Attitudes, Motivation, and Self-Efficacy in Adult Education in Croatia

Morana Koludrović and Ina Reić Ercegovac

Summary:  The main objective of this research was to investigate certain motivational characteristics, attitudes towards adult education, and participants’ self-efficacy in formal adult education programs in the Republic of Croatia. A total of 299 respondents participated in the study, which employed a demographic survey along with the Adult Attitudes Toward Adult Education Scale (Darkenwald and Hayes 1988), the Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al. 1992), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Ivanov 2002). Motivation was analysed from the perspective of self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2008; Ryan and Deci 2000), which offers a broad (social, emotional, and environmental) framework for understanding human motivation. The results show a connection between attitudes towards adult education (enjoyment of learning activities; importance of adult education; and intrinsic value of adult education) and intrinsic motivation (to know, to accomplish, and stimulation) and introjected and identified regulation. A negative correlation was found with amotivation; there was no correlation with external regulation.