Ghanaian Mature Students' Motivation to Pursue Degree Programmes through Distance Education

Autor/inn/en	Amponsah, Samuel; Torto, Beatrice Ayorkor; Badu-Nyarko, Samuel Kofi
Titel	Ghanaian Mature Students' Motivation to Pursue Degree Programmes through Distance Education
Quelle	In: International Review of Education, 64 (2018) 5, S.585-606 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Amponsah, Samuel)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-8566
DOI	10.1007/s11159-018-9728-8
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Distance Education; Adult Students; Nontraditional Students; Student Motivation; Student Characteristics; Student Attitudes; College Students; Incentives; Career Development; Ghana + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Distance study; Distance learning; Fernunterricht; Adult; Adults; Student; Students; Erwachsenenalter; Studentin; Schüler; Schülerin; Schulische Motivation; Schülerverhalten; Collegestudent; Anreiz; Berufsentwicklung
Abstract	Mature distance education students in Ghana, like part-time students all over the world, need to be motivated in order to enjoy their studies and succeed in what they do. In order to come up with incentives for such learners to join and complete a course, universities have to be aware of the characteristics and the socio-economic background of this group of learners and use an approach that best suits their needs at any given time. Based on Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci's "self-determination theory," the authors of this article investigate the factors that motivate mature students to engage in distance education and how their motivation is sustained throughout their studies. Using a survey questionnaire, the authors collected data from 210 mature distance education students (106 males and 104 females; aged 30+) of the University of Ghana. Interestingly, some of the authors' findings depart from the norm in terms of adult learners' motivations and what extant literature holds as typified in the work of Ryan and Deci. Adult learners more generally are described in the literature as being mainly "intrinsically" motivated (e.g. by the desire to learn for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes). Interestingly, this survey reveals that mature distance education students who were enrolled in a higher education programme offered by the University of Ghana were mainly "extrinsically" motivated, giving career development as their top reason for course selection. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01