Date of Award

December 2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Urban Education

First Advisor

Barbara J Daley

Committee Members

Simone C O Conceicao, Liliana Mina, Leigh E Wallace

Keywords

ABE persistence, disposition, efficacy, persistence support, social context, social learning theories

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ADULT STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES WITH PERSISTENCE SUPPORT

by

Patricia Leong Kappel

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018

Under the Supervision of Professor Barbara J. Daley

This qualitative study examined the perspectives of young adults on their experiences as participants in a General Education Development certificate and high school diploma program with persistence support. The perplexing issue of persistence has prompted the efforts of similar adult basic education (ABE) programs serving at-risk populations to identify means to encourage and support sustained participation and credential completion. The literature on persistence reveals the importance of positive disposition and social context on participation decisions in these efforts. Social context is the foundation of Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Learning Theory. In this study, participant experiences were analyzed against the conceptual framework of Bandura’s theory. The goal was to understand how social contexts factored into the participants’ experiences and how they impacted their persistence. The findings confirmed the impact of social contexts on persistence and underscored the importance of dispositional approaches to support persistence.

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