The purpose of this study lies in analysing the influence of general background and participation experience of the female participants in lifelong education on their self-efficacy on the assumption that there would be differences in self-efficacy bet...
The purpose of this study lies in analysing the influence of general background and participation experience of the female participants in lifelong education on their self-efficacy on the assumption that there would be differences in self-efficacy between the female participants in lifelong education according to their traits.
Following are the questions set to achieve the study purpose.
First, What's the general characteristic of female participants in lifelong education?
Second, What's the experience of female participants in lifelong education?
Third, Does the general characteristic of female participants in lifelong education affect the self-efficacy to be different.
Fourth, Does the experience of female participants in lifelong education affect the self-efficacy to be different?
In search of such problems of the study, 360 female participants in lifelong education at total 12 institutions such as 7 woman resources development centers, 1 cultural center, 1 library, 2 lifelong education centers, 1 lifelong education center affiliated with a collage were collected for questionnaire. Self efficacy was measured with general self efficacy scale developed by Cha Jung Eun (1997), and the characteristic, lifelong education participation experience of female learners were examined with the test tool used by Jung Hyun Su(2010) for his study on participation of middle aged women in lifelong education and their self efficacy. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0 for Windows program, general characteristic and participation experience were processed through descriptive statistics, and T-test, One-way ANOVA were conducted to detect the difference in self-efficacy. Following are the results of this study extracted from the methods above.
First, the inquiry into general characteristic of female participants in lifelong education showed a high participation rate of housewives in their 30s~40s. In academic background, most of them had it higher than collage graduate, in monthly income, higher than 2~4million won. In residential type, most of them were from 2 generation households that parents and their children living together.
Second, the inquiry into participation experience of female participants in lifelong education showed the woman resources development centers mostly preferred by them as the education institute, and the programs improving their occupational ability such as employment, business start-up education, acquisition of certificate as the lifelong education programs mainly preferred by them. 3 times and less than 2 hours per week were the highest rate in relation to their preference of participation frequency in lifelong education program, total 2~3 months topped the list in completing the programs. Most of them joined the class by lecture satisfying with the lifelong education on the whole.
Third, the measured variables of self efficacy were divided into 3 factors(self control efficacy, self confidence, preferred task difficulty scale) to see the differences in self efficacy due to the general characteristic of the female participants in lifelong education, and the results of the analysis on the differences between them appeared to be significantly different in age, educational level, health state, monthly income, marital status.
Fourth, the measured variables of self efficacy were divided into 3 factors(self control efficacy, self confidence, preferred task difficulty scale) to see the differences in self efficacy due to the general characteristic of the female participants in lifelong education and then the differences from each other were analyzed. As the results, there were significant differences in completion duration, total participation duration.
Following are the arranged suggestive points from this study for increase in self efficacy and expansion of participation in lifelong education.
First, considering the results that the older the female participants in lifelong education were, the higher their self-efficacy were, the adult's ability related to the intelligence to achieve learning even increase when they get older if they have time.
enough to do so as seen many previous studies.
Although there would be individual differences in the ability of learning of the female participants in lifelong education, their extent of precedent study, learning level, learning ability of female participants in lifelong education should be considered above all for their acquisition of the pleasure of learning and achievement of education goal. In addition, specialized education program is necessary which able to fulfill the academic understanding and intellectual desire of the aged learners.
Second, the verification of the differences in self-efficacy depending upon the health state of the female participants in lifelong education showed that the healthier persons expected higher efficacy in self-efficacy and the preferred task difficulty scale, while the persons in bad condition were higher in extent of conviction or belief in their value and ability compared with the persons in good condition. The results indicate that health state doesn't affect learning greatly and the desire conviction for learning could increase in bad health condition. Accordingly, it suggests the need of an effort for revitalization plan led by lifelong education institute targeting to extend the chances of learning for the people to join more in various, systematic lifelong education programs.
Third, the female learners' self-efficacy differentiated by the duration of participation in lifelong education could be considered as the results backing up the factors influencing adults' learning as the saying of Birren that the adults' learning is affected by their education duration more than by their age. Particularly, the fact that the 2~3 duration of participation drew out the highest self-efficacy and the expectation for efficacy suggests the need of efforts to increase the quality of satisfactory life through specialized curriculum available for keeping participants in lifelong education constantly.