors who use these procedures tend to think of themselves less as

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 141
singular transmitters of knowledge and more as co-learners and
co-constructers of knowledge. Humans are highly evolved social
beings, so we naturally want to know what other people are think-
ing and feeling (Brothers, 2000). These tendencies enhance our
emotional and motivational involvement in learning. Through
collaborative learning we are also more active learners, making
both social and synaptic connections (Cross, 1999).
From their review of the research on collaborative and coop-
erative learning in higher education, Elizabeth Barkley, Patricia
Cross, and Claire Major (2005) have found abundant evidence
that collaborative learning is an effective and motivating format
for nontraditional students — underrepresented racial and ethnic
groups, working-adult students, commuters, and re-entry students.
They note that ‘‘almost everyone’’ (p. 22) seems to benefit from
group learning situations. In their estimation, collaborative learn-
ing is also an instructional method where all students can learn from
diversity, benefiting from the linguistic and cultural perspectives
that can be experienced in this format. Among their conclusions,
the following sums up one of my own beliefs: ‘‘The evidence. . .
is so strong that collaborative learning has multiple advantages
if done well, that it would be folly not to learn how to operate
collaborative learning groups productively’’ (p. 24).
Among the many collaborative learning possibilities, cooperative
learning represents the most carefully organized and researched
approach (Cranton, 1996). Although some scholars see cooperative
learning as more teacher-centered and discouraging of individual
dissent (Bruffee, 1995), I think most instructors of adults will
use the level of authority that feels comfortable for them and
can implement cooperative learning in a manner that respects
individual differences in perceptions and construction of knowledge
(Barkley, Cross, and Major, 2005). My treatment of cooperative
learning in this book serves the latter purpose.
More than one-third of all studies comparing cooperative,
competitive, and individualistic learning have been conducted

142 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
with college and adult learners. In an analysis of 120 of these
investigations, David Johnson and Roger Johnson (1995) found
that cooperative learning promotes individual achievement sig-
nificantly more than do competitive or individualistic efforts.
A meta-analysis of 375 relevant experimental studies in which
research participants varied in age, economic class, and cultural
background also supported this finding (Johnson, 2003). When
adults learn cooperatively, they tend to develop supportive rela-
tionships across sociocultural and linguistic groups. Cooperative
learning groups give learners the following opportunities:
• To construct and extend their understanding of what
is being learned through explanation and discussion of
multiple perspectives
• To use the shared mental models learned in flexible
ways to solve problems jointly
• To receive interpersonal feedback about how well they
are performing procedures
• To receive social support and encouragement to take
risks in increasing their competencies
• To be held accountable by their peers to practice and
learn procedures and skills
• To acquire new attitudes
• To establish a shared identity with other group
members
• To find effective peers to emulate
• To discover a ‘‘voice’’ to validate their own learning
[Rendon, 1994]
As its practitioners and researchers strenuously emphasize, coop-
erative learning is more than placing learners in groups and telling

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 143
them to work together. According to Johnson and Johnson (2006),
cooperative learning is a rigorous procedure whose fundamen-
tal components are (1) positive interdependence, (2) individual
accountability, (3) promotive interaction, (4) social skills, and
(5) group processing. To organize lessons so that learners do work
cooperatively requires an understanding of these five basic compo-
nents and their conscientious implementation in the group and in
the lesson. A significant amount of cooperative learning also needs
to take place within the learning environment to permit moni-
toring by the instructor and to allow groups to initially establish
themselves while they can receive needed support.
1. Positive interdependence occurs when learners perceive that
they are linked with group members in such a way that they cannot
succeed unless their group members do (and vice versa) or that
they must coordinate their efforts with the efforts of their partners
to complete a task (Johnson and Johnson, 2006). They sink or
swim together. Each group member has a unique contribution to
make to the group because of resources, role, or responsibilities.
For example, in the popular jigsaw procedure, a reading assignment
is divided among the group, with each member responsible for
comprehending a separate part and explaining or teaching that
part to all other members of the group until the entire group
understands the total reading assignment. The following are three
additional ways to create positive interdependence in a cooperative
learning group.
• Positive goal interdependence. The group is united around
a common goal, a concrete reason for being. It could
be to create a product, report, or answer, or it could
be general improvement on a task so that all mem-
bers do better this week than they did last week. Out-
comes might include a skill demonstration, a media
product, an evaluation summary, a problem solution,

144 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
an action plan, or just about anything that leads to
greater learning and that the group members can pro-
duce and hold each other responsible for.
• Positive resource interdependence. Each group member
has only a portion of the resources, information, or
materials necessary for the task to be accomplished,
and the members have to combine resources in order
for the group to achieve its goals. The metaphor for
this approach is a puzzle, and each group member has
a unique and necessary piece to contribute to the puz-
zle’s solution. For example, for an upcoming exam, each
member of a group might be responsible for a different
study question; when the group convenes, members
share their knowledge of the question and check to
make sure all groupmates have satisfactorily compre-
hended this knowledge.
• Positive role interdependence. Each member of the group
selects a particular role that is complementary, inter-
connected, and essential to the roles of the other group
members. Suppose, for example, that the learning goal
is the development of some skill, such as interviewing.
One group member is the person practicing the skill
(the interviewer), another person is the recipient of
the skill (the interviewee), and a third person is the
observer-evaluator. In this manner, each person has
an essential contribution to make in terms of either
skill practice or feedback. Roles can easily be rotated
as well.
In all cooperative learning groups, it is extremely important
that the learners are very clear about the assignment, the goal, and
their role. Especially with diverse learners, checking for thorough
understanding can make the difference between a satisfying and

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 145
a confusing learning experience. Positive interdependence works
best when all group members understand that each person has a
part to do, that all members are counting on each other, and that
all members want to help each other do better.
2. Individual accountability occurs when each individual’s learn-
ing is assessed, the results are shared with the learner and the group,
and each learner is responsible to the other group members for con-
tributing a fair share to the group’s success (Johnson and Johnson,
2006). One of the main purposes of cooperative learning is to
support each member as a vital, competent individual. Individual
accountability ensures that all group members will be strengthened
by learning cooperatively and that they will have a good chance of
effectively transferring what they have learned to situations where
they are without group support.
Some texts emphasize individual accountability as a means to
prevent hitchhiking, or contributing little to the group’s success but
reaping large benefits from the contributions of other group mem-
bers. My experience is that this seldom occurs when cooperative
norms are well in place and competitive assessment or grading
procedures are eliminated.
Individual accountability can be enhanced in the following
ways:
• Keep the size of the groups small. Typical size is two to
four members.
• Keep the role of each learner distinct.
• Assess learners individually as well as collectively.
• Observe groups while they are working.
• Randomly request individuals to present what they
are learning, either to you or another group.
• Request periodic self-assessments and outlines of
responsibilities from individual group members.

146 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• Randomly or systematically ask learners to teach some-
one else or you what they have learned.
• If grading, assess and assign a grade for individual con-
tributions to the group’s performance or product.
A simple and positive way to support individual accountability
and prevent related conflict among group members is to brainstorm
answers to the question, How would we like to find out whether
someone in our cooperative learning group thought we were not
doing enough to contribute to the benefit of the total group? Then
write the possible actions for all to see and discuss them. Such a pro-
cedure can go a long way to avoid unnecessary suspicion or shame.
3. Promotive interaction occurs when group members encour-
age and assist each other to reach the group’s goals (Johnson and
Johnson, 2006). This includes sharing information, resources, and
emotional support as well as challenges and discussions to achieve
the relevant goals. Mutual care should permeate this interaction,
as it does, for example, when someone in a cooperative writing
group reads something she has written and a fellow member offers
sincere and helpful suggestions to improve the manuscript. This
sort of interaction allows different perspectives and commitments
to take hold.
4. Social skills facilitate communication that enables group
members to reach goals, get to know and trust each other, com-
municate accurately, accept and support each other, and resolve
conflicts constructively (Johnson and Johnson, 2006). Even though
adults want to cooperate, they may not be able to do so effectively
if they lack conventional social skills.
My experience with diverse adults is that when the norms of
collaboration and ‘‘no blame’’ are discussed and made explicit, they
(along with participation guidelines, discussed later in this chapter)
create a learning climate that significantly reduces aggressive
conflict. There is then less need for direct training in conven-
tional interpersonal skills, such as active listening, which can seem
contrived and strange, especially to people who do not identify
with the dominant culture.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 147
It is appropriate for an instructor to intervene in a group,
when necessary, to suggest more effective procedures for working
together. Yet instructors should not rush to intervene. I often
find that if everyone exercises a little patience, cooperative groups
work their way through their own problems and construct not only
timely solutions but also methods for solving similar problems in
the future. Sometimes, simply asking group members to temporarily
set aside their task, describe the problem as they see it, come up
with a few solutions, and decide which one to try first is enough to
get things moving along satisfactorily.
5. Group processing occurs when members reflect on their
group experience to identify actions that were helpful and unhelpful
and to decide what actions to continue or change (Johnson and
Johnson, 2006). For groups that continue over longer periods
(more than a few hours) or that are significantly diverse, discussing
group functioning is essential (Adams and Marchesani, 1992).
Adults need time to have a dialogue about the quality of their
cooperation, to reflect on their interactions, and to learn from
how they work together. This processing time gives learners a
chance to receive feedback on their participation, understand
how their actions can be more effective and cohesive, plan for
more helpful and skillful interaction for the next group session,
and celebrate mutual success. As instructors, we need to allow
time for this activity and to provide some basic structure for
it — for example, by suggesting the group discuss a few things it is
doing well and one thing it could improve. Early group processing
significantly reduces the chances for aggressive conflict to emerge
in a group.
In general, heterogeneous groups work well. Unless projects or
special reasons require members to stay together, remixing groups
at the beginning of new activities can have a revitalizing effect
and makes working with different people a course norm. How-
ever, practical reasons may sometimes override the benefits of
heterogeneity. Students’ interest in a specific topic, accessibility for

148 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
meetings outside of class, very limited skills, or language acquisition
issues might predicate more homogeneous groups. For projects or
activities with significant assessment consequences (for example,
if they represent a large proportion of a course grade), I usually
accept individual completion as an option. I do this to respect
the more individualistic as well as other possible cultural orienta-
tions that may exist among class members. In addition, for some
activities (usually quite informal), I find that letting students form
their own groups (ranging from two to four members) allows a
greater comfort level for those adults less at ease with cooperative
learning.
Once cooperative learning groups start working, our role as
instructor is that of colearner, observer, adviser, and consultant.
Without being obtrusive, we should watch cooperative groups,
especially as they begin their tasks. Sometimes we can see that
certain groups will need clarification or guidance. Otherwise we
remain available, always keeping in mind that it is the learners
themselves who are the major resources for support and assistance
to one another.
Exhibit 5.1 is an outline for planning cooperative learning
activities. It is adapted from the Cooperative Lesson Planning
Guide from Active Learning (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991).
Exhibit 5.1 Cooperative Lesson Planning Guide
Step 1. Select an activity and desired outcome(s).
Step 2. Make decisions.
a. Group size:
b. Assignment to groups:
c. Room arrangement:
d. Materials needed for each group:
e. Roles:
Step 3. State the activity in language your students understand.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 149
a. Task:
b. Positive interdependence:
c. Individual accountability:
d. Criteria for success:
e. Specific behaviors to encourage:
Step 4. Monitor.
a. Evidence of cooperative and encouraged behaviors:
b. Task assistance needed:
Step 5. Evaluate outcomes.
a. Task achievement:
b. Group functioning:
c. Notes on individuals:
d. Feedback to give:
e. Suggestions for next time:
Source: Adapted from Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1991, pp. 35–36.
Many different types of groups can be structured as cooperative
learning groups. The following list shows some of the possibilities.
• Special interest groups are organized according to
categories of participants’ interests for the purposes
of sharing information and experiences and exploring
common concerns.
• Problem-solving groups are organized to develop solu-
tions to substantive problems of any nature.
• Planning groups are organized to develop plans for
activities, such as field trips, guest speakers, or re-
source use.

150 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• Instructional groups are organized to receive specialized
instruction in areas of knowledge or skill. The instruc-
tional task cannot be taught in a large-group setting,
such as in a science laboratory, human relations sem-
inar, or machine-operation training course.
• Investigation or inquiry groups are organized to search
out information and report their findings to the entire
learning group.
• Evaluation groups are organized for the purpose of eval-
uating learning activities, learner behavior, or any
issue that requires feedback or decision making on
the part of the learning group or instructor.
• Skill practice and writing groups are organized for the
purpose of practicing a set of specified skills. Often
group members share feedback and critique each
other’s work.
• Tutoring or consultative groups are organized for the pur-
pose of tutoring, consulting, or giving assistance to
members of other groups.
• Operational groups are organized for the purpose of tak-
ing responsibility for activities important to the learn-
ing group, such as room arrangements, refreshments,
preparation of materials, operation of equipment, and
the like.
• Learning-instruction and reciprocal teaching groups take
responsibility for learning about a particular subject and
instructing themselves, the rest of the learning group,
or both. In the process of helping each other to learn,
students deepen their knowledge of the topic they
teach. Examples include jigsaw procedures and exam
preparation teams.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 151
• Simulation groups are organized to conduct an intergroup
exercise, such as role playing, a game, or a case study
review, to increase knowledge or build skills.
• Learning achievement groups are organized to produce a
learning product that develops the members’ knowl-
edge, skills, or creativity, such as designing a research
project.
• Cooperative base groups are cooperative learning groups
that remain together for a long period, such as a course
or term, have a stable membership, and foster individ-
ual accountability as they provide personal support,
encouragement, and assistance in completing course
responsibilities, reaching team goals, and making aca-
demic progress (Johnson and Johnson, 2006).
• Learning communities are a form of block scheduling that
enables college students to take more than one course
together and work as a study team over a semester
or longer (Tinto, 1998). These groups, which often
involve integration of curricula (such as psychology
and English literature or math and economics) and
team teaching, have demonstrated positive effects on
the persistence and graduation rates of community
college students including working-age adults (Bailey
and Alfonso, 2005).
Considering the length of this section on cooperative learning,
you might infer that I think competitive and individualistic learn-
ing should be abandoned in adult education and training. On the
contrary, I like competitive activities when my peers and I can freely
choose to participate or not to participate. I fondly remember those
movies of the fifties in which the Step Brothers or Fred Astaire
and Gene Kelly would engage in a friendly rivalry of dancing, each
person topping the other only to see the other person dance with

152 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
even more fantastic choreography. That’s what good competition
is about: choosing to elevate others and oneself to a higher plane of
performance, whether it is in dancing, basketball, debate, or making
wine — knowing you need each other because achieving your very
best vitally depends on someone else accomplishing her very best.
Also, for less consequential learning, for drill practice, and
for enjoyment, when the stakes are not very high (the most
you can win is a round of applause), individual and intergroup
competition can be quite effective. For any learning task where
students’ differences and capabilities are significant, as in math
or writing, an individualized approach may be more helpful to
some learners. Also, there are occasions when organizing coopera-
tive learning can take too much time. What matters most is that
cooperation is the norm for learning, that we are a community of
learners who care about the learning of our peers as we do about
our own learning. The more intellectually and socially connected
adult learners feel — to one another and their instructors — the
more they will persist in their education (Tinto, 1998; New England
Adult Research Network, 1999). A good resource for collaborative
and cooperative learning with specific subject-related examples is
Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty
(Barkley, Cross, and Major, 2005).
Life’s most important goals demand cooperation. The nurturing
of our children, the quest for peace, and the safeguarding of
the environment rely on mutual goodwill. Whether or not these
aspirations are ever met relates profoundly to the way we learn in
groups.
Strategy 6: Clearly Identify the Learning Objectives and Goals
for Instruction
As soon as adults know the objectives of an instructional unit, they
begin to form a personal theory about the choices and competencies
necessary for accomplishing those tasks. They ask themselves such
questions as, Where do I begin? Am I able to do this? What do the

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 153
other people in this course seem to know about these objectives?
These reflections influence their attitude as well as their sense
of inclusion. Academically, the objectives have a unifying force.
These goals set the purpose for which the learners are there and
show them, at the very least, what they presently hold in common,
no matter their background. Objectives provide the mutual bond
for learning and are why cooperation makes sense. Learners can
more clearly understand and discuss their expectations. For English-
language learners, clear objectives are even more critical.
Entire books have been written about how to construct learning
objectives. I understand them to have at least three possible
forms: (1) clearly defined goals, (2) problem-solving goals, and
(3) expressive outcomes.
1. Clearly defined goals. When specific objectives, skills, or
competencies are appropriate and meaningful, especially in tech-
nical areas such as medicine and engineering, clearly defined goals
can heighten learners’ sense of control and capability. These goals
let learners know what skills and knowledge they need to acquire
and inform them about what may be necessary to achieve those
skills and knowledge. For instructors, they provide a focus for
designing instruction, guide the choice of lesson content, and give
an appreciation of what assessment is needed for understanding
if learning has occurred (Smith and Ragan, 2004). The three
essential elements for constructing a learning objective are who
(the learners), how (the action verb), and what (the contents)
(Caffarella, 2002) — for example, ‘‘As a result of this workshop,
participants [the learners] will create [the action verb] a résumé
containing their professional achievements [the contents].’’ Adults
studying to be medical technicians are likely to appreciate know-
ing that they (the learners) are going to take (the action verb)
blood samples indicating blood type and Rh factor (the contents).
Performance or product learning goals are often more clear when
demonstrated with examples, models, or films: a dance routine, a

154 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
graphic design, or an experimental procedure — whatever it takes
so that confusion does not detract from learners’ expectation to
succeed.
Walter Dick, Lou Carey, and James Carey (2004) suggest two
more elements of specific learning objectives: conditions under
which the learning is to be demonstrated and the standards or
criteria for acceptable performance. The following clauses are
examples of given conditions in learning objectives:
With the following problem . . .
Using this software . . .
When a patient declines assistance . . .
Without help from the emergency unit . . .
Criteria for acceptable performance include examples like these:
. . . with 80 percent correct
. . . with three or fewer errors
. . . with completion in thirty minutes
. . . with all patients
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues developed a
classification system of educational objectives that has affected
education on a global scale. Now known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, the
six basic cognitive objectives underwent a major revision by edu-
cational researchers (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) to recognize
and reorder them as cognitive processes that more accurately repre-
sent recent research on how the brain functions. Very briefly, in this
revision the names of all levels were changed to verb forms to make
them more useful for constructing learning objectives. In addition,
the original objective Synthesis became Create and replaced Eval-
uate (originally Evaluation) as the cognitive process representing
highest complexity. Exhibit 5.2 summarizes these changes.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 155
Exhibit 5.2 Revised Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Evaluation
Original Version (1956) Revised Version (2001)
C
o
m
p
le
xi
ty
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Create
Evaluate
Source: Adapted from Sousa, 2006, pp. 249–250.
In the examples in Table 5.1, the affective process ‘‘Influence
Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs’’ is added to Bloom’s Taxonomy of
cognitive processes to stress the need for learning objectives that
are important but often overlooked when using only conventional
cognitive processes as a guide. These examples include action
words and a learning objective for each process for a course in adult
development. In each objective, the learner is inferred.
2. Problem-solving goals. Much of what we aspire to and cher-
ish as human beings is not amenable to uniform and specific descrip-
tion. How could one convincingly define integrity or describe how
water tastes? As Eisner states, ‘‘To expect all of our educational
aspirations to be either verbally describable or measurable is to
expect too little’’ (1985, p. 115).
The problem-solving goal differs in a significant way from the
conventional instructional objective (Schön, 1987). In working
on a problem-solving goal, the learners formulate or are given a
problem to solve. Although the goal is clear (solve the problem),
the learning is not definite or known beforehand. For example, in a
social science course, learners might be asked how to reduce crime
in a particular area, or in a design seminar, learners might be
asked to create a paper structure that will hold two bricks sixteen
inches above a table. In both situations, there is a range of possible
solutions and learning. Problem-solving goals place a premium
on intellectual exploration and the higher mental processes while

156 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 5.1. Action Words and Learning Objective Examples
Process Action Words Objective
Create Imagine, pretend,
design, invent,
envision
Taking into account the
characteristics of older adults,
design an urban park in which
they could be physically and
artistically engaged.
Evaluate Judge, critique,
assess,
recommend,
appraise
Given this case study of a working
adult, recommend in order of
priority and with accompanying
rationales four actions he might
take to improve his chances of
attaining his bachelor’s degree
within three years.
Analyze Distinguish,
compare,
organize,
modify, refine
Using your own timeline of
significant life events, compare the
insights provided by Perry’s Forms
of Ethical and Intellectual
Development with those provided
by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger,
and Tarule’s Women’s Ways of
Knowing for three events that
altered your life profoundly.
Apply Practice, use,
demonstrate,
employ,
complete
After reading a relevant biography
of your choice, use at least four
central concepts from our course to
demonstrate your own adult
developmental understanding of
this person’s life.
Understand Explain,
discuss, outline,
summarize,
teach
Choose an economic or political
problem facing low-income adults
in your community and outline a
research study that could provide
findings or data to more effectively
address this.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 157
Table 5.1. (Continued)
Process Action Words Objective
Remember Recognize,
recall, define,
describe,
identify
Without using your text, describe
Paulo Freire’s emancipatory
philosophy and one place or
situation in which it has been
effectively applied.
Influence
attitudes,
values, and
beliefs
Challenge,
defend, justify,
resolve, dispute
After reviewing relevant research,
write an essay to challenge or
defend the generalization that
accelerated learning is an effec-
tive learning format for working
adults. Use at least three docu-
mented studies to support your
argument.
supporting different cultural perspectives and values. Students’
alternative solutions offer explicit evidence of the benefit of diverse
talents and viewpoints. Relevant and genuine problems are most
likely to elicit learner motivation.
3. Expressive outcomes. Another type of educational goal
identified by Eisner (1985, 1999) focuses on expressive outcomes,
learning objectives that emerge as the result of an intentionally
planned activity. In these instances, learning goals do not precede
an educational activity; they occur in the process of the activity
itself. They are what we and the learners construct after some form
of engagement. How many times have we read a book, seen a
film, or had a conversation with learners whose resonance gives
rise to so many questions and inspirations that to limit learners
to our educational intention is a confinement of imagination?
Encouraging expressive outcomes allows us to share reciprocally
with learners various media or experiences derived from our lives,
such as critical incidents and critical conversations (Brookfield

158 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and Preskill, 2005). Afterward, through dialogue, we can mutually
decide what direction learning should take.
Problem-solving goals and expressive outcomes support the
preeminence of adult self-determination and perspective in
defining relevant learning goals. These forms of establishing a
learning purpose are an excellent means to initiate transforma-
tive learning (Mezirow, 2000) and critical teaching (Freire, 1970).
They more readily allow knowledge to be examined and con-
structed rather than prescribed. I once began a course in adolescent
psychology by watching with the class a few excellent films in
which adolescents were the main characters. After this viewing
and through the compelling dialogue that evolved, we constructed
the course topics, reading list, and projects to facilitate our learning.
The resulting course proved so powerfully informative that it was
expanded the next semester to include two seniors from the local
high school as co-teachers.
Strategy 7: Emphasize the Human Purpose of What Is Being Learned
and Its Relationship to the Learners’ Personal Lives and Current
Situations
Because relevance is so neurophysiologically compelling (Ahissar
and others, 1992), adults feel a pull to belong to a group that meets
their personal needs and aspirations. Finding a purpose in what
they are learning that is connected to their real world gives adult
learners something to care deeply about and to work in common to
achieve. This purpose has the potential to be a shared vision, one
that inspires cohesion, participation, and action.
This strategy is based on the assumption that anything worth
teaching matters to adults. If it does not bear a relationship to a
human need, feeling, or interest, why would we instruct or train
for it? For us as instructors the question is, What are the human
ramifications of what we are helping learners know or do? Once we

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 159
have an answer to this question, the relevance of what we instruct
will be clearer, and we can think of ideas to make this meaning
part of the learning process. Whether we are teaching people
how to wire a circuit, how to speak another language, or how to
write a complete sentence, these skills and knowledge serve human
purposes. If we can understand these qualities, especially as they
may relate to the daily lives of our learners, we have some guidance
in selecting which social aspects of the learning experience we may
wish to emphasize.
Giving a human or social perspective to a learning experience
infuses it with value beyond the technical requirements of the
task and changes it from an expendable, isolated activity into a
potentially valued source of personal satisfaction for the learner
(Kitayama and Markus, 1994); for example, an instructor might
say, ‘‘We are not just studying how to use a new telecommunica-
tions system, we are learning a more effective and efficient way
to communicate that benefits ourselves and our clients.’’ If this
viewpoint is sincerely portrayed by the instructor and embraced by
the learner, the instructional activity has acquired a transcendent
meaning. In plain words, this makes learning special. In fact, the
structure of the previous quotation can be used to express
the human ramifications for any specific learning objective: ‘‘We
are not just studying [a specific topic or skill]; we are learning
[human purpose].’’
When human beings are in any way the topic of study, do
their morals, values, decisions, problems, feelings, and behavior
resemble similar qualities in our learners? If so, it may be worth the
time to ask them to deal with these aspects of human existence
through reflection, discussion, or writing. When our topics are in
the realm of the physical and natural sciences, such as biology,
chemistry, physics, and geology, showing how this knowledge
relates to understanding challenges faced by humanity or how it
can make life saner and more peaceful bonds learners in common
cause. For skills from math to medicine, there is evidence that

160 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
using human problems to learn them can stimulate teamwork as
well as self-direction in adult learners (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). In
technological fields such as computer programming and systems
engineering, accentuating their contributions to human endeavors
can diffuse their mechanistic isolation and humanize the learning
process.
In the previous examples, we discussed emphasizing the human
dimension of what is being learned so that learners can more easily
identify with the topic. Probably more emotionally relevant is any
learning situation in which the topic has an immediate relationship
to the learners’ personal daily lives (Freire, 1970). If an instructor is
conducting a seminar on substance abuse as a community problem,
what are the implications of the information for the communities
of the participants and, more important, for their own families? In
a similar vein, when an instructor is demonstrating a sales tech-
nique, why not demonstrate it with the typical client encountered
by the sales personnel who are learning the technique? Consider a
basic education instructor teaching the difference between a circle
and a square. This may seem a highly abstract concept, but if,
as a point of discussion, the instructor asks the learners to think
of important circles and squares in their own lives, something
abstract instantly becomes relevant. The closer we bring our topics
and skills to the personal lives of our learners in the here and now,
the more available will be their emotional involvement and sense
of common purpose.
Creating a Climate of Respect among Adults
Across most cultures, to be respected in a group means, at the min-
imum, that you have the freedom to express yourself with integrity
and without fear of threat or blame and that you know your opinion
matters. When mutual respect is present in a learning environ-
ment, adults normally feel safe, accepted, and able to influence the
situation when appropriate or necessary. Misunderstanding may be

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 161
the least obvious, but the most common enemy of respect. The first
recommended strategy is meant to help all members of a learning
group avoid misapprehending their situation at the most vulnerable
time in their tenure, the beginning.
Strategy 8: Assess Learners’ Current Expectations, Needs, Goals,
and Previous Experience as It Relates to Your Course or Training
Although we may have conducted a needs assessment of the
learners, they may still have perspectives they haven’t voiced
or important interim experiences of which we are not aware.
A number of years ago, I conducted a morning workshop on
motivation for a group of teachers who were going to strike that
afternoon. I did not know this. Needless to say, things weren’t
going very splendidly, and I hadn’t a clue why. Until I asked the
participants what was going on, no self-talk, including ‘‘Carpe
diem!’’ made a difference.
We can confirm or alter our expectations or prior assessments
with information gathered face-to-face during the opening segment
of the lesson. Using this strategy as part of the introductions, we
can say, ‘‘When you are introducing yourself, please include your
expectations for the course.’’ Asking learners to fill out a short
questionnaire or to answer a few questions projected on a screen is
also a possibility. Giving learners the chance to describe worries or
concerns can often provide insight into their perspectives regard-
ing the course or training.
For learning experiences during which there is likely to be
controversy, we may want to provide a private way for learners to
convey their expectations and needs. Maurianne Adams (Adams,
Jones, and Tatum, 2007, pp. 401–402), who teaches courses in
social justice, offers a good example of this approach:
At the end of the first class, I give students time to write
to me, telling me whatever they want me to know about
themselves, such as their background or preparation

162 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for the class, their goals for themselves in this class,
any worries they may have about the class, or any
physical or other disabilities they want me to know
about so I can adjust assignments and activities. These
are confidential. Then during the semester, I ask them
to write again, telling me how they are doing, what they
are struggling with, what questions or problems they
have, what aspects of my teaching they find helpful, and
what they wish I would change.
Adams’s description emphasizes the importance of checking in
with learners during a course or training. My experience has been
that the more diverse the group, the more important it is to check in
early and often to see how successfully the course and I are meeting
expectations. For example, for a three-day workshop, I will check
in every day no matter how well things seem to be going. When we
are working with diverse learners, it is often easy to leave people
out in terms of their goals and experiences without realizing it.
Unless respectfully invited, people from cultures with high power
distance usually are not forthcoming with this kind of information.
Frequent checking in helps us adjust our instruction with minimum
difficulty for learners and for us. My experience is that most adults
see checking in as a caring and respectful thing to do.
Strategy 9: Explicitly Introduce Important Norms and Participation
Guidelines
Every learning group is unique. It develops its own internal pro-
cedures, patterns of interaction, and limits. To some extent, it is
as if imaginary lines guide and control the behavior of learners in
a group. These are norms, ‘‘the group’s common belief regarding
appropriate behavior, attitudes, and perceptions for its members’’
(Johnson and Johnson, 2006, p. 17). These shared expectations
guide the perceptions, thinking, feeling, and behavior of group
participants and help group interaction by specifying the kinds of

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 163
responses that are expected and acceptable in particular situations.
All learning groups have norms, set either formally or informally.
For a group norm to influence members’ behavior, members must
recognize that it exists, be aware that other group members accept
and follow it, and feel some internal commitment to it.
Norms are the core constructs held in common that can ensure
safety and build community among learners. Norms can create the
kind of atmosphere that allows charged feelings and disagreements
to be buffered as well as respectfully considered. The norms of col-
laboration, sharing the ownership of knowing, and a nonblameful
view (see Chapter Three) are critical to fostering inclusion among
diverse adult learners (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). However,
a norm can be confusing to people whose culture has not socialized
them for it. People who are more oriented toward individualism or
high power distance may feel perplexed or even distressed by the
norms just mentioned. That’s why these and all important norms
should be made explicit. Knowing the boundaries in a group helps
members immensely in guiding their behavior.
There are several ways to implement norms (and participation
guidelines) in a group. One common method is simply to state
them as the rules that govern the behavior of the group. Certainly,
we want to offer a rationale for them and an opportunity for
discussion, remaining flexible when appropriate. We can support
norms through modeling. Our formal and informal behavior toward
learners has a powerful effect on the norms of the learning group.
Another method is to incorporate the institutional norms of group
members into the learning group. This is a common method in
business settings. Learners often assume that the norms that govern
their behavior in a particular institution will transfer to learning
events sponsored by that institution.
Norms can also be established through consensus. Learners
might suggest which norms are needed or which need editing
or specific discussion. This is an opportunity for other norms
to be added as well. The instructor can then lead the group

164 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
through a decision-making process to gain the group’s consent
for acceptable recommendations. Two group skills extremely
important for appropriately handling this process are conflict man-
agement and consensus decision making (Johnson and Johnson,
2006). Generally, adults will more actively accept norms they have
helped establish. Ownership gives them a sense of personal choice,
an understanding that the norms reflect their values, and a better
awareness of the need for their support to maintain the norms.
Finally, the more clearly they see how a norm aids in the accom-
plishment of a goal to which they are committed, the more readily
adults will accept and internalize the norm.
When course or training content is challenging and the learning
process is experiential and interactive, adults appreciate participa-
tion guidelines. By clearly identifying the kinds of interactions and
discussion that will be encouraged and discouraged, the instructor
and learners create a climate of safety, ensuring that everyone will
be respected.
The first meeting is an appropriate time to establish these
guidelines and to request cooperation in implementing them.
Through fifteen years of experience and at least a few abrasive
moments, I have found the following rules to be generally accept-
able as well as extremely beneficial for establishing inclusion
(Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995; Griffin, 1997b):
• Listen carefully, especially to different perspectives.
• Keep personal information shared in the group confi-
dential.
• Speak from your own experience, saying, for example,
‘‘I think . . .’’ or ‘‘In my experience I have found . . .’’
rather than generalizing your experience to others
by saying, for example, ‘‘People say . . .’’ or ‘‘We
believe . . .’’
• Express perspectives without blaming or scapegoating.

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 165
• Avoid generalizing about groups of people.
• Share airtime.
• Focus on your own learning.
I have found that instructors who use participation guidelines
usually have a few that are nonnegotiable (Tatum, 1992). This
makes sense because everyone is safer when we as instructors
know what our professional limits are. Although their list may be
longer or shorter, most adults accept and generate these guidelines
because they reduce feelings of fear, awkwardness, embarrassment,
and shame. They also provide a safety net for critical discourse.
Leaving participation guidelines open to further additions and
referring to them when necessary keeps the boundaries of the
learning environment clear and dynamic.
Nonetheless, there are times when course content or student
and teacher comments addressing inequity or controversial social
issues can challenge student beliefs or raise intense emotions such as
fear, guilt, or anger. As instructors at such times, we need to ‘‘stand
outside the classroom experience and anticipate such dynamics,’’
relieving some of the pressure, as Johnella Butler advises, by
being the teacher who, ‘‘directly acknowledges and calls attention
to the tension in the classroom’’ (1985, p. 236). When we initiate
or allow a discussion that directly addresses tensions and fears,
adults have a chance to engage in their learning more completely,
with their emotions and their thoughts. We also must keep in mind
that these discussions contain contradictions and dilemmas that
may remain unresolved when the discussion has ended (Butler,
2000), possibly providing information and insight, but not a neatly
packaged resolution.
On some occasions, I have alerted students that the content
or experience that I have planned or suggested may leave some
of us quite uncomfortable and indicate a few of the reasons that
reaction might be expected. In general, this has usually relieved

166 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
some anxiety and allowed some students to be more patient
and open to learning that challenges their personal beliefs and
experience.
Strategy 10: When Issuing Mandatory Assignments or Training
Requirements, Give Your Rationale for Them
Adults hate busywork. Many of them have had teachers who
handed out assignments without rhyme or reason. Because require-
ments demand time, energy, and responsibility, even the most
motivated adult learner will feel apprehensive when the assign-
ments are handed out. (Notice how quiet it gets!)
When we state the rationale for requirements, learners will
more likely accept that we have carefully considered them; that
we realize the obligations, benefits, and results of the requirements;
and most important, that we respect learners and want to share
this information. It is also no small advantage to us that by offering
the rationale, we are more likely to ensure that learners will
understand the purpose of the assignment.
As in most matters of communication, difficult news is best
received when it is delivered directly and concisely. Here are two
examples.
An instructor might say: ‘‘At the end of this unit, I will ask
each of you to role-play a conflict-management situation in a
small-group setting. Each of you will be asked to resolve this
problem by applying the suggestions for conflict management
that are most relevant to a collectivist culture. This will give
me the opportunity to give each of you guided practice and
feedback so that you can refine your skills and have a chance
to test this approach under simulated conditions.’’
Or an instructor might say: ‘‘In addition to the readings in
your textbook, I’ve assigned three outside articles and put
them on reserve at the local library. I realize this may be
somewhat of an inconvenience for you. However, each of

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 167
these articles contains a case study that is far more realistic
and comprehensive than any of those found in your text.
These case studies will provide much better examples of the
principles you are studying and give you a chance to explore
the benefits of these theories in situations much closer to your
own real-life experiences.’’
Even with the clearest rationale for them, assignments are
assignments, and usually no one applauds after they are given. This
silence may simply reflect the realistic concern of adult learners
who are accepting a new responsibility.
Strategy 11: Acknowledge Different Ways of Knowing, Different
Languages, and Different Levels of Knowledge or Skill among Learners
One of the myths perpetuated about adults is that if you’re older,
you know more. This fiction doesn’t account for all we have learned
that is wrong, incorrect, unethical, or misleading. It also doesn’t
cover for what we have forgotten and confused, not to mention
those vast stores of irrelevance attached to our dendrites. (Does
anyone really care that I can name every U.S. capital that begins
with the letters A, B, or C?) We may certainly know more about
some things, but we do have our limits. At best, aging and wisdom
are dubious partners. Nonetheless, the myth is an intimidating one,
and many adults feel uncomfortable when they realize they may
know less than other participants in a course or training. Often
it’s more a case of knowing things differently or with a different
language. In teaching about research, for example, with its buckets
of jargon, I have found that adults are openly relieved to know
reliability means something as straightforward as ‘‘consistency.’’
To relax things a bit as well as make them more equitable, we can
acknowledge to learners that we would appreciate knowing when
there’s a different way they understand something or a different
language they might use. We need also to acknowledge that for
adults who are English-language learners, the language they most

168 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
readily speak may be from a culture that defines certain aspects
of reality differently from the conventions of our course or setting
(Fong, 2006). As an example, in Cantonese the words for heat
and cool usually do not refer to the temperature of food and drink
but to the nature of food that produces a cool or warm effect on
your body. In this Chinese culture, these words are used in relation
to balancing one’s consumption of warm and cool foods. In the
United States, balancing one’s diet is related to consumption of
the four main food groups: fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry,
breads and grains, and dairy products.
For many courses, from child psychology to computer science,
adults in attendance also may differ greatly from one another
in their experience and knowledge, some people being novices
and others having more experience than the instructor. After we
perform some form of assessment to understand these disparities
and acknowledge that the disparities are OK, we need to find
a way to move forward together. We may do this using special
project work, peer tutoring, cooperative learning (Strategy 5),
or differentiated instruction (Strategy 14), where students work
at different paces with varied learning options based on learner
readiness and prerequisite skills — whatever allows us to learn most
effectively and remain a mutually respectful community.
As I close this chapter, it is probably a good time to say a few
words about resistance in a learning group when it occurs in the
beginning of a course or training. Resistance often comes up because
the learning experience is required or because people believe they
have been unfairly mandated to attend. The group feeling tends to
be some version of ‘‘we don’t need this’’ or ‘‘this is going to be a
waste of time.’’ In these circumstances, it is usually best to openly
acknowledge the situation and the possible feelings that may be
occurring in the group. If appropriate, we can attempt to better
understand the situation from the learners’ perspective, listening

Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners 169
well and gaining a fuller understanding. Then being realistically
compassionate, we can plan or engage in learning that emphasizes
immediate relevance and choice for them (discussed in Chapter
Six). These procedures have a good chance of moving the group
forward.
The challenge of inclusion is to find ways for adults to know
they are respected and part of a learning community, genuinely
engaging their spirit, their experience, and their perspective. A
mere strategy does not create such a milieu. Inclusion is the result
of a determined living harmony, a constancy of practices blended
with ideals from the beginning to the end of every lesson of every
session of every course.

Wlodkowski c06 3 02/05/08 171
6
Helping Adults Develop Positive
Attitudes toward Learning
Exhortation is used more and accomplishes less than
almost any behavior-changing tool known.
Robert F. Mager
We all spend a great deal of our time trying to influenceother people’s attitudes, especially the attitudes of those
for whose work or effort we have some responsibility. We talk,
show evidence, list logical reasons, and in some instances, actually
give personal testimony to the positive results of this desired
attitude. We are trying to be persuasive. Intuitively, we know it
is best for people to like what they must do. Instructors want
learners to feel positively toward learning and the effort it takes
to accomplish it. However, exhorting, arguing, explaining, and
cajoling are usually very inefficient means of helping someone
develop a positive attitude toward learning. All these methods
have a glaring weakness: they are simply words — ‘‘talk,’’ if you
will — that have nowhere near the impact of the consequences,
conditions, and people involved in the learning task itself. When
persuasion is successful, the process and outcomes of learning are
what tell the story for the learner. When unsuccessful, persuasion
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172 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
becomes a form of linguistic static, badgering, or nagging that
undermines the development of a positive attitude in the adult
learner.
In general, it is probably best not to try to talk adults into
learning. There are far more powerful things we can do in the
presentation of the subject matter as well as in our treatment of
adults to help them build positive attitudes toward their learning
and themselves as learners. This chapter will examine a number
of strategies that encourage adults to look forward to learning and,
perhaps most important, feel eager to learn more.
Four Important Attitudinal Directions
As stated in Chapter Four, attitudes predispose adults to respond
favorably or unfavorably toward particular people, groups, ideas,
events, or objects. From a cultural and a neuropsychological view,
in order for adults to have a positive attitude toward learning,
they have to see it as relevant. They also have to see it as an
activity to which they are responding with volition, free choice,
self-determination, or compliance with something they endorse.
When relevance and volition are present at the beginning of
a learning activity, most adults initially find learning appealing,
something they want to do.
Adults’ attitudes usually focus on one or more of four directions:
(1) toward the instructor, (2) toward the subject, (3) toward their
self-efficacy for learning, and (4) toward the specific learning goal or
performance. Together, these attitudes influence adult intentions
to learn.
Theoretically, these four adult attitudinal directions integrate
the self-motivation processes of self-regulation theory (Zimmerman
and Kitsantas, 2005) — self-efficacy, outcome expectations,
task interest or value, and goal orientation — with the cultural
beliefs, values, and norms that adults bring to a learning situation.
Because of its usefulness for teaching, I’ve retained the very basic

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Table 6.1. Attitudinal Directions
Perception + Judgment → Emotion → Behavior
I see my instructor. He seems helpful. I feel
appreciative.
I cooperate.
The instructor
announces the
beginning of a new
unit on family
relations. (subject)
Learning more
about being an
effective parent is
relevant to me.
I feel
interested.
I pay
attention.
It is my turn to
present my project
to the seminar.
(self-efficacy)
I am
knowledgeable
and well prepared
for this task.
I feel
confident.
I give a
smooth and
articulate
presentation.
The instructor is
giving a surprise
quiz. (learning goal
or performance)
I haven’t studied.
I’m not prepared
for this quiz.
I feel anxious
and frustrated.
I can’t think
well. I do
poorly on the
quiz.
interpretation of an attitude as a combination of a perception with a
judgment that often results in an emotion that influences behavior
(Ellis, 1989). The examples in Table 6.1 illustrate the possible
influences that attitudes can have on behavior and performance in
learning tasks.
Whenever we instruct, we want to establish a learning envi-
ronment in which these four attitudinal directions are positive
and unified for the learner. We want adults to respect us, to find the
subject appealing, and to feel confident that they can successfully learn
the specific task before them.
If any one of these four attitudinal directions becomes seriously
negative, the adult’s motivation to learn can be impaired. For
example, he might respect the instructor, feel confident as a
learner, and objectively expect to do well but still intensely dislike

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174 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
the subject area. This sometimes happens with required courses
or training; competent instructors find capable adults disinterested
and apathetic. In a similar vein, an adult could like the instructor
and the subject and be confident as a learner but realize he lacks the
time or the proper materials to be successful in the learning task.
It is quite likely that this person’s overall motivation to learn will
be significantly reduced, and trying hard will probably lead only
to frustration. This situation often arises when one learner has to
compete against another learner whose preparation and material
advantages seem far superior to his own.
In most instances, adults experience their attitudes immediately,
without premeditation or serious reflection. They hear or see
something, and the attitude begins to run its course. The instructor
introduces the topic, and the learner’s attitude toward that topic
emerges. The instructor assigns homework, and the learner quickly
has an attitude toward the assignment. Once an adult has had an
experience, the attitude will occur, like it or not. It may be only a
vague feeling, but it is still an influence on behavior. In my work
as a teacher, the immediacy of adult attitudes toward new learning
experiences is a truism.
As instructors we have to be aware of what can be done
to influence learner attitudes positively at the beginning of any
learning experience. The attitudes will be there from the very
start. Having them work for learners and us offers the best chance
for motivated learning to occur. Although most of the following
strategies can be implemented throughout the learning experience,
the discussion here will stress their use at the beginning of learning
and training activities.
Creating a Positive Attitude toward the Instructor
Ask any adult learner — a negative attitude toward an instructor,
whether online or face to face, makes that instructor a barrier
between the material to be learned and the learner. Instead of

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feeling at ease because a respected instructor is offering an attractive
lesson, the learner may feel tense because of the dissonance of
a disliked instructor offering an attractive lesson. We have all
experienced this discomfort in everyday life: we feel uneasy pur-
chasing a car from a salesperson we don’t like or accepting a gift
from someone we disrespect. In those instances, it seems better not
to buy the car or accept the gift, because then our actions are con-
sistent with how we feel toward the person. In learning situations,
adults are more open and responsive to tasks they receive from an
instructor they like and respect. They are quite the opposite with
an instructor they don’t like or respect. Optimal motivation for
learning will diminish.
As discussed in Chapter Three, the core characteristics of exper-
tise, empathy, and cultural responsiveness are major influences in
establishing a positive attitude toward the instructor. Because the
learners’ relationship to the instructor bears strongly on learners’
feelings of inclusion, the strategies for creating a positive attitude
toward the instructor were presented in Chapter Five. The strate-
gies in that chapter that are especially relevant to learners’ attitude
toward the instructor are the following:
• Allow for introductions. (Strategy 1)
• Concretely indicate your cooperative intentions to help
adults learn. (Strategy 3)
• Share something of value with your adult learners.
(Strategy 4)
• When issuing mandatory assignments or training
requirements, give your rationale for them.
(Strategy 10)
• To engender a safe learning environment, acknowl-
edge different ways of knowing, different languages, and
different levels of knowledge or skill. (Strategy 11)

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Building a Positive Attitude toward the Subject
Please read the following words out loud:
English Psychology History
Technology Math Geology
Biology Research Economics
Writing Algebra Chemistry
Which word evoked the strongest emotional response? Was
it a positive or a negative feeling? Most of the listed subject
areas are common to the educational experience of adults. They
have taken such courses, and they usually have distinct attitudes
toward them. Any new learning that involves elements from past
courses will cause immediate attitudinal reactions on the part of
adults. That is why adults so often ask questions like these at the
beginning of new courses and training sessions: How much writing
will I have to do? What kind of math does this training require?
What will I have to research? Adults have strong opinions about
both their capabilities and their feelings toward such requirements.
They carry attitudes toward them that often are decades old and
very entrenched (Smith, 1982). New learning often causes mixed
reactions in adults. They might want to learn about innovative uses
of technology but honestly have real fears if any math is involved
in the training.
To some extent, new learning goes against the grain of the
personal autonomy and security of adults. Older adults have usually
found a way to cope with life and have formulated a set of
convictions (Schaie and Willis, 2002). New learning often asks
them to become temporarily dependent, to open their minds to
new ideas, to rethink certain beliefs, and to try different ways of
doing things. This may be threatening or difficult for them, and
their attitudes can easily lock in to support their resistance. For
some adults, speaking in front of the group is an ordeal. Specific

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learning techniques, such as role playing and videotaping, can also
make some adults quite anxious.
As we know from Chapter Two, such stress can overstimulate
the limbic system, particularly the amygdala, and impede reasoning
and long-term memory. For tense adults, real learning is a struggle.
As instructors, we want to create with learners a positive emotional
state where they have an intentional bias toward learning. What-
ever we can do as instructors to minimize adults’ negative attitudes
and to foster positive attitudes toward the entire instructional pro-
cess will improve their motivation and their chances for learning.
Invigorated by our enthusiasm, the following strategies are a means
to this end.
Strategy 12: Eliminate or Minimize Any Negative Conditions That
Surround the Subject
Robert Mager (1968) once wrote that people learn to avoid the
things they are hit with. It is a common fact of learning that
when a person is presented with an item or subject and is at the
same time in the presence of negative (unpleasant) conditions,
that item or subject becomes a stimulus for avoidance behavior.
Things or subjects that frighten adults are often associated with
antagonists and situations that make them uncomfortable, tense,
or scared. Therefore, it is best not to associate the subject with any
of the following conditions. These tend to support negative learner
attitudes and repel adult interest:
• Pain: acute physical or psychological discomfort, such as
continuous failure (where learner effort makes no differ-
ence), poorly fitting equipment, or uncomfortable room
temperature
• Fear and anxiety: distress and tension resulting from
anticipation of the unpleasant or dangerous, such as
threat of failure or punishment, public exposure of

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178 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
ignorance, or unpredictability of potential negative
consequences
• Frustration: an emotional reaction to an obstacle to
purposeful behavior, such as information presented
too quickly or too slowly, tests that are unannounced
(euphemistically called pop quizzes), or inadequate feed-
back on performance
• Humiliation: an emotional reaction to being shamed,
disrespected, or degraded by sarcasm, insults, sexist
comments, or public comparison of learners’ efforts
• Boredom: a cognitive and emotional reaction to weak,
repetitive, or infrequent stimuli, as in learning situa-
tions that lack variety, cover material already known,
or are monopolized by the same people talking over and
over again
This list is quite dismal. However, just as a slate must be wiped
clean before clear and lucid new writing can be set down, learning
environments must have these negative conditions removed before
positive conditions can effectively occur. Otherwise, the best efforts
of motivating instructors can be contaminated and diffused by the
mere presence of such oppressive elements.
Strategy 13: Positively Confront the Erroneous Beliefs, Expectations,
and Assumptions That May Underlie a Negative Learner Attitude
Some learners have mistaken beliefs that support their negative
attitudes. For example, learners may think, ‘‘If I have to do any math
in this course, I won’t do well in it,’’ or ‘‘Communications training
has never helped anyone I know,’’ or ‘‘If I make a mistake, I’ll
really look bad.’’ Assumptions of this sort can cause learners to fear
and resist a subject (Ellis, 1989). People maintain their negative
attitudes by repeating such beliefs to themselves. If you think an

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individual learner (or the group) holds such beliefs, you can use
the following guidelines to help reduce the negative attitude:
1. Tactfully find out what the learner might be telling herself
that leads to the negative attitude. (‘‘You seem somewhat
discouraged. Could you tell me what might be happening or
what you might be thinking that’s leading to such feelings?’’)
2. If the learner appears to have a self-defeating belief, point
out how negative feelings naturally follow from such a belief.
(‘‘If you believe making a mistake will really make you look
foolish in front of your peers, you probably feel fearful and
anxious about trying some of the group exercises.’’)
3. Suggest other assumptions that might be more helpful to the
learner. (‘‘You might tell yourself that this is guided practice,
where everyone including your instructor expects some mis-
takes, and that the purpose of the exercises is to refine skills,
not to demonstrate them at a level of complete proficiency.’’)
4. Encourage the learner to develop beliefs, based on present
reality, that promote well-being. (‘‘When you start to feel dis-
couraged or negative, check out what you are telling yourself
and see if it really helps you. Consider whether some other
beliefs or expectancies would be more helpful. You might
want to discuss this with me so that I can give you feedback
and suggest other ways of looking at the situation.’’)
Sometimes it’s useful to ask the learner, ‘‘What might have
to happen for you to believe you could do well or to change
your attitude in a positive direction?’’ This question may help the
learner describe relevant examples of evidence that will fit her
perspective and produce a shift in attitude. At a workshop, I once
asked this question of a group of reluctant college faculty. They
anonymously wrote their answers on cards, which I read back to
them. Midway through the deck I found myself reading the answer,

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180 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
‘‘A public hanging of the dean.’’ Fortunately, the dean graciously
laughed. Her sense of humor and compassion took us to another
level of discourse, and the workshop progressed with much more
effectiveness.
Strategy 14: Use Differentiated Instruction to Enhance Successful
Learning of New Content
It is difficult for anyone to dislike a subject in which they are
successful. Conversely, it is rare to find anyone who really likes a
subject in which they are unsuccessful. We know that adults come
into courses with varying levels of academic readiness, especially
in institutions with open enrollment policies such as community
colleges. Adults are likely to be discouraged if they lack the
academic skills or experience to make successful progress in their
courses. They may also feel disheartened when they realize how
much extra time and effort they will need to expend in order to
learn. Also, there is the age-old problem of some students speeding
ahead while others learn more slowly. (As an older learner, I hasten
to add, more slowly does not mean less well.)
Although differentiated instruction has focused mainly on
learning among elementary and secondary students (Tomlinson,
2005), it can be adapted to teaching adult learners. Seeing diversity
as an array of strengths on which to build, it is a flexible form of
instruction that matches content, process, and outcomes to stu-
dents’ differences in readiness, interests, and needs. I have found
that its suggestions for making content more flexible (Tomlinson,
2001) encourage adult learners’ attitudes and efforts. Following are
some ideas you may find helpful as well. These ideas have worked
much better when I have added two conditions: (1) evidence that
effort makes a difference and (2) continual feedback regarding
progress of learning.
• In addition to the main instructional techniques (such as
experiential learning, discussion, and the course textbook), it is

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advantageous to have a number of alternative texts, resource
materials, and instructional processes available to accommodate
differences in academic readiness and learning needs among adult
learners. The following are some alternatives:
Collaborative and cooperative group study procedures can
be available to learners as they need them. Small groups
of learners (two or three) could meet regularly to go over
points of difficulty in the learning process. (See Strategy
5 in Chapter Five for additional specific ideas.)
Multiple texts and supplemental materials including journals,
magazines, and downloads from the Internet increase the
probability of reaching all adult learners with content that
is meaningful and relevant. Textbooks with many pic-
tures, diagrams, and graphic organizers can offer a clearer
examples for some learners who are having difficulty with
the main textbook. For English-language learners, read-
ing main ideas and principles in their native language and
then in English may be an avenue to deeper learning.
Media, films, and the Internet often provide additional illus-
trations, explanations, and greater breadth and depth than
print materials for both more advanced and less advanced
students.
Digests of key ideas are one- to two-page summarizations of
the key concepts and principles in a learning unit. They
help learners to identify what is important to understand,
integrate, and remember. They can be organized as a flow
chart or a concept map highlighting essential vocabu-
lary and questions. These digests also clarify for us, as
instructors, what the core ideas are for a given unit or
topic of study. Table 9.1, Summary of Motivational Strate-
gies, in Chapter Nine is an example of such a digest for
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• Concept-based teaching can provide an in-depth understanding
of a discipline because it emphasizes the thorough use of main ideas
and principles over superficial facts (Donovan, Bransford, and
Pellegrino, 1999). This approach, rather than memorization, helps
all students to develop understanding and to create networks of
meaning for future use and long-term memory. For example, a
major concept and competency in history is to understand how
evidence from primary and secondary sources becomes historical
knowledge. This process is what historians do, and understanding
it well transfers to the critical reading of print and electronic
journalism. This type of learning is more valuable than memorizing
the dates of battles or the names of explorers, and other facts so
common to history exams. In addition, knowing how to gather
and integrate evidence from primary and secondary sources applies
to the social sciences, humanities, and law as well as history.
Concept-based teaching reduces time spent on inconsequential
information, allowing more time to learn and integrate princi-
ples that cross disciplines and build neural networks to enhance
future learning.
• Tutorial assistance is helpful for many learners. Few of us are
excellent across all disciplines. (I did pretty well with the social
sciences but I needed a tutor to pass French in college.) Peers
can be excellent tutors, especially for time-limited assignments
and projects, when the speed of their mastery exceeds others and
they are available for temporary support. For long-term support, in
addition to tutoring the institution may offer, there are a number
of 24/7 online tutoring services available.
• Learning contracts are excellent for students who differ in
readiness, interest, and needs because contracts offer flexibility for
each of these variables. They encourage relevant learning tailored
for every student. Strategy 24 later in this chapter provides a
detailed discussion of learning contracts.
• Time to complete tests and in-class assignments reduces
anxiety and allows every adult a chance to do well.

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• Formative assessments are ongoing assessments designed to
make an individual’s thinking and learning visible to him and
his instructor (Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino, 1999). These
measures provide opportunities for the learner to improve his
learning and for the instructor to improve her teaching. Strategy
50 in Chapter Eight discusses this approach to assessment.
Most of the ideas from differentiated instruction are not new.
Tutoring and formative assessment, two obvious examples, have
longstanding support for their effectiveness. However, it is the
systematic use and combination of these methods that make them
powerful, especially for learners who vary in academic readiness. An
important strategy that is frequently identified with differentiated
instruction, but can stand alone because of its usefulness in many
educational areas, is scaffolding complex learning.
Strategy 15: Use Assisted Learning to Scaffold Complex Learning
Lev Vygotsky (1978), a pioneer in social constructivist theory,
realized that a person could solve or master certain problems and
skills when given appropriate help and support. Such learning,
often called ‘‘assisted learning,’’ provides scaffolding — giving clues,
information, prompts, reminders, and encouragement at the appro-
priate time and in the appropriate amounts and then gradually
allowing the learner to do more and more independently. Most of
us naturally scaffold when we teach someone to drive a car or play a
card game. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the phase in a
learning task when a learner can benefit from assistance (Wertsch,
1991). The upper limit of the zone is the place where the learner
can perform the task independently; the lower limit is the place
where the learner can perform the task but needs assistance.
Most of us learned to drive a car with someone in the seat next
to us who prompted and reminded us of what to do and when
to do it as we navigated a road. In the beginning, this ‘‘coach’’
usually had to scaffold pretty intensely: ‘‘Check your speedometer’’;
‘‘I think you’re speeding’’; ‘‘Watch out for that car’’; ‘‘If you don’t

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184 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
stop, we are going to have an accident.’’ We were obviously in the
lower limit of our zone of proximal development for driving.
From a neurological perspective, scaffolding, the practicing
and being coached to drive a car, resulted in new dendrites
growing along the axons of thousands of neurons. Over time, with
more practice and coaching, these new dendrites and their axons
formed branches that created strong neural pathways and networks
resulting in a speedy and efficient circuitry with multiple pathways.
Now, biologically in the upper limit of the ZPD, we can drive
independently.
Myriad other learning tasks strongly benefit from scaffolding.
Whether adults are learning to solve math problems, conduct
experiments, or use a personal computer, our assessing their zone
of proximal development and structuring the appropriate scaffold
can lead to their success. Adults deeply appreciate the support that
assisted learning offers because it tends to be concrete, immedi-
ate, and tailored to their obvious needs. The following are some
of the assisted-learning methods that can be used to scaffold
more complex learning (Association for Supervision and Curricu-
lum Development, 1990; Tappan, 1998). The description of each
method includes an example in which I model assisting students to
learn to write a research report.
• Modeling. The instructor carries out the skill while
the learners observe, or the instructor offers actual
examples of learning outcomes, such as finished papers
or solved problems. (I ask the learners to read two pre-
viously completed reports. One is excellent; the other is
satisfactory.)
• Thinking out loud. The instructor states actual thought
processes in carrying out the learning task. (I talk
about some of the goals and criteria I would consider
before writing the report. I ask the learners why one
report was considered excellent and the other only

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satisfactory. I supplement the learners’ perceptions with
my own.)
• Anticipating difficulties. As the learning proceeds, the
instructor and learners discuss areas where support is
needed and mistakes are more likely to occur. (Because
the sections of the report that discuss findings and
statistical analyses seem most challenging to the learn-
ers, we discuss how these sections were done in the
two reports and arrange for prompt feedback on the
learners’ initial drafts of these sections in their own
reports.)
• Providing prompts and cues. The instructor highlights,
emphasizes, or structures procedural steps and impor-
tant responses to help learners clearly recognize their
place and their importance to the learning task. (I pro-
vide an outline for writing a research report with exem-
plars from previous reports.)
• Using dialogue and discussion. The instructor engages
the learners in a conversation where the understanding
of concepts and procedures of the learning task deep-
ens and becomes more organized. The give and take of
these mutual explorations includes critique but in a way
that alternates between serious and playful discussion
(Brookfield and Preskill, 2005). (I talk with the learners
about the research they consider relevant and would
like to know more about, sometimes lightly joking
with them about the omnipotence and unlimited time
needed to do such research. Nonetheless we earnestly
discuss what hypotheses and data such reports should
include.)
• Regulating the difficulty. The instructor introduces
a more complex task with simpler tasks and may

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186 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
offer some practice with these. (Using the previous
discussion as a context, I give the learners a basic
research scenario, a hypothesis, data, and an analy-
sis scheme and ask them each to write a brief research
report with this information.)
• Using reciprocal teaching and practice. The instructor
and the learners rotate the role of instructor; in that
role, each learner provides guidance and suggestions to
others. (While I monitor, each learner presents his or
her brief research report to a learning partner who acts
as the instructor and gives supportive feedback. Then
they reverse roles. The same process will be carried out
with the first draft of their actual research report.)
• Providing a checklist. Learners use self-checking proce-
dures to monitor the quality of their learning. (I give
the learners a checklist of questions and quality cri-
teria to consider as they write their reports.)
Possible metaphors for the provider of assisted learning are
‘‘sensitive tutor,’’ ‘‘seasoned coach,’’ ‘‘wise parent’’ — all people
who tell us just enough, what we need to know when we need to
know it, and trust us to chart the rest of our journey to learning.
Assisted learning conveys an underlying message: ‘‘You may stray,
but you will not be lost. In this endeavor, you are not alone.’’
The image is not of the learner as rugged individualist or solitary
explorer. Rather, assisted learning embraces a vision of remarkable
possibility nurtured by a caring community.
Developing Self-Efficacy for Learning
Goethe believed that the greatest evil that can befall a person is
that he should come to think ill of himself. When it comes to
learning, this aphorism is most relevant to the adult’s perception
of self-efficacy. Some learners may not have a negative attitude

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toward their instructor or the subject, but they may judge that they
lack the capability to successfully learn in the task at hand. Learners
holding such perceptions have low self-efficacy for the learning goal
and their motivation to learn is usually diminished for the activity
or course. A learner with low self-efficacy might think, ‘‘I’d like to
learn Spanish. The teacher seems great. But I just have never been
good at learning other languages. I don’t think I’m going to do
well in this course.’’ This learner is likely to give up easily when he
encounters frustration or failure during the learning process: ‘‘I got
a C minus on the first test. Maybe I should drop this course while
I can get most of my money back and before I really do poorly.’’
Albert Bandura defined self-efficacy as ‘‘beliefs in one’s capa-
bilities to organize and execute the courses of action required
to produce given achievements’’ (1997, p. 3). Self-efficacy is a
personal assessment of one’s capability to perform a specific task.
(Because I have written two editions of this book, my self-efficacy
for writing a third is relatively high. However, my self-efficacy for
playing well in a pick-up football game is extremely low. In fact,
my self-efficacy for throwing a football well is quite low.)
Adult self-efficacy is situation specific and, although future
oriented, it is largely based on performance in past experiences.
Self-efficacy beliefs are stronger predictors of adult behavior than
are other self-perceptions such as self-concept and self-esteem,
which are more global and have less specific meaning (Bandura,
1997; Bong and Skaalvik, 2003). Bandura’s ideas about self-efficacy
and learning are relevant to understanding the motivation of adults
because they account for the reciprocal influence of the learner
and the environment on each other (Merriam, Caffarella, and
Baumgartner, 2007). As an example, consider an instructor whose
self-efficacy for effectively discussing United States foreign policy
with learners is high. Although the learners respond tentatively,
their feedback indicates they want to talk further about important
global issues. The instructor is encouraged and adds a discussion
of recent events in the Middle East to the syllabus, knowing this

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188 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
topic will probably invite controversial opinions from the learners.
This interaction reflects how an individual’s self-efficacy produces
behavior and how the environment is affected by that behavior
and how its response alters the future behavior of that individual.
This kind of interaction reflects adult reality. Such interactions
are also the basis for pragmatic strategies that can enhance adult
perceptions of their self-efficacy in learning situations.
As instructors, we need to remember that adult perceptions of
self-efficacy are always situation specific. A person might feel quite
physically adept but very incompetent in academic situations. This
kind of variation exists for academic subjects as well. A learner
might feel quite superior in English and very inferior in math.
Adults constantly modify their self-efficacy beliefs in specific areas
of learning. This malleability means that during classes or training
sessions instructors have an opportunity to influence learners’
self-estimation.
Many adults harbor doubts about their learning capabilities.
They often underestimate and underuse their capacities (Knox,
1977). Their family members may reinforce their self-doubts by
questioning their talent or the need for certain learning. Later
adulthood and old age are periods when many learners are especially
vulnerable to these sources of anxiety.
When adults begin courses or new learning activities, we can
provide experiences from which they can derive higher self-efficacy
and, consequently, greater self-confidence as learners. Bandura
(1997) found that self-efficacy expectations are generally acquired
through four sources. (1) Mastery experiences are direct experiences
of success and failure in given tasks over a lifetime. These are
probably the most powerful influences on adult self-efficacy beliefs
and are stored as prior knowledge in our long-term memories. (2)
Vicarious experiences are situations in which we watch the learning
task successfully performed by someone whom we view as similar to
ourselves. The more closely we identify with the model, the more
likely the greater will be that model’s influence on our self-efficacy

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expectations for the task. (3) We also acquire self-efficacy through
social persuasion, when someone we trust encourages us to believe
that we can, usually with greater effort, accomplish the task at
hand. (4) Self-efficacy is promoted in situations where our level of
arousal is supportive for effective action, such as when our limbic
system processes feelings of relaxation, alertness, and enthusiasm
for the task ahead.
Mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, and social persua-
sion will provide basic theoretical underpinnings for the strategies
offered in this text to enhance adult self-efficacy for learning. Any
strategy that supports a positive emotion for learning also supports
a positive level of arousal. Unless stated otherwise, all the strategies
in this book are oriented in this direction, especially those in
Chapter Five, ‘‘Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners.’’
Before we move to particular strategies related to self-efficacy, I
want to emphasize again the strategies of differentiated instruction and
scaffolding (Strategies 14 and 15, respectively). Although presented
in the section about attitudes toward the subject, these strategies
also strongly influence self-efficacy expectations for the learning
task. Differentiated instruction and scaffolding can be combined
with the strategies that follow to foster beliefs among adults that
they are, indeed, capable learners.
Strategy 16: Promote Learners’ Personal Control of Learning
For people to build self-efficacy from past or present mastery expe-
riences, they usually need to realize that they are most responsible
for their learning. They need to feel a sense of personal causa-
tion in the process of learning — that they control how, what, and
when they learn (Plaut and Markus, 2005). At first, this may seem
obvious: if a person pays attention, studies, and practices, of course
the person will feel responsible for any successful achievement.
However, when we remember that instructors usually establish
requirements, issue assignments, give tests, generally set the stan-
dards for achievement, often control the learning environment,

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190 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and sometimes require learner participation, it is not difficult to
understand how learners could come to believe that instructors
are more responsible for their achievement than they are. Even
when a person is successful, he or she may feel very dependent as
a learner and consequently bound to the demands and directions
of the instructor for future learning. In this way, a learner can feel
like a pawn and not develop self-efficacy.
Adults are inclined toward autonomy in many aspects of their
daily lives. The following methods to increase their sense of
personal causation while learning should effectively complement
this tendency.
• The learner plans and sets goals for learning. Planning validates
the individual as the originator and guide of the learning pro-
cess. The next section, ‘‘Establishing Challenging and Attainable
Learning Goals,’’ offers specific strategies for how to do this.
• To the extent appropriate, the learner makes choices about what,
how, with whom, where, and when to learn something. Choice permits
the learners to feel greater ownership of the learning experience.
They can choose topics, assignments, when to be evaluated, how
to be evaluated, and so forth.
• The learner uses self-assessment procedures. When learners can
appraise mistakes and successes while learning, they experience a
concrete sense of participation in the learning act. Sometimes
learners can get the feeling that more mistakes are created by
the instructor than are committed by the learners. Self-assessment
procedures can prevent this misperception and give the learners
a sense of control from the beginning to the end of the learning
experience. When people can determine for themselves whether
they are really learning something, they feel more responsible for
that learning. See Strategy 54 for an elaboration of this method.
• The instructor helps the learner to identify personal strengths
while learning. For example, ‘‘You have a number of assignments to
choose from, but you seem to have a real talent for explaining things

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well and could probably give a very interesting oral presentation.
What do you think?’’ Learners who know and take advantage of
personal assets while learning are likely to feel greater self-efficacy.
• The learner logs personal progress while learning. This allows
learners to recognize personal growth and learning as they take
place.
• The learner participates in analyzing potential barriers to progress
in learning. For example, the instructor might ask, ‘‘What do you
think the difficulty might be?’’ or ‘‘In your estimation, where
do you think the confusion begins?’’ By participating in solving
their learning problems, learners feel more commitment to their
resolution and are more aware of their role in the learning process.
An added plus for instructors is that adult learners frequently know
better than we do where problems in learning are occurring.
• When advisable, the learner makes a commitment to the learning
task. This accentuates the learner’s volition. It prevents denial
or withdrawal of personal responsibility for learning. When we
ask a learner, ‘‘Are you sure you’re going to do it?’’ or ‘‘Can I
feel certain that you’re going to try?’’ and we receive a sincere
affirmative answer, we are helping to amplify the learner’s sense
of self-determination. When people make commitments and follow
through on them, these assertions enhance their effort for learning
(Harkins, White, and Utman, 2000). However, as instructors, we
should use this technique sparingly and with careful forethought.
If it lacks integrity, it becomes a mere manipulation and an insult
to the learner.
• The learner has access to prompt feedback. Prompt feedback
during learning leads to stronger feelings of personal control and
self-efficacy. This is one of the main reasons some online instruc-
tion programs can be so powerful for increasing motivation. The
computer program can give immediate feedback so that the learner
has moment-to-moment awareness of progress in learning. This
constant back-and-forth dialogue between software program and
the learner gives the learner a strong sense of control in the

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learning process. In many ways, the computer tells the learner
it will not respond until the learner responds first. The learner’s
personal control is undeniable.
In contrast, the slower the feedback, the more difficult it is to
know whether a response has had any effect at all. Imagine having
a conversation with someone who waited a minute or longer to
answer a question. You would probably wonder if you were actually
being heard. Anything an instructor can do to ensure the quickest
possible pace of accurate feedback will concretely help emphasize
learner responsibility. See Chapter Eight for a comprehensive
discussion of the appropriate use of feedback.
The purpose of these methods is to emphasize that the majority
of responsibility for learning is under the control of the learner.
As we have learned earlier in this book, personal control is one
of the main ways that our brains know to survive (Zull, 2002).
Neurologically, feeling in control while learning is very motivating.
Strategy 17: Help Learners Effectively Attribute Success to Their
Capability, Effort, and Knowledge
This strategy focuses on the outcome of learning when it is
successful. Success in a broad sense can mean passing a test,
receiving an excellent grade, completing a fine project, satisfactorily
demonstrating a new skill, finding an answer to a problem — any
achievement that turns out well in the eyes of the learner.
Adults frequently think about the consequences of their behav-
ior. If they have an important success, they will often reflect on a
reason or a cause for that success. Some educational psychologists
call these inferred causes attributions and have created a theory
and body of research to demonstrate the significant effects of attri-
butions on human behavior (Weiner, 2000). For instructors, the
important understanding is this: when people have a successful
learning experience, it will probably enhance their self-efficacy and

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their motivation to believe that the major causes for that success
are their capability, effort, and knowledge. Because learners inter-
nally control those causes, they can feel genuine pride. In addition,
capability is stable (it lasts), so learners who see themselves as
capable can feel more confident when similar learning tasks arise.
Even though effort and knowledge are less stable (sometimes it’s
difficult to persevere or remember), it is probably these aspects of
behavior over which learners feel the most control.
Differences in success in many academic subjects are largely due
to differences in experience. Those learners who have had more
experience with a particular learning task — through previous edu-
cation, training, work, or travel — have more knowledge explicitly
and tacitly for the task at hand. They are likely to be more successful
performing the task than learners who are less experienced with the
task (Brophy, 2004; Sternberg, 1997). Examples of tasks that come
to mind from my own experience are writing reports, comparing
ideas, making calculations, and designing lessons. With patience,
persistence (effort), and help (knowledge) from instructors, less suc-
cessful learners gain the learning necessary to achieve in the domain
that the task represents. Having taught research and introductory
statistics, I have seen how acquiring domain-specific knowledge,
such as basic algebra, during the course can cause adult learners
who initially doubted their capability in these subjects to thrive.
Effort attributions are a bit tricky. We want adults to know
that learning may take perseverance and patience, but we don’t
want them to think it is ‘‘all hard work.’’ Such an attribution could
discourage them or make them less confident about their capabili-
ties. Gaining experience to learn something does take tolerance of
mistakes and patient persistence. Knowing that knowledge can be
gained through study and practice and that effort is often a matter
of will reduces learners’ feelings of helplessness. Understanding
that reasonable but not overwhelming effort is necessary provides
realistic hope for learners. For example, an instructor might say,
‘‘Learning how to solve differential equations will take practice

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194 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and time. However, we’ll be able to help each other each step of
the way. We’ll chart our progress to show how this persistence and
support pays off.’’
Knowledge attributions, especially when offered as strategy, can
be very effective for promoting self-efficacy. We want learners to
believe there is a ‘‘way’’ to learn or perform a task. If so, (1) we
can help them help themselves, (2) learning is possible and not
restricted to ability, and (3) reasonable effort makes sense and will
pay off. The best part of this attribution is that it’s true! In fact, a
sensitive use of strategy for planning and carrying out lessons is the
main attribution offered in this book to enhance adult motivation.
Here are some ways to help learners attribute their success to
capability, effort, and knowledge:
• Provide learners with learning tasks suitable to their
capabilities. ‘‘Just within reach’’ is a good rule of thumb.
These kinds of tasks challenge learners’ capabilities and
require knowledge and moderate effort for success.
• Before initiating a learning task, stress the importance
of learners’ persistence and knowledge for success. This
should be a reminder and not a threat: for example,
‘‘Considering the challenge of this task, we’ll have to
practice and become proficient before we apply what
we know.’’ This alerts the learners to their responsibil-
ity and increases the likelihood that they will attribute
their success to effort and knowledge.
• Send verbal and written messages to accentuate learn-
ers’ perceptions of capability, effort, and knowledge in
relation to their success. To reinforce capability, you
might say: ‘‘That’s a talented performance’’ or ‘‘You
seem to be a natural at doing this.’’ To acknowledge
effort: ‘‘Great to see your dedication to this work pay
off’’ or ‘‘I know a lot of perseverance went into this

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project.’’ To highlight knowledge or strategy: ‘‘Your
skills made a real difference’’ or ‘‘Your experience with
outlining is apparent in your writing.’’ The great thing
about such statements is that they can be distributed all
the time.
Certain subjects, such as math, writing, and art, are conven-
tionally understood to be ability-driven when in reality they greatly
benefit from effort and strategy. For example, knowing there are
five interesting ways to begin an essay (with a statistic, quotation,
question, anecdote, or revelation) is a strategy that can make
starting a new paper an enjoyable challenge rather than an oppres-
sive frustration. When we attribute effective learning to attainable
knowledge or strategy, we can build learners’ self-efficacy as well as
increase their personal value for these goals.
Strategy 18: Help Learners Understand That Reasonable Effort and
Knowledge Can Help Them Avoid Failure at Learning Tasks That Suit
Their Capability
The term failure is used here in its broadest sense to encompass
mistakes, errors, lack of completion, poor test results, low grades,
or unskilled performance. Learners who experience an unsuccessful
learning outcome can do little to improve unless they believe
further effort or knowledge can make a difference. To paraphrase
Martin Seligman (1975), intelligence, no matter how high, cannot
manifest itself if the person believes that his own actions will have
no effect. For people who believe their failure is due to lack of
aptitude, more effort will make little difference if they share the
common belief that ability is very difficult to change. The result will
be discouragement. Bad luck, too difficult a task, and poor materials
are all attributions learners might make if they believe that personal
effort will only have a small impact on their future performance.
Sometimes these attributions are correct, but sometimes they are
rationalizations that ease adult learners’ guilt and frustration.

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196 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
If we have honest reasons to believe greater effort will improve
performance, we need to let the learner know. Strategic knowl-
edge can also be extremely encouraging. The idea of ‘‘working
smarter’’ rather than just harder has its appeal. A number of studies
have indicated that when learners see themselves as performing
poorly, strategy attributions may be better than effort attributions
because strategy attributions sustain self-efficacy beliefs longer
(Zimmerman and Kitsantis, 1999). When instructors give learners
an outline or show them how to use the Internet for conducting
research, they can readily see how these strategies make learning
easier as well as more informative.
In general, when adults see their learning as unsuccessful,
attributions of effort and knowledge (or strategy) can give them
hope for improving future performance. The ability to tactfully
reveal these attributions to learners is an immeasurable asset:
for example, ‘‘I realize you might be feeling quite bad about
how this assignment turned out, but my honest estimation of
your performance is that with continued effort you can definitely
improve. Here are the units that seem to need further review.’’
What seemed like defeat can actually lead to a higher level of
creativity and learning.
Strategy 19: Use Relevant Models to Demonstrate Expected Learning
As Albert Bandura (1997) points out, perceptions of self-efficacy
can also be acquired through vicarious learning. Observing similar
adults successfully perform a learning task can be a powerful positive
influence on adults’ performance expectations. A number of years
ago I had a short break with reality and thought that rock climbing
could be fun. I actually took a course entitled Rock 101. The
instructor was at least 15 years younger than I and was quite lean
and muscular. He showed us the proper technique for climbing as
he scrambled up a vertical cliff like a spider on a web. When he
asked for the first volunteer, I found my eyes locked on the ground
below my shoes and I could hear my mind saying, ‘‘No way.’’ But

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my friend David, older than I and a bit portly, did volunteer. And
he made it to the top of the cliff on his first try. I was the second
volunteer. What seemed impossible was the beginning of a 17-year
avocation for which I am still grateful.
Because many adults often find learning unfamiliar as well as
abstract, they honestly wonder if they can do it. Unlike many young
children, most adults are not enthusiastic volunteers for a public
attempt at a new learning task. Any time we can provide examples
of people who are similar to the learners and are successfully per-
forming the expected learning activity, we have taken a significant
step toward enhancing their self-efficacy. This strategy is originally
derived from the research of Albert Bandura: ‘‘Seeing similar oth-
ers perform successfully can raise efficacy expectations in observers
who then judge that they too possess the capabilities to master
comparable activities. . . . Vicariously derived information alters
perceived self-efficacy through ways other than social comparison.
. . . Modeling displays convey information about the nature and
predictability of environmental events. Competent models also
teach observers effective strategies for dealing with challenging or
threatening situations’’ (1982, pp. 126–127).
With adults, modeling is one of the best strategies for enhancing
performance in new learning. Once I starting using this strategy
in my courses, the quality of work and motivation among adult
students rose dramatically. For the research course, I have three
to five former students with the same demographics as my current
students come to the first class session. All the former students were
successful in the course and their reports (graded and with written
comments) are duplicated and available for the current students. As
a panel, the former students discuss with the current students what
their beginning attitudes toward the course were (not always pos-
itive), how they worked and cooperated to learn, what challenges
they faced and surmounted, and so forth. About halfway through
the panel session, I leave so that the entire group can converse
without my involvement or monitoring. This modeling process has

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been so effective in lowering tension, raising learner performance
expectations and self-efficacy beliefs, and enhancing the quality of
student work that I have never abandoned it. For my other courses,
if I do not have former students join us, I have their videos, papers,
and projects available for examination and discussion.
Film and video technology provide wonderful ways to organize
and demonstrate what we want adult learners to achieve. If a
skill, technique, or discussion can be learned and demonstrated,
today’s technology enables us to bring it to our learners and in a
concrete way to raise their expectations for success. Observational
learning can be a very specific and structured process that learners
use to self-regulate their learning. As such, it has been researched
in academics and athletics. These studies offer strong evidence that
people who learn vicariously and adapt the model’s methods to
their own learning are more successful and motivated than people
who rely on solely individual means to learn (Zimmerman and
Kitsantas, 2005).
Strategy 20: Encourage the Learners
Bandura (1997) sees a useful role for persuasion as a positive
influence on self-efficacy. If a trustworthy person can convince us
that we can accomplish something with reasonable effort, we may
believe that person and make a more sincere and persistent attempt
to accomplish the task. Rather than calling such ‘‘convincing’’
persuasion, I prefer the word encouragement and what it implies.
Encouragement is any behavior by which we show the learner
that (1) we respect the learner as a person, no matter what is
learned, (2) we trust and believe in the learner’s effort to learn,
and (3) the learner can learn. An adult who perceives that the
instructor’s respect is contingent only on learning performance may
feel dehumanized. Such a criterion for acceptance by the instructor
denies the adult’s other worthy qualities and makes the person
into a ‘‘thing’’ that learns without feelings or dignity. The primary
foundation for encouragement is our caring about and acceptance

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of the learners. This caring and acceptance creates the context in
which we choose ways to show confidence and personal regard for
the learners’ efforts and achievements. We can encourage learners
in the following ways.
• For each learning task, demonstrating a confident and realistic
expectancy that the learner will learn. Essentially we are conveying
the message, ‘‘You can do it,’’ but without implying that the task is
easy or simple. Whenever we tell learners that something is easy,
we have placed them in a lose-lose dilemma. If they successfully do
the task, they feel no pride because the task was easy in the first
place. If they fail, they feel shame because the task was implied to
be simple.
• Giving recognition for effort. Any time we seriously attempt
to learn something, we are taking a risk. Intentional learning is a
courageous act. No one learns 100 percent of the time. Some risk is
usually involved. We can help by acknowledging learners’ effort and
by respecting their persistence. Any comment that expresses the
idea ‘‘I like the way you try’’ can help learners understand that we
value their effort. When insecure learners know that we honestly
esteem their effort as they are working toward achievement, it
does a great deal to reduce the debilitating effects of performance
anxiety. This acknowledgement of effort need not exclude positive
expectations for performance or achievement.
• Minimizing mistakes while the learner is struggling. Sometimes
learning is like a battle. The critical edge between advancement
and withdrawal or between hope and despair is fragile at best. Our
emphasis on a learner’s mistakes at such a moment will accentuate
whatever pessimistic emotions the learner is already feeling and is
a way to encourage self-defeat.
• Emphasizing learning from mistakes. Help adults see a mistake
as a way to improve future learning. When we help them learn
from a mistake, we directly show them how thinking and trying are
in their best interest and that we have confidence they will learn.

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• Showing faith in the adult’s capacity as a learner. This faith
translates into ‘‘sometimes it may be difficult, but I believe you can
learn, and I will work with you toward that goal.’’ Whenever we
give up on a learner, we also give up on ourselves as instructors.
Realistically, some of our learners may prefer that we give up
because it makes it easier for them to stop trying. By showing
consistent trust in the learners’ capacity to achieve, we maintain
our responsibility as instructors, and we emphasize the learners’
responsibility for continued effort.
• Working with the learner at the beginning of difficult tasks. It’s
amazing what can be lifted and moved with just a little help.
Sometimes learners are momentarily confused or do not know
what to do next. As a form of early scaffolding, our proximity
and minimal assistance can be just enough to help a learner find
the right direction, continue involvement, and gain the initial
confidence to proceed with learning.
• Affirming the process of learning. We need to acknowledge
all parts of the learning endeavor — the information seeking, the
studying, the practicing, the cooperating, and so forth. If we wait
for the final product — the test results, the project, or any other
final goal — we may be too late. Some learners may have given up
along the way. Our delay also may imply that the learners should
wait until the end of learning to feel good about learning. Even
waiting for some minimal progress can sometimes be a mistake.
Learning does not follow a linear progression; there are often wide
spaces, deep holes, dead ends, and regressions. Real encouragement
says the task of learning is itself important and emphasizes the
intrinsic value of the entire process of learning.
Establishing Challenging and Attainable Learning Goals
One of the strongest influences on self-efficacy is how the learner
interprets and sets the goal for learning (Bandura, 1997; Brophy,
2004). This process influences expectancy for success in learning
and has a strong impact on self-efficacy beliefs. It is possible that

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a learner could initially like a subject, feel positively toward the
instructor, believe she is very effective in the subject, but still
not expect to succeed because there is not enough time to study
for the particular training or course unit. For adults, the decision
to invest time in a learning activity may be as important as the
decision to invest money or effort (Lowe, 1996). Sometimes adults
do not understand what is necessary to do well in a course, and
this confusion leads to discouragement. Establishing challenging
and attainable learning goals with adults strongly supports their
self-efficacy and reduces confusion and time concerns.
In my experience, this motivational purpose and the strategies
that accomplish it are essential to adult self-efficacy in training and
courses. Most adults do not use the language of strategies like goal
setting and contracting, but they do, internally and silently, wonder,
‘‘Can I do this?’’ or ‘‘Can I do well in this course?’’ They base their
answers on the syllabus, the course or training requirements, the
criteria for assessment, and prior experience.
From a neurological perspective, when we anticipate a learning
goal we are attempting (1) to reduce uncertainty, (2) to use
prior knowledge from previous mastery experiences to estimate
how to accomplish the goal, and (3) to understand whether the
learning goal represents an accomplishment that we value. If
this information ‘‘fits,’’ the learning goal makes sense and looks
attainable. In that first hour of a new course, when we are looking
at course content and requirements, our brains are looking for the
big picture, for patterns that ideally say, ‘‘From this information, I
know that I can do this and I want to.’’
When expectancy for success is high and adults can commit
to reaching the given learning goals, there is usually an increase
in their performance and motivation (Locke and Latham, 2002).
When their expectancy for success is low, adults tend to protect
their well-being by remaining withdrawn or negative. Instructors
often interpret this as apathy or resistance, but for the learners it is
usually self-protection, more to do with realistic doubt than with

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being irascible. In such instances, clearly demonstrating that the
learning goal is concretely possible to achieve can be a significant
positive influence on learners’ attitudes.
Strategy 21: Make the Criteria of Assessment as Fair and Clear
as Possible
Assessment is thoroughly discussed in Chapter Eight. However,
because learning goals and assessment procedures go hand in hand
in the beginning of most adult education courses and training, we
need to pay some attention to assessment as an attitudinal issue.
In the view of most adults, how they are assessed will play a crucial
role in determining their expectation for success. The outcomes
of assessment in the form of grades and quantitative scores can
powerfully influence their self-efficacy beliefs as well as their access
to careers, further education, and financial aid such as scholarships
and grants. Therefore, assessment criteria are extremely relevant
to developing or inhibiting a positive attitude toward learning.
Whenever we formulate learning goals, we should simultaneously
address assessment procedures and criteria.
If learners understand the criteria and agree to them as fair, they
know which elements of performance are essential. They can more
easily self-assess and self-determine their learning as they proceed
(Angelo and Cross, 1993). This should enhance their motivation,
because they can anticipate the results of their learning and regulate
how they learn (studying, writing, practicing, and so on) with more
certainty. Assessment criteria help them to gauge the relationship
between their effort and the learning outcomes of that effort. This
reflection encourages both strategy and effort attributions that also
support their motivation.
In general, we ought to demonstrate how we or the learners
can assess the quality of their learning: what is being looked for
in the assessment, how it is valued, and how this value will be
indicated. This discussion of evaluation usually entails clarifying
terms, standards, and calibration of measurement, so that all of

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us come to a common understanding and agreement about how
these indicators of learning are applied, scored, and integrated.
As the current cliché in assessment theory goes, ‘‘There are no
more secrets!’’ We want learners from day one to know what
assessment looks like, how it’s done, and by what criteria their
work is appraised. If we want learners to succeed, they should not
have to guess what is expected of them. We will be more explicit
about this with examples in Chapter Eight. A very good text
in terms of illustrations and case studies of assessments, many of
which are applicable to adults, is Classroom Assessment Techniques:
A Handbook for College Teachers (Angelo and Cross, 1993).
The less mystery there is surrounding evaluation criteria, the
more likely learners are to direct their own learning. We are wise
to allow for questions and suggestions about assessment. It is very
beneficial to make available some examples of concrete learning
outcomes — past tests, papers, projects, and media — that you have
already evaluated using the same criteria, thus giving learners
realistic illustrations of how you have applied them. There is a
direct connection between this strategy and Strategy 19 — the use
of relevant models to demonstrate expected learning. Personally
or through exemplars of their past work, former students can
demystify the criteria of assessment and inspire their peers to
relevant accomplishments.
Strategy 22: Help Learners Understand and Plan for the Amount
of Time Needed for Successful Learning
As we have discussed, time is precious to adults. In a study focused
on why adults leave college before completing their degree, lack
of time was the dominant theme (Wlodkowski, Mauldin, and
Campbell, 2002). Adults in this study repeatedly made reference
to competing priorities such as work and family. In general, they
did not have enough time to meet the demands of schoolwork and
to care for their families and perform their jobs. A quote from a
woman in the study amplifies how overwhelming school can be for

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adults: ‘‘I felt like I was going in four directions at the same time
and just finding enough time to drive to school was becoming a
problem’’ (p. 7).
It is often very difficult for adult learners to estimate the
amount of time a given course, assignment, or practice regimen
might take. Some will overestimate. Some will underestimate.
Others will procrastinate, as busy people often do. If a learning
activity will require a significant amount of time, it is best for
learners to know this so that they can plan more effectively, avoid
procrastination, and begin to set proximal goals — goals that make
sense and are achievable in the near future with reasonable effort
(Brophy, 2004).
A proximal goal is the motivational premise behind the expres-
sion ‘‘One day at a time.’’ Often we have to break down or
segment an ultimate goal into subgoals in order to have the
sense of self-efficacy to achieve it. This approach may be as help-
ful for successfully completing a course or a project as it is for
recovery from an addiction. In education, we may not realize it,
but when we outline the steps, responsibilities, and timelines for
completing a project, we are often setting proximal goals — and
significantly increasing our chances for a successful and motivating
accomplishment.
Strategy 23: Use Goal-Setting Methods
This is a more individualized approach to increasing adult learners’
expectancy for success and their self-efficacy. Efficacious learners
persist longer, especially when they encounter difficulties (Bandura,
1997).
The advantage of goal setting is that it brings the future into
the present and allows learners to become aware of what they need
to do to have a successful learning experience. Goal setting not
only prevents learners from unrealistic expectations but also gives
them a chance to plan and self-regulate specifically for obstacles
that prevent success (Zimmerman and Kitsantas, 2005). Using the

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goal-setting model, learners feel more control and can calculate
what to do to avoid wasting time or experiencing self-defeat. Thus,
before even beginning the learning task, they know that the effort
they expend will be worthwhile and that there is a good probability
for success. As postsecondary education continues to evolve into
a greater number of alternative formats, learning more frequently
involves projects and complex tasks (Wlodkowski and Kasworm,
2003). For these forms of performance assessment, goal setting is a
real asset to the instructor and the adult learner.
There are many different methods of goal setting (Locke and
Latham, 2002). The example that follows is an eclectic adaptation
of various models in the literature. If the learner is to have a
good chance of accomplishing the learning goal, the instructor and
learner should consider the following eight criteria together. In
order to take these criteria beyond abstract suggestions, I present
an actual case from my experience to exemplify how each of the
criteria can be applied.
Yolanda Scott-Machado, whose tribal affiliation is Makah, is an
adult learner in a research course. To learn more about a variety
of skills and concepts including research design, validity, reliability,
sampling procedures, statistical analysis, and operationalization,
Yolanda wants to design, conduct, and report a research study
in an area of personal interest. She has questions about the concept
of learning styles, especially as it is applied to American Indians.
She wants to carry out a study to determine if urban Indian high
school students, when compared to urban European American
high school students, score significantly higher in the field-sensitive
mode as measured by Witkin’s Group Embedded Figures Test. This
is an ambitious study for a beginning research student. We launch
the goal-setting process by examining the criterion of achievability.

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206 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
1. Discuss whether the goal is achievable. Can the learner
accomplish the learning goal with the skills and knowledge at
hand? If not, is there any assistance available and how depend-
able is that assistance? (These questions directly address learner
self-efficacy beliefs.)
Yolanda feels confident, and her competent completion of exercises
in class substantiates that confidence. She is also a member of a class
cooperative learning group and values her peers as knowledgeable
resources. We work out a plan that includes a preliminary conference
with peers to garner their support, and a follow-up call to me.
Is there enough time to reach the goal? If not, can more time
be found, or should the goal be divided into smaller goals? (These
questions can help to establish proximal goals.)
This question is a bit tricky. Yolanda will need at least fifty students
in each of her comparison groups. At the minimum, she will need
to involve two high schools. Can she get the necessary permission?
Who will do the testing, and when? The bureaucratic maneuvering
and testing could drag on and complicate the study.
2. Determine how progress will be measured. In what specific
ways will the learner be able to gauge progress toward achievement
of the goal? In many circumstances, this measure can be something
as simple as problems completed, pages read, or exercises finished.
To respect learners’ different ideas of how to accomplish their
long-range goals, you should schedule meetings to talk about
their evolving experience.

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 207
We decide that the most important ‘‘next step’’ is for Yolanda to write
a research proposal and bring it in for a meeting with me. Then she
can plan a schedule for completion of the study.
3. Determine how much the learner desires the goal. Why is the
goal important to the learner? Is the goal something the learner
wants to do or values accomplishing? The learner may have to do
it or perhaps should do it, but is the goal wanted as well? If it
isn’t, then the learner’s satisfaction level and sense of volition will
be less. Goal setting can be used for ‘‘must’’ situations, but it is
best handled if you are clear about it and admit to the learner the
reality of the situation to avoid any sense of manipulation. When
possible, aligning the goal with other, desired outcomes is helpful.
This alignment can increase a learner’s motivation, much as a
railroad engine gains power by hooking up with another moving
engine.
Yolanda wants to do this study. She believes that certain teaching
practices derived from learning styles research may not apply to
some Northwest Indian tribes or urban Indians. Because educators
so often advocate these methods for teaching Indians, Yolanda
believes more caution about their use may be necessary. In addition,
she is considering advanced graduate study in psychology and views
research skills as an important addition to her résumé.
4. Create a consistent way to focus on the goal (optional). Some
learners feel the need for a daily plan that keeps their attention
focused on their goal; the plan helps them avoid forgetting or
procrastinating. For others, such an idea may seem oppressive.
Possible reminders are outlines, chalkboard messages, and daily logs.

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208 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Yolanda finds this option unnecessary.
5. Preplan to consider and remove potential obstacles. The ques-
tion for the learner is, What do you think might interfere with
reaching your goal? Obstacles may range from other obligations to
the lack of a quiet place to study. Planning ahead to reduce these
barriers should decrease their obstructive force and give the learner
a strategy to contend with them.
When I ask Yolanda about potential obstacles, she remarks that her
‘‘plate is pretty full’’ and probably the biggest obstacle would be to
take on something else while she is conducting the research project.
We joke about practicing to say no and eventually decide to leave
this possibility to her best judgment.
6. Identify resources and learning processes with the learner.
Engaging the learner in a dialogue about how she would like to
reach the learning goal can be a very creative process. This is
the time to consider the learner’s various talents, strategies, and
preferred ways of knowing. Will accomplishing the learning goal
involve media, art, writing, or some other possibility? What form
should it take — a story, a research project, or a multimedia pre-
sentation? Identifying outside resources — such as library materials,
local experts, exemplary models, or films — aids and sometimes
inspires the entire learning process.
Yolanda decides to review the literature on learning styles, especially
as it refers to American Indians and other native people. She also
chooses to interview a professor at another university and an Indian

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 209
administrator at a local school district. She decides that her format for
reporting her study will be the conventional research thesis outline.
7. The learner makes a commitment. This is a formal or informal
gesture that indicates the learner’s agreement to accomplish the
learning goal. It can range from a shared copy of notes taken
at the meeting to a learning contract (Strategy 24). This affirms
the learner’s determination and acknowledges the shared resolve
of the learner and the instructor, building trust, motivation, and
cooperation for further work together.
Yolanda composes a contract, which we agree on at our next
meeting. (Her contract appears as an example in the discussion of
Strategy 24.)
8. Arrange a goal review schedule. To maintain progress and
refine learning procedures, the learner and the instructor may need
to stay in contact. Because of the way time varies in its meaning
and feeling to different people, contact can occur at regular or
irregular intervals. The main idea is that trust, support, and the
opportunity for adjusting with new strategies continue.
If progress has deteriorated, reexamine the criteria. Asking, for
example, ‘‘What did you do instead?’’ may help uncover hidden
distractions or competing goals. Or search for informative feedback
(Brophy, 2004) with questions such as, What’s working and why?
and What needs to change (or improve) and how?
We have three meetings at irregular intervals prior to Yolanda’s
completion of an excellent study. To find a large enough sam-
ple for her research, she eventually involves five high schools. Her

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210 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
research indicates that urban Indian high school students are more
field-independent than European American high school students,
suggesting the possibility that research conducted on American
Indian learning styles may be misleading and is far from conclusive
across tribes and regions.
Strategy 24: Use Learning Contracts
Although they can be used independently, learning contracts are
an excellent complement to goal setting. Adult educators consider
them to be an effective means for fostering self-direction, volition,
improvement of learning performance, and expectancy for success
among adult learners (Berger, Caffarella, and O’Donnell, 2004).
Learning contracts can accommodate individual and cultural dif-
ferences in experience, perspective, and capabilities (Lemieux,
2001; Tsang, Paterson, and Packer, 2002). They are effective for
assisting adults in understanding their learning interests, planning
learning activities, identifying relevant resources, and becoming
skilled at self-assessment (Brookfield, 1986). The ability to write
contracts is a learned skill, and teachers may have to spend
considerable time helping learners focus on realistic as well as
manageable activities. In my experience as a teacher, I have found
Stephen Brookfield’s observation to be instructive: ‘‘Particularly in
institutions where other departments and program areas conform
to a more traditional mode, learners will often find it unsettling,
inconvenient, and annoying to be asked to work as self-directed
learning partners in some kind of negotiated learning project.
Notwithstanding the fact that learners may ultimately express
satisfaction with this experience, initially, at least, there may be
substantial resistance. It is crucial, then, that learners be eased
into this mode . . . and faculty must make explicit from the outset
the rationale behind the adoption of these techniques’’ (1986, pp.
82–83).

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 211
Learning contracts tailor the learning process to the individual
and provide maximum flexibility for content, pace, process, and
outcome. They usually detail in writing what will be learned, how
the learning will be accomplished, the period of time involved, and
the evidence and criteria to be used in assessing the learning. The
learner can construct all, most, or part of the contract depending
on her and the instructor’s knowledge of the subject matter, the
resources available, the restrictions of the program, and so on. For
example, what is learned (the objective) may not be negotiable,
but how it is learned may be wide open to individual discretion.
The contract document usually consists of the categories shown
here (Berger, Caffarella, and O’Donnell, 2004):
1. Learning goal or objective. (What are you going to learn?)
For further elaboration, see Strategy 6 in Chapter Five.
2. Choice of resources, strategies, and activities for learning.
(How are you going to learn it?)
3. Target date or timeline for completion.
4. Evidence of accomplishment. (How are you going to demon-
strate your learning?)
5. Evaluation criteria and validation of learning. (What criteria
will be used to evaluate the learning, and how and by whom
will the evidence of learning be evaluated and confirmed?)
The following are two examples of learning contracts. The first
covers a specific skill to be accomplished in a short period of time
in an undergraduate communication skills course. The second is
the contract submitted by Yolanda Scott-Machado.
Sample Contract: Paraphrasing Skills
Learning goal. To apply and learn paraphrasing skills for actual
communication situations.

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212 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Learning resources and activities. View videotapes of
paraphrasing scenarios. One hour of role playing paraphrasing
situations with peers.
Timeline. One week (dates specified).
Evidence of accomplishment. Participate in paraphrasing
exercises under instructor’s supervision and monitoring.
Evaluation criteria and validation of learning. Contribute appro-
priate paraphrasing responses to 80 percent of the commu-
nications from my peers. Eighty percent of my responses
reflect the meaning of these communications as assessed by
my instructor.
Sample Contract: Research Project of Yolanda Scott-Machado
Learning goal. To conduct a research study to examine if
urban Indian high school students when compared to urban
European American high school students have a signifi-
cant perceptual difference as measured by Witkin’s Group
Embedded Figures Test.
Learning resources and activities. Conduct a review of the lit-
erature on learning styles, especially as this concept relates
to American Indians. Interview a professor at the University
of Washington who specializes in the relation of learning
styles to people of color. Also, interview a local American
Indian school administrator who has responsibility for a num-
ber of projects involving American Indian students. Carry
out the research while remaining in communication with my
cooperative learning group and our teacher.
Timeline. Complete study, analyze data, and submit first draft
of the research report two weeks before the end of the semester
to allow for revisions.
Evidence of accomplishment. Final draft of research study con-
ducted according to the design agreed upon with my teacher.

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 213
Evaluation criteria and validation of learning. A self-evaluation
indicating what I learned and why it was important to me.
Validation by the teacher regarding the quality of my research
design and its analysis; also his assessment of the cogency of
my discussion and conclusion as drawn from the research
evidence. For this validation, he will compare the elements
and structure of my research report to the studies offered as
excellent models of research on the first day of our course.
Nancy Berger, Rosemary Caffarella, and Judith O’Donnell
(2004) have some helpful ideas about the use of learning con-
tracts with learners who are inexperienced or unfamiliar with
them.
• Enlist the aid of learners more familiar with designing
learning contracts to help those beginning this
process.
• Give learners with less experience more time to develop
their plans.
• Allow the less-experienced learners to develop a
mini-learning plan first and then complete a more
thorough one.
• Give learners clear guidelines for developing contracts.
Supply a number of diverse samples to encourage a
variety of learning processes and outcomes.
• Expect that the evaluation criteria and validation of learn-
ing is likely to be the most challenging aspect of con-
structing the learning contract. Adult learners do not
usually have much practice in creating criteria to eval-
uate their own work and will need your support and
coaching.

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214 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
In general, the use of learning contracts is, like good writing,
often a process of revision and refinement. Using collaborative
groups, remaining open to feedback from learners about their
contracts, and staying flexible and ready to make reasonable adjust-
ments are ways to ensure their effective use.
Creating Relevant Learning Experiences
The last section of this chapter focuses on relevance as a means to
foster a positive attitude toward learning. The strategies described
here could have been placed along with those aligned with atti-
tude toward the subject (Strategies 12 through 15). However, the
following strategies originate more from literature and research
related to a sociocultural perspective, the understanding that cul-
ture and a social world mediate learning (Nasir and Hand, 2006).
Each strategy creates learning activities that respect the adult
learner’s perspective and unique capabilities. Also embedded in
these strategies is a connection between what is learned and the
usefulness of that learning by the learner in the real world (Gardner,
2006).
As discussed in Chapter Four, for adults to see learning as truly
relevant it has to be connected to who they are, what they care
about, and how they perceive and know. If I were to base this
book only on personal experience, I would say the quickest path
to boredom and resistance among adults is an irrelevant lesson.
Conversely, the fastest avenue to their interest and involvement
is a relevant lesson. Due to our instinct for survival, evolved over
millennia, our brains just do not tolerate what does not seem to
matter to us (Ahissar and others, 1992). As soon as we get a blip
on our mental radar of something that strikes us as aimless or
senseless or insignificant, we are biopsychologically on our way out.
Gone. Those eyeballs glazing over are the real thing. The following
strategies give us a set of practices to relevantly respond to the
learning preferences and differences among diverse adults.

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 215
Strategy 25: Use the Entry Points Suggested by Multiple Intelligences
Theory as Ways of Learning about a Topic or Concept
When we offer adults only a single way of knowing a concept or
problem, they are forced to understand it in a most limited and
rigid fashion. By encouraging learners to develop multiple ways to
engage a subject and having them relate these representations to
one another, we can move away from the tyranny of the ‘‘correct
answer’’ so often dominant in education and arrive at a fuller
understanding of our world. Most knowledgeable and innovative
practitioners of any discipline are characterized precisely by their
capacity to access critical concepts through a variety of routes and
apply them to a diversity of situations. In addition, this overall
approach makes us colearners with our students and more likely to
take their views and ideas seriously; all of us can thus develop a
more comprehensive understanding.
Howard Gardner (1993) and teacher/researchers in the Adult
Multiple Intelligences Study (Viens and Kallenbach, 2004) propose
that most concepts and topics can be approached through a variety
of ‘‘entry points’’ (engagement activities) that, roughly speaking,
map onto the multiple intelligences (listed in Table 2.1) and allow
all learners relevant access. Gardner (1993) advocates thinking
of any topic as a room with at least five doors or entry points.
Awareness of these entry points can help us introduce a topic with
materials, formats, and activities that accommodate the wide range
of cultural backgrounds and profiles of intelligences found among
a group of diverse adults.
Let us look at these five entry points one by one, with one
example from the natural sciences (photosynthesis) and one from
the social sciences (democracy) to show how each entry point
might be used in approaching these concepts.
1. Using the narrational entry point, we present a story or
narrative account about the concept. In the case of photosynthesis,
we might describe with appropriate vocabulary this process as

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216 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
it occurs in several plants or trees living in our environment,
including any differences. In the case of democracy, we could
trace its beginnings in ancient history and make comparisons
with the early development of constitutional government in a
selected nation.
2. Using the logical-quantitative entry point, we approach the
concept with numerical considerations or deductive and inductive
reasoning processes. We could approach photosynthesis by creating
a timeline of the steps of photosynthesis and a chemical analysis of
the process. In the case of democracy, we could create a timeline of
presidential mandates, congressional bills, constitutional amend-
ments, and Supreme Court decisions that broadened democratic
principles among people in the United States. Or we could analyze
the arguments used for and against democracy by relevant political
leaders throughout history.
3. The foundational entry point explores the philosophical and
terminological facets of a concept. This approach is appropriate for
people who like to pose fundamental questions — of the sort that
we often associate with young children and with philosophers. A
foundational corridor to photosynthesis might be the comparison of
a transformative experience of our own or of a relevant individual,
family, or institution with the process of photosynthesis, assigning
parallel roles as they fit (for example, source of energy, catalyst,
and so on). A foundational means of access to democracy could
be a discussion of the root meaning of the word, the relationship
of democracy to other forms of decision making and government,
and the reasons one might prefer or not prefer a democratic rather
than a socialist political philosophy.
4. Using the esthetic entry point, we emphasize sensory or sur-
face features to appeal to learners who favor an artistic stance toward
life. In the case of photosynthesis we could look for visual, musical,
or literary transformations that imitate or parallel photosynthesis
and represent them in artistic formats such as painting, dance,

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 217
mime, video, cartooning, or a dramatic sketch. With reference
to democracy, we could experience and consider the variations
of artistic performance that are characterized by more individual
control as opposed to more collaborative control: an orchestra
as compared to a string quartet, ballet compared to experimental
modern dance, a stage play compared to improvisational acting,
and so on.
5. The last entry point is the experiential approach. Some peo-
ple learn best with a hands-on approach, dealing directly with the
materials that embody or convey the concept. In studying photo-
synthesis, such individuals might carry out a series of experiments
involving photosynthesis. Learners dealing with democracy might
consider a relevant news issue and ‘‘enact’’ a democratic procedure,
whether a legislative, judicial, or executive process. Then they
could enact another approach to the same issue, from a less demo-
cratic country, and compare their experience of the two diverse
processes.
If learning may be deeper and more fully understood through
several entry points, we can encourage learners to use a combination
of engaging activities for the same concept. This approach is based
on the understanding that most intelligences combine to process
a domain of learning such as science (Gardner, 2006). Instructors
can make available several entry points at the beginning or over
time. For example, we might request learners to use the narrational,
logical-quantitative, and experiential entry points to learn about
photosynthesis. Or we might suggest using two out of three of these
entry points. In this way, we also improve the chances that diverse
learners with different ways of knowing and differing intelligence
profiles can find relevant and engaging ways of learning. Learners
may also suggest entry points of their own design. The use of
technology, such as films, the Internet, and interactive software,
can further enhance these efforts. Exhibit 6.1 presents another
example of a concept with five entry points.

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218 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Exhibit 6.1 Learning Activities Based on the Five Entry
Points from Multiple Intelligences Theory
Concept: All living things are systemically related.
Related principle: All human behaviors affect the earth.
Entry Point Example
Narrational Report incidents that show the effects of human behavior
on distant places. Identify behaviors according to whether
they harm or benefit the planet.
Logical-
quantitative
Choose a harmful but inevitable human systemic
influence, such as carbon emissions. After finding data
that quantify the effects from this systemic influence,
search for cultural, economic, and political factors that
inhibit or exacerbate this influence.
Foundational Reflect on your influence on the local environment.
Consider which behaviors improve the environment and
which pollute it. Examine the beliefs and values that
appear critical to each set of behaviors. Create a personal
environmental philosophy.
Esthetic Choose from the following options: create a sketch, a
photo journal, a video, a song, or a poem to depict
systemic relationships in one’s own environment.
Experiential Create mini-environments in a yard or terrarium.
Experiment with such influences as temperature, water,
and pollutants. Observe and report effects on various life
forms.
For over a decade, in most of the courses I have taught, I
have used these five entry points of multiple intelligences the-
ory as an instructional strategy. Because this approach provides
relevant learning activities that consistently receive positive and
creative responses from learners, I include it in the syllabus for
particular courses such as Adult Development and Learning. I also
use multiple intelligences theory for creating ‘‘exit points,’’ what
students can choose to do to demonstrate their learning (Viens and

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 219
Kallenbach, 2004). Exhibit 6.2 presents the possible exit points
for my Adult Development and Learning course. Students are
provided with models for each exit point.
Exhibit 6.2 Five Exit Points Based on Multiple
Intelligences Theory to Demonstrate Learning for an Adult
Development and Learning Course
Exit Point Example
Narrational Keep a record in writing — a journal — of your ideas,
questions, and reflections related to the texts, readings,
and classes for this course. After completing the reading
requirements and the last class, submit your journal and a
summary of the key questions, themes, discoveries, and
connections and patterns that you became aware of
through this process.
Logical-
quantitative
Select a major theory of adult learning and a major theory
of adult development. Compose a critique of each as it
applies to your own work or professional setting. Indicate
and exemplify the stated or unstated assumptions, biases,
logical inconsistencies, and strengths of argument.
Foundational Choose yourself, an individual who would reveal an
in-depth personal history to you, or a relevant available
biography. Plot the person’s life according to key
transformational events and periods. Explain the revealed
pattern according to at least two adult developmental
theories and their related principles.
Esthetic Using various media (sketches, video, photos, and so
forth), create a collage or a mixed media project that
illustrates your personal theory of adult development and
learning.
Experiential Create a comprehensive instructional design to teach a
complex concept or skill to a group of adult learners
similar to those you either work with or envision teaching
or training. Include strategies for transfer to the workplace
in your overall design. Provide a summative rationale
describing the important adult learning concepts and
theories that have contributed to your design.

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220 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Although multiple intelligences theory has been used in adult
education, its basic tenets have not been systematically validated
(Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner, 2006). Gardner respects
this critique and invites further scientific investigation but of
the sort that is intelligence-fair and contextualized in real life
settings (Gardner and Moran, 2006). My experience with this
theory is that it generally provides a more effective instructional
approach than any other theory of learning styles for engaging
culturally different adult learners. In terms of relevance, it is the
most unified and generative strategy I know for responding to both
their individual preferences for learning and their unique ways of
processing information.
Strategy 26: Make the Learning Activity an Irresistible Invitation
to Learn
The first time people experience anything new or in a different
setting, they form an impression that will have a lasting impact
(Scott, 1969). One of the best things we as instructors can do
to secure a positive adult attitude from the very beginning is to
make the first learning experience for a new instructional unit or
workshop an irresistible invitation to learn. This does not happen
because of what we say but because of how it feels to the learners
as they do it. We can achieve such an effect when the learning
activity meets the following five criteria.
1. Safe. There is little risk of the learners suffering any form
of personal embarrassment from lack of knowledge, personal
self-disclosure, or a hostile or arrogant social environment.
2. Successful. There is some form of acknowledgment, conse-
quence, or product that shows that the learners are effective
or, at the very least, that their effort is a worthwhile invest-
ment that is connected to making progress.
3. Interesting. The learning activity has some parts that are
novel, engaging, challenging, or stimulating.

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 221
4. Personally endorsed. Learners are encouraged to make choices
that significantly affect the learning experience (for example,
what they share, how they learn, what they learn, when
they learn, with whom they learn, where they learn, or
how they are assessed), basing those choices on their values,
needs, concerns, or feelings. At the very least, learners have
an opportunity to voice their perspectives and they clearly
value their compliance.
5. Personally relevant. The instructor uses learners’ concerns,
interests, or prior experiences to create elements of the
learning activity or develops the activity in concert with the
learners. At the very least, a resource-rich learning environ-
ment is available to encourage learners’ selections based on
personal interest (for example, the library, the Internet, or a
community setting).
I vividly remember experiencing these five criteria (for which
the acronym is SSIPP) in a workshop on adapting to the culture
of another country. The initial learning activity focused on learn-
ing important expressions in the language of that country. The
instructor began by asking the participants which expressions they
most wanted to learn and recorded them on a flip chart (‘‘Hello,’’
‘‘Good-bye,’’ ‘‘Where is the bathroom?’’ ‘‘How much does this
cost?’’ and the like). The instructor thus met the two criteria of
personally endorsed and personally relevant. After she taught us the
expressions, she asked us to pick a partner and practice until we felt
proficient. We could then move on to another partner for further
practice. The instructor maintained safety by keeping the groups
small (dyads). Success was immediate, and it was interesting (and fun)
to practice with two different people. From that moment forward,
participants used these expressions during breaks and free time.
I have found this strategy so useful that I have made it a mainstay
in my lesson planning. Every learning activity I create is assessed
according to these five criteria. When an activity does not go well,

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222 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
I use the criteria to critique, refine, and improve the experience.
A prototypical example of this strategy is brainstorming a relevant
topic, because such brainstorming is
Safe All answers are initially acceptable.
Successful A list is created and acknowledged.
Interesting Creative answers usually occur.
Personally endorsed Answers are voluntary and self-chosen.
Personally relevant The topic was selected because it is
relevant.
Strategy 27: Use the K-W-L Strategy to Introduce New Topics
and Concepts
Originated by Donna Ogle (1986), the K-W-L strategy is an elegant
way to construct meaning for a new topic or concept based on the
prior knowledge of adult learners. With three questions — What
do I already know? What do I want to know? and What have I
learned? — it wonderfully engages their anticipation and curiosity.
Adults have a storehouse of experiences that can give extraordinary
meaning to novel ideas. The K-W-L strategy offers a simple and
direct way to creatively probe their vast reservoir of knowledge.
During the first phase of the strategy, the learners identify what
they know about the topic. Whether the topic is the gross domestic
product, phobias, or acid rain, this is a nonthreatening way to list
some of the unique and varied ways adults understand the topic. It
allows for multiple perspectives and numerous historical contexts.
Just think of what the possibilities might be for a diverse group
of adults initiating a unit on immigration law. The discussion of
what adults know about a topic can involve drawing, storytelling,
critical incidents, and predictions.
In the second phase, the learners suggest what they want to
know about the topic. This information may be listed as ques-
tions or subtopics for exploration and research. For example, if the
topic were immigration law, questions might include these: Where

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Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning 223
do most immigrants come from today? Ten years ago? Fifty years
ago? What was the last significant immigration law enacted by
Congress? Is there evidence that immigrants deny work opportu-
nities to established citizens of the United States? What are some
noteworthy contributions of recent immigrants? These questions
can serve as ideas for using the five entry points of multiple intelli-
gences theory discussed in Strategy 25. For example, a narrational
entry point could be used to look at immigration history, and
an experiential and logical-quantitative entry point could be used
to conduct research on recent immigration patterns. The K-W-L
strategy also meets the five criteria for irresistible learning.
In the last phase, the learners identify what they have learned,
which may be the answers to their questions, important related
information, and new information that counters, confirms, or
deepens their prior knowledge.
In this chapter, we have looked at numerous ways to build more
positive attitudes toward learning. Which strategies you select will
be based on your sensitive awareness of yourself, the adults learning
with you, and the learning situation. When your subject is relevant
and adults want to learn what is before them, you have an excellent
beginning for a successful learning experience. For such a fortunate
motivational environment, it is important for the learners’ attitudes
to be positive — toward you, the subject, their own self-efficacy,
and the specific learning goal. In such a situation, you have at
the outset a strong motivational state to support instruction and
learning. Selecting and carrying out the strategies from this chapter
early in your instructional design can benefit the entire learning
community.

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7
Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities
Against boredom even the gods themselves struggle
in vain.
Friedrich Nietzsche
For centuries, boredom has been a nemesis to the quality oflife. Rare is the individual who seems able to continuously
escape its oppressive grasp. Work and learning appear to be two
areas where people are especially vulnerable to the spontaneous
emergence of this vague but powerful emotion. Unlike so many
other predicaments of human existence, boredom threatens us not
so much with something terrible that may happen but with the
realization that nothing may happen.
At first glance, boredom seems simple to define and easy to
explain. It is often considered to be an individual’s emotional
response to an environment that is perceived to be monotonous
(Davies, Shackleton, and Parasuraman, 1983). However, when
adults are interviewed, the reasons they give for feelings of boredom
include constraint, meaninglessness, lack of interest and challenge,
repetitiveness, and the never-ending nature of a task or job.
From a neuroscientific perspective, when we are bored, envi-
ronmental complexity is lacking (Jensen, 2006). There is no need
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226 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for thoughtful decision making to guide us through our physical
or social environment. Typically, we are not stimulated and the
long-term effect is a decrease in dendritic growth and connectivity.
In one study, researchers found that among young adult college stu-
dents, the less the complexity in their lives, the less the complexity
in their brains (Jacobs, Schall, and Scheibel, 1993). Although,
we have to be careful about overgeneralization from one study,
it does support the numerous animal studies that show that the
negative effect from boredom on dendritic growth is greater than
the positive effect from enrichment (Diamond and Hopson, 1998).
To avoid boredom, we need variety, meaningful challenge, and a
certain amount of unpredictability.
Although conventional wisdom would support the idea that
boredom directly interferes with learning and performance, the
research is far from conclusive on this issue (Renninger, Hidi, and
Krapp, 1992). Alertness is reduced, but performance and memory
do not appear to readily diminish even in prolonged work situations.
Through means of personal will and self-regulation, people seem
amazingly capable of continued effort to pay attention when they
want to (Tobias, 1994). This is an important insight because the
ideas, research, and methods to enhance attention have been more
informative for teaching than the exploration of means to reduce
boredom has been. The research on gaining, holding, and focusing
attention supports the notion that learning is frequently, partly or
wholly, work. Intrinsic motivation makes this effort worthwhile,
but, more often than not, it does not make arduous persistence
unnecessary. However, it can transform tedious perseverance into
something more compelling, passionate, and flowing. Let’s begin
to understand how with a closer look at attention.
Attention is the ‘‘preferential processing of sensory infor-
mation’’ from the visual, auditory, and other forms of sensory
information coming into the brain (Bear, Connors, and Par-
adiso, 2007, p. 644). When we ‘‘pay attention’’ to something, we
simultaneously filter out other information, balance multiple

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perceptions, and attach emotional significance to perceptions that
warrant it.
Imagine yourself driving along a freeway in busy traffic while
having a conversation with a friend sitting next to you in the
front seat. In the moment you are gauging the speed of the cars
in your lane and the next, checking for brake lights ahead, watch-
ing road signs for your exit, noticing the music on your sound
system, hearing your friend’s description of why she’s leaving her
job, making responsive comments and gestures, and taking note
of hunger pangs that are beginning to emerge from your stomach.
When suddenly you hear screeching brakes, crushing metal, and an
enormous crashing sound just behind you, and you look to see. . . .
This scenario depicts the exquisite neurological juggling act
that attention is. In milliseconds we are assigning emotional weight
to our level of arousal, our motor orientation, novelty in the
environment, our sensations and sensory information, and our
memories as well as thoughts (Ratey, 2001). Remarkably, this is
an involuntary process. We do not need to think before we focus
on an approaching Doberman or take another sip of our flavorful
latte.
To say the least, neurophysiologically, the attention system is
complex. It starts in the arousal center in the brainstem, con-
nects up through the limbic system, and extends into the cortex,
eventually connecting with the frontal and parietal lobes. In A
User’s Guide to the Brain, John Ratey (2001) offers a literate and
comprehensive explanation of how attention occurs in the brain
and its related systems.
For the sake of instruction, I like to discuss attention in a way
that separates it from interest, and involvement. In this respect,
the question is, What do we do to gain learner attention? From this
perspective we are talking about the earlier period of a lesson or
activity, those beginning moments when we want learners to focus
on what is important and to attend in the direction most beneficial
to their learning. If we see attention as the first step in making

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228 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
meaning, we can select strategies that will specifically increase the
probability that learners will initially engage what is pertinent to
their learning. We will return to this motivational purpose later
in this chapter. Now we turn to understanding how attention
becomes interest, the stronger bridge to meaning in learning.
Engagement, Interest, and Meaning
When we first pay attention to something, it is because its variation,
novelty, or relevance has emotional weight or meaning. There is a
connection to prior knowledge and emotional experience. Biologi-
cally, the information passes through the limbic system to link with
existing neural networks. There it activates the executive functions
of the parietal and frontal lobes to be interpreted for possible mean-
ing based on previous knowledge. Psychologically, this continuing
attention or engagement involves more complex thinking to sift
through the information and to form more connections to lead to
new knowledge or learning.
Focused attention becomes engagement when it is persistent
and joins with emotion (primarily interest) as well as metacogni-
tive processes, such as learning strategies, to involve the person
in learning. This combination of behavioral (persistence), emo-
tional (interest), and cognitive (strategy) processing makes engaged
learning an effective means to learning that is more likely to be
retained (Woolfolk, 2007). Often there is a social/cultural com-
ponent because we learn with instructors as well as peers. In a
broader sense, socially and academically engaged adult learners are
more likely to be successful in higher education (National Survey
of Student Engagement, 2007).
Without engagement, learning does not have a chance to have
meaning. We need the concentration and time to construct mean-
ing from what we are learning. From my experience, among the
components necessary for continuing engagement, interest seems
to be the most powerful influence on adult learner engagement.

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Interest has numerous definitions but for sake of pragmatism and
to hold your interest, I will only discuss three. The first definition is
as a basic emotion such as happiness or fear (Silvia, 2001). Due to
our curiosity, we feel interested when we find things that are unique
or novel or possess elements of unpredictability or surprise. From a
walk in the forest to reading a book to hearing a song for the first
time, we feel interest because we encounter something different
or new. The emotion of interest is always a potential within us,
intrinsically motivating and the basis for more enduring forms of
interest such as situational interest and individual interest.
Situational Interest
The emotion of interest initiates the development of situational
interest, a state of interest extending in time and involving focused
attention and persistence, which are environmentally sustained by
qualities such as surprising information and relevance (Hidi and
Renninger, 2006). Unless maintained, situational interest usually
has some duration but does not last over time. For example, I am
browsing in a bookstore and see a book that has a bright purple
cover. It’s turned face down, so I can’t read the title. I flip it over
and in bold black lettering I read The Many Myths of a Healthy
Lifestyle: Bunk, Bull, and Poppycock for the Masses. Now, I am
curious. It wasn’t what I expected. I am feeling the emotion of
interest. I open the book and browse through chapters with titles
like ‘‘Godforsaken Gyms and Other Rotting Places,’’ ‘‘Accidents
Waiting to Happen: Trail Bikes, Skis, and Snowshoes,’’ and ‘‘The
Hiker from Hell and His Misbegotten Friends.’’ Now my emotion
of interest is becoming situational interest. I’ve been browsing
through the book for about twenty minutes. I don’t even notice the
people around me. My attention is focused and sustained. Some of
the excerpts I read have me laughing. The book is a satire with
enough evident humor that I purchase it. Will I ever read it? Maybe
not. About one out of every five books I buy because of situational
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230 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Often, it is said that children are more curious than adults. I
think children are more obviously curious than adults. Every day as
adults, we are challenged to bring order out of chaos and meaning
from paradox. What is puzzling, bizarre, and surprising compels our
interest as much through intrigue as through relevance. The same
wonder that makes a beach a miracle of small astonishments for a
child makes an adult beguiled by a gifted magician. Our beguilement
is anchored in our need to remain alive. We anticipate in order to
survive, whether to take a step or to enter traffic on a high-speed
freeway. We make countless predictions as we live our lives. When
the reality turns out to be something unexpected, our reactions can
range from a reflexive startle to an enduring fascination. The better
we know our learners and their cultural perspectives, the more we
can do to stimulate their situational interest and then to attract
their individual interest.
Individual Interest
A situational interest can become an individual interest when a per-
son sustains involvement and acquires positive feelings, knowledge,
and value for the particular content. An individual interest (also
known as a personal interest) is ‘‘an enduring disposition to engage
with particular content or activities whenever opportunities arise’’
(Brophy, 2004, p. 221).
Let’s take the example of the satirical book I purchased. A
few weeks later, for a change of pace, I pull it off the shelf and
begin to read it. At this point, situational interest is motivating
me. I’m looking for a few laughs and not much else. But as I read
it, I find myself becoming more and more interested in it as a
satire. I remember being fascinated by Gulliver’s Travels as a college
student and later by the caustic wit and irony of James Baldwin’s
work. I appreciate the author’s cleverness and metaphors for some
follies of people in pursuit of health. A situational interest (humor)
contributes to and melds with my knowledge and value for satire.
Through reading this book, I have developed an individual interest.

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At my next visit to the bookstore, I ask what other good modern
satires the manager might recommend. My individual interest
continues and may bring me substantial new learning.
Well-developed individual interest is a trait that is relatively
stable and enduring (Hidi and Renninger, 2006). We may have
an individual interest in the arts, sciences, or sports that has been
constant for many years. This kind of personal interest has for
decades been used to match adults to educational and occupational
activities (Campbell and Hansen, 1981). Individual interest can
also occur because of the importance or personal significance
of a topic. This latter meaning has more of a cultural bent to
it and encompasses the learner’s values and concerns. Personal
significance is often a bridge to deeper meaning. A relevant problem
usually draws out our concerns and experiences. For example, if
an instructor asks, ‘‘Why is psychology important?’’ we might
be situationally interested in an abstract sort of way. But if the
instructor asks, ‘‘How has psychology helped or hindered people
in your families?’’ the appeal is to an individual interest of much
deeper meaning.
Research indicates that well-developed individual interests as a
context for learning have many benefits for the learner:
• Greater resourcefulness while learning (Renninger and
Shumar, 2002)
• Longer pursuit of creative endeavors (Izard and Acker-
man, 2000)
• Self-regulation while learning (Sansone and Smith,
2000)
• Perseverance to work in the face of frustration (Prenzel,
1992)
Individual interests evolve out of our experience and socializa-
tion. Our families, our friends, our culture, and our opportunities

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232 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
contribute to these interests. Although largely about ways to more
effectively teach children from working-class Mexican American
families, Luis Moll’s funds of knowledge research identifies creative
ways to use culture and family as rich resources for adult individual
interests (Moll and others, 1992). Funds of knowledge is valued
information from the work, home, and spiritual life of family and
community members that can be a resource for individual interests.
Moll and his colleagues used interviews and home visits to access
this knowledge. Here are examples of questions to find out about
these funds of knowledge (Ginsberg, 2007):
• Are there topics related to your courses that you tend to
talk about when you are with your family or friends? If
so, what are they?
• What is important in your culture or family that you
would like your instructors to know about?
• How does your life in your community differ from your
life in college? (Ask follow-up questions to probe those
differences.)
• What are some of the skills or talents in your home or
community that you value? That you are proud of?
• What gives your family strength? Your community?
• What interesting or important topics do you talk about
at home that you seldom talk about in your courses?
Finding Flow: Enhancing Meaning through Engagement and
Challenge
As we have discussed, interest is a natural conduit to engagement.
When we find something we value or perceive as appealing,
we want to learn about it. We are more likely in such cases to be
mentally, emotionally, and physically involved. And engagement is
the portal for meaning. Through such total interaction we increase

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the complexity of an experience, deepening understanding and
furthering our values or purposes through learning. All of this can
occur in moments, hours, or days.
A major influence motivating this learning is feeling chal-
lenged. Challenge is an opportunity for engagement that offers the
possibilities of deeper understanding, more refined thinking, more
complex perceptions, better performance, higher goal attainment,
new knowledge, and improved skills. Challenge occurs when we have
to apply current knowledge or skills to situations that require extension
or development of them. Biologically, these situations require prior
knowledge and provide conditions for the assembly of new neu-
ral networks and the alteration of synaptic structures and their
connections (Bear, Connors, and Paradiso, 2007).
Posing problems, conducting authentic research, and using case
study methods are strategies that can engage and challenge learners
with culturally relevant and therefore interesting content. For these
kinds of activities, learners have to clarify distinctions, construct
explanations, and create complex understandings. Often a dialogue
from multiple perspectives among learners and instructors can
result in a new collective understanding. When these processes
are relevant, learners cannot help but heighten their own meaning
and be involved. They are searching, evaluating, constructing,
creating, and organizing the learning material into new or better
ideas, memories, skills, understandings, solutions, or decisions.
They may create a product or reach a goal. This may be a novel
insight they have applied, a new skill learned, a problem solved,
or a case completed. In the opinion of many scholars, engaging
and challenging learning activities are among the best and most
productive ways to learn (Lambert and McCombs, 1998; Donovan,
Bransford, and Pellegrino, 1999; Mezirow, 2000; Keeton, Sheckley,
and Griggs, 2002; Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2003).
Engagement ranges from just barely paying attention with
low-cognitive and emotional involvement (listening to an impor-
tant but boring lecture — you have to shift in your seat to stay

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234 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
alert and you need to remind yourself to pay attention and take
notes) to deep and total absorption (interviewing a respected and
controversial leader in a profession you aspire to — time has flown
by and you’ve been so focused on her responses that you might
have forgotten to ask the questions you needed to). Meaning and
learning will vary in such situations as well. Jeanne Nakamura
and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi define vital engagement as ‘‘charac-
terized both by experiences of flow (enjoyed absorption) and by
meaning (subjective significance)’’ (2003, p. 87). Vital engage-
ment is a valued relationship to learning that stretches a person’s
capacities and is absorbing over time.
I remember when I first studied boredom. It took me about two
weeks to read the initial research, which was done in the Navy
during World War II. The studies described how researchers tried
to find ways to keep sailors alert as they watched sonar screens
for hours; a change on the screen might indicate an approaching
submarine. I was fascinated and found to my surprise that boredom
was a very interesting topic with insights for maintaining one’s
attention. Was I vitally engaged? Absolutely. We will further
discuss the concept of flow and vital engagement later in this
chapter.
The strategies that follow are organized according to the degree
of engagement they tend to enhance and therefore the meaning
and learning likely to occur. We begin with strategies for times
when engagement may be waning, strategies we can use to gain
and maintain adult learner attention.
How to Maintain Learners’ Attention
‘‘Pay attention or you won’t learn anything!’’ The words have an
unsettling effect. They conjure up disquieting, distant images of
former teachers, harsh faces, and shrill voices. But whether we
liked it or not, they were right. No attention, no engagement, no
learning. As instructors we know this dictum only too well. But

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demanding attention from adults is one of the least effective ways
to get it. In fact, pressuring people to watch or listen to us will
probably only diminish their willingness to cooperate.
When we want to maintain learners’ attention, we are looking
for ways to evoke their alertness and to help them engage in the
learning activity. Our effort usually involves an arousal of their
energy and a refocusing toward the event at hand. By gaining their
attention, we also open the way for or restore their interest.
Due to distraction, attention can dissipate in a moment. For
adults, who have many responsibilities, mental distraction is an
ever-present reality in any learning situation. The following strate-
gies are positive and useful ways to rekindle or sustain attention.
Strategy 28: Provide Frequent Response Opportunities to All Learners
on an Equitable Basis
Whenever people are in a learning situation, the amount they will
publicly interact with their instructor or peers will generally affect
the attention they give to the learning activity (Kerman, 1979).
If learners know they are going to respond or perform in a given
learning session, they have an incentive for paying attention.
Their attention contributes to immediate social consequences.
However, if taking notes, monitoring information, or listening
to other learners has no imminent effect on their relationship to
their instructor or peers, most adults, as social beings, have lost an
important reason for focusing on the task at hand. Also, if they see
the same few people dominating the response opportunities, they
may become discouraged and resentful of the entire process.
Response opportunities are any chances that we or the learning
activity provide for learners to participate or perform publicly.
These include answering questions, giving opinions, demonstrating
skills, and reacting to feedback. As instructors who include adult
perspectives and use experiential learning, we want to instill among
learners a constant awareness that they will receive opportunities
to respond or perform during the learning activity.

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236 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
When using this strategy for larger group discussions, there are
four guidelines for maintaining a caring and respectful atmosphere.
First, we announce to the learning group that we would like to have
as many people participating as possible but that it is always OK to
‘‘pass.’’ This gives everyone a choice, keeps the discussion safe, and
particularly respects those adults who have not been socialized to
respond in front of groups. It also creates an expectancy everyone
can use to make sure they are prepared and alert. People do
not like to be caught off guard, and many adults have had years
of conditioning in situations where if they did not volunteer to
respond, they were not required to do so.
Second, we make sure everyone does get an equal chance to respond
or perform. Seating charts can be invaluable for this process (and
some minor record keeping may be necessary). We can gently
revisit those who have passed.
Third, random selection is best on a moment-to-moment basis. The
unpredictability gives everyone the feeling that they may be next.
However, if the skill or response demands some preparation on the
learner’s part, a more orderly process of selection may be beneficial.
Also, calling only on volunteers can be hazardous unless everyone
tends to volunteer. We have all had the experience of seeing the
same few people in a group responding or performing over and
over again because no one else seems to volunteer. We may find
it necessary to call a moratorium on voluntary responding (a few
sessions may be all that it takes) so as to give everyone a chance.
Fourth, we respect and affirm each learner’s response. For most
adults, the real fear of public responding is embarrassment. They
need to know they will be treated respectfully for their efforts. By
consistently giving learners some degree of credit for their response
and by using their responses to move toward further learning, we
model respect for everyone. We can respond to almost any response
respectfully if we remember that even an answer that is mistaken
or not well conceived can be the answer to another question.

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For example, if I ask who the president was during World War I
and someone responds, ‘‘Abraham Lincoln,’’ I can say, ‘‘Yes, he
was president during a very important war — the Civil War. Now
let’s find out who was president during World War I.’’ I move on,
smoothly and respectfully.
Most mistakes are not random (Gage and Berliner, 1998).
They are usually logical and have a pattern. From a biological
perspective, making mistakes is critical to new learning (Kopp
and Wolff, 2000). In many instances, new information will be
more than what our short-term memories can retain and it will
fade quickly. Keeping up with taking notes during a lecture is
a good example. We often don’t get all of what’s important to
remember. When we discuss what we ‘‘think’’ we know, we need
trial-and-error processes to make our learning more accurate and to
make complex neural connections. That’s what feedback during
a good deep discussion with our peers and instructors does. Our
brain is structured to become active when there is a discrepancy
between what we expect and what actually happens. We then have
a chance to make stronger and more efficient neural connections,
gaining new knowledge that will last. The structure that helps us
take advantage of trial-and-error learning is the anterior cingulate,
located in the upper front middle of the brain (Kopp and Wolff,
2000).
By encouraging adults to respond and by helping them learn
from their answers, we show respect and reduce their fears of
participating. Our guiding frame of mind is to let learners know
what they can competently do and then, as fluidly as possible,
help them take the next possible step. In some cases, this might
mean probing further, giving a hint or a second chance, waiting
a while longer, soliciting help from another learner, or facili-
tating another answer for greater insight. As long as we avoid
assuming a right-or-wrong attitude toward learning, so much is
possible.

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238 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
The following are some techniques for enhancing learners’
reactions to response opportunities:
• When asking a question or announcing an opportunity to
perform a task, wait at least three seconds before selecting a
respondent (Tobin, 1987). This technique allows everyone to
consider the possible answer or skill to be demonstrated. It gives
learners a chance to organize themselves mentally and emotionally
for their response. Many older adults need a bit more time to locate
a response in their long-term memory. It also helps focus everyone’s
attention on the forthcoming answer or demonstration.
• When you are looking for a volunteer, ask for a show of
hands in response to your question or activity and wait three to five
seconds after the first indication of a volunteer before selecting a
respondent. This technique has the same advantages as the previous
one, and it increases the number of possible respondents from which
to choose. If we tend to call on the first few volunteers, we often
unwittingly ‘‘teach’’ the rest of the learners not to volunteer.
• While pausing before selecting a respondent, look over the
entire group. This will tend to increase everyone’s attentiveness
because your survey encompasses the learners as a unified body.
• For longer responses and demonstrations, alert the rest of the
learning community that they will be asked to respond in some
fashion to what they have observed; for example: ‘‘After Zachary has
presented his case study, I’d like to ask a few of you to give him your
evaluation of which consultant skills were critical to his success with
his client.’’ This method invests the entire learning community in
the task at hand and affirms their responsibility to their peers.
• Sometimes use light, humorous, unpredictable methods for
selecting a respondent; for example: ‘‘The next people to get a
chance are all those with birthdays in February,’’ or ‘‘Well, let’s see
who had toast for breakfast. OK, we’ve got three volunteers.’’ Or
ask someone, ‘‘What’s your favorite color? Blue; that’s great. Now
check in your group to see who is wearing the most blue, because
that’s who will begin the next problem for us.’’

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• During any task where learners are working on their own or
in small groups, move among them as an available resource and
observer. Depending on the situation, you can comment, question,
react, advise, or quietly observe. This will prevent learners from
being isolated in their work, and let you provide more response
opportunities for them.
Strategy 29: Help Learners Realize Their Accountability for What
They Are Learning
People tend to take more seriously learning for which they are
held accountable (Good and Brophy, 2003). There are times when
paying attention takes real effort and determined resolve. Even
under conditions that are normally stimulating, fatigue, satiation,
and life’s everyday problems can take their toll on adults’ ability
to concentrate. They are more likely to find the will to remain
attentive when they clearly know that the knowledge and skills
they will eventually demonstrate are directly dependent on their
learning experiences.
One sees an almost automatic focusing of attention among
learners when an instructor announces, ‘‘What we will cover
next will be on the final exam.’’ Although testing is a common
accountability measure, there are many other possibilities, such
as job performance, projects, portfolios, and skill demonstrations.
Whatever the form of accountability, adults will usually intensify
their concentration on the aspects of their learning experience that
directly bear on what they will be held responsible for knowing.
However, adults can construe accountability as a coercive force for
paying attention. When we mention exams and final projects as
being related to their learning tasks, they may feel threatened. Their
anxiety is real. We have all felt it. Therefore, we use accountability
as a means to enlist learners’ attention only when necessary and in
an empathic manner, not as a menacing manipulation.
One of the best ways to ensure that accountability is used
in an appropriate manner is to be careful that the components
of the curriculum or instructional design are interdependent and

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necessary for achieving and assessing the learning goal. In this way
the learners know that all the learning activities are valuable and
will help them develop the competencies they will need to acquire
and exhibit. They will be reassured that there is no busywork
and each learning experience contributes to the desired result. A
good analogy for this approach is a recipe for a fine soufflé. Every
ingredient and every process is necessary to the final outcome.
Once we are certain the learning activities are a concise body
of requisite experiences geared to reaching the learning goal, the
following methods may help to encourage learners’ attentiveness.
• Where appropriate, show that your learning program is
efficiently designed to build the requisite skills and knowledge for
which the learners will be held accountable. Use syllabi, outlines,
models, or diagrams to briefly preview the integrated plan and
related learning goals. Indicate how you will assess learners (tests,
projects, job performance, and so forth) and how the assessment is
functionally dependent on the learning process and content. This
will help learners understand that their concentration is necessary
every step of the way.
• Selectively use manding stimuli. Mands are verbal statements
that have a highly probable consequence associated with them
(Skinner, 1957). When a person yells, ‘‘Watch out!’’ people usually
stop what they are doing and quickly check their surroundings.
Instructors have available to them many mands that can focus
learners’ attention: ‘‘Please note this’’; ‘‘Now listen closely’’; ‘‘It is
critical to realize that . . .’’; ‘‘It will help a great deal in understanding
this if you remember that . . .’’; ‘‘The point that brings this all
together is . . .’’ Wise use of mands is a valuable instructional
technique for directing learners’ attention to material that will
make a difference in their training or education.
• Selectively employ handouts, such as outlines, models, dia-
grams, advance organizers (Svinicki, 2004), key concepts, and
definitions. They help learners follow and focus on your lecture,

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presentation, or demonstration. Learners are more likely to pay
attention to what is important when what is important is con-
cretely noted, well organized, and literally within their grasp.
Please be careful with PowerPoint, one of the most pervasive
technological tools used today. Although an attractive process for
outlines, models, and diagrams, it can reduce complicated, nuanced
issues to headings and bullets (Keller, 2003).
• Intersperse lectures and demonstrations with the think-pair-
share process (Barkley, Cross, and Major, 2005). This is a short
processing method to increase attention and involvement in a
relevant manner. The instructor asks learners to think briefly about
what has been stated or observed and then to pair up with someone
to share their reflections for a few minutes. It’s a wonderful way to
engage students in the middle of any passive learning experience
with a thoughtful procedure that invites their perspectives and
dialogue. The directions can be focused or general, as the following
example illustrates: ‘‘Please take a minute to think about how this
material relates to your own life. Then turn to a partner and have
a brief conversation about your reflections.’’ After completion of
this procedure, the instructor can begin a whole-group discussion,
solicit comments, list insights, take questions, or move on to the
next segment of the lecture or demonstration.
Strategy 30: Provide Variety in Personal Presentation Style, Modes of
Instruction, and Learning Materials
Variety has motivational effects (Gage and Berliner, 1998). It is
stimulating and draws learners’ attention toward its source. People
tend to pay more attention to things that are changing than to
things that are unchanging. However, to use variety simply for the
sake of variety is not a good idea, because learning often requires
that a stimulus be held in consciousness for further understanding
and retention (Sweller, van Merrienboer, and Paas, 1998). That
is why microscopes, photographs, and slides are so valuable to
people in the pursuit of knowledge. Whenever we as instructors

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can change some element of the process of instruction without
making that variance so extreme that it distracts learners from the
subject at hand, we will probably help them pay attention. Timing
variety so that it can serve as a cue to important information or
skills is probably one of the best ways to use it to the advantage of
motivation and learning.
Let’s begin with variety in personal presentation style because
every instructor is physically an instrument of stimulation. How
instructors use their bodies and voices can be a constant source of
variety for their learners. The following is a checklist of character-
istics that instructors can vary to gain their learners’ attention. For
each characteristic there are questions that you can use to assess
your presentation style during instruction.
• Body movement. How often do you move? In what direction?
Are you ever among your learners? Are you predictable in your
movements? Some movement during instruction is desirable. You
can go across the room and along the sides of the room. Now and
then ‘‘going in’’ among your learners is another variation. Such
movement brings you temporarily closer to all learners and makes
them more likely to pay attention to where you will be next.
• Gestures and facial expressions. Do you use gestures? If so, what
kind? When? How animated is your face? How often do you smile?
How does your body language change in relationship to learners’
questions, responses, and behavior? Considering the intercultural
differences in the meaning of gestures and facial expressions (see
Chapter Five), it is difficult to make generalizations about how
an instructor should act. In my experience, being energetic and
friendly seems appealing to most adult learners.
• Voice. What is the tone and pitch of your voice? How often
and when do these change? How is your voice used for emphasis,
emotion, and support of your topic? If someone could not see
you but only hear you, would your voice alone provide sufficient
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style, the voice is probably the most important yet one of the least
studied (Andersen and Wang, 2006). Voice is a metacommunication,
a communication about communication. It influences everything
learners hear their instructors say. Adults tend to accept the vocal
quality of a message as the correct cue when a person’s words
seem to conflict with the way they are spoken (Hurt, Scott, and
McCroskey, 1978). For example, ‘‘That is a good job?’’ would not be
a compliment to adults. Because so much of instruction is talking,
creative use and variation of your voice is a major asset to gaining
learners’ attention. Appropriate pauses can make the voice doubly
effective.
• Pauses. When and how often do you pause? How long do you
remain silent? For what purposes do you use pauses? Like variations
in color, pauses are orienting stimuli that arouse our attention
(Gage and Berliner, 1998). Pauses can greatly enhance verbal
instruction. You can use them to break informational segments
into smaller pieces for better understanding, capture attention by
contrasting sound with silence, signal learners to listen, emphasize
an important point, provide time for reflection, and create suspense
or expectation.
The second kind of variety available to instructors is variety in
modes of instruction and in learning materials. These are the ways
in which instructors interact with learners and the activities in
which learners can participate while they are learning. Lecturing,
discussing, showing a video, and playing a simulation game are four
modes of instruction. Learning materials are the physical resources
used to instruct, such as films, books, compact discs, and computer
software. Variety in instructional modes and materials will usually
gain the attention of adults. Some specific guidelines are as follows:
• Vary the modality of learning (usually between auditory,
visual, and tactile modes). For example, when you switch the
channel of communication from auditory to visual, even momen-
tarily, learners usually become more alert to adjust their attention

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244 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
(Woolfolk, 2007). By selectively using graphs, storyboards,
overhead transparencies, DVDs, and other media, learners can
refocus their own attention. Although substantial research has
been conducted over the years to determine which media are best
for achieving particular learning goals, there are many innovative
ideas but no firm conclusions (Aldrich, 2005). When it comes
to visual media, it seems that the clearer and simpler the text
or diagram, the more effective it is. Selectively using visual aids
to draw attention to new or critical information increases their
effectiveness (Delahaye and Smith, 1998). Varying the intensity of
any stimuli (size, shape, color, loudness, and complexity) has been
found to attract learners’ attention (Day, 1981).
• Diversify the process of learning, designing interaction so
that learners think or act differently from one activity to another.
For example, they might move from listening to a CD to solv-
ing a problem, or they might watch a video and then discuss its
contents, or they might work alone and then in small groups. In
each cases, different forms of thinking, acting, and communicat-
ing are involved. Every time adults alter the process of learning,
they use different mental and physical resources, which prevents
fatigue and maintains energy. As the old adage goes, a change
is as good as a rest. In addition, the more structures of the
brain that are involved in learning, usually the better the learn-
ing and recall (Schacter, 1992). People’s memory of sporting
events and the associated statistics are a good example of this
phenomenon.
Strategy 31: Introduce, Connect, and End Learning Activities
Attractively and Clearly
Each instructional session usually comprises a number of learning
activities. During this time, learners might see a video, engage in
a discussion, work on a case study, and complete a self-assessment.
A class session is analogous to a sporting event during which each
team receives clearly delineated opportunities to exercise its skills.

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Baseball gives a team three outs to score; football allows four downs
to go ten yards. In sports, these units of participation have obvious
beginnings and endings to simplify transitions, to focus spectators’
and players’ attention, and to keep the game running clearly and
smoothly. In a similar manner, a learning activity is enhanced
when it is distinctly introduced and clearly connected to previous
and future learning activities.
Just as a kickoff tells the crowd, ‘‘Pay attention, the action is
about to begin,’’ an attractive introduction gives learners the same
message. Some stimulating methods of introduction in addition to
the use of media and shifts in personal presentation style are as
follows:
• Asking provocative questions: ‘‘How many of you have
ever. . .?’’ ‘‘When was the last time. . .?’’ ‘‘Did you imag-
ine before you took this training that you were going
to. . .?’’ ‘‘What do you think would happen if. . .?’’
• Calling on learners to become active: ask them to help,
to move, to observe, to assess, and so on.
• Creating anticipation: ‘‘I have been looking forward to
doing this activity with you since your training session
began.’’ ‘‘This film will show the concrete advantages of
applying the skills you have been learning.’’ ‘‘This next
set of problems is really tricky; let’s see how we do.’’
• Relating the learning activity to pop culture and current
events: ‘‘You might say the next person we are going to
discuss is the Tiger Woods of the computer world.’’
‘‘This case study could provide lyrics for a country
western ballad.’’ ‘‘What we are going to take a look
at next has been organized like an Olympic sporting
event.’’
Connecting learning activities is a real art. Instructors
make numerous transitions in any learning session. To segue

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automatically and fluidly helps maintain learners’ attention and
maximize instructional impact. The following are some helpful
techniques:
• Using organizational aids: handouts, outlines, models,
and graphs can interrelate concepts, topics, key points,
and essential information.
• Chunking: working memory is limited to recalling about
five to nine unrelated items of information. When we
put such information into patterns or chunks, as we
do with telephone numbers or under the headings of
what, when, and where for announcements of events,
we can more easily remember them (Driscoll, 2005).
Looking for commonalities and chunking informa-
tion into categories such as advantages and disadvan-
tages, similarities and differences, and so on will help
adult learners remember information and recall it as
they move on to the next part of the lesson.
• Indicating what the new activity relates to: this technique
involves explaining how the new activity continues
the building of a skill or how it further demonstrates a
concept or how it may contribute to a future learning
goal.
• Making directions and instructions for the next learning
activity as clear as possible: this technique applies to intro-
ducing as well as connecting learning activities. People
often stop paying attention because they are confused
about what they are supposed to do. By giving accurate
directions, we can avoid unnecessary distractions.
• Checking for understanding: any time we provide
important information, whether it is a concept or a

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procedure, and especially if what comes next is
dependent on this information, we should take a few
moments to see if everyone understands. Checking for
understanding can be as simple as a question (‘‘Are
these directions clear enough?’’) or as thorough as a
formal assessment. Not checking for understanding
is one of the most common omissions I see in train-
ing and teaching. (Fact is, I still have to remind myself
to check for understanding.)
Closure refers to how we end a learning activity and help learners
feel a sense of completion. Closure not only focuses their attention
but also gives them the feeling of satisfaction that naturally arises
from having accomplished a learning task. Some helpful means to
this end are as follows:
• Reviewing the basic concepts or skills achieved during the
learning activity: ‘‘Before we move on, let us review
the main ideas we have discussed thus far.’’
• Allowing for clarification at the end of the learning activ-
ity: ‘‘Now that we have finished this section, are there
any questions about what we have done?’’
• Requesting feedback, opinions, or evaluation: ‘‘Perhaps
the best way to end this exercise would be to share with
one another what we have learned from cooperating in
this task.’’
• Being sensitive to the possibilities for spontaneous closure
that can arise from any group of learners: for example,
after the training group has voluntarily applauded the
response of a colleague, the instructor can say, ‘‘I can’t
think of a better way to end this discussion. Let’s take a
break.’’

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Strategy 32: Selectively Use Breaks, Settling Time, and Physical
Exercises
Sometime learning more only means forgetting more. When learn-
ing is substantive, complex, and new, people need time to process
and store this information (Stickgold, James, and Hobson, 2000).
People need down time, at least a break and sometimes a rest,
to connect and consolidate what they are learning (Sanes and
Lichtman, 2001). After an activity where considerable new infor-
mation is considered and new learning takes place, adults often
actually say, ‘‘My brain is tired.’’ And they are right. They need
what Eric Jensen (2005, p. 44) calls settling time, a period when
there is no new learning, such as a break, a walk, a meal, or relaxing
in a pleasant setting. How much time? That’s difficult to calibrate.
There are a good number of neuroscientists researching this ques-
tion, and some answers may be available in the near future. From
my own experience, I try not to teach anything complex for more
than an hour and fifteen minutes without a ten- to fifteen-minute
break. I avoid ‘‘working lunches,’’ and I try to limit workshops to
no more than six contact hours of learning in a single day.
Many adults come to learning activities having already expend-
ed large amounts of energy in their family and workplace. Often,
they become tired, even in an interesting environment. Once
adults become fatigued, their ability to pay attention can readily
decline, and the meaning of any activity may diminish.
In general, to provide settling time and to avoid fatigue, selec-
tively give breaks or incorporate physical exercise and stretching
into your instructional plan. The clock should not automatically
determine when breaks are taken. Fatigue is not chronological.
Our flexibility about breaks can greatly enhance how well learners
feel and the amount of attention they can give. By investing fifteen
minutes on a break when it is needed, learners may gain as much
as an hour of alertness.

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How to Evoke and Sustain Learners’ Interest
When learning activities evoke and sustain interest, adults willingly
participate. They may not always expend a great deal of effort, but
they are learners who want to understand and focus on what they
are learning.
At this point, we need to remember that attention, interest, and
engagement and challenge may overlap and can occur simultaneously.
What is attention-getting may become interesting, and what is
interesting could naturally be a part of an engaging and challenging
learning activity. Individually and in combination, they contribute
to the motivational condition of meaning.
What categorically separates strategies to evoke and sustain interest
from strategies to deepen engagement and challenge is that the latter,
such as case studies, are entire methodologies. By their nature they
offer considerable challenge, requiring complex and substantive
interactions that usually result in a learning product. In contrast,
one strategy to evoke interest is to use humor, but it doesn’t require
a learning product or the extensive involvement that completing a
case study does. However, we might use humor to make a case study
more interesting. And that’s another distinction: we can often use
the strategies for attention and interest to deepen engagement and
challenge.
This section describes strategies that can make learning more
compelling. We begin with two strategies to evoke the individual
interests of adult learners.
Strategy 33: Relate Learning to Individual Interests, Concerns, and
Values
By embedding the learning activity and what we say and do in
current adult interests, concerns, and values, we provide learners
a constant stream of relevant material. We are exposing them
to experiences that will naturally connect to their desire for

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understanding. In general, the most stirring examples, analogies,
supporting evidence, and current events are those that vividly
touch on what people already find interesting.
One of the developmental dimensions of maturation during
adulthood is a fuller awareness of deep concerns (Knowles, 1980).
Concerns are especially likely to evoke adults’ emotions. They are
often more profound and more persistent than are interests because
they contain an inner uneasiness. They usually represent a gap
between an ideal and reality. They often indicate fear or worry
about aspirations. Parents are not only interested in their children’s
health; they are frequently concerned about their children’s health.
In like manner, business owners are not only interested in profits
but also commonly concerned about profits.
If learning is related to adults’ concerns, their emotions will be
elicited quickly. The question for instructors here is, Does anything
about this topic or skill relate to adults’ concerns, and if so, can
I constructively deal with it? For example, the topic of sexual
harassment would likely bring out learners’ concerns in a seminar
on ethics in the workplace. However, the instructor has to be able
to deal constructively with this issue if optimal motivation is to be
maintained.
Concerns often relate to human values. Values represent the
important and stable ideas, beliefs, and assumptions that consis-
tently affect a person’s behavior (Taylor, Marienau, and Fiddler,
2000). Someone who values politics does not merely vote; that
person probably also joins a political organization, donates money
to political causes, writes to political representatives about selected
issues, reads about political matters, acts on behalf of political
candidates, and frequently talks about politics with friends. Every
adult has some strong values. When these are integrated with a
learning experience, the adult’s interest and other emotions will
surface.
When learning events correspond to people’s values, people
will usually feel reassured. People are pleased to hear their political

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beliefs supported or to know they are rearing their children soundly
and appropriately. But when the instructional content or other
learners’ perspectives do not mesh with their values, there is a
good chance that they will feel tense, threatened, frustrated, and
sometimes angry. The following topics are areas with which many
adults associate firmly held values (Loden and Rosener, 1991):
Politics Friends War, peace
Ethnicity Money Authority
Work Age Gender
Leisure Death Sex
Education Health Love
Family Race Possessions
Sexual
orientation
Religion,
spirituality
Culture (art, music,
literature)
Clothes Manners Personal tastes
When these topics become part of the learning experience,
adults’ emotional responsiveness is likely to increase. On some occa-
sions there may be disagreement or controversy. Please remember:
the degree to which learners generally feel the motivational con-
dition of inclusion does a great deal to maintain mutual respect,
as does their understanding of the participation guidelines (see
Strategy 9 in Chapter Five). However, this is an appropriate place
to discuss instructor leadership and effective communication.
Beyond the instructor’s careful attention to the discussion and
his skill in exercising the core characteristic of cultural respon-
siveness (see Chapter Three), the communication roles described
below require some experience for proficient use. Practice, feed-
back, and coaching can improve their effectiveness. The following
paragraphs are an adaptation of Pat Griffin’s suggestions regard-
ing communication roles instructors can consider using during
value-laden discussions (1997a, pp. 286–291).

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• Giving information. At times, offering factual information in
the form of statistics or documented facts is useful. This is often an
important way to address misconceptions.
Example: a learner states that gay men are child molesters. The
instructor responds, ‘‘That’s a frequently held notion that’s received
a lot of attention over the years. However, police records show
that over 90 percent of child sexual abuse involves heterosexual
men molesting female children.’’ (Notice that the first statement
tends to deflect any listener reaction that this idea belongs only
to the learner who made the remark. This helps to diminish
defensiveness.)
• Conceptualizing. Feelings can overwhelm people and cause
them to shut down or lose focus. The introduction of useful
questions can give people a way to understand their feelings and a
means to proceed more productively.
Example: several learners are arguing back and forth about the
degree of racism that continues to exist in the United States. The
instructor says, ‘‘We have some differences of opinion here. What
questions might provide insights or clarify the differences between
these viewpoints?’’ (Learners could break into small groups to
generate questions, and the instructor could list their questions.)
• Reflecting. Sometimes one of the best ways to encourage
adults to reconsider their position is to reflect back what they say
so that they understand the impact of their words or can begin to
identify their underlying assumptions.
Example: the instructor repeats a learner’s statement, ‘‘So what
you’re saying is that the Arab population in this city is not really
discriminated against because they’re financially secure.’’
• Working with silence. Sometimes silence reflects fear or
discomfort. Silences can actually provide a powerful learning
opportunity and deepen dialogue. On such occasions, we have
at least two options. We can ask learners to write down their

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feelings at that moment or turn to a partner and share their
thoughts. Both options give learners a chance to acknowledge
and clarify their reactions. Sometimes something as simple as
commenting on the silence opens the discussion at a deeper level.
Example: two adults begin to argue vigorously about the role of
the federal government in municipal affairs. As their confrontation
tails off, silence envelops the learning group. The instructor says,
‘‘I’m not sure what this silence means. Can anyone tell us what
they’re thinking or feeling right now?’’ Or ‘‘Why don’t we each
take a few minutes to write down what we are thinking or feeling
right now. Then, to the degree that you’re comfortable, talk about
it with a partner before we come back to the entire group.’’
• Redistributing. At times, we need to make space for other
adults to participate in a discussion.
Example: ‘‘Before we hear from you again, Lynn, I’d like to see
if some of the people who haven’t had a chance to speak would
like to say something.’’ Or ‘‘This is great! Everyone wants to talk.
Let’s try it this way. I’ll call three people, and after they’ve had
their turn, I’ll call three more, until everyone’s had a chance. OK?
Let’s go.’’
• Accepting the expression of feelings. For some instructors and
adult learners, the expression of intense feelings in a learning
environment is an unusual experience. At times like this, how we
react as instructors will strongly influence all learners’ feelings of
security and respect. There is no formula. Usually, our reaction
is spontaneous. When I look back on my own behavior, it tends
to include an acknowledgment and validation of the feeling.
Sometimes appreciation is appropriate. Ultimately, we need to
guide learners to the next phase of learning.
Example: a learner begins to cry as he tells about the difficul-
ties his mother endured at school because of a severe disability.
The instructor says, ‘‘Jamal, that’s still a painful memory for
you (acknowledgment). It’s difficult to see those we love suffer

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(validation). Thanks for giving us a chance to learn from your
own experience (appreciation). Now let’s take a look at how we
might influence a situation like this as administrators (learning
connection).’’ (It’s never this tidy!)
• Disclosing personal information. When we disclose personal
information, we need to be clear about the purpose of the disclo-
sure. I agree with Griffin, who states, ‘‘It is never appropriate for
facilitators to work out their own issues during a class’’ (1997a,
p. 290). If we tell too many personal stories, adults may begin to
discount the course as our own ‘‘agenda.’’ Personal stories should
help learners arrive at a better understanding of a topic or idea.
Example: the instructor says, ‘‘I’d like to tell you about some-
thing I learned about silence from a Japanese friend. I don’t think
I could have learned this otherwise.’’ In this case, the personal
disclosure is to help learners realize, and recount from their own
experience, that different cultural perspectives sometimes give us
insights that we cannot gain through our own culture.
• Addressing conflict. There are times when we need to encour-
age the expression of conflicting ideas. (I discuss this further in
the section dealing with critical incidents.) Learner dialogue about
conflicting ideas is an important part of transformative learning.
In productive conflict, all learners have a voice, their right to
express differing perspectives is assured, respect is maintained, and
the participation guidelines (see Chapter Five, Strategy 9) are in
effect.
Strategy 34: When Possible, Clearly State or Demonstrate the Benefits
That Will Result from the Learning Activity
People usually want to know more about anything that benefits
them. They often want to be better, quicker, and more creative in
doing what they value. There are many things they want to save
and gain, such as time and money. Most adults want to overcome
their limitations in health, endurance, and speed. Any learning

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that offers the possibility of acquiring a desired advantage is not
only interesting but can even be alluring.
Many adults value the items in the following list as beneficial
to their lives:
Health Security Advancement
Intimacy Friendship Fitness
Time Efficiency Money
Compassion Wisdom Patience
Comfort Popularity Leisure
Enjoyment Freedom Competence
Self-confidence Respect Inner peace
If what we offer adults to learn can help them increase or
acquire any of these items, many adults will probably consider the
learning to be beneficial. This is not an exhaustive list. The most
important questions for us are, What real benefits to adults does the
planned learning experience offer? and How can I make the benefits
apparent and available to them? If we can answer these questions
clearly, we have a vital opportunity to increase their interest. For
example, what technician could remain indifferent to a trainer who
introduced a new tool with the statement, ‘‘This instrument can
repair 90 percent of all malfunctions in this system.’’
The remaining strategies in this section offer ways to evoke
situational interest. They are probably most applicable to direct
instruction, such as presentations and demonstrations, but the
first — humor — seems welcome at any time.
Strategy 35: While Instructing, Use Humor Liberally and Frequently
Humor has many qualities — being interesting is one of them.
People love to laugh. They will be a little more interested in
anyone or anything that provides this possibility. Humor offers

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enjoyment, a unique perspective, and unpredictability. All these
qualities are attractive and stimulating to most human beings. I
have yet to hear an adult come out of a training session and say, ‘‘I’m
not going back. It’s too funny in there. All we ever do is laugh.’’
Biologically, our brains and bodies react to laughter by dis-
charging endorphin, adrenaline, and dopamine (Willis, 2006). We
breathe more deeply and get more oxygen. We become more alert.
What we learn in the shadow of laughter has a positive association
with the people present and the place where it occurs, making both
more attractive. Adults who frequently laugh together have good
intrinsic reasons for wanting to be a community.
But how does one develop a sense of humor? It still seems to be
a bit of a mystery. I’ve heard Neil Simon say that some words are
funny and some are not. For example, chicken is funny; computer
is not. So for years I’ve challenged computer scientists to tell me
a good computer joke. This is the best so far: ‘‘Who had the first
computer? Adam and Eve. It was an Apple with two megabytes.’’
Maybe Mr. Simon was right.
Well then, how does an instructor successfully incorporate
humor into learning activities? There is no guaranteed formula.
More than a score of years ago, I heard Joel Goodman (1981) make
some helpful suggestions. To this day, I still find them to be a
trustworthy guide:
• Remember that people are more humorous when they
feel safe and accepted.
• Laugh with people (which includes), not at them (which
excludes).
• Humor is an attitude. Be open to the unexpected,
insane, silly, and ridiculous that life daily offers.
• Do not take yourself too seriously. How easily can you
laugh at yourself?
• Be spontaneous.

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• Don’t be a perfectionist with humor. It will intimidate
you. No one can be witty or funny 100 percent of the
time. (Talk shows are a living testament to this.)
• Have comic vision. If you look for humor, humor will
find you.
Strategy 36: Selectively Induce Parapathic Emotions
Parapathic emotions are strong feelings (anger, delight, affection,
sorrow) people undergo as they experience something essentially
make-believe (Apter, 1982). For example, we can have parapathic
emotions while watching a movie or a play. People tend to become
interested in anything that can induce such emotions. Excellent
speakers often use stories, anecdotes, and quotations to elicit
parapathic emotions in their audiences. In colloquial terms, these
esthetic renderings act as ‘‘hooks’’ to pull in high levels of audience
interest. They are often used in the beginning of speeches and
presentations for this very purpose. Adults cannot easily turn their
attention away from anything that has made them feel deeply.
As we have stated repeatedly in this book emotions determine
what we pay attention to and retain. Emotionally vivid experiences
release adrenaline into our systems, making the experience take
precedence in our thoughts as well as retrieving associated mem-
ories. This process intensifies interest, alertness, and the potential
for remembering what occurs (LeDoux, 1996). Whenever we can
evoke adults’ emotions within the context of learning activities, we
will have an excellent means to arouse and sustain their interest.
Any medium that can induce powerful emotions, such as literature,
drama, and music, is a fertile field to consider as a possible resource.
Strategy 37: Selectively Use Examples, Analogies, Metaphors, and
Stories
Examples are the bread and butter of any good instructional effort.
They not only stimulate but also, perhaps more than anything

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else an instructor might easily do, tell learners how well they really
comprehend what has preceded those examples (Gage and Berliner,
1998). For learners, examples are the ‘‘moment of truth’’ for per-
sonal meaning — when the information, concept, or demonstration
is clarified, applied, or accentuated. Good examples give learners
a way to focus new learning so that it is concretely illustrated in
their own minds. A fine example nurtures learners, enhancing their
concentration and mental effort. Most important, it is difficult for
learners to remain interested in anything they cannot understand.
Examples are the refueling stations in any learner’s journey to
new knowledge. Choose them carefully, make them vivid, and
use them generously. We must also realize that when learners
construct their own good examples, they create meaning that
reflects language and imagery more firmly anchored in their world
than what we as instructors usually have to offer. When a person
can give his own fitting example for something newly learned,
deeper learning is at hand.
Analogies and metaphors are examples that enhance interest by
colorfully showing new ideas and information in forms and contexts
that learners already understand, making a firm connection to
prior knowledge. Because adults are experientially rich learners
with considerable mental powers of abstraction and deduction,
they readily create, use, and appreciate analogies and metaphors
(Deshler, 1990). Metaphors allow us to reach meanings not possible
with more academic language. For example, to say being the mayor
of a large city is enormously challenging is logically clear, but to say
being the mayor of a large city sometimes gives you the feeling you
might be steering the Titanic adds insight and expands meaning to
a deeper and more emotional level. Deshler’s method of metaphor
analysis (1990) offers rich possibilities for critically reflecting on
the values of personal, popular, and organizational cultures.
Stories, especially when they are well told, imaginative, and
unpredictable, are extremely interesting. Used wisely and rele-
vantly, they can captivate a group of learners. They are also the

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 259
way people give meaning to their own lives. Ask anyone to tell their
favorite family story or how they celebrated their birthday as a child
or an important dream from their past, and you have opened doors
to personal understanding in a league with fine literary fiction.
A story well told usually has strong emotional appeal. A good
story makes us care about what happens in it. It engages all parts
of our brain, including neural networks representing experiences,
ideas, actions, and feelings. These form new connections, which
are enhanced by the fluid pattern of the story itself. The natural
cohesiveness of a story facilitates both retention and recall. If
learning is deepest when it engages most parts of the brain, as some
scientists claim (Zull, 2002), then sharing a compelling story is a
fundamental way of learning, as old as language and as important
as fire.
Sometimes it’s fun to have a workshop or course storyteller,
someone who summarizes the story of the learning group at signifi-
cant intervals, such as the end of the day or week.
Strategy 38: Use Uncertainty, Anticipation, and Prediction to the
Degree That Learners Enjoy Them with a Sense of Security
We don’t want to act weird, but we do want how we instruct to
have some quality of the unexpected to it. Unpredictability is very
stimulating. In fact, the more unexpected the event, the greater
the arousal people feel (Apter, 1982). Most of us appreciate a gift,
but a gift that comes as a surprise is usually extra special. This
same phenomenon has a corollary in learning when we make a
true discovery or have a valued unexpected insight. We relish such
occasions and are more likely to remember what occurred. I can
still remember, as an undergraduate, reading Aristophanes’ The
Frogs and laughing out loud, amazed that people so long ago could
be so funny. After I finished the play, ancient history wasn’t that
ancient any more.
Every form of entertainment, including sports, art, fiction, and
humor, makes use of uncertainty and surprise in secure contexts.

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260 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
When learners do not know exactly what is going to happen
next or when it is going to happen, we have usually gained their
interest and anticipation. This is the way learning can become
an adventure. When adults feel safe and capable, unpredictability
breeds a sense of enjoyable excitement. It is exhilarating to be in
a course or training session where the possibility for something
unexpected occurring is substantial, as long as there is confidence
that no one will be hurt. The following are some of the ways we
can make instruction unpredictable yet secure:
• We can plan the unexpected, diagnosing our materials and
methods for patterns of predictability and inserting the unpre-
dictable. For example, in a situation where textual or modular
materials have dominated learning, we can choose to depart from
them, switching to real-life situations and more individual learner
interests. Moment to moment, we might make a mistake on
purpose, lecture from a seat among our learners, act a bit out
of character, tell a self-deprecating story, or put a great car-
toon on the overhead simply because it’s a great cartoon. In
the context of good taste and proper timing, there are myriad
possibilities.
• We can attempt instructional experiments. In these instances,
we do things that we have carefully considered and that seem
effective to us but that we have no certainty about until we actually
do them. Every creative instructor has to do a certain amount
of experimentation because new methods and materials often can
only be tested on the job. Depending on the situation, we may tell
our learners that what we are about to do is something quite new
and enlist their support and feedback.
• We can stay aware of the moment and trust our intuition. Every
learning situation is unique, and our next important instructional
moment may be entirely dependent on circumstances we could
not predict. A question, a cultural or political event, a learner’s
problem, or the mood of a group can create a learning opportunity
where intuition and flexibility may be our only guides.

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 261
When I prepared for my first class after 9/11, I was perplexed about
what to do. The second meeting of this Adult Learning and Devel-
opment course was the following Saturday, an intensive format that
ran from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. I was still sorting out my feelings
about what had happened in New York — a roiling mixture of shock,
sadness, apprehension, and dread. The voices for retaliation were
drowning out other alternatives, where a peaceful process rather
than war might be the result. In the university at which I taught, the
imperative for aggression dominated discussions. Emotional argu-
ments about the situation were quick to occur, and I had had a few
of my own before that Saturday. I knew we had to discuss 9/11 in
our course. I had more than a few concerns about the class. Among
those that I found most unsettling were war and revenge becom-
ing the most popular themes; arguments getting out of control; my
being ineffective in facilitating a respectful discussion; a rift developing
between students or between students and me; and a sense that I
might not be able to guide us to any redeemable learning outcome.
When I looked over the scheduled topics in our syllabus for
that Saturday, they seemed either too superficial or irrelevant for the
moment in which we were living. As I scanned ahead, I found Jack
Mezirow’s chapter ‘‘Learning to Think Like an Adult: Core Concepts
of Transformation Theory’’ (2000). It contains a discussion of the
phases of human meaning that lead to transformation — from a dis-
orienting dilemma to reintegration with a new perspective. I believed
this model offered insight for what was occurring in our society and I
decided to use it.
That Saturday morning, with the phases of meaning as a rough
outline and the participation guidelines (Chapter Five, Strategy 9) as a
set of norms, we talked as a community of learners for four hours. No
one wanted a break and it wasn’t until lunch time that some growling
stomachs ended our discussion. I am not sure what we learned. I am
confident it was a good experience for just about everyone. Though
opinions varied widely, most people spoke respectfully and deeply.
After that class, our group took on a special resonance, one that I
still remember with appreciation.

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262 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Sometimes these learning situations come with considerable
risk and do not turn out as positively as the one I’ve described.
Nonetheless, I think we, as instructors, need to remain guided by
the consistent observation that adults appreciate relevance and
instruction that adjusts to include the important matters that
unexpectedly evolve in daily life, whether it’s a headline in the
morning paper or the fact that someone has just found a new job.
• We can invite learners to anticipate and predict. Because of our
need to survive, we constantly anticipate and predict. Whether we
are attending to the direction another car will take, the number of
steps as we go down a stairway, a line continuing on to the next page
of a book, or the last glass of milk out of a carton, we regularly assess
our environments for what we think will happen next. When what
we predict doesn’t go as expected, we pay close attention. As stated
earlier, these incidents immediately take on emotional significance
for potential engagement with our full neuropsychological system.
Over millions of years we have evolved to know that when a sight,
scent, or sound is something we did not anticipate, we need to
become interested because the situation can get risky quickly. We
may be more protected from the elements such as wind and rain,
but life is still full of possible falls, crashes, and faux pas.
The upside of this phenomenon is that whenever individuals
predict or estimate something, they become interested — hooked,
you might say — in finding out how it will turn out. For example,
there are five capitals in the United States that begin with the
letter A. One of them is Atlanta. What are the rest? If you’ve even
thought of a city that begins with the letter A, you’re into this. You
want to know what the other four capitals are and may even put
this book aside to find out. This sort of question is the mainstay
of many trivia games but also the stuff of good novels, films, and
plays. So when we build anticipation or ask learners to predict an
outcome in any subject from accounting to marriage counseling,

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 263
we have encouraged their interest. Not only that, sometimes it is a
delight.
For all four of these suggestions, the guiding rule of thumb is
learner security. We may take a chance. We may even make a
mistake, but as long as we have maintained the integrity of our
learners, we can continue to learn from the process, acting as
professionals who know that creativity demands some degree of
risk with consequences that are not totally predictable.
Strategy 39: Use Concept Maps to Develop and Link Interesting Ideas
and Information
Concept maps are graphic diagrams that represent relationships
between concepts and their components. They represent relations
between ideas and information with concrete visual connections.
They can give us a model for understanding a topic, such as
economics (see the mindmap in Figure 7.1) or the process of
adult learning (Sheckley and Bell, 2006). They also can be used
to visually represent and organize a variety of responses to and
ideas about a question that may interest us such as What type of
immigration policy should the U.S. adopt?
Any interesting idea or question can be the focus of a concept
map. Concept maps can be linear or nonlinear; they can be
individually or collaboratively constructed on paper, board, or a
computer screen (Hyerle, 1996). They allow adults, especially those
more visually oriented, to construct models that reflect the unique
set of relationships an idea can generate in their minds. They are
particularly effective with English-language learners (Chularut and
DeBacker, 2004). From a neurological perspective, concept maps
enable adults to see patterns and access existing memory circuitry,
structuring transient ideas or information into more enduring
memories (Willis, 2006).

Wlodkowski c07 3 02/04/08 264
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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 265
I often ask adult educators to create a concept map of ‘‘Influences
on Me as a Teacher.’’ This general topic is in the center of the
concept map. Three major influences emanate from the center of
the map: (1) former teachers, (2) important knowledge learned
on the job, and (3) ideas from reading, courses, and workshops.
The educators then add their own major influences. They report
that concept mapping allows them to see a web of influences on
their teaching and gives them an understanding that is often more
profound and insightful than recall alone would have produced.
This map of influences on teaching is an example of mindmap-
ping, one of the most idiosyncratic concept-mapping techniques,
which gives adults the freedom to create the form of graphics
and the associations themselves (Hyerle, 1996). Mindmapping is a
webbing technique popularized by Tony Buzan (1979) that I still
find quite useful. His approach begins with a key word (economics
in the case of Figure 7.1) or an image in the center of the page, fol-
lowed by extensions expanding outward. Arrows and lines connect
secondary ideas to each other; the more important concepts are
drawn nearer to the center. Single words are suggested for each line.
Mindmapping and other brainstorming webs can be elabo-
rated with arrows, asterisks, question marks, geometric shapes,
three-dimensional drawings, and personal images. Multiple colors
can enhance a mindmap as a mnemonic tool. Encouraging learners
to create relevant, comprehensive views of connected information
can make recall easier and information more accessible (Nesbit and
Adesope, 2006). Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge by David
Hyerle (1996) remains a valuable resource for a variety of ideas
about concept maps and their uses.
How to Deepen Engagement and Challenge with
Adult Learners
As we consider the strategies for deepening engagement and
challenge, we have to remember that the content of learning is only
as important as the learners’ interaction with it. These strategies

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266 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
offer ways to learn that acknowledge the multiple perspectives and
variety of prior knowledge found among diverse adults. All the
strategies are highly interactive processes. Most result in a concrete
product created by the learner, using the reflection and dialogue
of other learners to construct more complex understanding and
knowledge. The challenges generated by these strategies do not
compel adults to simply participate; they show why the learning is
important and what competent performance looks like (Donovan,
Bransford, and Pellegrino, 1999).
In a way, these strategies create a life of their own, a learning
narrative to follow. They are composed of procedures that engage
the learner with challenging questions, thoughts, and actions to
propel learning toward deeper meaning and accomplishment. For
example, a case study strategy usually starts with an analysis of the
case, which naturally leads to reflection and discussion, followed
by an attempt at resolution. The sequence for a research strategy is
often to observe, analyze, predict, test, and reflect on results. When
the strategies in this section are carried out optimally, learners
experience flow, the joy of complete engagement.
According to Csikszentmihalyi, when we’re in flow, ‘‘living
becomes its own justification’’ (1997, p. 32). I agree. I love the
feeling of flow — the deeply satisfying experience of an intrinsically
motivating activity. We have all had flow experiences outside an
educational context: the feeling and concentration that sometimes
emerge in a closely contested athletic match, in a challenging board
game such as chess, or more simply, in reading a book that seems
as if it were written just for us or in the spontaneous exhilaration
that accompanies a long, deep conversation with an old friend.
In such activities, we feel totally absorbed, with no time to worry
about what might happen next and with a sense that we are fully
participating with all the skills necessary at the moment. There is
often a loss of self-awareness that sometimes results in a feeling of
transcendence or a merging with the activity and the environment
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Writers, dancers, therapists, surgeons,

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 267
pilots, and instructors report feelings of flow during engrossing
tasks in their repertoire of activities. In fact, when interviewed,
they report that flow experiences are among the major reasons
why they enjoy and continue to do the work they do.
Learners can have flow experiences as well. If we think of
our best courses and finest instructors, we often can remem-
ber being captivated by the learning events we shared with
them — challenging and creative activities in which we partici-
pated at a level where a new depth and extension of our capabilities
emerged. Time passed quickly during such experiences, and our
desire to return to them was self-evident. They were also not triv-
ial. Effort and concentration were necessary to gain what we did
accomplish.
Because flow can be found across cultures, it may be a sense that
humans have developed in order to recognize patterns of action
that are worth preserving (Massimini, Csikszentmihalyi, and Delle
Fave, 1988). Whether we are inspired in a course or in ecstasy
in a spiritual ritual, our flow experiences have remarkably similar
characteristics (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2003):
• Goals are clear and compatible. That’s why playing games like
chess, tennis, and poker induce flow, but so can playing a musical
piece or designing computer software. As long as our intentions
are clear and our emotions support them, we can concentrate
even when the task is difficult. We absorb ourselves in those vivid
dreams to which we commit. In such matters, cultural relevance is
an inescapable necessity.
• Feedback is immediate, continuous, and relevant as the activity
unfolds. We are clear about how well we are doing. Each move of
a game usually tells us whether we are advancing or retreating from
our goal; as we read, we flow across lines and paragraphs and pages.
In a good conversation, words, facial expressions, and gestures give
immediate feedback. In learning situations, there should be distinct
information or signals that let us assess our work.

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268 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• The challenge is in balance with our skills or knowledge but
stretches existing capacities. The challenge is manageable but pulls
us toward further development of our knowledge or skill (see Figure
7.2). Flow experiences usually occur when our ability to act and
the opportunity for action correspond closely. If challenges are
significantly beyond our skills, we usually begin to worry; and if
they get too far away from what we’re capable of doing, fear can
emerge. To use a cliché, we’re in over our heads, whether it’s
a project, a job, or a sport. Conversely, when the challenge is
minimal, even if we have the skills, we’ll feel apathetic. (Busywork
comes to mind.) When the challenge is reasonable, but our skills
still exceed it, we are likely to become bored. However, if the
activity is a valued hobby such as crossword puzzles or cooking, we
might actually feel relaxed. In general, when desired challenges
and personal skills approach harmony, we become energized and
stop worrying about control. We’re acting instinctively with full
concentration, and deep involvement and exhilaration lie ahead.
For example, just think of the last time you had a great match in
Low
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Source: Csikszentmihalyi, 1997, p. 31. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books,
a member of Perseus Book Group.

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 269
any game, sport, project, or job-related activity. When I’m with
a class and we’re really ‘‘cooking,’’ I still get goose bumps when
it’s over and need to find a quiet place just to resonate with my
feelings. Remarkable.
• Vital engagement, when flow merges with meaning, is one
of the pinnacles of what living can be. This phenomenon occurs
when there is enjoyable absorption in valued, socially useful tasks
such as work, teaching, or learning. A prototypical example would
be seeing one’s work as a calling and being joyfully immersed in it.
Although vital engagement can occur briefly, such as when solving
a problem during a course, it is more likely to occur when there is
a ‘‘felt conviction’’ that the task is part of something ‘‘inherently
important’’ such as art, science, or education (Nakamura and
Csikszentmihalyi, 2003, p. 100).
Flow is much more possible than many instructors realize. One
in five people experiences flow often, as frequently as several times
a day (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Generally, it happens when with
friends or doing favorite activities.
The purpose of this book is to make learning a lifelong pursuit of
vital engagement. Most of us have a favorite subject where we flour-
ish as we learn. As instructors we want to expand the range of those
subjects for adults so that there is a consistent conjunction of joy
and meaning as they learn across a broader horizon. We reach for
this important goal by composing and carrying out learning activ-
ities that can flexibly challenge and compellingly engage diverse
learners. The genesis of a cherished interest is usually an engross-
ing and successful learning experience that lasts over time. The
following strategies are ideal to help learners find those experiences.
Strategy 40: Use Critical Questions to Stimulate Engaging and
Challenging Reflection and Discussion
John Dewey (1933) wrote that thinking itself is questioning.
Advocates of transformative learning and culturally responsive
teaching urge critical thinking throughout the learning process

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270 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and, therefore, critical questioning (Mezirow and Associates, 2000;
Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). We should distinguish, how-
ever, between a make-sense orientation and a critical orientation.
The make-sense criteria for the validity of a statement are
that the statement seems to hang together and fit with one’s
prior beliefs. If something appears self-evident and makes sense,
there is no need to think any more about it (Perkins, Allen, and
Hafner, 1983).
With a critical orientation, the data and reasoning are exam-
ined for inconsistencies, alternative perspectives are considered,
and bias and overgeneralization looked for. A critical orientation
is socioculturally constructive and allows us to include a wider
human panorama and to consider from different perspectives the
social implications of any idea. Critical questioning fosters discus-
sions that are exploratory, unpredictable, risky, and exciting. Such
questioning is fundamental to critical reflection and to democratic
discussions that foster growth in one’s capacity for learning and
sensitivity to the same capacity in others (Brookfield and Preskill,
2005). Barry Beyer (1987) discerns ten critical thinking skills:
1. Distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims
2. Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information, claims,
or reasons
3. Determining the factual accuracy of a statement
4. Determining the credibility of a source
5. Identifying ambiguous claims or arguments
6. Identifying unstated assumptions
7. Detecting bias
8. Identifying logical fallacies
9. Recognizing logical inconsistencies in a line of reasoning
10. Determining the strength of an argument or claim

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 271
Motivationally speaking, thought-provoking questions make
instructors and adults colearners, prompting everyone to make
connections between their prior knowledge and what is presented.
Such questions are generative, causing us to reflect on our own
information and experience and to transform what we know into
new meanings.
Critical questioning promotes high-level cognitive processing,
stimulating people to analyze, infer, synthesize, apply, evaluate,
compare, contrast, verify, substantiate, explain, and hypothesize.
However, many adults may not be experienced in posing critical
questions in their courses and training. Alison King (1994, 2002)
has developed and extensively tested an instructional procedure
for teaching postsecondary learners to pose their own thoughtful
questions. I have found that adult learners can use this strategy
either on their own or in groups.
Using this procedure, the teacher gives the learners a written
set of question starters such as ‘‘What is the meaning of . . . ?’’ and
‘‘Why is . . . important?’’ These questions encourage knowledge
construction because they serve as prompts to induce more critical
thinking on the part of learners and of the instructor as well.
Learners use these question starters to guide them in formulating
their own specific questions pertaining to the material to be
discussed. Table 7.1 includes a list of these thoughtful question
stems that can be adapted to any subject when completed with
information relevant to that subject. The thinking processes these
questions elicit are also listed in Table 7.1. When the instructor
offers these question stems to learners for their conversations and
dialogue, learners can use their own information and examples to
deepen the content of what is to be studied.
As learners read, review, or reflect on course material with
these thought-provoking questions in mind, they consider ideas
more thoroughly and integrate a wider variety of neural networks.
Such cognitive processing connects new ideas for the learners and
links them in ‘‘different ways to what they already know’’ (King,

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272 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 7.1. Guiding Critical Questioning
Question Starter Specific Thinking Skill
What is a new example of . . . ? Application
How would you use . . . to . . . ? Application
What would happen if . . . ? Prediction/hypothesizing
What are the implications of . . . ? Analysis/inference
What are the strengths and
weaknesses of . . . ?
Analysis/inference
What is . . . analogous to? Creation of analogies and
metaphors
What do we already know about . . . ? Activation of prior
knowledge
How does . . . affect . . . ? Analysis of cause-effect
How does . . . tie in with what we learned
before?
Activation of prior
knowledge
Explain why . . . Analysis
Explain how . . . Analysis
What is the meaning of . . . ? Analysis
Why is . . . important? Analysis of significance
What is the difference between . . . and
. . . ?
Comparison-contrast
How are . . . and . . . similar? Comparison-contrast
How does . . . apply to everyday life? Application
What is the counterargument for . . . ? Rebuttal argument
What is the best . . . and why? Evaluation and provision of
evidence
What are some possible solutions to the
problem of . . . ?
Synthesis of ideas
Compare . . . and . . . with regard to . . . Comparison-contrast
What do you think causes . . . ? Analysis of cause-effect
Do you agree or disagree with this
statement: . . . ? What evidence is there
to support your answer?
Evaluation and provision of
evidence
How do you think . . . would see the
issue of . . . ?
Taking other perspectives
Source: King, 1994, p. 24. Used by permission.

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Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities 273
2002, p. 37). In this manner new neural networks are developed,
providing more durable connections for memory and better cues
for recall.
In addition to King’s list in Table 7.1, I like to use the five
types of questions Richard Paul (1990) associates with a Socratic
dialogue:
Clarification ‘‘What do you mean by . . . ?’’
Could you give me an example?’’
Probing for
assumptions
‘‘What are you assuming when you say . . . ?’’
‘‘What is underlying what you say?’’
Probing for reasons
and evidence
‘‘How do you know that . . . ?’’
‘‘What are your reasons for saying . . . ?’’
Other perspectives ‘‘What might someone say who believed that
. . . ?’’
‘‘What is an alternative for . . . ?’’
Probing for
implications and
consequences
‘‘What are you implying by . . . ?’’
‘‘Because of . . ., what might happen?’’
Learners can use these question stems to guide them in gener-
ating their own critical questions following a presentation, a class,
or a reading.
Let us say we have read Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. We
have agreed that we will each bring along two questions, based on
the list in Table 7.1, regarding any aspect of the book that we find
relevant to our own lives. We break into dyads, and my partner
and I share our questions. They read as follows:
1. How does the last line of the book, ‘‘Who knows but that, on
the lower frequencies, I speak for you?’’ apply to our everyday
lives?

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274 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
2. What is the Brotherhood analogous to in our own contempo-
rary society?
3. The book has many strengths. It has been heralded as one of
the greatest American novels of the second half of the twenti-
eth century. From your perspective, what were its weaknesses?
4. What are examples of invisibility at this institution?
With these queries, we have an opportunity to relate ideas from
this novel to our own knowledge and experience. We can have
an extensive discussion that may clarify some inadequacies in our
comprehension, and each of us has a chance to guide, to some
extent, the thinking that will occur. There is opportunity to infer,
compare, evaluate, and explain, all of which can lead to better
understanding, fuller awareness of social issues, and the possibility
of modifying our own thinking.
It may be that on some of these questions we disagree. Conflict-
ing views are usually motivating because there is a social impetus
to resolve the dissonance. We will probably have to think more
deeply, explain more thoroughly, offer further examples, and nego-
tiate meaning. In an inclusive and respectful learning environment,
they offer the circumstances for a passionate discussion — one of the
most dynamic pathways to intrinsic motivation and new learning.
Resolution of conflicting viewpoints during a discussion is often
facilitated with deft linking questions by a skillful instructor. Being
able to ask, ‘‘Is there any connection between your conclusion and
Terique’s last statement?’’ or ‘‘How does that observation fit with
Franklin’s comment?’’ may open avenues of new insight or mutual
regard. Questions of this sort join the knowledge of learners with
other learners, promoting the understanding that discussion is a
collaborative process in which each adult can make an important
contribution to everyone’s learning (Brookfield and Preskill, 2005).
No matter what kinds of questions we as instructors ask,
there are a number of questioning practices that can increase

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learners’ responsiveness. The following are suggestions for improv-
ing questioning during instruction:
• Avoid instructor echo, which is repeating portions of learners’
responses to a question. This echoing tends to arbitrarily conclude
what the learner has said and dulls further reflection.
• Avoid pressuring learners to ‘‘think’’ about what has been asked.
Adults usually resent this form of indirect intimidation, which
implies they are not motivated or capable in the first place. The
question itself should stimulate engagement.
• Avoid frequent evaluative comments, such as ‘‘That’s good,’’
‘‘Excellent,’’ and ‘‘Fine answer.’’ Even though these may be positive,
they make you the judge and jury, deciding what is better or worse.
Acknowledgment, appreciation, and transition responses such as
‘‘Now I see how you understand it,’’ ‘‘Thank you,’’ or ‘‘Well, that
might mean . . .’’ (followed by a new question) tend to have greater
chances of continuing discussion, interest, and thinking.
• Avoid ‘‘yes . . . but’’ reactions to learners’ answers. Essentially,
this is a rejection of the learner’s response. The but cancels out
what precedes it and affirms what follows it (for example, ‘‘Yes, I
think that might work, but here is another idea’’).
• Probe answers to stimulate more thinking and dialogue. Probes
are questions or comments that require learners to provide more sup-
port, to be clearer or more accurate, and to offer greater specificity
or originality. Some examples: ‘‘How did you arrive at that conclu-
sion?’’ ‘‘I don’t quite understand.’’ ‘‘Please explain a bit more.’’ Many
of the questions found in Table 7.1 can be used as probes.
Strategy 41: Use Relevant Problems, Research, and Inquiry to
Facilitate Learning
A problem can be broadly characterized as any situation in which
a person wants to achieve a goal for which an obstacle exists (Voss,
1989). If relevant and within the range of an adult’s capabilities,
problems, by definition, are engaging and challenging. Processes

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276 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for solving problems are learned within a cultural context (Gay,
2000). Differences in perspective, communication, and ethical
codes may influence how people conceive and approach a problem,
from building a home to settling a divorce. This remarkable variety
in the ways that diverse adults perceive and resolve a problem can
make for a wonderful learning experience.
Adult education has enjoyed a long history in the use of prob-
lems as a procedure for learning. Paulo Freire’s problem-posing
is a distinguished and influential pedagogy throughout the world
(Shor, 1993). Ill-structured problems (that is, those not solvable
with certainty) have been advocated for transformative learning
for over two decades (Mezirow and Associates, 1990). Today,
problem-based learning is a general and international approach
to learning across multiple disciplines (English, 2005). There are
numerous other approaches that use problems and hypotheses
as a motivational strategy to deepen engagement, such as critical
incidents (Brookfield, 1990) and historical and experimental inves-
tigation (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). Due to limited space,
I will discuss only two forms of practice that are popular in adult
education today: problem-based learning and cooperative inquiry, a
form of action research.
The basic steps in problem-based learning may vary, but they
generally are based on the assumption that there is no right answer
and that learning is a self-directed and constructive process where
social context, discovery, and experience lead to new knowledge
and skills (Lohman, 2002). Problem-based learning is characterized
by the use of real-life problems as a means for people to learn
critical thinking, collaboration, and the essential concepts and
professional skills of a particular discipline. Professional educators
in disciplines such as medicine and nursing use problem-based
learning to prepare learners for situations they will face in their
work (Murray and Savin-Baden, 2000).
Although the evidence does not support problem-based learning
as a superior approach to education, even in its clinical applications

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(English, 2005), I have found it to be a useful selective strategy
for engaging diverse adults in the pursuit of more substantial
knowledge to resolve a relevant problem. Problem-based learning
can be an enlightening journey toward the two kinds of objectives
advocated by Eliot Eisner (1985) for any educational experience:
instructional and expressive. The instructional objectives are the
informational elements or the skills the learner is expected to
acquire. The expressive objectives are those that are evoked rather
than prescribed. They are usually based on learners’ interests
and concerns. Expressive objectives can elicit generative themes:
substantial, relevant issues affecting the collective good of society,
such as health, pollution, or economics.
To explore the possible steps for problem-based learning, I have
adapted an example from an inquiry course in arts and sciences at
McMaster University taught by P. K. Rangachari (1996). In this
unit, learners are exploring the dimensions of health and illness in
the modern world, in particular the interaction between providers
and recipients of health care.
1. Brainstorming. In order to evoke expressive objectives, the
first meeting is a brainstorming session during which learners
discuss what they believe to be critical issues in health care.
Distilled from this effort are such topics as bioethics, alterna-
tive medicine, technology in medicine, and funding for health
care.
2. The problems. Working with the learners’ list, the instruc-
tor writes the problems, such as the one that follows. This problem
is based on the learners’ expressed desire to discuss the appro-
priateness of specific procedures in medicine, specifically surgical
rates.
An article titled ‘‘Study Finds Region Surgeons Scalpel-
Happy’’ has appeared in the local tabloid. Naming
names, the article identifies the hospital and notes
that patients there are twice as likely to undergo

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278 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
a cholecystectomy, three times as likely to have a
mastectomy, and five times as likely to have a hysterec-
tomy compared to other regions in Ontario. The findings
implicate the hospital surgeons to be an incompetent,
money-grubbing, and misogynistic lot. The president
of the hospital has demanded an explanation from the
chief of surgery and the chief is livid.
Possible learning issues include (1) a study of variability in the
rates of surgical procedures based on demographics and hospital,
(2) a profile of a surgeon, (3) an assessment of the surgery and
technology identified in the problem, and (4) an examination
of how to handle scandal. (Note the variety of entry points for
multiple intelligences.)
3. Definition of learning issues and formation of study groups.
Learners receive the problem. They organize their ideas and pre-
vious knowledge related to the problem. They pose questions on
aspects of the problem they do not understand or know and wish
to learn. These are usually called learning issues, and they are often
the basis for the learning activities carried out by the students.
(In some cases, a problem is so constructed that the essential con-
cepts of the skills of a discipline become intrinsic to the students’
learning issues). Learners rank the learning issues they generate in
order of importance. Through dialogue and by personal preference,
they decide which issues to assign to small groups and which to
individuals. In two weeks, learners will teach the findings related
to these issues to the rest of the group. The instructor guides the
learners toward resources and necessary research.
4. Preparation for presentations. During the two weeks prior
to their presentations, learners meet, discuss, find and evaluate
information, write their reports, and prepare for their presentations.
To preserve continuity, the instructor holds an intervening session
to discuss any issues that require clarification. Learners also share
information and act as resources for one another.

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5. Presentations and assessment. Learners present the informa-
tion they have gathered related to their learning issues. The rest
of the learners and the instructor grade the presentations and give
comments. The instructor provides guidelines for the assessment.
In this case, high marks are given for clear and understandable
objectives, presentations that communicate the main ideas with
specific and logical support, concepts offered with fitting examples
that contain rich and vivid details, a narrative and cohesive presen-
tation format, and the exposition of new and relevant information.
Along with the marks, each learner receives a typed sheet with
the other learners’ collated comments. Each presenter (or group)
is also required to submit a thousand-word written report of the
presentation that the instructor alone grades and comments on.
This example is just one of a number of possible approaches
to problem-based learning (Savin-Baden, 2003). You will probably
note some similarities between the first three steps of this represen-
tation and how our second illustration of this strategy, cooperative
inquiry, begins.
Cooperative inquiry is a form of action research. Action research
is an approach to empirical research that is undertaken by a
group for the purpose of improving a condition or situation in
which they are involved (Berg, 2007). In general, it is a rig-
orous form of investigation but uses consensual and democratic
strategies to examine, reflect, and resolve issues affecting the com-
munity of participants. It avoids complex statistical techniques
and uses language that both lay people and professionals can
understand.
In cooperative inquiry, all participants are co-researchers and
co-subjects attempting to understand their own as well as each
other’s lives, agreeing to a set of procedures by which they will
observe and record their own and each other’s experiences, and
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280 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
(Reason, 2000). As Peter Reason notes, there is an agreement
among participants to ‘‘knowing as a dialogical process’’ where
‘‘collective awareness and thinking transform the sum of their
parts’’ (2000, p. 86). He outlines four phases to conduct cooperative
inquiry (the titles are mine). Although he describes his approach as
cyclical with the four phases being repeated as needed, for possibly
up to a year, I have altered it to exemplify a single cycle. In my
own practice, I have not yet found a situation where there has been
time for more than three cycles of this process.
Phase 1: Exploration and question construction. Participants ex-
plore an area of interest by discussing their concerns and
creating a focus for their inquiry. They develop a set of
questions and hypotheses. There is mutual agreement to take
some action. They decide on the methods of observing and
recording their experiences.
Example: In a large, diverse urban community college, eight
instructors meet to improve their teaching. There is lit-
tle funding for professional development. They want to
reach beyond a one-day workshop approach to develop-
ing their practice. They come from a variety of disciplines
ranging from technical to liberal studies. Their common
denominator is they all teach large 90-minute sections
with 75 or more students. All agree they face the chal-
lenge of maintaining student engagement for a full hour
and a half.
Question: How can they more effectively engage the interest
of all students during a 90-minute period? This is the
question they decide to begin with.
Phase 2: Gathering information. Participants observe and record
their own and others’ experiences related to the research
question. They share the information among themselves.
They are trying to develop a better understanding of this

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experience. New forms of action may come immediately or
later depending on the outcomes of their discussion.
Example: Participants pair up and visit each other’s class-
rooms twice. At 10-minute intervals they record the
percentage of students engaged in the learning task at
hand. They make notes regarding their impressions of
what seems to distract students and what seems to sustain
their interest.
Phase 3: Analyzing and interpreting the gathered information. Peter
Reason calls this phase the ‘‘touchstone of the inquiry
method’’ because at this point ‘‘the co-researchers become
fully immersed in their experience’’ (2000, p. 87). They may
come up with new understandings. They may venture away
from their original research question. They may have new
creative insights. This is the time when they will act on what
they know.
Example: The instructors are fascinated by the similarity of
their findings. Although teaching different courses, they
see a common pattern: Students seem engaged for the
first 15–20 minutes. Then there is a gradual breakdown
of interest for about 25 percent of the class. This 25 per-
cent meander in roughly three directions: (1) socializing
with peers, (2) doing other school work, and (3) inter-
mittent daydreaming. The instructors’ discussion leads
to the following generalizations: the disengaged students
aren’t negative or hostile; they are more interested in
doing something else; most of them socialize repeatedly
with the same peers; and very few instructors do any
collaborative group work in the first half hour of their
classes.
Phase 4: Reconsidering the original research question and deciding
on further questions and another cycle of research. The group
gathers to discuss their original research question in light of

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their findings, reflection, and experience. They can decide to
ask more questions, pursue various actions or interventions,
gather more information, begin another cycle of research,
or disassemble with new awareness and knowledge resulting
from their inquiry.
Example: The eight instructors feel more cohesive as a
group. They have come to this answer to their research
question: based on our findings, there are two instruc-
tional procedures that may increase student interest in
our courses; the first is to interrupt the current sys-
tems of student disengagement by changing their seating
arrangement; and the second is to use collaborative and
relevant learning activities within the first twenty min-
utes of courses to deepen student interest and establish
a more active process of learning earlier in the period.
Each of the instructors decides to make these changes
over the next two weeks. When the two weeks have been
completed, they will start another cycle of observation,
information gathering, and meeting to discuss the results
of their findings.
Epilogue: This was an actual situation where I worked as a
consultant. The eight instructors were department heads and pro-
gram directors. They wanted to try cooperative inquiry before they
advocated it to their colleagues. A larger proportion of the college
faculty eventually participated in cooperative inquiry. Their major
finding was inadequacy of feedback from instructors to students.
This awareness resulted in professional development for the college
faculty focusing on effective methods for giving students feedback.
The following year the institutional research department of the
college found that student perceptions of instructor feedback had
significantly improved along with student attitudes and climate.
Action research has been found to be a useful means to sus-
tain new learning and transfer among educators (Glanz, 1999).

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My own work supports this finding (Wlodkowski, 2003). Action
research avoids the jargon of stereotypical research and its veneer
of often-alienating statistical banter. As adult learners, educators
are motivated by pragmatic, relevant, and accessible knowledge.
Strategy 42: Use Intriguing Problems and Questions to Make Initially
Irrelevant Material More Meaningful
Sometimes we have to teach material that learners initially regard
as irrelevant. Science and technology are rife with concepts and
tools to which people may have had little or no previous exposure.
When adults have few links between new information and their
experience, we can use intriguing problems and questions to make
this material more meaningful.
As these problems engage adults in concrete experience or
discourse, they create disequilibrium in their thinking. Things
don’t quite make sense. This dissonance stimulates intense interest.
Like a marvelous magic trick, fascinating problems evoke our
speculations, hypotheses, and predictions, often stimulating related
prior knowledge. They make us wonder and imagine. We may be
guessing, but the neural circuits that are now active are probably
closer to a better understanding than the ones available if we were
bored. Once that happens, the problems become relevant to us
because we cannot easily push aside what we find intriguing.
An example adapted from the work of Jacqueline Grennon
Brooks and Martin Brooks (1993) shows how learners can be
provocatively invited to better understand the concepts of momen-
tum and energy: The instructor presents a set of five hanging
pendula, metal balls of equal size that touch each other in a resting
position (see Figure 7.3). The instructor raises one ball and releases
it; the learners note that one ball swings out on the other side.
The instructor then raises and releases two balls, and the learners
observe that two balls swing out on the other side. Raising three
balls, the instructor asks the group to predict what will happen
when the three balls are let go.

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284 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Figure 7.3. A Set of Five Hanging Pendula
Source: Brooks and Brooks, 1993. Used with permission.
Learners usually respond with some or all of the following pre-
dictions: (1) one ball will go out, but higher; (2) two balls will
go out, but higher; (3) three balls will go out; (4) the balls
will ‘‘go crazy’’; (5) the balls will stop; and (6) the balls will swing
together. The learners explain their responses, react to others’
responses, and indicate whether they have changed their minds
upon hearing others’ predictions. Meaning develops through dia-
logue. Of course, feedback by the apparatus itself will prove or
disprove all the ideas, and in fact, within half an hour most
groups demand the release of the three balls in order to test
their theories. Further activities about momentum and energy are
developed based on the learners’ emerging interests and under-
standings.
Presenting learners with discrepant events and contradic-
tory information is a corollary to this strategy. For example,
learners may become more interested in the principles of heat
transference when they have a chance to think about why the
bottom of a paper cup does not burn from the flame of a lighter
when the cup is filled with water. Social contradictions can also

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stimulate learners’ interest. For example, ‘‘The world can pro-
duce enough food to feed everyone, yet starvation and hunger
run rampant even in countries that have the highest standards of
living.’’ Or ‘‘This training method is the most criticized but also
the most widely used in the marketing industry today.’’ In these
instances there must be respect for the learners’ contributions, sub-
stantive discussion, and social relevance. Otherwise, this method
is little more than an expedient trick to enliven conventional
learning.
Strategy 43: Use Case Study Methods to Enhance Meaning
A case study portrays provocative questions and undercurrents
in a narrative of real events. It requires that learners use their
experience and knowledge to analyze, deliberate, and advance
informed judgments from an array of perspectives and concepts
(Marsick, 2004). The hallmark of cases is their authenticity. With
lifelike, concrete details and characters expressing a personal voice,
they put flesh and blood on otherwise abstract concepts.
Because cases present a dilemma and are open ended, they
tend to stimulate different reactions among members of a group.
Yet they permit learners and instructors to be more open and
less defensive because the situation is someone else’s (Hutchings,
1993). We can share our uncertainty as well as our knowledge and
experience because a case presents a knotty problem, not one given
to glib resolution. Dialogue therefore is not limited to the mere
exchange of opinions but rather is imaginative and open to many
ideas.
Having a thorough understanding of the case and its nuances
before teaching it is very important. It should be relevant to
the learners and to the ideas being taught. The facts, context,
and characters in the case should be realistic and pertinent. By
reading the case a few times over, you can begin to see if it meets
such criteria as relevance, authenticity, narrative strength, and

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286 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
complexity to merit its selection for use. Here are some useful
questions to reflect on as you read a case:
What is your first impression?
What are the different ways to interpret this case?
What are the teaching and learning issues?
What is culturally relevant in this case?
Can people construct principles and applications from this
case?
Please keep these questions in mind as you read the follow-
ing scenario, a case composed to stimulate the discussion and
application of ideas in this book.
Exhibit 7.1 Issues of Instruction and Diversity
Beverly Hallman is a recently hired instructor at Central College, an
urban community college. She is twenty-seven years old and has
just completed her master’s degree in educational psychology. As
a European American woman from a middle-class suburban com-
munity, Beverly has very little experience with Latino and immigrant
populations. She regards herself as a conscientious instructor with a
very challenging job.
Beverly teaches introductory psychology. One-third of her stu-
dents are learners whose language of origin is Spanish. She is
concerned that these students do not participate enough in class
but doesn’t know what to do about it. She also has a significant
number of students who were born in Central and Eastern Europe.
Although she would not care to admit it, she finds the male students
in this group to be too aggressive in class discussions. The rest of
the students are African American and European American. At least
a third of the students in her course are over thirty-five years of
age.
Beverly’s general approach is to be fair to everyone and to try to
interest everyone in psychology. The best way she knows to be fair

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is to treat all students the same way and to try to ignore cultural and
ethnic differences as much as possible. There seems to be a tension
in the class and no visible attempts to form intercultural friendships.
There are thirty students in Beverly’s class. Her teaching approach
is to use short lectures followed by short general discussions. Usually
the same few students dominate the discussion. Most of them are
male and over forty years of age, and none of them are Hispanic.
When these students talk about their experiences, the younger stu-
dents in the class are visibly disengaged and some seem resentful.
Beverly administers a weekly quiz that is graded and returned to
students. This structure keeps the students focused on note-taking
and makes the classroom climate tolerable.
As a new teacher, Beverly feels this is too early to be in a rut.
She’d like to spark the class but is afraid of controversy. She believes
a psychology course should be more than vocabulary enhancement
but is at a loss as to what to do beyond showing a few films. She
intuitively knows that some of what she is teaching, especially about
social relationships, personality theory, and motivation, is for cultural
reasons not realistic or relevant to a good number of her students.
But again, she doesn’t quite know how to address this issue with
them. Also, for Beverly to admit that cultural differences make some
aspects of psychology irrelevant and inapplicable might make her
quizzes and tests seem unfair.
The worst part is that her students are generally doing poorly. This
is most obvious on the summative test she gave at midsemester.
Beverly feels responsible. She has half a semester left to go and
decides she will ask a more experienced teacher in her department
for assistance.
It is a good first step to be sure learners comprehend the goals
of a particular case study. For the case study in this example, some
goals might be the following:
To increase understanding of how to improve instruction with
particular attention to inclusion, motivation, and learning
among diverse adult students

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288 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
To improve understanding of diversity issues — age, ethnicity,
bias, fear of conflict, and the like — as they relate to instruction
To analyze and explore multiple perspectives on the issues
found in the case
To consider ideas found in this book as they might assist
Beverly in the improvement of her instruction
Depending on such factors as the kind of material covered in
the case and the experience, trust, and sense of community among
the learners, cases can be processed in small groups or as a whole
group. It is very important to open the discussion of the case in a
manner that invites wide participation and relevant and interested
commentary. Here are some suggestions with which to experiment
(Hutchings, 1993):
• Ask learners to ‘‘free write’’ (put pencil to paper in a
flow of consciousness) for a couple of minutes after
reading the case so that they have some reflections to
offer.
• Ask each learner to talk with a partner for a few min-
utes about key issues in the case before you request indi-
vidual responses.
• Ask a couple of learners to summarize the case before
asking others to join in.
• Ask learners to remark about one element they felt was
important in the case and record these comments pub-
licly. This lets everyone know there is a range of inter-
pretations before discussion begins.
During the discussion, the kinds of questions we ask can serve
different purposes — for example, to encourage further analysis,
challenge an idea, mediate between conflicting views, and guide
learners to generate principles and concepts and to apply them.

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Creating a discussion outline for the case study (see Exhibit 7.2)
and being open to addressing questions the learners may have can
keep the case study process flowing and relevant.
Exhibit 7.2 A Possible Discussion Outline for a Case Study
1. Which items in this case stand out as significant teaching and
learning issues?
Probes:
Which of these issues are you familiar with from your own
teaching?
Which of these issues have you had some success in resolving?
Which of these issues arouse apprehension, and why?
2. What could Beverly do to improve the sense of community
among her students?
Probes:
What attitudes does Beverly have and what actions has she
taken that may increase tension and separation among her
students?
What can Beverly do to increase participation and collabora-
tion among the students?
What do we know about adult learners that we could apply to
make their participation more equitable? More relevant to the
rest of the students?
3. How could Beverly be more motivating as an instructor?
Probes:
How does Beverly’s teaching suppress motivation to learn?
If you were to transform Beverly’s approach to teaching, where
would you start? What would you have her learn?
What in particular have you learned in this book that might be
of genuine assistance to Beverly?

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At times, it may be very effective to role-play aspects of the
case: ‘‘What would be your remarks to Beverly if she were to ask
you to observe her? Let’s hear them, and one of us can react as she
might.’’ Other times, it may be beneficial to record key information
on the board or a chart. Direct quotes from the case can serve to
focus the group.
In general, after students have read the case, the pattern of
learning moves from reflection and analysis to the surfacing of
concepts and principles, to the development of possible solutions
and related hypotheses, and to the application of action strate-
gies to individuals’ own practices and purposes. Important to an
effective analysis is guiding learners to base their answers on the
facts of the case rather than to speculate. Learners should have
some practice in planning their solution with attention to tim-
ing, strategies, barriers, and consequences, intended or otherwise
(Marsick, 2004).
How you close the case discussion is critical. Most cases do not
end with ‘‘the answer’’ or in a confident resolution of the problem.
Nevertheless, there should be some opportunity for learners to
reflect on what they have learned, to privately or publicly identify
new understandings, to air unresolved conflicts or questions, and to
make plans for making changes or taking action. Some approaches
to closing the case study activity are as follows (Hutchings,
1993):
• Ask learners to describe how their understanding of
specific principles and concepts were deepened or
expanded as a result of doing the case study — and pos-
sibly why as well.
• Ask learners to spend some time writing answers to
such questions as, What new insights did you gain
from this case study and its discussion? What are your
lingering questions? What new ideas do you want to
try out?

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• Ask learners to brainstorm insights, personal changes in
thinking or action, or new areas to explore as a result of
the case study.
• Go around the group and ask each learner to provide
one insight, question, lesson, change, or intuition that
has emerged as a result of this process.
Using case studies in technical fields, such as chemistry, may
require a more structured approach, but not so structured that the
flow of learners’ ideas and perspectives would be suppressed. A final
note: individually and collaboratively, adults are a great resource
for constructing cases.
Much of what we learn as adults is for situations where there
is no single best response but multiple better responses with
potentially beneficial consequences. Consequently, especially in
difficult situations, the less we know the people and the real-life
context for applying what we have learned, the more we are likely
to fall back upon old habits or ill-formed and incomplete versions
of what we have newly learned. I have seen this pattern in myself
and I have witnessed it among novice teachers.
As a pre-service teacher educator, I occasionally watched stu-
dents who were earnest and capable in education courses become
confused in their internships and either not apply or misapply
what they had learned in their coursework. This often occurred
when the student teacher had to manage a disciplinary action, a
situation filled with strong emotion, stress, and unpredictability. It
was obvious the student teacher was anxious and could apply very
little at that moment from what he had heard in class or read in a
textbook.
Although this scenario is from a teacher education program, it
is analogous to much of college education and employee training,
because what we learn in courses and books is so removed from

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the dynamics and contexts of real life that we are unable to recall
or apply our new learning in our work or community. We need to
practice new learning in situations that approximate, replicate, or
are real life so that we can receive feedback within those situations
to deepen and refine our learning, and we need enough time and
practice to embody this new learning in order to be effective at
what we value.
We now come to three motivational strategies that offer the
opportunity to practice what we are learning in situations that
approximate or are real life; where we can interpret the context,
make choices about how we do what we have learned, receive
feedback from the consequences of the actions we take, and use
in-the-moment judgment to accomplish our goals. For knowledge
and skill that are meant to be applied, this is the best way I know
to deepen meaning. As we will see in the discussion of simulation,
a sea change in teaching and training is ahead of us.
Adaptive Decision Making
For real-life situations that are dynamic and have no clear ‘‘correct’’
answer, where our responses affect the context and the possible
choice of responses that follow, we can only learn and retain new
knowledge for them by doing, by performing it in the real-life
situations where it will be used or in contexts that replicate
those situations. According to Elkhonon Goldberg (2001), these
situations require adaptive decision making. In such situations,
there is no clear right answer or response. We do not have a
‘‘recipe’’ for what to do. We have to interpret the situation while it
is happening and choose from a number of possible actions. When
we drive a car, mediate an argument, or respond to an emergency,
we are using adaptive decision making. In such situations, analysis
and critical thinking are going on very quickly with responses to
feedback firing rapidly and no clear best answer at hand. We have a
goal, such as to get to a destination or resolve an argument; we have

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knowledge and skill to apply; we can make better decisions and
actions; but how and what to do are moment-to-moment choices
without a complete and final path of action.
Adaptive decision making occurs many times over in our
daily lives. When we use knowledge and skill effectively in such
situations, we often say we have a feel for them. This expression
reveals embodied meaning, the understanding that the knowledge
and skill we apply are available as part of our psychophysiological
system (Caine and Caine, 2006). We have learned this knowledge
and skill in a way that it is a part of our senses, cognitions, emotions,
and physical being, available to us as an actual embodiment of
meaning (Damasio, 1999; Varella, Thompson, and Rosch, 1995).
In this regard when we learn something very well and use
it, we often say, ‘‘It’s a part of me.’’ In my case, teaching is a
part of me. I have colleagues for whom research and writing is
a part of them, instinctual and intuitive. When the young people
from information technology come to my aid, I can see that
working with computers is part of them. Their quickness with
the machine seems reflexive and an extension of their being.
Musicians, athletes, artists, and experts offer us countless examples
of embodied learning as well. The question then is, How do we
get from reading a book about something to having it as embodied
knowledge that we can effectively use in situations that require
adaptive decisions?
Based on my experience and the research and theory available
at this time, we need repeated immersion into real-life situations
or their authentic replications, where we can navigate with our
new knowledge while we integrate feedback and engage our senses,
thoughts, emotions, and actions — our entire psychophysiological
system (Caine and Caine, 2006). The next three motivational
strategies (44: role playing, 45: simulations, and 46: internships)
offer in ascending order increasingly realistic contexts for engage-
ment and practice to embody new learning.

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Strategy 44: Use Role Playing to Embody Meaning and New Learning
within a More Realistic and Dynamic Context
When adults can apply or practice new knowledge while sincerely
experiencing people, situations, perspectives, and reactions approx-
imating authentic instances in life, they have an opportunity to
embody the meaning of what they are learning and to become
more proficient. Role playing is the acting out of a possible situation.
The learner assumes the identity of a particular person with given
characteristics and intentions. Often there is a scenario such as a
meeting or a conflict situation.
Because role playing has broad applicability across subject areas
and accommodates a variety of perspectives, it is a very useful
strategy with diverse adult learners. Role playing gives learners
a chance to try out attitudes, ideas, and skills that have been
introduced formally by learning materials and less formally by
instructors and peers. A realistic situation is established so that
learners proceed through the scenario with genuine involvement
of their intellect, feelings, and bodily senses.
Role playing gives learners the opportunity to think in the
moment, question their perspectives, respond to novel or unex-
pected circumstances, and consider different ways of knowing
(Meyers and Jones, 1993). Role playing can be used to practice
a specific skill such as providing an academic progress report in a
parent-teacher conference, a collaborative skill such as collective
bargaining, a problem-solving skill such as a procedure for a bio-
chemistry experiment, or a synthesizing skill such as organizing an
instructional plan using motivational strategies from this book.
Role playing is also excellent for developing empathy and the
skill to validate another person. It gives learners and instructors
a chance to take on the viewpoints and rationales of people with
different perspectives, as might occur, for example, when a lesbian
couple and a heterosexual couple discuss the merits of a proposed
law concerning domestic partnerships. When there is a chance to

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reverse roles so that learners act out roles that conflict with their
own perspective (for example, when a union member takes on the
role of a manager), learners have the opportunity to think and feel
from a position they may never have been in. Role playing is an
excellent procedure for shifting perspectives, adding insights, and
starting conversations that may have been unimaginable before the
introduction of this strategy.
The following are some guidelines adapted from the work of
Meyers and Jones (1993) for conducting effective role playing:
• Know where and how the role play conforms to your instructional
situation. Is it a good fit given who your learners are, where the
learning is heading, and what learners expect to do? Nothing is
worse than a role play that feels contrived or trivializes an important
issue.
• Plan well ahead. You need to have some degree of confidence
that your learners are familiar and proficient enough with the
concepts or skills that will be practiced during the activity. Have
they seen models or read cases that acquaint them with what they
are expected to do? Do they have a fair knowledge of the cultural
roles they may assume? If they are uncomfortable, can they excuse
themselves or observe until they are more at ease about playing a
role?
• Be relatively sure everyone clearly understands the roles before
you begin the role play. Allow for questions and clarifications. Often
it is helpful to write a script, with contributions from learners,
describing the attitudes, experiences, and beliefs associated with
the role. The learners then study and use the script to deepen their
familiarity with the role. For example, an excerpt from a script for
a parent may include such statements as ‘‘I am a single parent. I
work nights in a service job. I often feel exhausted.’’
• Set aside enough time for the discussion that follows. The dis-
cussion and analysis are as important as the role play itself. What
are the different perspectives, reactions, and insights? What are the

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learners’ concerns? What has not been dealt with that still needs
attention? Has the desired learning been accomplished? How?
What about the process itself? How can it be improved? This is
a good time to raise issues of critical consciousness (see Chapter
Three), when impressions are fresh and resonant.
• When role playing seems potentially embarrassing or threatening,
it is often helpful for the instructor to model the first role play and discuss
it. This may alleviate some initial hesitation and allow learners
to see our own comfort (we hope) with our imperfections and
mistakes.
Freezing the action during a role play can serve many purposes:
to critique a perspective, explore learners’ reactions to a poignant
comment, allow learners to make beneficial suggestions to the
actors, and relieve tension. The follow-up activities for a role
play are extremely important. Often they can connect what is
learned to greater academic and social consequences. For example,
a compelling next step could be the creation of an action plan to
use what has been practiced and discussed in an actual work or
professional setting.
Strategy 45: Use Simulations and Games to Embody the Learning
of Multiple Concepts and Skills That Require a Real-Life Context
and Practice to Be Learned
Many professions use multiple sets of knowledge and skills over
time to effectively reach their goals. Business, health, and edu-
cational administrators are obvious examples as they lead their
organizations, start new programs, deal with conflicts, and adjust
to unpredictable local and global events. For programs that prepare
adults for such occupations, simulations may be the only way to
embody knowledge and to practice new learning for a reality too
distant, too risky, or too expensive for an educational or training
environment.
Simulations are constructed environments in which learners
assume different roles as they act out a prescribed scenario, a

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program of action, or the management of a large systemic organi-
zation such as a company, hospital, or school. Simulations allow
adults to more deeply learn and practice multiple concepts and
skills over a shorter time than in real-life experience. For example,
six months are shortened to six days. Simulations immerse learners
in a reality that mimics real life, allowing them to experience
what might remain abstract in textual materials and traditional
classes — power, conflict, discrimination, aggression, debt, stress,
and expenditure of resources.
Currently, simulations are becoming very popular for training
and business education (Aldrich, 2005). As a format for learning,
they are vastly improving as rapidly evolving technology makes
them more creative and accessible for the classroom and e-learning.
A well-designed simulation elicits a variety of feelings in learners,
allows for practice of new learning among unpredictable events,
replicates the learners’ work roles, offers feedback from a variety
of sources, supports collaboration, and stimulates decision making
with cause-and-effect consequences (Vaughan, 2006).
A complex and highly technical simulation requires a detailed
design and developmental guide such as Flash MX for Interactive
Simulation (Kaye and Castillo, 2003) for its construction. However,
the outline by Michael Vaughan (2006) in Exhibit 7.3 for a
high-impact business simulation to teach leadership skills would be
relevant for simulations in other professional areas such as health
and education. The elements in this outline are also instructive for
a simpler simulation which an instructor or trainer could construct
for a particular course or seminar. Illustrating these elements is a
description (Exhibit 7.4) of how Regis University in Denver has
used a simulation for the capstone course in its MBA program.
Exhibit 7.3 Elements of a Simulation
Learning to filter information. Success in many professions requires
leadership to focus on what’s important and to eliminate extraneous

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information. The simulation should require the learner to discrimi-
nate between relevant and irrelevant information in order to make
decisions.
Learning to deal with interruptions. Untimely intrusions, from emergency
calls to colleagues who ‘‘need a moment,’’ are part of every day for
a leader. The simulation should entail situations where the learner has
to adapt to impositions and to prioritize responsibilities within time
constraints.
Implementing clearly defined goals. Leaders are responsible for attaining
agreed-upon goals such as market share and enrollment targets. The
simulation should challenge the learner to reach a particular goal that
is well defined and that can be tracked during the simulation.
Evaluating and reacting to feedback. Effectively responding to feedback
is crucial for most leaders. How to assess and react to feedback is a
critical skill in any occupation. The simulation should provide several
feedback elements that relate to performance and goal achievement.
Exploring options. Trying out different ideas is often not possible in
real-life leadership because it’s too risky. But a simulation should allow
‘‘what if’’ questions to be played out to realize the consequences of
decisions and develop critical thinking.
Practicing collaboration. Leaders have to communicate and collaborate
effectively. The simulation should provide opportunities for cooperation,
discussion, developing common goals, and responding with mutual
support.
Adapting to tension. Things do not always go smoothly for leaders.
There are mistakes, conflicts, stress, unmet goals, and so forth. The
simulation should offer some demanding and challenging situations
where reasonable tension occurs and the learners can accommodate
or resolve problems as they progress toward their goal.
Dealing with competition. Leaders often have to compete with other
companies, departments, or organizations. The simulation should pro-
vide competitive situations. If desirable, these can be made into gaming

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elements with score keeping and comparisons. They may add fun to
the simulation.
Benefiting from acceleration. Leaders can’t accelerate time to see how
their decisions work out. A simulation affords this opportunity. The
simulation should manipulate time so that the learner can have insights
about the consequences of her decisions.
Receiving coaching. Most leaders have consultants, coaches, or col-
leagues to question and probe their decisions. The role of the coach
is not to give advice but to stimulate reflection and deeper thinking on
the part of the learners. Whether it is the instructor or the simulation
itself, there should be processes that stimulate the learners to evaluate
their ideas and decisions.
Using a pre-determined guide. The simulation should have a way to
guide learner actions. Usually there is an evaluation component or
engine in the simulation that electronically or through the instructor
assesses the learners’ responses and indicates progress and flow.
A simple example is a game board which players cross to reach an
ultimate goal. Each player’s turn determines a variety of possible moves
and consequences as they traverse the board. At an elementary level,
the game of Monopoly simulates rational investment strategies among
mutually respectful real estate brokers. (At least, that’s what I told our
children until greed and regression emerged to overtake our playful
encounters.)
Source: Adapted from Vaughan, 2006, pp. 179–182.
Exhibit 7.4 Description of a Simulation for an MBA
Capstone Course
There are 12,000 adult students in the School for Professional Studies
at Regis University in Denver. One of its most popular programs is the
Master of Business Administration (MBA). Students can take courses
that are either in classrooms or online. After interviewing employ-
ers who hired its MBA graduates, the program’s administrators
and faculty decided to make its capstone course more experiential

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and relevant: to offer students the opportunity to actually lead a
business enterprise rather than to learn about how it can be done.
To achieve this goal, faculty decided to make the capstone course
a simulation that looked and felt like a real company. In collaboration
with designers, they created an international shoe company, Mercury
Shoes, where students approaching graduation could serve as senior
executives. In these roles, the students had a real-life business
environment with responsibilities to make decisions about strategic
issues based on industry news, market data, stock quotes, quarterly
budgets, employment resources, and so forth.
As in the real world, there were news articles, radio reports, and
other media that provided valuable as well as distracting information.
Students might get a news article about rising wages in an East
Asian country or about new technology for inexpensively producing
synthetic rubber. Because this information would affect their produc-
tion and costs, they would have to further study financial and analyst
reports, conduct market analyses, and update their knowledge about
current company reports in sales, marketing, finance, operations, and
human resources. In order to arrive at an effective business strategy,
they would also have to be aware of government policies, economics,
law, and ethical practices.
Their multibillion-dollar company, including a manufacturing and
a service component, reached an international market in at least
three continents, so the context and complexity involved in students’
decision making was realistic and substantial. Students received
feedback from a simulated systemic framework about the intended
and unintended consequences of their strategies and actions. In addi-
tion, they received coaching to probe their thinking and to facilitate
further learning about business executives. At appropriate intervals,
faculty provided guidance for students to move forward with plans
and strategies. With performance indexes and faculty evaluations as
part of the assessment process, learners received further relevant
information about their progress toward academic as well as profes-
sional goals. With more than 1,500 students successfully completing

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this course, the capstone simulation continues today with ongoing
supplements and refinements to make it an authentic as well as
motivating process to embody new learning.
Source: Personal communication from Michael Vaughan, March 6, 2007.
Games can be similar to simulations but they are usually very
structured and have a competitive win-lose quality. Video and
computer games are currently extremely popular, especially with
younger adults. In recent years, they have evolved into multiplayer
online games such as Sony’s EverQuest. Games such as Lineage in
Korea have hundreds of thousands of players playing at the same
time (J. S. Brown, 2002). Similarly, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft
teams up players from all over the world to create war games.
With 3-D graphics, life-like characters, and multidimensional
narratives, games can be realistic and engaging. The evolution of
smart models, whose tactics develop in response to interactions with
human players, promises increasing educational and intellectual
benefits for challenging people to practice their skills as well as
to develop their ingenuity. Haptics, the science of touch, offers
the possibility of simulations and games that can be used for
learning skills such as surgical procedures and operating dangerous
machinery (Vaughan, 2006).
With such advances as artificial life (AL), software agents
that possess human characteristics which evolve on the basis of
interaction with the environment and people, the possibilities for
games and simulations are extraordinary. In the future, learners
may be as likely to role play with a machine as with another
person. These developments are both fantastic and surreal.
This is new territory for adult education. John Seely Brown
offers this insight: ‘‘There is something very important happening
here. . . . Our goal should be to think carefully about how we
can let the virtual augment the physical, and not replace it. . . .
None of us know how to navigate this new space flawlessly. We
have to listen, experiment, and reflect’’ (2002, p. 64). In this

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regard, there is the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow
Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC. Its
purpose is to ‘‘forge productive links between the electronic games
industry and projects involving the use of games in education,
training, health, and public policy’’ (Serious Games Initiative Web
site, 2007.) Its Web site offers informative opportunities for adult
educators.
Strategy 46: Use Visits, Internships, and Service Learning to Raise
Awareness, Provide Practice, and Embody the Learning of Concepts
and Skills in Authentic Settings
Sometimes there is only the real thing to make learning mean-
ingful and to involve all of our senses and modes of engagement.
As sincere as I was as a teacher educator, no role play or class-
room simulation ever matched the kind of serious reflection and
emotional engagement that working in schools with real teachers
and students produced for the learners I worked with in preservice
education. Our visit to a high school once a week with assigned
responsibilities to assist teachers raised the level of relevance for
our course and substantially increased our motivation to learn.
Simply put, once we started going to the school, we were ‘‘for real.’’
Most service professions such as teaching, social work, and
nursing have clinical practicum and internships. Over the years,
the value of practice and learning in authentic settings has become
apparent. What I want to emphasize in this strategy is what I would
call ‘‘connected’’ visits, relevant real-life situations where adult
learners apply and reflect on what they are learning. Here are a
few examples of course activities where I have seen learning enter
another stratum of meaning and embodiment due to its pertinent
use in actual environments:
• Interviewing immigrant families in their homes for
courses in education, nursing, and communication
• Tutoring students for courses in numerous disciplines

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• Observing and collecting in forests, marshes, and
quarries for courses in the earth and environmental
sciences
• Visiting auto and other manufacturing plants for courses
in numerous disciplines
• Working with politicians and activists for courses in the
social and political sciences
• Service learning for courses in social justice
In order to employ this strategy, the questions for us as instruc-
tors are the following: Can the learners make a real-life connection
to the subject I am teaching? If so, is there any way that I can create
a placement or visitation where they can apply what they are learn-
ing? If so, can they make that connection in a way that responsibly
serves the community they are visiting? An obvious answer to these
questions is a course or training that has a service-learning compo-
nent. However, service learning does not necessarily translate into
the embodiment of learning.
Embodiment requires a certain amount of practice, reflection,
and refinement over time. Service learning may not be the best
opportunity for this regimen. Service learning also needs a critical
consciousness (see Chapter Three) for understanding its complex-
ity and possible misapplication. A book that is responsive to these
issues is Service Learning in Higher Education: Critical Issues and
Directions (Butin, 2005). Elise Burton (2003) has written an article
that sensitively addresses a transformative service-learning experi-
ence for adults engaging their beliefs and knowledge in a powerfully
different cultural setting.
Strategy 47: Use Invention, Artistry, Imagination, and Enactment
to Render Deeper Meaning and Emotion in Learning
Invention and artistry are ways of creating something with which
to express oneself; to respond to a need or desire; to react to an

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experience; and to make connections between the known and the
unknown, the concrete and the abstract, and the worldly and the
spiritual and among different people, places, and things. Through
art and invention, adults attempt to answer questions such as these:
What do I want to express? What do I want to create? What is
another way? What is a better way? What do I imagine? What do I
wish to render? What does . . . mean to me?
I discuss invention and artistry together because the conceptual
and subjective differences between them are difficult to discern
and because both ought to be integral to learning and not, as is
so often the case with art, separate entities in education. We can
consider artistry as an embedding of art in learning rather than as a
separate and frequently disenfranchised experience (‘‘Now we are
going to do art’’). As Jamake Highwater has said, ‘‘Knowledge is
barren without the capacity for feeling and imagination’’ (1994).
Art is a vivid sensibility within life and learning across all cultures
throughout the world. I believe the lack of meaning so frequently
attributed to academic learning and professional training may be
due to the indirect but nonetheless thorough separation of learning
from artistry.
Although invention is more frequently associated with a specific
product and technology, it is difficult for us to tell the difference
internally between being inventive and being artistic. Both pro-
cesses can be used in every subject area. Both processes are open
ended and entail kindling an awareness of creative possibility while
considering educational or training goals. For example, one of my
colleagues, Michele Naylor, teaching a course titled Foundations
of Education, approached her learners with the question, ‘‘What
are the things we, as educators in our communities, most deeply
want to contribute and accomplish?’’ The learners were then given
an hour to reflect, write, and sketch their reactions to this question.
Afterwards they met in small groups to share their responses. This
led to the mutual agreement to post their sketches and conduct
a large-group dialogue. From this activity the group decided to

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compose a mural depicting the theme of community and learning.
Using poster paints, a large roll of paper, and masking tape, the par-
ticipants collaborated with their ideas and sketches to create a mural
that was six feet high all around the circumference of the classroom.
This took about six hours. During the creation of the mural, one of
the learners took photographs of the process and created a collage.
Each learner also wrote a reflective paper discussing the process of
creating the mural and the ideas represented. At the next class ses-
sion, encircled by the mural they created, the learners summarized
their reactions and made connections between this process and the
work they did or intended to do in the community.
As an example of invention, I recall a small cadre of adult
learners who were struggling to comprehend systems theory and
decided to invent a game, played according to systems theory,
which could teach the fundamental concepts and principles of this
theory in a pleasurable way. The game board was a narrow roll of
cloth with simulated steps that when extended created a serpentine
figure across the width of a small room. Along its path were stations
where players (other learners in the course) were to be interviewed
or asked to complete activities and draw graphic models of systemic
processes. The game became so popular as a teaching device that
the university library acquired it as a resource.
My experience has been that learners across many cultures
welcome the invitation to infuse their academic work with artwork,
such as sketches and poetry. I have also found that projects that
include works of fiction, plays, visual art, musical compositions,
songs, and performance art as essential components offer access to
some of the most profound understandings adults gain from their
learning.
When learners imagine or enact the physical and emotional
properties of an idea, the concept becomes more salient, enhancing
neural connections and increasing neural growth to deepen learn-
ing (Cozolino and Sprokay, 2006). Using images and the physical
senses to experience ideas makes them more directly compelling

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and enhances their emotional associations. For example, it’s one
thing to say chemotherapy can be devastating. It’s quite another
to remember accompanying a friend during his sequence of treat-
ments. In quite another direction, suppose the concept under
discussion is excellence. Having adults remember what they did
and how they felt at a time when they achieved excellence in their
lives can enrich and increase the vividness of what the concept of
excellence really means.
One of the best ways to use imagination and enactment is to
create a situation in which learners become a concept. They become
a representation of an idea and carry out a desired, challenging task.
For example, when we learn about feedback, learners and I often
create a game analogous to ‘‘hot and cold’’: one of us has to find
an object, and the rest of us use tapping as the signal. We become
feedback! Afterward we are well prepared to discuss feedback
conceptually and to address its nuances concretely. Adventure
education and Outward Bound courses do this to the maximum
and make a lasting difference, especially with adults (Hattie and
others, 1997). If you want to explore the meaning of challenge,
crossing raging river rapids attached to a rope with a $4 pulley will
give you a memorable opportunity. Or in a more tranquil example,
an adult basic education instructor conducting a course in earth
science could have the learners physically represent the planets
and their movements in order to understand the solar system.
There are myriad possibilities with this approach. And it’s great for
experiencing flow.
When it comes to enhancing meaning with adult learners, it
seems important to have a criterion, one measured by feedback, by
which we can estimate the motivational quality of our instruction.
It’s also important to remember that motivation ebbs and flows.
Learners are not going to be as active when they are reflecting and
contemplating. Sometimes, no matter how much we care, energy

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drains and dissipates. We also need to keep cultural differences in
mind: the person silent and calm may be as intensely motivated as
the person with the most bright-eyed expression in the group.
As an instructor, I have found paying attention to alertness in
all its manifestations in a learning group is important. Boredom
is not always easy to perceive, but sleepiness and what I call
the presomnolent stare (eyes glazing over) seem to translate pretty
consistently across cultures. If I see more than a few people showing
these signs, I find it helpful to assess the learning activity for its
qualities of engagement, value, and challenge.
I also want the best learning atmosphere possible. Adult learners
have some responsibility for the learning climate. However, as their
guide, I want this climate to be optimal. My role is to observe and
respectfully orchestrate. If the energy in the group is declining, I
may need to do something as simple as suggesting a break or refining
the learning activity. The important point is that my observation
of the group acts as a motivational altimeter that increases my
awareness of learners’ responsiveness, so when that responsiveness
is falling to a level at which learning is less effective, I can select
from among the best motivational strategies I know to stimulate
the conditions that evoke motivation. This process is analogous to
stoking a fire.
Nurturing an optimal climate for a community of adult learners
is a constant challenge, and successfully meeting that challenge
increases my feelings of competence and flow. Working in an
optimal learning climate is like being in a remarkable conversation.
The learning and the relationships are the ‘‘gravy’’ beyond the
experience itself. Yet the years have taught me that there is a craft
to facilitating these experiences. They are seldom serendipitous.
We have to want and plan for an optimal learning climate. But
this atmosphere happens only when we are fully present and keenly
aware just about 100 percent of the time. It’s worth it. Knowing
we have helped create a group of vitally active and friendly adults
who are enjoying learning can be quite a feeling.

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8
Engendering Competence among Adult
Learners
That’s what reality is.
It’s a dream everyone has together.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Middlesex
Being effective at what we value resonates with somethingbeyond feeling competent. At some level, competence con-
nects with our dreams, with that part of us that yearns for unity with
something greater than ourselves. We want to matter. There are
many ways to make this so: caring for someone we love, nurturing
beauty, living with purpose, finding good in our work, and learning.
Although we may do these things day in and day out, we need
to believe we do them fairly well. If we do not, we must vaguely
realize we are diminishing what makes life worth living and hope
a constant in our midst. To be ineffective at what we value is a
spiritual dilemma. By being competent we build the bridge that
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reconciles spiritual satisfaction, a moral life, and altruistic passion.
The quest for competence starts with something as simple as a baby
looking for a toy behind a pillow and ends in later life with what
Erik Erikson called generativity, our desire to leave an enduring and
beneficent legacy.
The acknowledgment of purposeful agency seems to be universal
(Plaut and Markus, 2005), and competence appears to be the most
powerful of all the motivational conditions for adults. For people
with a European American background, competence usually is
perceived as acting as an independent self distinct from others.
For people from an East Asian background, competence usually
is perceived as acting as an interdependent self whose actions are
conjoint and in relationship with others (Plaut and Markus, 2005).
Across cultures, this human need for competence is not one that
is acquired but one that already exists and can be strengthened or
weakened through learning experiences. To a certain extent, how
adults view the outcome of competent behavior is situationally
dependent. In some instances, people may understand competence
as an individual proficiency for achieving what is best for one’s
personal interests. Saving money could be a likely example. In
other situations, people may conceive of competence as a collective
responsibility, carried out with regard for what is best for others as
well as oneself — for example, being environmentally responsible.
Individual effectiveness is important, yet it is to be achieved with
consideration of our interdependence with all things and our
impact on the generations to come.
The quest for a balanced sense of competence is found not only
in many native cultures (Michelson, 1997) but also among many
workers and employers who actively pursue social and environ-
mental responsibility as an ethical commitment. The emphasis in
this book is on finding ways to support adult competence while
illuminating the socially redeemable aspects of the individual’s
increased effectiveness.

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Supporting Self-Directed Competence
Because the norm of individual responsibility is very strong in this
society, being a self-directed learner is the general expectation for
adults. In their everyday lives and when solving personal problems
ranging from fixing a leaky faucet to finding a suitable college, most
adults are experienced self-directed learners (Merriam, Caffarella,
and Baumgartner, 2007). They take primary responsibility for their
own learning. Wouldn’t it be silly to hear an adult say, ‘‘I just don’t
know how to find a hardware store. And nobody will help me!’’
When people can endorse what they are learning and see
themselves as volitional and autonomous in their learning, they
tend to be intrinsically and positively motivated (Deci and Moller,
2005). This finding is informative for employers (and their trainers),
who increasingly require people to capably self-direct their learning
in their jobs.
However, sometimes instructors and trainers encounter adults
who seem dependent, lacking in self-confidence, or reluctant to
take responsibility for their learning. Three of the most common
reasons are that (1) these adults have not been socialized to see
themselves as in control of their own learning, (2) their experience
in school or in the particular domain of learning has been generally
negative or unsuccessful, and (3) they do not believe they have
a free choice as to whether or not they engage in the learning or
training experience. This last reason, very common among adults,
is a personal security issue to which adult educators have been
sensitive for many years (Brookfield, 1993).
In some instances, adult learners need courses and training not
so much because they want them but because they need the jobs, the
promotions, and the money for which these learning experiences
are basic requirements. This is the reality for many adults, and it
may be one about which they feel they have little choice. ‘‘Just
tell me what to do’’ is their common refrain. They realize the
highly controlling nature of some corporate environments and

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higher education institutions is beyond their political or personal
influence.
Strategies to support adult volition and the self-direction of their
learning have been discussed in the previous three chapters. The
strategies that relate to the motivational purposes of respect, self-efficacy,
expectancy for success, and deepening engagement and challenge are most
effective in this regard. When combined with the following strategies
to engender competence, they create a holistic system in which
the competence and the self-direction of adult learners mutually
enhance each other. Proficiently applied, the strategies enable
adults who feel minimal control of their learning to grow in the
realization that they can determine and direct learning they value.
Since these strategies are not culturally neutral, we need to
remain sensitive to the different ways that self-directedness may
be culturally understood or enacted. For example, one study found
that Korean adults who had cultivated self-directedness in their
learning without remaining interdependent with their group were
seen as immature and self-centered by other group members (Nah,
2000). As with using all of these strategies, cultural responsiveness
on the part of the trainer or instructor has to be constant.
Relating Authenticity and Effectiveness to
Assessment
In training and more formal learning experiences, assessment
exerts a powerful motivational influence on adults because it is
the socially sanctioned educational procedure to communicate
about their competence. Historically, more than any other action,
assessment by the instructor has validated learners’ competence.
Our comments, scores, grades, and reports affect learners in the
present and the future. Assessment often leaves a legacy for adults,
directly or indirectly, by having an impact on their careers, voca-
tional opportunities, professional advancement, and acceptance
into various schools and programs.

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Many adults undergo debilitating stress in testing situations.
They often feel awkward and anxious taking exams, especially when
there is pressure to perform, a highly competitive environment, or
serious consequences for poor performance. Test anxiety has been
found to be a widespread problem among adults (Sarason, 1980).
As responsible adults with some degree of professional or social
standing, we are vulnerable to such uneasiness for valid reasons.
Among them may be fears of revelation of ignorance, of negative
comparison with peers, and of inability to meet personal standards
and goals. I have often thought that one of the great benefits of
being an older adult is ‘‘No more tests!’’ However, one does begin
to replace those that are academic with those that are medical in
this period of life.
In assessment situations, emotion is a double-edged sword that
can enhance or diminish performance (LeDoux, 1996). With
moderate to mild stress, adrenaline is released. We are more alert.
Neural connections are more fluid, and memory systems coordinate
to retrieve relevant knowledge. But high anxiety diminishes our
capacity to think rationally and the problem-solving part of the
brain is less efficient. Our thinking narrows and we react rather than
reflect (Sapolsky, 2004). For suggestions to reduce the disabling
stress of assessments, please see Strategies 49 and 50.
For assessment to be intrinsically motivating for adults, it has
to be authentic — connected to adults’ life circumstances, frames of
reference, and values. For example, a case study could be used as an
authentic assessment if it asked learners to respond to a situation
that mirrors their work or community life with the resources and
conditions normally there. A real-life context for demonstrating
learning enhances its relevance for adults, appeals to their pragma-
tism, and affirms their rich background of experiences (Kasworm
and Marienau, 1997). In contrast, an impersonal multiple-choice
exam can seem tedious and irrelevant to many adults.
Effectiveness is the learners’ awareness of their mastery, com-
mand, or accomplishment of something they find to be important

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in the process of learning or as an outcome of learning. Therefore,
both the processes and the results of learning are significant infor-
mation for adults. How well am I doing? and How well did this turn
out? is a critical pair of questions for adult learning activities. In the
example of the case study, to judge the quality of their thinking as
they process the case, the adults would likely want feedback about
how well their responses relate to the issues in the case study. In
addition, when they finally resolve the case, they would want to
assess the quality of this outcome for its merits as well. Motivation
is elicited when adults realize they have competently performed
an activity that leads to a valued goal. Awareness of competence
affirms the need of adults, across cultures, to act purposefully in
their world as they understand it.
If we take an institutional perspective, the first aim of assessment
is usually to audit adult learning. However, I am in agreement with
those scholars (Wiggins, 1998; Taylor, Marienau, and Fiddler,
2000) who have asserted that assessment should primarily be used
to enhance learning and motivation. If we truly want assessment to
be a means for learning, the real question is How many different ways
can we find to help adults become confident that they have learned a
topic or a skill proficiently for what matters to them?
With respect to this question, let’s begin with feedback as a
motivational strategy, because self-adjustment based on feedback is
essential to learning. As James Zull writes, ‘‘Testing our (personal)
theories is the ultimate step in learning’’ (2006, p. 7). Adults
change or maintain how they learn and how they perform based on
the feedback they receive about their ideas and behavior. Through
feedback they become more competent — as well as realize they are
competent.
Strategy 48: Provide Effective Feedback
Feedback is information that learners receive about the quality of
their work. Knowledge about the learning process and its results,
comments about emerging skills, notes on a written assignment,

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and graphic records are forms of feedback that instructors and
learners use. Feedback appears to enhance the motivation of learn-
ers because learners are able to evaluate their progress, locate
their performance within a framework of understanding, main-
tain their efforts toward realistic goals, self-assess, correct their
errors efficiently, self-adjust, and receive encouragement from their
instructors and peers.
From a neuroscientific perspective, feedback enhances learning
and motivational processes within the brain. When we learn, we
are anticipating what to do next and making specific predictions
based on prior knowledge — for example, in solving a math problem
we tell ourselves, ‘‘Next I need to multiply 11 times 11 and add
that number to my total. That’s 122 added to. . . . Oops, or is it 121?
I better check my calculator. Glad I did: 11 times 11 is 121.’’ And
on we go to solve the rest of the problem. Feedback, in this case via
the calculator, informs our predictions and energizes the learning
process. Neural activity is initiated by our anticipations and pre-
dictions (Schultz and Dickinson, 2000). Feedback evokes signaling
among specific neural circuits by confirming or disconfirming our
predictions. It also stimulates emotional states (pleasure in being
correct, perplexity in being incorrect, and so forth) that provide
energy for further neural activity in the learning process. If we’re
awake and active, feedback is a constant in our lives. It is the
essential human process for knowing we’re in control. In this way,
feedback contributes on a moment-to-moment basis to our need
for survival (Zull, 2002).
Feedback is probably the most powerful communication that
instructors and peers can regularly use to affect learners’ compe-
tence. Feedback is as elemental to the sum of a person’s knowledge
as photosynthesis is to a rainforest. Without it, the benefits of
trial-and-error learning would be impossible.
Although most of the research on feedback has been done
with youth (Hattie and Timperley, 2007), Morris Keeton and
his colleagues emphatically support the finding that feedback is a

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critical influence for enhancing practice and deepening adult
learning (Keeton, Sheckley, and Griggs, 2002). In studies at Har-
vard, students and alumni overwhelmingly reported that the single
most important ingredient for making a course effective is get-
ting rapid instructor response on assignments and exams (Light,
1990). In general feedback is informative when it identifies ‘‘what
is good and why, as well as what needs to be improved and
how’’ (Brophy, 2004, p.72). However, feedback can be complex
and nuance makes a difference. The following paragraphs further
describe characteristics of effective feedback:
• Effective feedback provides evidence of the learner’s effect rel-
ative to the learner’s intent. This most often is feedback that is
based on agreed-on criteria, standards, and models (Wiggins, 1998).
Learners can compare their work against a standard: a superbly
written executive letter, a museum sculpture, a rubric for critical
thinking, or a video of a political activist giving a rousing speech.
Learners are then in a position to understand what they have done
and how it compares to their own goals. They can judge how well
they have performed a task or produced a product in terms of a
specific target. They are clear about the criteria against which their
work is being evaluated and can more explicitly decide what needs
to be done for further effective learning.
Such self-assessment leads to self-adjustment. Learners can use
this information to guide their effort, practice, and performance
more accurately. For example, in a welding course, each learner
agrees to produce a ninety-degree corner weld to industry specifica-
tions. The standards are written out on paper and available. When
the learner makes a weld that she judges to be up to this standard,
she comes to a table to compare her weld to welds ranging from
excellent to poor. Based on this comparison, the learner adjusts the
necessary skills and improves the next weld or, if satisfied, moves
on to a more advanced task. The instructor may give guidance if
the learner requests it.

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• Effective feedback is informational rather than controlling.
According to the seminal research of Edward Deci and Richard
Ryan (1991), feedback is more likely to enhance intrinsically moti-
vated learning when it is informational, telling learners about their
effectiveness and supporting their self-determination. Controlling
feedback undermines self-determination and intrinsic motiva-
tion by making the adult’s behavior seem dependent on forces
that demand compliance. For example, for informational feed-
back we might say, ‘‘In your paper you’ve clearly identified
three critical areas of concern; your writing is well organized
and vivid; I appreciate how well you’ve supported your ratio-
nale with facts and anecdotes.’’ An instructor giving control-
ling feedback for the same behavior might say, ‘‘You’re making
progress and doing as you should be doing, meeting the stan-
dards for organization and evidence that I’ve set for writing in
this course.’’ Controlling feedback often contains imperatives such
as should and must. Often the difference between informational
and controlling feedback is subtle, but can be extreme in its
impact.
• Effective feedback is specific and constructive. It is difficult to
improve performance when we have only a general sense of how
well we have done. Most people prefer specific information and real-
istic suggestions for how to improve (Brophy, 2004). For example,
‘‘I found your insights on government spending compelling. To
emphasize your conclusion, you might consider restating your ini-
tial premise in your last paragraph.’’ Or ‘‘Your ending paragraph is
a thorough summarization with well documented facts cohesively
organized. However, two of your sentences are in the passive voice.
This paragraph might be more powerfully stated with active verbs
in those sentences.’’ When you are giving guidance with feedback,
it is important to keep in mind how much the learner wants to or
ought to decide on a course of action relative to the feedback. In
general, the more that adult learners can confidently self-assess and
self-adjust, the more intrinsically motivated they will be.

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• Effective feedback can be quantitative. In such areas as athlet-
ics, quantitative feedback has definite advantages. It is precise and
can provide evidence of small improvements. Small improvements
can have long-range effects. One way to understand learning is by
measuring rate, which indicates how often something occurs over
a fixed time. For example, a learner is told he completed thirty laps
during a one-hour swimming practice. Another way is by measuring
the percentage of learning performance that is correct or appro-
priate. Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of times
the learning performance occurs correctly by the total number of
times the performance opportunity occurs, as in batting averages
and field goal percentages. Another common form of quantitative
feedback is duration, which is how long it takes a learning per-
formance to be completed. For example, a lab technician might
receive feedback on how long she takes to complete a particular
chemical analysis. These are not the only forms of quantitative
feedback that are possible, but they are a representative sample.
Whenever progress on learning a skill appears to be slow or is
difficult to ascertain, quantitative feedback may be an effective
means to enhance learner motivation.
• Effective feedback is prompt. Promptness characterizes feed-
back that is quickly given as the situation demands but not
necessarily immediately (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Sometimes
a moderate delay in feedback enhances learning because such a
delay is simply culturally sensitive or polite. For example, after they
perform in public, waiting for learners to reduce their anxiety or
talk with peers seems entirely appropriate. In general, it is best to be
immediate with feedback but to pay careful attention to whether a
delay might be beneficial.
• Effective feedback should be frequent when practice is vital
to the learning goal. Frequent feedback is probably most helpful
when new learning is first being acquired. In general, one can
often provide more frequent feedback through technology (such
as a radar gun that indicates the speed of baseball pitches) when

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practice can clearly lead to improvement of skills. Here is an area
where neuroscience is providing important insights.
‘‘Practice makes perfect’’ is an old adage that may be truer than
we think. As we have mentioned repeatedly in this book, every skill
and bit of knowledge exists as a neural circuit. When we learn, the
connecting fibers — the axons and dendrites — join with thousands
of other fibers and neurons to create more complex knowledge and
skill. These circuits fire signals as we exert this knowledge and skill.
Recent neurological studies (Coyle, 2007) indicate that myelin, a
membranous wrapping around nerve fibers, thickens in response
to the frequency of impulses traveling along a particular circuit.
‘‘Myelin works like insulation. The thicker it gets, the faster and
more accurately signals pass through nerve fibers wrapped within
it’’ (2007, p. 40). Faster impulse speed is crucial to optimal thought
and movement. Whether we’re reading or playing tennis, the more
we practice, the more we myelinate the circuits particular to each
skill. This practice allows us to more efficiently and more precisely
control signal speed along that circuitry, improving our skill in
reading or playing tennis.
K. Anders Ericsson (2006) offers evidence that what people
normally call talent is the result of an enormous amount of deliberate
practice. As described earlier for reading and tennis, deliberate
practice enhances the myelination of neural circuitry for these
skills and others, such as playing piano or golf. It requires constantly
working on technique, requesting continual corrective feedback,
and fully concentrating on improving weaknesses. Olympic athletes
and other people committed to expert performance in sports spend
thousands of hours in deliberate practice. Although the capacity
to myelinate exists throughout life, it appears that the greatest
capacity for this biological process is during youth and young
adulthood (Coyle, 2007).
Myelination would also explain to some extent why once errors
have accumulated, improving a skill is more difficult to accom-
plish. When multiple errors become established, the erroneous

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techniques have a neural circuitry that is probably well myelinated.
The new learning encouraged through feedback may seem too diffi-
cult and confusing because of slow signal speed along unmyelinated
and undeveloped circuitry, making further progress seem even more
remote to an adult learner.
• Effective feedback is positive. Positive feedback emphasizes
improvements, progress, and correct responses rather than defi-
ciencies and mistakes. It is an excellent form of feedback because it
increases learners’ intrinsic motivation, feelings of well-being, and
sense of competence and helps learners form a positive attitude
toward the source of the information. Adults prefer positive feed-
back because when they are trying to improve, emphasis on errors
and deficiencies (negative feedback) can be discouraging. When
learners are prone to making mistakes, the instructor’s pointing
out a decrease in errors may be considered positive feedback. Also,
positive feedback can be given with constructive feedback. For
example, an instructor might say to a learner, ‘‘You’ve been able to
solve most of this problem. Let’s take a look at what’s left and see
if we can understand why you are getting stuck.’’
• Effective feedback is related to impact criteria. Impact criteria
are the main reasons a person is learning something, the heart
of the individual’s learning goal (Wiggins, 1998). Often these are
unique or strongly related to a cultural perspective. One person may
produce a speech or a piece of writing to inspire, arouse, or provoke.
Another may wish to create a design or a performance as a gift for
her family or friends. Assessment and feedback should support such
individual goals and respectfully deal with what may be ineffable
or accomplished only in a realm beyond mechanistic objectivity.
We may need to give feedback that is more akin to dialogue or to
what many artists do when they respond to how another’s work
emotionally affects them, rather than ‘‘evaluate’’ that work.
• Effective feedback is usually personal and differential for skill
and procedural learning. Differential feedback uses self-comparison

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and focuses on the increment of personal improvement that has
occurred since the last time the learning activity was performed. In
skill or procedural learning, such as writing, operating a machine, or
learning a particular sport, emphasizing small steps of progress can
be very encouraging to learner motivation. However, the amount
of time that lapses before we document such differential feedback
can affect its perception. For example, learners may be able to
see larger gains and feel a greater sense of accomplishment when
their improvement is summarized on a daily or weekly schedule.
Portfolios and video are excellent for this type of feedback because
each can offer the learner comparisons after significant time and
practice.
In addition to the specific characteristics of feedback just listed,
some refinements in the composition and delivery of feedback
may be helpful. For many skills, graphing or charting feedback can
encourage learner motivation because this visual representation
makes progress more concrete and shows a record of increasing
improvement.
We should always consider asking learners what they would
like feedback on, especially when we are working with diverse
populations. Their needs and concerns may be different from ours,
and the knowledge gained from such discussion can make the
feedback more relevant and motivating.
Learners’ readiness to receive feedback is also important. If people
are resistant to feedback, they are not likely to learn or self-adjust.
In such cases, it may be advisable to hold off on feedback until
a personal conference can be arranged or until learners are more
comfortable with the learning situation.
Checking to make sure our feedback was understood can be impor-
tant for complex feedback or for adults who are English-language
learners.
Everything that has been said about feedback thus far also
applies to group feedback. Whether the group is a team, a collab-
orative group, or an entire class, feedback on the group’s total

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performance can influence each individual. Because group feed-
back consolidates members’ mutual identification and sense of
connection, it helps enhance group cohesiveness and morale.
As a final point, please remember that sometimes the best form
of feedback is simply to encourage adults to move forward to the
next, more challenging learning opportunity.
Strategy 49: Avoid Cultural Bias and Promote Equity in Assessment
Procedures
Probably nothing is more demoralizing to adults than to realize
they do not have a fair chance to demonstrate their knowledge
or learning. The reality is that it is difficult to avoid bias in
any test or assessment procedure that uses language, because the
words and examples sway the learner toward a particular cultural
perspective. This is especially true for paper-and-pencil tests. A
common example of bias is content that favors one frame of
reference over another (Kornhaber, 2004). Bias relates not only
to ethnicity but also to age and gender. For example, items about
sports tend to give males an edge, whereas items of similar difficulty
that focus on child care may favor females (Pearlman, 1987).
We need always to examine the assumptions embedded in the
materials we create or select for assessment. We do not want to
penalize anyone for not having been fully socialized in a particular
culture or oriented to a dominant perspective (Alfred, 2002). We
know adult learning is derived from multiple sources and varied
life experiences (Kasworm and Marienau, 1997). So when we
are developing our assessment instruments (and all other training
and curricular materials as well), it is important to consider the
following issues:
• Invisibility. Is there a significant absence of women and
minority groups in assessment materials? (This implies
that certain groups are of less value, importance, and
significance in our society.)

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• Stereotyping. When groups or members of groups are
mentioned, are they assigned traditional or rigid roles
that deny diversity and complexity within different
groups? (When stereotypes occur repeatedly in print
and other media, learners’ perceptions are gradually
distorted, making stereotypes and myths seem more
acceptable.)
• Selectivity. Does offering or allowing for only one inter-
pretation of an issue, situation, or group of people
perpetuate bias? (We may fail to tap the varied perspec-
tives and knowledge of learners.)
• Unreality. Do assessment items lack a historical con-
text that acknowledges — when relevant — prejudice
and discrimination? (Glossing over painful or contro-
versial issues obstructs authenticity and creates a sense
of unreality.)
• Linguistic bias. Do materials reflect gender bias? For
example, are masculine examples, terms, and pronouns
dominant? (As in the case of invisibility, this bias
devalues the importance and significance of
women.)
Even directions for tests can be biased. This is especially true for
English-language learners, who benefit from test instructions that
are direct and simple. Whenever possible, we want to avoid the
passive voice and ambiguous comments. Test instructions should
be in short sentences and guidelines should be clear and explicit.
We also should allow adequate processing time for questions and
directions to be understood.
It is fair and reasonable to provide assessment accommodations
for learners with disabilities and for English-language learners
(Kornhaber, 2004). For example, they may need to be assessed in a
small group or individually. Modifications may include extra time

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324 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
to complete tests, presentation of assessment materials in audio
or video, and allowances for different ways of responding, such as
dictation or using an interpreter.
Instructors often regard assessments as learning audits to assign
grades or evaluation scores. But assessments can also be an excellent
instructional method to provide understanding of what adults
are learning, how they are thinking, what their progress is, and
which learning problems to address. Applied in this manner, they
are formative assessments that guide instruction and identify areas
that learners may need to deepen, improve, practice, revise, or
strengthen in terms of their understanding and skill development.
For example, in an accounting course at an urban college, the
assessment requires learners to make recommendations based on
a cost-volume-profit analysis for the production and sale of a new
product for a manufacturing company. Their recommendations
and calculations reveal both their conceptual and computational
understanding of this analysis. They have had time to practice it
and the instructor could easily have chosen to grade their work.
However, due to the professional value of this analysis and the
linguistic diversity of his students, he prefers to use this assignment
as a formative assessment to give each learner feedback about
their understanding of this analysis and suggestions for further
practice.
With the largest immigrant population in the history of
the United States in today’s educational and training systems,
many adult educators are experiencing greater linguistic diversity
among adult learners than ever before. Often there is need for
greater practice and feedback during learning for English-language
learners to accommodate the linguistic forms, communicative
strategies, and Eurocentric context of their courses and train-
ing. Formative assessment is one more way for instructors to meet
linguistically diverse adults where they are and help them deepen
their learning in a way that benefits all learners in the group.

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Strategy 50: Make Assessment Tasks and Criteria Clearly Known to
Learners prior to Their Use
If we genuinely want self-assessing, self-adjusting, and self-directed
learners, we must make sure they comprehend the tasks and criteria
by which they are assessed. Trainers in the business world do this
frequently, and those of us in higher education must evolve in
this direction as well. Adults greatly appreciate clear assessment
tasks and criteria because becoming competent is then no longer
a guessing game, and they can more clearly assess and guide their
own learning. Plainly spoken — no more secrets.
This strategy complements differentiated instruction, scaffold-
ing, and contracting (see Chapter Six). Using it, we make criteria,
examples, and models readily available to learners. Where scoring
or grades are necessary, we ensure that all learners clearly under-
stand the rationale for their assignment. In fact, one of the issues
we need to consider when using this strategy is the degree to which
learners participate in the creation and refinement of the assess-
ment criteria. Certainly, we should discuss criteria and assessment
procedures at the beginning of a course or training, remaining open
to making changes to the process or criteria based on input from
the learners. For example, discussion might reveal a lack of time,
materials, or opportunities — conditions that may prohibit certain
kinds of learning. Therefore, it’s quite possible that we could not
apply certain criteria fairly.
However, what about revision of criteria or assessment proce-
dures because of differences in the learners’ values or perspectives?
I don’t have an answer that I believe would fit most circumstances,
but I do have a procedure that I often find helpful. I offer it not as a
formula but as an example of how I have dealt with the complexity
of asking adults to participate in shaping assessment criteria.
In a research course, two parts of the assessment process are for
students to critique a research article of their choosing and to create

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a research proposal in an area of interest. The major purpose of the
course is for learners to develop an understanding of the primary
assumptions, perspectives, and methods that guide research as it
can be conducted in the social sciences.
On the first day, I give the learners models of an excellent critique
of a research article and an exemplary research proposal that were
written by former students in the course. After reading them, the class
divides into small groups to discuss why these two examples might
be considered commendable. They also reflect on other laudable
ways to critique an article or create a proposal that are not mentioned
in the examples I offered. During a whole-group discussion, we list
both sets of qualities. I then pass out the criteria I normally use, and
we see which of their criteria match mine and which do not match.
Then we talk further, and after this discussion, I make the agreed-on
revisions to the criteria. Often the changes have to do with adding
qualitative pieces —sociocultural aspects of research that I may need
to consider, such as personal histories and political perspectives.
Transforming training and courses into educational settings
where learners share responsibility and authority for their learn-
ing is an evolving process for learners as well as for instructors.
It may often mean coming to the learning environment with a
well-considered plan and set of assessment criteria but being will-
ing to reinvent some of these elements according to the learners and
situation. In my experience, both Strategies 49 and 50 markedly
reduce adult assessment anxiety, a benefit for which all of us are
grateful.
Strategy 51: Use Authentic Performance Tasks to Deepen New
Learning and Help Learners Proficiently Apply This Learning to Their
Real Lives
Authentic performance tasks are one of the oldest forms of assess-
ment and have been commonly used in training and adult education
for many years (Knowles, 1980; Fenwick and Parsons, 2000). Today
we have a more sophisticated understanding of these procedures

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 327
and their central idea: that assessment should resemble as closely
as possible the ways adult learners will express in their real lives
what they have learned. Thus, for people learning computer pro-
gramming skills, we would assess their learning by asking them to
write and debug source codes of computer programs.
The closer that assessment procedures come to allowing learn-
ers to demonstrate what they have learned in the environment
where they will eventually use that learning, the greater will be
learners’ motivation to do well and the more they can understand
their competence and feel the self-confidence that emerges from
effective performance. From a neuroscientific perspective, authen-
tic assessment contributes to the embodiment of learning, when
deeper learning of knowledge and skills occurs as they are used in
a real context (Varella, Thompson, and Rosch, 1995). Thus, the
neural circuitry and psychophysiological systems throughout our
body develop with more capability to apply this learning in future,
similar real world situations.
Providing the opportunity for learners to complete an authentic
task is one of the best ways to conclude a learning activity because
it promotes transfer of learning, enhances motivation for related
work, and clarifies learner competence. An authentic task directly
meets the adult need to use what has been learned for more effective
daily living.
According to Wiggins (1998), an assessment task, problem, or
project is authentic if it has the following characteristics:
It is realistic. The task replicates how people’s knowledge and
capacities are ‘‘tested’’ in their real world.
It requires judgment and innovation. People have to use knowl-
edge wisely to solve unstructured problems, as a carpenter
remodeling part of a house must do more than follow a
routine procedure.
It asks the learners to ‘‘do’’ the subject. Rather than recite or
demonstrate what they have been taught or what is already

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328 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
known, the learners have to explore and work within the
discipline, as when they demonstrate their competence for
a history course by writing history from the perspective of
particular people in an actual historical situation.
It replicates or simulates the contexts that adults find in their
workplace, community, or personal life. These contexts involve
specific situations and their demands; for example, managers
learning conflict resolution skills could apply them to their
work situations, with consideration of the actual personalities
and responsibilities involved.
It assesses the learners’ ability to use an integration of knowledge
and skill to negotiate a complex task effectively. Learners have
to put their knowledge and skills together to meet real-life
challenges. This is analogous to the difference between taking
a few shots in a warm-up drill and actually taking shots in a real
basketball game, or between writing a paper on a particular
law and drafting a bill for a legislator. This assessment criterion
involves adaptive decision making, an effective process for the
embodiment of knowledge and critical thinking (see Chapter
Seven).
It allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult
resources, and get feedback on and refine performances and
products. These opportunities are so important. Learning
and, consequently, assessment are not one-shot enterprises!
Almost all learning is formative, whether its purpose is how
to repair plumbing, write a publishable article, or bake a pie.
We put out our first attempt and see how it works, reads,
or tastes. We repeatedly move through a cycle of perform,
get feedback, revise, perform. That’s how most high-quality
products and performances are attained — especially in real
life. We must use assessment procedures that contribute to
the improvement of adult performance and learning over
time. Doing so means that assessment is often separated from

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 329
grading processes to assure learners that their mistakes are not
counted against them but are a legitimate part of the learning
process.
Table 8.1 contains Grant Wiggins’s comparisons of typical tests
and authentic tasks.
Strategy 52: Provide Opportunities for Adults to Demonstrate Their
Learning in Ways That Reflect Their Strengths and Multiple Sources of
Knowing
As adults, most of us are motivated to accomplish assessments
in which we can use our strengths to demonstrate the depth
and complexity of our learning. Such opportunities cannot use
one-dimensional, high-stakes paper-and-pencil testing formats
because, by their very structure, tests of this sort reduce and
constrict what we can show about what we know. We need either
multiple forms of assessment (tests, products, portfolios, and jour-
nals) or multidimensional assessment (authentic performance tasks
and projects) to adequately reveal the richness of the strengths and
sources of our knowing.
At times, the amount of professional time required to accom-
plish the assessments described here can seem overwhelming. Yet,
if we make assessments a partner and part of continuing learning
and motivation for adults, rather than merely audits by which to
assign grades or scores, assessments themselves become important
learning activities, worthy of everyone’s time and effort. Nonethe-
less (I know you are thinking), time constraints will still be a
challenge. With this problem in mind, here are some worthwhile
assessment activities and methods to support the use of authentic
tasks or to be transformed into authentic tasks.
• Assessment options based on Howard Gardner’s multiple intelli-
gences. Adults have different profiles of intelligences. Their having
the opportunity to select an assessment process that reflects their

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330 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 8.1. Key Differences between Typical Tests and Authentic
Tasks
Typical Tests Authentic Tasks Indicators of Authenticity
Require correct
responses only
Require quality product or
performance (or both)
and justification
The learner can explain,
apply, self-adjust, or justify
answers, not just answer
correctly using facts.
Must be
unknown
beforehand to
ensure validity
Are known in advance;
involve excelling at
predictable demanding
and core tasks; are not
‘‘gotcha!’’ experiences
The tasks, criteria, and
standards by which work
will be judged are
predictable or known to
the learner — as a recital
piece, a play, an engine to
be fixed, or a proposal to a
client can be clearly
understood and
anticipated prior to
assessment.
Are
disconnected
from a realistic
context and
realistic
constraints
Require real-world use of
knowledge; the learner
must ‘‘do’’ history,
science, and so on in
realistic simulations or
actual use
The task is a challenge
with a related set of
constraints that are
authentic — likely to be
encountered by the
professional, citizen, or
consumer. Know-how, not
plugging in, is required.
Contain
isolated items
requiring use or
recognition of
known answers
or skills
Are integrated challenges
in which knowledge and
judgment must be
innovatively used to
fashion a quality product
or performance
The task is multifaceted
and nonroutine, even if
there is a ‘‘right’’ answer.
It thus requires problem
clarification, trial and
error, adjustments,
adapting to the case or
facts at hand, and so on.

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 331
Table 8.1. (Continued)
Typical Tests Authentic Tasks Indicators of Authenticity
Are simplified
for easy and
reliable scoring
Involve complex and
nonarbitrary tasks,
criteria, and standards
The task involves the
important aspects of
performance or the core
challenges of the field of
study (or both), not the
easily scored; it does not
sacrifice validity for
reliability.
Are one-shot Are iterative; contain
recurring essential tasks,
genres, and standards
The work is designed to
reveal whether the
learner has achieved real
versus pseudo mastery,
and understanding versus
mere familiarity over
time.
Depend on
highly technical
correlations
Provide direct evidence,
involving tasks that have
been validated against
core adult roles and
discipline-based
challenges
The task is valid and
fair on its face. It thus
evokes student interest
and persistence and
seems apt and challeng-
ing to learners and
instructors.
Provide a score Provide usable
(sometimes concurrent)
feedback; the learner is
able to confirm results
and self-adjust as needed
The assessment is
designed not merely to
audit performance but to
improve future
performance. The learner
is seen as the primary
beneficiary of
information.
Source: Wiggins, 1998, p. 23.

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332 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
particular intellectual strengths should encourage their parti-
cipation and enthusiasm for demonstrating their competence.
Table 8.2, adapted from Multiple Intelligences and Adult Literacy
(Viens and Kallenbach, 2004) and Teaching and Learning through
Multiple Intelligences (Campbell, Campbell, and Dickinson, 2004),
is categorized by type of intelligence (see Chapter Two).
The assessment options in Table 8.2 will need criteria for
learners (and instructors) to judge the quality of their learning
and performance. Strategy 53 addresses this need. However, as an
example of the thoroughness that may be needed to meaningfully
assess many of these creative options, consider the criteria below
for assessing an exhibition such as a poster session or the mural
created by Michele Naylor and her students described in Chapter
Seven (Campbell, Campbell, and Dickinson, 2004).
Knowledge of the topic Supporting evidence
Diversity of perspectives Organization of format
Communication with visitors Clarity of materials
Creativity of delivery Quality of content
Effective use of resources Overall cohesiveness
In addition to accommodating multiple intelligences, the assess-
ment menu in Table 8.2 offers a range of learning and performance
that require deep understanding — design, teach, discern, explain,
analyze, write, create, and the like. For example, a learner in a
science course might design an experiment to analyze the chemi-
cals in the local water supply and write an editorial based on the
results for the local paper. These assessments provide opportunities
for imaginative experiences that allow adults to use their unique
perspectives, preferences, and strengths. Furthermore, with these
assessments adults can develop deeper relationships between new
learning and their cultural backgrounds and values.

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 333
Table 8.2. Assessment Menu for the Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence Assessment processes
Linguistic Tell or write a short story to explain . . .
Keep a journal to illustrate . . .
Write a poem, myth, play, or editorial
about . . .
Create a debate to discuss . . .
Create an advertising campaign to depict
. . .
Create a talk show about . . .
Write a culminating essay to review . . .
Logical-mathematical Complete a cost-benefit analysis of . . .
Write a computer program for . . .
Design and conduct an experiment to . . .
Create story problems for . . .
Conduct a mock trial to . . .
Induce or deduce a set of principles on . . .
Create a timeline for . . .
Create a crossword puzzle for . . .
Musical Create a song that explains or expresses . . .
Revise lyrics of a known song to . . .
Collect a collage of music and songs to . . .
Create a dance to illustrate . . .
Create a music video to illustrate . . .
Create an advertisement to . . .
Spatial Create a piece of art that demonstrates . . .
Create a poster to . . .
Create a videotape, collage, photo album
of . . .
Chart, concept map, or graph . . .
Design a flag or logo to express . . .
Create a scale model of . . .
Create a mobile to . . .
(continued)

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334 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 8.2. (Continued)
Intelligence Assessment processes
Bodily-kinesthetic Perform a play on . . .
Invent or revise a game to . . .
Role-play or simulate . . .
Use puppets to explore . . .
Create a sequence of movements to
explain . . .
Create a scavenger hunt to . . .
Create a poster session or exhibition
to . . .
Interpersonal Participate in a service project that will . . .
Offer multiple perspectives of . . .
Collaborate to resolve a local problem
by . . .
Teach a group to . . .
Use what you’ve learned to change or
influence . . .
Conduct an interview and/or a discussion
to . . .
Intrapersonal Create a personal philosophy about . . .
Discern what is essential in . . .
Explain your intuitive hunches about . . .
Explain your emotions about . . .
Explain your assumptions in a critical
incident . . .
Keep a reflective journal to . . .
Naturalist Discover and describe the patterns in . . .
Create a typology for . . .
Relate and describe the interdependence
of . . .
Observe and describe . . .
Use a field trip to analyze . . .
Based on observation and field notes
describe your learning about . . .

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 335
• Portfolios and process folios. Regardless of its purpose, a port-
folio is a sample of a person’s work or learning. It can provide
more diverse examples created over a longer time than a single
test can. Multiple indicators — such as tests, products, media, and
self-assessments — can make up a portfolio and contribute to a
deeper understanding of an adult’s learning. Portfolios can be an
effective means of reflection and assessment for an adult’s personal
goals as they mesh with course goals in programs ranging from the
vocational to the professional (J. O. Brown, 2002). The contents of
a portfolio and the assessment criteria used to evaluate it will differ
depending on the portfolio’s purpose. In this book, the portfolio
is not discussed as a vehicle for prior learning assessment. The
following are some of the ways a portfolio can be used (Wiggins,
1998):
As a display of the learner’s best work, as chosen by the
learner, the instructor, or both
As a display of the learner’s interests and goals
As a display of the learner’s growth or progress
As documentation of self-assessment, self-adjustment,
self-direction, and learning
As evidence for professional assessment of learner
performance
A process folio (Gardner, 1993) goes beyond a conventional
portfolio: it layers elements of the entire learning experience so
that learners are able to document and reflect on challenges and
understandings that emerge over time. The process folio documents
three primary considerations: the content of learning (what is being
learned), the context of learning (how what is being learned fits
into a larger framework, possibly the learner’s life, experiences, and
culture), and perceptions of the process of learning (perceptions
about various influences on the adult’s learning and ways in which
learning was enhanced). This type of portfolio is a powerful tool

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336 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for responding to the interests and concerns of diverse learners
(Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995).
The following outline offers some guidelines for instructors and
learners when working with portfolios:
1. Involve learners in the composition and selection of the port-
folio’s contents.
a. Learners may want to explore different aspects of a particu-
lar discipline. In a research course, for example, the learner
might design an ethnographic study and an experimental
study for her portfolio.
b. Learners may choose among different categories, such
as most difficult problem, best work, most valued work,
most improved work, and a spiritual experience.
2. Include information in the portfolio that shows learner’s
self-reflection and self-assessment.
a. Learners may include a rationale for their selections.
b. Learners may create a guide for their portfolio offering
interpretations, commentary, critique, and matters of con-
textual importance.
c. Learners may include self- and peer assessments indicat-
ing strengths, areas for improvement, and relationships
between earlier and later works.
3. Be clear about the purpose of the portfolio.
a. Learners should be able to relate their goals for learning to
the contents of the portfolios.
b. Learners should be able to provide a fair representation of
their work.
c. Rubrics and models for assessing portfolio contents should
be clearly understood and available (see Strategy 53).
4. Exploit the portfolio as a process to show learner growth.

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 337
a. Learners may submit the original, the improved, and the
final copy or draft of their creation or performance.
b. Using specific works, learners may make a history of their
‘‘movement’’ along certain dimensions in their growth.
c. Learners may include feedback from outside experts or
descriptions of outside activities that reflect the growth
illustrated in the portfolio.
5. Teach learners how to create and use portfolios.
a. Offer models of excellent portfolios for learners to examine
but stress that each portfolio is an individual creation.
b. Review portfolios regularly and give feedback to learn-
ers about them, especially early in the term or year, when
learners are initially constructing their portfolios.
Overall assessment of the content of a portfolio is usually a
combination of applied checklists, rating scales, and rubrics with
a particular sensitivity to learning improvement and progress. For
example, an apprentice carpenter’s early work displays inferior
routing skills but his later products exhibit strong proficiency
in these skills. His most recent creations would receive greater
or maximum weight for an evaluation. Although there is less
quantitative precision, portfolios are likely to obtain a richer and
more meaningful understanding of what adults have learned.
• Projects. We often use the term project to describe the major
undertakings of businesses and institutions (‘‘We’re working on
a new project,’’ or, perhaps more critically, ‘‘This thing is turn-
ing into a project’’). In education and training, magnitude and
complexity are what give something the status of a project. From
community service to dramatic presentations, projects offer the
multiple challenges, meanings, and creative resolutions that make
learning motivating and capable of embracing cultural diversity.
Because of their size and duration, projects provide the opportunity

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338 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
for active immersion across disciplines and the use of a wide range
of intelligences. Projects can connect new concepts and skills with
the real lives of adults, fostering the growth of more intricate neural
circuitry through deeper and more complex motivated learning.
The investigation conducted by Daniel Solorzano (1989) and
his students is a classic example of a collaborative project carried
out with critical consciousness. In the late 1970s, Solorzano offered
a sociology course at East Los Angeles College. Beginning with
a discussion about the negative stereotypes of ethnic Mexicans
in Hollywood gang movies, Solorzano and his students arrived at
two questions: Why are ethnic Mexicans portrayed negatively in
the mass media? and Whose interests are served by these negative
portrayals?
To conduct extensive research on these queries, the class
divided itself into three groups: (1) a library group to research
contemporary and historical images of ethnic Mexicans in the
media, (2) a group to research public information data on youth
gangs in East Los Angeles, and (3) a group to research the film
industry. After analyzing and discussing their research, the learners
more clearly understood how film companies were exploiting ethnic
Mexican (then referred to as Chicano) stereotypes. Consequently,
they organized a boycott against these films. Collaborating with
outside organizations for assistance, they founded the ad hoc
Gang Exploitation Committee. Solorzano reports that no new
Chicano youth gang movies appeared in the decade after this class.
Student learning was extensive, and the students succeeded in
doing something they considered important: using research and
personal action to understand and to limit an unjust representation
of ethnic Mexican youth in movies.
In the similar vein, the investigation of learning styles designed
and executed by Yolanda Scott-Machado (see Strategy 23 in
Chapter Six) is a fine representation of an individual project.
Following are some guidelines to keep in mind for creating and
carrying out projects:

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 339
• Learners should be involved in the conception and
planning, whether the project is individual or collabo-
rative.
• Consider goal setting (see Strategy 23 in Chapter Six)
or some of its elements as a means to explore and plan
the project.
• Request an outline of the project that includes some
schedule of agreed-on documentation and a completion
date.
• Arrange for the presentation of the project to a relevant
audience who can offer authentic acknowledgment and
feedback.
• Assess the project from numerous perspectives, includ-
ing the learner’s self-assessment (see Strategy 54).
Overall, assessment may involve the quality of project
planning, execution, and presentation; the challenge
level; creativity and originality; the employment of
resources; and what was learned. It may also incorpo-
rate the evaluation of other learners and knowledge-
able people outside the course or training.
Strategy 53: When Using Rubrics, Make Sure They Assess the
Essential Features of Performance and Are Fair, Valid, and
Sufficiently Clear So That Learners Can Accurately Self-Assess
When it comes to assessment, rubrics are ‘‘where the rubber meets
the road.’’ That is because rubrics often mean more than assessment;
they mean evaluation. Assessment describes or compares, but
evaluation makes a value judgment. In evaluation, we fix passing
scores or criteria that determine how acceptable or unacceptable a
given performance is. Grades or scores may be assigned and recorded
according to the rubric. Evaluations often significantly affect an

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adult’s promotion to or qualification for particular programs or
positions.
Although many adult instructors do not use rubrics formally,
they do use them on an intuitive basis. They make evaluations
of a learner’s work based on experience and knowledge, but often
without explicit language. For example, an instructor might say,
‘‘This writing is excellent, insightful, and entertaining’’ — without
specifically saying why or what makes the writing so. Barbara
Walvoord’s definition speaks well to a rubric’s advantage and
limitation: ‘‘A rubric articulates in writing the various criteria
and standards’’ that an instructor ‘‘uses to evaluate’’ a learner’s
work (2004, p. 19). ‘‘It translates informed professional judgment
into numerical ratings on a scale. Something is always lost in the
translation, but the advantage is that these ratings can now be
communicated and compared’’ (2004, p. 19).
As a set of scoring guidelines for evaluating a learner’s work, a
rubric strongly directs learning. Neurologically, that can be a good
thing. A rubric is like a blueprint. It guides frontal-lobe executive
function so that learners can manage their learning knowing what
literally counts the most (Koechlin and others, 1999). To perform
this service proficiently, a rubric should answer the following
questions (Wiggins, 1998, p. 154):
By what criteria should performance be judged?
What should we look for to judge performance success?
What does the range in quality of performance look like?
How do we determine validly, reliably, and fairly what score
should be given and what that score should mean?
How should the different levels of quality be described and
distinguished from one another?
I’ve been carefully and cautiously using rubrics for about ten
years, and they can be deceptive even though they do not appear

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that way at first glance. They’re like a wall whose cracks you can’t
see until you get very close. Baseball averages afford a good example
of the complexity and elusiveness of rubrics. A rubric comprises
a scale of possible points along a continuum of quality. Batting
average is a rubric in the sense that we evaluate how good batters
are by their percentage of hits for times at bat. The higher the
average, the better the player. But is a .300 hitter a good hitter?
Well, that depends: How many times has the player been to bat?
Does she get extra base hits? How does she hit when players are
on base? At night? With two strikes? When the team is behind?
Against left-handed pitching? As many managers know, you don’t
use batting average alone to evaluate a player — not even to judge
only hitting. And that’s how it is with rubrics: they may seem
concrete, specific, and telling, but life’s contexts and complexity
can make the simplest performance a puzzle.
Yet rubrics answer a question that counts for many adults: What
are you going to use to judge me? If rubrics are fair, clear, reliable,
and valid and get at the essentials of performance, and if learners can
self-assess with them to improve before performance is evaluated,
rubrics enhance motivation because they significantly increase the
probability of learners’ achieving competence. However, rubrics
need models and indicators to make each level of quality concretely
understandable. And they need to be created or revised with input
from learners if they are to be culturally sensitive. For example, if
we use smiles frequently as one indicator for very good presentation
style, we penalize someone who tends to be droll or someone from
a culture where smiling frequently is more an indication of anxiety
than of ease. Excellent rubrics are valuable but flawed assistants
in making judgments about learning — flawed because language at
best renders, but never duplicates, experience.
Let’s look at two straightforward rubrics: one for judging the
clear expression of a main idea in an essay (Table 8.3) and the
other (Table 8.4) for evaluating the recognition of alternative
points of view in the same essay. (Other rubrics would be necessary

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342 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Table 8.3. A Rubric for Expressing an Idea Clearly
Rating Descriptor with Indicators
Exemplary = 4 Clearly communicates the main idea
or theme and provides support that
contains rich, vivid, and powerful
detail.
Competent = 3 Clearly communicates the main idea
or theme and provides suitable support
and detail.
Acceptable with flaws = 2 Clearly communicates the main idea
or theme, but support is sketchy or
vague.
Needs revision = 1 The main idea or theme is not
discernible.
for evaluating other dimensions of performance in the essay, such
as critical thinking or writing skills.) These rubrics will give us
examples to understand Grant Wiggins’s guidelines (1998) for
creating effective rubrics. In this case, the guidelines are adjusted
to apply to the rubrics in Table 8.3 and Table 8.4.
An instructor evaluating a set of essays with the rubrics in
Tables 8.3 and 8.4 (and a model, such as an essay from a previous
class, with an exemplar for the descriptor of each performance
level) would follow these guidelines:
• Use each rubric to discriminate accurately the essential
features of performance within each essay for express-
ing an idea clearly and for recognizing alternative points of
view. This makes each rubric valid.
• Rely on each rubric’s descriptive language (what the
quality or its absence looks like), as opposed to
relying on vague evaluative language to make the dis-
crimination. For example, it is preferable to say, ‘‘The
personal experiences you use to illustrate the concept of

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 343
Table 8.4. A Rubric for Recognizing Alternative Points of View
Rating Descriptor with Indicators
Exemplary = 4 Acknowledges at least two alternative points
of view expressed in the required readings.
Summarizes them thoroughly, and reasonably
indicates why he has chosen his point of view
in preference to the others.
Competent = 3 Acknowledges at least one alternative point
of view expressed in the required readings.
Summarizes it thoroughly, and reasonably
indicates why he prefers his point of view.
Acceptable with
flaws = 2
Acknowledges at least one alternative point
of view expressed in the required readings.
Summarizes it well, but does not indicate or
unreasonably indicates why he prefers his
point of view.
Needs revision = 1 Does not acknowledge any alternative points
of view in the required readings. Or if he does,
they are summarized poorly and he does not
indicate or unreasonably indicates why he
prefers his point of view.
Source: Adapted from Walvoord, 2004, p. 89.
authenticity are rich, vivid, and powerful,’’ rather than
‘‘Your writing in this paragraph is excellent.’’
• Use each rubric to consistently make fine discrim-
inations across four levels of performance. When a
rubric can be repeatedly used to make the same dis-
criminations within the same sample of performances,
it is reliable. (To maintain reliability, rubrics seldom
have more than six levels of performance.)
• Make sure learners can accurately use these same rubrics
and their descriptors (and the models) for each level of

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344 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
performance to self-assess and self-correct their
work.
• See that each rubric is parallel to the others. Each
descriptor generally matches the others in terms of cri-
teria language used.
• See that each rubric is coherent. It should focus on the
same criteria throughout.
• See that each rubric is continuous. The degree of dif-
ference between each descriptor (level of performance)
should be as similar as possible.
There are many books in higher education and training about
how to write rubrics. I find most of these books quite linear
and not culturally sensitive. However, I do find them helpful for
understanding the creative variety of rubrics that is possible and
for deepening my critical awareness about the uses, value,
and possible harm of rubrics. The Advanced Learning Technolo-
gies Project (ALTEC) offers a helpful Web-based tool for creating
rubrics in Spanish or English (http://altec.org). If you develop
rubrics for evaluation of adult performance, please keep Strategy
49 in mind as a general guide for a more culturally responsive
approach to their construction.
Strategy 54: Use Self-Assessment Methods to Improve Learning and to
Provide Learners with the Opportunity to Construct Relevant Insights
and Connections
In addition to the type of self-assessment in which learners
compare their work against rubrics and make self-adjustments,
there are reflective assessment methods that enable adults to
understand themselves more comprehensively as learners, know-
ers, and participants in a complex world. These methods help

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 345
learners weave relationships and meanings between academic and
technical information and their personal histories and experiences.
These forms of self-assessment allow adults to explore their sur-
prises, puzzlement, and hunches, to explore the tension they feel
when they experience something that does not fit with what they
know. Because integration of learning with identity and values
is essential to adult motivation, this kind of self-assessment is a
key process for deepening adult learners’ feelings of competence:
it can create the bridge that unites formal learning with learners’
subjective world.
Neurologically, we create an idea, act on it, evaluate the con-
sequences, and re-create the idea, followed by another action
and another evaluation (Zull, 2002). That is how we evolve
our knowledge and skills — every moment of every day. Sensitive
self-assessment can powerfully contribute to this personal evolu-
tion, covering the spectrum from how important a new idea may
be to our family’s welfare to how valuable a new skill may be for
use at work. Self-assessment not only makes us more aware of what
we learn, but it also gives us greater control over what we learn.
In general, learners appreciate clearly knowing what to focus
on (and what might possibly be learned) in the process of
self-assessment. It’s a good idea to explain how we as instructors
will respond to or evaluate self-assessments. Our interest and timely
feedback may encourage learners to concentrate more deeply on
their work. Not everything needs to be read or commented on, but
many learners are more likely to strengthen their reflective skills if
they expect to receive supportive and specific feedback from us (or
other learners). This is probably more so in the beginning phases
of any self-assessment process. However, if my knowledge of the
learners’ self-assessment seems invasive or controlling, especially
when the learning is personal or their culture is more private about
revealing personal thoughts, I respect their confidentiality.

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346 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Jean MacGregor (1994) advises instructors to build self-
assessment into longer learning situations as an ongoing activity. If
we choose this approach, there are several types of self-assessments
we can use throughout a learning experience and then summarize
from a longer perspective. Among them, I have found journals,
post-writes, closure techniques, and the Critical Incident Ques-
tionnaire to be very beneficial. (With the exception of journals,
I have also found these techniques effective for shorter learning
situations such as workshops and training seminars.)
• Journals. Journals can take a number of forms. For example,
a journal in a science course can be used to synthesize lab notes,
address the quality of the work, examine the processes on which
work is based, and address emerging interests and concerns. Journals
document risk, experimentation with ideas, and self-expression.
They are an informative complement to more conventional forms
of assessment.
To increase their sensitivity to cultural differences and their
critical awareness of the origins and meanings of subject-specific
knowledge, learners can use journals to address the following
questions: From whose viewpoint am I seeing or reading or hearing?
From what angle or perspective? How do I know what I know?
What is the evidence, and how reliable is it? Whose purposes are
served by this information?
Journals can address interests, ideas, and issues related to course
material and processes, recurring problems, responses to ques-
tions from the instructor, responses to questions generated by the
learner, and important connections that the learner is making.
These important connections may be the learner’s observations
in the classroom, but optimally they are meanings that emerge as
the learner applies course work to past, present, and future life
experiences.
If we wish to promote this level of reflection, then we must
make the classroom a place where this can happen. Providing

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time in class for learners to respond in their journals to readings,
discussions, and significant questions builds community around the
journal process and sends yet another message that the classroom
is a place in which the skills of insight and personal meaning are
valued.
Journals require time and effort. Initially, it may be best for
learners to pay less attention to the mechanics, organization, and
logic of their writing; they should simply try to get their thoughts
and feelings down on paper where they can learn from them.
Having sufficiently incubated, this material can be reorganized and
summarized later.
• Post-writes. Post-writes are reflections that encourage learn-
ers to analyze a particular piece of work, how they created it,
and what it may mean to them (Allen and Roswell, 1989). For
example, we might say, ‘‘Now that you have finished your essay,
please answer the following questions. There are no right or wrong
answers. We are interested in your analysis of your experience
writing this essay.’’ The post-write could be a response to one or
more of the following questions:
What problems did you face in the writing of this essay?
What solutions did you find for these problems?
Imagine you had more time to write this essay. What would
you do if you were to continue working on it?
Has your thinking changed in any way as a result of writing
this essay? If so, briefly describe.
It is easy to imagine ways in which this technique could be
applied across disciplines. Consider, for example, slightly redesign-
ing the previous questions to allow learners in math or science
to identify and reflect on a problem that posed a particular
challenge.

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348 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
• Closure techniques. Closure activities are opportunities for
learners to synthesize — to examine general or specific aspects of
what they have learned, to identify emerging thoughts or feelings,
to discern themes, to construct meaning, to relate learning to
real-life experiences, to decide what learning to use, and so forth.
Essentially, learners articulate their subjective relationship with the
course or training material. For example, at the end of a workshop,
we might ask participants to formulate an action plan to apply
what they have learned. Closure, then, becomes a way of building
coherence between what people have learned in the workshop and
their personal experience beyond the workshop. Another example
of this might be to ask participants to identify one particular
obstacle they must still overcome to be more proficient with
what they have learned. Here are three examples of positive and
constructive closure activities:
• ‘‘Head, Heart, Hand’’ is a closure activity that allows learn-
ers to integrate different dimensions of a learning experi-
ence. After learners have had a short time for reflection,
the activity may be conducted as a small- or large-group
experience in which all learners have a chance to hear
each other’s voices. Learners may report out one or more
of the following possibilities. For ‘‘Head,’’ learners identify
something they will continue to think about as a conse-
quence of the learning experience. For ‘‘Heart,’’ learners
identify a feeling that has emerged as a result of the learn-
ing experience. For ‘‘Hand,’’ learners identify a desired
action they will take that has been stimulated by the learn-
ing experience.
• ‘‘Note-Taking Pairs’’ can be used intermittently during a
lecture or as a culminating activity (Johnson, Johnson, and
Smith, 1991). Either way, two learners work together to
review and modify their notes. This is an opportunity to
cooperatively reflect on a lesson, review major concepts

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and pertinent information, and illuminate unresolved
issues or concerns. Many adults, including but certainly not
limited to English-language learners, benefit by summariz-
ing their lecture notes to another person or vice versa. Stu-
dents might also prompt each other with questions: What
have you got in your notes about this particular item?
What are three key points made by the instructor? What is
the most surprising thing the instructor said today? What
is something that you are feeling uncertain about?
• ‘‘Summarizing Questions’’ enable learners to reflect on
an entire course or training program. The following are
examples from Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learn-
ing and Teaching by Peter Elbow (1986) and Discussion as
a Way of Teaching by Stephen Brookfield and Stephen
Preskill (2005):
Which assumption of yours was most challenged by
what you learned in this course? Has it changed
and how?
What have you accomplished in this course that you are
proud of?
How do your accomplishments compare with what you
had hoped for and expected at the start?
What is the most important thing you did during this
program?
What were five or six important moments from this
learning period: your best moments or turning points.
Describe each in a sentence or two.
Who is the person you studied whom you cared the
most about? Be that person and write that person’s
letter to you, telling you whatever it is they have to
tell you.

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350 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Which idea or skill was hardest to really ‘‘get’’? What
crucial idea or skill came naturally?
If this course were a journey, where did it take you? What
was the terrain like? Was it a complete trip or part of a
longer one?
You learned something crucial that you won’t discover
for a while. Guess it now.
What are a few ways you could have done a better
job?
What advice would some friends in the course give
you if they spoke with 100 percent honesty and car-
ing? What advice do you have for yourself?
As a realization from this course, what do you have to
work on most?
What perspectives different from your own did you gain
from this course that you now appreciate?
As a result of this program, is there any way that you will
act differently? If so, describe it.
What would you most like to say about being in this
course?
• Critical Incident Questionnaire. I have adapted this self-
assessment approach from the work of Stephen Brookfield (1995,
p. 115). In training and teaching, it allows me to be more respon-
sive as an instructor and helps learners to be more reflective about
their significant experiences.
The Critical Incident Questionnaire has five questions, each
of which asks learners to write details about important events
that took place while they were learning (see Exhibit 8.1). For
college courses, Brookfield and Preskill (2005) report they use it
at the end of the last class of each week. For intensive workshops
and seminars, I have found value in using it at the end of each

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 351
session (four hours or longer). The questions are printed on a form,
with space below each question for the learner’s response. Learners
complete the questions anonymously and retain a copy of their
answers for their own benefit.
Exhibit 8.1 The Critical Incident Questionnaire
1. At what moment in this workshop did you feel most engaged
with what was happening?
2. At what moment in this workshop did you feel most distanced
from what was happening?
3. What action that anyone (instructor or learner) took in the
workshop did you find most affirming and helpful?
4. What action that anyone (instructor or learner) took in the
workshop did you find most puzzling or confusing?
5. What about the workshop surprised you the most? (This could
be something about your own reactions to what went on, or
something that someone did, or anything else that occurs to
you.)
I explore the questionnaire forms looking for themes, patterns,
and, in general, learners’ concerns or confusions that need my
response or adjustments. I also look for the part of our learning and
instruction that has been affirmed. I find hints and suggestions for
areas to probe or deepen. Most important, in my experience this
questionnaire gives me a more sensitive reading of the emotional
reactions of learners and of areas that may create controversy
or conflict. However, I do realize that for some students, writ-
ing may inhibit their responses, and I publicly acknowledge this
shortcoming of the process.
At the beginning of the session that immediately follows the
distribution of the questionnaire, I outline the results in short

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phrases on an overhead projection and have a dialogue with the
learners about these responses. This tends to build trust, further
communication, and deepen learning. What I like most is that this
form of self-assessment can be so fluidly used to build community.
Brookfield (2004) has also developed the Critical Practice Audit,
which uses a self-assessment format to judge the development
of critical thinking in students preparing for professions such as
teaching and nursing.
Some Thoughts about Grades, Assessment, and
Motivation
Although they serve no legitimate teaching purpose and do not
accurately predict educational or occupational achievement, grades
receive very high status in U.S. society (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg,
1995). For most adults, low grades, because they are threatening
and stigmatizing, do more to decrease motivation to learn than
they do to enhance it.
Nationally, at the policy level in higher education, there is
more concern about grades being too high, and although grade
inflation continues to be debated, the inflationary trend probably
spans several decades (Young, 2003). No matter what the outcome
of this argument, B is the average grade in college (Rojstaczur,
2002).
I have a skeptical attitude toward grades but I cannot dis-
count them. They determine too much for the future of adult
learners — potential promotions, jobs, and graduate school oppor-
tunities. Yet I also agree with the observation made by Ohmer
Milton, Howard Pollio, and James Eison in 1986: ‘‘A grade is . . . a
true salmagundi. Translated, this means a given grade can reflect
the level of information, attitudes, procrastination, errors or mis-
conceptions, cheating, and mixtures of all of these plus other
ingredients; all of this was noted in the literature over 50 years ago
as well as today and is well known but ignored. The lone letter

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 353
symbol is a conglomerate which specifies none of its contents’’
(p. 212).
At a university where I taught, faculty were concerned about
grade inflation in the undergraduate adult education programs.
The average GPA of the adult students (3.5) was higher than the
average GPA of the younger students in the traditional college
(3.2) of the same university. At a small international conference
for adult educators (Wlodkowski, 2000), we generated possible
reasons for this difference. Thirty-four colleges were represented
and there was unanimous agreement that, if investigated, the
average GPA of adult students in their schools probably would be
higher than the average GPA of their traditional college students.
The following reasons received the strongest agreement (this isn’t
rigorous research but I think these findings are insightful and
realistic):
• Adults are more likely to regard grades as a reflection
of their capabilities than younger traditional students
are, and they pressure faculty for higher grades.
• Employers use grade averages to determine tuition
support. Higher grades mean a higher percentage of
financial support. This influences faculty grading.
• Adjunct faculty, the majority of instructors for many
adult programs, don’t see grades as reflective of true
performance and are more casual about determining
grades.
• Traditional faculty use more multiple choice and other
typical test-like measures, which leads to lower grades
in traditional courses.
• Faculty in adult programs use more projects and collab-
orative activities as the basis for their grading, which
leads to higher grades because the work reflects the best

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354 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
thinking of the group and there is a chance to revise the
work before it is graded.
• Faculty in adult programs identify more with their stu-
dents and experience more anxiety in giving lower
grades.
As instructors, we have to keep in mind that the ‘‘meaning of
a grade is socially determined’’ (Walvoord and Anderson, 1998,
p. 102). It is interpreted in the society we inhabit, and more
specifically in the college and department in which we teach.
Those standards are relative. Talking with our colleagues will give
us a perspective. From there it is a professional decision that we
negotiate with our students. The lack of validity of grades is the
real national problem. To the extent that it exists, grade inflation
is a symptom of this deeper issue.
Nonetheless, many of us still have to give grades. No matter
what the scale (for example, A to C or A to F), they should be
clearly specified and based on reasonable standards that students
can use to guide their learning and receive feedback without
penalty. Not surprisingly, at the top of my list, grades should also
sustain and encourage intrinsic motivation to learn. There may be
more approaches to meeting these goals than I am aware of, but,
thus far, I have found two acceptable approaches to use with adults:
contracts and rubrics.
Because contracts allow for mutual understanding and agree-
ment and a dialogue about the content, process, criteria, and
outcomes of learning, I have found them very helpful as a means
for grading (see Chapter Six, Strategy 24). Using rubrics as the
basis for grades has worked well when I have had models of former
students’ graded work available and have made sure to take time
to talk with students about the criteria and given each of them an
opportunity to discuss and have input for the final criteria. I make
this judgment about contracts and rubrics based on (1) the overall
quality of student work, (2) the climate and trust among us that

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follows this grading discussion, and (3) the supportive evaluations
I receive at the end of the course regarding these approaches.
In general, the assessment strategies described in this chapter
and the contracts described in Chapter Six, Strategy 24, can be used
in various combinations to arrive eventually at the given grade.
As a set of interdependent practices, they align with the guiding
principles for assessment of adult learning offered by Kasworm and
Marienau (1997). In general, adults become more competent, feel
more confident, and look forward to assessment when assessment
procedures have these characteristics:
Related to goals they understand, find relevant, and want to
accomplish
Reflective of growth in learning
Indicative of clear ways to improve learning without penalty
Expected
Returned promptly
Permeated with instructor and peer comments that are infor-
mative and supportive
Used to encourage new challenges in learning
Fostering Transfer of Learning to Engender
Competence
Within the last decade, a few studies have indicated that when
people are motivated to use their learning, learning is enhanced
and more likely to transfer as much as a year after training (Pugh
and Bergin, 2006). In my experience, adults who begin a learning
experience with sincere intentions to transfer what they learn to
their work have stronger and more persistent motivation than do
adults who adopt a ‘‘wait-and-see’’ attitude. In general, I believe
fostering an intention and a means to transfer learning to adults’
workplaces or communities significantly enhances their motivation

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356 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
to learn, their competence for what they learn, and their use of it
after the course or training is completed.
In many instances, fostering transfer of learning is not a high
priority in adult instruction. We know we ‘‘should’’ do it. Transfer
is the justification for much of the human and financial investment
in education (Barnett and Ceci, 2002). However, as Strategy 55
reveals, transfer is a complex, political, and time consuming process.
In my opinion, it’s well worth it, and it is an area of challenging
professional growth for my own work.
Transfer of learning is how people apply what they have learned
in an educational or training setting to their life, community, or
workplace. Adults who intend to transfer their learning will want
to deeply process what they are learning, try to understand rather
than simply memorize, and use personal strategies to connect their
knowledge to relevant real-world applications (Pugh and Bergin,
2006). Quite importantly, they are probably more willing to review
and practice as well.
One of the challenges of transferring learning is that recalling
complex learning is difficult (Schacter, 2001). There is not only
erosion and pruning of unused neural circuits, but there is confusion
and distortion. Review and practice of complex learning or skill
is a must for transfer. Ask any musician. Better yet, ask any
effective instructor. There are things that I have taught over
twenty times, but unless I review them every time, I will not be
able to proficiently teach them. A couple that easily come to mind
are cognitive developmental stages and the application of each
of the multiple intelligences as assessment processes. But the real
issue here is practice and review in the beginning of new learning. We
don’t sustain what we didn’t competently learn in the first place.
When I first learned clinical hypnosis as a psychologist, I
diligently practiced it because I really wanted to be good at it and
use it in my professional work. This attitude is not exceptional for
adults who value what they are learning and believe they will apply

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 357
it in the future. Although a challenge to accomplish, the following
strategy can make such a disposition possible.
Strategy 55: Foster the Intention and Capacity to Transfer Learning
There are a number of conceptions of transfer (Pugh and Bergin,
2006). In the methods and example for this strategy, I will
present situations where transfer is to contexts which are mod-
erately different from the original learning environment — for
example, transferring learning the process of scaffolding (Strat-
egy 15, Chapter Six) in a graduate course on adult instruction
to using scaffolding in an adult basic education course for non-
traditional learners. Or for a non-academic example, transferring
learning to shift gears and drive a car to learning to shift gears and
drive a mid-size truck.
From her experience and review of the literature, Rosemary
Caffarella (2002) has developed a comprehensive framework and
typology of key factors influencing the transfer of learning. I have
found her work very helpful for engendering competence and
motivation to transfer new learning. What follows is a distilled
adaptation of this approach; it includes her perspective on how
these factors can work as enhancers and techniques to encourage
and support transfer (2002, pp. 210–217).
In order to offer a realistic example of how this strategy can be
applied, I present an actual case from my experience.
A number of years ago, I was asked to conduct a professional
development program for the British Columbia Institute of Technology
(BCIT) in peer coaching. The immediate goal was for a group of
instructors (approximately twenty volunteer faculty) to learn how to
effectively use the coaching process with their peers. At that time the
student population at BCIT was undergoing a significant shift. Nearly
half of the students were immigrants or children of immigrants, most
of whom were from China and Southeast Asia. The vast majority of

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the instructors were from Euro-Canadian ethnic groups. The main
purposes for learning the peer coaching process were these:
1. Provide the assistance, support, and encouragement each
instructor needs to improve in the use of culturally responsive
teaching practices.
2. Serve as an informal support group for sharing, letting off
steam, and discussing problems connected with implement-
ing culturally responsive teaching practices.
3. Serve as a base for faculty experienced in the use of culturally
responsive teaching practices to teach others how to use
these approaches.
The following factors enhance the intention and capacity to
transfer learning and were used at BCIT.
1. Program participants or learners bring their culture, experi-
ences, attitudes, and values, which all influence what they learn and
whether they want to apply the new learning to their personal, work,
or public lives. They may have the following characteristics:
• useful prior knowledge to connect to new learning
• a willingness to cooperate
• a prior attitude to learn and apply the new knowledge or skills
• authority or informal leadership skills
• cultural differences to add informative perspectives
For fostering transfer, I benefited greatly from the first group of
participants at BCIT. Like many volunteers for a new professional
development program, they had expertise, a positive attitude, and
leadership characteristics coming into the program. They believed
there needed to be some instructional changes to more effectively
teach their students before I arrived. What I didn’t anticipate was that
most of them were also first-generation college graduates themselves

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and many were immigrants or children of immigrants as well. This
history contributed to their compassion for their students. My good
fortune in having such participants doesn’t mean everything went
smoothly for our program, but it was a significant advantage that
lasted the entire time we learned together.
2. Instructional design and execution include learning activities
that have methods or strategies for the transfer of learning:
• Authentic application exercises
• Approximating the learning environment to the real context for
transfer
• Self-assessment to understand what learners can apply from
new learning to the real context
• Direct transfer-of-learning strategies such as an action plan
or developing a support group to maintain transfer in the
workplace
For fostering transfer, I created exercises, with the assistance of
the professional development staff, that were based on the courses
the faculty actually taught. We did many role plays and simulations.
Faculty taught partial lessons (revised to be more culturally respon-
sive) from their courses to their peer coaching group. These faculty
were then coached by colleagues from their peer coaching group,
who were observed by the whole group while they practiced coach-
ing. The practicing coaches received feedback and support from
the observers based on the standards and techniques of cognitive
coaching (Costa and Garmston, 2002). Thus, every member of the
peer coaches went through a cycle of teaching, receiving coach-
ing, practicing coaching, and receiving feedback on their coaching.
The peer coaches informally self-assessed their progress. We kept
the mood light and affirmative. We used videotape to model and
critique techniques. Early on we decided to create a BCIT faculty
coaching association with regular meetings, informal dinners, and an

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agenda to support and promote peer coaching across both cam-
puses. The professional development team developed a calendar to
extend coaching teams and visits through the next semester.
3. Content is the knowledge, skills, and values learned. Content
is most likely to transfer when it is:
• Relevant and practical
• Connected with the prior knowledge, experience, and orientation
to learning
• Competently learned
• Practiced in relevant contexts
For fostering transfer, all coaching practice was based on the
courses that the peer coaches taught. This was a very hands-on
group with a strong need for practical application. Because of the
videotaping and the cycle of teaching to receiving coaching feedback,
they saw that practice definitely helped them learn the techniques of
cognitive coaching. After three cycles of practice, we created teams
and moved the coaching process to the participants’ classrooms.
The professional development staff and I were careful to make the
practice in coaching in the professional development program a very
efficient next step to the practice in coaching in a real course, with
feedback and debriefing as close to immediate as possible. Seeing
what a difference practice made in terms of developing competence
for coaching, we structured two coaching visits per instructor to
actual courses as soon as possible. Just about everyone agreed that
receiving coaching from their peers for more culturally responsive
teaching in their actual courses was the cement that made new
learning about how to coach really stick.
4. Changes necessary to transfer learning often include accom-
modations or conversions by people, professional practices, orga-
nizations, and communities to apply the new learning and endure
the consequences of that learning and change. For this transfer to

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succeed, there has to be preparation and responsibility to assure the
following for the change process:
• It is doable and realistic.
• It is allotted enough time to develop.
• It is integrated into the roles of the people using the new
learning.
• It is integrated into the roles of the people experiencing the con-
sequences of the new learning.
For fostering transfer, it was agreed that all instructors completing
the professional development program would visit another instructor’s
course as a coach at least twice a month and receive coaching at
least twice a month. The instructors created teams of four among
themselves to carry out this goal. This process would be conducted
for a full semester and then revised as needed. The professional
development staff agreed to survey the instructors and the students
in their courses to assess the possible effects of peer coaching.
5. Organizational context and support are the people, structures,
and cultural and political milieu of an organization that facilitate and
sustain the transfer of learning:
• Key leaders, staff, and colleagues who view the transfer as
positive and beneficial to the organization or community
• Appropriate financial and resource support
• Incentives and rewards that support the transfer of learning
• Structural adjustments to accommodate the transfer of
learning
For fostering transfer, at the completion of the professional devel-
opment program, the vice president for academics addressed the
group and expressed his appreciation for their instructional lead-
ership. Each of the faculty received a small BCIT pin as a token
of appreciation from the institution. The BCIT Faculty Coaching

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Association was inaugurated with the goal of recruiting other fac-
ulty to participate in the next professional development program for
peer coaching. Among the professional development staff, a director
volunteered to co-lead the next coaching program with me.
6. Community and societal forces are social, economic, and
political conditions that can influence transfer of learning:
• Favorable economic and political conditions
• Continuing support from key leaders
• Continuing cultural adaptation
• Development of organizational norms to sustain transfer
To foster transfer, the professional development staff conducted
the third coaching faculty professional development program with
my assistance almost entirely long distance. Because the program
remained voluntary, received faculty support, and was assigned
a permanent staff developer, it continued for a number of years.
Surveys indicated that more than two thirds of the instructors who
had participated in the program reported an improved attitude toward
their role as a teacher as well as toward their students and colleagues
(Wlodkowski, 1992). Executive leadership at BCIT saw it as an
important part of an overall plan to develop more culturally responsive
teaching and a professional culture to support instruction.
As this example shows, the strategy to foster the intention and
capacity to transfer learning is a coordinated system of actions both
complex and political. I think that’s what it takes to make signifi-
cant new learning transferable. Otherwise, most adult learners see it
as another ‘‘new flavor of the month’’ without the resources, appro-
priate learning, leadership, and will to make it happen and last.
This example and its six associated factors describe learning
transfer in professional development or training for an institution,
an organization, a business, or a community. A helpful instrument
for diagnosing the learning-transfer process in such situations is
the Learning Transfer Systems Inventory (Holton, Bates, and

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 363
Ruona, 2000). To encourage and support transfer of learning from
a course in college to an individual student’s uses, the first three
factors — the learners, the instructional design and execution, and
the content — are the most influential.
Although the BCIT example occurred in the 1990s, it was a
five-year program and one of the times where I felt ‘‘we got it right.’’
Planning for and utilizing these six factors made a difference. They
are a valuable checklist. When adults see them in operation, they
foster the realization that what is being learned will be used. If
adults value that learning and endorse it, their motivation emerges
as an intention to transfer, enabling new learning and competence
in a powerful and lasting way.
Communicating and Rewarding to Engender
Competence
The rest of the motivational strategies in this chapter also enhance
competence but are frequently used apart from assessment or
transfer. Often they are communications or rewards given as the
situation merits.
Strategy 56: When Necessary, Use Constructive Criticism
Constructive criticism is similar to feedback but has a few more
qualifications. It does emphasize errors and deficiencies in learning,
but unlike ordinary criticism, it does not connote disapproval,
disgust, or rejection. In general, criticism does not have to be
used as often as we may think. Instructors may overuse criticism
if they do not know how to use feedback properly or are working
with learners who do not have entry-level skills for the learning
task they are required to perform. The latter condition is best
alleviated through more appropriate selection and guidance pro-
cedures, such as pretesting and interviews. However, constructive
criticism may be a necessary strategy for engendering competence
in circumstances such as these:

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364 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
When the learning process is so costly or involves such a threat
to human safety that mistakes cannot be afforded (examples
are training with a dangerous machine, weapon, chemical, or
medical procedure)
When the learning performance is so poor that to emphasize
success or improvement would be ridiculous or patronizing
When the learning performance has significant errors and there
are few remaining chances for improvement in the training
or course
When a learner directly requests criticism
Constructive criticism may be a helpful and motivating way
to deal with these situations. Like feedback, constructive criticism
is informational, based on performance criteria, behavior specific,
corrective, and prompt, and when possible, it provides efficient
opportunities for improvement. Unless an emergency exists, it is
given privately. Constructive criticism has the following additional
characteristics:
• It helps the learner see performance in the context
of overall progress and not as an isolated failure — for
example, ‘‘Your science exam indicates that 70 percent
of the concepts are still unclear to you. I hope you keep
in mind that you’ve already progressed through four
units, and although this one may seem difficult, that’s
a pretty good indication you can more fully under-
stand these ideas. Let’s go over the material.’’
• It respectfully informs the learner of the conditions that
lead to the emphasis on mistakes or deficiencies — for
example, ‘‘This machine can be quite dangerous. For
your own safety, before you get another chance to oper-
ate it, I think we’d better take a look at any mistakes

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 365
you might have made.’’ Or ‘‘You’ve got only one more
chance to practice before you meet with the review
committee. I think the best use of our time would be
to check your performance on the last case study and
to concentrate on any parts that may need improve-
ment.’’
• It acknowledges the learner’s effort — for example,
‘‘There’s no doubt you’ve put a great deal of work into
this report. Just the number of references you cite testi-
fies to the effort and comprehensive research that went
into this project. Yet it seems to need more organiza-
tion. There’s no unifying theme that ties all this evi-
dence together. What generalization could you think of
that might serve this purpose?’’
• It provides emotional support — for example, ‘‘At the
end of your last session, your client stated he felt frus-
trated as he left. Do you think you may have been
trying too hard? You sounded a bit strident and didn’t
respond to the client’s stated needs. We can analyze the
videotape to see just where this happened. However,
you did very well with the other two clients you worked
with. Since you have only one more chance to practice
in this seminar, can I help you figure out what might
not have worked so well? It’s obvious you want to do
your best, and I feel confident you’ll learn from this sit-
uation.’’
When you are giving feedback and constructive criticism, adults
benefit from knowing when more effort on their part or another
learning strategy could significantly contribute to their learning.
Strategy 18 (in Chapter Six) explains how to help learners make
these attributions.

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Strategy 57: Effectively Praise and Reward Learning
In this book, the term praise has the same meaning it usually has
in conventional usage: ‘‘to commend the worth of or to express
approval or admiration’’ (Brophy, 1981). It is an intense response
from an instructor, one that goes beyond positive feedback to
include such emotions as surprise, delight, or excitement as well as
sincere appreciation for the learner’s accomplishment. (‘‘That’s a
remarkable answer! It’s comprehensive, insightful, and extremely
precise.’’)
As a strategy, the use of praise has had a controversial history.
Some scholars have opposed praise and rewards on principle,
viewing them as bribes for doing something that is often in the
learners’ best interest or in the best interest of society (Kohn,
1993). Others are critical of praise because it may contribute
to a hierarchical relationship between learners and instructors:
instructors distribute praise because they are the judges and experts
who deem learners as praiseworthy. The critics see this kind
of social exchange as being likely to diminish the chances for
colearning and for a more egalitarian relationship with adult
learners.
Although praise can enhance learners’ motivation, there is
considerable research to show it often does not serve this purpose
(Kohn, 1993; Larrivee, 2002). Although most of these studies have
been done with youth, they only strengthen the case for the need to
be careful praising adults because of its potential to be misconstrued.
Neurological research indicates the brain’s pathways for rewards
are complex, involving elements of anticipation, perception, goal
orientation, memory, pleasure, and organizing structures (Schultz,
2000). How praise or rewards for complex behavior are processed
is not well understood.
Praise is frequently ineffective because it is not related to exem-
plary achievement, it lacks specificity (the learner does not know
exactly why it was given), it is not credible, or it is communicated

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as patronizing. For example, sometimes we may give praise because
learners show us work about which they seem enthusiastic and we
do not know what else to say (awkward-moment praise). Other times
we may give it because we feel sorry for learners who are having
difficulty and use it to boost their morale (mercy praise).
Many competent adults do not want or expect praise. They
want clear, informative feedback about their progress and may
experience praise as annoying or condescending (snob praise). Fur-
thermore, praise given too frequently and indiscriminately may
begin to seem perfunctory and predictable to learners, encouraging
them to interpret it as a form of instructor small talk or flattery
(jabber praise). Focusing on form rather than substance can cause
a problem as well. Praise for turning in an assignment or for
responses that agree with instructor values may seem controlling
and manipulative (puppet praise). In some instances, instructors
have even used praise to end contact with a learner. Perhaps a
discussion initiated by a learner has, in our opinion, gone on a bit
too long; to provide pleasant closure, we toss out a compliment
about what has been said and move on to something else (terminator
praise).
In general, to praise effectively we need to praise well rather
than necessarily often. The same could be said about rewarding
effectively. In fact, praise is often considered to be a verbal reward
(Pittman, Boggiano, and Ruble, 1983). Whether the reward is ver-
bal (praise), tangible (money, promotions, privileges), or symbolic
(grades, trophies, awards), there are guidelines that can ensure
the positive effects of rewards on learner motivation. The six sug-
gestions that follow are based on a continuing analysis by Jere
Brophy (2004), which has used research done largely with children
and adolescents. However, this material is congruous with findings
from studies focused on young adults (Morgan, 1984) and on adults
learning in the workplace (Keller and Litchfield, 2002). Effective
praise and rewards share these six characteristics:

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1. Given with sincerity, spontaneity, variety, and other signs of
credibility. These characteristics may be more pertinent for
praise than for other rewards. Rewards are often known ahead
of time and given with more uniformity of procedure. How-
ever, the affect with which a reward is given is critical to its
impact on the learner. An insincerely given reward or state-
ment of praise is an insult to an adult. (A personal note:
I have conducted hundreds of workshops in which I have
asked instructors to volunteer the guidelines for effective
praise. Without exception, sincerity has been listed as the
number one guideline.)
2. Based on the attainment of specific performance criteria. This
means that the learner has achieved a standard and clearly
understands what particular personal behaviors are being
acknowledged. This approach not only makes the reward
or praise informational but also significantly increases the
person’s chances of learning exactly which behaviors are
important. For example, ‘‘Nice job’’ written on a paper is not
as helpful as ‘‘This paper does not have a single spelling, gram-
mar, or syntax error. I appreciate the meticulous editing it so
obviously reflects.’’
3. Adapted in sufficiency, quantity, and intensity to the accomplish-
ments achieved. Rewards that are less than what is merited
can be insulting and demeaning. Rewards that are too much
for what has been accomplished are excessive and disturb-
ing. In fact, we have clichés to reflect adult embarrassment in
response to inadequate or undeserved praise: ‘‘damning with
faint praise’’ (too little praise) and ‘‘gushing over trivia’’ (too
much praise).
4. Given to attribute success to the apparent combination of the
personal effort, knowledge, and capabilities of the learner.
Emphasizing these attributes increases the learner’s sense
of responsibility and implies the learner can continue such

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 369
accomplishments in the future — for example, ‘‘Your design of
this model is exceptional. It meets all the criteria for strength,
durability, and esthetics. Would you mind sharing how you
created it with the rest of the team? I think we could all learn
from your approach.’’
5. Given contingent on success at a challenging task. This makes
the learner’s task praiseworthy and testifies to the competence
of the learner. The praise implies that the learner overcame
real difficulty and deserves the recognition. If the task were
not challenging, then the praise or the reward would be seen
as indiscriminate.
6. Adapted to the preference of the individual. Again, this char-
acteristic may be more applicable to praise than to other
rewards. Rewards are often given in a ritualistic manner,
as in award ceremonies. However, when possible, rewards
should be attractive and appropriate to the learner’s cul-
tural preferences. For example, in more collectivist cultures
such as many Asian societies, adults may prefer to receive
praise indirectly as a member of a social group which is rec-
ognized, rather than directly as an individual (Plaut and
Markus, 2005). One study found that Chinese adults did not
want to be used as ‘‘good examples for others,’’ whereas the
adults from the United States found that to be quite accept-
able (Jones, Rozelle, and Chang, 1990). When in doubt, it is
probably best to give praise and other rewards privately.
There is a mnemonic device for remembering these six guide-
lines: 3 S-3P, which stands for Sincere, Specific, Sufficient, Properly
attributed, Praiseworthy, and Preferred. The mnemonic can be
stated this way in a sentence: praise (or other rewards) should be
Sincere, Specific, Sufficient, and Properly attributed for genuinely
Praiseworthy behavior, in a manner Preferred by the learner.

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In general, it is important to remember that the subjective
viewpoint of the learner and the context in which praise and
other rewards are given will immensely influence their effect. As
of now, there are no ways to accurately prescribe these conditions,
except to encourage instructors to remain continually sensitive to
their impact.
Strategy 58: Use Incentives to Develop and Maintain Adult
Motivation in Learning Activities That Are Initially Unappealing but
Personally Valued
Peters and Waterman (1982) offer the insight that positive rewards
are an excellent means to help people move in directions they are
already headed. Positive reinforcement can be a gentle and precise
way to develop and maintain adult motivation for learning that is
personally valued but not initially appealing.
An incentive may be defined as an anticipated reward. It serves
as a goal we expect to achieve as a result of some specific behavior.
Incentives take many forms, such as recognition, money, rela-
tionships, and privileges. Incentives are frequently used in the
workplace (Herzberg, 2003; Ryan and Deci, 2000). However, this
book discusses incentives only as they can be understood to support
intrinsic motivation and individual autonomy and reason while
learning (Brookfield, 2005). Incentives should be used as a means
to assist adults in becoming more effective at what they personally
value rather than as a means to manipulate them. As instructors
and trainers, we can construct incentive systems with this critical
perspective in mind.
Adults’ lives are filled with incentives. We frequently use
rewards for performing activities we value but find tedious, difficult,
or perhaps even painful — exercising easily comes to mind, but
there’s also dieting, studying, budgeting, cleaning, and practicing
just about anything from dance steps to golf swings. We reward our-
selves at certain points for performing these activities. The reward
may be a piece of chocolate, a massage, a movie, a long-distance

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 371
call, or a walk outside. Knowing these kinds of incentives are
coming at the end of our task makes the tedium or effort a little
more bearable.
Regardless of how many times I tell myself it’s great to get
my heart rate up and sweat like a steam whistle, seeing my
favorite cold drink at the end of the workout is a far more
fetching notion to keep me working out. But please keep in
mind that I chose the activity, I value the activity, and I want
to be competent at it. I’m using a reward to help me sustain
an activity I’m intrinsically motivated to perform. And make
no mistake about it: in my mind, the reward makes the whole
experience better. Used in this manner, the reward does not
undermine my intrinsic motivation (Brophy, 2004). In fact, it
supports it.
There are at least two situations in which incentives may be an
effective and inviting means to encourage adult participation in a
valued learning activity:
1. The adult has had little or no experience with the learning
activity. Maybe the training or instructional program is very
new or unique. Lack of experience can prevent the learner
from enjoying or valuing what he is learning or cause him to
feel cautious and apprehensive. Or perhaps he is learning how
to use a new machine or how to apply a different auditing
process or how to work with innovative technology. In this
case, the learner anticipates the value of the activity but has
not yet realized that value. Under such circumstances, incen-
tives could actually contribute to an awakening of intrinsic
motivation in the learner because there is no prior negative
experience to lead the learner to believe that the incentive is
being used as compensation for participation in an unpleas-
ant learning task (Lepper and Greene, 1978). The learner is
more likely to see the incentive as a reward for ‘‘trying out’’
or becoming competent in a new learning opportunity.

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372 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
2. The adult has to develop a level of competence before the learning
activity can become enjoyable or interesting. Some sports, such
as tennis and swimming, are good examples of this situation,
as are learning to speak a foreign language or use a personal
computer or play the trumpet. There are so many things that
are valuable to learn but just not that appealing to do until
the learner has achieved at least a moderate level of compe-
tence. In such situations, incentives may be the only positive
means to sustain effort until the necessary level of proficiency
provides its own pleasure and satisfaction. That is why par-
ents applaud vigorously and unashamedly for their children
at those, to say the least, imperfect music recitals and why an
instructor might have to give extra attention and recognition
to a struggling student in an adult basic education course.
When it comes to intrinsic motivation and incentives, the
paramount issues to consider are the learners’ value for the activity
or for what it leads to, the probability of increasing competence
through the activity, the learners’ view of the overall process, and,
always, the cultural context.
Promoting Natural Consequences and Positive
Endings
The concept of natural consequences comes out of reinforcement
theory (Vargas, 1977). Natural consequences are changes in a per-
son resulting from learning. Reading a book may have the natural
consequence of producing new insights and expanded awareness
in an adult. When working with natural consequences, we empha-
size the result of learning (insights) more than the process of
learning (reading) or its context (the book and where it was
read).
Constructs from sociocultural theory (Mezirow and Associates,
2000), situated cognition (Fenwick, 2003), and neuroscience

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 373
(Caine and Caine, 2006) mutually support the perspective that
all of these elements are intimately related and cannot be arbi-
trarily divided. For example, a person is motivated to solve a
problem by the pleasure of analyzing it (process), the materials and
instruments he uses (context), and the satisfaction of arriving at
a solution (natural consequence). In other words, it’s the trip, the
vehicle, and the destination that are motivating. Yet emphasizing
natural consequences is an effective motivational strategy, because
like a good tour guide, it helps adults more vividly understand the
importance of their destination.
Strategy 59: When Learning Has Natural Consequences, Help
Learners to Be Aware of Them and of Their Impact
One can see that natural consequences and feedback go hand in
hand. However, because using natural consequences as a strategy
includes every consequence that an adult can perceive as a result
of learning, it encourages instructors to make learning active as soon
as possible so that adults can quickly have natural consequences to
increase and maintain their motivation. The remarkably successful
Suzuki violin method does this for children, but so might any
instructor of adults teaching any skill, ranging from sailing to
surfing the Internet.
Many learning activities have natural consequences for adults
that are not included in the performance criteria. To miss these
would be a shame. It would be like serving a cake without the
frosting. People often do not realize some of the consequences of
their learning. In these situations, instructors can act as mirrors
or magnifying glasses to reveal relevant consequences not readily
apparent. The guiding question is, As a result of this learning activ-
ity, what else does the learner know or what else can the learner
do that is important to understand? Suppose, for example, that
an adult takes a course in technical report writing. The standard
of performance is based on a readability index that is precise and
provides excellent informational feedback. The adult achieves the

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374 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
standard of performance and successfully completes the course. It
is also possible that because of the learning in this course, the
adult is more confident as a writer, enjoys writing in general more
than ever before, can more clearly communicate verbally, sees
improvement in personal letter writing, and will now pursue a
career in which writing is a requisite skill. When the instructor
takes some time at the end of this course to discuss with the
learners what other outcomes they may have achieved, they are
likely to deepen their motivation and broaden their transfer of
learning.
Discussion is not the only means of making natural con-
sequences more conspicuous. Authentic performance tasks and
simulations often reveal more than the specific expected learning.
Using self-assessment methods (Strategy 54) as well as videotapes
and audiotapes to record progress and demonstrate before-and-after
effects, we can highlight a variety of natural consequences. There
is also the possibility of using examples in which a given skill or
concept is applied outside the expected context, such as asking
how a communication skill might be used with a learner’s family
as well as on the job.
Strategy 60: Provide Positive Closure at the End of Significant Units of
Learning
A significant unit of learning can be determined by length or
importance. In terms of length, when any course, seminar,
or training program is terminating, a significant unit of learn-
ing has occurred. In longer courses segments based on particular
content or skills may also have a clearly delineated beginning and
ending. For example, a course in marketing might be divided into
units on promotion, sales, and contracts.
In terms of importance, a significant unit of learning is any
segment of learning that has some characteristic that makes it
special: the level of difficulty, cohesiveness, or creativity; the
type of learning situation, structure, or process (special equipment,

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Engendering Competence among Adult Learners 375
materials, location, grouping, or task); or the presence of prominent
individuals such as an esteemed audience or lecturer.
In all these cases, something notable is coming to an end.
Positive closure enhances learners’ motivation because it affirms
the entire process, verifies the value of the experience, directly
or indirectly acknowledges competence, increases cohesiveness
within the group, and encourages the surfacing of inspiration
and other beneficial emotions in the learners themselves. Positive
closure can be a small gesture, such as thanking learners for their
cooperation, or something much more extravagant, such as an
awards ceremony. Celebrations, acknowledgments, and sharing are
some of the ways to achieve positive closure.
• Celebrations. For people all over the world, festivals and
holidays are a joyous means of acknowledging the ending of
seasons, religious observations, and harvests. There is no valid
reason to avoid celebrations in learning. Savor with learners their
moment of triumph and accomplishment. This can be a plea-
surable discussion, a party, a round of applause, sitting back and
recalling special moments, or offering congratulations. But let the
moment linger and enjoy it together. It is a happy occasion, not
to be taken for granted. Celebrations are a wonderfully inclu-
sive metaphor. They allow people to feel pleasure for whatever
they personally accomplished or valued during the entire learning
experience.
• Acknowledgments. These can be simple statements of grati-
tude and appreciation or more formal and ritualized awards. The
goal is to recognize noteworthy learner contributions or achieve-
ments during the span of the learning event. Depending on the
situation, acknowledgments can be given by the instructor, the
learners, or both.
• Sharing. Sharing is anything the instructor and learners
might do to show their caring and sensitivity to the special quality
of the learning experience and those involved in it. Some have

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376 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
cooked dinner for their class. Some have told stories that reflect
their special feelings or insights. Others have brought in personal
collections or demonstrated their musical talents. More frequently,
this type of sharing takes the form of a poignant final statement
that may include an eloquent poem or an inspirational quotation.
When something has gone well, it deserves a fitting form of closure.

9
Building Motivational Strategies
into Instructional Designs
When we do the best we can, we never know what
miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
Helen Keller
When it is very good, instruction is technical excellenceunder the command of artistic expression. For no matter
how many fixed rules, precise definitions, and logical strategies we
establish in learning, the process remains embedded in a human
context that is open ended, subjective, unique, and constantly
changing. For this reason, instruction remains a science within
an art, more akin to communication than to engineering. In fact,
instruction may never be a sure thing, because what makes people
learn is beyond guarantee or total prediction. Therefore, it will
always need the timeliness, sensitivity, and vision that any effective
relationship contributing to human growth demands. Among the
many important aspects of instruction, none seem more deserving
of this perspective than those that deal with motivation.
At our current level of understanding, human motivation in
learning is too complex and indomitable to lend itself to easy
panaceas. But we can plan for it. A logical and seductive assump-
tion is that if instruction itself is well planned and efficient,
377

378 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
motivation for what is being learned should neatly and nicely come
along as well. In some instances this is true, especially when adults
feel respected and know that what they are learning is relevant
and when the instructional process increases their effectiveness.
However, the longer the instructional sequence or the more compli-
cated the human factors within it, the easier it is for motivation to
diminish — which it seems to do with regularity. If this were not so,
motivation would not be the epidemic concern it is for instructors.
Industry and business are filled with well-designed, efficient
instructional programs that are not very motivating. Part of the
problem is efficiency itself. Motivation takes people-to-people
skills and time. Like a good conversation, it cannot be rushed.
The best way to see a motivational strategy is as an investment.
It pays dividends but often not immediately. Also, because what
motivates people is often beyond the inherent structure of the
knowledge or skill they are learning, instructors have to plan for
motivation in its own right. It cannot be taken for granted. If
we look at the motivational conditions and strategies described
in the other chapters, most of them address cultural and internal
human influences in learning, such as inclusion, attitude, meaning,
and competence. Many instructional design formats for adults do
not address these influences (King, 2005; Kasworm and Londoner,
2000). Yet they are essential to motivated learning, and planning
for them, at the very least, seems sensible.
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teach-
ing can be used for instructional planning and design. It is a
systemic structure for applying motivational strategies and learn-
ing activities throughout a learning sequence. Instruction is a
complex network of influences and interactions whose results are
produced by the total system of such influences, not by its individual
parts (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995). With this motivational
framework we can design instruction so that the development
and enhancement of learners’ intrinsic motivation is an essential
part of the plan. The framework and its related strategies enable

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 379
us to programmatically combine a series of learning activities
from the beginning to the end of an instructional sequence so
that they create a network of mutually supportive motivational
conditions. These conditions — inclusion, attitude, meaning, and
competence — work in concert to elicit adult motivation for learn-
ing for the entire learning sequence. It may be helpful to review
Chapter Four’s discussion of this framework before reading further
sections of this chapter.
Increasing Motivational Self-Awareness
In preparation for our effective use of the Motivational Framework
for Culturally Responsive Teaching, a few considerations may
increase our sensitivity to how the framework can be most benefi-
cial to our work. The first is to conduct an analysis of our roles as
instructors, our assumptions about the motivation of adults, and our
instructional situation relative to motivation. Such an inquiry will
help us to understand how well this approach fits our philosophy,
style, and professional environment. Exhibit 9.1 lists three areas
significantly related to an instructor’s approach to learner motiva-
tion. Please reflect upon them before you apply the framework.
Exhibit 9.1 Instructor Self-Assessment for Applying
the Motivational Framework
Reflecting on the three areas listed here can help you be more aware
of the extent to which the motivational approach offered in this book
can be of use to you. Take a few minutes to answer the questions
and to reflect on your responses. Writing them out may clarify your
thoughts and make this self-assessment a deeper experience.
1. Your Perception of Your Role as an Instructor
This approach to instruction is generally incompatible with roles
that are authoritarian and directive but very effective with those that
are collaborative, egalitarian, and consultative. How appropriate and

380 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
natural does it feel for you to be a colearner among adults? What
generally have been your reactions to your experiences when you
are a guide and facilitator of adult learning rather than a director
or lecturer? How comfortable are you with respecting the perspec-
tives of others as you teach? Are you open to learning the values
and practices of other people to promote intercultural understand-
ing? Are you self-reflective about personal attitudes and beliefs that
might hinder the expression of learner opinions that differ from your
own? Are you committed to continuing your professional growth and
self-awareness as a culturally responsive instructor? What are three
things you most often do to enhance learner motivation? What do
these habits tell you about the kind of role you prefer as an instructor?
2. Your Assumptions about the Motivation of the Adults You Teach
or Train
From your perspective, what motivates the adults you teach or train?
How do you understand the relationship between how these adults
have been socialized and their motivation to learn? What are your
thoughts about the importance of teaching or training in ways that
engage the motivation of all learners? The motivational approach set
forth in this book respects cultural diversity and assumes that learning
situations for adults should model equitable learning environments
and promote an understanding of how what is learned relates to a
more equitable society. What is your thinking on these matters? How
important are they to you?
3. Your Perceptions of Your Instructional Situation
When you consider the organization you work for, what are its highest
priorities for your instruction? How are these compatible with your
goals and the goals of the instructional approach in this book? What
adjustments may be necessary to apply the Motivational Framework
for Culturally Responsive Teaching? What are the areas in which you
have the most freedom to be flexible and self-directed? Are there
parts of your instructional program that need a change? Has any
of the information in the previous chapters helped in this regard?

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 381
If so, how? Where would be the best place to begin to make a
few changes? And just as important, what material in this book has
affirmed your teaching or training? In what ways do you think your
learners would complete the following sentence: My instructor helps
me feel motivated because he or she . . .?
Having reflected on the three points in Exhibit 9.1, you may
wish to review all the strategies discussed in this book before
proceeding to the instructional planning section of this chapter.
Table 9.1 is a summary of the motivational strategies contained in
the four previous chapters. It includes the four major motivational
conditions and a listing of specific related strategies and the purposes
they serve.
For instructional planning, which tends to be linear, you may
want to assign these strategies to the time phase of the course or
training suggested in Table 9.1. My experience and the experiences
of the numerous instructors who have corresponded with me
indicate that these strategies usually have their maximum impact
when timed in this way. However, my experience has also told me
that the creativity and complexity of teaching and learning make
these strategies useful in any phase of a course. Depending on the
situation, they may be a positive motivational influence at any
moment, hour, or day.
Reviewing the list of strategies in Table 9.1 has three purposes.
First, it will give you a more immediate sensitivity to all the possible
strategies that can be used for instructional planning. Second, you
can use the table as a checklist of all the strategies you are currently
employing. Many instructors are not aware of all the things they do
to enhance adult motivation for learning. This kind of inventory
may give you a more concrete awareness of your repertoire of
current motivational strategies. Third, the table also probably lists
strategies which you might want to include in your instructional
efforts. If you find more than a few motivational strategies that you
would like to initiate, rank these strategies in terms of their

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S
u
m
m
ar
y
of
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
ie
s
M
aj
or
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
C
on
di
ti
on
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
In
cl
us
io
n
(b
eg
in
n
in
g
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
)
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
am
on
g
ad
ul
ts
1.
A
ll
ow
fo
r
in
tr
od
uc
ti
on
s.
2.
P
ro
vi
de
an
op
po
rt
un
it
y
fo
r
m
ul
ti
di
m
en
si
on
al
sh
ar
in
g.
3.
C
on
cr
et
el
y
in
di
ca
te
yo
ur
co
op
er
at
iv
e
in
te
n
ti
on
s
to
h
el
p
ad
ul
ts
le
ar
n
.
4.
S
h
ar
e
so
m
et
h
in
g
of
va
lu
e
w
it
h
yo
ur
ad
ul
t
le
ar
n
er
s.
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
6.
C
le
ar
ly
id
en
ti
fy
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ob
je
ct
iv
es
an
d
go
al
s
fo
r
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
.
7.
E
m
ph
as
iz
e
th
e
h
um
an
pu
rp
os
e
of
w
h
at
is
be
in
g
le
ar
n
ed
an
d
it
s
re
la
ti
on
sh
ip
to
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s’
pe
rs
on
al
li
ve
s
an
d
cu
rr
en
t
si
tu
at
io
n
s.
T
o
cr
ea
te
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
am
on
g
ad
ul
ts
8.
A
ss
es
s
le
ar
n
er
s’
cu
rr
en
t
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s,
n
ee
ds
,g
oa
ls
,a
n
d
pr
ev
io
us
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
it
re
la
te
s
to
yo
ur
co
ur
se
or
tr
ai
n
in
g.
9.
E
xp
li
ci
tl
y
in
tr
od
uc
e
im
po
rt
an
t
n
or
m
s
an
d
pa
rt
ic
ip
at
io
n
gu
id
el
in
es
.
10
.W
h
en
is
su
in
g
m
an
da
to
ry
as
si
gn
m
en
ts
or
tr
ai
n
in
g
re
qu
ir
em
en
ts
,g
iv
e
yo
ur
ra
ti
on
al
e
fo
r
th
em
.
11
.A
ck
n
ow
le
dg
e
di
ff
er
en
t
w
ay
s
of
kn
ow
in
g,
di
ff
er
en
t
la
n
gu
ag
es
,a
n
d
di
ff
er
en
t
le
ve
ls
of
kn
ow
le
dg
e
or
sk
il
la
m
on
g
le
ar
n
er
s.
A
tt
it
ud
e
(b
eg
in
n
in
g
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
)
T
o
bu
il
d
a
po
si
ti
ve
at
ti
tu
de
to
w
ar
d
th
e
su
bj
ec
t
12
.E
li
m
in
at
e
or
m
in
im
iz
e
an
y
n
eg
at
iv
e
co
n
di
ti
on
s
th
at
su
rr
ou
n
d
th
e
su
bj
ec
t.
13
.P
os
it
iv
el
y
co
n
fr
on
t
th
e
er
ro
n
eo
us
be
li
ef
s,
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s,
an
d
as
su
m
pt
io
n
s
th
at
m
ay
un
de
rl
ie
a
n
eg
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
er
at
ti
tu
de
.
14
.U
se
di
ff
er
en
ti
at
ed
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
to
en
h
an
ce
su
cc
es
sf
ul
le
ar
n
in
g
of
n
ew
co
n
te
n
t.
15
.U
se
as
si
st
ed
le
ar
n
in
g
to
sc
af
fo
ld
co
m
pl
ex
le
ar
n
in
g.

T
o
de
ve
lo
p
se
lf
-e
ffi
ca
cy
fo
r
le
ar
n
in
g
16
.P
ro
m
ot
e
le
ar
n
er
s’
pe
rs
on
al
co
n
tr
ol
of
le
ar
n
in
g.
17
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
ef
fe
ct
iv
el
y
at
tr
ib
ut
e
th
ei
r
su
cc
es
s
to
th
ei
r
ca
pa
bi
li
ty
,e
ff
or
t,
an
d
kn
ow
le
dg
e.
18
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
un
de
rs
ta
n
d
th
at
re
as
on
ab
le
ef
fo
rt
an
d
kn
ow
le
dg
e
ca
n
h
el
p
th
em
av
oi
d
fa
il
ur
e
at
le
ar
n
in
g
ta
sk
s
th
at
su
it
th
ei
r
ca
pa
bi
li
ty
.
19
.U
se
re
le
va
n
t
m
od
el
s
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
ex
pe
ct
ed
le
ar
n
in
g.
20
.E
n
co
ur
ag
e
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s.
T
o
es
ta
bl
is
h
ch
al
le
n
gi
n
g
an
d
at
ta
in
ab
le
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s
21
.M
ak
e
th
e
cr
it
er
ia
of
as
se
ss
m
en
t
as
fa
ir
an
d
cl
ea
r
as
po
ss
ib
le
.
22
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
un
de
rs
ta
n
d
an
d
pl
an
fo
r
th
e
am
ou
n
t
of
ti
m
e
n
ee
de
d
fo
r
su
cc
es
sf
ul
le
ar
n
in
g.
23
.U
se
go
al
-s
et
ti
n
g
m
et
h
od
s.
24
.U
se
le
ar
n
in
g
co
n
tr
ac
ts
.
T
o
cr
ea
te
re
le
va
n
t
le
ar
n
in
g
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s
25
.U
se
th
e
en
tr
y
po
in
ts
su
gg
es
te
d
by
m
ul
ti
pl
e
in
te
ll
ig
en
ce
s
th
eo
ry
as
w
ay
s
of
le
ar
n
in
g
ab
ou
t
a
to
pi
c
or
co
n
ce
pt
.
26
.M
ak
e
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ty
an
ir
re
si
st
ib
le
in
vi
ta
ti
on
to
le
ar
n
.
27
.U
se
th
e
K
-W
-L
st
ra
te
gy
to
in
tr
od
uc
e
n
ew
to
pi
cs
an
d
co
n
ce
pt
s.
M
ea
n
in
g
(d
ur
in
g
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
)
T
o
m
ai
n
ta
in
le
ar
n
er
s’
at
te
n
ti
on
28
.P
ro
vi
de
fr
eq
ue
n
t
re
sp
on
se
op
po
rt
un
it
ie
s
to
al
ll
ea
rn
er
s
on
an
eq
ui
ta
bl
e
ba
si
s.
29
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
re
al
iz
e
th
ei
r
ac
co
un
ta
bi
li
ty
fo
r
w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
30
.P
ro
vi
de
va
ri
et
y
in
pe
rs
on
al
pr
es
en
ta
ti
on
st
yl
e,
m
od
es
of
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
,a
n
d
le
ar
n
in
g
m
at
er
ia
ls
.
31
.I
n
tr
od
uc
e,
co
n
n
ec
t,
an
d
en
d
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
at
tr
ac
ti
ve
ly
an
d
cl
ea
rl
y.
32
.S
el
ec
ti
ve
ly
us
e
br
ea
ks
,s
et
tl
in
g
ti
m
e,
an
d
ph
ys
ic
al
ex
er
ci
se
s.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.1
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
M
aj
or
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
C
on
di
ti
on
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
T
o
ev
ok
e
an
d
su
st
ai
n
le
ar
n
er
s’
in
te
re
st
33
.R
el
at
e
le
ar
n
in
g
to
in
di
vi
du
al
in
te
re
st
s,
co
n
ce
rn
s,
an
d
va
lu
es
.
34
.W
h
en
po
ss
ib
le
,c
le
ar
ly
st
at
e
or
de
m
on
st
ra
te
th
e
be
n
efi
ts
th
at
w
il
lr
es
ul
t
fr
om
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ty
.
35
.W
h
il
e
in
st
ru
ct
in
g,
us
e
h
um
or
li
be
ra
ll
y
an
d
fr
eq
ue
n
tl
y.
36
.S
el
ec
ti
ve
ly
in
du
ce
pa
ra
pa
th
ic
em
ot
io
n
s.
37
.S
el
ec
ti
ve
ly
us
e
ex
am
pl
es
,a
n
al
og
ie
s,
m
et
ap
h
or
s,
an
d
st
or
ie
s.
38
.U
se
un
ce
rt
ai
n
ty
,a
n
ti
ci
pa
ti
on
,a
n
d
pr
ed
ic
ti
on
to
th
e
de
gr
ee
th
at
le
ar
n
er
s
en
jo
y
th
em
w
it
h
a
se
n
se
of
se
cu
ri
ty
.
39
.U
se
co
n
ce
pt
m
ap
s
to
de
ve
lo
p
an
d
li
n
k
in
te
re
st
in
g
id
ea
s
an
d
in
fo
rm
at
io
n
.
T
o
de
ep
en
le
ar
n
er
s’
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
40
.U
se
cr
it
ic
al
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
st
im
ul
at
e
en
ga
gi
n
g
an
d
ch
al
le
n
gi
n
g
re
fle
ct
io
n
an
d
di
sc
us
si
on
.
41
.U
se
re
le
va
n
t
pr
ob
le
m
s,
re
se
ar
ch
,a
n
d
in
qu
ir
y
to
fa
ci
li
ta
te
le
ar
n
in
g.
42
.U
se
in
tr
ig
ui
n
g
pr
ob
le
m
s
an
d
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
m
ak
e
in
it
ia
ll
y
ir
re
le
va
n
t
m
at
er
ia
l
m
or
e
m
ea
n
in
gf
ul
.
43
.U
se
ca
se
st
ud
y
m
et
h
od
s
to
en
h
an
ce
m
ea
n
in
g.
T
o
en
h
an
ce
le
ar
n
er
s’
en
ga
ge
m
en
t,
ch
al
le
n
ge
,a
n
d
ad
ap
ti
ve
de
ci
si
on
m
ak
in
g
44
.U
se
ro
le
pl
ay
in
g
to
em
bo
dy
m
ea
n
in
g
an
d
n
ew
le
ar
n
in
g
w
it
h
in
a
m
or
e
re
al
is
ti
c
an
d
dy
n
am
ic
co
n
te
xt
.
45
.U
se
si
m
ul
at
io
n
s
an
d
ga
m
es
to
em
bo
dy
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
of
m
ul
ti
pl
e
co
n
ce
pt
s
an
d
sk
il
ls
th
at
re
qu
ir
e
a
re
al
-l
if
e
co
n
te
xt
an
d
pr
ac
ti
ce
to
be
le
ar
n
ed
.

46
.U
se
vi
si
ts
,i
n
te
rn
sh
ip
s,
an
d
se
rv
ic
e
le
ar
n
in
g
to
ra
is
e
aw
ar
en
es
s,
pr
ov
id
e
pr
ac
ti
ce
,a
n
d
em
bo
dy
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
of
co
n
ce
pt
s
an
d
sk
il
ls
in
au
th
en
ti
c
se
tt
in
gs
.
47
.U
se
in
ve
n
ti
on
,a
rt
is
tr
y,
im
ag
in
at
io
n
,a
n
d
en
ac
tm
en
t
to
re
n
de
r
de
ep
er
m
ea
n
in
g
an
d
em
ot
io
n
in
le
ar
n
in
g.
C
om
pe
te
n
ce
(e
n
di
n
g
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
)
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
48
.P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
49
.A
vo
id
cu
lt
ur
al
bi
as
an
d
pr
om
ot
e
eq
ui
ty
in
as
se
ss
m
en
t
pr
oc
ed
ur
es
.
50
.M
ak
e
as
se
ss
m
en
t
ta
sk
s
an
d
cr
it
er
ia
cl
ea
rl
y
kn
ow
n
to
le
ar
n
er
s
pr
io
r
to
th
ei
r
us
e.
51
.U
se
au
th
en
ti
c
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
ta
sk
s
to
de
ep
en
n
ew
le
ar
n
in
g
an
d
h
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
pr
ofi
ci
en
tl
y
ap
pl
y
th
is
le
ar
n
in
g
to
th
ei
r
re
al
li
ve
s.
52
.P
ro
vi
de
op
po
rt
un
it
ie
s
fo
r
ad
ul
ts
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
th
ei
r
le
ar
n
in
g
in
w
ay
s
th
at
re
fle
ct
th
ei
r
st
re
n
gt
h
s
an
d
m
ul
ti
pl
e
so
ur
ce
s
of
kn
ow
in
g.
53
.W
h
en
us
in
g
ru
br
ic
s,
m
ak
e
su
re
th
ey
as
se
ss
th
e
es
se
n
ti
al
fe
at
ur
es
of
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
an
d
ar
e
fa
ir
,v
al
id
,a
n
d
su
ffi
ci
en
tl
y
cl
ea
r
so
th
at
le
ar
n
er
s
ca
n
ac
cu
ra
te
ly
se
lf
-a
ss
es
s.
54
.U
se
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
t
m
et
h
od
s
to
im
pr
ov
e
le
ar
n
in
g
an
d
to
pr
ov
id
e
le
ar
n
er
s
w
it
h
th
e
op
po
rt
un
it
y
to
co
n
st
ru
ct
re
le
va
n
t
in
si
gh
ts
an
d
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
s.
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
tr
an
sf
er
55
.F
os
te
r
th
e
in
te
n
ti
on
an
d
ca
pa
ci
ty
to
tr
an
sf
er
le
ar
n
in
g.
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
co
m
m
un
ic
at
io
n
an
d
re
w
ar
ds
56
.W
h
en
n
ec
es
sa
ry
,u
se
co
n
st
ru
ct
iv
e
cr
it
ic
is
m
.
57
.E
ff
ec
ti
ve
ly
pr
ai
se
an
d
re
w
ar
d
le
ar
n
in
g.
58
.U
se
in
ce
n
ti
ve
s
to
de
ve
lo
p
an
d
m
ai
n
ta
in
ad
ul
t
m
ot
iv
at
io
n
in
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
th
at
ar
e
in
it
ia
ll
y
un
ap
pe
al
in
g
bu
t
pe
rs
on
al
ly
va
lu
ed
.
59
.W
h
en
le
ar
n
in
g
h
as
n
at
ur
al
co
n
se
qu
en
ce
s,
h
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
to
be
aw
ar
e
of
th
em
an
d
of
th
ei
r
im
pa
ct
.
60
.P
ro
vi
de
po
si
ti
ve
cl
os
ur
e
at
th
e
en
d
of
si
gn
ifi
ca
n
t
un
it
s
of
le
ar
n
in
g.

386 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
personal value to you as well as their probability of being successful.
Using these criteria for selection will increase the chances that the
new strategies you finally choose will be effective and adaptable to
your instructional situation.
Designing an Instructional Plan
After reviewing the sixty strategies listed in Table 9.1, consider
how to use the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive
Teaching to design an instructional plan. These methods can be
adapted to more prescriptive approaches to instructional design
such as those used for online learning.
The first step is to clarify the learning objective. A clear
understanding of the proposed learning outcome will suggest the
sequence of instruction and its relationship to a larger instructional
unit (if there is one). If prior assessments such as interviews or
interest inventories are used to develop learning objectives, they
can be either a prior step or part of the first step in this planning.
Once the learning objective is well understood, the next step
is to determine the amount of time available to help learners
accomplish it. The length of time will have a strong influence
on the kind and number of motivational strategies chosen. For
example, because processing a lengthy case study takes much
longer than conducting a short role play, a role play may have to
be selected for the instructional plan.
The third step is to analyze the inherent structure of the
material, knowledge, or skill to be learned. This structure may
determine the order of content or the sequence of steps needed
to adequately learn the material, as is often the case in math or a
foreign language.
In addition to analyzing the structure of the material, we need
to consider the assessment process. Often we mentally have to go
back and forth between the flow of the content and the type of

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 387
assessment we will use in order to plan the appropriate sequence
of learning activities. The instructional plan should provide suf-
ficient engagement and practice followed by an assessment that
establishes and verifies the competence of the learners. We may
also want to include elements in the design that lead to optimal
transfer (Strategy 55 in Chapter Eight).
There is no one way to sequence learning. For example, should
learning activities make content flow from the general to the spe-
cific, or vice versa? Or should we begin with a concrete experience
of the content, move to reflective observation, then to abstract
conceptualization, and, finally, to active experimentation, as David
Kolb (1984) has proposed? Or we might problem-pose the content
and codevelop the sequence with learners, as Paulo Freire (1970)
has espoused. Another approach that is very popular in adult edu-
cation today is the examination of incidents in our lives through
various forms of critical reflection (Mezirow and Associates, 2000;
Brookfield, 2005).
In this book, I advocate following a motivational framework
to teach content in a way that evokes intrinsic motivation to
learn among diverse adults. I suggest teaching any significant
learning objective in a course or training program with activities
based on motivational strategies to establish the conditions of
inclusion, attitude, meaning, and competence. Although concepts
from critical consciousness, transformative learning, and critical
reflection inform a number of these strategies and the tenor of this
book, planning strategies according to the four conditions of the
framework is very important. However, once learning has started,
it may be an experience much more like playing jazz than playing
classical music, with many unexpected but desired twists and turns.
Then we can use the strategies for each of the four motivational
conditions in a less linear order, on an ‘‘as-wanted’’ basis.
Nonetheless, some of us may be concerned about ordering
content per se, relatively independent of pedagogical theory. If so,

388 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
we can consider the following more technical guidelines from the
field of instructional design (Tracey, 1992, p. 242; Dick, Carey,
and Carey, 2004):
• Start the sequence with materials that are familiar to
the learners and then proceed to new materials (inte-
grating the familiar with the new).
• Give learners a context or framework to use in organiz-
ing what they are to learn.
• Place easily learned tasks early in the sequence.
• Introduce broad concepts and technical terms that
have application throughout the instructional process
early in the sequence.
• Place practical application of concepts and principles
close to the point of the initial discussion of the con-
cepts and principles.
• Place prerequisite knowledge and skills in the sequence
before they must be combined with subsequent knowl-
edge and skills.
• Provide for practice and review of skills and knowledge
that are essential parts of tasks to be introduced later in
the activity.
• Introduce a concept or a skill in the task in which it is
most frequently used.
• Structure learning objectives in closely related, self-
contained groups.
• Avoid overloading any task with elements that are diffi-
cult to learn.
• Place complex or cumulative skills late in the
sequence.

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 389
• Provide support or coaching for practice of required
skills, concepts, and principles in areas where trans-
fer is likely to occur (see Strategy 55 for an expanded
and deeper understanding of this guideline).
When it comes to the assessment component of instructional
planning, I have a bias. Because of my experience and understand-
ing of adult motivation, I plan for some kind of authentic performance
task as soon as possible. I believe that competence is such a high pri-
ority and so motivating for adults that the sooner they experience
it, the deeper their learning and motivation will be. Therefore,
once I have ascertained the learning objective and the content,
I begin imagining what kind of performance task could creatively
and clearly reveal to learners that they are becoming more effective
at what they value. Once I settle on the performance task, I go
back to sequence the course content so that it can lead learners to
successful accomplishment of the task.
For example, in a research course, one learning objective
is to critique a research article effectively. The performance task is
pretty straightforward: learners choose a relevant research article to
critique. Now I’m back to content; I have to ask myself, What must
learners know to make a basic critique, and in what order
must they know it? The concepts of reliability and validity come to
mind (teach reliability before validity). Now I return to the perfor-
mance task to consider what the criteria and indicators should be.
Once this is settled, I can begin to select motivational strategies to
teach reliability and validity. And so it goes.
In this scheme, using assessment to enhance learning and moti-
vation, especially as it affects learners’ self-efficacy through their
realization of competence, is on an equal footing with using assess-
ment to audit learning. Therefore, it is very important to make the
learning objective something that can be assessed in measurable
terms by the learner. Accuracy is always important, but comprehen-
siveness may have to wait for a later, more summative assessment.

390 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
In motivation workshops, for example, I often give participants
an instructional scenario to critique for teaching errors. They are
requested to find the possible errors and indicate why these actions
might be motivational errors. But the participants are not requested
to modify the teacher’s behavior. They haven’t had a chance to
learn the content to do this. However, in finding and explaining
the errors, the participants discover that their learning about moti-
vation is measurably increasing. This so deepens their motivation
that I have made working with this scenario a standard practice.
Superimposing the Motivational Framework on an Existing
Instructional Plan
For instructors who are more experienced and possess well-devel-
oped instructional plans or who are instructional designers and
follow a strictly defined sequence for learning, the best way to use
the motivational framework may be to superimpose it on an existing
instructional plan. This approach uses the four conditions from the
Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching as a
template, together with a previously completed instructional plan.
Exhibit 9.2 turns the four conditions into questions for the tem-
plate. By asking these questions with close attention to the diversity
of the learners as we peruse our instructional plan, we can estimate
where our instructional activities fulfill the conditions of the moti-
vational framework and where they do not. For those questions
that are not adequately answered, we can develop learning activ-
ities based on the strategies related to the relevant motivational
condition (see Table 9.1). The two main criteria for successful
instructional planning based on the motivational framework are
(1) the establishment of all four of the motivational conditions
and (2) activities in each phase (beginning, during, and ending) of
instruction to elicit significant motivation among learners.
One of the problems with instructional planning is the struggle
to deal in a two-dimensional format with the complexity and

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 391
Exhibit 9.2 The Four Questions for Instructional Planning
1. Establishing inclusion. How does this learning sequence
create or affirm a learning atmosphere in which we feel
respected by and connected to one another? (Emphasis
on beginning activities)
2. Developing attitude. How does this learning sequence make
use of personal relevance and learner volition to create or
affirm a favorable disposition toward learning? (Emphasis on
beginning activities)
3. Enhancing meaning. Are there engaging and challenging
learning experiences that include learners’ perspectives and
values in this learning sequence? (Emphasis on main activities
during the instructional plan)
4. Engendering competence. How does this learning sequence
create or affirm an understanding that learners have effectively
learned something they value and perceive as authentic to
their real world? (Emphasis on ending activities)
nuance of real, live teaching. In this struggle, it helps to remem-
ber that most of the sixty strategies are applicable throughout a
teaching or training experience. For example, we might begin an
instructional plan with an authentic performance task to estimate
learners’ competence for the skill to be taught, or we might start
a course with a role play to evoke emotional relevance. The most
important aspect of this approach is establishing the four motiva-
tional conditions as we instruct. The strategies are a means to this
essential goal.
You may also be wondering about the specific calibration for
each time phase. When does the ‘‘beginning phase’’ end and the
‘‘during phase’’ begin? When does the ‘‘during phase’’ end and
the ‘‘ending phase’’ begin? Beyond individual judgment, there is no
precise way of determining this because of the diversity in learners,
content, learning situations, and learning objectives. In this respect,

392 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
the time phases are analogous to the broad way in which we divide
a day — morning, afternoon, and evening — imprecise segments of
time that give order to our day and help us understand that some
activities are more appropriate at certain times than at others.
The length of any instructional phase can be a few minutes
or a few days, depending on the situation. For example, the
beginning phase for a particular learning objective with a group
of highly motivated and self-directed adult learners may be very
short. However, for a group of restless and resistant adult learners,
the beginning phase for the same objective may have to be quite a
bit longer to develop positive attitudes toward learning.
My experience with conventional instructional design formats
is that the beginning phase is frequently too short, so the motiva-
tional condition of inclusion is only slightly developed. Creating
a climate of respect and connection with a group of diverse adults
takes some time. For the courses and training I’ve conducted,
establishing inclusion has taken, on the average, about 20 percent
of total instruction time. The benefits are well worth the time. The
quality of the dialogue and the depth of the thinking, the sincerity
and realism of people’s perspectives, the connections made, and
the awareness that we’re a community of learners in which our
respect is deep and mutual — all have made the learning vital and
the future hopeful.
Using the Motivational Framework as a Source
for Instructional Planning
Another approach is to begin with intrinsic motivation as the
origin for instructional planning. We will still have to respect
the parameters of the learning objective, the structure of the
content to be learned, and the time available, but we can focus
on instructional planning in which motivation and culture are
essential.
The learning objective remains a top priority because with-
out it, the motivation of the learners has no direction. However,

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 393
once we understand the objective, we then reflect on the learners,
their culture, and their expected motivation regarding the learning
objective. Next, we review the motivational purposes (listed in
the second column of Table 9.1) to select motivational strategies
to guide our choice of learning activities that will fit the learning
objective and the learners’ culture and expected motivation as well
as the structure of the content and the time available for learning.
In this manner, we do not merely add on or blend in motivational
strategies but use them as the source for learning activities that
fulfill the four motivational conditions and accomplish the learning
objective.
Having selected the most relevant strategies for each phase
(beginning, during, and ending), we then reflect on what learning
activity will carry out the essence of each strategy. Because instruc-
tional design is a creative process and an act of composing, ideas
for activities will sometimes emerge before we select strategies, in
which case the strategies can be suitable afterthoughts that confirm
the motivational intent of the activities. In fact, having conducted
hundreds of workshops for the source approach has taught me that
the creativity of teachers and trainers can justifiably obliterate any
set method of instructional planning. Creating an instructional
plan from the framework and its related motivational strategies can
be as idiosyncratic a process as writing a story. However conceived,
the plan should respect the cultural, structural, and temporal con-
siderations for learning, establish the four motivational conditions,
and accomplish the learning objective with an understanding of
how it will be assessed or transferred or both.
Examples of Instructional Planning Using the Motivational
Framework
Whether developed from the Motivational Framework using the
superimposed method or the source method, an instructional plan
contains an alignment of motivational purposes with motivational
strategies and related learning activities or instructor behaviors in

394 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
a time frame. The examples of instructional plans that follow begin
with simple and short units of learning and move toward longer and
more complex units of learning. (Note that in all the examples, the
numbers of the motivational strategies correspond to those used in
Table 9.1 and in Chapters Five through Eight.)
Example 1
An instructor is conducting a three-hour class session in the School for
Professional Studies, a division of the university that serves primarily
adult learners. This is a general education course titled the Modern
American Novel. The topic for the evening is Alice Walker and
her novel The Color Purple. The learners have been requested to
complete the reading of this novel prior to this course session.
Type and number of learners: twenty men and women ranging
in age from twenty-one to fifty-nine. There is considerable diversity of
age, ethnicity, and race among the students in the class. Most of them
have had at least a few general education courses before this one.
Learning objective: learners will communicate their perspective
and understanding of the novel through participation in discussion
and a short written critique. (Writing samples and related rubrics were
passed out and discussed at the first class session.)
The instructional plan for Example 1 is shown in Table 9.2.
This example contains at least one motivational purpose for each
of the four major motivational conditions. In this example, the
instructor used nine motivational strategies out of a possible sixty.
Because this example is only illustrative, it is conceivable that more
or fewer strategies could be used. The particular learning activities
or instructor behaviors are what the instructor would do to carry
out the motivational strategies. Note that it is common for one
activity to carry out more than one strategy — as one does in this
example, carrying out Strategies 5 and 26. In fact, one elaborate
activity might represent as many as ten strategies.
Notice also that Strategy 5 (collaborative and cooperative
learning) is used for the purpose of creating relevant learning

T
ab
le
9
.2
.
In
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
P
la
n
fo
r
E
xa
m
pl
e
1
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
4.
S
h
ar
e
so
m
et
h
in
g
of
va
lu
e
w
it
h
yo
ur
ad
ul
t
le
ar
n
er
s.
S
h
ar
e
re
ac
ti
on
s
w
h
en
fir
st
re
ad
in
g
th
e
n
ov
el
ov
er
20
ye
ar
s
ag
o:
di
sc
om
fo
rt
w
it
h
th
e
ro
le
s
of
th
e
m
en
bu
t
at
tr
ac
ti
on
to
th
e
id
ea
of
re
de
m
pt
iv
e
lo
ve
.
T
o
cr
ea
te
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
11
.A
ck
n
ow
le
dg
e
di
ff
er
en
t
w
ay
s
of
kn
ow
in
g,
di
ff
er
en
t
la
n
gu
ag
es
,a
n
d
di
ff
er
en
t
le
ve
ls
of
kn
ow
le
dg
e
or
sk
il
la
m
on
g
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s.
A
ck
n
ow
le
dg
e
A
li
ce
W
al
ke
r’
s
ra
di
ca
lf
em
in
is
t
pe
rs
pe
ct
iv
e
an
d
th
e
co
n
tr
ov
er
si
al
is
su
es
de
al
t
w
it
h
in
th
e
n
ov
el
:a
bu
se
,i
n
ce
st
,v
io
le
n
ce
,r
ac
is
m
,a
n
d
it
s
vi
si
on
of
th
e
li
be
ra
ti
on
of
w
om
en
fr
om
m
en
—
ar
ea
s
w
h
er
e
di
ff
er
en
t
w
ay
s
of
kn
ow
in
g,
st
ro
n
g
fe
el
in
gs
,a
n
d
n
ew
le
ar
n
in
g
m
ay
em
er
ge
.
A
tt
it
ud
e—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
cr
ea
te
re
le
va
n
t
le
ar
n
in
g
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
26
.M
ak
e
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ty
an
ir
re
si
st
ib
le
in
vi
ta
ti
on
to
le
ar
n
.
D
iv
id
e
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s
in
to
sm
al
lg
ro
up
s
to
sh
ar
e
(t
o
th
e
ex
te
n
t
th
ey
ar
e
co
m
fo
rt
ab
le
)
an
y
si
tu
at
io
n
s
in
th
e
n
ov
el
th
at
th
ey
re
la
te
to
th
ei
r
pe
rs
on
al
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s—
ar
ea
s
th
at
h
av
e
a
re
so
n
an
ce
w
it
h
th
ei
r
ow
n
re
al
it
y.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.2
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
de
ep
en
le
ar
n
er
s’
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
40
.U
se
cr
it
ic
al
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
st
im
ul
at
e
le
ar
n
er
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
.
C
on
du
ct
a
w
h
ol
e-
gr
ou
p
di
sc
us
si
on
w
it
h
th
e
fo
ll
ow
in
g
qu
es
ti
on
s:
P
ro
be
fo
r
as
su
m
pt
io
ns
:B
as
ed
on
yo
ur
re
ad
in
g,
w
h
at
do
yo
u
th
in
k
ar
e
A
li
ce
W
al
ke
r’
s
as
su
m
pt
io
n
s
ab
ou
t
th
e
re
la
ti
on
s
be
tw
ee
n
m
en
an
d
w
om
en
?
W
om
en
an
d
w
om
en
?
M
en
an
d
m
en
?
P
le
as
e
of
fe
r
ev
id
en
ce
fr
om
th
e
bo
ok
fo
r
ea
ch
of
th
es
e
as
se
ss
m
en
ts
.C
om
pa
re
an
d
co
nt
ra
st
:
W
h
at
ar
e
so
m
e
of
th
e
si
m
il
ar
it
ie
s
an
d
di
ff
er
en
ce
s
be
tw
ee
n
th
is
bo
ok
’s
pe
rs
pe
ct
iv
e
of
h
um
an
it
y
an
d
w
h
at
w
e’
ve
re
ad
by
Fl
an
n
er
y
O
’C
on
n
or
?
C
ri
tic
al
ly
as
se
ss
:A
h
un
dr
ed
ye
ar
s
fr
om
n
ow
,w
il
lt
h
is
bo
ok
re
m
ai
n
a
cl
as
si
c?
In
th
is
re
ga
rd
,w
h
at
ar
e
it
s
st
re
n
gt
h
s
an
d
w
ea
kn
es
se
s?
T
o
m
ai
n
ta
in
le
ar
n
er
s’
at
te
n
ti
on
29
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
re
al
iz
e
th
ei
r
ac
co
un
ta
bi
li
ty
fo
r
w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
T
o
en
co
ur
ag
e
eq
ui
ta
bl
e
re
sp
on
di
n
g,
at
ti
m
es
ra
n
do
m
ly
se
le
ct
st
ud
en
ts
,b
ut
on
ly
on
th
os
e
oc
ca
si
on
s
w
h
en
yo
u
h
av
e
in
it
ia
ll
y
us
ed
th
in
k-
pa
ir
-s
ha
re
to
pr
oc
es
s
th
e
qu
es
ti
on
.

C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
51
:U
se
au
th
en
ti
c
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
ta
sk
s
to
en
ab
le
ad
ul
ts
to
de
ep
en
n
ew
le
ar
n
in
g
an
d
to
kn
ow
th
at
th
ey
ca
n
pr
ofi
ci
en
tl
y
ap
pl
y
th
is
le
ar
n
in
g
to
th
ei
r
re
al
li
ve
s.
R
eq
ue
st
le
ar
n
er
s
to
w
ri
te
a
sh
or
t
cr
it
iq
ue
of
th
e
n
ov
el
as
th
ey
m
ig
h
t
fo
r
a
n
ew
sp
ap
er
or
n
ew
sm
ag
az
in
e.
48
.P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
A
ft
er
le
ar
n
er
s
h
av
e
fin
is
h
ed
w
ri
ti
n
g
th
ei
r
cr
it
iq
ue
s,
pa
ss
ou
t
co
pi
es
of
th
e
ac
tu
al
re
vi
ew
s
of
th
e
n
ov
el
fr
om
th
e
N
ew
Y
or
k
T
im
es
an
d
N
ew
sw
ee
k
in
19
82
.
54
.U
se
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
t
m
et
h
od
s
to
im
pr
ov
e
le
ar
n
in
g
an
d
to
pr
ov
id
e
le
ar
n
er
s
w
it
h
th
e
op
po
rt
un
it
y
to
co
n
st
ru
ct
re
le
va
n
t
in
si
gh
ts
an
d
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
s.
A
sk
le
ar
n
er
s
to
co
m
pa
re
th
e
re
vi
ew
s
to
th
ei
r
cr
it
iq
ue
s,
th
en
to
se
le
ct
on
e
re
vi
ew
an
d
w
ri
te
an
sw
er
s
to
th
e
fo
ll
ow
in
g
qu
es
ti
on
s:
H
ow
h
as
th
is
re
vi
ew
in
fo
rm
ed
m
y
th
in
ki
n
g?
A
n
d
h
ow
m
ig
h
t
m
y
cr
it
iq
ue
h
av
e
in
fo
rm
ed
th
is
re
vi
ew
er
?
48
.P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
C
ol
le
ct
le
ar
n
er
cr
it
iq
ue
s
an
d
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
ts
.R
et
ur
n
w
it
h
fe
ed
ba
ck
at
th
e
n
ex
t
cl
as
s
m
ee
ti
n
g.

398 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
experiences in the instructional plan. Its location apart from
motivational purpose of engendering connection illustrates that
many of the strategies can be used for purposes not indicated in
the summary (Table 9.1). The initial alignment of strategies
in the summary with particular motivational purposes is theo-
retically sensible but not permanent. Many of the strategies are
quite useful at any time and for multiple purposes.
Finally, a strategy can appear more than once in an instructional
plan, as Strategy 48 (provide effective feedback) does twice in this
short plan.
Example 2
An instructor for the distance learning department of a college is
conducting a two-hour program for an accessibility workshop for
faculty who are designing online courses. She is teaching them how
to write alternative text (alt text) descriptions for Web pages. Alt text
is a text description of a graphic embedded inside the Web-page
code to be read by a screen reader. It explains the graphic in detail
for those who cannot see it such as online students who are blind or
visually impaired.
Type and number of learners: ten faculty members, men and
women ranging in age from thirty to fifty (each is seated at a personal
computer). Most of the learners are Euro-Americans with professional
experience in business, accounting, and law. They have a basic
understanding of online course development.
Learning objective: learners will write lucid alt-text descriptions
that produce the same understanding as graphics. (The graphics
have been self-selected from their courses.)
The instructional plan for Example 2 is illustrated in Table 9.3.
(This example is adapted from the instructional plan of Sally Cor-
drey, multimedia specialist with Regis University.) This example
contains at least one motivational purpose for every major
motivational condition. Example 2 also illustrates in a number of

T
ab
le
9
.3
.
In
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
P
la
n
fo
r
E
xa
m
pl
e
2
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
7.
E
m
ph
as
iz
e
th
e
h
um
an
pu
rp
os
e
of
w
h
at
is
be
in
g
le
ar
n
ed
an
d
it
s
re
la
ti
on
sh
ip
to
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s’
pe
rs
on
al
li
ve
s
an
d
co
n
te
m
po
ra
ry
si
tu
at
io
n
s.
P
ro
vi
de
a
sh
or
t
ov
er
vi
ew
of
th
e
A
m
er
ic
an
s
w
it
h
D
is
ab
il
it
ie
s
A
ct
an
d
h
ow
it
re
la
te
s
to
ac
co
m
m
od
at
io
n
th
ro
ug
h
ou
t
th
e
un
iv
er
si
ty
to
pr
ov
id
e
ac
ce
ss
ib
il
it
y
to
bu
il
di
n
gs
,
co
ur
se
s,
an
d
on
li
n
e
te
ch
n
ol
og
y.
6.
C
le
ar
ly
id
en
ti
fy
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ob
je
ct
iv
es
an
d
go
al
s
fo
r
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
.
In
tr
od
uc
e
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ob
je
ct
iv
e
fo
r
th
e
pr
og
ra
m
w
it
h
a
cl
ea
r
ex
am
pl
e
of
a
W
eb
pa
ge
w
it
h
a
gr
ap
h
ic
,
it
s
al
t
te
xt
,
an
d
a
de
m
on
st
ra
ti
on
of
h
ow
a
sc
re
en
re
ad
er
w
or
ks
w
it
h
th
is
ex
am
pl
e.
T
o
cr
ea
te
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
8.
A
ss
es
s
le
ar
n
er
s’
cu
rr
en
t
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s,
n
ee
ds
,
go
al
s,
an
d
pr
ev
io
us
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
it
re
la
te
s
to
yo
ur
co
ur
se
or
tr
ai
n
in
g.
P
re
te
st
:
L
ea
rn
er
s
m
ak
e
a
fir
st
at
te
m
pt
to
w
ri
te
al
t
te
xt
fo
r
a
gr
ap
h
ic
fr
om
on
e
of
th
ei
r
co
ur
se
s.
W
it
h
a
li
gh
t
to
uc
h
an
d
h
um
or
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s
sh
ar
e
th
ei
r
in
it
ia
l
w
ri
ti
n
g.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.3
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
A
tt
it
ud
e—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
bu
il
d
a
po
si
ti
ve
at
ti
tu
de
to
w
ar
d
th
e
su
bj
ec
t
15
.
U
se
as
si
st
ed
le
ar
n
in
g
to
sc
af
fo
ld
co
m
pl
ex
le
ar
n
in
g.
H
av
in
g
es
ti
m
at
ed
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s’
zo
n
e
of
pr
ox
im
al
de
ve
lo
pm
en
t
fr
om
th
ei
r
pr
et
es
t
an
d
sh
ar
in
g,
pr
oj
ec
t
a
pr
ot
ot
yp
ic
al
ex
am
pl
e
of
a
gr
ap
h
ic
an
d
it
s
al
t
te
xt
on
a
co
m
pu
te
r
sc
re
en
.
T
h
en
pr
oj
ec
t
an
in
ad
eq
ua
te
ex
am
pl
e.
A
s
a
gr
ou
p,
le
ar
n
er
s
an
al
yz
e
an
d
cr
it
iq
ue
it
.
T
h
ey
id
en
ti
fy
fe
at
ur
es
th
at
de
fin
e
be
st
ex
am
pl
es
of
gr
ap
h
ic
s
an
d
th
ei
r
al
t
te
xt
.
T
h
ey
cr
ea
te
a
ch
ec
k
li
st
of
qu
al
it
y
cr
it
er
ia
fo
r
al
t
te
xt
an
d
th
en
in
di
vi
du
al
ly
pr
ac
ti
ce
co
m
pl
et
in
g
al
t
te
xt
fo
r
gi
ve
n
gr
ap
h
ic
s
us
in
g
th
ei
r
ch
ec
kl
is
t.
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
de
ep
en
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
38
.
U
se
un
ce
rt
ai
n
ty
,
an
ti
ci
pa
ti
on
,
an
d
pr
ed
ic
ti
on
to
th
e
de
gr
ee
th
at
le
ar
n
er
s
en
jo
y
th
em
w
it
h
a
se
n
se
of
se
cu
ri
ty
.
42
.
U
se
an
in
tr
ig
ui
n
g
pr
ob
le
m
to
m
ak
e
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
m
at
er
ia
l
m
or
e
m
ea
n
in
gf
ul
.
T
w
o
vo
lu
n
te
er
s
si
t
ba
ck
to
ba
ck
.
O
n
e
ve
rb
al
ly
de
sc
ri
be
s
a
gr
ap
h
ic
(o
bs
er
va
bl
e
to
th
e
re
st
of
th
e
gr
ou
p)
,
an
d
th
e
ot
h
er
tr
ie
s
to
re
pr
od
uc
e
th
e
gr
ap
h
ic
.
T
h
e
gr
ou
p
ca
n
co
ac
h
th
em
.
P
ra
ct
ic
e
up
to
th
re
e
ro
un
ds
.

5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
41
.
U
se
re
le
va
n
t
pr
ob
le
m
s,
re
se
ar
ch
,
an
d
in
qu
ir
y
to
fa
ci
li
ta
te
le
ar
n
in
g.
T
h
e
le
ar
n
er
s
as
a
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
gr
ou
p
w
ri
te
th
e
be
st
po
ss
ib
le
al
t
te
xt
fo
r
a
gr
ap
h
ic
pr
oj
ec
te
d
on
th
e
co
m
pu
te
r
sc
re
en
by
th
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
.
T
h
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
pr
ov
id
es
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
51
.
U
se
au
th
en
ti
c
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
ta
sk
s
to
en
ab
le
ad
ul
ts
to
kn
ow
th
at
th
ey
ca
n
pr
ofi
ci
en
tl
y
ap
pl
y
w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
le
ar
n
in
g
to
th
ei
r
re
al
li
ve
s.
54
.
U
se
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
t
m
et
h
od
s
to
im
pr
ov
e
le
ar
n
in
g
an
d
to
pr
ov
id
e
le
ar
n
er
s
w
it
h
th
e
op
po
rt
un
it
y
to
co
n
st
ru
ct
re
le
va
n
t
in
si
gh
ts
an
d
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
s.
48
.
P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
P
os
tt
es
t:
L
ea
rn
er
s
n
ow
re
w
ri
te
al
t
te
xt
fo
r
th
e
gr
ap
h
ic
th
ey
br
ou
gh
t
fr
om
th
ei
r
co
ur
se
.
T
h
ey
co
m
pa
re
to
th
ei
r
pr
et
es
t
an
d
n
ot
e
di
ff
er
en
ce
s
an
d
im
pr
ov
em
en
ts
us
in
g
th
e
ch
ec
kl
is
t
th
ey
cr
ea
te
d
ea
rl
ie
r.
T
h
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
m
in
gl
es
am
on
g
th
em
,
pr
ov
id
in
g
fe
ed
ba
ck
as
ap
pr
op
ri
at
e.
T
h
e
pr
og
ra
m
en
ds
w
it
h
a
la
rg
e-
gr
ou
p
di
sc
us
si
on
ab
ou
t
w
h
at
h
as
be
en
le
ar
n
ed
an
d
h
ow
it
w
il
l
be
ap
pl
ie
d.

402 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
instances the combination of two or more motivational strategies
to fulfill a single motivational purpose, such as Strategies 6 and 7
for the purpose of engendering an awareness and feeling
of connection.
The scaffolding strategy (Strategy 15) has a number of sequenced
activities aligned with it, which demonstrates that several learning
activities can together carry out a single motivational strategy.
Instructors need not concern themselves that every instructional behav-
ior or learning activity in a learning sequence has listed next to it every
possible motivational strategy corresponding to it. Creating too specific
a breakdown in instructional planning can become confusing and
unnecessarily labor intensive (Gronlund, 1985). The instructional
plan should be sufficient and effective if we have listed the most
important strategies and related activities, and the necessary struc-
tural components of the concept or skill are evident and linked in
the sequence of learning activities.
The instructor ‘‘peppers’’ this plan with abundant opportunities
for learners to practice writing alt texts. But notice that the practice
is always imbedded in a motivational strategy (Strategies 15, 41,
42, and 51). There’s no doubt that learning certain skills or con-
cepts requires considerable practice. The strategies offer appealing
ways for adults to have the practice they need to learn something
proficiently.
Another thing to notice is that Strategy 5 (collaborative and
cooperative learning) is used in this instance for developing deeper
engagement in the during phase of the instructional plan. Its location
again illustrates that many of the strategies can be used for times
and purposes not indicated in the summary (Table 9.1).
Also note one more purpose of this example: although the
skill learned is fairly technical, most of the activities are socially
constructed learning experiences that elicit learners’ perspectives,
collaboration, interaction, and colearning.

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 403
Example 3
An instructor is conducting a three-hour class session for a community
college developmental math course. This instructional plan is for the
third class in a sequence of fifteen once-a-week classes. Students
normally work in four-person teams with each team having a mix of
math skill levels ranging from above the class average to below it.
Team-building activities have occurred in the two prior class sessions.
Type and number of learners: twenty-one students ranging
in age from seventeen to forty-eight. A few of the students are
Haitian and Mexican immigrants. The other students are Mexican-
American and Euro-American. The class is nearly 50 percent women
and 50 percent men. Most of these students have been required to
take this course as a result of their placement on an entrance exam.
Learning objective: students will learn a five-part strategy to solve
math word problems. After learning this strategy, they will create word
problems with correct solutions that are authentic to their own lives.
The instructional plan for Example 3 is illustrated in Table 9.4.
(This example is adapted from the instructional plan of Janet
Rivera, an instructor at Pueblo Community College in Colorado.)
This example contains at least one motivational purpose for every
major motivational condition. In this example, the instructor has
four activities for the condition of Inclusion. Two main reasons
for this emphasis are the diversity of the students and the need to
increase their comfort for team work, a constant in this instructor’s
approach to learning.
Looking at the entire instructional plan, it is obvious that this
instructor uses motivational strategies to overcome what could
easily be tedious practice with more compelling activities. Using
collaborative learning and intriguing word problems throughout
her instructional plan, she exploits the logic and potential trickery
of math to make learning more appealing. Yet her instructional

T
ab
le
9
.4
.
In
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
P
la
n
fo
r
E
xa
m
pl
e
3
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
42
.U
se
an
in
tr
ig
ui
n
g
pr
ob
le
m
to
m
ak
e
in
it
ia
ll
y
ir
re
le
va
n
t
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
m
at
er
ia
lm
or
e
m
ea
n
in
gf
ul
.
P
os
t
th
e
pr
ob
le
m
:‘
‘I
ft
h
e
da
y
be
fo
re
th
e
da
y
be
fo
re
ye
st
er
da
y
is
T
ue
sd
ay
,w
h
at
is
th
e
da
y
af
te
r
th
e
da
y
af
te
r
to
m
or
ro
w
?’
’A
sk
st
ud
en
ts
to
so
lv
e
th
is
pr
ob
le
m
in
di
vi
du
al
ly
,u
si
n
g
an
y
m
et
h
od
th
ey
pr
ef
er
in
cl
ud
in
g
di
ag
ra
m
s.
A
ft
er
a
re
as
on
ab
le
am
ou
n
t
of
ti
m
e,
th
ey
m
ee
t
in
th
ei
r
re
gu
la
r
te
am
s
to
‘‘p
er
su
ad
e’
’o
th
er
m
em
be
rs
of
th
ei
r
an
sw
er
an
d
to
ar
ri
ve
at
a
te
am
an
sw
er
.E
ve
n
tu
al
ly
th
e
w
h
ol
e
gr
ou
p
di
sc
us
se
s
th
e
te
am
an
sw
er
s.
7.
E
m
ph
as
iz
e
th
e
h
um
an
pu
rp
os
e
of
w
h
at
is
be
in
g
le
ar
n
ed
an
d
it
s
re
la
ti
on
sh
ip
to
th
e
le
ar
n
er
s’
pe
rs
on
al
li
ve
s
an
d
co
n
te
m
po
ra
ry
si
tu
at
io
n
s.
R
em
in
d
th
e
cl
as
s
of
th
e
fir
st
cl
as
s
se
ss
io
n
w
h
en
th
e
m
aj
or
it
y
in
di
ca
te
d
a
de
si
re
to
be
co
m
e
be
tt
er
at
so
lv
in
g
m
at
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s.
R
el
at
e
m
at
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
to
re
al
-l
if
e
si
tu
at
io
n
s
th
at
in
cl
ud
e
ex
am
pl
es
fr
om
ca
rp
en
tr
y,
co
ok
in
g,
an
d
sh
op
pi
n
g.

T
o
cr
ea
te
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
8.
A
ss
es
s
le
ar
n
er
s’
cu
rr
en
t
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s,
n
ee
ds
,g
oa
ls
,
an
d
pr
ev
io
us
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
it
re
la
te
s
to
yo
ur
co
ur
se
or
tr
ai
n
in
g.
In
th
ei
r
te
am
s,
st
ud
en
ts
sh
ar
e
th
ei
r
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s
an
d
fe
el
in
gs
ab
ou
t
m
at
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s.
T
h
ey
co
ve
r
(1
)
pr
ev
io
us
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s,
bo
th
go
od
an
d
ba
d,
(2
)
h
ow
th
ey
co
pe
w
h
en
th
ey
do
n
’t
kn
ow
h
ow
to
so
lv
e
a
re
al
-l
if
e
m
at
h
pr
ob
le
m
,a
n
d
(3
)
w
h
at
is
th
e
m
os
t
di
ffi
cu
lt
pa
rt
of
m
at
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
fo
r
th
em
to
do
.E
ac
h
te
am
gi
ve
s
a
su
m
m
ar
y
of
th
ei
r
di
sc
us
si
on
to
th
e
w
h
ol
e
gr
ou
p.
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
4.
S
h
ar
e
so
m
et
h
in
g
of
va
lu
e
w
it
h
yo
ur
ad
ul
t
le
ar
n
er
s.
S
h
ar
e
fo
rm
er
fr
us
tr
at
io
n
s
w
it
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s.
In
di
ca
te
th
er
e
ar
e
ke
y
st
ra
te
gi
es
fo
r
so
lv
in
g
m
at
h
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
th
at
h
av
e
be
en
pe
rs
on
al
ly
h
el
pf
ul
.
A
tt
it
ud
e—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
de
ve
lo
p
se
lf
-e
ffi
ca
cy
fo
r
le
ar
n
in
g
17
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
ef
fe
ct
iv
el
y
at
tr
ib
ut
e
th
ei
r
su
cc
es
s
to
th
ei
r
ca
pa
bi
li
ty
,
ef
fo
rt
,a
n
d
kn
ow
le
dg
e.
O
rd
er
th
e
N
um
be
rs
A
ct
iv
ity
.W
it
h
in
60
se
co
n
ds
,s
tu
de
n
ts
tr
y
to
ci
rc
le
n
um
be
rs
in
se
qu
en
ti
al
or
de
r
(1
,2
,3
,a
n
d
so
fo
rt
h
)
w
it
h
in
a
la
rg
e
gr
ou
p
of
n
um
be
rs
th
at
se
em
ra
n
do
m
ly
sc
ra
m
bl
ed
ac
ro
ss
an
en
ti
re
pa
ge
.A
ft
er
th
ei
r
fir
st
at
te
m
pt
,s
h
ow
h
ow
a
cl
oc
kw
is
e
pa
tt
er
n
of
se
le
ct
in
g
m
ak
es
th
e
ta
sk
m
or
e
ef
fic
ie
n
t
an
d
un
de
rs
ta
n
da
bl
e.
T
h
en
h
av
e
st
ud
en
ts
do
th
e
ac
ti
vi
ty
ag
ai
n
w
it
h
th
is
st
ra
te
gy
.T
h
ei
r
su
cc
es
s
w
il
lb
e
ev
id
en
t.
O
ff
er
a
kn
ow
le
dg
e
at
tr
ib
ut
io
n
fo
r
us
in
g
th
is
st
ra
te
gy
an
d
al
ig
n
it
w
it
h
th
e
‘‘fi
ve
-s
te
p’
’
st
ra
te
gy
th
at
is
co
m
in
g
n
ex
t.
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
m
ai
n
ta
in
le
ar
n
er
s’
at
te
n
ti
on
31
.I
n
tr
od
uc
e,
co
n
n
ec
t,
an
d
en
d
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
at
tr
ac
ti
ve
ly
an
d
cl
ea
rl
y.
G
iv
e
a
sh
or
t
le
ct
ur
e
on
th
e
‘‘F
iv
e
S
te
ps
fo
r
S
ol
vi
n
g
W
or
d
P
ro
bl
em
s.
’’
P
as
s
ou
t
a
h
an
do
ut
w
it
h
th
e
st
ep
s
cl
ea
rl
y
su
m
m
ar
iz
ed
.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.4
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
T
o
ev
ok
e
an
d
su
st
ai
n
le
ar
n
er
s’
in
te
re
st
29
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
re
al
iz
e
th
ei
r
ac
co
un
ta
bi
li
ty
fo
r
w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
38
.U
se
un
ce
rt
ai
n
ty
,
an
ti
ci
pa
ti
on
,a
n
d
pr
ed
ic
ti
on
to
th
e
de
gr
ee
th
at
le
ar
n
er
s
en
jo
y
th
em
w
it
h
a
se
n
se
of
se
cu
ri
ty
.
In
tr
od
uc
e
S
te
p
O
n
e:
F
in
d
th
e
Q
ue
st
io
n.
S
tu
de
n
ts
su
rv
ey
10
re
le
va
n
t
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
to
id
en
ti
fy
on
ly
‘‘w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
be
in
g
as
ke
d
to
fin
d.
’’
Fo
r
ex
am
pl
e,
W
h
at
is
th
e
w
or
ke
r’
s
h
ou
rl
y
w
ag
e?
E
ac
h
st
ud
en
t
w
ri
te
s
th
e
te
n
qu
es
ti
on
s
th
ey
h
av
e
in
fe
rr
ed
fr
om
th
e
pr
ob
le
m
s
an
d
co
m
pa
re
s
th
em
w
it
h
a
pe
er
.T
h
en
th
ey
co
m
pa
re
th
ei
r
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
a
pr
oj
ec
te
d
an
sw
er
ke
y.
D
is
cu
ss
io
n
fo
ll
ow
s
to
in
cr
ea
se
cl
ar
ifi
ca
ti
on
.
T
o
de
ep
en
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
42
.U
se
an
in
tr
ig
ui
n
g
pr
ob
le
m
to
m
ak
e
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
m
at
er
ia
l
m
or
e
m
ea
n
in
gf
ul
.
In
tr
od
uc
e
S
te
p
T
w
o:
C
ho
os
e
th
e
R
ig
ht
N
um
be
rs
.S
tu
de
n
ts
ag
ai
n
w
or
k
on
10
re
le
va
n
t
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s.
H
ow
ev
er
,e
ac
h
pr
ob
le
m
h
as
n
um
be
rs
w
it
h
in
it
th
at
ar
e
ir
re
le
va
n
t
to
th
e
so
lu
ti
on
su
ch
as
a
pe
rs
on
’s
h
ei
gh
t
in
a
pr
ob
le
m
ab
ou
t
h
ou
rl
y
w
ag
es
.S
tu
de
n
ts
w
or
k
on
th
es
e
pr
ob
le
m
s
w
it
h
a
pa
rt
n
er
.T
h
e
go
al
is
on
ly
to
id
en
ti
fy
th
e
n
um
be
rs
th
at
ar
e
re
le
va
n
t
to
ea
ch
pr
ob
le
m
bu
t
n
ot
to
so
lv
e
th
e
pr
ob
le
m
s.
P
ar
tn
er
s
re
tu
rn
to
th
ei
r
te
am
s
to
co
m
e
up
w
it
h
a
te
am
an
sw
er
fo
r
ea
ch
pr
ob
le
m
.A
ft
er
th
is
co
ll
ab
or
at
io
n
,t
h
e
co
rr
ec
t
n
um
be
rs
ar
e
pr
oj
ec
te
d
on
a
sc
re
en
an
d
di
sc
us
si
on
fo
ll
ow
s
to
cl
ar
if
y.
T
h
e
te
am
w
it
h
th
e
m
os
t
co
rr
ec
t
n
um
be
rs
re
ce
iv
es
a
ro
un
d
of
ap
pl
au
se
.

47
.U
se
in
ve
n
ti
on
,
ar
ti
st
ry
,i
m
ag
in
at
io
n
,a
n
d
en
ac
tm
en
t
to
re
n
de
r
de
ep
er
m
ea
n
in
g
an
d
em
ot
io
n
in
le
ar
n
in
g.
In
tr
od
uc
e
S
te
p
T
h
re
e:
R
ec
og
ni
ze
th
e
K
ey
W
or
ds
.E
ve
ry
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
h
as
ke
y
w
or
ds
li
ke
to
ta
l,
di
ff
er
en
ce
,
in
cr
ea
se
,a
n
d
pa
rt
iti
on
th
at
si
gn
al
w
h
et
h
er
to
ad
d,
su
bt
ra
ct
,m
ul
ti
pl
y,
or
di
vi
de
.W
it
h
tw
o
vo
lu
n
te
er
s
at
th
e
w
h
it
eb
oa
rd
,t
h
e
re
st
of
th
e
gr
ou
p
im
ag
in
es
as
m
an
y
w
or
ds
as
th
ey
ca
n
fo
r
ea
ch
of
th
e
ar
it
h
m
et
ic
op
er
at
io
n
s
th
ey
re
pr
es
en
t.
T
h
es
e
w
or
ds
ar
e
re
co
rd
ed
on
th
e
bo
ar
d
an
d
co
pi
ed
by
ea
ch
st
ud
en
t
in
to
th
ei
r
n
ot
es
.
48
.P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
V
ol
un
te
er
s
re
ad
10
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s.
A
ft
er
ea
ch
pr
ob
le
m
is
re
ad
,s
tu
de
n
ts
h
ol
d
up
co
lo
re
d
ca
rd
s
in
di
ca
ti
n
g
th
e
ar
it
h
m
et
ic
op
er
at
io
n
s
in
di
ca
te
d
in
th
e
pr
ob
le
m
.A
s
th
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
as
se
ss
es
th
ei
r
un
de
rs
ta
n
di
n
g,
sh
e
gi
ve
s
ap
pr
op
ri
at
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
an
d
cl
ar
ifi
ca
ti
on
.
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
19
.U
se
re
le
va
n
t
m
od
el
s
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
ex
pe
ct
ed
le
ar
n
in
g.
In
tr
od
uc
e
S
te
p
Fo
ur
:C
al
cu
la
te
th
e
A
ns
w
er
.T
en
m
or
e
re
le
va
n
t
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
ar
e
di
st
ri
bu
te
d.
S
tu
de
n
ts
in
di
vi
du
al
ly
so
lv
e
th
e
pr
ob
le
m
s
tw
o
at
a
ti
m
e.
A
ft
er
th
ey
h
av
e
so
lv
ed
th
e
as
si
gn
ed
tw
o
pr
ob
le
m
s
th
ey
lo
ok
up
,h
av
e
th
ei
r
w
or
k
ch
ec
ke
d
by
th
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
,a
n
d
ar
e
as
si
gn
ed
to
as
si
st
th
os
e
st
ud
en
ts
st
il
lw
or
ki
n
g.
T
h
ey
us
e
th
e
fir
st
th
re
e
st
ep
s—
fin
d
th
e
qu
es
ti
on
,c
h
oo
se
th
e
ri
gh
t
n
um
be
rs
,a
n
d
re
co
gn
iz
e
th
e
ke
y
w
or
ds
—
as
a
gu
id
e
to
co
ac
h
in
g
th
ei
r
pe
er
s.
A
ft
er
an
ap
pr
op
ri
at
e
ti
m
e,
th
e
in
st
ru
ct
or
re
qu
es
ts
a
va
ri
et
y
of
st
ud
en
ts
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
th
ei
r
so
lu
ti
on
s
at
th
e
bo
ar
d.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.4
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
42
.U
se
an
in
tr
ig
ui
n
g
pr
ob
le
m
to
m
ak
e
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
m
at
er
ia
l
m
or
e
m
ea
n
in
gf
ul
.
In
tr
od
uc
e
S
te
p
Fi
ve
:C
he
ck
yo
ur
A
ns
w
er
.F
iv
e
re
le
va
n
t
‘‘m
ys
te
ry
’’
pr
ob
le
m
s
ar
e
di
st
ri
bu
te
d.
(F
or
ex
am
pl
e,
A
yo
un
g
te
ac
h
er
is
lo
st
on
a
la
rg
e
ra
n
ch
.H
e
is
se
ar
ch
in
g
fo
r
a
gr
ou
p
of
ch
il
dr
en
fr
om
h
is
sc
h
oo
lw
h
o
w
er
e
se
pa
ra
te
d
fr
om
h
im
in
a
du
st
st
or
m
.H
e
fin
ds
.
.
.
.)
A
t
th
e
en
d
of
ea
ch
pr
ob
le
m
ar
e
tw
o
an
sw
er
s.
W
or
ki
n
g
w
it
h
pa
rt
n
er
s,
st
ud
en
ts
us
e
th
e
fo
ur
pr
ev
io
us
st
ep
s
to
ar
ri
ve
at
th
e
co
rr
ec
t
an
sw
er
.E
n
d
w
it
h
a
w
h
ol
e-
gr
ou
p
di
sc
us
si
on
.
C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
co
m
m
un
ic
at
io
n
an
d
re
w
ar
ds
59
.W
h
en
le
ar
n
in
g
h
as
n
at
ur
al
co
n
se
qu
en
ce
s,
h
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
to
be
aw
ar
e
of
th
em
an
d
of
th
ei
r
im
pa
ct
.
In
di
vi
du
al
ly
or
w
it
h
a
pa
rt
n
er
,s
tu
de
n
ts
co
m
po
se
a
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
an
d
it
s
so
lu
ti
on
.T
h
ei
r
go
al
is
to
m
ak
e
it
as
m
ys
te
ri
ou
s
an
d
ch
al
le
n
gi
n
g
as
po
ss
ib
le
.A
ft
er
an
ap
pr
op
ri
at
e
am
ou
n
t
of
ti
m
e,
th
es
e
pr
ob
le
m
s
ar
e
ex
ch
an
ge
d
an
d
so
lv
ed
w
it
h
in
ea
ch
te
am
.E
ac
h
te
am
n
om
in
at
es
on
e
pr
ob
le
m
fo
r
th
e
cl
as
s
to
so
lv
e.
Fo
r
th
e
n
ex
t
cl
as
s,
ea
ch
st
ud
en
t
is
re
qu
es
te
d
to
co
m
po
se
th
re
e
m
or
e
w
or
d
pr
ob
le
m
s
w
it
h
m
ys
te
ry
an
d/
or
h
um
or
as
pa
rt
of
th
ei
r
n
ar
ra
ti
ve
.

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 409
plan is cohesive with each activity flowing into the next and
reinforcing prior learning.
Example 4
A faculty development specialist is conducting a seven-hour work-
shop on the management of strong emotions during classroom
controversy.
Type and number of learners: fifteen faculty members ranging
in age from thirty to sixty. Six of the faculty are women, and five
are people of color. All participants have had at least three years of
college teaching experience.
Learning objective: faculty will identify and practice teaching
and communication methods that support learners’ emotions in a
manner that allows for both individual expression and continuing
mutual respect.
The instructional plan for Example 4 is illustrated in Table 9.5.
In this example, the beginning of the workshop has three consec-
utive small-group activities with intermittent whole-group discus-
sions. Starting the during phase with a minilecture and overheads
may be a welcome change of pace.
The activities for Strategies 41 (journaling responses to the
video) and 44 (role playing) obviously include feedback during
the related discussions and develop learner competence. I empha-
size this relationship to point out that frequently in instructional
planning, a learning activity corresponding to one major motiva-
tional condition (in this case, meaning) will contain elements for
developing another major motivational condition (in this case,
competence). Thus we see that a learning activity can comprise
characteristics that simultaneously engender more than one moti-
vational condition (in this case, meaning and competence). We can
safely generalize that such activities are relatively strong sources of
motivational influence because they have multiple positive effects.
For purposes of planning, we should consider the flow of content

T
ab
le
9
.5
.
In
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
P
la
n
fo
r
E
xa
m
pl
e
4
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
an
aw
ar
en
es
s
an
d
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
1.
A
ll
ow
fo
r
in
tr
od
uc
ti
on
s.
6.
C
le
ar
ly
id
en
ti
fy
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s.
2.
P
ro
vi
de
an
op
po
rt
un
it
y
fo
r
m
ul
ti
di
m
en
si
on
al
sh
ar
in
g.
A
sk
pe
op
le
to
br
ie
fly
in
tr
od
uc
e
th
em
se
lv
es
.
D
es
cr
ib
e
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s
fo
r
w
or
ks
h
op
.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
fo
rm
sm
al
lg
ro
up
s
to
sh
ar
e
a
to
pi
c
or
sk
il
l
th
ey
va
lu
e
te
ac
h
in
g
th
at
al
so
el
ic
it
s
st
ro
n
g
em
ot
io
n
s
in
th
em
be
ca
us
e
of
th
ei
r
cu
lt
ur
al
or
so
ci
al
ba
ck
gr
ou
n
d.
T
o
cr
ea
te
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
an
d
co
op
er
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
8.
A
ss
es
s
le
ar
n
er
s’
cu
rr
en
t
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s
an
d
n
ee
ds
an
d
th
ei
r
pr
ev
io
us
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
it
re
la
te
s
to
yo
ur
co
ur
se
or
tr
ai
n
in
g.
In
th
e
sa
m
e
gr
ou
ps
,p
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
br
ai
n
st
or
m
pa
rt
ic
ul
ar
st
ud
en
t
w
or
ds
,a
ct
io
n
s,
tr
ig
ge
rs
,o
r
in
ci
de
n
ts
th
ey
fin
d
ve
ry
ch
al
le
n
gi
n
g
to
m
an
ag
e.
G
ro
up
s
re
po
rt
ou
t
an
d
th
e
sp
ec
ia
li
st
re
co
rd
s
th
es
e
it
em
s
on
a
fli
p
ch
ar
t.

A
tt
it
ud
e—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
cr
ea
te
re
le
va
n
t
le
ar
n
in
g
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s
26
.M
ak
e
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ty
an
ir
re
si
st
ib
le
in
vi
ta
ti
on
to
le
ar
n
.
27
.U
se
th
e
K
-W
-L
st
ra
te
gy
to
in
tr
od
uc
e
n
ew
to
pi
cs
an
d
co
n
ce
pt
s.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
fo
rm
tr
ia
ds
an
d
vo
lu
n
te
er
m
et
h
od
s
ea
ch
h
as
us
ed
ef
fe
ct
iv
el
y
to
re
sp
on
d
to
on
e
or
m
or
e
of
th
e
ch
al
le
n
ge
s
li
st
ed
on
th
e
fli
p
ch
ar
t.
T
ri
ad
s
re
po
rt
ou
t
an
d
in
di
ca
te
th
ei
r
m
et
h
od
s
fo
r
re
sp
on
di
n
g
to
th
e
li
st
ed
ch
al
le
n
ge
s.
T
h
e
sp
ec
ia
li
st
su
rv
ey
s
th
e
gr
ou
p
ab
ou
t
w
h
ic
h
m
et
h
od
s
ar
e
fa
m
il
ia
r
an
d
w
h
ic
h
of
th
e
m
et
h
od
s
th
ey
w
ou
ld
li
ke
to
le
ar
n
m
or
e
in
de
pt
h
.T
w
o
of
th
e
h
ig
h
es
t
ra
te
d
ar
e
ad
de
d
to
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
co
n
te
n
t.
T
h
e
sp
ec
ia
li
st
in
vi
te
s
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
to
co
n
ti
n
ue
to
sh
ar
e
th
ei
r
in
si
gh
ts
an
d
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
th
ro
ug
h
ou
t
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
.
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
m
ai
n
ta
in
le
ar
n
er
s’
at
te
n
ti
on
an
d
to
de
ep
en
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
30
.P
ro
vi
de
va
ri
et
y
in
pe
rs
on
al
pr
es
en
ta
ti
on
st
yl
e,
m
od
es
of
in
st
ru
c-
ti
on
,a
n
d
le
ar
n
in
g
m
at
er
ia
ls
.
31
.I
n
tr
od
uc
e,
co
n
n
ec
t,
an
d
en
d
le
ar
n
in
g
ac
ti
vi
ti
es
at
tr
ac
ti
ve
ly
an
d
cl
ea
rl
y.
40
.U
se
cr
it
ic
al
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
st
im
ul
at
e
en
ga
gi
n
g
an
d
ch
al
le
n
gi
n
g
re
fle
ct
io
n
an
d
di
sc
us
si
on
.
W
it
h
a
pr
oj
ec
ti
on
of
pa
rt
ic
ip
at
io
n
gu
id
el
in
es
(S
tr
at
eg
y
9)
on
a
sc
re
en
,d
is
cu
ss
th
ei
r
ap
pl
ic
at
io
n
an
d
us
e.
A
sk
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
to
th
in
k
of
th
e
pe
rs
pe
ct
iv
es
an
d
la
n
gu
ag
e
of
th
ei
r
st
ud
en
ts
an
d
to
re
vi
se
or
ad
d
to
th
e
pa
rt
ic
ip
at
io
n
gu
id
el
in
es
to
m
ak
e
th
em
m
or
e
un
de
rs
ta
n
da
bl
e
an
d
cu
lt
ur
al
ly
re
sp
ec
tf
ul
fo
r
pe
rs
on
al
ap
pl
ic
at
io
n
.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.5
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
T
o
en
h
an
ce
le
ar
n
er
s’
en
ga
ge
m
en
t,
ch
al
le
n
ge
,a
n
d
ad
ap
ti
ve
de
ci
si
on
m
ak
in
g
45
.U
se
si
m
ul
at
io
n
s
an
d
ga
m
es
to
em
bo
dy
th
e
le
ar
n
in
g
of
m
ul
ti
pl
e
co
n
ce
pt
s
an
d
sk
il
ls
w
h
ic
h
re
qu
ir
e
a
re
al
-l
if
e
co
n
te
xt
an
d
pr
ac
ti
ce
to
be
le
ar
n
ed
.
U
se
co
n
tr
ov
er
si
al
qu
ot
at
io
n
s
an
d
ap
h
or
is
m
s
to
si
m
ul
at
e
a
di
sc
us
si
on
w
h
er
e
st
ro
n
g
bu
t
di
ff
er
in
g
op
in
io
n
s
ar
e
li
ke
ly
in
or
de
r
to
pr
ac
ti
ce
th
e
th
in
k-
pa
ir
-s
h
ar
e
st
ra
te
gy
.
41
.U
se
re
le
va
n
t
pr
ob
le
m
s,
re
se
ar
ch
,a
n
d
in
qu
ir
y
to
fa
ci
li
ta
te
le
ar
n
in
g.
S
h
ow
a
vi
de
o
of
st
ud
en
ts
at
di
ff
er
en
t
po
in
ts
in
an
ar
gu
m
en
t
an
d
as
k
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
to
jo
ur
n
al
po
ss
ib
le
re
sp
on
se
s
if
th
ey
w
er
e
th
e
te
ac
h
er
.A
ft
er
w
ar
d
di
sc
us
s
th
e
va
ri
ou
s
re
sp
on
se
s
as
a
w
h
ol
e
gr
ou
p.
In
di
ca
te
po
ss
ib
le
co
n
se
qu
en
ce
s
an
d,
w
h
er
e
ap
pr
op
ri
at
e,
pr
ov
id
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
44
.U
se
ro
le
pl
ay
in
g
to
em
bo
dy
m
ea
n
in
g
an
d
n
ew
le
ar
n
in
g
w
it
h
in
a
m
or
e
re
al
is
ti
c
an
d
dy
n
am
ic
co
n
te
xt
.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
ro
le
-p
la
y
a
le
ar
n
in
g
gr
ou
p
in
co
n
fli
ct
ov
er
a
co
n
tr
ov
er
si
al
co
ur
t
de
ci
si
on
in
vo
lv
in
g
ra
ce
.P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
ta
ke
tu
rn
s
pr
ac
ti
ci
n
g
m
et
h
od
s
to
le
ss
en
co
n
fli
ct
in
th
is
gr
ou
p
w
h
il
e
m
ai
n
ta
in
in
g
co
m
m
un
ic
at
io
n
an
d
m
ut
ua
l
re
sp
ec
t.
A
ct
iv
it
y
co
n
cl
ud
es
w
it
h
a
w
h
ol
e-
gr
ou
p
di
sc
us
si
on
of
th
e
ro
le
pl
ay
.

C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
51
.U
se
au
th
en
ti
c
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
ta
sk
s
to
en
ab
le
ad
ul
ts
to
kn
ow
th
at
th
ey
ca
n
pr
ofi
ci
en
tl
y
ap
pl
y
w
h
at
th
ey
ar
e
le
ar
n
in
g
to
th
ei
r
re
al
li
ve
s.
52
.P
ro
vi
de
op
po
rt
un
it
ie
s
fo
r
ad
ul
ts
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
th
ei
r
le
ar
n
in
g
in
w
ay
s
th
at
re
fle
ct
th
ei
r
st
re
n
gt
h
s
an
d
m
ul
ti
pl
e
so
ur
ce
s
of
kn
ow
in
g.
In
sm
al
lg
ro
up
s,
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
re
sp
on
d
to
a
ca
se
st
ud
y
in
w
h
ic
h
a
fa
cu
lt
y
m
em
be
r
lo
se
s
co
n
tr
ol
of
a
cu
lt
ur
al
ly
di
ve
rs
e
cl
as
s
in
co
n
fli
ct
ov
er
a
re
ce
n
t
ca
m
pu
s
in
ci
de
n
t.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
co
n
ce
pt
ua
li
ze
w
h
at
m
ig
h
t
h
av
e
be
en
do
n
e
in
th
e
m
om
en
t
as
w
el
la
s
w
h
at
m
ig
h
t
h
av
e
be
en
do
n
e
to
pr
ev
en
t
th
is
in
ci
de
n
t.
48
.P
ro
vi
de
ef
fe
ct
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
co
m
pa
re
th
ei
r
re
sp
on
se
s
to
th
e
ca
se
st
ud
y
w
it
h
th
e
su
gg
es
ti
on
s
of
th
re
e
fa
cu
lt
y
m
em
be
rs
(n
ot
pr
es
en
t)
w
h
o
ar
e
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
d
m
ul
ti
cu
lt
ur
al
ed
uc
at
or
s.
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
co
m
m
un
ic
at
io
n
an
d
re
w
ar
ds
59
.W
h
en
le
ar
n
in
g
h
as
n
at
ur
al
co
n
se
qu
en
ce
s,
h
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
to
be
aw
ar
e
of
th
em
an
d
of
th
ei
r
im
pa
ct
.
60
.P
ro
vi
de
po
si
ti
ve
cl
os
ur
e
at
th
e
en
d
of
si
gn
ifi
ca
n
t
un
it
s
of
le
ar
n
in
g.
T
h
e
w
or
ks
h
op
co
n
cl
ud
es
w
it
h
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
w
ri
ti
n
g
an
d
po
st
in
g
ac
ti
on
pl
an
s
fo
r
th
ei
r
co
ur
se
s
ba
se
d
on
le
ar
n
in
g
fr
om
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
.T
h
e
sp
ec
ia
li
st
an
d
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
vi
si
t
th
e
po
st
er
s,
in
ca
ro
us
el
fa
sh
io
n
,t
o
of
fe
r
su
pp
or
ti
ve
co
m
m
en
ts
an
d
su
gg
es
ti
on
s.

414 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
and the primary motivational condition we wish to establish and use
this relationship as a guide to selecting and placing activities that
may have multiple motivational influences. We should be aware of
these additional influences but not restricted or burdened by them.
Example 5
A trainer is conducting a two-day job-search workshop for displaced
workers in Denver.
Type and number of learners: twelve men and women ranging
in age from twenty-eight to fifty-six. There is considerable diversity
of occupation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and race among the
trainees.
Learning objective: by the end of the workshop, participants will (1)
understand a selected body of knowledge to more effectively manage
their transition to another job; (2) develop introduction, interviewing,
and resume writing skills to transfer to their job search; and (3) write
their first draft of an informative and professionally suitable résumé.
(In the ensuing weeks, consultation with the trainer or a follow-up
workshop is available for participants to refine and advance the skills
they learned in this workshop.)
The instructional plan for the two days in Example 5 is illus-
trated in Table 9.6. (This example is adapted from the instructional
plan of René DeAnda, at the time an agency trainer for the Mayor’s
Office of Employment and Training.) In this example, the trainer
clearly wants the participants to transfer the skills they learn in the
workshop to their job searches. She plans to establish an intention
to transfer (Strategy 55) as a beginning strategy for each day. She
also plans to develop the capacity to transfer in the ending phase
of the first day (see first half of Table 9.6) and the during
phase of the second day (see second half of Table 9.6). Among
the six elements to foster transfer, she concentrates on content
(relevant, practical, connected to prior knowledge, practiced, com-
petently learned) and changes necessary (doable, realistic, integrated
into the professional roles of the learners).

T
ab
le
9
.6
.
In
st
ru
ct
io
n
al
P
la
n
fo
r
E
xa
m
pl
e
5
D
ay
O
n
e
(S
ix
H
ou
rs
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
fe
el
in
gs
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
an
d
a
cl
im
at
e
of
re
sp
ec
t
1.
In
tr
od
uc
ti
on
s.
E
ve
ry
on
e
in
tr
od
uc
es
th
em
se
lv
es
an
d
m
en
ti
on
s
on
e
th
in
g
th
ey
li
ke
ab
ou
t
li
vi
n
g
in
th
e
D
en
ve
r
ar
ea
.
2.
O
pp
or
tu
n
it
y
fo
r
m
ul
ti
di
m
en
si
on
al
sh
ar
in
g.
8.
A
ss
es
s
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s,
n
ee
ds
,g
oa
ls
,a
n
d
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
it
re
la
te
s
to
tr
ai
n
in
g.
G
ro
up
di
vi
de
s
in
to
tr
ia
ds
.U
si
n
g
a
V
en
n
di
ag
ra
m
to
h
ig
h
li
gh
t
co
m
m
on
gr
ou
n
d
am
on
g
th
em
,g
ro
up
m
em
be
rs
sh
ar
e
jo
bs
th
ey
’v
e
h
el
d
si
n
ce
h
ig
h
sc
h
oo
l,
pl
ac
es
th
ey
’v
e
li
ve
d,
th
e
ty
pe
of
w
or
k
th
ey
ar
e
in
te
re
st
ed
in
,a
n
d
th
ei
r
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s
fo
r
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
.T
h
e
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s
ar
e
re
po
rt
ed
ou
t
an
d
li
st
ed
by
th
e
tr
ai
n
er
on
an
ov
er
h
ea
d
sc
re
en
.
6.
Id
en
ti
fy
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s.
3.
In
di
ca
te
yo
ur
co
op
er
at
iv
e
in
te
n
ti
on
s.
55
.F
os
te
r
th
e
in
te
n
ti
on
to
tr
an
sf
er
le
ar
n
in
g.
D
es
cr
ib
e
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s
fo
r
w
or
ks
h
op
,r
el
at
e
th
em
to
ex
pe
ct
at
io
n
s
on
th
e
sc
re
en
,a
n
d
de
sc
ri
be
yo
ur
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
as
a
di
sp
la
ce
d
w
or
ke
r.
E
xp
re
ss
yo
ur
en
th
us
ia
sm
fo
r
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
an
d
gi
ve
br
ie
fh
is
to
ri
es
of
so
m
e
of
th
e
pe
op
le
w
h
o
h
av
e
fo
un
d
sa
ti
sf
yi
n
g
w
or
k
af
te
r
co
m
pl
et
in
g
th
is
w
or
ks
h
op
.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.6
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
11
.A
ck
n
ow
le
dg
e
di
ff
er
en
t
w
ay
s
of
kn
ow
in
g,
di
ff
er
en
t
la
n
gu
ag
es
,a
n
d
di
ff
er
en
t
le
ve
ls
of
kn
ow
le
dg
e
or
sk
il
l.
N
ot
e
th
e
di
ve
rs
it
y
in
th
e
ro
om
an
d
di
sc
us
s
h
ow
th
er
e
m
ay
be
a
va
ri
et
y
of
ex
pe
ri
en
ce
s,
sk
il
ll
ev
el
s,
an
d
pe
rs
pe
ct
iv
es
fo
r
de
al
in
g
w
it
h
th
e
co
n
te
n
t
in
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
:‘
‘W
h
at
w
e
ca
n
le
ar
n
fr
om
ea
ch
ot
h
er
an
d
w
it
h
ea
ch
ot
h
er
is
a
re
al
be
n
efi
t.
’’
A
tt
it
ud
e—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
bu
il
d
a
po
si
ti
ve
at
ti
tu
de
to
w
ar
d
th
e
su
bj
ec
t
13
.P
os
it
iv
el
y
co
n
fr
on
t
er
ro
n
eo
us
be
li
ef
s.
In
tr
od
uc
e
w
or
kf
or
ce
da
ta
sh
ow
in
g
h
ow
in
th
e
la
st
de
ca
de
n
ew
jo
bs
h
av
e
in
cr
ea
se
d
bu
t
h
av
e
sh
if
te
d
to
co
n
su
lt
in
g,
se
rv
ic
e,
h
ea
lt
h
ca
re
,t
ec
h
n
ol
og
y,
an
d
ed
uc
at
io
n
ra
th
er
th
an
m
an
uf
ac
tu
ri
n
g.
T
o
de
ve
lo
p
se
lf
-e
ffi
ca
cy
17
.H
el
p
le
ar
n
er
s
at
tr
ib
ut
e
su
cc
es
s
to
ca
pa
bi
li
ty
,
ef
fo
rt
,a
n
d
kn
ow
le
dg
e.
E
m
ph
as
iz
e
h
ow
m
os
t
of
th
e
w
or
ks
h
op
co
n
te
n
t
is
ab
ou
t
st
ra
te
gi
es
(t
h
at
su
cc
ee
d)
fo
r
fin
di
n
g
sa
ti
sf
yi
n
g
w
or
k:
n
et
w
or
ki
n
g,
ré
su
m
é
w
ri
ti
n
g,
an
d
so
on
.
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
su
st
ai
n
in
te
re
st
an
d
de
ep
en
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
5.
U
se
co
ll
ab
or
at
iv
e
le
ar
n
in
g.
33
.R
el
at
e
le
ar
n
in
g
to
ad
ul
t
co
n
ce
rn
s.
40
.U
se
cr
it
ic
al
qu
es
ti
on
s
to
st
im
ul
at
e
en
ga
ge
m
en
t
an
d
ch
al
le
n
ge
.
G
iv
e
a
m
in
il
ec
tu
re
on
po
ss
ib
le
re
ac
ti
on
s
to
lo
ss
su
ch
as
di
sb
el
ie
f,
an
ge
r,
h
op
e,
an
d
so
fo
rt
h
.T
h
en
di
vi
de
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
in
to
sm
al
lc
ol
la
bo
ra
ti
ve
gr
ou
ps
to
re
vi
ew
th
is
m
at
er
ia
lw
it
h
a
fe
w
cr
it
ic
al
qu
es
ti
on
s
an
d
to
ap
pl
y
th
is
un
de
rs
ta
n
di
n
g
to
th
ei
r
ow
n
li
ve
s—
fo
r
ex
am
pl
e,
W
h
at
m
ig
h
t
so
m
eo
n
e
do
w
h
o
w
as
in
a
st
at
e
of
di
sb
el
ie
f?
W
h
at
ar
e
th
e
im
pl
ic
at
io
n
s?
H
ow
do
th
es
e
po
ss
ib
le
re
ac
ti
on
s
re
la
te
to
yo
ur
si
tu
at
io
n
?

43
.U
se
ca
se
st
ud
y
m
et
h
od
s.
In
tr
od
uc
e
th
e
st
ag
es
of
tr
an
si
ti
on
fo
r
ch
an
ge
an
d
gi
ve
th
e
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
a
ca
se
st
ud
y
to
di
sc
us
s
in
sm
al
lg
ro
up
s.
T
h
ei
r
go
al
is
to
id
en
ti
fy
th
e
st
ag
es
of
tr
an
si
ti
on
in
th
e
ca
se
an
d
to
su
gg
es
t
h
ow
so
m
e
of
th
e
re
ac
ti
on
s
to
lo
ss
m
ig
h
t
se
rv
e
to
fa
ci
li
ta
te
th
e
w
or
ke
r’
s
pr
og
re
ss
fr
om
on
e
st
ag
e
to
an
ot
h
er
—
fo
r
ex
am
pl
e,
tr
an
sf
er
ri
n
g
an
ge
r
in
to
ac
ti
on
.
C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
54
.U
se
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
t
m
et
h
od
s.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
co
n
du
ct
a
se
lf
-a
ss
es
sm
en
t
w
it
h
a
sh
or
t
le
ar
n
in
g-
st
yl
es
in
ve
n
to
ry
.T
h
ey
di
sc
us
s
w
it
h
a
pa
rt
n
er
h
ow
th
e
re
su
lt
s
of
th
is
as
se
ss
m
en
t
m
ak
e
se
n
se
to
th
em
.
52
.P
ro
vi
de
op
po
rt
un
it
ie
s
to
de
m
on
st
ra
te
le
ar
n
in
g
in
w
ay
s
th
at
re
fle
ct
st
re
n
gt
h
s
an
d
m
ul
ti
pl
e
so
ur
ce
s
of
kn
ow
in
g.
55
.F
os
te
r
th
e
ca
pa
ci
ty
to
tr
an
sf
er
le
ar
n
in
g.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
cr
ea
te
ac
ti
on
pl
an
s
to
ap
pl
y
to
th
ei
r
fa
m
il
ie
s,
to
th
ei
r
ed
uc
at
io
n
al
fu
tu
re
s,
or
to
th
ei
r
jo
b
se
ar
ch
es
ba
se
d
on
th
e
in
fo
rm
at
io
n
an
d
le
ar
n
in
g
in
to
da
y’
s
w
or
ks
h
op
.
T
h
e
da
y
co
n
cl
ud
es
w
it
h
vo
lu
n
te
er
s
sh
ar
in
g
on
e
im
po
rt
an
t
as
pe
ct
of
th
ei
r
ac
ti
on
pl
an
.
(C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.6
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
D
ay
T
w
o
(S
ix
H
ou
rs
)
In
cl
us
io
n
—
be
gi
n
n
in
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
a
fe
el
in
g
of
co
n
n
ec
ti
on
2.
P
ro
vi
de
op
po
rt
un
it
y
fo
r
m
ul
ti
di
m
en
si
on
al
sh
ar
in
g.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
in
tr
od
uc
e
th
em
se
lv
es
ag
ai
n
an
d
do
on
e
cy
cl
e
of
‘‘H
ea
d,
H
ea
rt
,H
an
d’
’r
eg
ar
di
n
g
a
th
ou
gh
t,
fe
el
in
g,
or
ac
ti
on
fr
om
ye
st
er
da
y’
s
w
or
ks
h
op
th
at
le
ft
a
st
ro
n
g
im
pr
es
si
on
.
6.
Id
en
ti
fy
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s.
55
.F
os
te
r
th
e
in
te
n
ti
on
to
tr
an
sf
er
le
ar
n
in
g.
R
ev
ie
w
le
ar
n
in
g
go
al
s
an
d
h
ow
so
m
e
w
er
e
m
et
by
ye
st
er
da
y’
s
w
or
k.
M
ea
n
in
g—
du
ri
n
g
T
o
en
h
an
ce
en
ga
ge
m
en
t,
ch
al
le
n
ge
,a
n
d
ad
ap
ti
ve
de
ci
si
on
m
ak
in
g
41
.U
se
a
re
le
va
n
t
pr
ob
le
m
.
45
.U
se
a
si
m
ul
at
io
n
.
55
.F
os
te
r
th
e
ca
pa
ci
ty
to
tr
an
sf
er
le
ar
n
in
g.
D
is
cu
ss
n
ee
di
n
g
a
th
ir
ty
-s
ec
on
d
in
tr
od
uc
ti
on
fo
r
n
et
w
or
ki
n
g
an
d
in
te
rv
ie
w
in
g.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
of
fe
r
vi
ew
s
ab
ou
t
w
h
at
m
ig
h
t
be
es
se
n
ti
al
to
su
ch
a
br
ie
f
in
tr
od
uc
ti
on
.M
os
t
th
in
k
so
m
e
ve
rs
io
n
of
w
h
er
e
yo
u’
ve
be
en
,w
h
at
yo
u
di
d,
an
d
w
h
er
e
yo
u’
re
go
in
g
m
ig
h
t
su
ffi
ce
.
E
ac
h
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
t
w
ri
te
s
ou
t
a
pe
rs
on
al
ve
rs
io
n
of
th
is
in
tr
od
uc
ti
on
an
d
pr
ac
ti
ce
s
it
w
it
h
th
re
e
ot
h
er
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
in
a
cl
as
sr
oo
m
w
al
ka
bo
ut
.A
ct
iv
it
y
co
n
cl
ud
es
w
it
h
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
pr
iv
at
el
y
gi
vi
n
g
ea
ch
ot
h
er
fe
ed
ba
ck
.

37
.U
se
a
st
or
y.
44
.U
se
a
ro
le
pl
ay
.
In
tr
od
uc
e
th
e
sh
or
t
st
or
y
te
ch
ni
qu
e
fo
r
in
te
rv
ie
w
s—
a
w
ay
to
gi
ve
ev
id
en
ce
of
on
e’
s
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
by
ty
in
g
a
sk
il
lt
o
th
e
pl
ac
e
w
h
er
e
it
w
as
us
ed
an
d
th
e
su
cc
es
sf
ul
re
su
lt
s
th
at
oc
cu
rr
ed
.T
h
is
in
fo
rm
at
io
n
is
de
li
ve
re
d
as
a
ve
ry
sh
or
t
st
or
y.
D
em
on
st
ra
te
w
it
h
a
co
up
le
of
st
or
ie
s
fr
om
yo
ur
ow
n
pr
of
es
si
on
al
h
is
to
ry
.A
ft
er
co
n
ce
pt
ua
li
zi
n
g
tw
o
su
ch
st
or
ie
s,
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
pr
ac
ti
ce
th
em
in
a
ro
le
-p
la
yi
n
g
fo
rm
at
an
d
re
ce
iv
e
fe
ed
ba
ck
fr
om
th
e
in
te
rv
ie
w
er
an
d
ob
se
rv
er
.
30
.P
ro
vi
de
va
ri
et
y
in
in
st
ru
ct
io
n
.
35
.U
se
h
um
or
.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
vi
ew
an
d
di
sc
us
s
a
h
um
or
ou
s
vi
de
o
on
th
e
h
ow
,w
h
at
,a
n
d
w
h
y
of
n
et
w
or
ki
n
g.
15
.S
ca
ff
ol
d
le
ar
n
in
g.
19
.U
se
re
le
va
n
t
m
od
el
s.
W
it
h
an
ex
em
pl
ar
y
m
od
el
of
a
ré
su
m
é
on
th
e
ov
er
h
ea
d
sc
re
en
,r
ev
ie
w
it
s
fo
rm
at
an
d
th
in
k
ou
t
lo
ud
th
ro
ug
h
an
ti
ci
pa
te
d
di
ffi
cu
lt
ar
ea
s.
P
ro
vi
de
a
ch
ec
kl
is
t
of
te
n
st
ep
s
fo
r
w
ri
ti
n
g
an
ex
ce
ll
en
t
ré
su
m
é.
A
ls
o
pr
ov
id
e
ex
am
pl
es
of
pr
of
es
si
on
al
ly
do
n
e
ré
su
m
és
fr
om
fo
rm
er
pa
rt
ic
ip
an
ts
of
th
is
w
or
ks
h
op
w
h
o
h
av
e
fo
un
d
sa
ti
sf
yi
n
g
w
or
k. (
C
on
tin
ue
d)

T
ab
le
9
.6
.
(C
on
ti
n
u
ed
)
C
on
di
ti
on
—
T
im
in
g
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
P
ur
po
se
M
ot
iv
at
io
n
al
S
tr
at
eg
y
L
ea
rn
in
g
A
ct
iv
it
y
or
In
st
ru
ct
or
B
eh
av
io
r
C
om
pe
te
n
ce
—
en
di
n
g
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
as
se
ss
m
en
t
51
.U
se
au
th
en
ti
c
pe
rf
or
m
an
ce
ta
sk
s.
53
.U
se
ru
br
ic
s.
48
.P
ro
vi
de
fe
ed
ba
ck
.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
w
ri
te
th
e
fir
st
dr
af
t
of
th
ei
r
ré
su
m
é.
In
ad
di
ti
on
to
th
e
te
n
-s
te
p
ch
ec
kl
is
t
fo
r
w
ri
ti
n
g
th
e
ré
su
m
é,
th
ey
h
av
e
a
h
an
do
ut
de
sc
ri
bi
n
g
an
d
ex
em
pl
if
yi
n
g
th
e
qu
al
it
ie
s
of
an
ex
ce
ll
en
t
ré
su
m
é.
W
h
en
fin
is
h
ed
w
it
h
th
e
dr
af
t,
th
ey
fin
d
a
pa
rt
n
er
.E
ac
h
re
ad
s
th
e
ot
h
er
’s
dr
af
t
an
d
pr
ov
id
es
fe
ed
ba
ck
ba
se
d
on
th
e
qu
al
it
ie
s
h
ig
h
li
gh
te
d
in
th
e
h
an
do
ut
.A
t
th
is
po
in
t
th
ey
ca
n
m
ak
e
re
vi
si
on
s
or
br
in
g
th
ei
r
dr
af
t
to
th
e
tr
ai
n
er
fo
r
an
ot
h
er
ro
un
d
of
fe
ed
ba
ck
or
do
bo
th
.
T
o
en
ge
n
de
r
co
m
pe
te
n
ce
w
it
h
co
m
m
un
ic
at
io
n
an
d
re
w
ar
ds
60
.P
ro
vi
de
po
si
ti
ve
cl
os
ur
e.
P
ar
ti
ci
pa
n
ts
ga
th
er
th
ei
r
ch
ai
rs
in
a
ci
rc
le
w
it
h
th
e
tr
ai
n
er
an
d
h
av
e
th
e
op
po
rt
un
it
y
to
br
ie
fly
sh
ar
e
on
e
th
in
g
th
ey
ar
e
ge
n
ui
n
el
y
gl
ad
th
ey
’v
e
le
ar
n
ed
an
d
w
il
lu
se
in
th
ei
r
jo
b
se
ar
ch
es
.T
h
ey
al
so
ca
n
ex
te
n
d
an
ap
pr
ec
ia
ti
on
to
th
e
gr
ou
p
or
an
y
m
em
be
r
of
it
.I
t
is
w
el
lu
n
de
rs
to
od
th
at
it
is
ce
rt
ai
n
ly
ag
re
ea
bl
e
fo
r
an
y
m
em
be
r
to
pa
ss
on
ei
th
er
op
po
rt
un
it
y.

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 421
Please note how short the beginning phase of the second day
is. There is a goal review with an intent to transfer and one
multidimensional sharing activity to renew a feeling of connection
in the group; then it’s on to new content. There are no activities
to establish attitude because that appears to have been well done
on the first day. When the activities for meaning and competence
are collaborative and engaging, the need for strategies to sustain
inclusion and attitude is oftentimes considerably less.
Also note that with the exception of the activities, which need
a longer narrative to exemplify their tone and context, I’ve short-
ened the strategies and combined the purposes. This is to model
what I’ve seen in the field: most instructors develop a shorthand of
phraseology for the various purposes, strategies, and learning activities
so as to increase their efficiency in planning.
On day two, the trainer uses a self-assessment strategy activity
(‘‘Head, Heart, Hand’’) to sustain inclusion, and she uses the
scaffolding strategy, originally aligned with building a positive
attitude, to enhance meaning. This flexible placement of the
strategies and activities again illustrates the numerous motivational
purposes they can serve.
Example 5 is the last of the examples of motivation planning
in this book. I treated each example as a learning sequence that
is a complete unit with beginning, during, and ending time phases
so that it could exemplify as many aspects of the Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching as possible. A
complete learning unit can comprise minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
The time and qualitative differences between a short presentation
and a long-term course are immense. However, even in the latter
instance, there will be separate units that can be planned. No
matter what the length of a particular learning unit, we will need
to apply strategies with a sense of timing if we are to establish
the four motivational conditions and evoke continuing intrinsic
motivation among diverse adults.

422 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
These examples are meant to show what might be possible and
what is structurally necessary for instructional planning. They are
not intended as precise models to follow. It is quite possible that
better and more creative means could be found to approach adult
motivation and learning for each of the learning objectives.
There is a practice effect to planning with the framework. The
more often it is done, the more familiar the motivational conditions
and their related strategies become. Practice significantly lessens
the time required for instructional planning and makes the process
more fluid. In my experience, most instructors need to practice
applying the framework about six times before their planning with
it becomes more intuitive and automatic.
For Review
The lists that follow summarize the basic steps for the two types of
planning with this motivational framework.
Superimposed Method
1. Consider who the learners will be, paying particular attention
to their experience and diversity.
2. Clarify the learning objective(s) with diligent regard for the
learners and the learning situation.
3. Estimate the amount of time available for instruction.
4. Consider the inherent structure of the content or skill to be
learned.
5. Examine the established curricular or instructional design to
be followed for the learning unit.
6. Superimpose the four questions for instructional planning
based on the Motivational Framework for Culturally Respon-
sive Teaching (see Exhibit 9.2) onto the predetermined for-
mat of instruction to see where its instructional activities
positively respond to these questions and where they do not.

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 423
7. For any of the four questions that are inadequately answered,
select appropriate motivational strategies from Table 9.1 and
develop related learning activities or instructor behaviors.
(Because the total time allowed for instruction may limit
these selections, it may be necessary to reduce or revise other
predetermined learning activities.)
8. The ultimate criteria are that (1) the instructional plan estab-
lishes all four of the motivational conditions and (2) each
time phase (beginning, during, and ending) has activities
in its sequence of instruction to elicit significant motivation
among learners.
Source Method
1. Consider who the learners will be, paying particular attention
to their experience and diversity.
2. Clarify the learning objective(s) with diligent regard for the
learners and the learning situation.
3. Estimate the amount of time available for instruction.
4. Consider the inherent structure of the content or skill to be
learned and its relationship to intended assessment or transfer
activities.
5. Review the motivational purposes listed in Table 9.1 as they
align with the four motivational conditions and select moti-
vational strategies to guide the development of learning
activities.
6. Use the selected motivational strategies to choose or create
learning activities that fit the flow of content or skill develop-
ment and their assessment or transfer or both. Be reasonably
certain this instructional plan can be carried out in the time
available.
7. The ultimate criteria are that (1) the instructional plan estab-
lishes all four of the motivational conditions and (2) each

424 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
time phase (beginning, during, and ending) has activities
in its sequence of instruction to elicit significant motivation
among learners.
When either method is used effectively, the adult’s response
while learning is likely to be as follows:
1. I am a member of a learning community in which I feel a
mutual sense of care and respect.
2. I am successfully learning something I find relevant and
desirable.
3. I am engaged in challenging learning where my experience
and perspective can inform as well as be informed.
4. I am becoming more effective in something I value.
These four statements represent what is possible when adults
learn in a situation where the four motivational conditions —
inclusion, attitude, meaning, and competence — are fully present.
If adults can honestly make these statements, they will be motivated
to learn and to continue learning. This does not mean adults bear
no responsibility for their own motivation for learning. It does mean
that we as instructors have optimally exercised our professional skill
to respect adults as they are at that moment and to make instruction
an experience that enhances their motivational resources.
Motivation is dynamic. As an emotional state (Izard, 1993),
it grows or diminishes as learners engage in learning and are
influenced by instruction. Like communication, motivation works
reciprocally, and instructors are the lead communicators. Our
responsibility is to maximally support and nourish the motivational
capacities adults bring with them to the learning experience. Just as
a dinner host provides the best setting possible to elicit conversation
among all guests, we provide the best possible learning situation
to evoke motivation among all learners. Having done so, we can

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 425
reasonably expect adults to do what adults have done naturally
under these circumstances for centuries — willfully learn what they
value.
Assessing Learner Motivation
We have done our planning. We have a comprehensive, motivating
instructional sequence from the beginning to the end of the learning
unit. We are carrying it out. Now, how do we know if and when
learners are motivated? Of all the questions in this book, this is one
of the most challenging. Although using exams and other indicators
of learning accomplishment as evidence of learner motivation makes
sense, we have to be careful. Intuitively we may think, ‘‘If students
are motivated, they will learn.’’ However, learning achievement
is strongly influenced by capability and opportunity (instructional
quality, suitability of materials, time available, and so forth) as
well as motivation. At best, learning is an indirect and only partial
indicator of motivation.
Among the possible means of evaluating learner motivation are
self-report instruments — questionnaires, rating scales, checklists,
and the like — that elicit the learners’ assessment of their own
behavior, beliefs, or perceptions. A standardized self-report measure
of motivation to learn is the Motivated Strategies for Learning
Questionnaire, commonly known as the MSLQ (Pintrich and
others, 1993; Garcia Duncan and McKeachie, 2005). It represents
a social cognitive view of motivation, regarding it as dynamic
and contextually bound. This instrument has been widely used
in postsecondary education. The MSLQ is considered a reliable
measure for getting feedback on student learning strategies and
self-efficacy as well as for guiding decisions for course adjustments.
Its scale for measuring Intrinsic Goal Orientation has been used in
studies of adult learners (Bye, Pushkar, and Conway, 2007).
Self-reports can be very helpful as estimating and feedback
devices. However, they have disadvantages. One is that learners

426 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
may bias their responses for reasons that range from social desir-
ability to grades they received, and another is that learners are not
always aware of their motives or how to explain them. Whether
standardized or instructor-developed, when well constructed and
used with other indicators of motivation, such as observation rat-
ings, self-reports can be informative (Assor and Connell, 1992). I
often ask learners to complete the self-report shown here to give
me their perceptions of how well the course or workshop is fulfilling
the four motivational conditions of the framework. (Learners rate
each of the following items on a four-point scale from strongly
disagree to strongly agree.)
1. The workshop climate is friendly and respectful. (Inclusion)
2. This workshop is relevant to my personal or professional
goals. (Attitude)
3. This workshop is challenging me to think. (Meaning)
4. This workshop contributes to helping me to be effective at
what I value. (Competence)
5. The instructor respects learners’ opinions and ideas.
(Inclusion)
6. In this workshop, I can use my experience and ways of know-
ing to support my learning. (Attitude)
7. Most of the time during this workshop I feel engaged in what
is going on. (Meaning)
8. I can actually use the information or skills I am learning in
this workshop. (Competence)
Probably the best moment-to-moment method of assessing
learner motivation is personal observation. This too is an imperfect
method. Our biases and mood can contaminate what we perceive
as well as what we select to perceive. (Focusing on one resistant
adult learner seems to make the whole classroom look bleak.) It is

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 427
also difficult to be totally sure that what we see is a real indicator
of motivation. For example, it is possible that signs of learners’
intensity might be nothing more than their obvious reactions to
physical or mental discomfort. Understanding and assessing effort
are also very tricky. Culturally speaking, when tasks become dif-
ficult, some people are socialized to be calm and contemplative
rather than to become intense and more active. Looking for vigor
to assess motivation in learners can be deceptive. That’s why,
especially over time, I prefer to use persistence as an indica-
tor of motivation. Even though the kind of behaviors may vary,
do learners continue to engage in actions aimed at accomplish-
ing the learning task? Other observable indicators of motivation
(Stipek, 2002) to consider are when learners:
Begin learning activities without resistance
Prefer the challenging aspects of tasks
Spontaneously relate learning to outside interests
Ask questions to expand their understanding beyond the learn-
ing at hand
Go beyond required work
Find joy in the process of learning — the studying, writing,
reading, and so forth
Are proud of their learning and its consequences
Stay focused
Become reluctant to stop when engaged
I also pay very close attention to learners’ physical energy. Most
adults are capable of being in a state of flow when their activity
level ranges between relaxed and alert and excited and involved
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1997).
By keenly and continually observing to assess these indicators
of motivation, we can adjust our teaching or training to enhance

428 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
learner motivation. Also, as discussed in Chapter Seven, I believe
we need minimum standards for the quality of motivation we
observe in our courses and training. These standards may include
the percentage of people who willingly begin a learning task, the
percentage of people who persist to overcome a learning obstacle,
and the percentage of people who appear relaxed and alert while
learning. Possessing such standards enables us to be both aware and
responsive, to steer a course while teaching that brings to life the
instructional plan we so carefully designed.
Margery Ginsberg (Ginsberg and Wlodkowski, 2000) has devel-
oped an observation guide to assess how an instructor has estab-
lished the four motivational conditions from the Motivational
Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Using this ‘‘Obser-
vation Guide for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning,’’
one can locate evidence of specific norms and behaviors that indi-
cate the presence of each condition during a learning experience.
This information can inform future instruction and planning as well
as point out motivational conditions that may need more develop-
ment. The version of this guide for adult learners is reproduced in
the Appendix.
In the future, brain measurement technology will probably pro-
vide a more accurate assessment of motivation to learn. Currently,
the electroencephalogram (EEG) can indicate parts of the brain
that are actively engaged in processing information (Bear, Conn-
ors, and Paradiso, 2007). However, like all forms of assessment, we
will still need wisdom and compassion to use this technology well.
Continuing Adult Motivation and Lifelong Learning
In an increasingly complex technological society, where both
adults work in 85 percent of all partnered or married households
(Kessler-Harris, 2007), the need for continuous education and
training during one’s lifetime is an unavoidable reality. For such
a culture, fostering the willingness of adults to learn may be of

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 429
greater consequence than ensuring that they have learned some
specific thing at a certain point in time. People who eventually
find reading, writing, calculating, communicating, and expanding
their knowledge and skills a satisfying way of being are usually
considered lifelong learners and a source of human capital by their
government.
The Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners (1997)
recommended making the adoption of a programmatic approach to
lifelong learning a national priority. Its recommendations include
recognizing the connection between lifelong learning and global
economic success, creating equity of access, use of technologies such
as online learning, reshaping educational delivery, and establishing
resources for lifelong learning sufficient to its need (Maehl, 2000).
However, the merits of lifelong learning are not without poten-
tial for exploitation. As Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner
point out, ‘‘Because lifelong learning is so pervasive through-
out society, knowledge becomes a commodity that is produced,
packaged, and sold to the consumer. Crass commercialism begins
to define lifelong learning’’ (2007, p. 49). Lifelong learning has
become a new market, a form of ‘‘vocationalism’’ where people
learn ‘‘to work harder, faster, and smarter’’ to help their employer
compete without awareness or commitment to the common good
(Boshier, 2005, p. 375). How can one argue against the need to
be competitive in a market-driven economy? Under the guise of
staying competitive, it is easy to ignore the questions, How are the
skills and technology used? Who has accessibility? Who profits
the most? and What happens to the environment as a result?
I believe these criticisms are reasonable. That’s why the use of
instructional planning and the motivation framework has to have a
value context and a critical consciousness. If it becomes subject to
indiscriminate application without critical reflection, something as
enriching and crucial to social cohesion and democracy as lifelong
learning can become a kind of merchandise, more harmful to our
humanity than generative of our highest goals.

430 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
There are a number of ideas for fostering lifelong learning. We
know that lifelong learning can be informal and self-directed as well
as formal, such as higher education and professional development.
In order to develop lifelong learners, some scholars have advocated
that learning processes in higher education should be designed to
increase the capacity for self-directed learning, teach metacognitive
skills to effectively guide learning, and foster a personal value for
continuing learning over a lifetime (Dunlap and Grabinger, 2003).
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (1991), who have spent most
of their lives studying the phenomenon of intrinsic motivation,
believe the key to acquiring this value — to finding the act of
learning worthwhile — is feeling free enough to accept it as one’s
own. People who embrace this value and can be described as lifelong
learners are deeply aware that the fundamental aspects of learning
fit who they are. They read, reflect, and purposely seek to deepen
their awareness and knowledge. Essentially, they possess a broad
intrinsic goal orientation to learning that continues throughout their
lives; they find new learning to be challenging, interesting, and
worth mastering. They are able to learn autonomously, knowing
how to use self-initiated exploratory strategies to guide new learning
(Pintrich and others, 1991). In both attitude and skills, they have
a continuing motivation to learn. Recent literature on aging
indicates significant physical, mental, and social benefits for older
adults who have a positive attitude toward learning and continue
to learn (Purdie and Boulton-Lewis, 2003).
For teaching and training, the Motivational Framework for
Culturally Responsive Teaching is ideally suited to encourage
continuing adult motivation to learn. Beginning with a plan, we
create, as a community of learners, compelling experiences to
attain relevant learning with learner autonomy intact. Although
the design is situational, love of learning is at its core. The goal
is always to create an intrinsically motivating learning experience
that contributes to and sustains a lifelong motivation to learn. The

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 431
theories of self directed learning and self-regulation have something
more to say about attaining this goal. Let’s take a look.
Self-Directed Learning and Self-Regulation
Self-directed learning (SDL) is a mainstay and well-researched idea
in adult education (Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner, 2007).
With no widely accepted definition and numerous interpretations,
it has been a magnet for controversy in the field. Critiques range
from whether it is a goal or a characteristic of adult learners
to dissatisfaction with its individualistic, white middle-class male
orientation. Linda Leach ends her essay on SDL in the International
Encyclopedia of Adult Education with the following words, ‘‘Clearly,
self-directed learning is contested. There is no agreement in the
literature about what it is, to whom it applies, or how it might be
implemented in practice, particularly in formal education. Rather,
we each have to decide how we understand it and how it will play
out in our practice’’ (2005, p. 568). In this respect, I have chosen
elements from self-directed learning that are congruent with and
parallel to self-regulation, a well researched theory in educational
psychology.
Self-regulation is a process by which learners control their
behavior, feelings, and thoughts to attain academic goals. In
self-regulation theory, ‘‘learning is viewed as an activity that
students do for themselves in a proactive [italics added] way rather
than as a covert event that happens to them in reaction to teach-
ing’’ (Zimmerman, 2002, p. 65). Distinct within this theory are
the concepts of metacognition and social cognition. Metacognition
is being aware and knowledgeable about one’s own thinking — for
example, reflecting on the steps one took to solve a math prob-
lem. Social cognition is the way in which social influences such as
peers and coaches affect internal processes such as goal setting and
self-evaluation.

432 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Although most of the early research in self-regulation the-
ory was done with children and traditional college students, the
number of studies with community college students and adults is
growing (Zimmerman and Kitsantas, 2005). At the theory level,
there is considerable overlap between Garrison’s model (1997)
of SDL and conventional self-regulation theory. Both include
self-management, self-monitoring, self-motivation, and abundant
use of metacognitive processes.
My experience with adult learners is that most who exhibit
continuing motivation to learn, such as spontaneous interest and
value for a wide range of learning topics, already possess many
metacognitive skills to self-regulate their learning. They fluidly
decide their learning goals; they reflect on the strategies they use
to learn; and they are conscious of their motivation and how to
sustain it. From a motivational perspective, the adults for whom
I more often need to be available and ready to assist are those
who exhibit ineffective effort: when they want to learn, they often
have difficulty deciding on a topic to learn, how to guide their
learning, and how to sustain it (Trawick and Corno, 1995). Some
examples of this phenomenon are churning through topics but
remaining vaguely dissatisfied with any selection, setting unrealistic
deadlines, or becoming so anxious when trying to learn something
that distraction and frustration eventually diminish motivation.
Studies in self-regulation have demonstrated that people who
want to learn but lack the metacognitive skills to sustain their
motivation and learning can be directly taught these processes,
which enables them to deal with distractions, increase their
self-confidence, focus their attention, and control negative emo-
tions about subjects from math to writing (Trawick and Corno,
1995; Zimmerman and Kitsantas, 2005).
Most people attain these skills without direct instruction. For
example, with rare exceptions, expert writers use metacognition
and effective writing strategies without someone teaching them

Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs 433
how to think (Murray, 2004). We learn these skills sociocultur-
ally through familial practices, teacher modeling, collaborating
with peers, and immersing ourselves in various subjects. In most
instances, the strategies included in the Motivational Frame-
work for Culturally Responsive Teaching do not directly teach
self-regulation skills, but many do model them and support their
use. The strategies aligned with the motivational purposes of devel-
oping self-efficacy (Strategies 16 through 20), establishing learning
goals (Strategies 21 through 23), and engendering competence
with assessment (Strategies 48 and 50 through 54) — when initi-
ated and used by the learner — are commonly identified as methods
of self-regulating learning (Zimmerman and Campillo, 2003).
There are other models that employ a self-regulation approach
to learning and instruction. One that has been used in Europe
with all age groups is the CLIA Model (De Corte, Verschaffel, and
Masui, 2004). Essential to self-regulation is helping learners to talk
to themselves about their learning so that they get into the habit of
having an ongoing internal conversation about their own learning.
A practical day-to-day approach to teaching self-regulation strate-
gies is to assess how adults currently use the strategies by sensitively
asking direct questions — for example, What steps did you take to
learn this (Strategy 23, goal setting)? What did you tell yourself
when you realized this might have been a mistake (Strategy 18,
attributions to effort and knowledge)? What are you telling yourself
to sustain your motivation (Strategy 20, encouragement)? Here is
an example of how we might work with this last question.
Introduce the strategy and explain its usefulness — for example,
‘‘Sometimes it helps to talk to yourself about your own
motivation, to let yourself realize why this is important to
you. When we remind ourselves we’re likely to get a bit more
energy for the work. What are some things you might reflect
on that would encourage you to do this work?’’

434 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Use guided practice, reminders, and hints, coach a bit, and gently
withdraw — for example, ‘‘You’ve been doing so well with
self-motivation, I don’t think any questions I might ask
would be of any real assistance. It’s a pleasure to see you
taking charge of your learning.’’
In this way we help learners to be self-conscious — in the best
sense of this expression — about their learning, to realize they
have the power to employ their own motivational skills. Although
there is a bridge between the motivational framework and how
adults guide their own learning, there is also a limit. With the
framework instructors can give opportunity, support, modeling,
and a compelling lesson compassionately and creatively conceived.
Yet much of learning occurs while we’re alone — the studying, the
reading, the writing, and the practicing. And, to be realistic, at
such times anyone can bog down. In such moments, going forward
is often a matter of the wisdom of knowing what to tell ourselves.

Wlodkowski b02 3 02/04/08 435
Epilogue
Ethical Considerations for an Instructor of Adults
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we
pay ourselves the highest tribute.
Thurgood Marshall
It is probably only fair that what works so well for the learnerworks just as well for the instructor. To experience our jobs as
intrinsically satisfying, we need to feel respected where we work,
to believe what we do is relevant, and to have a sense that we can
effectively accomplish the challenges we value. If these conditions
are met, we live a professional life in which we breathe the air of
vital meaning. In reality, we need the same conditions adults need
to optimally learn.
Yet this book has sought something more than self-satisfaction
for the instructor. As in the last edition, there is an emphasis
on the value of respect for cultural diversity among the adults
we teach and train and the belief that a learning environment
should be a model of equitable opportunity where learning is
connected to an encompassing ethical purpose beyond successful
achievement.
Given the events of 9/11 and the devastation of the war in Iraq,
I am more aware now that how I reveal myself as an instructor,
how I use my authority, how I handle frustration or conflict is a
435

Wlodkowski b02 3 02/04/08 436
436 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
reflection on aggression and power and their influence on human
beings. I know that seeing adults compassionately overcome anger
in others or themselves is one of the truest connections I have to a
source of strength for peace within myself.
Fear is an overpowering emotion — for a person, a group, or
a nation — and is only a split second away. When present, it is
exceedingly difficult to overcome and can undermine our most
cherished values and ideals. We need to be aware of it, name it
quickly, and realize that when someone senses fear in us, their own
fear is usually imminent. When an instructor can remain calm,
respectful, and magnanimous in the face of conflict, it enables
those present to retain their composure and gain a better chance
to address the issue with reason and compassion.
Part of being an effective instructor is being a leader. Learners
still look to us to be above the fray, possessed of at least a mod-
icum of wisdom. When I consider our influence, I think leading
by example continues to hold the greatest weight. I believe this
responsibility requires some form of committed action on our part
for social change. Not that we even mention it in our work, but that
we live this experience so that it continues to inform us and humble
us by revealing the true challenge involved in any consequential
achievement of equity or justice.
Today teaching and training adults is an enormous global enter-
prise. In the United States well over 40 percent of all students in
postsecondary education are adults, and the money spent for train-
ing adults in business and industry exceeds the total spent for
all of higher education. Training and professional development
clearly make a difference in securing success for any company
or organization. However, with this growth has come a diffu-
sion of the initial purpose of adult education — the advocacy
and action for social and personal transformation. My personal
observation in higher education is that this voice has become
quieter, often muted by the need to regard adults as a market
for increasing enrollments and sustaining profits. I think there is

Wlodkowski b02 3 02/04/08 437
Epilogue 437
a necessary tension between the ideals of the discipline and the
economic basics of running an institution. Keeping this relation-
ship appropriately balanced is fundamental to the integrity of adult
education.
The degree to which we enable all adults to learn well is a
criterion essential to maintaining this balance. Our effectiveness
as individuals and institutions in creating educational access and
sustaining degree completion for low-income adults should be a
standard for judging whether we are living up to the ideals of our
discipline. I believe this is the greatest challenge for our field. As
we continue to make progress toward this goal, we are obliged to
consider more carefully the consequences of what we teach or train
others to do.
Our work distinctly serves an age-old question: What is worth
knowing and perpetuating? Our craft carries the responsibility
to wrestle with this question just as medical doctors carry the
obligation to know what life is and when it is worth saving. This
duty does not lessen the joy of being an instructor. It is what gives
our profession a soul.
When Charles Garfield (1986) studied older peak performers —
adults who were sixty or older and loved their work and in the
eyes of their peers were excellent at what they did, whatever
the occupation — they had one thing in common. They saw their
work as part of something greater than themselves. Garfield called
this quality a sense of mission, a belief that one’s work con-
tributes to something transcendent. For some it was connected
to a spiritual belief, for others to a social contribution or to the
beauty of the work itself. To have this perception of ourselves as
instructors, we need to realize and question the worth of what
we teach or train, to inform our faith with doubt as well as
reason.
The purpose of this book is to provide a useful means for
creating unity among worth, meaning, and joy in adult learn-
ing. It offers a path to this goal through motivationally sound

Wlodkowski b02 3 02/04/08 438
438 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
instruction. How much of this is science, or art, or intuition?
As in the previous edition, I’m still not sure. But when it
flows, when learning between instructor and learner is recipro-
cal and respectful, it is an inspired dimension of being — not
something one practices or performs, but something one enters and
lives.

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 439
Appendix
Observation Guide for Culturally
Responsive Teaching and Learning
(Adult Version)
Margery B. Ginsberg
This guide is organized to identify elements that support intrinsic
motivation. It is not an assessment tool but an instrument to pro-
mote dialogue about instruction and to affirm what is working to
foster the four motivational conditions.
Establishing Inclusion
How does the learning experience contribute
to developing a community of learners who feel
respected and connected to one another?
Course procedures and norms help everyone to feel they
belong.
Learners and instructor have opportunities to learn about
each other.
Course agreements are negotiated.
All learners equitably and actively participate.
Instructor directs attention equitably.
Instructor interacts respectfully with all learners.
Learners talk to and with partners or small groups.
439

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 440
440 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Learners know what to do, especially when making
choices.
Learners help each other.
Instructor and learners discuss perspectives, opinions, or
ideas that differ from their own.
Evidence:
Developing a Positive Attitude
How does this learning experience offer
meaningful choices or goals and promote
personal relevance?
Learners’ experiences, concerns, and interests are used to
develop course content.
Learners’ experiences, concerns, and interests are addressed
in responses to questions.
Learners’ prior knowledge and learning experiences are
explicitly linked to course content and questions.
Instructor encourages learners to understand, develop,
and express different points of view.

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 441
Observation Guide for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning 441
Instructor encourages learners to clarify their interests
and set goals.
Instructor maintains flexibility in pursuit of emerging
interests.
Instructor and learners exhibit a critical consciousness about
positionality, knowledge construction, or the consequences
of what is learned.
Evidence:
Instructor encourages learners to make
real choices or to affirm their
participation regarding:
How to learn (multiple intelligences)
What to learn
Where to learn
When a learning experience will be considered to be
complete
How learning will be assessed
With whom to learn
How to solve emerging problems

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 442
442 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
Evidence:
Enhancing Meaning
How does this learning experience
engage participants in challenging learning?
Instructor in concert with learners creates opportunities
for inquiry, investigation, and projects.
Instructor provides opportunities for learners to actively
participate in challenging ways.
Instructor asks higher-order questions of all learners
throughout instruction.
Instructor elicits or probes for high-quality responses from
all learners.
Instructor uses multiple safety nets to ensure learners’
engagement and risk taking (for example, not grading all
assignments and allowing learners to work with partners).
Instructor and learners use problems, role-playing, simula-
tions, enactment, or art to deepen learning and engagement.
Evidence:

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 443
Observation Guide for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning 443
Engendering Competence
How does this learning experience help learners
to understand that they are becoming more effective
in learning that they value and perceive as authentic
to their real-world experience?
There is information, consequence, or product that sup-
ports learners in valuing and identifying their learning.
The purpose of the lesson is clearly communicated.
The criteria for assessing outcomes is clearly communi-
cated.
There are opportunities for a diversity of competencies
to be demonstrated in a variety of ways.
Instructor helps all learners identify accomplishments.
There are options for assessment.
Learners receive feedback from the instructor about their
individual learning.
There are opportunities for learners to make explicit
connections between new learning and prior knowledge.
There are opportunities for learners to make explicit
connections between their learning and the real world.
There are opportunities for learners to self-assess their
learning and to adjust or revise.
There are elements such as planning and transfer-of-learning
strategies to facilitate transfer of new learning to the commu-
nity, family, or workplace.

Wlodkowski bapp01 3 02/04/08 444
444 Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn
There are opportunities for learners to give each other
feedback about perspectives, ideas, or learning.
Evidence:

Wlodkowski bref 3 09/24/08 445
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Name Index
A
Abeles, M., 17, 106, 158, 214
Abercombrie, H. C., 22
Ackerman, B. P., 231
Adams, M., 147, 161–162
Adesope, O. O., 265
Ahissar, E., 17, 106, 158, 214
Ahissar, M., 17, 106, 158, 214
Aldrich, C., 244, 297
Alfonso, M., 151
Alfred, M. V., 322
Ali, R., 92
Allen, M. S., 347
Allen, R., 270
Amanti, C., 232
Ancis, J. R., 92
Andersen, P. A., 128, 129, 130, 131,
132, 133
Anderson, K. C., 98
Anderson, L. W., 154
Anderson, V. J., 354
Angelo, T. A., 202, 203
Apter, M. J., 257, 259
Arieli, A., 17, 106, 158, 214
Aslanian, C. B., 33, 34, 43, 97
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, 184
Assor, A., 426
Astaire, Fred, 151
B
Bailey, T. R., 151
Baldari, C., 37
Baldwin, James, 230
Bandura, Albert, 187, 188, 196, 197,
198, 200, 204
Barkley, Elizabeth, 141, 152, 241
Barnett, M. S., 356
Barret, L. F., 2
Barsalou, L. W., 71
Bates, R. A., 362–363
Baumgartner, L. M., 8, 20, 36, 187,
220, 311, 429, 431
Bear, M. R., 226, 233, 428
Bee, H. L., 36, 37, 41, 42
Belenky, M., 89, 103, 156
Bell, S., 263
Bellah, R. N., 130
Belzer, A., 8
Benseman, J., 5
Berg, B. L., 279
Berger, N. O., 210, 211, 213
Bergin, D. A., 355, 356
Bergman, H., 17, 106, 158, 214
Berliner, D., 79–80, 81
Berliner, D. C., 237, 241, 243, 258
Berridge, K. C., 114
Beyer, Barry, 270
Bjorkland, B. R., 36, 37, 41, 42
Blank, S., 27
Blokland, A., 36
Bloom, Benjamin, 154–155
Bloom, F., 9, 10, 13, 15, 16
Blunt, A., 106
Boeke, M., 32
Boggiano, A. K., 367
483

484 Name Index
Bong, M., 187
Boshier, R., 429
Boulton-Lewis, G., 34, 430
Bowman, L., 132
Bransford, J. D., 54, 182, 183,
233, 266
Bridwell, L. G., 58
Brock, T., 28
Brookfield, S. D., 157–158, 185, 210,
270, 274, 276, 311, 349–350, 352,
370, 387
Brooks, J. G., 283–284
Brooks, Martin, 283–284
Brophy, J., 3, 5, 58, 101, 193, 200,
204, 209, 230, 239, 316, 317,
367, 371
Brothers, L., 141
Brown, J. S., 301, 335
Brunig, R. H., 96
Burton, Elise, 303
Butin, D. W., 303
Butler, J. E., 165
Buzan, T., 264, 265
Bye, D., 99, 425
C
Caffarella, R. S., 8, 20, 36, 59, 60–62,
153, 187, 210, 211, 213, 220, 311,
357, 429, 431
Caine, G., 293, 373
Caine, R. N., 293, 373
Campbell, B., 36, 332
Campbell, D. P., 231
Campbell, L., 332
Campbell, S., 64, 203
Campillo, M., 433
Capranica, L., 37
Carey, James, 154, 388–389
Carey, Lou, 154, 388–389
Carlson, J. G., 71
Carnevale, A. P., 26
Castillo, D., 297
Ceci, S. J., 356
Cervero, R. M., 134
Chang, W., 369
Chavajay, P., 2, 89
Checkley, K., 38, 39
Chemtob, C., 71
Chi, M.T.H., 40
Chirkov, V., 107
Chiu, C., 91–92
Choitz, V., 27
Christianson, S., 18
Chularut, P., 263
Clinchy, B., 89, 103, 156
Commission for a Nation of Lifelong
Learners, 429
Compton, R. J., 15
Connell, J. P., 426
Connors, B. W., 226, 233, 428
Constitutional Rights Foundation, 25
Conway, M., 99, 425
Cook, B., 24, 25, 27, 28, 90
Cooperrider, D., 59
Cordrey, Dally, 398
Corno, L., 432
Costa, A. L., 359
Courtney, S., 91
Coyle, 319
Cozolino, L., 89, 103, 305
Cranton, P., 141
Cross, K. P. (Pat), 42, 141, 152, 202,
203, 241
Cruichshank, D. R., 70
Csikzentmihalyi, I. S., 22, 108
Csikzentmihalyi, M., 19, 22, 48, 108,
233–234, 266, 267, 268,
269, 427
D
Damasio, A., 18, 293
Davidson, R. J., 22
Davies, D. R., 225
Day, H. I., 244
De Corte, E., 433
DeAnda, René, 414
DeBacker, T. K., 263
Deci, E. L., 19, 370
Deci, Edward, 317, 430
Delahaye, B. L., 244
Deshler, D., 5, 43, 258
Desrochers, D. M., 26
Dewey, John, 269
Dey, E. L., 27

Name Index 485
Diamond, M., 226
Diamond, M. C., 34
Dick, Walter, 154, 388–389
Dickinson, A., 111, 315
Dickinson, D., 332
Donovan, M. S., 54, 182, 183,
233, 266
Driscoll, M. P., 246
Duckett, W. R., 86
Dunlap, J., 430
Dweck, C. S., 47
E
Eisner, E. W., 155, 157, 277
Eison, James, 352–353
Elbow, Peter, 349
Elliot, A. J., 47
Ellis, A., 173, 178
Ellison, Ralph, 273
English, L. M., 276–277
Enns, C. Z., 90
Ericsson, K. Anders, 319
Erikson, Erik, 310
F
Farr, M. J., 40
Feldman, K. A., 71
Fenwick, T. J., 326, 372
Fiddler, M., 250, 314
Flint, T., 27, 28
Fong, M., 168
Frederick, P., 126
Freire, Paulo, 64, 92–93, 157, 158,
160, 387
Freud, S., 7
Frey, R., 27, 28
Friedman, T., 25
G
Gabriel, T., 44
Gage, N. L., 237, 241, 243,
258
Gage, Nathaniel, 70
Gahn, S. W., 6, 28
Gallimore, R., 2–3
Garcia, T., 425, 430
Garcia Duncan, T., 425
Gardner, Howard, 38–40, 214, 215,
217, 220, 329, 335
Gardner, J. W., 127
Garfield, Charles, 437
Garmston, R. J., 359
Garrison, D. R., 432
Gay, G., 276
Gephart, W. J., 85–86
Gergen, K. J., 95
Gilligan, C., 89, 108
Gilmore, A. C., 74
Ginsberg, M. B., 232, 352, 428,
439–444
Ginsberg, M. E., 3, 20, 28, 44, 45, 88,
96, 101–102, 113, 127, 138, 163,
164, 270, 276, 336, 378
Ginsburg, H. P., 100
Glanz, J., 282
Glaser, R., 40
Goethe, J. W. von, 186
Gogtay, N., 98
Goldberg, E., 292
Goldberger, N., 89, 103, 156
Goldin-Meadow, S., 128
Goleman, D., 40–41, 58
Gonzalez, N., 232
Good, T., 239
Goodman, Joel, 256–257
Grabinger, S., 430
Greene, D., 371
Griffin, Pat, 251–252, 254
Griggs, J. K., 233, 315–316
Gronlund, N. E., 402
Grotzer, T. A., 50
Groves, K., 41
Grubb, W. N., 27, 28
Gudykunst, W. B., 128
Guidetti, L., 37
Gulerce, A., 95
Gurin, G., 27
Gurin, P., 27
Guy, T., 3, 45
H
Hafner, J., 270
Hall, E. T., 129, 133
Hand, V. M., 214

486 Name Index
Hansen, J. I. C., 231
Harkins, S., 191
Hatfield, E., 71
Hattie, J., 306, 315, 318
Hays, P. A., 58, 102
Hecht, M. L., 130, 131, 133
Heine, S. J., 7
Herzberg, F., 370
Hidi, S., 226, 229, 231
Highwater, Jamake, 304
Hill, C. E., 139, 140
Hillman, James, 31
Hmelo-Silver, C. E., 160
Hobson, J., 248
Hofstede, G., 130, 131, 132
Holton, E. F., III, 362–363
Hong, Y., 91–92
Hoobler, G. D., 130, 133
Hopson, J., 226
Hoyer, W. J., 41, 42
Hsee, C. K., 71
Hurt, H. T., 243
Hurtado, S., 27
Hutchings, P., 285, 288, 290–291
Hutchinson, W. D., 71
Hyerle, D., 263, 265
I
Ide, E., 7
Izard, C. E., 231, 424
J
Jacobs, B., 226
James, L., 248
Jameson, Anna, 49
Jefferson, Thomas, 81
Jensen, E., 10, 17, 18, 225, 248
Johnson, D. W., 136, 142, 143, 145,
146, 147, 148–149, 151, 162,
164, 348
Johnson, F. P., 136, 143, 145, 146,
147, 151, 162, 164
Johnson, R. T., 142, 148–149, 348
Johnson, S., 3, 8
Johnson-Bailey, J., 134
Jones, A. P., 369
Jones, J., 161–162
Jones, S. E., 130
Jones, T. B., 294, 295
Jouard, S., 140
K
Kalin, N. H., 22
Kallenbach, S., 39, 215,
218–219, 332
Kandel, E. R., 10
Kaplan, U., 107
Kasworm, C. K., 66, 205, 313, 322,
355, 378
Kaye, J., 297
Keeton, M. T., 233, 315–316
Keller, Helen, 377
Keller, J., 55, 241
Keller, J. M., 367
Kelly, Gene, 151
Kemp, J. E., 47, 80
Kennedy, Florynce, 125
Kerman, S., 235
Kessler-Harris, A., 428
Kim, Y., 107
Kim, Y. Y., 128
King, Alison, 271–273
King, B. B., 35, 75
King, J. E., 24, 25, 27, 28, 90
King, K. P., 378
Kinsella, L., 80, 82–83
Kinzie, J., 28
Kitayama, S., 7, 21, 159
Kitsantas, A., 172, 196, 198,
204, 432
Knowles, M. S., 230
Knowles, Malcolm, 97, 326
Knox, A. B., 188
Koechlin, 340
Koester, J., 131, 133
Kohn, Alfie, 58–59, 366
Kolb, David, 387
Koopmans, G., 36
Kopp, B., 237
Kornhaber, M. L., 322, 323
Krapp, A., 226
Krathwohl, D. R., 154
Krauth-Gruber, S., 71
Kuh, G. D., 28

Name Index 487
L
Laden, Berta Vigil, 33
Lambert, N. M., 19, 233
Land, M. L., 79
Langer, Susanne, 108
Larkins, A. G., 74
Larrivee, B., 366
Latham, G., 201, 205
Lather, P., 89
Lave, J., 114
Lazerson, A., 9, 10, 13, 15, 16
Leach, Linda, 431
LeBlanc, A., 28
LeDoux, J., 15, 22, 257, 313
Lehman, D. R., 7
Lemieux, C. M., 210
Lepper, M. R., 371
Leung, C., 7
Lichtman, J., 248
Litchfield, B. C., 367
Lleras-Muney, A., 26
Lochner, L., 26
Lock, A., 95
Locke, E., 201, 205
Loden, M., 251
Lohman, M. C., 276
Londoner, C. A., 378
Lowe, J., 201
Lustig, C., 36
Lustig, M. L., 131, 133
M
MacGregor, Jean, 346
Madsen, R., 448
Maehl, W. H., 429
Mager, Robert, 13, 171, 177
Major, Claire, 141, 152, 241
Manheimer, R. J., 34
Marchesani, L. S., 147
Marienau, C., 250, 313, 314, 322, 355
Markus, H. R., 7, 21, 111, 159, 189,
310, 369
Marsh, H. W., 306
Marshall, Thurgood, 435
Marsick, V. J., 285, 290
Maslow, A., 58
Masui, C., 433
Mauldin, J. E., 6, 28, 64, 203
Mayer, J. D., 41
McCombs, B. L., 19, 96, 233
McCroskey, J. C., 243
McDaniel, E. R., 80, 130, 133
McEnrue, M. P., 41
McKeachie, W. J., 79, 425, 430
McKinney, C. W., 74
Mehrota, C. M., 34
Merriam, S. B., 8, 20, 36, 187, 220,
311, 429, 431
Meyers, C., 294, 295
Mezirow, J., 107, 158, 233, 261, 270,
276, 372, 387
Michelson, E., 310
Miller, E. K., 98
Mills, R. C., 67
Milton, Ohmer, 352–353
Misra, G., 95
Mohr, B. J., 59, 62–63
Moll, L. C., 232
Moran, S., 220
Mordkowitz, E. R., 100
Moretti, E., 26
Morgan, M., 367
Morrison, G. R., 47, 80
Mortenson, T. G., 24
Mott, V. W., 97
Murray, D. M., 432–433
Murray, L., 276
N
Nah, Y., 312
Nakamura, J., 233–234, 267, 269
Nasir, N. S., 214
National Center for Educational
Statistics, 24, 32, 33
National Survey of Student
Engagement, 228
Naylor, Michele, 304, 332
Neff, D., 232
Neill, J. T., 306
Nelson, C. A., 9, 10, 13, 15, 16
Nesbit, J. C., 265
New England Adult Research
Network, 152
Niedenthal, P. M., 71

488 Name Index
Nietzche, Friedrich, 225
Norby, M. M., 96
O
O’Donnell, J. M., 210, 211, 213
O’Donnell, K., 34
Ogle, Donna, 222
Oldfather, P., 89
Oldham-Buss, S., 74
P
Paas, F. G. W. C., 241
Packer, T., 210
Paley, Vivian Gussin, 1
Paradiso, M. A., 226, 233, 428
Parasuraman, R., 225
Parsons, J., 326
Paterson, M., 210
Patterson, M. L., 129
Paul, Richard, 273
Paulson, K., 32
Paz, Octavio, 95
Pearlman, M., 322
Pellegrino, J. W., 54, 182, 183,
233, 266
Perkins, D. N., 50, 270
Perry, 156
Perry, B. D., 102
Pesce, C., 37
Peters, T. J., 370
Phuntsog, N., 45
Piercy, Marge, 309
Pintrich, P. R., 5, 58, 425, 430
Pittman, T. S., 367
Plaut, V. C., 7, 111, 189, 310,
369
Pogson, P., 40, 108
Poldrack, R. A., 111
Pollio, Howard, 352–353
Poplin, M., 104
Porter, R. E., 80, 104
Prenzel, M., 231
Preskill, S., 157–158, 185, 270, 274,
349–350
Prickaerts, J., 36
Pugh, K. J., 355, 356
Purdie, N., 34, 430
Purnell, R., 27
Pushkar, D., 99, 425
R
Ragan, T. J., 153
Ramey, C. G., 110
Rangachari, P. K., 277
Ratey, J. J., 2, 102, 227
Reason, P., 279–280, 281
Remland, M. S., 130
Rendon, L., 142
Renninger, K. A., 226, 229, 231
Reuter, Lorenz, P., 36
Ribeau, S. A., 131
Ric, F., 71
Rich, Adrienne, 125
Richards, G. E., 306
Rivera, Janet, 403
Rogers, C., 58
Rogoff, B., 2, 89
Rojstaczur, S., 352
Ronning, R. R., 96
Roodin, P. A., 41, 42
Rosch, E., 293, 327
Rosener, J. B., 251
Ross, S. M., 47, 80
Rossiter, M., 58
Rosswell, B. S., 347
Rozelle, R. M., 369
Ruble, D. N., 367
Ruona, W. E. A., 362–363
Ryan, R. M., 19, 107, 370
Ryan, Richard, 317, 430
S
Saint-Exupéry, A. de, 66
Salovey, P., 41
Samovar, L. A., 80, 104
Sanes, J., 248
Sansone, C., 231
Sapolsky, R., 313
Sarason, I. G., 313
Savin-Baden, M., 276, 279
Schacter, D. L., 244, 356
Schaie, K. W., 36, 37, 176
Schall, M., 226
Scheepens, A., 36

Name Index 489
Scheibel, A., 226
Scherer, K. R., 104, 114
Schön, D. A., 155
Schraw, G. J., 96
Schuh, J. H., 28
Schultz, W., 111, 315, 366
Schunk, D. H., 58
Scott, J. P., 220
Scott, M. D., 243
Scott-Machado, Yolanda, 205–210,
211–213, 338
Seligman, M., 195
Shackleton, V. J., 225
Shakespeare, William, 73
Sheckley, B. G., 233, 263, 315–316
Shied, F. M., 97
Shimamura, A., 22
Shor, I., 91, 93, 276
Shumar, W., 231
Silvia, P. J., 229
Sinacore, A. L., 90
Skaalvik, E., 187
Skinner, B. F., 240
Smallwood, M., 130, 133
Smith, B. J., 244
Smith, D. A., 430
Smith, D. A. F., 425
Smith, J. L., 231
Smith, K. A., 148–149, 348
Smith, P. L., 153
Smith, R. M., 176
Smolak, L., 35
Solorzano, Daniel, 338
Sousa, D. A., 108, 155
Sprokay, S., 89, 103, 305
Squire, I. R., 10
St. Clair, R., 8
Steinem, Gloria, 35
Step Brothers, 151
Sternberg, Robert, 40, 50, 193
Stickgold, R., 248
Stiller, J., 28
Stipek, D., 3, 427
Strother, D. B., 85–86
Sullivan, W. M., 130
Svinicki, M. D., 240
Sweller, J., 241
Swidler, A., 130
Swift, Jonathan, 230
T
Takata, T., 7
Tappan, M. B., 184
Tarule, J., 89, 103, 156
Tatum, Beverly Daniel, 88,
161–162, 165
Taylor, K., 3, 8, 250, 314
Tennant, M., 38, 40, 108
Tessitore, A., 37
Tharp, Roland, 2–3
Thompson, E., 293, 327
Thurow, M. E., 22
Timperley, H., 315, 318
Tinto, V., 151, 152
Tipton, S., 130
Tisdell, E. J., 90, 108
Tobias, S., 226
Tobin, K., 238
Tomlinson, C. A., 180
Tracey, W. R., 188
Trawick, L., 432
Tsang, H. Wh., 210
U
Uguroglu, M., 5
U.S. Census Bureau, 35
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 35
U.S. Department of Labor, 25
Utman, C., 191
V
Vaadia, E., 17, 106, 158, 214
van Merrienboer, J. J. G., 241
Varella, F. J., 293, 327
Vaughan, M. S., 297–301
Verschaffel, L., 433
Viens, J., 39, 215, 218–219, 332
Voss, J. F., 275–276
Vygotsky, Lev, 104, 183
W
Walberg, H. J., 5
Wallis, J. D., 98

490 Name Index
Walvoord, Barbara, 340, 342,
343, 354
Wang, Hua, 128
Waterman, Jr., R. H., 370
Watkins, J. M., 59, 62–63
Watson, J. S., 110
Weeres, J., 104
Weiner, B., 1, 192
Wertsch, J. V., 183
Whaba, M. A., 58
Whisler, J. S., 96
White, P., 191
White, R. W., 110
Whitt, E. J., 28
Widom, R., 27
Wiggins, G. P., 314, 316, 320,
327–329, 330–331, 335, 340
Wilbarger, J. L., 114
Willis, J., 36, 47, 79, 105, 256, 263
Willis, S. L., 37, 176
Winkielman, P., 114
Wlodkowski, R. J., 3, 6, 20, 28, 44, 45,
64, 66, 88, 96, 101–102, 113, 127,
163, 164, 203, 205, 270, 276, 283,
336, 352, 353, 378, 428
Wolfe, B., 26
Wolff, M., 237
Woolfolk, A., 228, 243–244
Y
Young, C., 352
Z
Zakos, P., 27, 28
Zimmerman, B. J., 172, 196, 198, 204,
431, 432, 433
Zull, J. E., 6, 11, 13, 16, 17, 20, 22,
43–44, 55, 98, 192, 259, 314,
315, 345
Zuvekas, S., 26

Suject Index
A
Accountability: cooperative learning
and, 145–146; ensuring learners
realize learning, 239–241, 396, 406
Acknowledgments, 375
Action research, 279, 282–283
Action words for Bloom’s Taxonomy,
155, 156–157
Active Learning (Johnson, Johnson,
and Smith), 148–149
Activities. See Learning activities
Adaptive decision making: about,
292–293; internships and,
302–303; role playing and,
294–296; simulations and, 296–302
Adult learners: anticipating
difficulties for, 185, 191; assessing
expectations, goals, and experience
of, 161–162, 410, 415; attributing
success to, 192–195, 405, 416;
building confidence of, 110–112;
clear learning tasks and criteria for,
325–326; committing to goals, 209;
concept of ‘‘old’’, 31–32;
cooperative learning for, 141, 142;
cultural factors in motivation, 3–4;
cultural relevance and, 20–21;
demonstrating strengths and
knowledge, 329, 332–339, 413,
417; designing learning activities
endorsed by, 221; developing
positive attitudes in, 106–107;
discovering relevant goals of,
57–58; diversity of culture and
knowledge in, 167–168, 395, 399;
effects of aging on, 36–37; effects of
exclusion on, 126–127;
emphasizing relevance for
inclusion, 158–160, 399;
encouraging, 198–202; engaging
motivation of all, 90–91; example
of goal-setting by, 204–210;
feelings and perspectives of, 66–68;
flow experiences of, 267; focusing
attention on goal, 207–208;
helping to avoid failure, 195–196;
importance of grades to, 353–354;
incentives for participation and
motivation, 370–372; increasing
participation in learning, 34,
235–239; increasing success of,
27–29; introductions as form of
inclusion, 136, 175, 410; learning
contracts for, 210–214; maintaining
security of, 263; making schedule
for goals, 209–210; means for
acquiring self-efficacy, 188–189;
motivation assessments for,
425–428; nontraditional, 32–33;
offering opportunity for sharing,
136–138, 415, 418; opportunities
for responses, 235–239;
participating in construction of
truth, 89; planning time for
learning, 203–204; processing time
in cooperative learning, 147;
491

492 Suject Index
Adult learners (continued)
promoting control of learning,
189–192; readiness to receive
feedback, 321; realize learning
accountability, 239–241; relating
course and learning to, 91–92;
research on participation of, 42–43;
responsibility and motivation,
45–46, 96–100; reviewing resources
and processes, 208–209;
self-regulated, 431–434; sense of
mission in, 437; sharing intention
to help them learn, 138–139, 415;
sharing something of value with,
139–140, 175, 395; sustaining
involvement of, 107–110; test
anxiety of, 313; transfer of learning
for, 355–363, 414, 417, 418;
underserved and diverse, 24–27;
understanding expectations of,
59–65; valuing, 72–73
Adult Multiple Intelligences
Study, 215
Adults: defining, 32–34; effects of
aging, 35–43; experiential
differences from children, 99;
integrated levels of motivation,
100–102; participating in adult
learning, 34, 235–239
Adults as Learners (Cross), 42
Advanced Learning Technologies
Project (ALTEC), 344
Affirming learner responses, 236–237
Age: of adult learners, 24; concepts of,
31–34; demographics and statistics
on U.S. population’s, 35–36; effects
of, 35–43; memory and, 41–42
AI Practitioner, 63
Alt text instructional plan, 398–402
Amygdala, 15, 120, 177
Analogies in instruction, 257–258
Anterior cingulate, 237
Anticipation: of difficulties with
learners, 185, 191; expectation of
success, 201–202; using in learning
activities, 259–263, 400, 406
Anxiety, 177–178
Appreciative Inquiry (AI), 59, 62–63
Assessments: authenticity of,
312–314; avoiding bias in,
322–324; clarifying criteria for,
325–326; designing rubrics,
339–344, 420; formative, 183;
measuring progress with, 206–207;
motivation and, 352–355;
portfolios and process folios,
335–337; for presentations in
problem-based learning, 278;
projects as, 337–339; providing
authentic tasks for, 326–329,
330–331, 389–390, 397, 401, 413,
420; reflecting multiple
intelligences, 329–339; rubric
guidelines, 342–344. See also
Self-assessments
Assisted learning: aiding learners in,
200; anticipating difficulties in,
185; guidelines for, 185, 186;
modeling as, 184; scaffolding
complex learning, 183–186, 189,
400, 402, 419; thinking out loud,
184–185; tutoring and, 182
Attention: engagement as focused,
228; focusing with think-pair-share,
241; gaining in instruction,
227–228; increasing individual
accountability for learning,
239–241, 396, 406; maintaining,
234–235; physiological aspects of,
226–227; placing on goals,
207–208
Attitude: belief in failure, 195–196;
conditions recalling negative,
177–178; confronting negative
learner, 178–180, 416; creating
learning self-efficacy, 172, 173,
186–189; developing, 113, 114,
116, 118, 119; four directions of
adult, 172–174; influence on
behavior, 104–107; perception of
instructors, 74–75, 172, 173;
personal volition and, 106–107,
172; relevance and, 106–107, 172,
214, 222–223; shaping learner’s

Suject Index 493
positive, 106–107; summary of
motivational strategies for,
382–383; toward instructor, 172,
173, 174–175; toward subject, 172,
173, 176–186; transfer of learning
and, 358–359. See also Self-efficacy
Authentic performance tasks: benefits
of, 326–327; characteristics of,
327–329; comparison of typical
and, 330–331; instruction plans
using, 389–390, 397, 401,
413, 420
Axon, 9
B
Best Practices in Adult Learning (Flint,
Zakos, and Frey), 28
Biology: aging and, 35–43;
characteristics of adult, 32; effect of
challenge on, 233; physical
response to humor, 256; structures
of brain, 13–17. See also Brain;
Neuroscientific perspective
Blame, 88, 164
Bloom’s Taxonomy, 154–155,
156–157
Boredom: loss of enthusiasm and, 75;
motivation and, 23; negative
attitudes and, 178; neuroscience
perspective on, 225–226; relevance
and, 99; signs of, 307
Brain: aging and function of, 36–37;
boredom’s effect on, 225–226;
development of prefrontal cortex,
98; diversity of, 43–44; effect of
motivational framework on,
120–121; frontal lobe, 14;
illustrated, 14, 15; learning goals
from perspective of, 201; limbic
system, 15–16, 177; neuronal vs.
neural networks, 16–17; neurons,
9–13; observing motivation’s effect
in, 428; occipital lobe, 14; overview
of, 8–9; parietal lobe, 14;
physiological aspects of attention,
226–227; response to irrelevant
information, 214; response to
mistakes, 237; response to relevance
and meaning, 120, 158; structures
of, 13–17; temporal lobes, 14.
See also Neuroscientific
perspective
Brainstorming, 277–278
Breaks, 248
British Columbia Institute of
Technology, 357–362
C
‘‘Carrot and stick’’ metaphor, 45
Case studies: adding diversity to
instruction, 286–287; discussion
outlines for, 289–290; enhancing
meaning with, 285–291, 417;
fostering transfer of learning,
357–362; individual goal-setting,
204–210; learning contracts,
211–213; stimulating discussions of,
288
Celebrations, 375
Central nervous system, 16–17, 36
Challenge: defined, 233; flow
experiences and, 268–269;
occurrence of, 233; praising success
at, 369; using critical questions as,
269–275, 396, 411, 416
Checklists: assisting learning with,
186; Instructional Clarity
Checklist, 84, 85–86
Children, 99
Chunking, 246
Cingulate gyrus, 16, 121
Circuits, 11
Clarity: defining learning objectives
with, 153–155; example of lack of,
77–78; instructional, 78–79,
82–83, 144–145; need for in
assessment criteria, 202–203;
planning instruction for, 80–83;
required in role playing, 295;
structuring learning activities with,
244–247, 405
Classroom Assessment Techniques
(Angelo and Cross), 203
CLIA Model, 433

494 Suject Index
Climate of respect: confidentiality of
self-assessments, 345; cooperative
learning groups and, 160–161, 251,
395, 405; inclusion and, 127–128,
160–168, 405; respecting person
and cultural diversity, 84, 87, 251,
395
Closure: case study discussions and,
290–291; ending activities, 247;
providing for key learning units,
374–376, 413, 420; self-assessment
during, 348–350
Collaborative learning: benefits of,
141; cooperative learning,
141–147; differentiated instruction
to enhance, 180–183, 189;
establishing inclusion with,
117–118; instruction using, 394,
395, 398, 401, 404, 406, 407, 408,
410, 416; role of instructor in,
140–141
Collaborative Learning Techniques
(Barkley, Cross, and Major), 152
Collectivism, 130–131
Color Purple, The (Walker),
394–398
Communication: individual vs.
collective styles of, 131; low- and
high-context, 133–134; roles when
leading discussions, 251–254. See
also Nonverbal communication
Competence: building confidence
with, 110–112; constructive
criticism to engender, 363–366;
engendering, 113, 114, 117, 118,
119; motivating with praise and
rewards, 366–370; motivational
strategies for, 385; need for,
309–310; reinforcing with
assessments, 312–314; supporting
self-directed, 311–312; transferring
learning to work, 355–363. See also
Assessments
Competitive activities, 151–152
Concept maps, 263–265
Concepts: concept-based teaching,
182; games to explain learning,
305; misapplying newly learned,
291–292; using Multiple
Intelligences Theory to learn,
215–220; using to focus feeling in
discussions, 252
Confidence: competence building,
110–112; goal completion and, 206
Confidentiality, 164, 345
Conflict: addressing, 254; resolving
viewpoints in, 274
Content in transfer of learning, 360
Context: concept of adults in cultural,
32; cultural communication with
high and low, 133–134; motivation
within cultural, 2–3; perceiving
effort in cultural, 7–8; supporting
transfer of learning, 361–362
Continuous education, 428–431
Controlling feedback, 317
Cooperative inquiry: analyzing and
interpreting information in, 281;
basics for, 279–280; conducting,
280–283; defined, 279; gathering
information in, 280–281
Cooperative learning: advantages for
learners, 141, 142; competitive
activities vs., 151–152; components
of, 143; group processing and, 147;
individual accountability and,
145–146; opportunities provided
by, 142; planning activities for,
148–149; positive interdependence
and, 143–145; promotive
interaction with, 146; social skills
for facilitating, 146–147; types of
groups for, 149–151
Cooperative learning groups:
advantages of, 142; assessing
expectations, goals, and experience
of members, 161–162, 410, 415;
climate of respect for, 160–161,
251, 405; confidentiality in, 164;
group processing in, 147;
introducing norms and guidelines
to, 162–166; resistance in,
168–169; types of, 149–151
Credible intense experience, 139

Suject Index 495
Critical consciousness of motivating
instructors, 92–93
Critical incidents: addressing conflict,
254; Critical Incident
Questionnaire, 350–352
Critical orientation, 270
Critical Practice Audit, 352
Critical questioning: guiding, 271,
272–274; improving use of, 275;
instruction plans using, 396, 411,
416; resolving conflicting
viewpoints raised in, 274; usefulness
of, 269–274; using prediction and,
118, 119
Criticism, constructive, 363–366
Cultural competence, 91
Cultural diversity: of adult learners,
24–27; equitable assessment
procedures, 322–324; as factor for
superimposing motivational
framework on existing plans, 390;
macrocultural perspective on,
43–45; perceiving effort within
cultural, 7–8. See also Racial/ethnic
groups
Cultural responsiveness: engaging
motivation of all learners, 90–91;
relating course and learning to
learners, 91–92; safe learning
environments and, 87–90, 175,
220–222. See also Motivational
Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching, The
Cultures: communication of space and
time in, 128–130; degree of
individualism vs. collectivism in,
130–131; gender orientation in,
131–132; low- and high-contact,
129–130; power distance perceived
in, 132. See also Racial/ethnic
groups
D
‘‘Decades and Diversity’’ activity,
138
Decision making. See Adaptive
decision making
Deep meaning, 108–109
Deliberate practice. See Practice
Demographics: age of U.S. population,
35–36; immigration, 25–26
Dendrites, 9, 12, 226
Designing motivational instruction:
analyzing structure of material,
386–387; clarifying learning
objectives, 386; defining time for
learning objective, 386; enhancing
intrinsic motivation with
motivational framework, 377–378;
increasing motivational
self-awareness, 379–386;
motivational framework as source
for, 392–393, 423–424; ordering
content when, 387–389; summary
of motivational strategies, 381,
382–385; superimposing
motivational framework on existing
plans, 390–392, 422–423. See also
Instructional plans
Desocialization, 93
Differentiated instruction, 180, 189
Difficulties: anticipating for adult
learners, 185, 191; preplanning to
achieve goals without, 208
Discussion as a Way of Teaching
(Brookfield and Preskill), 349–350
Discussions: communication roles
when leading, 251–254;
conceptualizing in, 252; fostering
with critical questioning, 270;
helping learners recognize natural
consequences, 374, 408, 413;
learning activities for stimulating,
288; preparing outline for case
study, 289–290; redistributing, 253;
time for after role playing, 295–296
Displaced workers instructional plan,
414–422
Diversity. See Cultural diversity
Dopamine, 16, 18, 22

496 Suject Index
E
Education: games for adult, 301–302;
relationship between poverty, job
opportunities, and, 25–26; self, 93
Effectiveness, 313–314
Effort: correlating motivation with,
7–8; recognition for, 199;
self-efficacy and attribution of,
192–195, 405, 416
Embodying new learning: about, 292;
invention and artistry as means for,
303–306, 407; methods for
practicing, authenticating and,
294–296; role playing and,
294–296, 409, 412, 419
Embracing Contraries (Elbow), 349
Emerging majority, 33
Emotion: accepting expression of
feelings, 253–254; binding
motivation to action, 2; effect on
performance, 313; eliciting during
learning, 250, 251; expressing
enthusiasm, 73–75; influence of
attitudes on behavior, 104–107;
instructional plan supporting
strong, 409–414; of interest, 229;
intrinsic motivation and, 19, 20,
424–425; invention and artistry to
deepen, 303–306, 407; limbic
system and, 15–16, 177;
motivation, memory, and, 21–23;
preferential processing of, 18;
selectively inducing parapathic,
257; using humor as means of
inclusion, 139; visible in
enthusiastic instructors,
69–70
Emotional intelligence, 40–41
Empathy: adapting instruction to
learners, 65–66; discovering
learner’s personally relevant goals,
57–58; projection vs., 58–59;
understanding learners’
expectations, 59–65
Encouraging: learners, 198–202;
participation and motivation with
incentives, 370–372
Engagement: deepening, 265–269;
experiences of flow and, 232–234,
265–269; as focused attention, 228;
increasing participation as means
of, 235–239; instructional plans
deepening, 396; ranges in,
233–234
Enjoyment, 101
Enthusiasm: defined, 69; effects of
exclusion on, 126; expressing
commitment with, 73–75;
increasing motivation and
achievement with, 70–71;
instructor’s loss of, 75–77; pairing
expertise with, 71–72; valuing
subject taught and learner,
72–73
Entry points, 215–219
Esthetic entry point, 216–217, 218
Esthetic exit point, 219
Ethnic groups. See Racial/ethnic
groups
Examples: elements of simulation,
297–299; including in instruction,
257–258; instructional plans,
421–422; learning contract,
211–213; of rubrics, 342, 343. See
also Instructional plans
Exclusion: about, 125; effects of,
126–127; guarding against,
125–126
Exit points, 218–219
Expectations: assessing learners’,
161–162, 410, 415; enhancing
motivation with positive, 201–202;
methods for gathering learners’,
60–62; shared, 162–163
Experiences: adapting instruction to
learners’, 65–66; flow, 232–234,
265–269; frontal lobe and learned,
98; mastery, 188; vicarious,
188–189, 196–197
Experiential entry point, 217
Experiential exit point, 219
Experimenting with instruction, 260
Expertise: defined, 50; demonstrating
in instruction, 54–55; knowing

Suject Index 497
something beneficial for adults as,
50–52; pairing with enthusiasm,
71–72; as thorough knowledge of
topic, 52–54
F
Failure, 76, 195–196
Fear: dealing with, 436; minimizing
conditions stimulating, 177–178;
reducing for participation,
236–237; test anxiety, 313
Feedback: flow experiences and, 267;
instruction plans incorporating, 41,
397, 401; learning and, 19–20;
prompt, 191–192; providing
effective, 314–322, 397, 398,
407; requesting on instructional
clarity, 83–84, 85–86;
self-adjustment from, 316, 397;
using constructive criticism as,
363–366
Feeling connected. See Inclusion
Feelings: accepting expression of,
253–254; conceptualizing to focus,
252; considering learners’
perspectives and, 66–68. See also
Emotion
Five hanging pendula, 283–285
Flash MX for Interactive Simulation
(Kaye and Castillo), 297
Flow: characteristics of, 267–269;
description of, 22–23, 266–267;
engagement and, 232–234; as sign
of learner motivation, 427
FMRI (functional magnetic resonance
imaging), 13
Formative assessments, 183, 324
Foundational entry point, 216, 218
Foundational exit point, 219
Four questions for instructional
planning, 390, 391, 422–423
Framework for culturally responsive
teaching. See Motivational
Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching, The
Free writing, 288
Frontal lobe, 14
Frustration, 178
Funds of knowledge, 232
G
Games: developing to explain
learning concepts, 305;
instructional plans using, 412; using
in adult education, 301–302. See
also Simulations
Gender: avoiding bias toward,
322–323; orientation in cultures,
131–132
Generativity, 310
Gerontological Society of America, 34
Goals: committing to, 209;
establishing confidence by
completing, 206; establishing
relevant learning, 118, 119;
expressive outcomes, 157–158; flow
experiences and, 267; focusing
attention on, 207–208; identifying
learning, 152–160, 399, 410, 415,
418; learning contracts as,
210–214; learning with clearly
defined, 153–155; making
challenging and attainable,
200–202; making schedule for,
209–210; measuring progress
toward, 206–207; positive
interdependence of, 143–144;
preplanning to achieve, 208;
problem-solving, 155, 157, 158;
setting, 204–210; understanding
learners’, 59–65
Goethe, J. W., 186
Grades: about motivation,
assessments, and, 352–355;
authenticity of, 312–314; GPAs,
353; learning contracts as aid for,
354–355
Group Embedded Figures Test, 205
Group feedback, 321–322
Guidelines: assisted learning, 185;
group participation, 164–166, 251;
introducing cooperative learning,
162–166; portfolio, 336–337;
rubrics, 342–344

498 Suject Index
Guiding critical questioning, 271,
272–274
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), 230
H
Habits of the Heart (Bellah and
others), 130
Haptics, 301
‘‘Head, Heart, Hand’’ closure activity,
348, 421
Hearing and age, 37
Hierarchy of needs, 58
High-contact cultures, 129–130
High-context communication,
133–134
Hippocampus, 16
Hitchhiking, 145
Hmong students, 2–3
Humiliation, 178
Humor: physical response to, 256;
sharing, 139; using in instruction,
255–257, 419
Hypothalamus, 16
I
Immigration statistics and
demographics, 25–26
Impact criteria, 320
Implementing norms, 163–164
Improving Lives through Higher
Education (Cook and King), 28
‘‘In Search of Understanding’’ (Brooks
and Brooks), 284
Incentives, 370–372
Inclusion: acknowledging learners’
culture and knowledge, 167–168,
395, 399, 416; benefits of, 127–128;
climate of respect and, 127–128,
160–168, 405; creating with norms
and participation guidelines,
162–166; establishing, 113, 114,
116, 118; fostering involvement,
102–104; identifying learning
objectives and goals, 152–160, 399,
410, 415, 418; indicating intention
to help adults learn, 138–139, 415;
introductions as form of, 136, 175,
410, 415; motivational strategies to
engender, 134–136;
neurophysiological views of, 120;
providing opportunities for sharing,
136–138, 415, 418; rationale for
course requirements creating,
166–167, 175; relevance and,
158–160, 399; summary of
motivational strategies
for, 382
Income, 24–26
Individuals: accountability in
cooperative learning, 145–146;
cultural emphasis on, 130–131;
matching praise to preference of,
369; relating to interests of,
230–232, 249–255; U.S. tendency
toward individualism,
130–131
Information: analyzing and
interpreting gathered, 281;
developing with concept maps,
263–265; disclosing personal, 254;
gathering in cooperative inquiry,
280–281; offering factual, 252
Informational feedback, 317
Inquiry. See Cooperative inquiry
Instruction: adding humor to,
255–257, 419; analyzing structure
of material, 386–387; applying
motivational framework in,
116–122; clarifying learning
objectives for, 386; defining time for
learning objective, 386; designed
for transfer of learning, 359–360;
experimenting with, 260; including
examples, analogies, metaphors,
and stories in, 257–259, 419;
professional development as global
enterprise, 436–437; scenario for
adding diversity to, 286–287; using
uncertainty, anticipation, and
prediction in, 259–263, 400, 406;
variety in materials and modes of,
243–244, 411, 419. See also
Designing motivational instruction;
Instructional plans

Suject Index 499
Instructional Clarity Checklist, 84,
85–86
Instructional plans: about example,
421–422; based on motivational
framework, 116–122, 392–393,
423–424; designing, 386–387;
developing, 402; example 1,
394–398; example 2, 398–402;
example 3, 403–409; example 4,
409–414; example 5, 414–421; four
questions for, 390, 391, 422–423;
including motivational plan with,
47; ordering content for, 387–389;
placing authentic performance task
early in, 389–390; superimposing
motivational framework on
existing, 390–392, 422–423; time
phases of, 391–392. See also
Designing motivational
instruction
Instructors: acknowledging learners’
culture and knowledge, 167–168,
395, 399, 416; adapting course to
learners, 65–66; allowing for
introductions, 136, 175, 410, 415;
appreciating spontaneity in
activities, 247; assessing learners’
expectations, goals, and experience,
161–162, 410, 415; attributing
success to learners, 192–195, 405,
416; clarity of, 77–84; clear and fair
assessment criteria, 202–203;
communication roles in discussions,
251–254; considering learners’
feelings and perspectives, 66–68;
dealing with fear, 436; disclosing
personal information, 254;
discovering learner’s relevant goals,
57–58; encouraging learners,
198–202; enthusiasm of, 69–70, 74;
expressing commitment with
enthusiasm, 73–75; finding
resistance in cooperative learning
groups, 168–169; fostering transfer
of learning to work, 355–363;
giving prompt feedback, 191–192;
helping learners avoid failure,
195–196; helping learners identify
personal strengths, 190–191;
increasing motivational
self-awareness, 379–386; indicating
intention to help adults learn,
138–139, 415; leadership of, 436;
locating responsibility for learning,
45–46; loss of enthusiasm in,
75–77; maintaining learners’
attention, 234–235; modeling
expected learning, 196–198;
observing learner motivation,
426–428; pairing motivating and
learning, 46–48; positive attitudes
toward, 172, 173, 174–175;
presentation style of, 242–243;
providing rationale for course
requirements, 166–167, 175;
relating course and learning to
learners, 91–92; requesting
feedback on clarity, 83–84, 85–86;
respecting confidentiality of
self-assessments, 345; reviewing
resources and processes with
learners, 208–209; role in
collaborative learning, 140–141;
sharing something of value with
learners, 139–140, 175, 395, 405;
stating group norms and guidelines,
162–166; supporting self-directed
competence, 311–312;
understanding expectations of
learners, 59–65; using critical
questioning, 275; using manding
stimuli, 240; valuing subject taught
and learner, 72–73
Intelligence: emotional, 40–41;
multiple, 38–40; practical, 40
Intercultural nonverbal
communication. See Nonverbal
communication
Interest: defined, 229; evoking and
sustaining, 249; individual,
230–232, 249–255; learning
activities with, 220; role in
learning, 228; situational, 229–230;
sustaining with relevance, 99

500 Suject Index
International Encyclopedia of Adult
Education, 431
Internships, 302–303
Intrinsic motivation: emotion,
memory, and, 21–23; lifelong
learning and, 430; motivational
framework to enhance, 378–379;
theories of, 19–20
Introductions, 136, 175, 410, 415
Intuition, 260–262
Invisibility in assessment materials,
322
Invisible Man (Ellison), 273
J
Jigsaw procedure, 143
Journals: instructional plans using,
409, 412; as self-assessment,
346–347
K
Knowledge: attributing success to,
192, 194–195, 405, 416; funds of,
232; providing chance to
demonstrate, 329, 332–339, 413,
417; understanding personal limits
of, 53
K-W-L strategy, 222–223, 411
L
Leadership of instructors, 436
Learners. See Adult learners
Learning: adult motivation and
successful, 100–102; affirming
process of, 200; assessments as
means for, 314; attitude toward,
172, 173, 176–186; brain’s
physiology and, 8–9; correlating
motivation to, 5–7; effect of
neuronal networks on, 11–13;
embodying new, 292; emotional
state and effective, 177;
empowering adults through,
125–126; ensuring motivation as
part of, 46–48; feedback and,
19–20; fostering transfer of learning
to work, 355–363; helping learners
realize accountability for, 239–241;
identifying objectives and goals for,
152–160, 399, 415, 418; improving
adult, 27–29; introducing new
topics with K-W-L strategy,
222–223, 411; lifelong, 428–431;
locating responsibility for, 45–46;
making activities invitation for,
220–222, 395, 411; misapplying
concepts under stress or
unpredictability, 291–292;
modeling expected, 196–198;
praising and rewarding, 366–370;
promoting learners’ control of,
189–192; providing closure for
significant units of, 374–376, 413;
recognizing natural consequences
of, 373–374, 408, 413; safe
environments for, 87–90, 175,
220–222; scaffolding complex,
183–186, 189, 400, 402, 419;
self-directed, 431; self-regulated,
431–434; variety in, 241–244, 411,
419. See also Assisted learning
Learning activities: adaptive decision
making and, 292–306; appreciating
spontaneity in, 247; basing on entry
points of Multiple Intelligences
Theory, 218; clarifying benefits of,
254–255; conducting cooperative
inquiry, 280–283; connecting,
245–247; ‘‘Decades and Diversity’’,
138; deepening engagement and
challenge in, 265–269; diversifying
process of learning in, 244;
employing invention and artistry
in, 303–306, 407; ending, 247,
290–291; enhancing with
intriguing problems and questions,
283–285, 400, 404, 406, 408;
evoking and sustaining interest in,
249; facilitating learning with
relevant, 275–283, 401, 418, 419;
focusing attention with
think-pair-share, 241; gaining
attention at beginning of, 227–228;
including breaks, settling time, and

Suject Index 501
physical exercises, 248; including
examples, analogies, metaphors,
and stories in, 257–259, 419;
inducing parapathic emotions
during, 257; making invitation to
learn, 220–222, 395, 411; planning
cooperative learning, 148–149;
preparing discussion outline for case
study, 289–290; relating to
individual interests, 230–232,
249–255, 416; self-assessment,
346–352; stimulating case study
discussions, 288; strategies for
maintaining attention in, 234–248;
structuring clearly, 244–247, 405,
411; using concept maps to develop
information, 263–265; using
uncertainty, anticipation, and
prediction in, 259–263, 406. See
also Sustaining interest; And specific
example instructional plans
Learning contracts, 210–214; benefits
of, 182; categories found in, 211;
examples of, 211–213; helping
grading with, 354–355; purpose of,
210–211; tips for using, 213–214
Learning environments: creating
successful, 127, 307; safe and
culturally responsive, 87–90, 175,
220–222
Learning objectives: Bloom’s
Taxonomy for, 154–155, 156–157;
defining expressive outcomes,
157–158; defining goals clearly,
153–155; specifying conditions for
acceptable performance in, 154;
using problem-solving goals, 155,
157, 158
Learning Transfer Systems Inventory,
362–363
Limbic system: emotional state and
stress on, 177; self-efficacy and state
of, 189; structures of, 15–16
Linguistic aspects of assessment
materials, 323, 324
Listening for understanding, 67, 68
Literacy, critical, 93
Living in past, 76–77
Logical-quantitative entry point, 216,
218
Logical-quantitative exit point, 219
Loss of enthusiasm, 75–77
Low-contact cultures, 129–130
Low-context communication,
133–134
M
Macrocultural perspective on
diversity, 43–45
Maintaining learners’ attention,
234–248
Make-sense orientation, 270
Manding stimuli, 240
Mands, 240
‘‘Marginality and Mattering’’, 126
Mastery experiences, 188
Math word problems instructional
plan, 403–409
Meaning: adding with intriguing
problems and questions, 283–285,
400, 404, 406, 408; brain’s response
to, 120, 158; case study methods to
enhance, 285–291, 417;
engagement and, 228; enhancing,
113, 114, 116, 118, 119; invention
and artistry to deepen, 303–306,
407; motivational strategies for,
383–385; sustaining involvement
with, 107–110
Memorization, 42
Memory: aging and effect on, 41–42;
boredom’s effect on, 226; effect of
emotion on, 21–23
Metaphors in instruction, 257–258
Mindmaps, 263, 264, 265
Minority, 33
Mistakes: minimizing and learning
from, 199; myelination and,
319–320
Modeling: assisting learners with, 184;
expected learning, 196–198,
407
Motivated Strategies for Learning
Questionnaire (MSLQ), 425

502 Suject Index
Motivating instructors: clarity of,
77–84; critical consciousness of,
92–93; cultural responsiveness of,
84–92; empathy of, 56–68;
enthusiasm of, 68–77; expertise
demonstrated in, 50–55; key
characteristics of, 49–50
Motivation: applying motivational
framework, 116–122; assessing
learner, 425–428; assessments and,
352–355; boredom overcome with,
226; competence theory and,
110–112; cultural relevance,
neuroscientific understanding and,
20–21; defining, 1–4; designing
instruction to include, 177–178;
developing attitude, 113, 114, 116,
118; effect of expectancy of success
on, 201–202; effects of exclusion
on, 126–127; emotion and, 19, 20,
21–23, 424–425; engaging all
learners’, 90–91; engendering
competence, 113, 114, 117, 118,
119; enhancing meaning, 113, 114,
116, 118; establishing inclusion,
113, 114, 116, 118; four attitudinal
directions and, 173–174; helping
learners recognize natural
consequences, 373–374, 408, 413;
importance of, 4–8; incentives to
maintain, 370–372; inclusion and
involvement, 102–104; influence of
attitudes on behavior, 104–107;
integrated levels of adult, 100–102;
memory and, 21–23; neuroscientific
perspective on, 17–20; observing
learner, 426–428; responsibility and
adult, 96–100; sustaining
involvement with meaning,
107–110; theories of intrinsic,
19–20. See also Motivational
Framework for Culturally
Responsive Teaching, The
Motivational Framework for
Culturally Responsive Teaching,
The: about, 28–29; about
motivational strategies of, 135–136;
acknowledging learners’ culture and
knowledge, 167–168, 395, 399,
416; adapting behavior for
successful interactions, 92; adding
closure for significant units of
learning, 374–376, 413, 420; aiding
transfer of learning, 357–363, 414,
417, 418; allowing for
introductions, 136, 175, 410, 415;
applying, 116–122; assessing
learners’ expectations, goals, and
experience, 161–162, 410, 415;
authentic performance tasks for
assessments, 326–329, 330–331,
389–390, 397, 401, 413, 420;
avoiding bias in tests and
assessments, 322–324; breaks,
settling time, and physical
exercises, 248; case study methods
to enhance meaning, 285–291,
417; clarifying assessment tasks and
criteria for learners, 325–326; clear
and fair assessment criteria,
202–203; collaborative learning,
140–152, 394, 395, 398, 401, 404,
406, 407, 408, 410, 416; concept
maps to develop information,
263–265; confronting negative
learner attitude, 178–180, 416;
constructive criticism, 363–366;
creating opportunities for sharing,
136–138, 415, 418; critical
questions, 269–275, 396, 411, 416;
cross-cultural application of, 44–45;
designing rubrics, 339–344, 420;
developing attitude, 113, 114, 116,
118; developing self-efficacy,
186–189; differentiated instruction
to enhance learning of new
content, 180–183, 189; effort
attribution and self-efficacy,
192–195, 405, 416; embodying
learning with role playing,
294–296, 409, 412, 419;
encouraging learners, 198–202;
enhancing material with intriguing
problems and questions, 283–285,

Suject Index 503
400, 404, 406, 408; essential
conditions of, 114; establishing
inclusion, 113, 114, 116, 118, 399;
example instructional plan 1,
394–398; example instructional
plan 2, 398–402; example
instructional plan 3, 403–409;
example instructional plan 4,
409–414; example instructional
plan 5, 414–421; examples,
analogies, metaphors, and stories in
instruction, 257–259, 419;
facilitating learning with relevant
activities, 275–283, 401, 404, 418,
419; fostering lifelong learning,
430–431; four questions for
instructional planning, 390, 391,
422–423; frequent response
opportunities for learners, 235–239;
giving effective feedback, 314–322,
397, 398, 401, 407, 413;
goal-setting methods, 204–210;
helping learners avoid failure,
195–196; helping learners
recognize natural consequences of
learning, 373–374, 408, 413;
humor in instruction, 255–257,
419; identifying learning objectives
and goals, 152–160, 399, 410, 415,
418; illustrated, 113; incentives to
maintain motivation, 370–372;
indicating intention to help adults
learn, 138–139, 415; inducing
parapathic emotions, 257;
instructional design using,
377–378; instructional planning
using, 421–422; internships and
other methods for authenticating
learning, 302–303; introducing
new topics with K-W-L strategy,
222–223, 411; introducing norms
and participation guidelines,
162–166; invention and artistry in
deepening meaning and emotion,
303–306, 407; knowledge of
culturally different groups, 92;
learning activity as invitation to
learn, 220–222, 395, 411; learning
contracts, 210–214; methods of
self-assessment, 344–352, 417;
modeling expected learning,
196–198, 407; observation guide
for, 428, 439–444; outlining
benefits of learning activity,
254–255; overview of, 112–114;
planning time for successful
learning, 203–204; praising and
rewarding learning, 366–370;
promoting control of learning,
189–192; providing learners chance
to demonstrate strengths and
knowledge, 329, 332–339, 413,
417; providing rationale for course
requirements, 166–167, 175;
purpose of, 101–102; realizing
learner’s accountability for
learning, 239–241, 396, 406;
relating learning to individual,
249–255, 416; scaffolding complex
learning, 183–186, 189, 400, 402,
419; self-assessment for applying,
379–381, 401; self-understanding
in, 92; sharing something of value
with learners, 139–140, 175, 395,
405; significance of, 122–123;
simulations and games in learning,
296–302, 412, 418; as source for
instruction plans, 392–393,
423–424; structuring learning
activities clearly, 244–247, 405;
summary of strategies, 382–385;
superimposing on existing
instruction plans, 390–392,
422–423; support for self-regulation
skills in, 433–434; uncertainty,
anticipation, and prediction,
259–263, 400, 406; using and
reviewing, 381, 386; using Multiple
Intelligences Theory to learn topic
or concept, 215–220; variety in
learning, 241–244, 411, 419
Motivational plans: effective use of,
115; including with instruction
plans, 47

504 Suject Index
Motivational strategies, 135
Multiple Intelligences and Adult Literacy
(Viens and Kallenbach), 332
Multiple Intelligences Theory: about,
38–40; assessment menu for,
333–334; assessments reflecting,
329, 332–339, 413, 417; entry
points for, 215–219; exit points for,
218–219; learning activities based
on, 218
Myelination, 319–320
N
Narrational entry point, 215–216, 218
Narrational exit point, 219
Natural consequences, 372, 373–374,
408
Negative attitudes: conditions
recalling, 177–178; confronting
learners’, 178–180, 416
Neural networks, 16–17
Neuronal networks: bridging
instructor’s knowledge to learner’s,
79; effect of emotion on, 21–23;
neural vs., 16–17
Neurons, 9–13; defined, 9; effect of
emotion on neuronal networks,
21–23; function of, 11; illustrated,
9; learned experiences and frontal
lobe, 98; neuronal vs. neural
networks, 16–17. See also Neuronal
networks
Neuroscientific perspective: boredom
as viewed from, 225–226; cultural
relevance from, 20–21; feedback
and, 315; motivation as viewed
from, 1–2, 17–20; myelination as
viewed from, 319–320;
neurophysiological views of
inclusion, 120; rubrics as viewed
from, 340; test anxiety and, 313
Neurotransmitters, 18, 22
Nontraditional learners, 32–33
Nonverbal communication: degree of
individualism vs. collectivism,
130–131; gender orientation and,
131–132; immediacy behaviors,
129–130; low- and high-context
communication, 133–134; power
distance in, 132; space and time in,
128–130
Norms: collaborative, 163; defined,
163; implementing, 163–164
Note-taking pairs, 348–349
O
Observation Guide for Culturally
Responsive Teaching and Learning,
428, 439–444
Organizational aids, 246
Orientation: gender, 131–132;
make-sense vs. critical, 270
P
Pain, 177
Parapathic emotion, 257
Parietal lobe, 14
Participation: guidelines for group,
164–166, 251; reducing fear of,
236–237; research on adult
learner’s, 42–43; strategies for
learner, 34, 235–239
PDI (Power Distance Index), 132
Peer coaching, 357–362
Performance: boredom’s effect on,
226; specifying acceptable learning,
154
Personal space, 128–130
Persuasion: acquiring self-efficacy via,
189; influence adult learning with,
171–172
PET (positron-emission tomography),
13
Physical exercises, 248
Plateauing, 77
Portfolios: benefits of, 335–336;
guidelines for using, 336–337
Positionality, 93, 134
Positive interdependence, 143–145
Post-writes, 347
Poverty and racial/ethnic groups,
25–26
Power Distance Index (PDI), 132
Practical intelligence, 40

Suject Index 505
Practice: authentic performance tasks
as opportunities for, 328–329;
frequent feedback during, 318–319;
myelination and deliberate,
319–320; transfer of learning and,
356
Praise and rewards, 367–370
Prediction, 259–263, 400, 406
Preplanning to achieve goals, 208
Presentations: preparing and offering
in problem-based learning,
278–279; varying style of,
241–243
Problem-based learning: about,
276–277; enhancing material with,
283–285, 400; facilitating learning
with, 275–283, 401; presentations
in, 278–279; steps in, 277–279;
study groups for, 278
Problem-solving goals, 155, 157, 158
Process folios, 335–336
Professional development, 436–437
Projection vs. empathy, 58–59
Projects as assessments, 337–339
Promoting Student Success in
Community College and Beyond
(Brock and LeBlanc), 28
Promotive interaction, 146
Prompt feedback, 318
Purpose: loss of, 76; motivation
linked to, 3
Q
Quantitative feedback, 318
Questions: Critical Incident
Questionnaire, 350–352; guiding
critical questioning, 271, 272–274;
instructional planning using four,
390, 391, 422–423; ‘‘Summarizing
Questions’’, 349–350. See also
Critical questioning
R
Racial/ethnic groups: of adult learners,
24–25; micro vs. macrocultural
perspectives on diversity, 44–45; as
nontraditional adult learners,
33–34; percentage living in poverty
by, 25; racially diverse, 33
Reciprocal learning, 186
Recognition for effort, 199
Redistributing discussion, 253
Reflecting assumptions, 252
Relevance: achieving inclusion by
emphasizing, 158–160, 399; brain’s
tendency to find, 17–18; designing
learning activities with, 221, 404;
enhancing material to add,
283–285, 400; establishing relevant
learning goals, 118, 119;
neuroscientific understanding,
motivation and cultural, 20–21;
positive attitude and learning,
106–107, 172, 214, 222–223;
sustaining interest with, 99
Research: conducting cooperative
inquiry, 280–283; enhancing
material with intriguing problems,
283–285, 400, 404, 406, 408;
facilitating learning with, 275–283,
401; using as learner assessments,
337–339
Resources: positive interdependence
of, 144; reviewing with learners,
208–209
Respect: confidentiality of
self-assessments, 345; establishing
climate of, 127–128, 160–168, 395,
405; for person and cultural
diversity, 84, 87, 251, 395
Responses: attuning to learners, 67,
68; frequent and equitable
opportunities for, 235–239; to
humor, 256; to irrelevant
information, 214; to mistakes, 237;
to relevance and meaning,
120, 158
Responsibility: adult motivation and,
96–100; cultural diversity and
social, 84, 87
Reticular activating system
(RAS), 47
Review of instruction, transfer of
learning and, 356

506 Suject Index
Rewards: maintaining motivation
with incentives, 370–372;
motivating competence with,
366–370
Role playing: embodying new learning
with, 294–296; instructional plans
using, 409, 412, 419
Roles: of instructor in collaborative
learning, 140–141; positive
interdependence of, 144; reciprocal
learning, 186
Rubrics: as aid for grading, 354–355;
defined, 340; designing, 339–344,
420; example, 342, 343; guidelines
for, 342–344
S
Satiation, 75
Scaffolding complex learning,
183–186, 189, 400, 402, 419
Security: maintaining learner, 263;
role playing to protect sense of,
296
Self-assessments: for applying
motivational framework, 118, 119,
379–381, 401; closure techniques
for, 348–350; Critical Incident
Questionnaire, 350–352;
estimating learners motivation
with, 425–426; feedback as, 316,
397; ‘‘Head, Heart, Hand’’ closure
activity for, 348, 421; helping
learners recognize natural
consequences, 373–374, 408, 413;
journals and, 346–347; methods of,
344–352, 417; note-taking pairs for,
348–349; post-writes, 347;
respecting confidentiality of, 345;
‘‘Summarizing Questions’’ activity
for, 349–350; using, 190
Self-determination, 158
Self-directed competence, 311–312
Self-directed learning (SDL), 431
Self-education, 93
Self-efficacy: acquiring, 188–189;
defined, 187; developing, 172, 173,
186–189; effort attribution and,
192–195, 405, 416; establishing
challenging and attainable goals,
200–202; helping learners avoid
failure, 195–196; making fair and
clear criteria for assessments,
202–203; modeling expected
learning, 196–198, 407
Self-regulation, 431–434
Sense of mission, 437
Septum, 16
Serious Games Initiative, 302
Service learning, 302–303
Service Learning in Higher Education
(Buntin), 303
Settling time, 248
Shared expectations, 162–163
Sharing: providing opportunities for,
136–138, 415, 418; something of
value, 139–140, 175, 395, 405
Silence, 252–253
Simulations, 296–302; defined,
296–297; elements of example,
297–299; instructional plans using,
412, 418; sample description of,
299–301; uses for, 297; using
games in adult education,
301–302
Situational interest, 229–230
Skills: adapting instruction to
learners’, 65–66; expertise as ability
to demonstrate, 52–53
Smart models, 301
Social cognition, 431
Social skills facilitating cooperative
learning, 146–147
SSIPP acronym, 220–222
Stereotyping, 323
Stories in instruction, 257–259, 419
Stress, 76
Structuring learning activities: breaks,
settling time, and physical exercises
for, 248; connecting, 245–247;
ending activities, 247, 290–291;
instructional plans, 411;
introductions, 245
Study groups for problem-based
learning, 278

Suject Index 507
Success: adult motivation and
learning, 100–102; allocating time
for successful learning, 203–204; as
aspect of adult motivation,
100–101; attributing to learners,
192–195, 405, 416; increasing for
adult learners, 27–29; learning
environments supporting, 127;
motivation enhanced with
expectation of, 201–202;
planning learning activities
for, 220
‘‘Summarizing Questions’’ activity,
349–350
Supporting strong classroom emotion,
409–414
Survival, 2
Sustaining interest: maintaining
involvement of adult learners,
107–110; relating instruction to
individual’s interests, 230–232,
249–255; with relevance, 99;
using learning activities,
249
Synapse, 10
T
Teachers. See Instructors
Teacher-student relationships,
126
Teaching. See Instruction;
Instructional plans
Teaching and Learning through Multiple
Intelligences (Campbell and others),
332
Temporal lobes, 14
Tests: avoiding bias in, 322–324; fear
of, 313; as means for learning, 314;
reducing anxiety about, 325–326;
typical vs. authentic, 330–331. See
also Assessments
Thalamus, 15
Thinking: critical, 270; out loud,
184–185; skills elicited with
critical questioning, 271,
272–273
Think-pair-share, 241
3S-3P mnemonic, 369
Time: allocating amount for learning
objective, 386; cultural
interpretations of, 128; managing
for successful learning, 203–204;
time phases of instruction plans,
391–392
Transfer of learning, 355–363;
attitudes and values contributing
to, 358–359; changes fostering,
360–361; content and, 360;
instructional design for, 359–360,
414, 417, 418; organizational
context supporting,
361–362
Tutorial assistance, 182
U
Uncertainty, 259–263, 406
Underserved adult learners, 24–27
United States: gender orientation in,
131–132; individualistic tendencies
in, 130–131
Unreality, 323
Use Both Sides of Your Brain (Buzan),
264
User’s Guide to the Brain, A (Ratey),
227
V
Validation, 67, 68
Values: as aspect of adult motivation,
101; contributing to transfer of
learning, 358–359; relating
learning activities to individual,
250–252, 416; sharing something
of, 139–140, 175, 395, 405

508 Suject Index
Vicarious experiences, 188–189,
196–197
Vision and aging, 37
Visits, 302–303
Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge
(Hyerle), 265
Vital engagement, 234, 269
Voice, 242–243
Volition: as aspect of adult
motivation, 100–101; positive
attitude linked to personal,
106–107, 172
W
Waking state, 18
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting
Together in the Cafeteria? (Tatum),
88
Women as adult learners, 33
Z
Zone of proximal development
(ZPD), 183, 184

Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn, Third Edition: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults
Contents
Preface
Overview of the Contents
Acknowledgments
The Author
Chapter 1: Understanding Motivation for Adult Learners
Why Motivation Is Important
A Neuroscientific Understanding of Motivation and Learning
The Intersection of Cultural Relevance, Intrinsic Motivation, and Neuroscientific Understanding
Emotion, Memory, and Intrinsic Motivation
Underserved and Diverse Adult Learners in Postsecondary Education
Instruction as a Path to Improving Educational Success among All Adults
Chapter 2: Understanding How Aging and Culture Affect Motivation to Learn
Characteristics of Adult Learners
Specific Effects of Aging
Cultural Diversity and a Macrocultural Perspective
Location of Responsibility for Learning
Two Critical Assumptions for Helping Adults Want to Learn
Chapter 3: Characteristics and Skills of a Motivating Instructor
Expertise: The Power of Knowledge and Preparation
Empathy: The Power of Understanding and Compassion
Enthusiasm: The Power of Commitment and Expressiveness
Clarity: The Power of Organization and Language
Cultural Responsiveness: The Power of Respect and Social Responsibility
Chapter 4: What Motivates Adults to Learn
What Is Adult about Adult Motivation to Learn
Integrated Levels of Adult Motivation
How Inclusion Fosters Involvement
How Attitudes Influence Behavior
How Meaning Sustains Involvement
How Competence Builds Confidence
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Applying the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Chapter 5: Establishing Inclusion among Adult Learners
Understanding Dimensions of Intercultural Nonverbal Communication
Engendering a Feeling of Connection among Adults
Creating a Climate of Respect among Adults
Chapter 6: Helping Adults Develop Positive Attitudes toward Learning
Four Important Attitudinal Directions
Creating Relevant Learning Experiences
Chapter 7: Enhancing Meaning in Learning Activities
Engagement, Interest, and Meaning
How to Maintain Learners’ Attention
How to Evoke and Sustain Learners’ Interest
How to Deepen Engagement and Challenge with Adult Learners
Chapter 8: Engendering Competene among Adult Learners
Supporting Self-Directed Competence
Relating Authenticity and Effectiveness to Assessment
Some Thoughts about Grades, Assessment, and Motivation
Fostering Transfer of Learning to Engender Competence
Communicating and Rewarding to Engender Competence
Promoting Natural Consequences and Positive Endings
Chapter 9: Building Motivational Strategies into Instructional Designs
Increasing Motivational Self-Awareness
Designing an Instructional Plan
Assessing Learner Motivation
Continuing Adult Motivation and Lifelong Learning
Self-Directed Learning and Self-Regulation
Epilogue
Appendix: Observation Guide for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning ( Adult Version)
Establishing Inclusion
Developing a Positive Attitude
Enhancing Meaning
Engendering Competence
References
Name Index
Suject Index